It Takes 20 Steps To Lose Faith in People
22 May
(Alternative Title: As Jon Stewart says: BE A FUCKING PERSON)
Some of you may recall a hypothetical problem I presented here on my blog in April.
Today, after my final resort blew up in my face, I have decided to name and shame. Please understand that I have done everything I can do (except hire a lawyer because did you know that lawyers are very expensive?) I am doing this on the off chance that one of you are considering hiring this company. I think it is only fair for you to know what you may (or may not) be putting yourself in for. I am also aware that the blogosphere is small and the community that I am a part of is even smaller. I know that many of you have used this design studio for your own blogs. (That’s the reason I approached them to begin with) You may have even written a testimonial for them to put on their website. You may even love them.
But this has been my personal experience with Delicious Design Studio.
1. I initially approached DDS in August 2008. I was asked to pay 50% of the fee as a deposit. This amounted to $222.50.
2. I was sent a proposal that included a time line. It stated that my project would take 6-8 weeks.
3. I was then put on their schedule for November, 2008. In order to clarify, I sent Jessica an email. She responded that my project ’will most likely begin within the next few weeks“.
4. It didn’t.
5. On November 10th, I sent an email to determine when we will get started. Jessica replies that “You are on the schedule for November! I will be starting your project asap!”
6. On December 8th, after no further communication (and my patience wearing thin) I ask her to return my deposit.
7. She replies on December 24th, informing me that my design is in progress.
8. January 6th+7th: After a series of emails, Jessica writes: “I am sorry you feel that way. If I can do anything to change your mind, please let me know. I have gotten so behind due to illness, moving and everything else and I am sorry that I did not live up to my expectations. I would love to still continue the project and would even be willing to work on getting you designed tonight. If I offer you that, would you like to still continue working with me? Now I am not an unreasonable person. I am understanding to the point of ridiculousness and I thought that her response was very professional and also very human. So I agreed to continue working with DDS. (Please note that nowhere in our exchanges did she mention to me that she would not return my deposit if I didn’t.)
9. On January 20th Jessica writes: “I have created a 3 column for you with the navigation links at top. I will also help you set up the links! I am finalizing the images to send to you and everything will be done. Yippee! :) At this point, I am thrilled. Finally, my blog is getting a makeover! (Please note that Jessica has not sent me any previews yet.)
10. On February 5 I send her an email asking about the progress of my design as I have not heard anything. She does not reply.
11. On February 17 I send another email. She does not reply.
12. On March 6, I send another email. She does not reply.
13. On March 26, I send another email. She does not reply.
14. On April 6, 7, 10, 13 I send more emails. She does not reply.
15. Finally, ten weeks after no contact, Jessica replies with the following: “Thank you for your e-mails. We have been on administrative leave the month of April to launch projects that are in progress from last year. We are launching about 3 a day, and yours will be one of them coming up this week. Thank you for your patience!” We exchange a series of emails the gist of which is:
Me: WANT MY MONEY BACK NOW.
Her: Er no. Our terms & conditions stipulate that refunds are not given under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
16. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
17. DDS responds to my complaint via the BBS complaint form by cutting and pasting their terms & conditions.
18. After some thought (and investigating), I respond that I do not accept their response for two main reasons. One, the terms & conditions I ‘agreed’ to in August 2008 were not the same terms & conditions that are posted on the DDS website now. It seems that they can change them whenever they see fit. Two, the conduct of DDS has been extremely unprofessional. Seriously? Ten weeks to respond to one email? Eight months for a blog design? Its not like its a website with an online shopping function, dudes. Plus, I was never, ever told that the waiting list would be 9 months plus. I was told that there was a ‘lengthy turnaround” which I took to understand 3-4 months.
19. DDS does not respond to the Better Business Bureau. The case is closed as unresolved. According to the BBB their public records will show ”BBB determined that despite the company’s reasonable effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied.” This annoys me because Jessica’s efforts were not reasonable. They were the least anyone would do. The company failed to follow through with BBB procedure. THAT IS WHAT SHOULD BE WRITTEN. This makes me sound like the unreasonable one.
