99Designs

Their prices are high and the quality low. Customer service is non-existent, and they have no respect for their client's privacy.

Horrible experience that ended up costing us more money and wasted time. And, still no resolution or help from customer service.

This is a report about business fraud. 99designs is offering services for graphic and web design.

Graphic design and web design are two separate fields of designs with similar foundations but a very different execution. Web design requires knowledge not only of basics of graphic design but also HTML, CSS an JS to understand the building blocks of website and apps, and if possible knowledge on the limitation of CMS(content management system). Graphic design requires knowledge of how printing machines work. 99designs does not have a filter or an option to separate graphic designers from web designers and because of that clients that enter a contest in most cases end up with designs that can't be developed or implemented into existing client's website structure, because designs have been provided by graphic designer that do not understand building blocks of website or app development - and when that happens client is not alerted by 99designs staff about the issues he might face.

There is also nothing about this in the 99designs legal text (terms of use or privacy issues), so clients who start the web design related contests on 99deisgns are not aware that they could end up paying a product that they can't develop. (mobile optimization as UI design is part of web design, it can't exist without it - 99designs decided to deal only with WordPress design problem after my notification and that is just a small part of a bigger issue which they refuse to deal with.) - designing for web design projects means designing based on the code which you need to know to deliver a usable product that can be developed - it is not like graphic design that completely leans on free creativity. Web design has a lot of rules, knowing the code to make usable designs is one of them. One of many real examples in the 99designs business: The client started a contest for web design mobile optimization of their existing website.

(This happens a lot on 99designs and there is no button or option to report the contest after the contest is finished and all designs are revealed.) At the end of a contest, the client ends up choosing the design that can't be used at all in the optimization of their actual website because the coding structure of client's website is completely different and does not support design he chose. Yet 99designs does not offer any client service in that manner to alert the client that the design he chose can't be implemented. 99designs staff says that clients are responsible for that part. Expecting clients to know graphic design, web design, coding, web development and how everything works are just unrealistic because that part of duty is on 99designs staff.

I contacted 99designs about this problem and all I got in reply was them trying to put the blame on me and when I tried to reply, they restricted me from further participation in the discourse which made it obvious they were simply trying to sweep everything under the rug. This kind of manipulation and exploitation has to stop and I would really appreciate you took my complaint into consideration. About web design industry: If a web designer does not understand the code behind his design he will not be hired in this field because he will do more damage then good (every professional agency, institution or organization can confirm this). And by 99designs staff reply, they publicly said that with them it is completely fine not to know your job because clients (contest holders) should know designers/developers job because as 99designs says, it is client's responsibility to know everything.

Yet 99designs is the one that offers the service (not clients), that people (contest holders) use. This is fraud where the company (99designs) is trying to pin responsibility for their bad service on others to keep the profit by delivering the unusable products without any notification in legal texts about the risks clients could face.

They even went further by explaining in their F.A.Q. how that is OK and legal by delivering false and wrong information (evidence image) to justify their approach.