Complaint Review: Maverick Blair Creative - Las Vegas Nevada
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- Author Not Confirmed
- Maverick Blair Creative 7999 West Russell Road Las Vegas, Nevada United States of America
- Phone: (702) 810-4516
- Web: www.maverickblair.net
- Category: Websites
Maverick Blair Creative Maverick Blair HORRIBLE Web Designer. Las Vegas , Nevada
*REBUTTAL Individual responds: Let's Get the Facts Straight...
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Hiring Maverick Blair was the worst business decision I've ever made. He ripped me off for 11 thousand dollars and gave me a pathetic, horrible, non-functioning website. I hired him off of Craigslist and he was obviously cool in the begining(pre hire). Our budget was 4000 for an ecommerce website. He started to work on my website and I noticed that everytime I would tell him I wanted different things, he didn't listen and would do his own way, like it was his website. After 4 months he told me he needed another 4000 because it's more complicated then he thought, I kept asking him what was going on with my site and why he needed more money but he emailed me and said a few times that it was too long to explain so stupidly I trusted him and gave him more money. Sorty after that, about 3 months he told me he needed another 3000 to add more pages to my site and that if I "helped him out, I would be so awesome" he said he broke up with his gf because she was cheating on him, lie of course to get more money. After all was said and done I paid 11 thousand dollars for a website that didn't have my membership set up, no sell page, PayPal payment for only one month and scattered photos everywhere with content scattered as well. He also has a major major attitude problem and thinks every idea he has is the best one which is where he is wrong because soon he will be served with papers since I got a half a*s site for 11k. I have no problem suing him especially after my meeting today with my lawyer and anther web designer, appearently the way he designed the sites...yes sites. He made 4 websites! When I asked for 1 website with a few clean shop pages and a membership(again,his ideas) my new designer said because he used such horrible website frame I will not be able to join any 4 of those websites to make one, I also cannot use only one of those websites because then my business would fall apart. I now have to spend 5000 more to have a brand new site that will actually work. I saw three web designers that said the same thing so I know for sue he is a crook. I am so upset and really really disappointed. He lied and scammed me and told me he owes me nothing after I emailed him to help me.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 01/19/2013 11:11 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/maverick-blair-creative/las-vegas-nevada-89113/maverick-blair-creative-maverick-blair-horrible-web-designer-las-vegas-nevada-999977. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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#1 REBUTTAL Individual responds
Let's Get the Facts Straight...
AUTHOR: Maverick Blair - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Saturday, February 23, 2013
This Initial Introduction & Meeting
- Me: Aug. 26th 2012 at 12:10pm - I saw your posting online and wanted to introduce myself. If you haven't found anyone yet, please take a look at my online portfolio and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
- Client: Sep 6, 2012, at 6:08 PM - Hey, I need a site designed like eBay, is this something you can do?
- Me: Sep 6, 2012 at 6:49 PM - Yes, it can be done. What kind of budget do you have? Can you give more detail about what you want to accomplish? Do you want to build the site in stages? Feel free to call me if you wish to discuss further.
- Client: Sept 6, 2012 at 7:28 PM - Awesome. I'd like to meet because its way too long to type plus I need some feedback from you. When are you available?
Let's stop here for a second to review what she wrote in her report above compared to what really happened. She stated that "Our budget was 4000 for an ecommerce website.". In her email, as show above, and in first meeting on Fri 7 Sept. at 3:00 Starbucks, she stated she wanted a eBay-like site. There is a huge difference between an ecommerce website and an ebay website. Ebay was developed by a man that received $5M from venture capital business to expand and develop eBay.
Also at this meeting, I asked here what her budget was and she stated "I don't want to spend more than $12,000." and I responded, "Let's set your budget a $8000. That way if there become any unforeseen add-ons or scope changes, we will have some room if needed."
Now this confused her, so I explained to her as I will to you readers here;
Accepting the project for less than what she stated was her budget and leaving a $4000 gap between her budget and my acceptance price produced two things.
