Complaint Review: Desjardins Creative Systems - Andew Markle

As of May 1, 2009, Empress Magazine's credit card issuer filed in our favor of $371 for work completed. This case has been resolved as our due funds were returned to us without any further detriment.

How *I* (or my design firm) can be an embarrassment to Andrew is a puzzlement. As for his offer to do what is fair as expressed in his reply/rebuttal above, I believe the last line of his latest email to me speaks volumes about his view of the situation, despite anything he says to the contrary in his rebuttal: "Good riddance." Yep, that was his final salvo. Now, where I come from, that's not really an invitation to further discussion nor does it in any way suggest the writer is open to compromise. But that's just me. If Andrew truly wants to make things right, he knows how to do so and he knows how to contact me. I've vented my spleen and will now move on.

As an aside, the reason that PayPal denied my claim was not due to the squadrons of lawyers that Andy "sicced on me," as his rebuttal implies, but rather because SERVICES are not subject to the same "money back guarantee" as goods are. Had I purchased a widget from Andy, and he failed to deliver to the same degree he failed to deliver my comp, things might have gone differently. PayPal was simply following its own policy.

But there is at least a happy ending to the story. I was able to find someone to work with cutting my comps to CSS/HTML. She's local, reasonably priced, she's been thoroughly checked out by me and has a work ethic and attention to detail that matches my own. In other words, we seem to be a good fit. Unlike Andrew, she is not a graphic artist -- she's not so much concerned with adding new creations to her portfolio as she is with putting food on her family's table. She is currently working (very well and quickly I might add) on my next project. (Andrew wasn't wrong when he said I do need all the help I can get; we are buried in work and I hope to keep my new sub happily busy the rest of the year and beyond!)

Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs

As the owner of the aforementioned design company and the individual put in question, I have to say that I find it very peculiar of both individuals, Shaleia and Jamila of Empress Magazine (http://empressmag.com/), to place themselves under such severe anonymity. In addition to this, I must add that the party above complaining about their security deposit of $371 not being refunded needs to read more carefully before signing a proposal or invoice that states that an amount must be paid prior to mockup completion. Some invoices have clauses that state, "By signing this document you agree to ALL terms and conditions set forth and all regulations set within." This phrase usually alludes to all information that has ever been presented to a client in regards to his or her own policy.

In your case, Jamila and Shaleia, you had a clause that was sent to you separately in regards to refunds. It is as follows: "By accepting, approving, or confirming design proofs/compositions, development work, original/finalized files, or any other aspects
(otherwise considered to be "progress") of your project, you express your satisfaction up to that point of the project and no refunds will be given for work carried out and/or services provided up to that point. We will refund/reimburse you for the remaining work on your project that has not been started or completed at the time that you request a refund. We can only refund labor charges in regards to web/graphic design and development services. If there are any service charges involved in transactions between us, you will receive a refund minus the transaction fees/service charges. No refunds will be issued for any dissatisfaction that may arise from doing business with our partners (such as digital printing partners) as our partners are their own individual entities, separate from Desjardins Creative, and all issues must be directed at their specific entities. No refunds will be issued as a result of slow, or no, progress being made on a project if the client is the party responsible for the slow progress or lack of progress. No refunds will be issued for services that are result based when there are outside factors out of our control involved that contribute to, or direct, the results. These services include, but are not limited to: marketing, promotion, advertising, SEO/SEM, business consulting, and other non-design/non-development services." As such, since you accepted various mockups of your layout, had it ready for coding procedure and approved it for coding, it was only necessary that you did not receive a refund. This policy was in from the beginning of the month of November, when we first started this project. Let me remind you also that you terminated the project after you said there was no "progress". Fortunately, I have a coder and a bill of $714 to prove otherwise.

It should also be noted that in certain circumstances, designers (like myself) will design a template or a site in Adobe Photoshop and send it to an outsourced coder to complete the work. It should also be noted that persons who continue to micromanage a project throughout its duration jeopardize its ability to be completed, and thus was the matter in this case.

I must also point out that at no time did anyone post an e-mail that said anything to that effect. There was an IT error that sent out an email to all persons who sent something to corporate emails saying that the company was closed in a two hour time span, but we would have not endorsed Pixelita Designs as an alternative. Our company only works with a few firms that we would have sent a design to and even though Pixelita is very talented, we would prefer to send some of our work elsewhere.

I must also point out that no sites are down and we are still continuing to operate. These claims continue to show hilarity and continued ridiculousness.

