ComplaintsforWild Side Design Co.

• Initial Complaint

  06/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Delivery Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Kelsey S****** Wild Side Designs, LLC ** ***** ** ******* ** **********  Dear Kelsey Re End Strategy, Branding, and Web Solution for ******** ****** ** December 30, 2021, we entered into a Contract of Service (“Agreement”) wherein you agreed to provide me with an End Strategy, Branding, and Web solution (“Branding Project”). I am writing because I am currently dissatisfied with your service and it is my hope that we can resolve the outstanding issues amicably, complete the Branding Project, and finalize the payments. The Branding Project was scheduled to be fully completed by April 8, 2022. Under the terms of the Agreement, I agreed to pay Wild Side Designs, LLC $9,225, in stages, during the course of the Branding Project. To date, I have paid you $6150.00. However, as of June 2, 2022, the Branding Project remains incomplete. Specifically, the following items remain outstanding: • Website design not complete • Branding collateral needs to be finished and the final product sent to myself. • Website uploaded to the internet and is functional Please contact me at your earliest convenience to let me know when you will complete these outstanding items. You can reach me at [enter email address] or by phone at *** **** ******. To the extent that the completion of any of these items requires feedback from me, please let me know by e-mail as soon as possible and I will provide you with a timely response. If the outstanding items on the Branding Project cannot be completed by June 23, 2022, I may need to seek other recourse because the delay in receiving the finalized work product from Wild Side is currently affecting my ability to generate and retain business. However, as I mentioned, I do hope that we are able to resolve this amicably and finish the remainder of the Branding Project, as contemplated in the Agreement, without further delay. Sincerely, ***** ******** ******** ******

  Business response

  06/22/2022

  As per the customer's wishes, we have completed the outstanding items including the website, which can be seen at the following URL: ******************************** - we are awaiting final payment of the outstanding project balance in order to transfer to the client's domain. We have requested the necessary details of the client's hosting and domain details so the transfer can be made, and have not yet received them. All final files have been provided to the client, visible in this Dropbox folder: *************************************************************************
  
  In addition, we have offered a generous 10% discount on the client's total project cost which the client has accepted as compensation. The only pending item, the website transfer, is awaiting domain and hosting details from the client as well as final payment, as stated in our contract we only perform the website transfer after the final payment is completed.

• Initial Complaint

  12/09/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I am seeking a full refund of $2310.98 (proof of payment attached) given the company's refusal to provide the services outlined in our contract (attached), & the financial losses my business incurred due to several multi-week lapses in communication & missed deadlines. I hired them on 12/8/20 for a website launch in 2/2021, which kept getting delayed & was never completed, despite me meeting all of the deadlines they set for me. They never said they wouldn't finish the project, precluding me from hiring another designer. I hired a new company that completed the website 5/19/21. Because of their delays, this was almost 4 months after my team had planned to open our business. They also offered new client appointments when they weren't responding to me. An email (attached) from owner ****** S****** dated 3/13/21, stated there was "no excuse," she "caused a great burden," was "prepared to compensate" me & give a "monetary concession." I never received the promised refund & emailed on 3/9, 3/14, 3/22, & 4/19/21 that I would seek resolution through the BBB if I did not hear from them by 4/23/21 & I did not. When I hired them for the website, they required I pay for branding (Brand Strategy $999, Branding Package $1899, & Website $3899). While they did deliver some, but not all, of the branding, they never built the website; I never would have hired them for branding alone. I only paid for branding because they required it for the website; they did not provide all of the final branding files or licensing rights per our contract, such that the branding they did do could not be used by the next designer. All of our communications from the Asana platform we used is attached. I initially expressed dissatisfaction via Asana (see pg 23-4 of "Wildside Collaboration Messages", messages dated 1/27 & 1/28/21), & thereafter in both Asana (see pg 39-41) & via email (see "Wild side Design Emails") starting 3/9/21 after not hearing from them for 21 days despite 5 requests for updates.

