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As an ex-employee I can say that HIT Web Design, formerly known as Heritage Web Solutions, was once a great company to work for. Unfortunately this is no longer the case.
I had worked there for 2 and a half years and in the past year, HIT (who changed their name to run away from their bad reputation) has seriously gone down hill. It supposedly all started when customers began charging back on their credit cards due to a flurry of bad complaints in a scared economy (which actually never happened, they are just very greedy).
Needless to say the company is ran very unprofessionally. They were once the leaders in custom website design but have now abandoned their business model...
When you treat your employees so poorly they will not give the customers the kind of help they need. That is why there are so many customer and employee complaints.
This all has now come to a head as Utah's ABC4 News will soon be airing an investigative report on how HIT Web Design has lied and cheated their customers. The ABC4 News crew showed up Friday October 16th to interview employees on what has been going on.
The air date has yet to be released so please contact Annie Cutler of ABC4 News to express your disgust with HIT Web Design/ Heritage Web Solutions at [protected]@abc4.com
Let's make sure HIT Web Design will not continue doing this to customers!
i am also an ex-employee this as all true! i believe that the ABC 4 news story will air later this week.
HIT Web Design will do whatever they need to in order to safe face and the company as a whole. No matter what, we all know their business is going down the toilet when all they do is ask for more and more from their customers and employees and give nothing in return.
Dave Aitken, CEO at HIT, is ignorant to think that just because employees make good money (or atleast used to), that it is considered treating them fairly. Is that fair? NO!
Well said. HIT's customers have no idea how bad it really is there and its disgusting how HIT management are such cowards as to deny the truth that has mounted up before them.
They should just "man up", "dial the phone" and admit they are the ### we all know they are!
WOW! Things are worse than I thought...
Someone who knows, it seems you have some great perspective on this. I do not apologize for anything that I've said but I should not have called Dave and Jeremy "uneducated idiots". It is not easy to create a business as successful as HIT once was.
It is disappointing that they have abused their power and have got so greedy over time.
Someone who knows, thank you for your words, integrity and honesty.
What a good way to discredit everything, "grow up please". But it all ties into speech patterns, which, by nature, cannot be manipulated. all the postings have very distinct, and different, speech patterns. you know that "grow up please" is Dave Aitken..
Now Dave, you know you can not speak out of both sides of your mouth, even though we know you try! You would send emails stating that our compensation was so good we couldn't find work anywhere else to make the money we needed to support our families. That was EXTREMLEY intimidating and the money was the only thing that kept us there. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE WERE NOT WALKING OUT!
You would also tell us that there was no where to go and it was a dead job market but we are welcome to leave if we were unhappy. WHAT A MIND GAME! HOW DECEPTIVE!
I was told by a manager that they "only need one more paycheck and im out of here!"
Now Dave, dont do what everyone thinks you are going to do and flip out. I would sit down with your managers, suck up to them and let them know how much you appreciate them.
Or, maybe you could send one of your oh-so-powerful threatening emails. This is your choice...
Just to reitterate, "donebeingbullied" is referring to Dave Aitken's, aka "GrowUpPlease", threat to Bryce Turpin.
Dave was assumptive, as usual, in stating that Bryce is posting while he is at work.
I am paraphrasing as this thread is becoming VERY long...
Ryan, you are a smart guy and have been nothing but helpful to employees who asked you for help at anytime. I am sorry that they stuck you in the middle of this.
By your understanding you know HIT management to be reasonable and sensitive. You have never (for atleast the 2 and a half years i worked there) had close association with the sales team and how it was ran.
Please don't put yourself out there saying that HIT management is reasonable and sensitive. You dont have the capabilities to make a blanket statement like that. You have no idea what hell everyone on the sales team went through to bring in the money to support their families! There was even a sales manager who was constantly humiliated just to "motivate" the sales team. How sad is that?! This same sales manager was very sick one day and was forced to come in. He puked in front of everyone! How embarrassing!
THAT IS NOT SENSITIVE OR FAIR AND THIS ALL HAPPENED ALL THE TIME!
I know you have a nice family to support and need to protect the place you work at but please dont make blanket statements when crap like that is happening.
Also, why would HIT need to be told to be more sensitive or aware of family emergencies? That is basic business ethics.
The mere psychology of your post lets us all know that you are somewhat siding with us subconsciously, most likely due to the lack of training management/supervisors are given.
Every single person at HIT is encouraged to sell.
Just in the past week there has been a major change. There is no sales team!
The sales team has been absolved and lumped in to the account managers department.
Does this sound like a company that may have a problem here or there and may "stub their toe" once in a while? NO!
This all just makes the comments by HIT management all that more laughable.
It just goes to show that HIT is in a state of disrepair.
This is all very sad and I don't think that anything is going to change until we take this a step further...
You can contact Annie at ABC 4 at the email address annie@abc4.com...
The rest of the contact info is on my original complaint.
This is just like Dave... he loves to butter people up and make them feel good so he can use that as leverage at their most crucial moments.
Trust me, Dave is not this altruistic.
Not sure if Greg is unemployed by HIT - or if he's just working from home to save face for the company... Why would a company with this much greed ever actually get rid of someone who can manipulate an old lady with a severance check to use her social security check to line their pockets? ... hmmm... perhaps someone should try calling their sales line and ask for him, you might be surprised at the results.. unless you are familiar with the company. Then you wouldn't be surprised at all when they get him on the phone.
Yes and its a bunch of crap... just disregard it with a laugh and ignore it. There is nothing they can do to you. There is so much evidence that they are horrible, unethical business owners that would be foolish to even think about pursuing "legal action" against you.
Before I left on my own free will, months actually, HIT was hitting $30-40, 000 in revenue daily! This was expected and it was quite dreadful to management when we fell below this norm.
Now the latest from the HIT sales team... 3 days in a row at $12000 in revenue or less!
Having worked there 2 and a half years, 3 horrible days is deffinitley hurting their business. I've even got word from some employees that customers are sending links to reps from specific complaints done right here on complaintsboard.com.
These customers are demanding their accounts be cancelled! Let's hope this trend continues...
Actually they are failing miserably.
Plus, why would anyone take a stand for a company they have no relation to?
Thanks for trying though.
idiotswillalwayscomplain,
im sorry you are stuck at HIT. Obviously you have no where else to go. I'm sorry if we are harming the place you work at and we all would be mad if we were still there too because it would be hurting our paycheck.
The truth is, I have great friends that work there and they are amazing salespeople. Heck, I might even know you! We are not here to destroy your paycheck, in fact HIT is already doing that to you. We do not want you to fail but we do want HIT to change their ways. At HIT we had no voice! This is the only voice we have for the time being. Hopefully all of our collective complaints have been heard through out the state and government agencies we have made them to. There is only one way to fix HIT and hopefully bring it back to the positioning it was once in...
The Aitkens must go. I don't even think that is possible since they own a majority of the company from my understanding, but it is the only way. They once had HIT in a great position and it was the best place to work, now they have ran it in to the ground.
I really wish you the best of luck. There are many options for employment, employment that will pay you and treat well for the effort you put in.
wow "culture of fear" describes HIT perfectly.
By the way, Mark Strong and other HIT management have told their sales reps to say the same things to clients as Mark presented in the interview.
Its all fluff to make people feel good. The customer does not buy it in the end.
It may have worked for Mark because he is a nice, stately man who was speaking face to face with the news anchor. This is also why it hasn't aired.
I QUIT after the let one of the top consistant performers on the sales team go. This guy was awesome. He was always in the top 3 sales people pay period after pay period. Great guy with a nice wife and a few kids.
He was let go as an example that we were all expendable!
How sick is that! I was near tears to see him walk out, knowing he was going to have to go home, tell his wife he was fired and then hunt for a new job when he had kids to feed. I could not work for people that are vendictive as they are.
If you go to HIT management and try to talk about making $600 on a paycheck when you have earned them $20, 000 in a pay period is unfair they will say "So what?! We have kids to feed too!" (direct words from Jeremy Aitken). Keep in mind a pay period that productive would yeild a sales person atleast a check between $[protected] before management got greedy.
HIT sure is GREAT!
Now that is just greed... why would they fire someone and then say "oh you can work from home for us!"
Once again, they have no business sense at all.
awesome-company,
we all know you are not this altruistic.
