My site redesign was a rip-off - and I had no idea

Overview

I had to build a new site to take the business to the next level. Finding the necessary people to do it was easier said than done.

The challenge

Back at the beginning of the year (2009), I won an entrepreneur of the year competition and had some money to play with to build a new site. I knew what I wanted in terms of layout and style, I just needed the tech team to do what I wanted.

I started getting quotes from all over the place, went to networking events and soon had a number of options to choose from. Most of the prices were around the £10k mark. I chose a couple of guys who said they could give the most value for money by outsourcing some of the coding to India. They also gave me a lot of spiel how they would give added value to the business.

A couple of months into the site build, not too much had been done and it wasn't until month four that I got to see anything. The site was supposed to be finished in July (it started in Feb/March) and it was nowhere near finished.

By July hit I had another contact who looked at the back end of the site and said it wasn't worth a fifth of the money that I had paid. I was in shock and I had to get the site rebuilt. Fortunately, my contact was very kind and got the site done very cheaply for me and it was completed within a week!

I'm now taking the first guys to court in an attempt to get some money back.

The solution

Don't do what I did, that's for sure! Approach businesses and sites that you like and ask where they got their site done. Ask them if they were happy with the service, timing and price. There are so many web designers and companies that are overcharging because the client is clueless to how long the work takes. Many companies will say something take two months when it actually takes two days.  It's becoming a rip off trade.

Budget well, ask friends if they know anyone who can help and be wary of a company that doesn't have a lot of work on. It probably means that aren't very good.

Key lesson

Get as many recommendations as possible when outsourcing a web build.

Top tip

Try sites like elance.com or peopleperhour.com and use recommended people.

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