Offshore ecommerce web designers and developers

[Ravi]

Anyone know any good offshore ecommerce web designers and developers that they've used?

 

[bdw]

I would not advise it.

I can tell you that I am redesigning a website for a client at the moment. A year ro two ago he used a guy whose business was based on outsourcing his work to India. The result was not impressive and he asked me to do a redesign. I have spent ages this week trying to get the guy to release the domain name. The two telephone numbers on his website are dead and he is no longer at the address. My client managed to track him down by visiting the address and asking the present occupants where he was but we still do not have control of the domain.

He paid this guy about £400 for the original website and he is now paying me over £600. Does the original work still sound like a bargain to you?

Pay cheap, pay twice!

 

[iksol]

Just out of curiosity, are there any steps that can be taken to get a domain released, where you're unable to contact the domain holder?

 

[Astaroth]

You can go to the controller of the TLD and argue the case that you are the rightful owner

 

[RadiusBPO]

I would not advise it.

I can tell you that I am redesigning a website for a client at the moment. A year ro two ago he used a guy whose business was based on outsourcing his work to India. The result was not impressive and he asked me to do a redesign. I have spent ages this week trying to get the guy to release the domain name. The two telephone numbers on his website are dead and he is no longer at the address. My client managed to track him down by visiting the address and asking the present occupants where he was but we still do not have control of the domain.

He paid this guy about £400 for the original website and he is now paying me over £600. Does the original work still sound like a bargain to you?

Pay cheap, pay twice!

There are 1000s of stories like this about UK designers and developers. What's your point? Your client should have control of hosting, and the domain before starting.

Odesk would be your best bet on finding people, just don't be seduced by the super cheap offers. Look for experience, talk to references and don't pay upfront.

 

[bdw]

What's your point? Your client should have control of hosting, and the domain before starting.

My point is that there are inherent risks involved in dealing with offshore designers and their agents. That is what this thread is about. Regarding control, many people have no idea about the importance of this before they consider having a website and take the advice of the "designers" in good faith.

 

[bdw]

Just out of curiosity, are there any steps that can be taken to get a domain released, where you're unable to contact the domain holder?

Contact Nominet if you are in the UK.

Actually my client did track the guy down and he has agreed to change the IPSTAG but only after my client pays him £60 for a years hosting. He says he forgot to invoice him for this.

 

[pollock]

Hi,
I am interested to do your project. I have sent pm. You can send me more details of project. You can contact me at:
skype: addontechnologies

 

[DPOM]

I agree with BDW, stay clear of them. Theres plenty of capable and honest freelancers out there that can do a bloody good job for you...like Toucher....or me ;-)

 

[LuckyNo8]

Hi there,

Your post hit a nerve with me.

Just to say, we've spent ALOT of money with 2 companies in India (the ususal - recommended by a friend, they're amazing etc - I'm Indian, I think you are so you know how the whole family grapevine works =)). To be honest, I would have been better to get it done in the UK. We will have spent about the same money, we're getting the website a year late, and have no recourse for corrections/errors etc. once we go live.

Take my experience and trust me - work with someone in the UK. Make sure you specify "time IS of the essence" in your contract. Have specific dates. Nail down as much detail as is humanly possible before sign-off. Then take them to court "if" they really start messing with you. If they're not willing to commit to delivery dates or the above "time is of the essence" phrase - WALK AWAY! Focus on growing your business - don't take on the stress. Please. Take it from someone who has been there and back - TWICE.

Thanks
PS: Ironically, I have an Indian web company I'm happy with now. However, for various reasons we have ALOT of leverage over them and this is the exception rather than the rule. I stand by my above post.

 

[quikshop]

One of our shop designers uses an Indian based service for a niche part of his work and they've provided an excellent service for over two years.

As long as you have a strict agreed Terms Of Reference, quality checks and staged payments based on agreed deliverables you should be fine... but then I'd recommend that with any UK based designer as well.

 

[LuckyNo8]

That's very true... the only thing I would say is ask yourself that if something went wrong, what would you do? Depending on the job you would have lost not only some money, but most important of all, time.

