AVOID THIS SHODDY OUTFIT AT ALL COSTS. MY TALE IS 100% TRUE, I CAN BACK IT UP WITH COPIES OF EMAILS SO DON'T LISTEN TO ANY TWADDLE ABOUT IT BEING A "COMPETITOR" TRYING TO CAUSE TROUBLE...
April I am referred to several web developers by APPROVED INDEX, and I talk to SITE SOLUTIONS. The salesman ADAM HAWAS seemed to understand the ecommerce site I was wanting and when I gave a budget of 4000-5000 VAT, quoted me a price of... 5000 VAT. After showing him what the competitors had quoted we negotiated down to 4000 VAT and while he was still the dearest, he had grasped what I was trying to do best. Time for the project was 3-5 weeks starting straight away. a 1000 deposit was put down.
A day or two later, a woman called me and then sent me 3 mediocre logos and asked me to pick one so I picked the least poor one and decided it was a small issue compared to the whole website I wanted so we could challenge it later.
4 weeks later and no contact so I call and ask what's happening. A new man DAVID EVANS emails me and says that he'll be overseeing my project and a designer would be in touch. Clearly the last person had done absolutely nothing with it and the new guy didn't seem so clear on what I wanted so I started to feel a little concerned. But he allayed my fears and the inital design phase didn't look so bad and took a few weeks of back & forth.
On 3 occasions, money was taken from my debit card details with no warning or explanation and when I phoned up to find out why I was told that the project was moving forward and it was normal practice to take money as the work was completed. Fooloishly I let it go but said I wanted to see some results soon. This was around August and remember the project was due mid MAY!
September comes and I get a call from the "Operations Manager" GORDON LEWIS. Saying the site's looking great and he'd like to take the final 25% of the total amount and sign it off. I ask for access to the site to examine the work they've done and when I see it I am flabbergasted!! It is clear that he hasn't even looked at it, no-one has tested it to see if it works or to see if the work that I paid for had been done.
To be clear:
THE SITE DID NOT WORK.
OVER 95% OF THE REQUESTED WORK WAS NOT DONE.
IT HAD BEEN FARMED OUT TO AN INDIAN DEVELOPER TO DO THE WORK
OTHER THAN THE FRONT PAGE, THE WHOLE SITE WAS A JOKE.
I contacted GORDON LEWIS back who passed the matter on to a colleague RYAN CHRISTOPHER. Having given him a full list of what had gone wrong he said that the site would need to be REBUILT FROM SCRATCH and would take 6-8 WEEKS. (That's mid-December now folks for a project that was started in April and was meant to take 4 weeks!!) and that if I wanted a refund he would need to take it to a senior members meeting on 10 October. I said that if it wasn't ready now it never would be and that I had been treated very poorly so I insisted onthe refund.
And that was the last I heard form them. I made dozens of phone calls daily until it turned out the Smart Site number was basically not being answered. I sent email after email, and a letter threatening legal action if they didn't return my money.
Investigations turned up other names that they traded under offering THE SAME PRODUCTS BY THE SAME PEOPLE WORKING FROM THE SAME ADDRESS. I managed to get through on those numbers but my messages were still ignored.
I eventually pretended to be another business looking for their services and surprise! they called me back! Made the same type of promises as before and said that their work WAS UNDERWRITTEN BY THE FIELDS GROUP. I said I'd do some enquiries on them and their company to see what their reputation was. Afew days later I get another phone call from them (!) asking if I'd like to go ahead with the work. I then tell them that I have a problem with the Fields Group about one of their businesses that had taken 3250 off me and stonewalled me. The lovely Eleanor sounds confused and says she'll make some enquiries and get back to me... guess what? Yup no contact ever again...
Thank GOD for my bank which managed to use the VISA chargeback rules and a bit of creative thinking... they managed to reverse every payment they had taken and I got my money back but without their help I WOULD HAVE LOST 3250 TO A DESPICABLE BUNCH OF CHARLATANS.
They even have a fake site called DESIGN COMPARE (http://www.design-compare.com/top_companies.php pretending that it refers people wanting web services to an appropriate business. It only refers EDESIGN UK, UK DIGITAL SOLUTIONS, and SMART SITE SOLUTIONS, which all lead back to the Fields Group and the site itself belongs to..err... The Fields Group. Hardly impartial advice!
THE FIELDS GROUP seem to have dozens of businesses under it, all of which have an address at the building in Bridgend. The E-design UK business lists it's address as in Coventry and the chap on the phone said they'd been offered packages to move there for work. Too bad for them I live in Coventry and checked their address. No-one moved anywhere! They still work from the same offices in Bridgend and Coventry is just a "Nameplate" service. They have a dizzying quantity of phone numbers, 0870, 0845, 0800, 01656 etc but it's all back to the same people at the Fields Group Building in Bridgend.
If anyone wishes to know more, see some evidence of this nonsense or any other queries I would be happy to oblige. I would be keen to see any rebuttal by any of the comedians who are part of this outfit, but I will refute any idea that I am 'stooge' for a competitor trying to cause them trouble. They have previously stated that they have offices worth millions, and hundreds of employees all over the world blah blah prestigious company etc etc. If this is true then why do they have 3 businesses providing the same services by the same handful of employees?
Also if you look closely at some of their so-called 'testimonials' many of them are just non-functioning template websites they made up themselves or, in the case of working sites, are referring to businesses also run by the Fields Group. It would be laughable if it didn't all look so plausible and likely to make you part with your cash.
So in conclusion... STAY AWAY FROM THE FIELDS GROUP, SMART SITE SOLUTIONS, E-DESIGN UK, UK DIGITAL SOLUTIONS AND ANY OF THE OTHER MULTIPLE NAMES THEY OPERATE UNDER. I HAD A LUCKY ESCAPE BUT OTHERS HAVE NOT BEEN SO FORTUNATE!!! DO NOT BE THEIR NEXT VICTIM!!
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