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:03/15/2023

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  On 9/1/2022 I signed a contract with Digityze Media Group (DMG) and paid a deposit of $887.50 for a them to build my business website. Digityze Media committed to design & concepts development and website development. DMG claimed the website would have an aesthetic look and feel that matches my brand and product. On 2/28/2023, I was presented a website that was incredibly slow, lacked many of the pages they agreed to add, had completely wrong items listed and links that led to a completely different web address. On that day, DMG gave me an invoice and stated the website was "ready to launch". However, that was not the case. Per the contract, I had to give a written dispute of invoice within seven days of receiving the invoice; I sent the dispute on 3/3/2023.
  
  DMG has refused to release my business domain and DMG is also in full control of my google account. This is an incredible invasion of privacy as my google account has all of my bank information saved and all passwords. I will attach the pdf of the contract and the email I sent. I will also include the replies from DMG. This email contains all of the errors and why we decided not to continue business with DMG.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/15/2023

  On September 1, 2022, digitize media entered into a contractual agreement with ***** ****** ***** ******* for us to design and develop a website. During the design phase, we requested that all of the website's content be sent to us, including copy, images, and products. We provided the client with an Excel spreadsheet as a template to enter all of the products, which includes the SKU number, the product name, the product description, size, color, variations of the product, short description, description, tax status, in stock, backorders allowed, sold individually, weight, length, width, height, allow customer review, sale price, regular price, categories, tags, shipping class, images, and additional meta-data. However, I received a word document that only included some of the required information outlined within the spreadsheet. The client had no shirt mock-ups ( products for the website) for her 81 designs. 

  As a courtesy, we offered to place her designs on t-shirt mock-ups; however, we did not fully understand the full scope of what it would take to complete this process as she provided more than just T-Shirts but long-sleeves and crew neck.

  There is nowhere in the contract that states that the client does not have to pay if they are dissatisfied with any items that is not a part of the project (courtesy work we did for them). The client did not submit any business goals for the website. The website design and development is complete and resides on a web server.I would be happy to conduct a demo of the website if needed. Currently, the website is suspended to the general public but is on the server and would need to unsuspended it to be reviewed. Please see the attachment for the full response to this dispute as there is a character limit. 

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/21/2023

   
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  I have emails asking if DMG would like me to provide the mock ups and asking if they could create the back end of the website and I would finish the rest, such as uploading content and adding in all verbiage. DMG also stated that they would charge less if I did provide the mock ups myself, leading me to believe that the quoted and invoiced amount was not courtesy work. The courtesy work that they're claiming was contracted, considering they were willing to reduce the invoice if I provided the content myself. DMG insisted on having a zoom meeting with me instead to go over my vision for the website so we were on the same page. I fully explained, and have many times, exactly what I wanted for my website. DMG never asked me to clarify any confusion they may have had during the website build. I was always under the impression that creating a cohesive, user friendly, good looking website was the contracted work, I was not provided with any of that. I also have emails asking if there would be additional charges, to which DMG replied there would not be additional charges and they were honoring the contract. I will include these emails. 

  DMG stated they asked for an excel sheet and I sent them a word document, This is true; however, I asked DMG if the word document would suffice for the information they needed, to which they responded it was fine, this led me to believe it was fine to provide all the information I felt necessary to go on my website via word document.

  Lastly, DMG has taken over my domain and attempting to extort me. DMG has said via email that they will not release my domain unless payment is received. I have already given them a deposit. They have now stolen my domain and taken control of my google account. I believe this is unethical business practice. 

  I have reached my limit of file uploads with the emails but I will gladly send the word document I provided. 

  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ***** ******

  Business Response

  Date: 03/22/2023

  If you look at the contract, it is solely for website design and development; there is no line item for product creation, in this instance, creating the shirt mock-ups. We have separate line items for clients who want us to make their content for them: "Website Content Creation," We charge $85 an hour. We can prove this is an item in our CRM, as it has been for several years. This is a line that is not represented in the contract or the invoice with MLShirt Co. 
  
  We already had started creating the mock-up and made a significant completion of them. You asked for a discount if you created the mock-up, and we replied that we would offer $150 off the price of the website. However, there is no indication that by you providing the mock-ups, this work was part of the website design and development. I have included the email conversation. We also asked for the hex colors to get the exact match of the various colors and the margins; this information was not provided. In total, we have 15 hours invested in the mock-up work. The value of the work we completed for the mock-up equates to $1,275. However, we never charged or billed you for this work. 

  The word document was for all other written content, and we provided an example in the email communication, such as policies. However, the products still needed to be in the spreadsheet. However, we also did this work for you to move the project along so that we could get the information into the database on the website's backend. 

  Please see the attached documents for the full response. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/27/2023

   
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I provided brand HEX Codes to DMG. I also provided every single mock up that would be needed, in a separate email I included the hoodie mock up. DMG stated that my mock up email was fine. I provided them with all mock ups they would need so there should have been no reason to change the colors of any of them. The work they provided looked sloppy and unprofessional. 

   

  Throughout this process, DMG has done nothing but contradict themselves but later be proved wrong by their own words. This seems to be dishonest business practice. Furthermore, DMG is partaking in unethical business practice by holding my domain name and refusing to release it. 
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ***** ******