20. Lose faith in all people and choose to blog all about it.
So, if you’re considering hiring Delicious Design Studio. DON’T. I do not recommend them at all. In fact, I thoroughly DIS-RECOMMEND THEM.
DON’T DO IT.*
[You can totally use Friends' refernces under all circumstances, can't you?]
wow. that really sucks. that’s 9 months of suck.
goodness- i’d have pickled my liver by now if i had gone through all that.
thanks for the heads up.
That is awful awful awful and there is no excuse! jessica has thoroughly annoyed me. I can’t believe that you can’t get your money back – that is just normal business procedure! Disatisfied customer = refund or free stuff. i’m embarassed for them!
That totally sucks. I actually think you’ve done the right thing here because even the BBB wouldn’t help someone out. It seems like this is the only venue you have left and I am astonished at how poorly you’ve been treated. That just isn’t the right way to run a business.
Oh mate – sorry it’s all been so shitty. Well done for coming out about it though – it’s always good to know reviews (good and bad!) about a product so people can make an informed choice.
If it makes you feel better – I like your blog. Just the way it is!
THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. GOOD ON YOU FOR POSTING THIS, THEY NEED SHUTTING DOWN.
I can only imagine how incandescent with rage I would have been after all this. Do they have a phone number? A lot of people find it harder to be evasive on the phone, whilst its easy just to ignore an email.
That is insane.
I’d trash their name allllll over the place. And sleep with their sisters.
Well hello there. I’ve been waiting since the first week of January, she told me I’d be up and running by the end of the month.
In February she said it was in progress.
Two weeks later she said that she’d found free templates for me that she’d install for free.
No thanks.
Weeks pass and she says at this point that she’d do my custom design for free since I waited so long. Then I never heard from her again.
Luckily she hadn’t taken any of my money yet.
I FEEL FOR YOU. It makes me so freaking mad.
This is terrible, and also a timely post for me. I really was beginning to think that I might be willing to shell out some money for a blog make-over and they are my favorite of the design studio’s I’ve looked at.
Now I know that they aren’t even worth looking at anymore. Sorry that you had such a shitty time with them!
Ahhh… this would be so freaking annoying… I am glad I never had the money to get them to do anything to my blog or I’d probably be in the same shoes as you.
I am sorry for all the trouble you have been dealing with but I am glad that you posted your experience. I was thinking about purchasing a pre-made design from DDS. Knowing what I know now, I will take my business elsewhere. So thank you.
Dude. I am so sad to hear this.
FYI for anyone reading this, she used to call her company “Cuppycake Designs”. Thankfully the ridiculous wait time put me off hiring her.
Rage: I could not find a telephone number anywhere. If I had she would surely have gotten countless of irrate phone calls.
Ben: Dude! Now I feel like I was scammed. So, you didn’t have to pay to be put on the waiting list?
Definitely spread the word on any review sites you can find.The BBB is clearly a waste of time.
this is awful- ive heard such shit stories about them. im so sorry lady.
Um, need I tell you how fucking ridiculous this is? Been in your shoes. Lost my (somewhat less) deposit for the same nonsense. Hope you’ll be stronger than I was and leave this post up. Your/our voice deserves to be heard. Sigh.
Ooo I would be pissed! I can’t believe the BBB hasn’t shut her down yet… if everyone called them after their service, I’m sure she’d be in some trouble…
Ugh, annoying!
I had a great experience with my designer (link is on my blog, but her website is coming soon). She stayed in contact with me, and she sent my design to me a week before the deadline… and it was inexpensive!
well holy fuck!
Do you have a reporter that handles consumer issues at a local TV station or newspaper? They have that here. Bad press makes people start acting properly. Try it!
I’m pretty sure this is not the first time I’ve read about a blogger’s problems with this company. I’m surprised there isn’t a resource to shut them down.