  Business response

  03/03/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/12/20) */ Hi *******, Thank you for reaching out! On behalf of the Wild Side team, I'd like to extend our apologies that you weren't 100% satisfied with the service. As per some extenuating personal circumstances, we were indeed slightly delayed in our ability to deliver your project and extended our apologies at the time for the inconvenience this posed, in addition to final files and a significant monetary concession. However, contrary to the claim that no files were delivered, attached you will find evidence that the final files were, in fact shared via Dropbox in April of 2021. The screenshot shows that you were given active access to not only the final files, but also the source files (AI) that were not originally included in the project. In addition, we did not charge any additional payment beyond the non-refundable deposit as outlined in the contract, as a concession. At the time that the project was closed, we had completed the entire brand strategy ($999), brand design ($1889) and the homepage of the website ($625) for a total of $3523. The total paid in the deposit was $2310, leaving a total of over $1200 in concessions. Although the outcome was not as planned, we believe this was a fair resolution for the work completed, as you were provided with the final files and source files for all the work completed together, and as per the contract, the deposit payment is considered as "non-refundable". If you had any issues accessing the final files, we would have been happy to explain or help with the files provided via Dropbox at any point in the past 8 months. From my records, we did not receive any such inquiries until now, so assumed that you had no issues in accessing the files. We're very sorry that you weren't satisfied with the final result, however we provided everything we completed on our end in terms of final files and believe that the $1200 (34% discount) in concessions is more than fair to compensate for additional inconveniences. We wish you the best of luck with your brand and are available for any additional questions you may have via email. Have a wonderful holiday season! Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2021/12/23) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) While I appreciate the company's response, it unfortunately contains several inaccuracies & false claims. 1) I am filing this complaint not because of dissatisfaction with the "final result" but because of the company's breach of contract. Per the contract, 20 days without communication constitutes an "abandonment of project" a breach of contract in which case the company will "refund the outstanding difference" for payment for work "not yet performed." The implication in their recent response was that I chose to cancel the project due to dissatisfaction, when it was their "abandonment of project" (which happened without notice from them), that resulted in the breach of contract that ultimately terminated the project. If I had been the one to breach the contract or decide to cancel the project due to dissatisfaction with the quality of work, per the contract, different terms and conditions would have applied (e.g., the deposit of $2310 would be considered non-refundable). I do not believe it is fair or accurate per the contract for me to be penalized financially by the "cancellation" clause when in fact it was their breach of contract that ended the project, not my "cancellation." The breach of contract stipulation is different and involves me being refunded by the company. As my documented communication with them illustrates, if they had let me know what was happening or offered a plan for moving forward, I would have been amenable to working things out with them. In fact, toward the beginning when there were some shorter yet still concerning delays, I expressed my concerns and did in fact work with them toward resolution. However, after not hearing from them for 3 weeks (which was well past the already twice-delayed project completion date), and seeing the stipulation in the contract regarding "abandonment of project," I realized that they had made the choice to terminate our relationship. I would have appreciated hearing from them earlier about their intention to abandon the project, as I unknowingly waited 3 weeks to hear from them & incurred additional financial and business-related losses as a result. Moreover, I could have begun looking for a new web design company during that 3-week time period had I known they were not planning to complete the project. 2) The only files that were fully finished & provided were the brand strategy ($999). As highlighted in the documented communication between me and the company, several items were never completed from the "brand design" ($1899) including at least 2 collateral items. The "home page" they reference was an incomplete first draft that never integrated my requested revisions, an allowance clearly stipulated by the contract. In summary, my payment ($2310.98) was an overpayment of at least $1310 for work not completed. Thus, contrary to their claim, they haven't yet made a monetary concession. Even if I had received the finished final files from the brand design (which I didn't - more on this below), several collateral items that are included in the total charge for the brand design package were never completed. Therefore, it is not accurate to claim this total amount of $1899 as a "monetary concession" since all of the items included in the brand design package were not completed as agreed per the contract. In terms of the referenced "homepage," they provided one draft and received a list of requested edits from me in response to that draft. My feedback was never integrated. Per the contract, the web design includes one main design plus two rounds of revisions. Therefore, supplying one draft of the home page design and not integrating my requested revisions does not constitute a completed home page draft as they are suggesting in their tabulation of a claimed "monetary concession." In order for this homepage to be considered "complete" it would have needed to include two rounds of revisions, which were not made. As such, claiming the $625 as a monetary concession is also inaccurate. According to the documentation I have provided, my payment of $2310.98 represents an overpayment of at least $1310 for work not completed. 