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Are You Not SATISFIED-TERTAINED?!

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  • Are You Not SATISFIED-TERTAINED?!

    Ohhh, I'm livid.

    LIVID I SAY.

    So I finished a nearly year long project for a company a couple of months ago. One that I've mentioned before. (See: SCW)

    Obligatory Background. Web people, brace yourselves. Winter, is incoming.

    Originally, the website this company was using was horribly laggy, and had a design reminiscent of the darkest corners of ancient Geocities. Stark. White. With a logo done in Paint up top, not even centered properly. The images they used on the website were full size images, shrunk down. Saved as BMPs. Thumbnails, therefore, were 8 MB apiece, on average, giving the website the look of absolutely nothing there while the page loaded for the next two minutes.

    Oh. And every single page was saved separately. With its own separate stylesheet, links, etc etc. Basically, a miniature website within a website within a....you get the WEBSITECEPTION idea.

    As a further cherry on top, they were paying $300/mo for hosting. A "friend discount" from a person they'd met once at a convention.

    FURTHER cherry on top? They told me that they were about to go with the lowest bid they'd received on the project so far: $24,000.

    I quoted them $2,500.

    I also offered to design them a nice vector logo for printing, but that it'd be extra. "Nah, we don't need that, really. We'll pass."

    Unfortunately things did not go as planned (see ExC), and delays occurred, but they acknowledged to me, in person, more than a few times that they were grateful I was bending over backwards to fix things up, and that they were happy I was going to such lengths to repair the problems.

    Part of the solution in the end was to install a powerful script onto their website, for more flexibility. Also, it would be much more simpler for them to be able to purchase one of the thousands of addons for the script, if they ever needed something else, rather than hire someone to build onto the script all over again. This was a huge moneysaver for them, and saved them more, again. Potentially thousands of dollars in savings.

    And again, mentioning that earlier hosting? I pointed them towards GoDaddy, and recommended the more powerful hosting, pointing out dedicated servers would support them greatly, especially with the large clientele they have. They loved it, and loved the fact that it was so much cheaper than their current setup.



    On to today's event.

    Out of the blue, I get a very terse email telling me to call them up, now. Oookay?

    I promptly get a nice lecture about the script that we used on the website.

    Its TOO powerful!...

    Turns out, against my recommendations, they went with the super-cheap shared hosting, for $9/mo.

    I'll let that sit in there. $9/mo. Shared hosting. For a massive website that requires a ton of resources, and has a ridiculous amount of traffic coming in, and needs to be up 24/7.

    They promptly lectured me how I should've said something, and that it was my oversight that has now cost them, because they had to move to $75/mo virtual dedicated servers.

    Yes. I'm in trouble because they're still savings hundreds, but not saving THIS many hundreds!

    As I'm inwardly fuming, and literally silent because I'm shaking, they proceed to tell me that I'd best remember this for future clients, because "things could get ugly".

    Oh, and would I mind tossing them the .ais of the logo I designed for them? Thanks much, bye now.


    Waitaminute, WHAT? So in one phone call, they completely ripped me a new one because I didn't save them ENOUGH? And oh hey, surprise, you turned down the logo design, and now decide out of the blue that I need to magically pull nonexistent logo vectors from nowhere?

    Well guess what? IT GETS WORSE.

    Another phone call, another complaint. Remember how I said their original website was....white? And that's it? Apparently, a SINGLE CUSTOMER went to place an order today, and sent in a complaint that the website looked "nothing like the old one".

    So, I've been informed that obviously, my website is hurting their business, so they're going to start making it look like the old one again.

    As I've been typing this? I am watching new images go up on their site where they have literally used Paint to cut out and paint over my beautiful website design.


    I'm done. I'm so done. If there wasn't one insurmountable obstacle, I'd have given them a piece of my mind, and darn the torpedos.
    By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

    "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

  • #2
    So, they wanted a new website that looked and worked just like the old site, and wanted to pay someone $24K to make it.