In this case I think HIT was duped and was embarrassed to tell their employees that it really wasnt "national news".
It was deceitful as all employees thought that it was going to be a big break for HIT.
My_Compaint,
The reason they haven't been able to push our comments away is because they no next to nothing in regards to search engine optimization.
They follow antiquated SEO principles. They still think that meta keywords are KING! HIT tells their sales people to tell the customer that only custom sites can be optimized but templates easily can.
That will soon change as they are switching to template sites starting January 1, 2010.
TO MEDICINE AND ALL OTHERS WHO ARE TRYING TO DEFEND HIT...
It doesn't matter what you say or do at this point. You came in to this thread to late in the ball game!
This thread has been optimized for many phrases that are being searched when family, friends, ex-employees, customer, ex-customers and current employees search for "hit web design abc4". Just Google it.
Now if we do a quick search for "bad business abc4" (as we all know ABC4 is known for their investigative reports and consumer call to action stories) we pull HIT Web Design up in the number 2 spot. Ouch.
And YIKES! When we search for our favorite web design company under their new name "HIT Web Design" we find complaints immediatley under their own site. Bummer.
Sorry guys, try as you might but you are screwed.
Your business is failing and you are watching the ruins crumble.
Try doing something legitimate about it. You guys must be in real bad shape if you need to get on this board and monitor every little thing people are saying about you.
I wonder if the CEO of Wal-Mart does this?
Geez, you are right! What was I thinking?!
They know how huge they are, they don't need to stroke their own egos to prove it.
You know what I think is neat? If someone were to do a google image search for "Design by HWS" a TON of Heritage/HIT's websites come up. There usually is some contact info on the sites.
What could be done with that info?
Ryan, what about the grievances? I know for a fact Turpin's grievance is 100% legit as I was there.
Please address this. Thank you.
Ethicalhit,
If that is the correct link, it looks like he took it down.
What's there to be ashamed of Ryan?
This must be quite a bit for Ryan to take in. Notice he isnt saying anything...
By the way, accoridng to a source who is still at HIT Web Design, at te begginning of the year they had 400 employees and now they have about a tenth of that left!
January first there were 25 sales representative on the "sales team" now there are 7.
What a wonderful company! I'm glad to see they are doing so well.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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ethicalhit, I thought you claimed to be an ex-employee... but some of your latest posts make it sound as if you are not. Who are you?
"youmakemesad"
I have never claimed to be an ex-employee. Just a concerned citizen for the truth.
Wow - what a thread. As a web developer myself, the first "red flag" was 'doing custom web site design for as little as $199'... Not a single job, no matter how small, would get me in front of my computer for less than $500 - and that's not arrogance talking, it's over 20 years of experience that I pour into my work every day.
Five sales reps for each designer? HIT's business model is not only flawed, it is guaranteed to commit fraud. Again, based on experience, it takes a minimum of seven days, and an average of 21-30, WORKING FULL TIME HOURS, to design and implement ONE approved website project - especially one that boasts the "features" that are being bandied about.
No... there is not enough time in a day - even if you forego the time needed to sleep, eat, and use the crapper - to have one designer competently satisfy five simultaneous project requirements. It's impossible.
What is extremely disturbing is the fact that I am seeing these numbers tossed about ($500 to start a project, an additional $650, then upsell of whatever else) that result in a website that my 9-year-old could design that in no way conforms to even the most basic web standards and compliance. I checked out at least a dozen sites that were tagged as "designed by HIT" and am insulted as a development professional that these people at HIT are muddying up the waters for REAL website developers.
I'm going to be following this thread (and the others regarding HIT) - it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I am particularly interested in seeing what happens with this Ryan Nelson fellow and how he responds to pointed questions rather than cherry-picking (am I alone in my concern that he was so readily available to downplay everyone - until challenged to be more forthright in obvious flaws in HIT's practices?)...
The Real Dave In Montreal,
Thank you for your insight! I find the insight from other people in the design world on Hit Web Design to always be valuable and normally comical!
Good evening readers
I work for the government and I have top secret information that ties Kenton, Bryce, and Eric to the Kennedy assassination. I also think that they may have stolen my bike.
I love complaint board. You can make all kinds of meaningless accusations without any type of evidence.
Good Evening Readers-
I work for an ultra secret government agency and I have sources that say that Kenton, Bryce, and Eric are connected with the assassination of Kennedy. I also suspect that they stole my bike.
I love complaint board- you can make all kinds of accusations without any kind of proof.
Heritage Web Design Exposed
Posted: by Tina Kachmar
I paid Heritage Web Design $700 last February to create a NEW site for my candle business. They are in the "top 1%" so I figured they must be good, right? NOT! Once they have your money, forget it. For $700 I got a copy of the site that I myself created with some pink background and a candle graphic. I sent them a box, yes mailed them information, including pamphlets, brochures, pictures, candles, soaps, etc., (approximately $50 worth of product) hoping it would help create the mood for my site. Well, the receptionist 'supposedly' stole the samples because my designer never received it. Since she never received the box she built a site that had a black background and flowers? I emailed my 'account manager' and he just switched designers. So, in MAY my site was finally up and running and I was SUPER disappointed. It was nothing like what I had explained to them. I felt powerless because from that point on they have been so rude to me. Anyway, I built my own site and have one more month with this company stealing my $30 to host a site I haven't used since last July. BEWARE! They will steal your hard earned money and treat you like crap.
by clothing
I have the same exact complaint as the candle person. Heritage customer service once they have your money changes drastically. The designer of my website did not listed to one word I said. I constantly had to keep telling him what I wanted over and over and over again. I made him totally redo the website until I had something livable. I think people should really shop around and see what else is out there before hiring HWS. I paid close to a grand before everything was said and done. They'll give you one price and then say another 150 to do this another 50 to do that. And if you have a problem, there is a huge language barrier with many members they contract out for tech support, and I guarantee you they will almost never be able to answer your question.
by Sawagee
I agree with this complaint. I am in the same situation with Heritage Web Design. They are very quick at taking your money and no real service. I am currently extremely disappointed with their service that I am not even getting and yet they charge my credit card every month. I will make sure they are all over the Internet as SCAM ARTISTS. I will take on myself to write on every blog and scam sites so that they can be known. Paying a penny to then is just the first step to bad business. Please run as fast as you can if you see their logo or name in your search result. It's just BAD MOJO and bad luck. They are bunch of crooks and vultures just waiting to suck up your money. They have hidden cost all the way. Please be aware of that as well. I will rate them 1 on the scale of 10.
by "GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK"
"SCAM ARTISTS, CROOKS AND ROBBERS!"
THESE GUYS TAKE THEIVERY TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL! SIGNED US WITH THEM WAS PROMISED THE MOON AND GOT THE PIT! PHONE REP LIED ABOUT WEB SITE DESIGN, DID A SERIOUS BAIT AND SWITCH, WEBSITE WENT FROM $199 TO OVER $700 IN 3 MINUTES. ASSIGNED ME A WEBSITE DESIGNER WHO MY 7 YEAR OLD COULD HAVE TAUGHT BETTER WEB DESIGN SKILLS. AFTER 6 WEEKS OF NOTHING WHEN I DEMANDED MY MONEY BACK, THEY SWEETLY INFORMED ME THAT THE INVOICE (THAT I NEVER RECEIVED) SOME WHERE IN THE FINE PRINT STATED THAT IF YOU CANCEL AN ORDER THEY AUTOMATICALLY POCKET 50% OF WHAT IT WOULD HAVE COST THEM IF THEY HAD DONE WHAT THEY ACTUALLY PROMISED... BY THE WAY, NOT TO MENTION THAT THEY'VE ALREAD CHARGED YOUR CREDIT CARD FOR THE DEPOSIT AND THE BALANCE WITHIN 5 DAYS FOR A JOB THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO TAKE 4 WEEKS TO COMPLETE. I COULD GO ON AND ON AND ON ... THIS COMPANY IS THE BIGGEST PIECE OF CRAP I HAVE HAD THE DISPLEASURE TO COME ACROSS... "DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY" OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. GO TO A LEGITIMATE SITE WITH WITH REAL WEB SITE DESIGNERS AND NOT CON-ARTISTS... SORRY ABOUT THE SCREAMING! BUT IF YOU WENT THRU WHAT I WENT THRU THESE BUTT-HEADS YOU WOULD BE SCREAMING TOO!
by mark0805
I have got to put my 2 cents in here. I saw the comments here, on [redacted], and even on the BBB. I also read their terms of service all the way through.
