I wanted to get my own website so I filled out a page and they called right back well I did purchase the basic package three pages and they where going to design it. The designer did a good job but there was a couple of things needed to get done before it went live well it went live before I approved the designer said I did approve it but I had emails proving that I was not going to approve it untill these things where changed and this was the day after it went live but nothing was done I had to summit them to the update request. When you asked for an update they take forever or get it totally wrong or they dont have it in the system and you have to use more of the update time they allow a year. These are the most incompitant people to deal with I would not recommend these people at all I'm sorry now that I signed up with them once my contract is up I'm switching my host and tranfering my domain name. DONT USE THESE PEOPLE

I spoke to Sepideh Hanks at Heritage Web Solutions on Friday (1/23/09) regarding website design and hosting. She sold me on their services over the phone and emailed me the contract to sign. When I received the contract it was entirely different than what was previously stated over the phone.

I immediately called back Heritage Web Solutions and was told Sepideh had left for the evening. I told the gentleman to cancel my account effective immediately. He assured me that there would be no charges to my debit card and that the account had been closed.

Today (1/26/09) I checked my bank account online and there was $170.00 debited to my account. I have been on the phone for the last hour with 6 different people from Heritage Web Solutions and they refuse to credit back the $170.

Anyone considering doing business with this company needs to beware. They are thieves!

Heritage Web Solutions is not a company i would recommend to anyone... They do not care about customer service in any way what so ever. They give you cheep pages and low initial sale and once you purchase you are obligated to either pay a bunch more for minor upgrades or have a cheep looking website. By the TOS you are obligated to keep the website, and anything you add on after that will cost you a arm and a leg.

I was a employee for Heritage a few months back and was appalled by the way that they treated their clients that i could not do it and feel good about it. Some of the many things i saw go on a regular basis and even did myself due to manager pressure to do so is:

1) One time a client wanted to ad a feature that was available... because we charged so much and were ridiculously overpriced he looked elsewhere. Found a company that did the exact same thing but for free.. He provided a HTML code for the designer to place in the website (takes a matter of seconds... no work at all included) Because he refused to pay the money and found the same thing for free else where, my manager made me charge him a $300 integration fee for pressing ctrl V on the keyboard. My manager told me strait up that he was going to have to pay 1 way or another.

2) When we initialy work with clients as a company they call them 2-4 times a week and try to "consult" with them... when in reality they are trying to up sell products. That is all they care about. If employees of Heritage try to do customer service we would get in trouble for wasting our time when we could be selling. Many issues on a daily basis go unsolved cause they are customers that will not purchase anything.

3) we have many products that are overpriced but a lot of them are plain scams. There is a gallery that we can include for free in a website it is called the standard gallery. We are told to try to sell it before we give it for free for at lease $100. there is also a rollover gallery that cost $200 what is the difference from the free gallery and the $200 gallery? You just have to change the code that is pre done from "no" to "yes". It is the exact same product. You use the same codes and same format but have to type 3 letters instead of 2.

4) By Terms of Service which most clients do not read you are obligated to host with heritage web solutions for at least 12 months... They say it is cause they do not make money off the design process that all products are at cost basically. This is what they teach employees and tell them to tell the clients. But that is not the case. A typical sale cost $120 per page $10 going to the sales person that leaves $110 . They pay the designers per page of $40 which leaves$70 a page that Heritage is profiting. they do have expenses i understand but they are far from designing websites at cost. The 12 months TOS is so you are stuck for 12 months. If you say you do not want to deal with them or found somewhere better you have to pay the first year of hosting to be released from the contract. And that is where the sucker sales come in. If you want a decent website you are forced to at least spent $500 additional... and that is for a basic site with minimal flash. Once you spent the thousands of dollars or keep the cheep looking one you have you are forced to host for 12 months. By that time most people will not be as upset and will just continue to swallow it. There are some that refuse and pay the fee and leave.. but at that time Heritage already has your money.

what to do if you find yourself in these situations

1) any client that goes to the Better Business Bureau and complains will get treated better by the CEO of the company. Only because they need to have all issues with the BBB resolved. And make sure if a offer is made or BBB contact you that you stay in contact with the BBB rep or it will be closed to no contact and resolved.

2) Make sure you talk to the right people. The problem with Heritage is even the managers will refuse to help you with any problems unless you purchase things since they are being hounded by upper management to sale just as bad as they hound the employees. You will need to specificly ask to speak with someone in the Priority Accounts Department, they are actually retention agents who are more open to helping you solve issues cause they are graded on a save ratio.

