Complaint Review: Aldrick Williams - Atlanta Georgia

Ok, where do I start. Aldrick is a shady individual who disguises himself as a graphic/web designer in the city of Atlanta. I have an online store, with over 500 products and the largest e-commerce website Aldrick admitted he has ever done. I intially requested a new website with increased functionality such as gift cards, wish list, share features for social media, currency converter to make the shopping experience that much more pleasant for my customers. But everytime i would ask for a different color or for something to place in a different spot on the website, or for the font to be smaller, I was told either he couldn't do it or it would be an extra charge. Now the contract Aldrick and I had, stated $2,000 for these things (this was a negotiated price, he initially asked for more). This contract was signed on May 1st; the date Aldrick placed on the contract for the site to be completed was May 10th, yes, of the same year. Now in my mind, I'm taking how can you build a site with over 500 products with all of the functionality I'm asking for in 9 days but he said it could be done even though I didn't impose that type of time frame on the project.

Fast forward to almost two months later, the website was not even 20% completed and I helped with about 15% of it adding products. I had to follow up with Aldrick every few days to inquire about the status of the website. I was given a plethora of excuses, some legit and some not including him having to leave town due to his grandfather passing and he partied the weekend away for his birthday. While I am not empathetic towards his grandfather passing, I do question the validity of the claim as Aldrick has proven to be a liar. He is not a true web designer, he ONLY work with templates. If you do not believe me, check out all of the websites  he has "designed" ,and I use that word loosely, at  www.awp247.com, now go to themeforest.net and templatemonster.com. One particular theme he uses for A LOT of his websites is the Mr. Carter theme found on themeforest.net. ALL of the websites he has "designed" are actually templates that he pulled from the aforementioned sites for $40 or less. He plugs customers logos and products in but he CANNOT customize the template to suit the customer. Menus cannot be moved or changed, they have to remain as he purchases it. Now if he would have told me he was charging me $2,000 for a $40 template, naturally I would have told him he had lost his mind. Instead, he told me I could get all of the things I wanted in a site and it wouldn't be a problem only EVERYTHING proved to be a problem.

Aldrick informed me that if I wanted to have menus rearranged, color changes, fonts enlarged, he would have to consult another person to do it and it would cost me more money. Keep in mind this is a month and a half into a project that the contract stated would be completed in 9 days. Later, Aldrick informed me the reason he had not completed my website by the date stated on the contract is due to the fact I already had a working website and he had customers without websites, he  thought it would be okay if he completed their sites first and mine later. I asked him why would he think it was plausible to place my site on the backburner and not be finished with it almost two months after the date he said that he would. First, I couldn't believe he had said that to me and second, I thought "how unprofessional of you" and I said it to him. After threatening a civil suit, Aldrick asked what could he do to make me happy and keep my business. At this point, he had already told me I couldn't get the things I wanted in my new site because he didn't know how to do it and would have to consult someone else so I asked if he could just update my current site. Now my current site is WordPress and it clearly states on his website that he also does WordPress sites. He said that was fine but then the guy had NO IDEA how to update and customize a WordPress site. 

Long story short, yes there's more, I told him that if it wasn't a template he couldn't do it and I wasn't interested in him giving me what he could do (which was little to nothing)  I was interested in getting what I aksed for and what was stated on the contract. Aldrick told me he never told me I could have a custom site he just promised a functional site. Uh, Aldrck I have a functional site now. I then requested a refund to which he replied, he would refund my money when I refunded his work. Needless to say, I believe no work was done since he plugged in a template initially and couldn't customize the template or my current WordPress site. I currently have a civil suit pending against Aldrick Williams due to breach of contract so I have no worries.

For any of you unsuspecting customers, please, please, please find someone else to do your site. This guy is NOT a web designer, he is extremely unprofessional and IMO, he is one of those people that believes he should fake it until he makes it. Now maybe one day in the far future and I do mean far, he will become a legit web designer, but as for NOW and the next 80 years, I would stay clear of Aldrick Williams, Aldrick Williams Photography and Aldrick Williams Media. (Sorry for the book) and I have the emails and texts to prove all of the above.