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Why Web Companies Lie To Get Your Business

Article Overview

It is a shame in this day and age that many web design companies will lie and bend the truth in order to secure your business. This practice goes on day after day in an unregulated manner. Ease of entry into this industry, with rampant out sourcing makes this business highly competitive, where telling lies and hiding the truth is just part of the sales process.

THEY NEVER MENTION WHAT CMS PLATFORM THEY WILL BE USING.

Most websites are built around a CMS platform or content management system. This allows you to get into the site and manage it for yourself. That is add content, images or articles. Its a great way to keep you site current and is a ‘must have’ component of the web process.

What web companies will not tell you or lie about is that they will be using their own ‘purpose built’ CMS platform. This means that once the site has been developed, you can never leave the company. That is, they own all the intellectual property surrounding this CMS and you are stuck with them for the life of the website. They ly renatl fees for the site, have absolute total control over the site and if you ever want to leave them, then you cannot take the site with you. Basically, you are just renting the website from them. This is a HUGE and I will repeat this a HUGE mistake and is made by businesses each and every day.

The web company will never tell you about this and once you are with them, then they start hiking up the monthly rental fees for the site, saying that they need to do a monthly maintenance or some other lies that just end up costing you more and more. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of this trap, and they end up having to work with a web studio that does not deliver the designs promised, over charges on a monthly retainer ( that is totally unnecessary), and ends up owning the actual site.

If you Google ‘web design’ and you are based in Sydney, you will see hundreds of web companies, all selling their wares. I can see, from my experiences, at least 50% of companies that are operating under this false system. They are not exactly telling you a lie, but they are not divulging the whole truth when it comes to your website. This is bad business practice and consumers are getting totally ripped off.

So please ask the question next time; is my CMS platform open source or not. If it isn’t and they have their own CMS, then never use this company as you will end up getting completely burnt.

THEY TELL YOU THAT ALL THEIR WORK IS DONE IN HOUSE.

This is one of the biggest lies that I hear all the time. So many web studios will be happy to take your business and then ship everything overseas for the design and development. I cannot begin to tell you this issues associated with this, but let me point of just one thing. How can an Indian designer, design for the Australian market and what are the guarantees on the quality of work you will be getting. I get at least one phone call per day from someone who has been lied to and ripped off in this manner.

Make sure that you GO AND VISIT the wed firm before you make any decisions. If they discourage a meeting then something is ‘fishy’.

The way they work is to promote themselves heavily online, and offer cheap prices in order to secure the sale. They have slick talking sales reps, trained on how to overcome any objections and will absolutely 110% lie to you over the phone about where the design is being done. On top of this, you never get to meet with them and it is rare to deal with the same person twice. This is a recipe for disaster and it happens over and over again. They do not care about you, your business or the end result. It’s all about the sale and you will be the loser if you get suckered into this.

How can I say this? Because I have to pick the pieces up when business owners call me ( often very upset).

GOLDEN RULE # 1: go and visit their studio and physically meet with the designer.
GOLDEN RULE # 2: if they are offering web packages that are under $500 – then this is a sure sign that they are offshoring your work, or just using some old crappy template.

3) ALL THEIR DESIGNS ARE FULLY CUSTOMISED BASED ON YOUR BRIEF.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this then I would be wealthy. Cmon, think about it. How can they spend valuable, and expensive design time on your website for only $500. If you believe this lie then you probably deserve to be working with these guys. Designing a unique customised website takes lots of man hours. I know this because I see my web team spending days on the design and user interface process. It’s not something that is able to be churned out in a couple of hours.
So if they say that they are giving you a truely customised website and the cost is far too good to be true, then you are getting lied to.

If you value your business and your online profile. Then this takes design time and costs money. If you don’t care about the way you are perceived online, then probably this might be a good solution for you. BUT word of warning, don’t expect your online experience to be easy or successful. Failures online are common, due to these kind of lies and it is only those business owners who are prepared to invest their time and money, who will succeed.

GOLDEN RULE # 3: Avoid cheap n nasty web packages. THEY DONT WORK, NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL.

CHEAP TO START BUT THEN WATCH OUT.

They will offer you insanely good web packages, but if you want to make any of your own design amends or go beyond their; 2 rounds of changes, watch out. Lets say they come up with a design and you are unhappy with it, then any of you own design input will be charged at normal design rates. And this can sting! So what was originally thought of as a good deal, will end up costing you as much as a credible web company would charge. The only exception is that you have the crappy designs from a template design studio.
Basically, you got trapped and duped into believing that you were going to get a great looking website for a great deal. In fact, in reality, you are going to have to start the whole process again.


GOLDEN RULE # 4
: Ask how many rounds of design amends you can have and the costs associated with any changes after this.


THE MORAL

Designing and building a website is like building a house. All the ingredients have to come together if you are going to have a solid, beautiful looking home. Web design, like the building industry is fraught with pit falls, con artists, rip off merchants, etc etc. So, it is up to the astute business owner to make sure that they have and are working with the right company to get the right end result. If you have built a home then you will know what I am talking about.

Don’t run into this blindly, as the saying goes:’ a fool and their money are easily parted’ and this can happen in the web industry very quickly. Do your homework, due diligence and then and only then make your decision.

If still unclear, make sure you engage a reputable web design sydney company like Hopping Mad Designs

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