As for the Pixelita case, this matter should have been resolved in a much more amicable matter. Understanding that Joni was a great and understanding person in the matter of whether or not a family member was ill, it would've only been imperative for her to have made herself at ease with the fact of knowing that there was no jest or lie in saying that my mother was sick.

My mother has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast and lymphatic cancer, both of which are terminal at stage 4. Over the past two months, she has been going through a downhill battle and as such, my personal life has been nothing but consumed with this. My company also recently scaled back due to economic reasons (including the recession, as every company is doing and I'm sure you all can relate to it). As such, time constraints have been placed on many different projects.

In the mix, I've also moved from one city to another in Indiana (which is an hour and 45 minutes away) and begin the downhill trek with my own illness, which is really no one's business. As such, I must still attest to the fact that there is documentation of all of this which has been and will continue to be presented.

As for Jamila and Shaleia's claim that they were unjustly treated, I continue to say you were not. In fact, at this very moment, they have proceeded to place an unjustified chargeback on the credit card that they paid their security deposit on. If anything, they have "skipped out" a company, themselves, by refusing to pay a bill that is owed and similarly refunding themselves the amount without just cause.

In addition to their claim, there are several PSD and PNG layouts which are sliced and ready for coding which are now in process of being sold on a different website for use as templates.

As for Pixelita's claim: Joni Mueller, despite her claim of saying she did not place a PayPal claim on her amount after confirming via e-mail that $200 was satisfactory after VOLUNTARILY terminating service with the company prior to completed work, she did so and was denied by PayPal for not meeting standards and according to our General Counsel and lawyer handling both of these cases for us, it can only be deemed that she has decided to do this only after seeing this report and feeling defrauded herself.

As such, I, myself, invite Joni to discuss this professionally - designer to designer - to resolve this issue. If she does feel defrauded, I will do everything in my power to satisfy her. I wish that it didn't have to come to this as Joni is a very credible, intelligible individual that deserves any amount of help she can get. Her ability to convey herself is amazing and she is above all, one of the most talented people I have met.

Sincerely,

Andrew Markle
Principal Founder and Web Designer
Desjardins Creative

(If anyone has any questions regarding this matter, please feel free to call me at the numbers listed above. I must say that I find it funny that they couldn't get even my voicemail when they called my cell phone. The number that is provided above will get you directly to my voicemail, if for some reason I cannot answer the phone.)

I own Pixelita Designs, a Houston, Texas-based web design shop. Around the second week in December 2008, I hired Andrew to cut a graphic comp to WordPress. He charged me $400 but after looking at his portfolio and visiting his site, I figured he was worth it, I was under the gun to get the site done and the clock was ticking. I have always been very reluctant to sub out work because I am very detail oriented. This was a big step for me and I reposed some trust in Andy. That trust was misplaced. After looking at the design, he promised me he would have it back to me in days. I told him I didn't need it that quickly, but the end of the month would be great. I paid the deposit of $200. We kept in contact over the next week or so up thru the Christmas holidays. He phoned me intermittently and I followed him via Twitter (which is where I hooked up with him in the first place). I saw him tweet about his sick/dying mother and he mentioned to me that the footer of the comp was giving him "fits." I forgave him when he told me he'd be a bit late with the comp, but by January 7, I had had enough. I sent him a stern email telling him to just zip up what he had and send it to me.

You should have seen what I received. I cried. It was that bad. All it was, was the free WordPress Sandbox Theme (not even the three column theme, which the design required, but the two column theme) slapped up over an UNCUT graphic. The entire huge, honking graphic was the background. God almighty, my technologically challenged husband could have done THAT. And he had the GALL to send an invoice for the balance of $200. Not in my world, buddy. When I told him of my displeasure over the work he'd "done," he told me that I didn't give him a chance to finish. I told him that I had health issues, a paraplegic spouse and the myriad other reasons why I'd sought his services. I had even planned to send him some other jobs if this work turned out nicely. He COULD have had a nice income stream from me. Instead, he chose to take $200 which he didn't earn and run with it. He did have the good sense to cancel his PayPal request for the additional $200.

I am particularly galled that he mentions sending his erstwhile clients to my firm. Perhaps this is his feeble attempt to "make right" with me since he basically took $200 to do nothing. I went ahead and spent that night (my husband was in the hospital and thankfully they have broadband in the room) and the entire next day redoing that comp and mortising it to WP, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I also want to set the record straight that other than that unfortunate incident mentioned above, Pixelita Designs is no no way affiliated with Mr. Markle-Desjardins or any of his sites or companies.