- She was getting what she wanted for less than what she expected to pay, mean ("happy client").
- Let me feeling protected incase there was a scope creep, design creep, or development creep.
- 50% deposit for web development $4000.00
- Total Budget for Project: $8000.00
- Description: Ecommerce/Auction website for used fashion apparel
- Client will provide all copy and content for project
- Site does not go live without Client approval.
- Client retains ownership and rights of project
She also makes false statements about me asking for more money at times;
- "After 4 months he told me he needed another 4000 because it's more complicated then he thought, I kept asking him what was going on with my site and why he needed more money but he emailed me and said a few times that it was too long to explain so stupidly I trusted him and gave him more money."
- "Sorty after that, about 3 months he told me he needed another 3000 to add more pages to my site"
The part that she leaves out in here report is that she continually kept changing her mind about what she wanted. I'm thinking great, "here comes the "creep". Remember what I mentioned above. So here are a list of events and all the changes that took place during my time with this client:
Me: On Sept 10, 2012 I began building the auction website.
Client: On Sept 19,2012, at 11 AM the client decided she would prefer a ecommerce site instead of an auction site because she "wasn't sure about setting the prices for the "buy now" option and didn't want to deal with the fact that maintaining a site like the auction would be more work than I want to do". So I stopped working on the auction solution and reversed gears and began developing a new ecommerce site solution.
On Oct 1, 2012 at 2:13 PM - Client sends me a list of designer brands. This is the one and only time she every give me copy for any of the sites. I have to create "dummy" content and place holders while I wait for copy and content that I never receive.
On Oct 1, 2012 at 7:51 PM - Client uploads photos to Dropbox. Very poorly taken photos of her dresses. Can't use any of them.
Me: On Oct 10, 2012, at 4:43 PM - "I've finish building the entire site. Now I'm taking it apart on my local server and putting it all together on the development server. So if you take a look at it, it might look weird and incomplete at times. Please know that its like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. So I the setup is going to take a couple of days, but you will see changes as I'm building the product pieces, the market place, and the design aspects. But we will be ready for the early Christmas shoppers. Yeah!"
On October 29 at 8:39 PM, she calls me up and says she "wants people to be able to barter and trade fashion items, so she wants a trade site. And since she doesn't want to handle any of the product, she wan't users to be able to communicate with each other, but have to pay to do so". Also, that she want's a blog on the main site and she wants to call it "Fabulous Lifestyle"
So now we have a total of four different types of sites:
- A main landing page with a blog (fabulousagain.com)
- A typical ecommerce site (shop.fabulousagain.com)
- A eBay-like auction site (auction.fabulousagain.com)
- A craigslist-like trade/barter site (trade.fabulousagain.com)
- Multi -site WordPress web development $3000.00
- This is an addendum to invoice dated 9/7/12 invoice #mb2012-01
- Addition cost for work: $3000.00
- Description: Develop membership based multi-site WordPress network for FabulousAgain.com
Project: FabulousAgain.com
a) Develop and design WordPress ecommerce membership based multi-site network.
b) Network will include three (3) ecommerce membership based WordPress websites:
I. Fabulous Again Shop
II. Fabulous Again Auction
III. Fabulous Again Trade
If you check the dates, at this point, I've only receive the initial 50% deposit of $4000 on Sept. 12, 2012 and $3000 for the additional work on Oct. 31, 2012.
On Nov. 1, 2012 I begin development on the other sites.
Me: On Nov 9, 2012, at 5:56 PM - email from me to client
- Multisite WP Network Setup - completed
- Databases installed and configured for all three sites - completed
- Site themes installed - completed
- Design customization for all sites - working on
- Fabulous Again
- Shop
- Auction
- Trade
I hope to have all the sites design and branding completed by end of next week. Meaning they should be ready to accept content. I will put together some temporary mockup content for the main site as well.