When I pay someone hundreds of dollars for a product, and they are WAY past deadline, I stop caring about whatever illness, moving, or any drama they have. It is a weak excuse and is NOT the way to run a business. If I were that late with a project at work, I would be fired. They should be fired too.
I just read your experience and I am sad to say that it could of been my own. Same thing….$225 dollars in August waited, waited, waited and then email promising and never delivering. The whole line of excuses, illness, moving, death in family etc. Each time she would write (which was very sporadic) I would feel bad and hope that she would come through and then weeks after the same thing would happen. I just now decided that something had to be done (how I found your site). I know that there has to be more of us……if we could just band together….. Ughhh!
Your experience and mine are nearly identical; I too plunked down my 50% back in August 2008. So far my money has bought me nothing more than my name being colored ‘orange’ in her schedule update and myriad excuses, unkept promises and sporadic communication (which half the time are auto responses).
I tried to recoup my money from Paypal by filing a claim but they responded with “We’re sorry! Too much time had elapsed.” Going to small claims court hardly seems worth the effort.
Jessica has certainly covered her fanny.
But as ‘Unhappy in Westport’ says, “I know there has to be more of us…if we could just band together.” I’m thinking of leveraging the power of the social network and creating a Facebook page solely dedicated to the lot of us that got swindled by Ms. Delicious.
Fed up in Palo Alto,
-k
I was secretly hoping that you would eventually name and shame her, mainly so others knew what we knew. And in doing so not only have you clearly articulated your experience by not letting too much emotion cloud the facts of the matter, but it also seems that Ms Delicious has also crapped over lots of other people too!
I hope others can also learn from this experience too – vote with our feet, or blogs ;-)
Looks like there is a Yelp review you can add your comments to if you wish:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/delicious-design-studio-sarasota
And today’s email auto-response from DDS is:
“Thank you for your e-mail. I will be out of the office until Thursday, May 28th. My father was involved in a serious motorcycle accident today. Thanks for all who have been praying and continue to pray. I will be heading up north to visit and help out as much as I can.”
Sigh.
I don’t have experience with this company, but I do have experience with people who don’t follow through, who get away with it and who show no compassion—you go girl. Your ability to post about it is inspiring; I have this weird (freakishly unhelpful) way of turning this behavior in on myself somehow and feeling less confident; so ridiculously useless. This is inspiring.
your blog is darling, btw. found you via bouncing around and I like it here :)
Shaming online has worked for me once, but it wasn’t for transactional reasons rather than ethical. A psychotherapy & counselling office advertised online that they cure (!!!)homosexuality, which for any mental health professional or homosexual person whatsoever is outrageous. I wrote about them on my then blog and they had the specific reference down in no time.
Now in your case I’m quite sure no one’s getting their money back, so is it going to satisfy you if more people get annoyed and avoid them?
Or was it an apology you were looking for deep inside? Or justice? What did you HOPE for really?
Cynical psycho – Hope says straight up what she hoped for by naming and shaming.
Cynical Psycho: Dude, sometimes things are exactly the way I say they are.
“I am doing this on the off chance that one of you are considering hiring this company. I think it is only fair for you to know what you may (or may not) be putting yourself in for. ”
I don’t want an apology or justice. They’re both overrated. I WOULD like to get my money back and since that’s probably not happening, I don’t want the same thing to happen to other bloggers.
Exw megaaaaali kardia, dude! ;)
How insanely frustrating! In that amount of time, and for that amount of money, you probably could have learned how to do the design yourself!!
I seethe with anger on your behalf.
Lol, ok, I admit I was taking the piss by playing my favourite part: the devil’s advocate!
But still please spare me the right not to believe in altruism, people; I wouldn’t be myself if I did
Hopeful kisses!
I was also taken advantage of by Jessica. (I have one of the reviews on Yelp) She and I exchanged some very nasty emails and I will admit to being harsh. She refused to give me a refund.