    I dunno, Seraph. Sounds like you cheated yourself out of a solid $21,500. Could have just handed them screenshots of the old website and been done with it.

    Comment


    • #3
      Oh, good lord. How freakin' stupid can you be? (Don't answer. I know very well where I am...)

      $9/month? Not a chance. I'm not sure virtual dedicated at $75/month will be enough if they get that kind of traffic. Hell, my gaming clan has a hosted dedicated physical server and we don't get the kind of traffic this sounds like.

      Sounds like this company and your Ex-coder deserve each other.
      "If your day is filled with firefighting, you need to start taking the matches away from the toddlers…” - HM

      Comment


      • #4
        I can see why you're pissed, Seraph m'lovely. But I imagine karma's going to move in your favor in the next couple of days -- after all their customers used to YOUR site see the heinousness that is the NEW OLD site and complain about it. I know customers are dumb but they don't normally react well to downgrades.

        *waits for this stupid company to return to Seraph groveling. In the meantime, makes cookies*

        Comment


        • #5
          Quoth Pedersen View Post
          So, they wanted a new website that looked and worked just like the old site, and wanted to pay someone $24K to make it.

          I dunno, Seraph. Sounds like you cheated yourself out of a solid $21,500. Could have just handed them screenshots of the old website and been done with it.
          You forget, Pederson, that Seraph has those pesky ethics that get in the way of the fun stuff.

          SC
          "...four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one..." W. Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing Act I, Sc I

          Do you like Shakespeare? Join us The Globe Theater!

          Comment


          • #6
            It's not unethical if the client is willing to pay 20k more...it's called profiteering!

            Shame about the whole thing though, sounds like they don't know what he frell they're doing.

            No, the fact that they were willing to pay 24k for someone to make them a new website wasn't a clue at all..

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            • #7
              Is it wrong that I want to watch them fail spectatuclarly?

              Also *ships chocolate and soda to Seraph's place*
              https://purplefish-quilting.square.site/

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              • #8
                But you got paid at least, right?

                Oh boy, do I empathize. Remember: you can't fix stupid.
                Curiously Lydean - curious interests of a curious person.

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                • #9
                  Your Twilight Sparkle avatar is appropriate... because apparently those morons think you can do works of magic.

                  I say write them a detailed email indicating how much they are saving, that they refused your generous offer to redesign their logo and that their old design was horrible. At this point you have nothing to lose so you might as well put them in their place.

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                  • #10
                    Seraph, I've thought this before, but I'm positive now. You are WAY undercutting the value of your own services. If the next-highest bid was 10 TIMES more than yours, you are not charging nearly enough.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth sirwired View Post
                      Seraph, I've thought this before, but I'm positive now. You are WAY undercutting the value of your own services. If the next-highest bid was 10 TIMES more than yours, you are not charging nearly enough.
                      My husband just did the "ooooh cat" impression after he read your post.

                      For reference:
                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Z71...eature=related
                      By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

                      "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth Kanalah View Post
                        Is it wrong that I want to watch them fail spectatuclarly?

                        Also *ships chocolate and soda to Seraph's place*

                        Nah . . . come sit by me. *pats empty seat*

                        BTW, I have plenty of to share.
                        Human Resources - the adult version of "I'm telling Mom." - Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (NCIS)

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                        • #13
                          So, chances that they'll end up actually going back to that $24K bid as soon as they can hack it? Obviously the problem was that they didn't spend enough, and only a properly unneeded outlay of cash can actually get them "proper" service.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Get the money and terminate your services. But I do agree, if they *want* to spend $24k, you know you can do it for $2.5k, charge then $18k. It might, possibly, make dealing with these idiots better.

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                            • #15
                              You just attract these people like flies Seraph! I think your heart would stop if you had no drama!

                              You forgot the number one rule, never try and do something overly nice for a client or try and save them a lot of money. It's generally not worth it as is the case here!

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