I thought about using PayPal to get back that $200 but I haven't done that yet. I figure I needed to be taught a lesson about doing a more thorough background check before trusting anyone with my firm's work product. Or as mother said, if I really want it done right, I should just go ahead and do it myself. I hear of web designers burning clients all the time. I don't know why this happens. Web designers burning other web designers? It's a first for me. Hopefully the last too.

Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs LLC
http://www.pixelita.com

I own Pixelita Designs, a Houston, Texas-based web design shop. Around the second week in December 2008, I hired Andrew to cut a graphic comp to WordPress. He charged me $400 but after looking at his portfolio and visiting his site, I figured he was worth it, I was under the gun to get the site done and the clock was ticking. I have always been very reluctant to sub out work because I am very detail oriented. This was a big step for me and I reposed some trust in Andy. That trust was misplaced. After looking at the design, he promised me he would have it back to me in days. I told him I didn't need it that quickly, but the end of the month would be great. I paid the deposit of $200. We kept in contact over the next week or so up thru the Christmas holidays. He phoned me intermittently and I followed him via Twitter (which is where I hooked up with him in the first place). I saw him tweet about his sick/dying mother and he mentioned to me that the footer of the comp was giving him "fits." I forgave him when he told me he'd be a bit late with the comp, but by January 7, I had had enough. I sent him a stern email telling him to just zip up what he had and send it to me.

You should have seen what I received. I cried. It was that bad. All it was, was the free WordPress Sandbox Theme (not even the three column theme, which the design required, but the two column theme) slapped up over an UNCUT graphic. The entire huge, honking graphic was the background. God almighty, my technologically challenged husband could have done THAT. And he had the GALL to send an invoice for the balance of $200. Not in my world, buddy. When I told him of my displeasure over the work he'd "done," he told me that I didn't give him a chance to finish. I told him that I had health issues, a paraplegic spouse and the myriad other reasons why I'd sought his services. I had even planned to send him some other jobs if this work turned out nicely. He COULD have had a nice income stream from me. Instead, he chose to take $200 which he didn't earn and run with it. He did have the good sense to cancel his PayPal request for the additional $200.

I am particularly galled that he mentions sending his erstwhile clients to my firm. Perhaps this is his feeble attempt to "make right" with me since he basically took $200 to do nothing. I went ahead and spent that night (my husband was in the hospital and thankfully they have broadband in the room) and the entire next day redoing that comp and mortising it to WP, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I also want to set the record straight that other than that unfortunate incident mentioned above, Pixelita Designs is no no way affiliated with Mr. Markle-Desjardins or any of his sites or companies.

I thought about using PayPal to get back that $200 but I haven't done that yet. I figure I needed to be taught a lesson about doing a more thorough background check before trusting anyone with my firm's work product. Or as mother said, if I really want it done right, I should just go ahead and do it myself. I hear of web designers burning clients all the time. I don't know why this happens. Web designers burning other web designers? It's a first for me. Hopefully the last too.

Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs LLC
http://www.pixelita.com

I own Pixelita Designs, a Houston, Texas-based web design shop. Around the second week in December 2008, I hired Andrew to cut a graphic comp to WordPress. He charged me $400 but after looking at his portfolio and visiting his site, I figured he was worth it, I was under the gun to get the site done and the clock was ticking. I have always been very reluctant to sub out work because I am very detail oriented. This was a big step for me and I reposed some trust in Andy. That trust was misplaced. After looking at the design, he promised me he would have it back to me in days. I told him I didn't need it that quickly, but the end of the month would be great. I paid the deposit of $200. We kept in contact over the next week or so up thru the Christmas holidays. He phoned me intermittently and I followed him via Twitter (which is where I hooked up with him in the first place). I saw him tweet about his sick/dying mother and he mentioned to me that the footer of the comp was giving him "fits." I forgave him when he told me he'd be a bit late with the comp, but by January 7, I had had enough. I sent him a stern email telling him to just zip up what he had and send it to me.

You should have seen what I received. I cried. It was that bad. All it was, was the free WordPress Sandbox Theme (not even the three column theme, which the design required, but the two column theme) slapped up over an UNCUT graphic. The entire huge, honking graphic was the background. God almighty, my technologically challenged husband could have done THAT. And he had the GALL to send an invoice for the balance of $200. Not in my world, buddy. When I told him of my displeasure over the work he'd "done," he told me that I didn't give him a chance to finish. I told him that I had health issues, a paraplegic spouse and the myriad other reasons why I'd sought his services. I had even planned to send him some other jobs if this work turned out nicely. He COULD have had a nice income stream from me. Instead, he chose to take $200 which he didn't earn and run with it. He did have the good sense to cancel his PayPal request for the additional $200.