The terms of service are the main reason I cancelled. I never agreed to them and no one in their right mind should agree to such one-sided terms. I encourage everyone to read these all the way through. They even have a clause that if you make a negative comment about them on any online forum that they will charge you a lot of money (don't remember the exact amount).
They also offer no form of product guarantee. The terms state that if you don't like the work they've done, they will make it live regardless of what the customer wants. In either case, they charge a 50% cancellation fee even if they have done absolutely no work on your site. If they have started any design work, then it becomes a 100% cancellation fee. They offer no consumer protection what-so-ever.
So I said I cannot agree to the terms and will not be using them. What did they do? They charged me 50% anyways and purchased my domain name. After a week of calling and emailing, I get an email saying it will cost $50 to get my domain name from them. A fee that was never mentioned by the "program directors" or in any communication from the company. I sent back an email saying if my money is not returned by tonight (this is after a week), then I would be charging them $100/day. See if that works. I finally get a call from Steve, a program director, trying to sell me on the fact that I need to pay them $50 for doing something I never authorized them to do (purchasing my domain name). I say no way, make my demand for the money again and he says he needs to forward this to his vice president.
Everyone keeps saying how cheap this place is. They wanted to charge me $700 for a 6 page site in HTML. I talked them down to $540. Now I have found someone who will do a flash and html site for $500 and I didn't need to sign or agree to any foolish terms of service. So much lowest price huh?
Again I strongly urge everyone to do their homework on this company, read all the complaints, especially read the terms of service, and don't let the sales people fool you.
by lessonlearned
I agree with all the complaints. I just canceled my web serves with HWS because I just could not take it anymore. They tell you one think and then turn around and do something eles. They are very quick to take your money, so quick that they took money before they were suppose to and caused all kind of craziness in my bank account. My account was swithched to someone else and they did not notify me. I found out by calling for my old account rep and was told he no longer worked there. No one is ever available when you need to talk to them. I spent a week trying to contact my web designer, she finally contacts me after I cancel my services. Working with Hws was the worst experience I have every had with a nycompany providing a service to me. Hey but maybe someone else may have a different experience. I would not reccemmend take it from me shop around, do your reasearch before you invest. Oh yeah they kept $310 for doing nothing. My logo they so called designed was a vector image that I sent them and they put the name of my company on the image.
by FRUSTRATED22
Hi, THANK GOD we did a google search on this company and found all this info! We had been talking to Heritage, now calling themselves HIT. I'm sure it's to throw people off. We discussed ideas about our website but had not completely decided what we wanted to do. They immediately wanted our credit card info for "possible future billing". We kicked ideas around and they wanted to set up a payment schedule. They played around with dates but we needed to discuss it more to decide if it was affordable at this time. We decided against moving forward and told our contact person on Thursday 8/20/09 we couldn't do it right now. She told us to think about it some more and we called again Friday 8/21/09 and couldn't get ahold of her and left a message that we couldn't move forward. Monday we were contacted by a writer! This was cause for concern because we already said we weren't interested. We had made contact with another web design company to do some more research. They told us Heritage's promise of a website up and running in 14 days was impossible. Between the contact from the writer and new info we were very concerned it was a scam. We googled the company and found all the complaints. Not only from customers but from previous contract employees that were given checks that bounced! I'm not talking thousands, one was for $240.00! WOW! The person overheard the bank teller discussing the situation with a contact at Heritage who said the company was $78, 000 in the hole! I'm not surprised! We immediated contacted our initial contact at Hertiage and the writer that contacted us via email and put in writing on 8/24/09 that we were NOT INTERESTED and had already told them and they had NO AUTHORIZATION to attempt to run any payments because we had not entered into any kind of agreement with them. I had a bad feeling. She tried to call us, obviously not wanting a trail in writing. She did email because we wouldn't answer and said she needed to talk to us about the cancellation and asked if we were sure we wanted to cance and please confirm so she could forward us to the cancellation dept! TO CANCEL WHAT? We had not entered into an agreement, we told her on the 20th and 21st we were not interested. Then going through our old email we discovered she sent us an invoice on SATURDAY to try to bill us for the WRITING! WHAT WRITING? Sneeky on a Saturday! We were contacted by the writer MONDAY after saying we weren't interested! Luckily we had given the debit card info so we moved all funds from that account just in case they attempted to run it through. We confirmed AGAIN via email we WERE NOT INTERESTED but of course never received any contact back. Guess what...today 8/26 we were contacted by Heritage's /HIT's account dept because there was a problem processing our payment! I knew they were goping to pull that! If we had not moved the funds they would've been paid for NOTHING! We explained they should NOT have processed anything, we sent them notification in writing even though we had entered into no agreement. this person in accounting had no idea until they researched our file more. They said the cancellation process can take awhile! THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, WE HAD NO AGREEMENT! They said they would've refunded our money...yeah right! FOR ANYBODY CONSIDERING USING THIS COMPANY FORGET ABOUT IT! THEY'RE SCAM ARTISTS! ANYBODY ELSE YOU'RE CONSIDERING SHOULD PUT A CONTRACT IN WRITING. NEVER SHOULD THEY PROCESS A PAYMENT WITHOUT WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION. BEWARE!
THIS COMPANY IS TRULY A FRAUD ..I HAVE HAD A BAD EXPEREINCE WITH THEM WHERE THEY TOOK MY MONEY AND NEVER DELIVERED
by Salster
This is the worst company I have dealt with. I worked with Bryon Byrge at HIT and he misled me on several items as well as the rest of my so called "management team". I was promised to have this sensational, professional website set up for several hundred dollars. It has been months and months and my site is still not up to my satisfaction. Their turnaround time is awaful because most of the people who work there are part timers who work at night or the wee hours of the morning. You can't get in touch with them and once you do they tell it it will take up to 2 weeks to accomplish the edits. After months and months they just finally got my email up and running properly. THEN!...on top of that one tech support person told me it would be best to synch my email with my Outlook which made sense to me. He said he would help me with it but I declined feeling I could do it myself. When I had trouble and called back they wanted to charge me a fee! I also paid them $300 for a new logo desing. I had created one close to what I wanted with clip art but legally couldnt' sue that. They were supposed to re-create it for me. All they did was make the colors a little lighter! This company runs on scams! DO NOT HIRE THEM!
And complaints WON'T GET YOU ANYWHERE! When I called to complain and requested ownership of my site so I can transfere it to a LEGITIMATE company, they proceeded to tell me that I would yet again, pay the rest of the years' fee. The rep basically told me that even thought the work was poor and turnover for edits was poor, it was ok for them not to abide by their side of the contract. I however, have to abide by mine. Then he refused to even give me his name so I could not even report him. This is a disgusting company. YOU WILL GET SCREWED ROYALLY IF YOU HIRE THEM.
Since this company refuses to act professionally and work to resolve this matter with me I am contacting a lawyer. However, can anyone advise me if there is a specific agency who/where I file a formal complaint against the company in general as well as the specific individuals I worked with?
