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I need your help regarding our web designer

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May 26.2014

Hi,

Our company hired a web designer to do our website for us. He did everything that needed to be done – he designed the web site, set up the web site, got it hosted and purchased the domain. Our company paid him one-time fee for designing the web site and pay him a monthly fee to host it. Since setting up our website we have no control or way to edit the web site and make any updates. When we asked him we wanted control to edit and update web site, he told he would do it for us for an extra charge per hour or he would install a CMS system for a one time fee.

I also found out when I did a whoisquery on the web site, that the website is not registered in our name, but is registered in his name and is being hosted by some cheap domain provider. Now, I don’t know a lot about the in and outs about the web design industry, but it does not seem to be to be standard practice(or is it). We only asked him to create our web site, not to register the web site(the url is our company name) in his name and nor did we hire him to manage it for us. He is charging us monthly for its hosting and is charging us for editing it. Is this standard?

If it is not standard practice, what do you suggest we do to regain control of it and get it registered in our name?

Regards,

Tensa

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Full-stack Developer

6 Comments(s) ↴

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@starrumanMay 27.2014 — ask your designer to give you hosting control panel access and domain registrar access, or ask him you want to move your domain to your own registrar where you have other sites hosted. This will give you a reason and put your name on it.
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@aman258047May 27.2014 — nice
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@AprilMSUMay 30.2014 — blank stare

I am both a web designer and run my own dedicated server/hosting business. I have never ever denied access to the control panel or the domain. I also do not register the domain as "me" unless they specify to do so. I do not agree with your web designer's ethical practice. I will say however, I do understand that some web designers do not like clients editing HTML files. Every time clients go in and have little experience with HTML and so forth often make a huge mess in the coding/site which forces the designer to have to clean up the mess. It is only fair that the designer offers to charge fees for every time you edit files on the site, If you break it, you pay to have it fixed.

I also agree that if the client is looking to update their own site, CMS is the best way to go.
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@deathshadowMay 31.2014 — What you describe is one of the many sleazy scammy practices that sadly, is WAY too common on the web. In the hardware world when companies like Apple... and ... well, Apple... do this, it's called "Vendor Lock-in" -- the intent is much the same, to 'trap' you into only dealing with them for everything. The laugh being those doing it often sell it to people as a "feature".

Did you have a contract with this developer? You know, paper, signed, [i]notorized?[/i] - It's actually one of the litmus tests I have for how legitimate a client or developer is; if they balk at having a signed paper contract before work starts, they're probably not worth even TRYING to deal with. If they balk at having it notorized, it calls into question their legitimacy (at least if dealing within US borders).

Usually if they've locked you in like this, and you don't have that piece of paper, your options are limited. Starruman's suggestions are the way to go, and this "designer's" reaction to making what ARE reasonable requests will tell you just how big of a scam artist they are.

Now, that said, if they've scammed you on this stuff, they may have scammed you on the site itself; Even if you get domain control what they've done for a site may not actually be viable as a REAL website. I say this because the moment I hear "designer" I knee-jerk into thinking of PSD jockeys who while talented at drawing pretty pictures, they generally don't know enough about HTML, CSS or accessibility to be "designing" a blasted thing for the Internet.

You may want to have an independent third party review the site to see what else is wrong with it, and just how badly this "designer" put the saddle on you to take you for a ride.

That may sound harsh and be depressing, but there are a LOT of sleazy scam artists out there pissing out sites any old way and draining the wallets of anyone who gets duped into getting serviced by them. It's also why places like these forums exist, so we can help you get out of the hole that -- to be frank, it sounds like this "designer" dug for you, tossed you into, and filled back in.

Though I may be overreacting -- it's based on that before I retired I spent most of the last decade being the one called in to fix problems like this, cleaning up other people's messes.
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@roylee27Jun 25.2014 — This is really embarrassing, your designer is misusing the rights, he can become a big problem for your online presence. You have to force him to give you admin panel access and registration transfer for domains, otherwise you have to obey him. I recommend you to read this article http://www.squidoo.com/10-questions-to-ask-your-web-designer if you are planning to hire another web designer.
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@aframalikJun 27.2014 — Since you don;t have the ownership or admin panel access so you can't do anything what I suggest you to make another domain with your company name. This only thing you can do.
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