Legal recourse etc in that part of the world is a WOT unless you're talking about serious money (20k+)

I'm not trying to bash all outsourcing or scare you... just saying go in with eyes open =)

 

[bdw]

Yes, there are many excellent and ethical offshore website designers. The problem is in knowing who they are.

I am not saying that you will get problems when usng offshore people. I am saying that problems are possibly more likely and sorting them out is much more difficult when it does happen.

 

[paretowasright]

Hi,
I am interested to do your project. I have sent pm. You can send me more details of project. You can contact me at:
skype: addontechnologies

I think this says it all bearing in mind the context of the thread.

 

[quarterdon]

Every country/race/religion has people who will do a good job and people who do a bad job.

You have the same issue in supplier selection whatever route you pursue.

Offshore has no more issue than onshore.

Only people who think onshore is better are those that are p***ed off uk based developers who cant compete on price.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

No matter what the supply, whether it be a website or a container of spades, My experience is that being able to visit the supplier makes a world of difference. My website was designed by a local design firm while I sat next to the designer and made comments. Total time about 2 hours.

If you do outsource a web site away from the UK make sure you can see the design in real time on your screen.

 

[umbrella-technologies]

We are a web services firm based in India.

I do not say that all of my customers are happy but all of them had given more than two projects after working with us for the first time.

We are a small team of 12 people at the moment but we are looking forward to expand to 15 by end of September.

I will be happy to change your negative views to positive over outsourcing once you work with us.

Cheers,

 

[Aussie Dean]

I will chip in with some of my experiences in getting a website designed overseas.

I have had about 5 or so websites designed for me via http://www.freelancer.com/ mainly from Indian designers.

Select someone who has good feedback and a history of completing work. I generally don't pay until the work has been complete to my specifcations or if its a big job milestone payments are available.

If you are totally clueless when it comes to web design then perhaps its better to meet a designer face to face but if you know what you want and have knowledge of things like cpanel/FTP etc. then I would consider going for an outside designer especially if you are on a tight budget.

I have had full websites designed in wordpress for under US$100.....tread carefully and it can be done!

 

[bdw]

Offshore has no more issue than onshore. Only people who think onshore is better are those that are p***ed off uk based developers who cant compete on price.

I am UK based designer and I can tell you that in my experience you are so wrong. I am dealing with one such problem right now.

 

[Displaycentreuk]

I have had some good work done offshore (US and Russia) and similarly working with UK developers.

Overall, I would say that the value for money is about the same. The prices of offshore work are lower but the amount of my time required to explain the requirement and work-through the various issues have been much, much greater.

Chris

 

[umbrella-technologies]

I am UK based designer and I can tell you that in my experience you are so wrong. I am dealing with one such problem right now.

It depends upon what you are outsourcing and to whom.

You can't expect a web development firm to provide you a marketing plan and vice versa. So be it UK firm or an offshore firm the problems will be same and the biggest problem is that you dont have much control when you outsource and the communication gap.

If the outsourcing is local and you can visit them then you have more confidence but say if both the companies are in UK and at two different locations (far from each other) then the problems are nearly same as what you have with offshore firm.

Well Communication is the key in Outsourcing.

 

[iksol]

There is also the language barrier to circumvent. Many developers offshore have a great grasp of English, but more often than not, misunderstandings in requirements occur very frequently. Just make sure s detailed Spec is supplied, or expect a tedious QA phase to ensue later on.

 

[umbrella-technologies]

Being an offshore web development I hate one more thing that I cannot display our portfolio even though we are very strong in web development.

 

[sonnas]

i have used UK based developers, and they are good. what you dont know is that these UK based companies outsource most of their work to these so-called "second rate third world devlopers who are rubbish".

how do i know this? just by pure chance i had a UK based company do some work for me. at the same time i also outsourced a SE asian freelance to do some other work. it turned out my UK based company basically got him to do all the work, paid him a tiny fraction of what i was paying the UK web company.

i now bypass the UK based web company and go direct to the source and i am very happy with the work.

odesk is a good place to start looking for decent developers