by crystalwarr
FEW POINTER ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM if your like me youve probally spent way to much money to walk away now... youve probally cussed out people, cried and got to the point where its you just cant do anything but laugh anymore...I agree about hit web design I have been struggling with them since December 08 and it is now the end of OCT 09. They were much better as Heritage web design I got my website done in no time as for this ABOVE MENTIONED Quality Control Administer /CEO bull ### you will not here from them AT ALL! I made numerous emails to CEO and no one has email or called me back even tho I sent the same email everyday for a week and told them I will keep sending the email until someone calls me they dont care they probally spammed me BUT i am glad they put the information on here for you so you can email the BIG GUYS and hopefully you will get better response than me, but the people at HIT WEB act like that is some top secret information and will not give you away to contact them and do not tell you its capaital CEO@ they just say ceo@. Their customer service people talk in circles and act very indearing say they will call you back and make sure things are followed through you will never hear from them again you have to EXPLAIN YOUR SELF TO EVERYONE YOU TALK TO its a waste to call 99% of the time its best to email to the ACTUAL PERSON WORKING ON THE ACCOUNT. If they are automatically are taking out of you account Bank /Credit card monthly i highly suggest you change your card number that they are charging and demand they get no money til the progect is done ...also they dont tell you this but if your website does not say UNDER CONSTRUCTION and people have access to your website they believe they have provided you some service for justifing charging you monthly so MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SITE LISTED UNDER CONSTRUCTION OR THEY WILL CHARGE YOU! This is a way to cover your ### and they will get to it faster! THEY ARE SNEAKY AND WILL LIFT UNDER CONSTRUCTION SIGN without you knowing so make sure you go to it often to make sure they didnt lift it without verifying with you first. Also if you go through updates team to explain your issues it eats up your free update time, SO make sure they ur complaints dont go through updates team that it goes through TECH SUPPORT also make sure all emails say that its a tech support issue not update. They do make notes in your file to call, or whatever but these notes do not work, because someone has to pull up your account to see the notes and no one will be looking at your acount/notes just to look they only look when you call. Also it is illegal AS ###.. Ive spoke to an attorney and he suggested to get li8ke five people together to press charges with same complaints as me and i would have a real good case! ALSO THERE IS SUCH A PLACE CALLED BETTER BUSSINESS BEAUREAU (dont Know how to spell it) that you can also call to make a complaint and ask them what can you further do other than just make a complaint.
HOPE THIS HELPED!
VERY DISGUSTED CUSTOMER!
Hit Web Design (formerly Heritage Web Design)
Posted: by Denise
Hit Web Design (formerly Heritage Web Design
Utah
United States
Phone: [protected]
hitwebdesign.com
lie, cheat customers, uncompleted work
I am a small start up business and Hit web design promises they can create a website and make sure you are getting your information out into the web world asap. They have you pay for your hosting up front for a year and when you pay for everything you have to call everyday crying and begging just to get your website up and running . They promise they will have you fully running in two weeks. Well that was back in Feb. and I still do not have everything I need on my site and am still begging them. They also charge you for many services that once you start trying to get your own site out there you find out that they charge for site maps then I find out that the search engines let you get site maps for free. In fact I paid for one and the only search engine that has picked me up is google that is because of what I have done on the web. They also make it to where you cannot add anything to your site such as site maps because they hold your site hostage they control it. I can only change some wording on my site. You can't add your paypal code on your site etc. Heaven forbid that I would like to add my own pictures I cannot even get the very important information on my site to run it the right way. I would never request simple things like pictures. And they never get around adding any of this information. I cry all the time. Because they are ruining my life. I put all of my money into my business and rely on the web.
_____________________________________
Ryan, Dave ...can you guys explain?
Posted: 2009-11-03 by My-PiggyBank.Com / Alfredo
The organization is a CHEAT!
When I first called the organization, I was a VIP and they took my money in less than 20mins. The following day, the assigned PM contacted me and discussed the details of my website. The following week, they declined establishing my website because they feel that it's Pyramid setup, which is NOT but I said, ok then just give me back my money and I'll find another developer who will put my website together.
The cancellation was submitted on September 10th and the derek@hitwebdesign.com was the person working on my account.
I called them back on Sept. 29th and sent an email to follow-up with status, noone in the company can tell me how long the refund will take other than "the refunds are processed in the order they are received". Other than that, what is the process, noone in the company knows... for a company that is very well established and take pride of the excellent customer service...for sure doesn't know their own process of refunds!
Again, I followed up again on Oct. 3rd since I didn't hear anything back from the the Sept. 29th request, they finally they sent an email saying we are processing your refund.
Every week, I will call and send an email and all they can say is they are processing my account and only the person dealing with it now who is Jeff Hill, jeffhi@hitwebdesign.com, Sr. Customer Service Agent who I was told by Taft F (Customer Service Rep) that reports directly to the boards and doesn't have a supervisor above him other than the boards of director. I requested Taft to forward me to his boss, he refuses to forward me to his boss because he said that I'm not longer a customer since my account is in the process of cancelling. So much for taking pride of customer service. I'm officially filing a complaint to the authority to spread the words of not using this company...
If you are looking an ogranization, go with someone local who you can meet in person...because if you have to deal with this kind of things like I'm dealing with...it's not worth your time and the savings you think you are saving...
Thank you for listening to my frustration because HIT WEB DESIGN DOESN'T LISTEN TO THEIR CUSTOMERS! -Alfredo
HIT WEB DESIGN IS A CHEAT AND NOT A REPUTABLE COMPANY IF
by hit web design bad news
i am a victim as well ... such one sided terms must be ended . i started submitting content and they say this automaticaly say`s that i agree i didn`t recieve the terms in the mail for quiet sometime after i signed up . I should of saw the red flags when the day after i signed up i went on the web to find heritage now hit web designs and found a page full of compliants . i am a new company and money is tight . after i signed up all these expense`s enhanchements they call them . were expenseive and just kept adding up on my balance. they didnt tell me about a site map for 8 weeks at least .and then that cost three hundred dollars. they now have turned off my website in the middle of the summer . do you or anyone see how turning off a website helps anyone make money ? how do they expect payment when they are keeping me from making money? are they this stupid, term 11 clients approval, i never gave the final go ahead. term 26 90 gaurantee. whern does this start if you dont give the final go a head? i have kept notes on this hit webdesign since march 26th when the complaint page poped up ...anyone care to hear my notes. i am shocked that they feel by turning off my website will get them money any faster ...i could go on for a very long time . but it feels good to vent
shady
I think Sick of Hit is proving his/her point of there are lots of legitimate customer complaints!
Heritage Web Solutions Complaints - I had enough of Heritage Web Solutions and HAD TO MOVE ON!
Review all Heritage Web Solutions complaints
Heritage Web Solutions
Posted: 2007-08-29 by Unknown
I had enough of Heritage Web Solutions and HAD TO MOVE ON!
I have been through alot with Hertiage and it is my position that they ABSOLUTELY care nothing about YOUR WEBSITE, must lest your FEELINGS about what your going through with them or have gone through.
We got your money and they keep your money.
Anyway enough of the drama with HERITAGE WEB because these people are LIARS, and THEFTS and so if you really want to get somewhere you may consider not wasting anymore time with these people. Because even if perhaps months, and months, and months and months later they finally complete your website, they make no guarantees that it will even work.
They expect that they can just input what they want, not correct it or not complete it at all, send you some ### email "your web is now live" as if you or a family member and potential customers can actually go on your so called "live web" and order products.
PLEASE !
These people are such scam artist that I pray that the complaint board can actually move up to the first page on the search engine so that potential customers may read this comments. Because I never bother to go the the next page on the search engine I didn't see this complaintboard.com
We as you may figure out by now they pay for a whole page on the search engine into the second page so that "WE" can't see any complaints about them.
If anyone out their knows about who governs their business tactics we can perhaps get them to change the way they do things. People need not to be tricked by submitting information to them and then once you submit information, without knowing you have already accepted their TOS (Terms of Service) without evening knowing about it unless you initially read it on their home page. Why, because you don't get to see their TOS until you are about to pick out your information for your web designer.
It is at that point that they present their TOS for you to agree to before you submit your information to your web designer about what color and theme that you want for your web.
Aren't they REALLY smart?!
______________________________________
Ryan, any comments?
by Glen Rousey
Mr. Brad Stone you company is nothing but small re-seller of website hosting. Not only does your company NOT produce what they say they are going to do... but your company takes it a step further and offers one of the WORST tech support (I will also say OUTSOURCED support to India who understand nothing) to an entire new level.
For starters your company "Heritage Web Solutions" does nothing but the so called bait and switch method. You take advantage of people, take the money and produce nothing. Take for example my case (and a case it will now be) not only did you rip me off and take over three (3) months to design a simple one page website for me, you company took it upon itself to produce the worst thing I have ever seen and steal my domain name.
Your sorry support does nothing but give me the run around about this (Yes I have just finished a ICANN complaint about you).
Bottom line is... Any person that is thinking about using Heritage Web Solutions really needs to think twice. This is a SMALL company that has no clue what they are doing. I would assume Mr. Brad Stone is going to shoot back with being listed on some "top 500 inc" website... FYI if he does post that link, please visit this link and you will see in a clear way THAT ANY PERSON CAN REGISTER for this and you as well can be listed.
