Worst business experience of my life!

[deathroll]

Getting my web site built. Uhhhh, makes me shudder just to think about it.

Eight months ago I started a thread here on GatorCountry hoping to find a web designer/developer comfortable with online stores. As always, folks stepped up and tried but unfortunately, no one expressed any real expertise in customizing store functions. I ended up shopping the web and ultimately phone interviewing maybe a half dozen companies. I chose one based upon their web site, their staff size, their supposed professionalism, their written quote, their demeanor and a whole host of promises.

I blew it. I just plain blew it. I picked a pack of goofballs. These guys were extremely slow (and I mean that in every sense of the word), they did not know what they were doing (they too ended up shopping the internet for solutions and shopping out the work), they were not professional (word, style, format inconsistencies from paragraph to paragraph and from one page to the next), they would not listen to me (repeatedly ignored my input and would tell me how experienced/smart they were), they were passive aggressive (would make partial changes and wait for me to point things out 2, 3 and 4 times before responding), they were outright aggressive (repeatedly telling me the site was finished when copy, pages and functioning still did not exist). What's more, they maintained this air of superiority throughout the whole process. They stunk it up but never once apologized for anything. They consistently blamed me for everything.

Did I tell you I blew it?

Anyway, while it's not really complete and it's certainly not perfect, it is now (finally) far enough along for me to use it and to share it. If anyone out there knows of anyone out there that uses shrink wrap (wraps things) or stretch wrap (wraps/ships pallets), please, please, please pass my company name (Shrink | Stretch | More) and or my website (www.shrinkstretchmore.com) on to them. We ship nationwide.

Thanks,
deathroll

PS. I'd love to hear about other web design experiences, good or bad. I need company (er, uh, therapy).

[Swampmaster]

I've heard that the freelance sites are the best for web design, graphics, etc. You submit a project, name a price and get a bunch of offers.

[deathroll]

I've heard that the freelance sites are the best for web design, graphics, etc. You submit a project, name a price and get a bunch of offers.

Wow swamp, is this true? Never heard of such a thing. Interesting. You hear this from someone that actually did it? What'd they say about it? Any idea where I could find such a service?

[LakeGator]

Sadly, your experience is probably more typical than unusual. Far too many IT creatures are too far removed from humanity (there are humans and there are programmers but not so many human programmers). I have been in data processing (now called IT) for over 30 years and the gulf between business needs and technical delivery seems to have widened ever since the dawn of the Internet based world. The two sides often talk in the same words but never really seem to understand each other.

There are sites like Elance (http://www.elance.com/q/about-elance)that do what Swampmaster indicates but I suspect these sites require even more precise and, therefore, more difficult communications between the two sides of the equation. You need to provide some very clear and detailed specifications to get the techies to evaluate, bid on and, hopefully, deliver.

Your web site LOOKS quite appealing but seems to be a bit sparse. I would suggest placing the About and Contact links at the top of the page so visitors see them more prominently. I also suggest that you might want to add some discussion in your About or other pages about why you provide better products – why should I buy from you?

Best of luck!

[Go2gtr]

Now for placement.

[deathroll]

Sadly, your experience is probably more typical than unusual. Far too many IT creatures are too far removed from humanity (there are humans and there are programmers but not so many human programmers). I have been in data processing (now called IT) for over 30 years and the gulf between business needs and technical delivery seems to have widened ever since the dawn of the Internet based world. The two sides often talk in the same words but never really seem to understand each other.

There are sites like Elance (http://www.elance.com/q/about-elance)that do what Swampmaster indicates but I suspect these sites require even more precise and, therefore, more difficult communications between the two sides of the equation. You need to provide some very clear and detailed specifications to get the techies to evaluate, bid on and, hopefully, deliver.

Your web site LOOKS quite appealing but seems to be a bit sparse. I would suggest placing the About and Contact links at the top of the page so visitors see them more prominently. I also suggest that you might want to add some discussion in your About or other pages about why you provide better products – why should I buy from you?

Best of luck!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I appreciate it. Lake, I thought I'd chosen the right company. Good mix of young and old, IT and artists, technical and sales. Horrible! I brought others in to hear/speak with them to try and see if maybe it was me. It wasn't. Horrible experience across the board. Cost me a lot of money and a lot of time (which is more money). Also took a toll on my soul. Infuriating.

I do intend to add content. I want a clean, direct, non-cluttered (sparse) site (www.shrinkstretchmore.com). All of my competitors have jammed every product and every product detail onto their pages. I'm trying to make the customer's shopping/purchasing experience more relaxed, simpler, easier.

Now comes SEO. I've read a ton. Should be interesting.

Thanks again.

[Swampmaster]

here are some freelance sites I've heard are decent, but like lake says, it takes some upfront specs to give the designers some guidelines. One possibility---find some other sites you really like and provide these as a guide or tell the designers in the specs you would like to mimic these sites (style, design, etc.) -- a current emerging trend is responsive design -- works better on different size displays (tablet, phone, etc.)

http://www.freelancer.com/jobs/Website-Design/

http://99designs.com/web-design

also, here's a link with some good info about the freelance process

http://www.merchantequip.com/information-center/articles/setup-ecommerce-website/freelance-website-design/

also---check this site for 50 top web design firms

http://www.topseos.com/rankings-of-best-web-design-companies

[phatGator]

I think it's a nice, clean, easy to understand site. At least from an iPhone.