I filed a complaint with BBB, and Paypal. Of course, you have to complain to Paypal within 45 days of paying (which I did in January). Paypal told me if more people will complain, even after the 45 days, they will investigate! I encourage all of you to do so who have paid her money thru Paypal & gotten nothing in return!
Jessica responded to my Yelp review by listing her terms which she has since taken down, as well as the schedule on her website. I guess she realized showing them on Yelp just kind of confirmed how unreasonable they are.
Paypal told me to dispute to my credit card company, which I have done. They also suggested I file with other agencies; email me if you would like that info.
I normally would just let this go and chalk it up to lesson learned but there are too many of us out there & we should band together.
Was just about to sign up with them and now I certainly won’t be! Thanks!
Wow! I haven’t ever considered hiring them because I can’t see spending so much money on it, but it’s good information to know for the future! I know she’s done some work for some sites I frequent, and it sounds to me like she got good word of mouth and then got a ton of business. Perhaps more than she could handle? She’s inconsistent with her “terms” and rules…having some pay 50% upfront and not others? What the hell. Sounds like a scam to me. Rage on, Hope. People need to know this info. Good luck getting it resolved.
Geez! This is so frustrating to read, I can’t imagine how you feel. It’s one thing for someone to have an unexpected event take place and have to push back a project or two, but it sounds like .. well, it sounds like that’s all that’s going on- the pushing back of projects. How frustrating for you (and everyone else on here!) that she’s been unprofessional with. Thanks for posting this Hope, it makes me wary of paying for a blog design (though I desperately need one!).
Oh, but I like your blog the way it is! I like the simplicity of it and I LOVE the picture at the top.
That said, good on you for calling this person out.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this! All I did was buy a pre-made from DDS and I’m even having trouble with that. Thankfully it was only $20. I just want to know what font she used in the design (it has a footer with text and the header is *supposed* to match). I’ve sent 4 emails and can’t get a simple font name, despite her installation instructions saying ‘if you want to know what font was used, just email me and I’ll send you the name.’
There are a few designers out there that are unprofessional, I have heard about DDS from many upset people. I agree with your other readers, you should all team up. If enough of you file a group complaint you may have more luck.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
This is so unfortunate. I remember that Nilsa from SoMi Speaks had a similar problem with the same studio. She posted about it but then removed the post. You can see her follow-up post explaining why she removed the original post at http://somispeaks.com/565.
I’m sorry this happened to you. It sounds like DDS got overwhelmed and, instead of acknowledging that they had more business than they could handle, temporarily ceasing to take on new clients, and working out a solution with current unhappy clients, they responded (or did not respond, as the case may be) in a very unprofessional manner.
BTW, I just looked up DDS on the BBB website, and they have a D-minus rating. I run far, far away from any business with a rating like that. So, you know, even if they haven’t listed your complaint as closed the way you would have liked, I think it probably still helped. A huge factor in determining those ratings is the number of complaints. Sounds like you are far from the only one.
thanks for this post. back when i was blogging more full time- i had considered making the switch to my own domain, complete with a professional look. i never got around to it, but thanks to this post- if i ever do, i will certainly know what questions to ask before i fork over any money. sorry you were taken advantage of. she should’ve at least been more accomodating for the amount of time you were waiting. plus- most of her designs look identical besides a few tweaks here and there…. it probably would’ve have been too hard to even to have given you a temporary blog design until she was caught up.
good luck in the future with this.
wouldn’t have been hard to give a temp design****
I found you via Nilsa. What a horrible situation. It sounds like DDS has thousands of dollars in money she has “stolen” from people. Filing in small claims court is only something like $30. I would highly recommend you do that. She needs some accountability for all of the people she has screwed over.
I just read about your problem over at SoMi Speaks. You poor girl. Horrible business people they are at DDS. I remember last year this time I swear every blog I was reading used their company. I bet she got in over her head and can’t keep and now she is trashing her company. If you can’t take the work on–then don’t do it. If something (death, illness, etc) comes up and you KNOW that the job won’t be done in time–refund. What jerks.