Heritiage Web Solutions a web host that can not even do a simple DNS transfer... And you call your self the top 1%... GET REAL
STAY AWAY FROM HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS
by tyler.nichols
This is hilarious I worked for Heritage, in Tech Support, and Flash and I know first hand this company deals poorly with customers.
90% of the tech support crew doesn't have the tools or the know how to help anyone.
This companies #1 priority is to make money by selling things people don't need, and then under performing on what they sell.
Maybe there are some happy customers, maybe I was hearing all the bad. But I will tell you this that after my own personal experience working there I would never give Heritage a cent for any kind of work. Heck I would pay them to leave me a lone, and some people do.
On a side note they are selling cheap web sites and the customers that are looking into this company are paying bottom dollar. So that said Heritage can't afford to pay for good customer service, or quality designers or programmers. So in a way it isn't their fault, they are just a product of the system they set up.
But still the customer service is terrible. Maybe things have changed since I worked there but when I was there you received nothing but the run around.
_________________________
DAVE CARE TO COMMENT ON THIS CONFESSION FROM YOUR OWN EMPLOYEE?
by bmkz9z9
I cannot agree more with ALL the complaints on this board. I am big when it comes to customer service. Heritage web solutions can kiss my behind. They have the worst customer service on earth believe it. I told a friend of one that I will take a worst, crappy fast food service OVER the service from Heritage Web solutions. These are my reasons:
1. Once you get signed up with the company, their 'devotion' to help you get your work done on a timely and professional level diminishes. The customer service at sales dept is great because they want your money, but once they get it, you better forget that friendliness from them.
2. I thought several times that it must be a coincidence that I keep getting rude reps on the phone, but I kid you not, 99% of the time, THEY ARE not the most pleasant people you want to call. Therefore, when I call them for my service, I hated it because I knew it was going to be a nightmare trying to get what I want without being stressed about it, but I didn't have a choice because I needed to complete my site and I had already paid and got committed to their irrevocable contract.
3. Their communication is the WORST. I mean that with all my heart. Say for example, you call and want a design update...as I did. I was told I had to put the request in on the update request page...which I did. Then, I called the company, and I was transferred to the account manager. From then on forget it. After speaking to the account manager (AM), it's like no one else knows what is going on. The AM supposingly communicated with the design team, and they never got back to me. YOU (I) will have to keep calling to get the status on your website update. It took 5 days for someone to call me regarding what I wanted, and then when I got the designer to call, he could ONLY do the home page (which is fine since they have to give the other page designs to other specialists). But here is the problem, just for the designer to relate the information to THE NEXT developer/specialist is IMPOSSIBLE. I have to call again and talk to the AM who will try to track down the NEXT person to continue with my site. This is horrible because if this so called company is really a TRUE company, the communication from the designer to the programmer/developer/specialist should be done internally or smoothly enough without stressing its customers. THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME since I've had 2 updates. It's very frustrating. The worst is that; they don't give a DAMN! Worst tech support I heard? That’s more like putting the icing on the cake…how about incompetent and a house full of people just pushing buttons. Horrible all the way! They least care about your time or your satisfaction. Even the CEO, Brad Stone, who claims to email him…doesn’t do his job or cares about the customer. I even emailed him couple of times, but no response. So don’t listen to him at all. Go figure it out, if the CEO is claiming to email him and he doesn’t respond, you could ONLY imagine what service you’ll be getting as the hierarchy trickles down the line.
4. The updates you request are given to less qualified people. For example, a programmer called me to start working on my site, and he had NO IDEA of what I wanted. I mean he has NEVER done what I was requested. Hear this: to the point that I had to email him a word document of my previously designed website by them. I copied and pasted EACH page of my previously designed website because of the experiences I’ve had with the company…you have to behave this way and be proactive should incase they come to you and deny things. That’s my way of defending myself because this company made me think this way…you have to be READY! Once I sent the guy the word document file of what was previously designed (because the site needed updates and some features were taken down), the guy was surprised to see that I had a word document and he felt stupid. I MEAN COME ON, I HAVE TO SHOW A WEB DEVELOPER HOW TO DO HIS JOB? Interesting…believe me.
5. When I finally decided to cancel from the company, I thought I would just request my files, but HELL NO!...That was literally what I received from this HORRIBLE company, they were so rude, they didn’t care I was leaving or tried to keep me as a long time customer. I couldn’t get my refund because they claimed my contract would be ending at the end of the month. At this time, it was still early in the beginning of the month. It was hell receiving my files. The files they created for me, it was CORRUPTED with virus, and guess what?: It DID NOT INCLUDE MY UPDATED FILES! This was a nightmare. I had to go back and forth to argue with them that the files and updates (WHICH I ACTUALLY EVEN PAID MORE FOR BECAUSE I NEEDED MORE UPDATES THAN WHAT YOU GET WITH YOUR YEARLY PLAN), was missing in the files. They decided to send me a CD since the ftp files they created could NOT be fixed from the viruses, but this was hell too. The files were STILL corrupted. I had business plans and knew it was a waste of time dealing with this horrible company. As far as I’m concerned there is a legal case here, but I just don’t want to deal with this company anymore in any format. As I’ve previously expressed my frustration to the company that calling them or dealing with them in any form, makes me SICK TO MY STOMACH. I truly mean that…though I’m still considering suing this company.
6. I can go on and on and list legitimate reason why I DO NOT RECOMMEND HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS (who now call themselves HIT = Heritage Internet Technologies) or whatever they call themselves…may be to confuse customers, so they would not know it’s the same terrible company…but I don’t have the time of the day to write all that I want to say about the company.
7. So if you want what is best for yourself or company, DO NOT MAKE A PHONE CALL TO THIS COMPANY. I REPEAT, DO NOT DARE MAKING A PHONE CALL TO THIS COMPANY. They would become your worst nightmare. THEY ARE NOT WORTH YOUR PENNY!
My name is Kenton Bailey. I was an Account Manager at HIT for about a year. I have been reading this thread for 2 days now, and I am shocked to find that I was involved in the assassination of Kennedy, and I am a bike thief.
The posts on this thread do not shock me at all, I lived this crap on a daily basis. Ryan the complaint department does not work like you say it does. It actually backfires on you if you do complain. I was not fired I quit, and got to say some choice words on my way out the door. I will share my story a little later down the road. But I can attest that not one former employee or customer is lying on this thread about what happens at this company.
Thank you so much Kenton for sharing your story! I know that we all look forward to hearing more details first hand from you!
Speaking as somebody who worked for HIT for several years, you guys are insane.
I never particularly liked the company, I never thought they were well-run, and I certainly don't think that they have made many good decisions in the past year, but seriously? A random troll posts a comment that doesn't make sense and you assume it's a conspiracy by HIT to throw the thread off track? Ryan doesn't post for a few days and you assume it's because he's busy looking for ways to track you down? Get real.
If you worked for HIT for more than a week and didn't figure out their business model (sell a crappy product for cheap, get a contract and upsell), you are oblivious. If you stayed on at that point, it's hard to pull up moral objections after the fact and not look like an ###.
If you're a customer looking to build a website for $199 and expected something more, you're kidding yourself. HIT mostly markets to business owners, and frankly, if you don't have the business sense to read the contract, get a few bids, google the company, and invest money when it's required, I don't feel sorry for you. Seriously, If a few hundred dollars is such a big deal that you would even bother spending the time to complain to the BBB, you are running your business wrong, and it's going to fail anyways.
While I was working there, I worked directly with many customers who were extremely happy with HIT's service. I spoke to some who weren't, but they were in the minority. If you have realistic expectations, you won't be disappointed. While I wouldn't use their services myself, I still recommend HIT to certain kinds of business owners.
HIT has pushy salespeople? Shocking. They pay to produce infomercials? Shocking. They want customers to sign a contract? Shocking. Get over yourselves and move on. It's not like there's no other jobs in Provo.
Dave Aitken is a good guy. He's an honest, hard-working, religious person. He legitimately cares what happens to the company, and the people who work there, and he's doing what he can to keep things moving forward. He's a lousy CEO, but frankly, nobody asked you. Ryan is a good guy. In my opinion, he's not a great lawyer, but nobody asked me.
If you don't like it, go somewhere else. I did. You can. The complaints here are ridiculous.
