I am having a very bad experience with this company called Cogzidel Technologies (http://www.cogzidel.com/). They will hound you for money and do not deliver. I feel I am cheated, tired dealing with this unprofessional company and in a conclusion that this is a scam, fraud company with bogus products & services.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT FALL VICTIM TO THIS COMPANY. They have poor software development cycle and skills.
1) They will skim the customer to pay quickly: Please be aware that Cogzidel will ask for upfront payment, advance, work to start customization, payment for doing design and similar excuses. Their initial sales team is smart to skim the money. Later you will be handed down to a Business Analyst who will then hound you for making payments. All these are traps till they take money which they guarantee to come back with customization's and ask for more money. This is their modus operandi.
Summary: DO NOT PAY THEM ANY ADVANCE. PAYMENT ONLY AFTER DELIVERY.
2) Do not wire transfer money or pay by check - Use Paypal or other means by which you can file fraud to claim your money back. If in United States, your payment will be protected, fraud claims be filed and the companies will default such companies if more such complaints come by. Then their only alternative is to either change their bank or come up with a new company name and start doing the fraud again. Cogzidel will pose as a professional company with a Bank of America account (based a NJ and a Delaware company) that you can wire-transfer money. With Paypal you have a possibility to get your money back by putting a fraud claim AGAINST the company. Find ways to pay money other than direct deposit to their account. If you are in US and have used Bank of America and feel this is a scam and fraud - PLEASE GO AND REPORT TO THE BANK. More complaints against such fraud companies will help. If they transact with any bank in US please go and report it to the respective banks.
Summary: USE PAYPAL AS YOU CAN CLAIM FRAUD AND POSSIBLY GET YOUR PAYMENT BACK.
3) DropInn is not a Steady state product & full of defects: They will claim DropInn has been in the market for long, they have been in business for 9+ years, they will also show you some sample websites. Net-Net story - DropInn is not a steady state product. It has so many defects, that I found 15+ defects in less than 6 hours, of testing. They will claim to do "hackathon" to clean the code is completely defect free - which will never happen. We had very poor software delivery with no test plan, difficult tracking of defects, no clarity of what was fixed and what was tested. Even though we put Trello in place still had issues (They claim they have JIRA). Simple things like Calendar, pricing, maps (showing wrong locations), work-flow to name few are all defects in DropInn. I was a victim of the DropInn (Airbnb clone script) scam.
Summary: COGZIDEL HAS VERY LOW SOFTWARE DELIVERY CAPABILITY AND NO MATURED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CYCLE, INCLUDING POOR ESTIMATIONS
4) Schedule slippage is a constant problem: Cogzidel will delay your schedule to put urgency and blame back the client for any delay. In my case they delayed and rushed through design. The design was pathetic, did not meet any customer needs and even though feedback given upfront nothing done to rectify it. They simply did not have the capability. Of course, they will put the blame on the client and will have excuses. Do not be surprised after being rude they will make you feel guilty, as well for not providing the requirements. In our case our requirements were given upfront. This is their tactic and seems to be a pattern, when I spoke with some of their other customers (in the same boat).
Summary: INSIST ON DESIGN FIRST, EVEN BEFORE TOUCHING THE CODE.
5) Meeting the team becomes difficult: The people who sell the solution or product appear to be very professional and know what they do but they are not. Silas <[email protected]> (he will be pitched "the finance decision maker" - he works on shifts and in reality a junior guy with no finance experience) - I asked him a few questions and came bottoms-up. Saran (or T.Saravanan - [email protected]) - is a sweet-talker and will showcase Development & Delivery like a professional shop and pitched Nadeshwaran ([email protected]). After they hand over they disappear and difficult to catch or sometimes impossible. They do not share any phone numbers and only way is through Skype. Emails and/or their company shared phones will be difficult to reach, of course. Finally, I am currently put with a junior Business Analyst (Abhinaya) to deal with and prior dealt with Angelina ([email protected]). Be prepared for some rude behavior.
SUMMARY: MEETING THE MANAGEMENT TEAM OR PERSON WHO SOLD THE PROJECT DOWN THE LINE WILL BECOME DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE AND YOU WILL HAVE EXCUSES.
6) Myth of a professional team (being kept in loop): You will see emails all the way up to their CEO (Anand Nataraj- [email protected]) and CTO (Sam - Swaminathan Kasiviswanathan - [email protected]). It will appear as there is a professional set of resources including top management involved, reachable however it is not true. While writing this Sam never showed up to the meeting invite, Saran (who sold the project - is constantly out of town or on vacation) - does not reply to email, and puts a BA to send replies. I have tried to reach them for the past 3-4 weeks, but no luck.
Summary: DO NOT GET CARRIED AWAY BY THE EMAILS AND WHOM IT IS GETTING COPIED TO? IT IS ALL SMOKING MIRRORS.
7) Paint Cogzidel as a visionary & professional company: The management and company will try to portray Cogzidel as a visionary company & professional company but in reality it is far from that.
Summary: GOOD TO HAVE SUCH VISIONS, BUT COGZIDEL PLEASE DELIVER OR DO NOT TAKE CLIENTS MONEY. IF YOU CANNOT DELIVER RETURN THE MONEY.
My request to Cogzidel - Request to return my money as I am confident you cannot develop or provide a defect free product. I have made multiple requests, difficult to reach any decision makers/management team and I am put up with a junior Business Analyst (Abhinaya) to deal with.
My contact - VS - vsmba11 at gmail
Sad and cheated customer of Cogzidel.