3) make sure you have EVERYTHING purchased before you agree to the terms of service. If you do not agree to the terms of service they have nothing to bind you by. Talk with your sales agent or the manager of your account and make sure all flash, galleries, databases... Everything you want is purchased. Then sign the Terms of Service. I would suggest you never sign them and work with someone else but at least make sure you have everything before

4) you can expect after you have bought everything to have less contact. You will not be contacted from your manager. Your designers all work from home all over the US and do not have schedules so they will be very hard to get a hold of. You will need to exert patience cause once you have spent all your money you go an low priority.

5) any feature or enhancement that is pitched by an agent if you negotiate will easily be brought down $100-$200. They will place you on hold saying they need manager approval but only in rare cases will they talk to a manager. Be sure to negotiate price and not settle.

I would not recommended this company to anyone. I have friends that still work there and they have informed me that the company is not doing good. They are falling behind with the cash flow. They were forced to cut all employees pay by 10%. Multiple times in the past few months my friends direct deposit was not able to be put in on time due to lack of funds. And the hosting is way over priced. You will pay $20-$60 a month for the exact same thing you could get for $9.99-$19.99 even though they will tell you it is different!

Heritage Web Solutions has not only *not* finished contracted work 2 months out from the stated finish date but they continue to put huge charges on our company credit card for which there was no agreement.

Otherwise called THEFT.

Credit Card company was notified and stated they "cannot stop the charging" you can only dispute them, even if they are reported as fraudulent in nature. Its a Dickensian nightmare.

I have never seen dealt with a company that so consistently flirts with fraud and outright fraud so persistently without being busted.

This company is the truest of crooks... PLEASE SAVE YOUR SELFS. There is no lower SCUM then a company that feeds and steels from new small business owners. Heritage Web Solutions specializes in getting your money and frustrating you until you leave. I have hundreds of emails and documents and over 200 hours of wasted time to end up out $1, 300 to Mark Strong who has stolen tens of thousands of dollars from people like you and me. He will simply send a copy of his terms of service. HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS TERMS OF SERVICE is over 50 paragraphs of your out of luck. It even says they don’t have to finish the site at all if they don’t want to. I am not kidding. AND BE CAREFUL!! THEY SLIP IT BY WHEN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT FOR A WEBSITE... AFTER THAT YOUR OUT AT LEAST $59 PER MONTH FOR 12 MONTHS IN HOSTING FEES PERIOD!!

I will paste a letter he sent me below that says if you want to go to small claims court you need to come to Utah. You See he knows its not worth the trip and bam he keeps on steeling!! This scum bag offered me and my business partner $200 because the other $1, 100 should be his for having to email me???

AGAIN SAVE YOURSELFS FROM PURE HELL AND SCUM!!

SEE LETTER FROM CEO MARK STRONG BELOW.

Mark Strong <[email protected]> Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 4:04 PM
To: michael rose <[email protected]>
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Dear Mr. Rose,

When you accepted Heritage's Terms of Service http://www.heritagewebdesign.com/tos.html on April 2, 2008 you accepted the essence of the third (3rd) paragraph in the Account Termination Agreement. See Section 41.

The purpose of the Account Termination Agreement is simply to put in concise terms the provisions of unwinding our relationship. Heritage doesn't need an additional signed Account Termination Agreement. It is as much for your protection as Heritage's.

It is now your call as to what you want to do. Our position has already been stated: $200 refund and release of Heritage's work to you. If this is not acceptable, then have your attorney communicate with Heritage at:

Heritage Web Solutions
1460 N. Moonriver Drive
Provo, Utah 84604

Attn: Legal Department

As a professional courtesy, please make your attorney aware of Section 43 of the TOS. It establishes the courts in the State of Utah as the courts having jurisdiction in all legal matters. It states:

43. Jurisdiction.

This agreement shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the State of Utah, USA, without regard to any conflicts of laws provisions thereof, as a contract entered into and performed entirely within the State of Utah. The parties herby expressly disclaim the application of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods. Any disputes between the parties relating to the subject of this agreement shall be submitted exclusively to the jurisdiction of the state or federal courts located in the State of Utah, Counties of Utah or Salt Lake, and the parties expressly consent to personal jurisdiction and venue therein and waive any objection based on forum non convenient or otherwise.

Should you decide to litigate in any other jurisdiction, HWS will engage legal counsel in that jurisdiction. However, HWS will not litigate the merits of the case. Our legal counsel will have the jurisdiction referred to Utah. This “Jurisdiction” provision has been challenged in the courts before and the courts have consistently upheld this provision.

It is hoped that we can terminate this relationship amicably and promptly.

Please advise.
Respectfully,
Mark Strong
Chief Quality Officer
Heritage Web Solutions.