This complaint is about how DesignCrowd abuses their power against designers. But it also reflects their mistreatment to clients.
I worked for this website for couple years as a designer. After putting considerable amount of effort and time, I started to get one on one projects (rather than multiple designer/creative contests). These projects have a deadline of 5-7 days. After this deadline, client has 15 days to demand a refund, if you don't come back in 15 days you lose your chance to have a refund.
I have worked in these one on one projects for quite a long time and dishonesty of designcrowd became more and more apparent as the amount of the projects increase. Problem is, how designcrowd abuses their refund policy to keep the money for themselves, rather than refunding it back to the client or giving it to the designer who spent their hours to earn it.
According to designcrowd; if a client doesn't request a refund in 15 days, they lose their chance to get their money back. On the other hand, designer need client's approval to get paid for their work. So after this 15 days period of time what happens is;
- If you are a client; you ask for a refund, designcrowd's answer is; Well, too bad, you're not getting your money back, because it's been 16 days.
- If you are a designer; you have to wait for the client to miraculously come back after years after getting pissed off by designcrowd and approve the payment for you. Considering they did not just forget about the project.
- In the mean time designcrowd investing and building their fortune with the money that isn't even theirs.
Currently there are over 700.000 designers in designcrowd. I alone have 20+ projects that I haven't got paid for. Most of these projects are waiting for more than a year and probably I will never get paid for them.
There is huge dishonesty in this system. None of the other freelancing websites holding money hostage like this. In this manner designcrowd is acting like an internet mafia to exploit weaker parties. Their acts are unacceptable in the current year we live in.
DesignCrowd is a Ripoff. They offer a 100% guarantee, but buried in the fine print they reserve the right to withhold a "posting fee". This fee is $90.
The quality of the work even from their elite designers was very poor and completely off the creative strategy posted for the job. The single high quality logo turned out to be a cut-and-paste from a similar company, so it couldn't be trademarked. They agreed the quality of the work was low, and they offered to run a second "contest" to attract more designs. I didn't want to waste my time, since so many of the first batch of designs were from their "Elite" designers. That's when they pointed out they had the right to withhold a "posting fee".
This is a fully automated online platform, so the "posting fee" is an outrageous charge when I got absolutely nothing in return.
Purchased a "bundled" set of services consisting of website design, logo and business card for about $500, taking confidence in their money back guarantee which says, in essence, if you don't like it they will refund your payment (less their fees), which seems like they may be putting all risk on to their subcontractors. If so, that is a rather revealing situation about the company.
Quality delivered was mediocre - about the quality of a high-schooler - and when my wordpress developer tried he found it unimplementable. When I requested refund I got deferals and shifting answers. Worse, I discovered they also delivered designs for the additional items without my approval and charged my account for those as well.
I complained to the company repeatedly and they have offered every excuse in their clearly large inventory of them. I hope that my $500 mistake is a learning experience for people considering using them...
DesignCrowd Reviews
This complaint is about how DesignCrowd abuses their power against designers. But it also reflects their mistreatment to clients.
I worked for this website for couple years as a designer. After putting considerable amount of effort and time, I started to get one on one projects (rather than multiple designer/creative contests). These projects have a deadline of 5-7 days. After this deadline, client has 15 days to demand a refund, if you don't come back in 15 days you lose your chance to have a refund.
I have worked in these one on one projects for quite a long time and dishonesty of designcrowd became more and more apparent as the amount of the projects increase. Problem is, how designcrowd abuses their refund policy to keep the money for themselves, rather than refunding it back to the client or giving it to the designer who spent their hours to earn it.
According to designcrowd; if a client doesn't request a refund in 15 days, they lose their chance to get their money back. On the other hand, designer need client's approval to get paid for their work. So after this 15 days period of time what happens is;
- If you are a client; you ask for a refund, designcrowd's answer is; Well, too bad, you're not getting your money back, because it's been 16 days.
- If you are a designer; you have to wait for the client to miraculously come back after years after getting pissed off by designcrowd and approve the payment for you. Considering they did not just forget about the project.
- In the mean time designcrowd investing and building their fortune with the money that isn't even theirs.
Currently there are over 700.000 designers in designcrowd. I alone have 20+ projects that I haven't got paid for. Most of these projects are waiting for more than a year and probably I will never get paid for them.
There is huge dishonesty in this system. None of the other freelancing websites holding money hostage like this. In this manner designcrowd is acting like an internet mafia to exploit weaker parties. Their acts are unacceptable in the current year we live in.
DesignCrowd is a Ripoff. They offer a 100% guarantee, but buried in the fine print they reserve the right to withhold a "posting fee". This fee is $90.
The quality of the work even from their elite designers was very poor and completely off the creative strategy posted for the job. The single high quality logo turned out to be a cut-and-paste from a similar company, so it couldn't be trademarked. They agreed the quality of the work was low, and they offered to run a second "contest" to attract more designs. I didn't want to waste my time, since so many of the first batch of designs were from their "Elite" designers. That's when they pointed out they had the right to withhold a "posting fee".
This is a fully automated online platform, so the "posting fee" is an outrageous charge when I got absolutely nothing in return.
Purchased a "bundled" set of services consisting of website design, logo and business card for about $500, taking confidence in their money back guarantee which says, in essence, if you don't like it they will refund your payment (less their fees), which seems like they may be putting all risk on to their subcontractors. If so, that is a rather revealing situation about the company.
Quality delivered was mediocre - about the quality of a high-schooler - and when my wordpress developer tried he found it unimplementable. When I requested refund I got deferals and shifting answers. Worse, I discovered they also delivered designs for the additional items without my approval and charged my account for those as well.
I complained to the company repeatedly and they have offered every excuse in their clearly large inventory of them. I hope that my $500 mistake is a learning experience for people considering using them...