#2Author of original report
Fri, May 26, 2017
I am having a very bad experience with this company called Cogzidel Technologies (http://www.cogzidel.com/). They will hound you for money and do not deliver. I feel I am cheated, tired dealing with this unprofessional company and in a conclusion that this is a scam, fraud company with bogus products & services.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT FALL VICTIM TO THIS COMPANY. They have poor software development cycle and skills.
1) They will skim the customer to pay quickly: Please be aware that Cogzidel will ask for upfront payment, advance, work to start customization, payment for doing design and similar excuses. Their initial sales team is smart to skim the money. Later you will be handed down to a Business Analyst who will then hound you for making payments. All these are traps till they take money which they guarantee to come back with customization's and ask for more money. This is their modus operandi.
Summary: DO NOT PAY THEM ANY ADVANCE. PAYMENT ONLY AFTER DELIVERY.
2) Do not wire transfer money or pay by check - Use Paypal or other means by which you can file fraud to claim your money back. If in United States, your payment will be protected, fraud claims be filed and the companies will default such companies if more such complaints come by. Then their only alternative is to either change their bank or come up with a new company name and start doing the fraud again. Cogzidel will pose as a professional company with a Bank of America account (based a NJ and a Delaware company) that you can wire-transfer money. With Paypal you have a possibility to get your money back by putting a fraud claim AGAINST the company. Find ways to pay money other than direct deposit to their account. If you are in US and have used Bank of America and feel this is a scam and fraud - PLEASE GO AND REPORT TO THE BANK. More complaints against such fraud companies will help. If they transact with any bank in US please go and report it to the respective banks.
Summary: USE PAYPAL AS YOU CAN CLAIM FRAUD AND POSSIBLY GET YOUR PAYMENT BACK.
3) DropInn is not a Steady state product & full of defects: They will claim DropInn has been in the market for long, they have been in business for 9+ years, they will also show you some sample websites. Net-Net story - DropInn is not a steady state product. It has so many defects, that I found 15+ defects in less than 6 hours, of testing. They will claim to do "hackathon" to clean the code is completely defect free - which will never happen. We had very poor software delivery with no test plan, difficult tracking of defects, no clarity of what was fixed and what was tested. Even though we put Trello in place still had issues (They claim they have JIRA). Simple things like Calendar, pricing, maps (showing wrong locations), work-flow to name few are all defects in DropInn. I was a victim of the DropInn (Airbnb clone script) scam.
Summary: COGZIDEL HAS VERY LOW SOFTWARE DELIVERY CAPABILITY AND NO MATURED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CYCLE, INCLUDING POOR ESTIMATIONS
4) Schedule slippage is a constant problem: Cogzidel will delay your schedule to put urgency and blame back the client for any delay. In my case they delayed and rushed through design. The design was pathetic, did not meet any customer needs and even though feedback given upfront nothing done to rectify it. They simply did not have the capability. Of course, they will put the blame on the client and will have excuses. Do not be surprised after being rude they will make you feel guilty, as well for not providing the requirements. In our case our requirements were given upfront. This is their tactic and seems to be a pattern, when I spoke with some of their other customers (in the same boat).
Summary: INSIST ON DESIGN FIRST, EVEN BEFORE TOUCHING THE CODE.
5) Meeting the team becomes difficult: The people who sell the solution or product appear to be very professional and know what they do but they are not. Silas <[email protected]> (he will be pitched "the finance decision maker" - he works on shifts and in reality a junior guy with no finance experience) - I asked him a few questions and came bottoms-up. Saran (or T.Saravanan - [email protected]) - is a sweet-talker and will showcase Development & Delivery like a professional shop and pitched Nadeshwaran ([email protected]). After they hand over they disappear and difficult to catch or sometimes impossible. They do not share any phone numbers and only way is through Skype. Emails and/or their company shared phones will be difficult to reach, of course. Finally, I am currently put with a junior Business Analyst (Abhinaya) to deal with and prior dealt with Angelina ([email protected]). Be prepared for some rude behavior.
SUMMARY: MEETING THE MANAGEMENT TEAM OR PERSON WHO SOLD THE PROJECT DOWN THE LINE WILL BECOME DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE AND YOU WILL HAVE EXCUSES.
6) Myth of a professional team (being kept in loop): You will see emails all the way up to their CEO (Anand Nataraj- [email protected]) and CTO (Sam - Swaminathan Kasiviswanathan - [email protected]). It will appear as there is a professional set of resources including top management involved, reachable however it is not true. While writing this Sam never showed up to the meeting invite, Saran (who sold the project - is constantly out of town or on vacation) - does not reply to email, and puts a BA to send replies. I have tried to reach them for the past 3-4 weeks, but no luck.
Summary: DO NOT GET CARRIED AWAY BY THE EMAILS AND WHOM IT IS GETTING COPIED TO? IT IS ALL SMOKING MIRRORS.
7) Paint Cogzidel as a visionary & professional company: The management and company will try to portray Cogzidel as a visionary company & professional company but in reality it is far from that.
Summary: GOOD TO HAVE SUCH VISIONS, BUT COGZIDEL PLEASE DELIVER OR DO NOT TAKE CLIENTS MONEY. IF YOU CANNOT DELIVER RETURN THE MONEY.
My request to Cogzidel - Request to return my money as I am confident you cannot develop or provide a defect free product. I have made multiple requests, difficult to reach any decision makers/management team and I am put up with a junior Business Analyst (Abhinaya) to deal with.
Sad and Cheated customer