Reposting my review as they try to take it down again and again :-)
This business has been trying to take my review down several times. So here's a new one! :D
First of all, they advertise themselves as Shopify EXPERTS (you can see the badge on their site), however, Shopify DOES NOT know them! They do not show up when searching in the Shopify Experts site either :-) Shopify Experts with charge you THROUGH Shopify and will have an expert profile listed. These guys have no expert profile, at least with this business name, and will bill you externally (PayPal in my case).
I found this company through Facebook, and due to the low price for a full redesign ($420), I decided to give it a go.
I have to say that I have been a Shopify employee in the past. I have seen different stores, from plus customers to new entrepreneurs. I’m familiar with what takes to set up a new store. It is hard and time-consuming. I have an e-com business myself.
When I first checked this company catalog, I was delighted. Stores such as Canvas Cultures or Hobbo Jack (advertised on their site at the time) looked fantastic. I decided to pay for a full redesign package.
One of the Trennder certified designers, explained to me the serviced provided (they included full banners and images design, logo, and so on). It sounded good.
I had to pay UPFRONT. No template mockup is provided. All you have is the PROMISE that your store will be great (and I thought It would be, due to their advertised stores). Additionally, the delivery time is around ONE WEEK, BUT you can only claim a refund in the next 48 hours after paying. If you want to see the job done, there is no possible refund. That’s the policy in place when placing my order.
A week passed, and my new template was uploaded. They used a Shopify official theme (Motion). To my surprise, the work done was simply put a few sections together in the new template. A very simple job. Nothing like the amazing advertised stores.
- Banners: they did three mockups as banners that looked pixelated and low quality. Nothing like the advertised stores.
- The logo was not great and was not an SVG file; it was pixelated when zooming in.
- They just set collections on the homepage in the same order I had them in my navigation menu, using default collection images. The thumbnails were all blurry and cropped.
- No tracking links and other relevant links set up, grammar mistakes in the text (for example "emailus").
- The product page: The description not even arranged in tabs as it was previously. All trust badges or extra code gone.
- It is an American company, even though the person that accessed my store for the job accessed from Ecuador (I thought they had "certified designers" in the US). I asked and they said they have the team spread over other countries as well. A US "Shopify Experts" business with designers logging into your store from Ecuador. And Shopify does not know them.
I emailed providing some feedback and expressing my disappointment. He asked me to try and publish that theme since it may convert better, just like that. Go ahead and published a cheap-looking, unfinished theme, and it may work. Again, I have seen many stores in my years in Shopify and this template was everything but good.
Alright. I insisted that the theme was not something I'd like to use. He told me they would work on a new theme.
Another 7 days or so passed, and the new theme was delivered. It was a $59 theme forest theme. These themes are not in the Shopify official store for a reason. They have not been officially vetted or approved.
Long story short, this new theme had some serious bugs affecting banners and other stuff. At this point, I realized that this company would never provide the level of service I was expecting.
I emailed again mentioning the bugs I found, thanking him for his work, and politely asking a partial refund so we can call it a day, as I acknowledge that they did some work so I didn't even claim the full amount back.
They never got back to me. They just took the money, delivered a subpar work (nothing compared to what they advertise), and got away with it. That's it.
I won't get my money back, but at least, I hope this experience helps people to make an informed decision. Get an actual approved Shopify Expert!! A business that asks you to PAY UPFRONT before seeing any work WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF A REFUND is no good.
I’m astonished by the number of 5-star reviews here and I doubt their honesty. Not sure if the company got any better since, but I felt scammed. As if you buy a nice pair of Nike shoes and you get a replica full of defects. The simple fact that they advertise themselves as Shopify experts when they cannot be found on the official experts' site nor Shopify knows them, is enough to look somewhere else. I have reported them to Shopify.