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HIT Web Design Heritage Web Solutions, Heritage Internet Technologies Nonresponsive rip-off artists that provide very basic web design at best. Provo, Utah
I contacted HIT Web Design (AKA Heritage Internet Technologies) in early November to request a site design for my son. I wanted a personal site and made that very clear on the many phone calls leading up to establishing an account with HIT Web Design (from here out listed as HWD). The company’s website was impressive and I felt they could fill my needs. Originally the price they quoted me was in my opinion a bit high so I continued my search for a design company. In late November I received an email saying they were giving 40% discounts to people who sign up during a given time. I contacted HIT again and went ahead and started the process after agreeing on a price.
Here begins my concerns with HWD. I was requested to complete a very extensive web based questionnaire. I spent a couple of hours getting all the information completed and then notified a HWD representative that I had accomplished this task. He advised he would send the information to a designer and I should see something. Over three weeks later (12/21/2010) I received a link from a person telling me he had taken the liberty of designing a website for me. He requested I review the website and contact him with any concerns I might have. First there was no link but a short while later I received a second email with the link when he figured out he had left it off. I opened the link to find that I had waited over three weeks for a prefab generic business webpage. Again, my request was for a personal page designed for my newborn son so that I can update my family on his progress as we are away from all of them. In addition to waiting for such a long time to get anything I was floored that I spent hours completing forms and submitting information only to receive such garbage from HWD as a baseline for my website. I replied to the person who sent this information to me the following day and as of 2/10/2011 I have gotten no response from him.
When I first signed up for a webpage design I was told I would pay 50% deposit and the balance was due when they completed my website. They debited my account the first week of December for the deposit and they debited my account for the balance 1/4/2011. Attempted to contact customer service after multiple calls to the design department went unanswered only to be put on hold for 45 minutes. I would get excited thinking it was my turn to speak to someone only to have the count change. Example, it tells you that you are caller number 6 and you should only be on hold XX minutes longer than two minutes later you are caller number 10. Went online to contact customer service that way and within hours of submitting my complaint I received the following response
“Dear …….., This is to confirm that we are in receipt of your request for cancellation and/or refund of services from HIT Web Design. We are sorry that you do not wish to continue your account with us. We regret that we have been unable to adequately address your concerns. HIT Web Design has a solid reputation of excellent customer service and it is our goal to see that you are satisfied with our services. Please allow us to research your request. Feel free to reply to this message with any information you would like to add to our research, and we will review the information along with our documentation. Please allow 24-48 business hours for us to finalize that investigation and return contact with you.”
Three weeks later I had not heard anything back from this person so I sent another email
“To date I have yet to receive a response from you regarding my request for a refund. You advised you should be able to provide a response within 48 hours and that was two weeks ago. Please provide a response to my request and any actions you have taken in the past two weeks. I would hope at this point you can understand my increasing frustrations with your company. You noted that HIT Web Design has a solid reputation of excellent customer service but to date I have not seen an example of the high level of customer service you speak of.”
I know that in my email above I said I had waited two weeks but that was an error on my part, it had been 20 days. This is the response I received from HWD.
“Hit will honor your refund request in the amount of ($120.00). Which will be process in Hit's accounting department. Which will go in the order which the request was received. It could take several weeks. You may review the TOS at http://hitwebdesign.com/tos.html Section 32 is pertinent to this matter.”
So, in the end I paid $480.00 for a website that was on holiday discount and I have no site. The site they proposed was a generic business site. If I were a business looking for a home on the web I would still have been unhappy with what HWD sent me. Please know that the only emails you will receive are ones demanding money. Do not expect a prompt response for any request of services.