Ripoff Report Needs Your Help!
X  |  CLOSE
Report: #1131301

Complaint Review: Submit Digital - Los Angeles California

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Anonymous — Other
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Submit Digital 3923 W. 6th St. #413 Los Angeles, California USA

Submit Digital, Todd Southwick, Josh Christianson never completed project, took forever, unauthorized charges on credit card Los Angeles California

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Owners Explanation and Response.

*Consumer Comment: Original Poster is Correct: AVOID Submit Digital!

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Opportunity to address customer issue

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

Is this
Report about YOU
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
How to fix
Ripoff Report
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..

The list of work we had agreed to do to my site was to be completed over a two week period.  A few weeks after that, with the project still not complete I received an email saying that the work was finished and that they wanted the balance paid and then would go live with the site.  (We had agreed on a price for the entire project, not an hourly rate.)  There were many points that were not complete.  This was a theme throughout my experience with these people.  They would say the work was done, when it wasn't, and then would want money.  In my experience, never pay someone the final balance until the work is done!  (Which I didn't, thankfully or it would never have been completed.)   It took them over 6 months to complete the work (there were a few small additions to the project on my part but nothing that would add 5 months to the work!)  I had to beg and plead for them to finish the work or even to get a response to my emails and would be ignored for weeks.  When I would finally speak to one of the guys on the phone he would tell me how annoying the fine points I needed done were and that he just never felt like doing them.  Definitely not very professional.  I put up with them through all of this.  For the additions to the project that were not part of the flat rate, I ended up paying their "discounted" hourly rate.  The thing that finally got me mad in the end is that they were trying to charge me the hourly rate for items that were in the original work and had already been paid as part of the flat rate.  When I told them not to charge me for those items - they went ahead and did it anyway, without my authorization.  I had to contest this with my credit card company and thankfully I won.  One more thing: I purchased a few magento extensions though them and they never gave me the serial number so now I am not entitled to updates or customer support - even though I paid for them.  These people are difficult to deal with and unprofessional.  They do not complete projects on time, they basically practice fraudulent credit card activity and they don't give you the extensions that you pay for. 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 03/17/2014 02:21 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/submit-digital/los-angeles-california-90020/submit-digital-todd-southwick-josh-christianson-never-completed-project-took-forever-1131301. 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

Search for additional reports

If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:

Report & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
What's this?
Also a victim?
What's this?
Repair Your Reputation!
What's this?

Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
1Consumer
2Employee/Owner

#3 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Owners Explanation and Response.

AUTHOR: Submit Digital - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, March 09, 2016

This review is disgusting.  There are appropriate ways to go about resolving an issue you may be having with a service provider.  In the case of my company, I give EVERYONE my direct phone number.  I learned years ago, that you can avoid any issues just by picking it up.  Are most companies going to do this? -no.  Especially not overseas.

We have been in business 5 years.  That is much longer than a typical development company.  Reviews and issues such as this are the reason why many of the talented developers who owned companies in the United States ultimately moved on.  This is the main reason why people -especially small clients have issues finding good help on the Magento platform.  

Submit Digital has provided development services for it's clients since 2012.  Typically the work we did was for medium size companies.  In 2013 after talking to a number of small companies, we decided to try to develop a process to service these companies at very low prices.  The thought was that we could help these clients by streamlining the processes with a third party development partner in India.  This division operated from October 2013 to June 2014.  Admittedly we had tons of issues delivering the product we offered at the price we quoted.  

In the 8 months we tested the product line we ended up losing money on the majority of the clients.  The clients also felt the frustration of our attempt to deliver a product that simply could not be done with the structure we set up.  In order to keep prices low we had to use a third party in India.  Also the project management had to be performed by low level employees.  By the time these project managers were trained, they ended up moving on to other companies.  This was all a function of pricing.  You simply cannot price development services on the Magento platform at a level that small companies can afford.  Hence the success of managed platforms like Shopify and Bigcommerce in recent years.

Ultimately we discontinued the product and attempted to address the problems that clients experienced.  In almost every deal we lost money.  In some cases money was refunded and in others we provided additional services like free hosting.  It was an expensive test to try to deliver something different.  I feel it was a worthwhile effort to deliver a product that had a market need that ultimately did not work out for anyone.

So while I can admit that we had some issues with small clients in 2014, I still feel that the narrative of this particular complaint does not exist.  For one thing, all the development clients from the past 12 months have been pre-existing relationships that are still ongoing.  The post makes it seem like there are all these clients out there with problems and that is simply not true.  I know because we are still working with them and I am in contact with them. The idea that we are purposely getting clients, screwing them over and squashing reviews is ridiculous.  We have an A with the BBB because if we get an issue we address it.  The company is even has to agree as part of the BBB membership to arbitration that is free to the customer.  The process not only is free to the client, but it highly favors customer satisfaction.

