we've had a site up for years. We started our business with no stock, no computer, no cash, no credit. Through the years we've learned what a site needs, what it shouldn't have, but our site was mediocre. We were more than ready for a great site! Last year we found Thyme for Design on line. The sites the owner showed us were great. The company built both e-commerce sites and non-e-commerce sites. We sent the owner, Gretchen, a list of sites we liked, we sent a list of programs we didn't like, zen cart was at the top of the list. The e-mail plainly stated that I didn't like Zen cart at all. She said the site would be done within a couple of months. We sent her the list of items we were transferring to the new site (list A)and a separate list of items we would not be carrying. Two months later I had zen cart with all the items, rather than the ones from list A. There were pictures of things I had never seen.
She was a working mom and I was going through some very serious health problems, so she felt that pushing the site date to Sept would be ok. By that time, I was disappointed, but I had paid over $800.00. We paid another $350.00. We were definitely going to have the site up in time for a Yule season blast. Instead, the web designer went to Nashville to record a Christian rock cd.
She wanted more money.
She handed us off to a designer in the Caribbean. This designer is doing well. Unfortunately, because we didn't have the new site up, we didn't put the new stock up. We didn't do half as well as anticipated - because we had the same old web site and we had been phasing out stock and bringing in new stock.
So we have a site that's almost done - by the woman in the Caribbean, we're broke because of the whole stock situation, we used nothing from Thyme for Design.
Thyme for Design felt that as the time had been put in, the payment was fair. The fact that it was totally unacceptable was unimportant. She refused to refund any money. I had paid through PayPal - so I was powerless.