Client: On Nov 9, 2012, at 6:04 PM - Sounds good, thanks
On Nov. 20, 2012 I delivered invoice for a "milestone" payment. For those that don't know, a milestone payment is for when you reach a certain "milestone" or location in the development process, a developer can request a milestone payment. These are usually for protecting the developer because the project is sitting on the clients server and the majority of the project is completed at this point. If a client so wanted, they could shut out the developer and not pay the final payment and keep all the work that was performed.
The final payment for this project is $4000, I asked for $3000 and the final $1000 to be paid after 30 days of maintenance and training the client on how to maintain her sites. Here are the line items of that invoice:
1. Milestone Payment for Delivery of Work 3000.00
- This is a milestone payment for the delivery of work performed to the Client.
a) Reference: invoice inv_mb20120907b) Reference: invoice inv_mb20121031
- All source files have either been uploaded to Clients server or our shared Dropbox location.
- The following sites have been completed, delivered and uploaded to the Clients server and awaiting content.
a) FabulousAgain.com
Main Landing Page with Blog
b) Shop.FabulousAgain.com
Online ecommerce Site
c) Auction.FabulousAgain.com
Auction like website
d) Trade.FabulousAgain.com
Trade Listings website
- Final Payment: $1000 (due upon completion)
- Length of Maintenance and Training:
a) 30 days from the date of this invoice.b) Client will receive training on how to add content and maintain websites.c) During this time, Client can make minor design or style (css) changes that do not affect the framework or functional i ty of the site.d) As Client creates content:
I will be able troubleshoot any styling and functionality issues that arise on all sites.
SEO will be incorporated.
WPML will be incorporated.
The membership module will be modified and tested prior to soft launch.
PayPal will be tested using Sandbox until soft launch.
Social Networks will be tied into the sites.
Me: On Dec 11, 2012, at 4:40 PM - Landing Pages Updated:
- Shop
- Auction
- Trade
Client: On Dec 11, 2012, at 5:12 PM - Ok thank you
To Do List for Dec 18th Visit:
- Review all four sites from UX perspective.
- Help Client finish setting up PayPal verification
- Explain subscription process
- Set up Facebook business page and tie into social settings
- Re-visit FAQs section of all websites.
- Re-visit and confirm client understands how to populating all three websites with content.
- Discuss blog image editing 913x272
- Discuss remaining content needed on all sites.
- remove SELLER and temp content from all sites.
- Review Trade site.
- Explain WPML limits.
- 12.Explain SEO
- 13. Ads
She stated that "after four months, he need another $4000", and then "shortly after, about 3 months, he needed another $3000". The entire project was only 14 weeks (4 months) long, so her timing and statements about the money were not only lies, but backwards. If you read above and look at the list below, these are the facts.
I received money from the clients on:
- Sept 7, 2012 - $4000 deposit
- Oct. 31, 2012 - $3000 for additional work outside the scope of the original agreement
- Nov. 20, 2012 - $3000 milestone payment
- Dec. 18, 2012 - $1000 final payment
She only scheduled 3 training sessions to learn how to maintain her sites when she had 30 days available to her. She didn't want to do any work for her business. She wanted the sites to be self reliant.
If she was so upset with me during the entire process, why did she pay me? Why did she give me final payment in our last meeting?
My opinion of this situation is "buyers remorse". She had a great idea for a Fashion Exchange Social Network and realized that it takes work to build content and teach your users how the network and site work and function. Take a look at the sites, she hasn't created any content for the site other than what I've created to help get her motivated and started.
My last thought is that if you are considering get a website developed, you have the right to search out and talk to as many designers and developers before making your final decision. This client went ranting to other "supposed" designers that gave her "cheaper" quotes. She received four highly functioning sites that have cost others like ebay and craigslist millions for only $11,000.
If you take $11,000 divided by 14 weeks divided by 40 hours, I made a little under $20/hr. The industry rate range from junior to senior developer is $35/hr - $120/hr. I've been in this business for over 15 years, my hourly, when I charge by the hour, is $65/hr.
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