3) The claim that they didn't receive any indication from me that I never received final files is false, as I communicated on March 24th & April 19th via email that I hadn't received the files. In fact, I emailed on 4 occasions regarding the incomplete work & requesting files for completed work and associated licenses. They responded to only 1 of these 4 emails saying they would send files. I never received the files nor a response saying they sent them. The company claims they sent me files in April 2021 but is not able to provide documentation that I ever received these files nor documentation of an email informing me that they were in fact sent. Dropbox has a function that allows you to see who has viewed or accessed files you have shared, and therefore they can clearly see that I have never accessed those files. They told me they would send files early in the week of March 15th, so presuming their claim that they provided those files in April is true, providing final files in April after they were promised in March demonstrates that even after delaying the project completion date by at least 2.5 months and not communicating with me for a total of over 5 weeks over the course of the project, they caused further unnecessary inconvenience by waiting at least another 2 weeks, if not longer, in providing files for the work that had actually been completed. In a situation like this where a company has admitted they had extenuating circumstances that contributed to their delays, lack of communication, and missed deadlines, all of which resulted in abandonment of a project without notice, I don't understand why they would cause further unnecessary delays and inconvenience by not promptly sending final files as they agreed or responding to emails. It seems like an ethical best practice to respond promptly when you have caused harm to another business and know and admit that you are at fault (e.g., owner says in one of her emails that there is "no excuse" for their lapse in meeting deadlines). While it is true that I had access to draft files for extra illustrations they provided as an act of good faith after their first multi-week delay in communicating with me and meeting agreed-upon deadlines, I was never given the licensing information for these source files so legally could not have used those files even if I had wanted to do so. They also did not revise those illustrations as agreed so the source files in my possession were not technically the final versions. 4) Their admitted delay was not "slight" as stated in their response. It was at least 2.5 months past the original agreed-upon project completion date including several multi-week communication lapses despite multiple outreach attempts on my part and me meeting every single deadline in a timely manner. Due to the team's significant delays in completing tasks, missed deadlines and several multi-week lapses in communication on their end, the project completion date was pushed back several times - first to 2/26/21 and then to 3/8/21. However, the last communication I received from them in the project management software was on February 16th, 2021, and they did not respond to at least 7 of my requests for updates from February of 2021 through April of 2021 after this abrupt disappearance Even if they had restarted the project on March 9th when I emailed expressing distress about their abandonment of the project, due to the number of days needed for full project completion, that would have meant the earliest completion date of the project would have been at least 2.5 months after the original agreed upon date. Given the contract stipulates a lapse of 20 days is considered an abandonment of project, I do not understand how a delay of at least 74 days (2.5 months) can be considered "slight." While it would be helpful to receive a full or partial refund from this company, the reality is that their abandonment of the project without notice (which they have admitted was due to their circumstances, not mine), has cost me far more money than what I overpaid them for the services they never provided. The amount of time it has taken me to file this complaint and gather documentation to support my statements has also cost me much more money than what I have paid them. As stated previously, I met every single deadline they ever set for me and remained in consistent communication throughout our collaboration. I was kind, gracious and respectful in my communication and very understanding about their delays, even when they continued to miss deadlines and not respond to me, at great cost to me personally and professionally. As such, I would really appreciate the company's timely response in this matter and collaboration toward a mutually agreeable resolution. Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2022/01/09) */ We appreciate the customer's response regarding the matter, however as per our contract we stand firm in our positioning. The files were shared directly from Dropbox at the time we indicated above. And per the contract, the referenced clause regarding abandonment applies to the client only, as is clarified in the term below that the client must initial. In addition, there is a term that states "WSD, LLC will be solely responsible for determining the value of the work provided up until the cancellation." For this reason, we stand firm in our valuation of our services as per our standard pricing that we use for all client projects. Again, we are very sorry that the client was dissatisfied with the service provided and for the inconvenience caused, and we believe that the final files provided and the discount more than make up for the extenuating circumstances on our end. We make no guarantees in any of our projects, proposals or contracts of launch dates or official deadlines, and although we do our best to meet them, extenuating circumstances do occasionally occur, as was the unfortunate case with this project. For this reason, as outlined in our previous response, we provided a significant project discount on the work provided. We wish the client all the best with her business. Consumer Response /* (4200, 13, 2022/01/18) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I appreciate the company's response, but this is the second response that not only misrepresents what happened but also fails to adequately address several key points in the original complaint filed and prior rebuttal. The most significant issues that remain unaddressed by the company are outlined below. 1) The company continues to falsely claim that I was the one to "cancel" the project. As stated previously, I expressed my confusion and concern about their lack of response and provision of work for over 6 weeks across multiple outreach attempts in email and the Asana collaboration platform. They eventually responded by acknowledging there was "no excuse" for their lack of communication and offering monetary compensation. At no point did they offer a plan for completing the project or suggest an alternative to *their* cancellation of the project, despite my multiple requests and me giving them ample time and opportunity to do so. Therefore, they are aware that the client cancellation clause does not apply to this situation, yet continue to reference this clause to suggest that they are not contractually obligated to be held financially liable for their termination/cancellation of the project, which is a gross misrepresentation of this situation. In addition, I referenced the aforementioned 20-day abandonment clause in a prior email correspondence with them, and they did not say that this clause applied to the client only. So, if it is indeed true that this abandonment clause is intended to apply to clients only, they did not do their due diligence in clarifying this misunderstanding in any of our previous correspondences, and are only doing so now in order to support false claims. 