Willie Smoot,
Great points! Great to hear your point of view on Hit Web Design! It is nice to hear a different point of view. It feels very honest! Thank you again for sharing! So Willie Smoot why did you leave Hit Web Design? Was it strictly personal, or were you able to find a much better opportunity?
Thank you again for sharing your point of view.
Heritage Web Solutions ripoff does not provide all as advertised Provo Utah
Reported By
Cottonwood, Arizona at /link removed/
This company advertises that optimization is a very important part of your website, however, after you purchase you then find out as I did that unless you pay thousands more they only do a minimum optimization - not what they claim as advertised or lead you to believe when speaking to them. You can not access this area to do this yourself.
All the instructions for updating/editing your site are incomplete and after I bought this program I was informed that I had asked for too much to be done and they only provide so many hours of free work so I will have to pay them $60 an hour to do anything beyond that. The gimmick here is they never tell you how many hours it will take them to do anything. The bill could run into hundreds of dollars.
It is true I did not buy the biggest package from them, however, I would think I should be able to edit my entire site within reason. They have set it up so that adding an outside link to your page is often impossible or it comes out looking weird.
Often when they did the initial set up I would have to have them go back to do what they should have done to begin with - their incomplete work.
You never know who is working on what part of your site when you do the set up and it took a very long time to complete it. Phone contact with the techs is impossible at times so one has to wait for e mail communication - that was not really made clear at the onset.
I now have a site that I cannot finish without paying more for them to do the correct optimization needed for search engines like google. I also have very little support time each month.
I would not reccommend this company even though they brag that they are in the 1% of the top designers now. I suppose that is for the large corporations that can pay thousands of dollars.
Margaret
Cottonwood, Arizona
U.S.A.
_________________________________________
Reported By Former employee
As a recent former employee of this company I feel its my duty to the public to warn them against this company. One of the reasons I'm no longer with them is my insistence on protecting the customer, something they are not nearly as concerned about as they are getting dollars in the door. They don't do anything outright illegal, they just skirt the law and dance around it, using it to their advantage to rip people off.
The owners, Brad Stone (who's retired, which is why he doesn't answer any of those emails to the "CEO" - for anyone interested, those emails go to a manager who shuffles them to a customer service rep to call and/or email you so they can resell you on the services, the CEO NEVER SEES THOSE EMAILS) Mark Strong, Dave Aitken (The current CEO) and Leah Young, are completely out of touch with the process, relying on people below them for information on how things are going.
What is actually going on with Heritage Web Solutions a.k.a. HIT Web Design a.k.a. Heritage Internet Technologies: They take people's money with the intention of fulfilling their order, then you get put into a confusing, mixed up if well intentioned system where it is possible for your order to get lost in a tangle and maze of 'fulfillment'.
Meanwhile they have every employee, at every level, continually trying to 'up-sell' the customer, most times selling them crap they have absolutely no need for. Sure, they'll sell you a website for $299.00 - but to get a truly useful website with what you actually need, most of the time you have to spend more than if you'd just gone to the company that charged you $1500.00 up front, and in most cases you get a lot of frustration and anger along with your order.
I mean, seriously, this company seems to be going down the toilet. If anyone wants to file a lawsuit they had best do it soon. My advice to anyone out there that is using or has used Heritage - file a charge back against them with your credit card and get your money back.
Former employee
Provo, Utah
U.S.A.
"if you took the time to actually read through the complaints"..."Did you feel it was fun to read 22 pages of complaints " ...Not to get all troll-y here, but if you can't go more than four sentences without contradicting yourself, you may not be making very good arguments. Clearly you're emotional about this. Maybe you have good reason to be emotional. I've been sacked before. I even deserved it once. Regardless, I'd be lying if I said I didn't resent it. I feel your pain, but really, get over yourself and move on.
You feel like you were mistreated. Maybe you were. That's completely irrelevant- HIT is a hackjob of a company, but they aren't a sweatshop, and you always had the option of leaving.
"I'd have to question why you're here reading this at all if you were perfectly fine with HIT after finding another job."
It's a site called complaintsboard.com... I guess it is strange that I would come here and not complain, but that doesn't say much for the agenda of the posters here.
Maybe I'm because I here care about the people I worked with. Maybe I care about the company I did a lot of good work for. Maybe I'm just bored. Maybe I'm a troll on the HIT payroll. Maybe I'm just fascinated by the self-affirming and self-righteous mentality of the people here. My motivation for being here isn't really relevant. The complaints here are ridiculous.
It appears that the "Smoot family" are nothing more than a five year old attempt to dismiss the pain that HIT Web Design/Heritage Web Solutions caused innocent mislead people. I don't know why you can come on here and feel a need to stand up for the company that intentionally screws people over with... Hold on!
How's it going Dave? Haven't talked to you for a while. Hope all is well. If you decide you want to try and find some integrity and morals, I hear McDonald's is hiring (and they offer free food). Maybe you should go there and have a great day!
BTW I really do enjoy your posts. It turns the Complaints Board into a Comedy board and who doesn't need a little laugh in their life?
HIT WEB DESIGN - HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS
HIT WEB DESIGN - HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS HIT WEB DESIGN IS A FRAUD - DO NOT USE THEM - THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY Provo Utah
Reported By at /link removed/
Waterbury, Connecticut
Hit Web Design ( Heritage Web Solutions ) They Changed their name because Heritage Received so Much Negative Feedback From Everybody. Hit Web Design Stole $1, 200 dollars from me. I hired them in Janurary to create a Web Design, come July they have Not Done Anything and Charge Hosting Fee's a Month - To Host What ? They are a scam and i will see to it that Everybody in the World Knows It. I couldnt wait Any Longer and requested a Full Refund. Do you know what they told me ? I can No Longer Get a Refund Because it has been More than 90 days - They Just Delay the process on purpose to keep the Money. They wanted to give me a refund of $25 Dollars On $1, 200 - I canceled and they have my Money Now. If i can't get the Money Back I promise that i want to Warn Everybody Else Online NOT TO HIRE THESE CROOKS.
24hourphones
Waterbury, Connecticut
U.S.A.
I'd like to throw in my two cents. It wasn't nearly as bad as it appears to be when I stopped working at Heritage, but the writing was on the wall already.
I was in the php department and remember wondering why on Earth any one in their right mind would want their programming department to push sales. It makes no sense. By the time it's gotten to programming, they should have everything they need. Yet we were constantly told to upsell clients. I refused, on numerous occasions, to even ask a client about buying additional products. I would not do it. It is simply wrong to try to upsell clients packages or products that they will not need for their business or website. I found it grossly un-ethical. I was even told in reviews that I needed to try to sell them. I even told them that I would not sell them products that they were not going to need or use because that went against what a web design company should be doing. I was not a favorite for that.
I would routinely get projects in my pipeline where a customer had been sold the SAME item multiple times and been charged for it each time simply so that people in different departments could get their sales quotas. Is that illegal? It's borderline grey-area. It is most definitely un-ethical and morally wrong. I sent a number of clients emails informing them of this. I'm sure that chargebacks on accounts did nothing to contribute to my favored status.
I lived some distance from Heritage when I worked there, and towards the end of my employment there I got stuck on the freeway in a massive blizzard. Traffic on I-15 was parked. It took 2 1/2 hours to make a 20 minute drive. Seeing that the weather was looking bad I left earlier than usual and had it been just a normal snow storm would have arrived at work on time. I called in to my manager and let them know the situation still well before work started. When I finally got there, I was pulled into my VP's office and written up for being late despite having called in before my scheduled work time.
It has been nearly 2 years since I moved on from Heritage. There are plenty of jobs out there that pay much better than Heritage and are far less harassing. Start a job search now and get yourself out of there.
There are Federal and State laws regarding work place violence, harassment and intimidation:
--"conduct in violation of Section R477-15-1 that is unwelcome, pervasive, demeaning, , derisive, or coercive, and results in a , offensive, or work environment" ( added by me)
--"No person may retaliate against any employee who opposes a practice forbidden under this policy"
Anyone who feels intimidated or belittled has the right to file a workplace harassment complaint and ANY retaliation for filing that complaint is grounds for SERIOUS action against Heritage. Consult with the Utah Department of Work Force Services on who you can talk to outside of the company. Take legal action against the company for the things they are doing. Don't just take it. You don't have to go to your supervisors, you can go to the state.
