Website taking a year and still not done!

[GOSW]

I have to say something here, and forgive me if i were to put noses out of joint!

I have been i very naive person, stupid and totally misunderstanding of the web industry, but 6/7 years ago i went through a very LARGE learning curve, and that is : Dont trust any bugger!!

Now , no offence to webs designers, get a good one and they are great, but i have been turned over 2,500 oon one project and then i went to a big company and was turned over 15,000 for a simple ecommerce site... stupid girl you shout... Yet, these people feed you up, they dont actually tell you the whole story.

Now having learnt a lot about the web (in search of doing it myself) some good companies actually tell you how they make site, whether they say its a WP, of a Drupal site which is a free CMS and what your paying for is the design and bolt/ add on's etc.

Web developers who feed you with "We build from the ground up" are mainly talking twoddle!! Why do that? Unless the project was totally unique that they really want to re-invent the wheel.

Its sad to see that people still get stung by web wanna'be's, but sadly we never learn until we have been bitten, and bitten hard.

Cut your loses and run, go to someone who gives you a full lowdown on what they do, then go home and research what they have told you, go on youtube, whach videos, ask questions of forum like this and get a feel for what the designers/developers are doing. keep your money close to your chest before spending a penny.

I have now found out that i can and could have built all that i needed in a simple free WP, with a simple free Woocommerce and paid a cheap penny for a good template... then spent my almost 20k on adversing. Your project may not be that simple, but research, research, research before parting with you hard earned cash.

Best of luck

 

[Faevilangel]

as an extra bit of advice from the above post, always get quotes and feedback from more than one developer.

If you speak to 3 devs, you will get 3 different quotes (hopefully) but also 3 different project ideas which will make it slightly easier to get an idea on the route to take, also talk to the devs and ask questions (googleing 'questions to ask a web developer') will help you get some questions to ask.

Sales people will spin a line and try to not answer the question where a dev will try and answer it fully.

As above though research, research, research

 

[Alan]

Just to add, no one has mentioned checking professional status.

There are many real 'professionals' i.e. they are qualified to be and are members of a professional association. Whilst it is no guarantee, it is an indicator and generally people who are professional members have no inclination to work in an unprofessional way and risk their status being damaged by being written off.

 

[Christine Hough]

What is a professional institution for web developers/ programmers?

I know of accountants, gas fitter and all sorts of trade bodies, but not one for web developers.
If you could tell us it would help me and others.

Mostly I go on portfolios, testimonials and how they respond to a brief.

 

[ImpGit]

Can you hire a third party Project Manager to liaise with them? It won't be cheap, but I suspect it's the only way your site will get done. Having worked in a similar IT company, I suspect the techies would still want to complete the project from personal pride. Over promising is a big problem. A team talk and some direction might do the job. However, you'll need to stump up more cash. Probably quite a lot more as at the moment they're losing money every minute they spend on your project.

Are you happy with what they've delivered so far?

 

[Christine Hough]

I would be surprised if they hung onto it.

It will be costing them to do more and if I were you I would definitely refuse any further funding. However unrealistic their quote was, they chose it and IMHO you owe them nothing.

I would not pay a manager, but would walk. You need to get either someone who can rectify or someone to redo. If the whole concept was not understood from the beginning, then rectification is likely to cost more than doing it from first principles.

The only negotiation might be about who owns the copyright for a half finished, but functional at a low level site. Where is it hosted, not with the developers I hope!

Your main problem now is to trade as much as possible as quickly as possible. And build up funds for a proper job.

 

[Alan]

What is a professional institution for web developers/ programmers?

I know of accountants, gas fitter and all sorts of trade bodies, but not one for web developers.
If you could tell us it would help me and others.

Mostly I go on portfolios, testimonials and how they respond to a brief.

In the UK the main one for developers would be the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT. If they are a chartered member the post nominals would be MBCS CITP.

As all web developers are not necessarily 'programmers' you may also find the Chartered Society of Designers or the Chartered Institute of Marketing also relevant.

 

[DaveBlack]

You are better off just starting afresh or it'll be another year before you get the website.

Also, don't forget that this is not the sort of company you want to do your maintenance!

 

[JamesBarnsley]

Hi all,
I need some advise please.
September last year I instructed a firm to write a complex website and back end database. We agreed a price and started paying monthly payments. The total cost is £2500 plus VAT. We were told it would take 6 weeks to complete. My husband who worked in IT wrote a full technical spec document with all the data we needed. He felt that 6 weeks was a unrealistic deadline as the project is so complex. He also says that such a complex site should cost a lot more than they have quoted. However we have several emails showing the price and an invoice and this was after they had the design document. But as far as working on the project goes so far we have had broken promises and missed deadlines. Currently we have a completed good stock management program that helps me put orders together, prints invoices and keeps a track of stock. They have also implemented a VAT tracker as we have just registered. However the back end is still not completed. They never let us know what is happening, they promise things and nothing happens. Weeks have turned into months and nothing seems to change. We threaten, we plead, we beg but they just don't seem to work on it. If we push them to much they will remove the back end that I can use. And I cannot be without the system now, it saves me 30% of time processing orders. So we are stuck. No posh website, no completed database and we have paid them nearly £2k (I stopped making payments and said I would pay the final on completion as we could see it was going wrong). My question is - how can we get them to work on it? How can we get it completed without them removing our database. We are just so caught! Any advise would be most gratefully received. Sorry for such a long post!

Would you mind posting your requirements spec on here?

 

[joinuniverse]

We are very familiar with these kind of situations when contracting UK-based developers.

You may want to try to draft a letter before court action, and send it to your supplier. They have then one month to come back. That month you will notice strong progress for sure

Good luck!

 

[garyk]

I have now found out that i can and could have built all that i needed in a simple free WP, with a simple free Woocommerce and paid a cheap penny for a good template... then spent my almost 20k on adversing. Your project may not be that simple, but research, research, research before parting with you hard earned cash.

Best of luck

Yep I would give that advice to someone every time. Its all about speed to market and validating your idea in your target market. Too many startups spend 1000s on glossy websites and spend months/years delivering it before actually finding out if its commercially viable. Or its overcomplicated and cumbersome to implemenent/support and use.

Sure a template is never going to be as good as a bespoke solution but at least it gets you started. If you have a presence and build income it proves you have paying customers which will allow you to then look at paying for a better solution.

Companies like dropbox grew to massive scale with a very basic website. In fact it hasn't changed much in several years.

Gary

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Read this post with interest. Web deisgn and development is simply (once past the creativity and the skill and the commercial awareness) about time. Time costs money. Having said that there are a lot people who shroud their services in secrecy and are not transparent. We have 'campaigned' for many years for tougher laws and policing on web standards and even went to the House of Commons and to the Business Secretary, but unfortunately nothing happened at the time. Our advice would be to get a contract, a schedule of works, agree waypoints for various parts of the delivery, and ensure that everything is carried out in-house - normally this means that you keep control of the process. I am not sure what you can do in your case, but PM me and happy to have a free chat and offer advice. We have gotten money back for people in your situation before with a simply worded letter and the right (legal) threat. I hope that helps and wish you well

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Oh and work with a company which can deliver the product and then get it found on the web/search engines - if that is what you are looking for of course