2) Since the client cancellation clause is not applicable, per their legally-binding contract (see pg 6), there are two clauses that could apply to this situation - either (a) the company's "breach of contract" or (b) the company's "non-breach-of-contract cancellation". According to clause (a): "Upon our breach of contract, you may choose to terminate the project...In such case, if you have paid for work not yet performed, we will refund the outstanding difference." According to clause (b): "Upon non-breach-of-contract project cancellation by us, we will deliver to you all paid-for work and will refund 20% of the fees you have already paid to us during the course of the project in question." If the company is really committed to standing by their contract, both clauses (a) and (b) above require them to provide monetary compensation in a manner that does not align with their false claim of a "discount" or the way in which they say they are calculating this claimed discount. I believe that above clause (a) applies since the company breached the contract in terms of what they committed to providing both in the contract and project proposal document, which would require them to refund me for work not yet performed. As mentioned previously, I did pay for work that was not yet performed. Please see my prior rebuttal in which I reference several collateral items included in the total charge for the brand design package ($1899) that were never completed. Please note that the "final files" referenced, even if I had received them, still would not include these collateral items since the collateral items were never started or completed. In addition, the home page design they are including in their "charges" did not incorporate my feedback, even though two rounds of feedback are included in the fees as the contract stipulates. In summary, according to clause (a) the company would owe me at least $1310 (please see my prior documentation for details about this calculation). Even if the company is contending that they cancelled the project without breach of contract, according to clause (b), the company would owe at least $462.20 (20% of the money paid by me to them during the project, which was $2310.98). 3) A discount has not yet been provided as I have previously stated and documented. 4) The final files were never received. The company said in an email they would provide the final files within a certain timeframe, yet even after apologizing, never responded to that same email thread providing a link to those promised files. Even if they did provide the files as they claim and on the date they claim, they did not provide the files in a timely manner per pg 1 of the contract: "We have the experience and ability to perform the services you need from us and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner." After acknowledging themselves that there was "no excuse" in lapsing with my project, it is not due diligence to continue to not respond to a client's emails and to not follow up with a client to say that the promised files had been sent via a platform other than email, especially one that we had not used previously, and to confirm receipt, especially since they claim the files were sent much later than they had initially promised. Of note, they had shared files through google drive previously, but never dropbox; if their claims about sending final files are true, sending files through a third-party platform that had not previously been used during the project, not alerting me that these files had been sent, especially since it was much later than initially promised, and not confirming receipt (through this third-party platform or otherwise) does not seem like due diligence or adequate reparation in response to their acknowledged mistakes. 5) The company states they make "no guarantees" about meeting deadlines, yet throughout their contract emphasize the importance of timeliness on behalf of themselves and their clients. As one of many examples, on pg. 3 of the contract they state: "Throughout the process we will endeavor to meet all the deadlines as outlined in the project calendar we will provide to you, however deadlines work two ways and you will also be bound by the dates outlined in the project calendar....If the project is delayed due to lack or response or late response on your end, we are no longer responsible for keeping to the same schedule originally agreed upon, and project tasks may experience longer delivery times than originally agreed upon due to overlap in project booking caused by the delay." As demonstrated previously, I never missed a single deadline throughout the course of this collaboration. 6) The company continuously refers to "extenuating circumstances" even though such circumstances only applied during one of their multi-week absences, not all of them. For one absence, they explained they were training another employee on a "larger project" (please see communication document), so it is not accurate to continue to attribute their inability to provide deliverables as contractually agreed upon to "extenuating circumstances" since those "extenuating circumstances" only applied during a portion of our project time. Moreover, during the period of "extenuating circumstances" that occurred toward the end of our project, their online scheduler remained open and accepted new client inquiries and appointments. I would appreciate clarification about why these extenuating circumstances uniquely applied to my project, yet did not interfere with taking on new projects, meeting with new or existing clients other than me, or making progress on other "larger" projects. I kindly request that the company respond to the above points at a minimum, correct the inaccuracies in their prior claims, and review the documentation that exists in support of my claim more closely (e.g., our prior correspondence via email and Asana, project proposal, contract, etc.) so that we can work toward a timely resolution of this matter. I have spent a lot of time attempting to communicate respectfully, fairly, clearly and accurately before and during the BBB's involvement, as well as in providing documentation to support my claims, and appreciate the company's collaboration in doing the same.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