Found_Better,
Well said! Thank you for coming a sharing your story about Hit Web Design! Please everyone follow up with the Labor Commission, the Utah Attorney General's Office, the BBB, and you bank! Do not let Hit Web Design get away with stealing your money, and dignity!
It looks like some comments from this thread, have been redacted by the moderators here on complaintsboard I am wondering why. Does anyone know why? Hit Web Design must be pretty upset.
By ari737
HIT Web Design will not complete web site
I contracted with Heritage Web Solutions, now HIT, to build a simple web site and as long as they were upgrading and collecting $ I could talk with my account manager. As soon as that phase was over, he disappeared- no answer phone, no answer emails. My supposed web site without any of my products was supposedly put online even though one of their own representatives could not find it live to make a correction, [have emails to prove]. Am fighting with credit card company to charge back all costs. The site is not viable with no product except the two test products that I know nothing about and no way to purchase. HIT has submitted copies of the site to card company. As with other posts I have read in the last 2 days, I have been getting the run around from everyone there-tech support-[the tech support according to contract that is available 24-7, I emailed once and got an automated email, never anything else] customer service-no one ever knows anything about my information that is still not to the designers yet and online-I have to go to customer service since the account manager will never answer phone calls or emails. The list of emails and phone calls goes on and on, again as with other posts that I have seen. I am stuck with a site that is not workable, My husband and I are on SS and raising a grandson without help from anyone and this site was a way for me to try and make a little extra money to help get him through his senior year in highschool. All this information was made known to the people at HIT but they don't care. I could only do this because of a grant from the state of Indiana to promote the artists here and that was made known to them also. What else can I do. They have lied to my credit company even though I have submitted evidence of everything I have b een through-any suggestions, anyo0ne?
source http://thegoodhost.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/heritage-web-solutions-ugly-host-award/
THIS IS INTERESTING !
________________________
Good Morning;
I am going to get straight to the point with a company called Heritage Web Solutions and will honor them with today’s “Ugly Host” winner.
This is how my story goes after dealing with Heritage Web Solutions..along with a detailed follow up phone call to them. I guess you can say my investigative side came out a bit as I posed as a person looking for hosting and design work.
A couple of weeks ago a past client of mine called me. She was very distressed about her website, the production of it and of course the loading times. Her story interested me because it was very easy to hear the frustration in her voice! so I thought the next best thing to do would be to arrange a sit-down over some coffee at the local Starbucks (frap frap, double shot, hmmm good).
We arrived and the story started, notes upon notes from calling Heritage Web Solutions filled the table. I thought “WOW” what kind of company provides such frustration to the point to have pages of notes? “ I did not know what place to start”.
My past client went on to tell me…that one day she was “cold called” from Heritage Web Solutions and was told how much they can offer in the form of website design and website hosting. The salesman really made Heritage sound good. So my past client needing her business website up and running took the bait.
“months had passed and still no design, she also discovered not only did Heritage take her for her money ($500 for one page) but they had also taken her business domain name”.
So I told her…”Well let’s give them a call, after all they are located in Provo, Utah so it should not be that hard to reach them right”.. WRONG.. is what she told me. Being me I had to give this a shot.. at least try a couple of times.
Our first phone called was picked up in India. The kind lady who picked up our phone call greeted us with no English skills at all (we cannot fault her for that). We (I) asked “what is going on with the design and hosting for this domain name?”. She responded with can you spell that? spell what is what I said and she said “sorry I cannot help you” and hung up the phone (Strike One).
Our second phone call (again picked up in India). A non English speaking man picked up the phone (again we cannot fault them for that). This time spelling the domain name, we asked ”what is going on?” he told us “I would have to email level 2 tech support about that and they will call you back with a answers in a few hours”. Hmmm is what is running around in my head at this point. Email tech support? I thought you were tech support? however he had no access to websites. So if that is the case how is a person going to get help from support?
Well needless to say… Those few hours have turned into a few days now…you guessed it…no return phone call.
At this point I advised my past client “find a new web host”. So let’s login into your website and see what is going on. Not only are we (more me) shocked that nothing was in the website control panel, we had no way of adding pages or even working on the website.
Now me being me… I picked up my phone and thought let’s just call and say we would like a company website built including a shopping cart. This is how that conversation went.
Dialed [protected]
“after going around a number of phases of pushing 1, 4, 0 and a few other numbers”
Thank you for calling Heritage Web Solutions. How may I help you?
Us: I would like a website for my business, hosting and a domain name.
Operator: We can help you with that.
Us: Perfect, tell me what you can offer. I want 5 pages, a contact form, and a shopping cart.
Operator: Well the hosting on our top of the line servers is going to be $20.00 a month. Your webpage’s are going to be $125.00 per page if you provide your own text. If you need us to provide your text it is going to be $200.00 per page.
Us: How are you going to provide text about my company?
Operator: It is simple… we will have a person call and interview you. We do have a two page minimum and a $40.00 setup fee. Your shopping cart is $500.00 extra and we will put your first 20 items in the cart for you, after that you can login and finish placing items in the cart.
Us: In my cart can I have a section for my wholesale list for my stores?
Operator: Yes you can, however you will need a second cart and I can give that to you for an additional $300.00 dollars.
Us: How long have your designers been designing websites?
Operator: Are design team has many years of experience, they are all located in our office building, no design is outsourced what so ever. Your design manager will give you 15 extra hours a year for updates that will roll over. They will submit your website to the top 20 search engines each month to make sure you are located number one in all of them.
Us: How do they submit my website to 20 search engines? I only thought Google, Yahoo or MSN was the main search engines to submit to?
Operator: Oh no. Who ever told you that does not know what they are talking about, Yahoo is the worst and you need to submit to them all… We do this with our own software that Heritage Web Solutions made just for our clients.
Us: Hmmm, Well what about Tech Support? what is the location of your tech support?
Operator: Our support staff is here to answer your call 24/7 it is free and our support is located in our office as well.
Us: It is?
Operator: It sure it is… In fact I can see them all working right now.
Us: What about your support in India?
Operator: Oh no we do not outsource our support to any place. I do not know who told you we have support in India. All support is right here in Utah.
Us: Well it sounds kind of pricey, I need to think about it and will call you back.
Operator: Well I will put you in my queue for people to call tomorrow. If price is the issue you can always pay in blocks or make payments, I may be able to lower the price for you, please hold and allow me to speak to my supervisor. “Places on hold”
Operator: Good news… My supervisor said we can do everything for $985.00.. that will be 5 pages, shopping cart and a free domain name, you still have to pay the $20.00 a month for hosting.
Us: Well that is still pretty steep, Yahoo and Godaddy offer much lower prices, I have to investigate all my options first. We want this website done ASAP. By the way what is your turn around time?
Operator: We can have your website complete in 2 days. If you are looking into Yahoo or Godaddy please be advised that they do not run top of line servers and do not offer half of what we offer. I will follow up with your tomorrow.
*end call*
Now I will add to this post saying the following
1. Google search using the words “complaints Heritage Web Solutions”, and tell me if the above is true or false.
In closing: I will be harsh and say…. Heritage Web Solutions is nothing but a scam working the old fashioned bait and switch. They are taking the “UGLY HOST AWARD” for the day, month and maybe the year.
My advice is DO NOT get sucked in with Heritage Web Solutions, they are going to give you the run around, lie to you, and produce nothing for you.
Heritage Web Solutions Claims The Following
They are top 1% on the best hosting list
They are a inc 500 company with 170 employees that made 317 million and they are going who to open a office overseas in 2009.
FYI: You can visit the inc 500 they are speaking about and register to have your company listed for free. The 170 employees they claim are those of the outsourced support over in India (you too can have that for a fee), They already have a office overseas as it is called the “outsourced” tech support that is not owned by Heritage Web Solutions and I really doubt they made 317 million (as listed in Wikipedia a open source that any person can edit or create).
If they claim all this:
Why do your re-sale domain names via eNom and claim to be a registrar, of which ICANN says you are not.
Why do you outsource and use a third party email system in the form of Cudamail.com affiliate program
Why do you use a third party client interface that is not even yours
Well folks…. You be the judge
PS: I could go on and on, however I think most of you will get the point. Have a wonderful day…..
