Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/20/2024

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Design In DC initially presented a website for my business on March 23, based on a baseline website I provided. At the transaction, Ziad, the owner, assured a fully functioning website through a contract, which will allow for the website's administrators to easily update content and highlight new work.. However, my project faced two delays due to manufacturer issues, which I promptly communicated. To my surprise, **** claimed he underestimated the workload and demanded $28k instead of the agreed $11K.As a small business owner, I couldn't afford the sudden increase and offered a 10% raise, citing the straightforward nature of the requested work. Despite this, **** and his team reduced the price increase to $16k and reduced the scope of the contract without my knowledge. When I refused to sign the altered contract and pay the new amount, they resorted to bullying tactics, involving their lawyer and bombarding me with harassing emails.Refusing to sign a new contract, I insisted on an addendum reflecting the 10% increase, leading to further intimidation and distressing communication. During the website development, they continuously requested extra payments for routine work, claiming it as additional scope. I stood firm and did not pay anything beyond the initial agreement.Ultimately, Design In DC delivered a faulty website with over 100 errors. When I requested fixes, they provided an unfinished version with more than 50 errors. The intentional coding complexity made it impossible to edit the website independently. In a closing meeting, **** pressured me to host and maintain the website with his company, which I declined due to the ordeal.Now, I find myself unable to modify the website as they promised in the contract. it seems as though the website was deliberately coded to necessitate reliance on Design In DC for any changes. Being a small business owner, I don't have the financial means to create a new website. The only viable options for me to implement changes on my current website are for Design In DC to rectify the coding, enabling admin users to make modifications, or for me to undertake the extensive task of rebuilding an entirely new website. **** and his team unjustifiably raised the cost by over 200%, attempting to exploit my limited technical knowledge.I am Seeking assistance to rectify this situation, I believe Design In DC provided a deliberately broken end product, taking advantage of my technical limitations. Despite multiple emails, they have not responded, leaving me in a challenging predicament.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/21/2024

  I am here to submit the documents requested by the BBB

  Business Response

  Date: 04/22/2024

  Design In DC builds quality custom websites for our clients.  We are disappointed in the complaint filed by ************************.  As this project progressed, it became clear that ******* wanted a site that was well beyond the scope contemplated and agreed to by the parties in our initial contract.  Having explained this to her,I was more than willing to expand our contract to include the increased scope,which in turn would naturally result in a higher cost.
  

  My company, and specifically my project management team assigned to this project, worked very diligently with ************************ to complete her project in a timely and professional manner.  Moreover, as the Chief Executive Officer, I personally spent hours of my time ensuring I had my most experienced staff working on this project.  Additionally, I have discussed this project personally with ******* on numerous occasions to explain what we agreed to, what we were doing for her, and how we were more than happy to expand the scope of the contract if she wanted.
  

  I feel that we absolutely provided the services that were contracted for.  As a matter of professional opinion, Design In DC went above and beyond what was stated in the Statement of Work in our contract.  This is in spite of extremely long delays in the anticipated timeline and many meetings that were missed without notice by ************************.
  

  My team provided detailed videos, per the contract, on how to update the website once it had gone live. Additionally, in reviewing the correspondence that my team had with ******* and her team, it is evident that they were expecting to be able to do much more extensive editing than was contemplated by our agreement and videos provided.  For extensive editing to websites, Design In DC does offer a robust maintenance package.  The videos were not intended to serve as a means to completely rework her website.
  

  In one of our exchanges, ******* mentioned that she expected to be able to update her site for the next 20 years off of our original design and work.  This is completely unrealistic given the amount of and complexity of changes she and her team were attempting to make to our original design.
  The last correspondence my team has had with ************************ was back in May of 2023.  We received a call that was missed and we responded back with a text to see how we could assist - but this response went unanswered as far as my staff can tell.  There was also a very telling email exchange in May of 2023 that highlighted the unrealistic expectations she had.
  

  I am confident that Design In DC provided a top rate web site as initially outlined in our contract. In looking back at our notes and recordings of the meetings with ************************, it is clear that she kept trying to add scope to her initial project.  And we were more than happy to add scope to her website design, but we wanted to be fairly compensated for the additional work we would be performing.
  

  As a gesture of good faith, my team is willing to meet with the client and expend up to another 10 hours to work on any other requested adjustments.
  We have successfully completed hundreds of projects of various sizes and it is always about creating long-term partnerships for us. We believe that we went above and beyond on this project so we are willing to meet and try to remedy this situation.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/03/2024

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: 21076692
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  From the start, I was upfront with **** and his team about our expectations for the website. When **** asked for an increase to $28,000, I didn't request any changes to the original scopeI provided a clear baseline for the website from day one. In fact, the updated contract for 28K removed scope from the original contract and I refused to sign it. In subsequent discussions, **** claimed he hadn't anticipated the amount of work required,but that seemed off, given that I'd supplied him with all the necessary information upfront. We never asked for extra features or changes to the agreed-upon design and scope captured in the statement of work.

  
  Upon reviewing their work, it was clear that the coding was poorly executed, as if done by someone with little experience. Furthermore, the website's theme seemed recycled rather than new, based on the layout, structure,and notes captured in the backend.

  
  Given the contract set the website's cost at $10,000, there was no valid reason for Design in DC to demand an increase to $28,000. And it certainly didn't justify delivering an incomplete product when we declined their unreasonable price increase.

  
  We've decided to cut ties with Design in DC, as we've had to invest more money in building a new website that is both modern and fully functional. We will not be engaging with them any further.
  
  
  Regards,
  
  ************************