It appears DDS sold her business not too long ago for $50,000
http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/66831
Hi there. I am in the same boat as you and probably everyone else who signed up with DDS. I wonder if there is something we could do, something legal. I just cannot accept that this woman has ripped off so many people. I filed a complaint with the BBB, but what good will that do really?
She really deserves a good punch in the throat.
Here’s my DDS story:
I wanted to have my blog professionally designed at a low cost, and I was very happy when I stumbled upon Delicious Design Studio. Jessica’s portfolio looked good, and she was quick to reply to my quote request. Of course I was a bit wary hiring someone thousands of miles away, over the internet, but I put my trust into her. She was quick to take my money (paid Jan. 21, 2009 50% deposit), but soon after that things started to seem not so rosy.
I understood that Jessica is a designer with many clients, and thus the waiting list could be long, and I was fine with that. I sent her documents with my ideas, and she confirmed that she would save them until my project would begin. After asking if she had a better idea when my project would begin, she sent me an email on Feb. 27 saying that she would begin my project at the end of March. After another email from me with some questions, on March 27 I received an email from her that stated she would be back in the office “on Tuesday” (March 31) to look over the documents I’ve sent and begin my design. So I waited patiently, but received nothing from Jessica.
Exactly one month later, on April 27, I sent Jessica an email inquiring what happened to that March 31 date since I hadn’t heard from her for a month. I received no response. On May 5 I sent her another email, asking the same questions and asking her why she did not reply to my previous (April 27) email. I stated that I was still willing to work with her despite the lack of communication on her part. On May 5 I received a reply to my email, where she stated that a family member passed away and she is extremely busy. Somewhere between May 5 and June 4 I sent Jessica an email asking for a refund. No reply. June 4th I received an email from her explaining that she has had a bad month, wants to do my project still, etc. She does not mention my request to cancel whatsoever. On June 8 I replied to her email, asking if she received my email request to cancel and that I am sorry for her bad month, but that this has been going on far longer than this past little while. I again asked for a refund, nicely. I did mention some personal issues for me wanting to cancel – I wanted to appeal to her human side vs. going on a tirade how angry I was with her lack of customer service. Yet again, I received no response, so I sent another email on June 29 asking for a refund and pointing out that she keeps ignoring my emails. Today, June 30, I finally get a response. Jessica says that she is sorry – she “somehow missed” my last email (the June 8 one I guess), but that she wants to complete my project and that at the time I signed up, I was aware of the waiting list and the no-refund policy.
We’ve been emailing back and forth today, and she refuses to give me a refund. Where is my project now? If she’s on top of things, why have I not been asked ONE DETAIL about my blog since the March 31 “start” date? This is just insane. The waiting list was NOT the problem. I waited. It was her lack of responses and the falsehood of the March 31 date. I think this deserves a refund!
Worst customer service experience EVER.
To continue… this whole thing just makes me sick. Wish I did more research before signing up, but I thought her portfolio spoke for itself. Ha.
She does a great job of covering her ass, that’s for sure. It’ll all catch up with her though, I would think, if she keeps this up.
This is not customer service. Either she is running a scam or she actually believes that it’s ok to treat customers like s*it if “the policy” covers you.
Hi there! I stumbled across your thread researching my competitor, and I just wanted to throw my name out – I’m Ellie, of Rainy Day Templates, and I design blogs for the Blogger platform.
I do have a short wait list, but there’s absolutely no charge to be on it, and no charge to get off it it, either.
Anyway, I invite anyone who’s had problems with Delicious Design, or who’d like a cheap template built to their specifications, to come check out my shop.
Thanks so much. (I hope this doesn’t constitute spam.)
Here’s another site I found with DDS complaints. Wish I researched before I signed up with her!
http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/delicious-design-studio-a138375.html