To address the size of the company.  At times we have been larger.  The times we expanded staff in order to service more clients have generated problems.  Personally I ended up working more, getting paid less, and having a larger percentage of customer issues.  Currently I personally manage 100% of our clients.  The two full time developers at the company have been with me forever.  Like 4 years each.  They are good.  Some lower end developers have come and gone.  As it stands now, I can offer a limited number of clients good service.  I am not ashamed of the small size of the company.  I care about every single client and I value the relationships.

As far as reviews.  So many out there are fake.  I can write bad reviews or good reviews for any company out there.  On this website, you can write whatever you want and it stays forever.  I probably should have asked clients for reviews over the years, but I have not wanted to push busy clients to do it.  If I wanted to do fake ones, certainly I could find 50 of my friends to write whatever I want.  But that is clearly unethical. 

Lastly, to address the top seos claims.  We did some advertising with them ages ago.  Since then, we have not paid them a dime.  Submit Digital still ranks there and we still feel it is valuable to demonstrate to our customers that we have been evaluated by a third party.  

To summarize.  This review is slanderous.  We address our customer complaints.  Some issues existed due to a product that we offered in late 2014 / early 2014.  We discontinued it and tried as best as we could to resolve the issues it created.  The narrative described in this review does not actually fit with reality and frankly seems like a vindictive attempt by either an old client or former employee.  If you are considering doing business with me, please ask me for some references.  

 

 

 

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#2 Consumer Comment

Original Poster is Correct: AVOID Submit Digital!

AUTHOR: J Smith - ()

POSTED: Friday, February 13, 2015

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking about working with Submit Digital.  Don't do it - you will regret it.  Go with someone else.  I handle my company's website, and we have done business with Submit Digital.  The work was terrible, overpriced, late, and much of it never completed.  I was recently contacted by another company who is having issues with them, which prompted me to respond here, and hopefully save others from wasting time & money.  Here are the most important things you need to know about Submit Digital:

  • You are probably wondering why you can't find any reviews for them. They have a "Mutual Non-disparagement" clause in their contract.  No reputable company does this.  This is why you don't see any negative reviews of them.  I've attached a snippet of the contract showing the clause.  They threatened us, and my boss said it wasn't worth it (I'm posting this under an alias as a result, and I'm sure it's the reason the above review is anonymous).
  • They will claim that they live on their positive referrals, but they use pay-to-play sites to try to bolster their credibility, while using the Mutual Non-disparagement clause to try to squelch any real reviews.  I learned from a former employee that the owner touts that they are "Top Ranked on TopSEOs.com", he even lists it in his signature on his emails (see attached snippet of the owners email sig).  Submit Digital doesn't have a single review there - it's a known pay-to-play referral site that has previously been banned by Google.  What does it tell you if they have to pay for the only press/reviews/referrals they can get? 
  • You should call the companies listed in their "portfolio".  My company's and the company that contacted me are both listed, despite both of us being exceedingly unhappy.  I imagine it's true of many of the other companies as well.  Apparently they list every company they've ever worked with, so you are talking about a company with only 50 or so customers - total!
  • They request 100% payment upfront on most if not all work.  We refused, but the fact that they do this should tell you a lot.  Anyone asking for more than a 50% deposit has something to hide.  Submit Digital does it because it is the only way they can get paid. 
  • They are fly-by-night - the "office" address listed is a mailing address for an office-receiving service.  They claim they have 11+ employees.  The reality is that it is just the owner and one or two subcontractors in the US, everything else is farmed out offshore.  They are poorly managed and poorly paid, and it shows - they are always scrambling, nothing is delivered on time, they can't get or keep good people.

Bottom line:  Find someone else.  These guys are shady and untalented.  They are reasonably priced, but it isn't worth it - trust me.

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Opportunity to address customer issue

AUTHOR: Submit Digital - ()

POSTED: Monday, April 14, 2014

Since this post is anonymous, we cannot be sure exactly what this complaint is regarding.  Typically we prefer the opportunity to address any customer issues with the goal of making every customer a satisfied customer.

However I will admit that at times there are issues relating to what a client would like performed on a website and the time it actually takes.  We try our best to estimate the cost of a client’s request, but they are just that –estimates.  We may not know the actual time something will take until we actually do it.  Custom coding is just that –custom, and is different for every client.  

Respond to this report!
What's this?
Featured Reports

Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.

X
What do hackers,
questionable attorneys and
fake court orders have in common?
...Dishonest Reputation Management Investigates Reputation Repair
Free speech rights compromised

WATCH News
Segment Now