We’ve picked up several clients recently who have had a website half-built by other web agencies that have become unresponsive leaving our clients in the lurch.
Unfortunately, this is all too common, but why does it happen and what can be done about it?
There are cowboys in every industry, and web design is one of them. However a lot of the time this happens it’s because the web agency has bitten off more than they can chew, or simply underestimated the work involved when quoting for the project.
Often such projects are built on open-source systems such as WordPress, Joomla or Magento and the web developer has expected to be able to use a plugin or module to handle the required functionality, and this hasn’t delivered what was expected.
A very high portion of UK web agencies also outsource their development work to overseas companies, typically in India or Eastern Europe, and this can result in communication and time delay issues, plus often a lower quality of coding, resulting in issues down the line.
Whatever the issue, if you’re in this situation it’s far from ideal, and you will have two or three big questions on your mind:
- How much will it cost to get your website finished?
- Can you get any money back from your current web agency?
- How do you know who to trust next?
Obviously, there are no generic answers to these, but we can help.
Firstly, if we have access to your website we can look to see what has and has not been completed, and provide estimates on getting it to where you want. If this is not financially feasible, not possible, or if there is a better solution we’ll tell you. We’ll give you an honest and direct answer and let you decide for yourself. Sometimes clients need to start again, other times what they have can be salvaged, and we’ll let you know the pros, cons and costs of each.
With regards to you getting your money back, we will happily look at your contract, end product and any correspondence, and let you know if you have a case. We can also provide expert witness work either to build your case to resolve amicably, or evidence if not. We will also assess whether what you have paid is fair because sometimes clients may not have a completed project, but what they have paid for has been good value, so in this case, it’s important that they retain ownership after a settlement.
And finally, who can you trust? Well, we would say to trust Webbed Feet, but any web agency would say that! You need to make your own mind up as to whether you are being sold to or given honest advice, whether what you are being told makes sense, and most of all to trust your gut. We usually offer solutions where clients don’t need to commit everything and can work with us on a pay as you go basis, where it’s up to us to prove we deliver what we promise in order to get more work.
If you feel you’ve been treated unfairly, or have a half-finished website, and want to know what to do next please get in touch.
We won’t charge to take a look and offer some advice, will speak in plain English, and won’t push for sales.
We are Webbed Feet, we finish projects!