CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS OF NO PRIORITY TO JP OF WD, FRUSTRATINGLY SLOW, NO COMMUNICATION AND NON COMPLETION OF PROJECTS.

Stay far away from Website Design - SA Online and save yourself loads of stress and frustration with a full of attitude hiding behind email OWNER!!! (The Website Design company with the White "W" and blue "D" in their logo I mention here because there are so many companies within website designing, it is difficult to find them so that all know which one I refer to here. I designed our original website with them in 2011. It was a pleasant experience overall. Early Dec 2019, I received an email from WD Hosting and support department that we must upgrade / switch our domain to PHP 7.2 for various reasons. I then knew that this was a good time to do the upgrade we have been planning for a while as well. I rep**** promptly and from the start mentioned the urgency of completion and gave my reasons (as i am not a procrastinator that hides behind emails) because the real world is too scary. WD's BOSS MAN "JP", or Jean-Pierre replies that they will be closed from 13 Des - 6 Jan 2020. They provided a prompt quote for the scope of the work etc. I asked if we would be able to complete the project in Jan 2020, as I needed my website for important events communication due to an auction post Jan 2020. WD rep**** that they were fully booked for Jan 2020 already. Anyway, with high hopes and looking forward to a new look and upgraded website, I have send through all the changes I require to WD team by 08 Jan 2020. WD LIKES emails! If they used half of the time utilized to ponder between service agreements and "see my reply in "green" below, they could maybe finish a project on time with a happy customer as well. Lets move on. JP likes to remind his clients that he has asked for terms acceptance and or billing party information for so many instances already and have asked for this so many times blah blah red tape, although I send various mails confirming and pushing dates for my project, compiled and send through all of the changes I required. Just so that MR JP can tell you that is waiting for you for this and that. Meanwhile the email he refers to went belly up between all of the other abundant amount of mails send on the project. So there was an email that I missed about me not having completed the service agreement, so that is why my project can only be logged first week of February because WD is WAITING for me. I had to pay 50% deposit by 14 Jan 2020, to secure and book the project. I then was contacted by a developer that was assigned to me.

I paid my deposit by 14-01-2020. My project was allocated as a part time project with a 21 day timeline and not more than 9 hours of development time. The project was scheduled to start on 15 Jan 2020. Date for project due was set on 06 Feb 2020. So development started and first draft was only available on 6 Feb 2020. FIRST DRAFT, not a completed, checked, changed and verified website but a first draft! Final 50% balance of invoice was send to me on 31 Jan 2020 for payment, way before the first draft was even done. The final draft was to be completed on 17 Feb 2020. Now, for anyone who has build or designed a website, they should know that it takes lots of patience and much more than 2 drafts to complete a decent site that is exactly the way you as proud business owner would like your cyberspace advert page to be and nothing less. Definitely not by a second draft! So we are busy with the final touch-ups etc on the website and waiting for director approval on the website from our end between the 15 Feb - 21 Feb 2020. Remember the project is a part time allocated project.... So I get an email from JP saying in no uncertain terms that the project is now WAY BEHIND schedule and we with a great need of urgency all of a sudden (after +- 75 days!!!) from the first go ahead was given from my side. NOW al of a sudden there is a HUGE and very urgent need to finish the project (nogals TODAY) or i will have to be charged with an additional cost and project extension. From the start (5 Dec 2019), I constantly nagged for speed and quick turnaround with the project so that we can start with our urgent matters on our new website as planned and explained daily to the whole of WD team. Now after payment was made for the final 50% balance and only a second draft was provided I receive an EMAIL again telling me that the project is now way overdue and that every week over "COMES AT A COST FOR US" for the WD company. Email from Jean-Pierre. This is really poor customer relations in my opinion. Huge disappointment. Our company is nearly 35 years old and we employ 68 people. We have nearly 200 other companies that we do / have done business with over the years. There was very little instances where I received this kind of treatment and had to use so much energy to complete something as small as a website.

Now I am sitting with a incomplete website and unfortunately I have paid WD in full, so I have but no leverage to complete my project. Although the project is now close to 90 days in, I still don't have a website that is completed and ready as I was suppose to have and expected it to be! I now have to either pay up again, or leave it as it is. With the URGENCY expressed by myself to WD's big boss JP, with this predicament I requested an additional quote. I was quoted and told that the very important and o so busy WD company would only be able to accommodate and book my project only from the 11 March. Now through emails one can only go so far with urgent matters. Talking on the phone is like a picture VS words. Nowhere does JP have any contact details on any mail. Only an email address. I have to conclude my project very very urgently as we have prospective buyers requiring details by Tuesday 10 March. I simply cannot wait until 11 March to start the project with WD again. I have tried to get a hold of JP as I urgently needed to talk to him urgently to find a common solution as the time for typing emails, waiting for a reply and repeating this exhausting and time wasting method has passed. Now this is an impossible task to reach JP. Mr Juan-Pierre hides very conveniently behind typing emails, departments and other employees. This is really pathetic, how is it possible that a business owner can't talk to a client about a unresolved project? Nowhere is a telephone number, no one can put you through to JP due to company protocol, it is impossible to get a number for him or weak excuses of different departments. After various calls, messages and yes emails to the developer, the hosting and support I could not reach, get a number or be put through to JP to talk about a solution. I was told to send an EMAIL to JP, and request him to call me? What.... Where in the world does things work like this. I don't normally do reviews, but in the case of WD, save yourself a lot of trouble and avoid them at all cost. It is not worth the effort and energy. Customer satisfaction is of no priority to JP of WD.