Custom Web Experts Review
I hate to have to give a service a bad review. I’d rather not do one, in most cases, than an unfavorable one. However, sometimes it’s necessary, and I believe this one is necessary. I hired Custom Web Experts to redesign a WordPress site I commissioned only a month or two prior to contacting them. I hired them because the salesperson, Joshua, was dedicated to obtaining my business. He checked in with me often and in the end gave me a discount on the Corporate Package. The project turned into a complete redesign. That was okay. However, after all the specs I gave them, and only a week later, they sent me a cookie-cutter site that made no sense. My package came with a custom design for up to 15 pages and custom WordPress PHP. To get a custom design, I had to send them complete mockups of each page. Initially, they ignored every design feature I requested, but they finally caught up with me and designed the pages as I asked. They also applied some original design elements. I was pleased, except it took them weeks to reach that point. I honestly cannot tell if there was a language barrier or if they were purposely ignoring my request. I choose to believe the latter.
After hammering out the design concept, I was then told that I would not be able to host on my Pro-WordPress plan and needed to switch to a third-party host and Wordpress.org. Initially, I clarified that I would not be switching to WordPress.org and that it wasn’t necessary. That was when my project manager, Frank, literally tried to strongarm me into switching with texts that began with “As I said.” This went on and on until I threatened to request a refund if they did not proceed as contracted, site design, nothing more. As we finally near the point of needing to move to the server for development, they started up with the same issue. I contacted WordPress support, copied Frank on the email, and asked what WordPress advised. WordPress explained that my Pro hosting should be fine. Therefore, Frank said they would test it to see if it would, in fact, be slow or not. I knew what they would come back and say, and so do you if you consider what I am saying. Indeed, they said it was slow. I ignored this by telling them to do as we agreed and that later on, if I decided I needed to host on WordPress.org, I would take care of it then. So, they migrated the site to WordPress and completely broke my backend, creating two separate ones, and they did not know how to fix it. They said the site was incompatible with my WordPress.com hosting and version. Ridiculous, I contacted WordPress support, and they fixed it. WordPress also told me how to fix the load time. It runs fast as s***. Here are my main complaints summarized.
• The language barrier.
• They don’t know WordPress. They built the entire site with plugins instead of with custom PHP and code. There is nothing messier than a site that uses tons of plugins in the design. I can no longer use my WordPress block editor because they replaced it with a plugin.
• They tried to force me into hosting with them, thinking I knew nothing about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. I have been using WordPress for over 15 years and have hosted both ways. Right now, I love the simplicity of hosting with WordPress.com. Regardless of that, I did not hire them to host. The upselling went entirely too far.
• They also tried to get me to hire them to copyright my logo, which they designed, but it’s nothing worth copyrighting. Also, that was a painful process. I really believe in the language barrier.
• They lied about the site's speed on my WordPress hosting account or did not know what to do. It was a matter of deactivating one plugin that wasn’t needed on the site as designed.
• It took far too long for them to get the site to where it is now, which is unfinished. I still have to hire someone to fix and finish it. I was hoping to have it launched by now, but most likely, the launch won’t be until the end of the year. I didn’t want to rush them, but trust me, this would have gone on forever if I hadn’t put an end to it. If you use them, you will need the unlimited changes they offer.
10 September 2024
Unprompted review