Design Dok

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Pop Crew Photobooth LLC, a photo booth rental company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Dok?

I was having some problems building my website myself, so I hired them to build it for me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I needed e-commerce functionalities where people could pay the down payment to hold their rental dates. They were going to do that, give me 15 pages of content on my page, submit my slogan application, and host my website.

What is the team composition?

There was someone who was working on it, but then I didn’t hear anything. I reached out to them over email and phone, but the phone number was dropped. Someone else responded to my emails after I kept emailing them, saying they took on the project and there have been COVID delays, but I haven’t heard anything since.

How did you come to work with Design Dok?

I typed "design" into Google and saw their ratings.

How much have you invested with them?

I’m out over $1,000 from them that I haven’t been able to recover or get any work from.

What is the status of this engagement?

I mean, I never really worked with them. I hired them at the beginning of January 2021, and I’m still trying to get ahold of them and it’s the middle of February.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I provided them all of my marketing materials, and have received nothing. I keep trying to contact them and I get nowhere. There’s no contact with these people. I’ve tried everything. Their phone number drops my calls and I can’t get a response again over email. I’ve even reached out on Facebook. It’s weird to me that I can’t get a response.

The relationship never happened. Two weeks in, I contacted them asking where my website was. Nobody contacted me. Eventually, I got an email from someone else who said there were COVID-19 issues and my initial point of contact was fired. They said they were working on my logo, which indicated they never even looked at my profile because I wasn’t looking for a logo. They ran away with my money.

How did Design Dok perform from a project management standpoint?

Awful. I can’t get ahold of them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Nothing. They’re good salesmen, but they have nothing else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their communication needs to improve and they need to follow through on their work. Or just return my money at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Find someone else to do the work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the principal attorney at the Law Office of Michael R. Oquendo

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Dok?

I hired design dok primarily to fix some of the links on my existing site. They offered to "revamp" my site and make it more user friendly and functional. This project was contracted to take 3-4 weeks. It has been going on since March.

What were your goals for this project?

I was simply looking for someone to fix some of the links on my website and improve functionality.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Based on their reviews, which I am starting to suspect are not genuine.

Describe the project in detail.

As I stated above. I was simply looking for someone to fix my existing site and maybe add some functionality to it. I explained that I already had an existing site and was not looking to spend a bunch of money to start over. The contract they sent states this was for a revamp of my site.

What was the team composition?

I was never contacted by anyone until I said I wanted a refund because I was unhappy, and they offered a 100% money-back guarantee.

I was contacted by multiple people after I told them I was unhappy but they always called after business hours. I would ask them to schedule an appointment so we could talk but they continuously called after business hours. They have zero respect for your time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

My project is ongoing as they still cannot make simple changes to my site, such as reducing the size of a picture. They use a message chat board to communicate and that has stopped working since I left a review of their poor service.

I am sure my project is dead in the water as they have no intention of finishing the project or making the changes I requested. Now, I have been told I need to spend an additional grand to "host" the site when all I wanted was my existing site to be fixed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Poor. I have made multiple requests for changes to the site that have not been made. Simple things like reducing the size or a picture or changing a font. You have to request multiple times before it is done. I have requested a change in picture size at least 10 times, in writing on their chat feature, and it still has not been done.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The price was good but I guess you get what you paid for.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would suggest you look elsewhere for this kind of work but if you decide to go with this company make sure you get a written contract, even though they will not honor it. A representative from their company told me the contract "doesn't matter"

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at SiteSP

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Classified Ads

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Dok to accomplish?

• To develop my website

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Dok?

Online Search

Why did you select Design Dok over others?

Pricing fit our budget

How many teammates from Design Dok were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

It was supposed to be a website development - did only 1%

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Not at all - had my funds stolen by setting milestones

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

I LOST US$10,000.00 out of my OWN MONEY!! They stole from a senior just about to retire. These guys are Criminals! - "Hard to believe this is happening in modern America and their site is still up and running..." - I LOST US$10,000.00 out of my OWN MONEY -- Stay away from DesignDok!! My work was supposed to finish in 2 months and already passed 2.5 years and nothing. 

They keep asking for milestone payments, until I realized all my money was gone. The ONLY thing they did was adding up a picture in a pre-existing website, but nothing more than that. Usually, no one is available to answer my phone calls, and all the management names have changed or are fake to me. They appeared extremely professional, but it is all a huge hoax in order to get you in with their BAD TACTIC, and steal your money! 

Unluckly, my credit card company won't refund my money back due to timeframe policy, consequently DesignDok kept ALL of that amount, favoring their side! BIG SCAM!! STAY AWAY! - I urge you to take a closer look of other similar bad reviews here and from other different review sites as well. If you see some of their 5-star reviews, many could be all made up. 

They are scammers, peddlers, incompetent, negligent, sloppy, don't pay attention to any detail, break every promise, always asking for an extension of deadlines, and never deliver. They provide fake names of their staff, and most probably the tax ID and their two addresses listed are most likely fake as well. From the accent of all the staff that we dealt with, they are probably based in another country but pretend to be in California. 

We have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and we will be filing a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency. Again, they don't refund our deposit. That's how bad they are!

What was your primary form of communication with Design Dok?

Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Scammers

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Dok could have done differently?

Shutting it down the company.