On July 18, 2006 I received an email
through a Yahoo group in regards to a request I had sent through
looking for a new web host that offered a digital shopping cart
for my website. The response email was from Julie Maher of
www.wdco.ca and she assured that she could offer me a digital
shopping cart that allowed customers to receive a download link
when they purchased one of my items if I purchased her shopping
cart script and also inexpensive hosting for one year. I emailed
her back and forth with what I was looking for and told her I
would make all of the graphics. She said that would be no problem
and I sent her payment a few weeks later. I sent her a picture of
exactly how I wanted the front page to be laid out and all of the
graphics needed for my site. She plugged all of those graphics
onto a site, sent me some instructions with how to log into the
gallery and link exchange program that she had set up for me for
"free" in her own words. I asked how her to use the C-panel for
the site and she said I didn't need to go into those areas and
just email her if I needed help. I then emailed her 3 times with
requests for help and assistance with this site she set up and
heard nothing back from her. I got worried and started to realize
that I would never be able to get help if I was in an emergency
situation and started to dig around on her site.
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What I found was an online help section that was never available
(although it claims to have live help Monday through Friday during
normal 9-5 business hours), a policy about customers coming first
and their utmost satisfaction being number one priority and I
couldn't even get an email response back to simple questions like
"how do I use my link exchange program". So I started to
investigate her portfolio more in-depth and found that a number of
her projects listed were not even done by her company. Something I
should have done prior to choosing her services but after numerous
emails and getting to know her, she had assured me that she was
"easy to work with" and would love to do my project and would
offer stellar service.
.
I then found out that the shopping cart script she placed on my
site was a free shopping cart and not one that was made by her at
all. She cannot even claim to have customized it because there was
nothing in the cart except for the logo I made and sent to her.
She had removed the copyright which was infringement and something
I did not want to be liable for. So I removed my items from the
cart, gallery and link exchange and changed my hosting back to my
previous host which was still in effect, thank goodness. I used
her hosting for approximately 10 days while I unsuccessfully tried
to contact her numerous times.
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I promptly asked her for a refund for the hosting since I was not
using it and stating that I felt her service was inadequate and
that she didn't provide what I had asked for. The shopping cart
was not digital, and neither was her original script - as she
claimed. She stated that she went on vacation over one of the
weekends in question (although I emailed her over a 2 week period)
and that she had responded to all of my emails but the emails must
have been going into my spam folder. I said that could not be the
case as she is in my address book and also I religiously check my
emails in my junk folder in case something does happen to show up
there. I also found it interesting that all of the emails stating
I had reported her to different agencies and found out she was a
scam artist got through to her just fine without them "maybe going
into a spam folder". She had quick responses to all of my requests
for refunds stating her site says on the policy page that they do
not refund any money to anyone under any circumstances. This
policy was added to her site after I asked for a refund as
I had two other people search her policies for anything pertaining
to refunds during this time.
.
She then told me that I was looking to take advantage of her and
that she put her heart into my project and did everything she said
and stuff for free such as a corporate ID. Well the corporate ID
was the logo I made myself and placed onto business card
templates and letterhead templates by her and banners which looked
to be made by a five year old, at best. The original complaint was
that her service was unavailable, she had just left me there to
hang with no help and that the shopping cart was #1 not digital as
she had promised and #2 illegal with no copyright. She just went
on to say that this is why she is so contested because she does
things with such concern for her clients. This sent up a huge red
flag. She refused to refund my hosting money and kept the money
for a service she is not providing me.
I tried to recoup my money through
Pay Pal but they said that due to the nature of the goods they
were not able to help me and closed the case. I then refused to
pay for a quarter of the charge that was paid through my credit
card and they refunded me and sent Julie Maher a chargeback. She
is now contesting the chargeback claiming that she designed a site
for me and I stole her designs and placed them on my own site. A
claim that I feel is ridiculous and untrue. She never designed
anything for me. She placed items on a website template and I used
her hosting service for less than 2 weeks.
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I am concerned that others will be
taken by this woman claiming to be a website designer and web
host. I have since found out that others have complained as well
and have had run-ins with her. I feel that her website makes
fraudulent claims. I have also reported her to Consumer
Protection, the Canadian Better Business Bureau and PhoneBusters.
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Lisa Miller
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