DESIGN COMPANIES: what would you do?
 

What would you do if this happened to you?

1. You shop a particular kind of advertisement you need to different design companies seeing who is capable.
2. You find one, the price is not cheap, via a what I thought was a professional service.
3. The company agrees to do your concept, saying it is doable from the beginning.
4. They deliver you a totally different concept, saying it was not doable (even after they said it was)
5. I compromise say lets move forward anyway (we were on a time limit)
6. They refuse to make changes on the already wrong concept
7. Date of advertising campaign is missed

What would you do? Not to mention we pre paid for half upfront. Then the owner has the nerve to make it sound like we were pushing new ideas. When it was himself who told us they can pull it off.

Not to mention the designer I was left to deal with spent the entire time arguing with me and trying to tell me what I'm looking for. Now even after the owner asking us what final details we need. He has now not gotten back to me in about a week.

If these fucks do not get back to me within the week I'm spending the next 2 months trashing them. :)

this is why i dont pre pay for design work no more been burned a few times.

there plenty of people that will do work without $$$ upfront.

Agreed, lesson learnt. They are a top studio here which was surprising.

The entire project was completely amateur then they had the nerve to blame us when they didn't even deliver the concept that was fully agreed on.

They tried to pass off complete amateur work as professional. All they cared about was shoving an easier concept down our throats.

We are talking a flash banner where you cant even speed read the text because the frames change out so fast. truly hilarious. makes me feel like they were attempting to question my intelligence. Which is an even bigger piss off.

I have heard of programming ideas that turn out to not be doable because of unknown
issues at the time the thing started but I've never heard of a design concept that was
not doable.

If it involves Flash then you should let me do it.

A lot of mainstream places will ask for at least 20% up front. I think the studio I work for asks for half up front. There have been more than a few clients that spend months asking for changes, then disappearing, then wanting to redo the stuff because they had a new vision, etc., disappear, more changes. Some people approve shit without showing the boss then we have to redo it lmfao. I am not saying you did that, just explaining why we now charge for a part of it up front.

It almost sounds like the designer you got stuck with is green. When I first started designing I took shit personally. After a while though, you should realize you are working towards someone else's vision, not your own. Nowdays, even if I felt someone butchered my original work, I can brush it off. It just wont go into my portfolio lol.

Did you sign a contract that mentioned the fee was non refundable? Maybe you can negotiate them into giving you some of it back. If there are parts of the flash that you like, maybe you can talk them into giving you the fla and moving on to someone else. Even if you get the job finished, you should try to get that fla file. Did you sign off on any part of the flash design? That may give you some leverage if you didn't.

I am curious to see what the flash banner looks like but I am assuming since its mainstream you won't want to link anything on here.

Sorry you got fucked man, I hope you can work it out with them.

I can tell you're a professional. :thumbsup I've been through the same stuff in my career, now it is never personal. I just want things done properly.

He would get all uppity telling ME what it should be like. Having the initial agreed concept completely ignored was just insane to me. I know designing can be tough with lots of changes etc.

I agreed to the new concept, but only after we were already over schedule and it was becoming clear what we originally agreed on would not be done. So i was just trying to salvage things.

If you saw the banners you would see the huge lack of professionalism. Small hard to read fonts, To fast of frames you cant read. It makes me think the owners are just as clueless. I have heard they spend a lot of time/money doing their portfolio then try to use that as leverage and churn through clients. I have designed for over a decade now for media sites and for my own networks. So i know exactly what quality of work I should be looking at.

Id hate to see them working with someone who is not a full blown webmaster and the crap they probably get away with.

I sadly cannot post it here as it is mainstream. No contracts were signed which is my mistake. The idea about the fla is spot on also. Just the only problem is it was done for christmas which is now passed. I appreciate your insight. :)

It's your own fault. Not being a dick, it just is. Always have a contract ready to be signed, and if they are unwilling, you move on to someone who is.

Having a contract not signed is my own fault. But the way things were handled was not my fault. This was a rush order from one of the top companies in adult. This was not as simple as move onto someone else.

I knew exactly what i wanted, found exact advertisement in similar fashion and we both agreed before hand it could and would be replicated. This was coming straight from the owner. The concept delivered was nothing even close. Which makes me think the owner didnt get off his fat lazy ass to deliver the message to his designers.