I am particularly galled that he mentions sending his erstwhile clients to my firm. Perhaps this is his feeble attempt to "make right" with me since he basically took $200 to do nothing. I went ahead and spent that night (my husband was in the hospital and thankfully they have broadband in the room) and the entire next day redoing that comp and mortising it to WP, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I also want to set the record straight that other than that unfortunate incident mentioned above, Pixelita Designs is no no way affiliated with Mr. Markle-Desjardins or any of his sites or companies.

I thought about using PayPal to get back that $200 but I haven't done that yet. I figure I needed to be taught a lesson about doing a more thorough background check before trusting anyone with my firm's work product. Or as mother said, if I really want it done right, I should just go ahead and do it myself. I hear of web designers burning clients all the time. I don't know why this happens. Web designers burning other web designers? It's a first for me. Hopefully the last too.

Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs LLC
http://www.pixelita.com

I own Pixelita Designs, a Houston, Texas-based web design shop. Around the second week in December 2008, I hired Andrew to cut a graphic comp to WordPress. He charged me $400 but after looking at his portfolio and visiting his site, I figured he was worth it, I was under the gun to get the site done and the clock was ticking. I have always been very reluctant to sub out work because I am very detail oriented. This was a big step for me and I reposed some trust in Andy. That trust was misplaced. After looking at the design, he promised me he would have it back to me in days. I told him I didn't need it that quickly, but the end of the month would be great. I paid the deposit of $200. We kept in contact over the next week or so up thru the Christmas holidays. He phoned me intermittently and I followed him via Twitter (which is where I hooked up with him in the first place). I saw him tweet about his sick/dying mother and he mentioned to me that the footer of the comp was giving him "fits." I forgave him when he told me he'd be a bit late with the comp, but by January 7, I had had enough. I sent him a stern email telling him to just zip up what he had and send it to me.

You should have seen what I received. I cried. It was that bad. All it was, was the free WordPress Sandbox Theme (not even the three column theme, which the design required, but the two column theme) slapped up over an UNCUT graphic. The entire huge, honking graphic was the background. God almighty, my technologically challenged husband could have done THAT. And he had the GALL to send an invoice for the balance of $200. Not in my world, buddy. When I told him of my displeasure over the work he'd "done," he told me that I didn't give him a chance to finish. I told him that I had health issues, a paraplegic spouse and the myriad other reasons why I'd sought his services. I had even planned to send him some other jobs if this work turned out nicely. He COULD have had a nice income stream from me. Instead, he chose to take $200 which he didn't earn and run with it. He did have the good sense to cancel his PayPal request for the additional $200.

I am particularly galled that he mentions sending his erstwhile clients to my firm. Perhaps this is his feeble attempt to "make right" with me since he basically took $200 to do nothing. I went ahead and spent that night (my husband was in the hospital and thankfully they have broadband in the room) and the entire next day redoing that comp and mortising it to WP, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I also want to set the record straight that other than that unfortunate incident mentioned above, Pixelita Designs is no no way affiliated with Mr. Markle-Desjardins or any of his sites or companies.

I thought about using PayPal to get back that $200 but I haven't done that yet. I figure I needed to be taught a lesson about doing a more thorough background check before trusting anyone with my firm's work product. Or as mother said, if I really want it done right, I should just go ahead and do it myself. I hear of web designers burning clients all the time. I don't know why this happens. Web designers burning other web designers? It's a first for me. Hopefully the last too.

Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs LLC
http://www.pixelita.com

Desjardins Creative has done nothing but provide outstanding services for me and my blog. Andrew, especially, is one-on-one with me and has a personal understanding of my abilities as well as his own.

He meets his deadlines constantly with me and has worked diligently on my project. I find it really interesting that these people have posted this about him. He does nothing but provide outstanding services and whoever did this is nothing but someone trying to start issues when they obviously know that they are in the wrong.

Desjardins Creative has done nothing but provide outstanding services for me and my blog. Andrew, especially, is one-on-one with me and has a personal understanding of my abilities as well as his own.

He meets his deadlines constantly with me and has worked diligently on my project. I find it really interesting that these people have posted this about him. He does nothing but provide outstanding services and whoever did this is nothing but someone trying to start issues when they obviously know that they are in the wrong.

Desjardins Creative has done nothing but provide outstanding services for me and my blog. Andrew, especially, is one-on-one with me and has a personal understanding of my abilities as well as his own.

He meets his deadlines constantly with me and has worked diligently on my project. I find it really interesting that these people have posted this about him. He does nothing but provide outstanding services and whoever did this is nothing but someone trying to start issues when they obviously know that they are in the wrong.