Good Morning;
I am going to get straight to the point with a company called Heritage Web Solutions and will honor them with today’s “Ugly Host” winner.
This is how my story goes after dealing with Heritage Web Solutions..along with a detailed follow up phone call to them. I guess you can say my investigative side came out a bit as I posed as a person looking for hosting and design work.
A couple of weeks ago a past client of mine called me. She was very distressed about her website, the production of it and of course the loading times. Her story interested me because it was very easy to hear the frustration in her voice! so I thought the next best thing to do would be to arrange a sit-down over some coffee at the local Starbucks (frap frap, double shot, hmmm good).
We arrived and the story started, notes upon notes from calling Heritage Web Solutions filled the table. I thought “WOW” what kind of company provides such frustration to the point to have pages of notes? “ I did not know what place to start”.
My past client went on to tell me…that one day she was “cold called” from Heritage Web Solutions and was told how much they can offer in the form of website design and website hosting. The salesman really made Heritage sound good. So my past client needing her business website up and running took the bait.
“months had passed and still no design, she also discovered not only did Heritage take her for her money ($500 for one page) but they had also taken her business domain name”.
So I told her…”Well let’s give them a call, after all they are located in Provo, Utah so it should not be that hard to reach them right”.. WRONG.. is what she told me. Being me I had to give this a shot.. at least try a couple of times.
Our first phone called was picked up in India. The kind lady who picked up our phone call greeted us with no English skills at all (we cannot fault her for that). We (I) asked “what is going on with the design and hosting for this domain name?”. She responded with can you spell that? spell what is what I said and she said “sorry I cannot help you” and hung up the phone (Strike One).
Our second phone call (again picked up in India). A non English speaking man picked up the phone (again we cannot fault them for that). This time spelling the domain name, we asked “what is going on?” he told us “I would have to email level 2 tech support about that and they will call you back with a answers in a few hours”. Hmmm is what is running around in my head at this point. Email tech support? I thought you were tech support? however he had no access to websites. So if that is the case how is a person going to get help from support?
Well needless to say… Those few hours have turned into a few days now…you guessed it…no return phone call.
At this point I advised my past client “find a new web host”. So let’s login into your website and see what is going on. Not only are we (more me) shocked that nothing was in the website control panel, we had no way of adding pages or even working on the website.
Now me being me… I picked up my phone and thought let’s just call and say we would like a company website built including a shopping cart. This is how that conversation went.
Dialed [protected]
“after going around a number of phases of pushing 1, 4, 0 and a few other numbers”
Thank you for calling Heritage Web Solutions. How may I help you?
Us: I would like a website for my business, hosting and a domain name.
Operator: We can help you with that.
Us: Perfect, tell me what you can offer. I want 5 pages, a contact form, and a shopping cart.
Operator: Well the hosting on our top of the line servers is going to be $20.00 a month. Your webpage’s are going to be $125.00 per page if you provide your own text. If you need us to provide your text it is going to be $200.00 per page.
Us: How are you going to provide text about my company?
Operator: It is simple… we will have a person call and interview you. We do have a two page minimum and a $40.00 setup fee. Your shopping cart is $500.00 extra and we will put your first 20 items in the cart for you, after that you can login and finish placing items in the cart.
Us: In my cart can I have a section for my wholesale list for my stores?
Operator: Yes you can, however you will need a second cart and I can give that to you for an additional $300.00 dollars.
Us: How long have your designers been designing websites?
Operator: Are design team has many years of experience, they are all located in our office building, no design is outsourced what so ever. Your design manager will give you 15 extra hours a year for updates that will roll over. They will submit your website to the top 20 search engines each month to make sure you are located number one in all of them.
Us: How do they submit my website to 20 search engines? I only thought Google, Yahoo or MSN was the main search engines to submit to?
Operator: Oh no. Who ever told you that does not know what they are talking about, Yahoo is the worst and you need to submit to them all… We do this with our own software that Heritage Web Solutions made just for our clients.
Us: Hmmm, Well what about Tech Support? what is the location of your tech support?
Operator: Our support staff is here to answer your call 24/7 it is free and our support is located in our office as well.
Us: It is?
Operator: It sure it is… In fact I can see them all working right now.
Us: What about your support in India?
Operator: Oh no we do not outsource our support to any place. I do not know who told you we have support in India. All support is right here in Utah.
Us: Well it sounds kind of pricey, I need to think about it and will call you back.
Operator: Well I will put you in my queue for people to call tomorrow. If price is the issue you can always pay in blocks or make payments, I may be able to lower the price for you, please hold and allow me to speak to my supervisor. “Places on hold”
Operator: Good news… My supervisor said we can do everything for $985.00.. that will be 5 pages, shopping cart and a free domain name, you still have to pay the $20.00 a month for hosting.
Us: Well that is still pretty steep, Yahoo and Godaddy offer much lower prices, I have to investigate all my options first. We want this website done ASAP. By the way what is your turn around time?
Operator: We can have your website complete in 2 days. If you are looking into Yahoo or Godaddy please be advised that they do not run top of line servers and do not offer half of what we offer. I will follow up with your tomorrow.
*end call*
Now I will add to this post saying the following
1. Google search using the words “complaints Heritage Web Solutions”, and tell me if the above is true or false.
In closing: I will be harsh and say…. Heritage Web Solutions is nothing but a scam working the old fashioned bait and switch. They are taking the “UGLY HOST AWARD” for the day, month and maybe the year.
My advice is DO NOT get sucked in with Heritage Web Solutions, they are going to give you the run around, lie to you, and produce nothing for you.
Heritage Web Solutions Claims The Following
They are top 1% on the best hosting list
They are a inc 500 company with 170 employees that made 317 million and they are going who to open a office overseas in 2009.
FYI: You can visit the inc 500 they are speaking about and register to have your company listed for free. The 170 employees they claim are those of the outsourced support over in India (you too can have that for a fee), They already have a office overseas as it is called the “outsourced” tech support that is not owned by Heritage Web Solutions and I really doubt they made 317 million (as listed in Wikipedia a open source that any person can edit or create).
If they claim all this:
Why do your re-sale domain names via eNom and claim to be a registrar, of which ICANN says you are not.
Why do you outsource and use a third party email system in the form of Cudamail.com affiliate program
Why do you use a third party client interface that is not even yours
Well folks…. You be the judge
PS: I could go on and on, however I think most of you will get the point. Have a wonderful day…..
by E-build
I had recently signed up to do contract work as a website developer with H.I.T. After reading these complaints and seeing one of their websites I decided I did not want to be involved with a company with this reputation, both complaint and designwise. They don't post a portfolio page on their website and there is a reason for it. They spit out alot of cookie cutter, static, cartoony looking websites with absolutely no professional look to them.
HIT Web Design
Posted: by COMEON!
Worst Business Experience
Company information:
HIT Web Design
Provo, Utah
United States
This company is absolutely ridiculous! I was baited in by their pitch for "custom award winning design" with the "best pricing." My project officially started 7/13/09 and I am still waiting for the finished site.
Account Managers- if you want to call them that, are nothing more than recent high school graduates that think they understand the computing world. They have absolutely "managerial" talent or authority. They have "supervisors" listed under their contacts to make complaints to, however they don't provide a name or extension. I've sent over 240 emails since 6/11/09 to which a "supervisor" has never responded! I'm on my 3rd "account manager" this week.
Project Managers- Not sure these exist, but anytime you are on the phone with one of their "drones" they speak of some project manager that they will be sure to contact for an update report. I've never gotten the courtesy of a name, email, or extension for these so called ghosts.
The last account manager I spoke with when I learned that my 2nd account manager had been fired 3 days earlier, told me that there is no one at the company older than 30. I could care less how old the employees are as long as they have some authority to make something happen...or at least update me on the progress so I can continue to plan the marketing efforts once the site is launched. Currently, I'm sitting on thousands of dollars of marketing materials to introduce the launch of our new site...which I don't yet have or even know an estimated completion date.
I'm not sure why everyone is management needs to be so hidden from customer contact. I've gotten more professional courtesy from my dog! She at least acknowledges me when I speak.
I had read some of these comments before signing the contract with HIT, however, seemed skeptic of the severity described. Don't make my same mistake!
This has been the single worst business experience of my professional career.