Then we mentioned that it was not the concept. It was constant back peddling like it was "to hard" even though it was obvious they did not communicate with eachother.

Looking through the mails the designer did not get the concept forwarded to him from the owner. Amazing communication. But hey it is our fault.

It's a dick move by the design company, no doubt about that. I would say just take it as a lesson learned for the future and always have a contract ready, even if it's a generic that can be filled in on a project to project basis. At the worst, you get your money back for dealing with idiots like this, at the best it gives them that extra motivation to get what you need done because it's in writing that they are obligated to do so.

I just hope you don't lose future work over not being able to complete the order.

Thanks for the compliments. II bet the guy is either the only one with much flash experience or the owner is more print based. I do most of the flash stuff at my job and our boss came from the old days when you had to paste shit together and manually take/send it to the printer lol. He doesn't have any idea about flash he looks at what we create and says it looks cool or it looks shitty and we move forward or backward. The owner also thinks a lot about how much time they spent on it, he may have had pressure already from the flash guy about how hard it would be to change what hes done, looked at the hours spent on it, etc.

The flash guy is probably talking as much shit as he can/backpeddling to avoid having to redo it or just doesn't have the experience to do it but thought he did. He prob told the boss what you want cant be done so I made this great alternative. There are times my co worker says that to our boss and I know it can easily be done but he doesn't want to do it. He is either too self invested or to aggravated lol.

Just curious, if it doesn't compromise anything, what were the effects or actions that they agreed to but then said were impossible? I'm sorry to push the subject I am just naturally curious when I hear about shit like this. Was it like interaction stuff or just animation.

Hope you had a good holiday in lieu of these recent shortcomings.

Happens. Even with established design agencies. Even with the best clients. Major neg is they IGNORED initial input you gave.

Which one? :winkwink:

yep now we paid $400 for a flash banner we are not even able to use.

Completely ignored, then they had the nerve to blame us. I am completely fuming.

Thought you were a designer?

Depending on how the deal with it is dependent on how big I bash them. I understand things happen so im going to give them a chance to find a solution. But they have already taken another week to get back to me, not to mention this was a "rush" order.

So basically they outsourced it? Yep, the top companies aren't always what they seem. :winkwink:

Fletch does all the banners for getbannersmade.com. He communicates directly with the clients which is really important.

Good luck getting this resolved. We don't really mess with flash banners though, as you see those get complicated.

Typically, we require a % up front just because we don't want to run into an issue with the client burning us on our hard work. It has happened before and all I can do is make sure we minimize that risk.

Small requests are sometimes handled differently, but with clients that end up becoming long-term contracts, I make sure we have a service level agreement. Larger projects go into creating a scope and are planned out more.

Now, I can understand that we need to take constructive criticism from our clients and try to incorporate their vision into what we're creating for them, but there is a line that should be drawn. We can either be there for you one time, for one simple project or we can be a strategic partner and help mold your vision into something that works and benefits your business.

One of the things that I always try and stress is "communication".

Bottom line, if I had to go to an agency to have any work done and they didn't meet my expectations, I wouldn't work with them in the future. If it were my fault, being that I didn't sign a contract or anything like that, I'd try and get my money back or try and work with them on getting what you expected as long as it's reasonable.

Learn from the experience and find someone who you can work well with.

If they didn't have it done in time they should refund the money. They should have fixed the speed of the text and put what they had up at least at a discounted rate imo. At least the customer sees they made an effort to help them out and maybe can spare the relationship. Did you pay with a card? If you call visa/mastercard or whoever and explain your story, you may be able to get a charge back. I have seen it done before.

http://usa.visa.com/merchants/operat...ion/index.html

http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchan..._CB_Manual.pdf

Dont spam in my thread you fuck. I would never use Fletch for banners. :321GFY

You've probably ordered from him in the past, like all his trolls. :1orglaugh

But hey, nobody said you were wise... and aren't you a designer? lol fail

..and if you do go ahead with this drama, bet you ass Fletch and myself will be in your threads...! have fun! (look forward to the dramz)

Thats why you had to make this thread. Over 12 years of clients, no thread like this....

