Warning! AVOID: INDREAMSTUDIO.COM

[Ash]

Hello,
I have just had a terrible experience with this company/website and i am warning everyone here just in case they come to you. Avoid them at all costs. Here is what happened:

First of all i made a post on sitepoint asking for one of my websites to be designed and coded. You can see the job proposal Here. A company contacted me saying they could do all of this, including a custom cms, for around $250 and i will not need to pay them anything until the website is finished. They done the design and a bit of the CMS but then had problems coding the design. They couldn't finish the job so they referred me to another website INDREAMSTUDIO.COM (who said they would definitely be able to do all of this) for $300. I then agreed.

After some weeks they came up with a new design (since the one the other company did wasn't that good to begin with). They said they now will need a $200 deposit to continue work on the deposit. So i sent them the $200 via PayPal. After a very long time they finally contacted me saying they had a problem coding the website (mainly in the CMS side of things) and could not figure out how to resolve this issue. Since they failed to deliver the work i paid them to do i of course asked for a refund. They refused to give me any sort of refund at all and replied with a lame excuse saying 'we tried'. I was then blocked from msn and they avoided all contact from me.

Finally yesterday with still no website and with $200 gone i e-mailed them asking for a refund or i will post my experience with them on forums and take this case to court. They still refused to provide me with any kind of refund saying they will be happy to see me in court (thinking of course it will not happen because they know i live in the UK and they live in the USA - therefore it will be a lot of hassle for me to bring this case to justice).

So overall avoid them at all costs. The person i was talking to is called Ashton. His e-mail is: [email protected] and his website is: INDREAMSTUDIO.COM

If any one has any ideas what i should do next in order to get my money back or where i legally stand in this issue please let me know.

Thanks.
Ash

 

[mis_chiff]

Sorry to hear what happened to you!
It sucks how much it's happening now!
Have you spoken to the guy who reffered you to him?
Is it too late to try a refund at paypal?
Sorry I don't know what else you can do,
but thanks for the warning

 

[dongan]

Have you reported this to SitePoint team?

I am sorry to hear this.

 

[jmcc]

that good to begin with). They said they now will need a $200 deposit to continue work on the deposit. So i sent them the $200 via PayPal

Doesn't Paypal have some kind of dispute process that you could use to dispute the payment(s) for non-delivery?

Regards...jmcc

 

[Peter]

Doesn't Paypal have some kind of dispute process that you could use to dispute the payment(s) for non-delivery?

Regards...jmcc

Paypal do not offer the resolution process for non deliverable goods.

 

[Ash]

Thanks for the comments. I took your advice and i have opened a dispute with paypal. Suprise surprise he has unblocked me and come to a deal. He said he will send me the design (PSD) and refund me half of the money ($100) if i agree to close the dispute on PayPal. I have agreed, but now he says his PayPal account has been put on hold or something because of the dispute and he wont be able to send me the money until 2-3 business days (does anyone know if it is true that paypal keeps the account on hold when filing a dispute?)

Anyway i will wait 4 days. If nothing happens ill just open the dispute again. Ill keep everyone updated on how i get on...

If anyone has any further advice feel free to let me know.

 

[ripley]

Even though PayPal doesn't really deal with items like this, I've found in the past that opening a dispute resolution with PayPal often is all it takes. In the past when I've had to do this to compel a company to refund money/live up to expectations, it was almost immediately resolved without any real intervention from PayPal -- just seeing the dispute opened was enough to spur them into action.

I'm glad that it's working out for you so far. Good luck.

ripley.

 

[HeyGeek]

Actually, you may have screwed yourself as I think that once you close a paypal dispute you can't reopen it, although I could be wrong. Also, if you or him escalate it to PayPal staff it will be instantly decided in his favor because it's intangible goods.

Also, as far as I know PayPal just places the funds associated with the transaction on hold, not the account, unless he has had alot of complaints recently. And he can still do a refund with the funds on hold.... I'm not an expert on the subject but I process about 200 design projects a month through PP so I have a few experiences with paypal disputes.

Good luck, I don't mean to be a wet blanket... hope it pans out well for all parties concerned.

 

[-db-]

Suprise surprise he has unblocked me and come to a deal. He said he will send me the design (PSD) and refund me half of the money ($100) if i agree to close the dispute on PayPal. I have agreed, but now he says his PayPal account has been put on hold or something because of the dispute and he wont be able to send me the money until 2-3 business days ....

Moved to: Warnings & Alerts.

Sorry to hear about the problems, Ash. Hopefully they will come thru for you now.

Good luck!

 

[Dave_Z]

And next time you might want to know what the potential provider's terms are
and how you feel about it. Generally a provider's terms are one-sided.

If you don't agree to their terms, then don't use them. Simple as that.

Good luck getting your issue resolved.

 

[broadwayad]

sorry to here about the trouble. I have been throught the same thing and now use the escrow service at guru.com they dont release any money until the work is done.