:thumbsup

My banners are better, can i haz my spam?

You have no clients. Only dumb fucks from GFY who are not real webmasters buy from you. That is why you went out and sifted oil for no fucking reason.


I don't order from talentless designers. PS you already posted in my thread you dumb cunt.

basically if we have new client we do initial designs(with watermark) without downpayment , if they like it , that's the time we ask 50% downpayment , if they don't and if we are not busy we do another designs.

Metaman is da man, pussies. You hate you burn bridges or should you check your ass for a vagina crack open.

LOL says the guy who bragged on gfy for years about how elite his design skills are, but wait, he just got scammed by some outsourcer because he couldnt design his own BANNER?

thats some funny shit yo.

LOl here's another morning bump... :1orglaugh

Metaman probably lucky any company from here will do biz with him, the way he acts. I doubt he has any biz... this thread is probably just fake for attention.

I'm not a flash designer and I do not use outsourcing. I am an elite designer.

Your portfolio, now that is some funny shit.

I understand you 2 have been having tough times, but do not take it out on me. I have a real business to operate. While you on the other hand spend your day scrounging webmaster boards for beer money.

You should thank god you have a woman that allows her man to set the bar so low. If not for her do it for yourself and get your act together. You have been "designing" (i use that very lightly because you're not a designer) for over 10 years and the best you can cram together is a portfolio full of half assed banner designs?

You're an embarrassment and so is she. Everyone knows it. First step is to looking in the mirror at yourselves and admitting you're both losers.

You will never amount to shit. That is why you have to come in my thread and spam. Please go back to sifting oil because you're broke. O my bad you did it because you "cared". :1orglaugh

And stop taking credit for your family who fishes hard work. You're a loser and i can guarantee you they agree with me. Or else you would be out there working with them.

You're a 2 bit punk. You were one before and you still are. They say fatherhood changes people. But it is clear your retardation will never change.

Bump my thread all you want. Why would I care? Everyone here knows you're already a loser so you have nothing to lose.

This may shock and awe you but there are millions of business who operate outside of GFY. If you and Fletch had a clue you would be using them to your advantage.

MetaMan should add a sideline as motivational speaker.

Lol im like ron paul if they keep sayin i dont have clients it will come true

you just hate because i am successful at what you simply cannot do.... as proven by this thread. dont hate lol

You probably showed them an ad from my portfolio to nock off hahahah

uhuh :1orglaugh

Wait,there are other websites except gfy :helpme

Sorry to hear man that sucks.
If only i had the time to learn flash...

Yes in most cases i require a deposit of some sort but this is because i have been burnt myself, spending a week doing a project only for the person to just vanish.

9/10 times i dont do a design i like myself but as long as the client is happy that is all that matters :D

I hope this all gets resolved to your satisfaction :thumbsup

... this from a guy who got burned by a "top studio" here on gfy... take your own advice genius. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I am seriously LAUGHING.. LOL!!!

MetaMan is a faggot

He gets his thread spammed, gets annoyed, voices his opinion that was not really insulting. He simply stated he would not use Fletch and then you guys antagonize him further so you can increase the amount of time talking about services nobody asked for here. All while ripping on him because he is not a flash designer. I have designed for over a decade, I do not design flash either and would hire somebody else to do so. I see nothing wrong with that. You do flash banners as well fletch?

Agreed, you don't need to do everything yourself. If you go to monster, careerbuilder, etc... you will see positions paying well for front end designers, flash designers, web developers, programmers, web graphic designers, and so on.

It's really sad that this is all they have to offer. You're 100% spot on. It's ok though I have nothing to prove to them. Them in this thread shows how really desperate they have become. It is kind of sad. But I do not feel sorry for them.

Their lack of success is due to themselves and their own inability.

The funny thing is pretty sure he does NOT do flash.


Yep exactly. People specialize in different fields. No problem this is a lame attempt at them to drum up a little more business to pay their heating bill.

I do not know how much you read GFY, but just recently Fletch was forced to skim oil (who knows if he even went) to pay their bills. So maybe we should be donating to them or something? I seriously think they are going through rough times. That is why they have to put on the attitude. Their over pride screams the fact that things have been falling apart for them.