It’s been a while since I’ve railed against bad customer service….namely because I’ve not been too upset with the various services that I’ve received.
But…that streak has been broken.
A new definition for poor customer service has been set by a company called “Blu Domain“, specifically by “Aundrea”. My wife and I purchased a website from them on April 25, 2008. They told us that the site would be ‘delivered’ within 24 to 48 hours. It is now May 14th and we have yet to see a working website.
Blu Domain purportedly provides turn-key websites and back-end management solutions for photographers. The web designs and functionality seem to be top-notch…but their client service is horrible (try googling ‘Blu Domain Service‘ or “BluDomain Service“).
It started out nicely with an email from “Aundrea” stating that she’d have the website delivered within 24 to 48 hours and that she never misses a deadline. She asked for information about our hosting platform and we responded within 30 minutes with all the required information. Funny note: in her email to us, it states “if you don’t hear from me within 3 days, contact me because i probably didn’t receive your email”. Now…why would anyone say that? Why is it on the shoulders of the customer to contact the service provider to check to see if they received our email??
3 days went by with no response so we contacted them again and Aundrea told us that she didn’t receive an email from us…we resent it. Another 3 days passed with nothing.
We emailed them again (3 times actually) prior to getting a response. The response asked for more information. We provided that information….and waited another 3 days with no response.
Finally, we threatened to call our credit card company for a refund if they didn’t respond. Funny how threatening them actually worked….but their response was to blame us for not giving them information…even though the information that they requested was contained the email that she replied to.
We’ve given them until the end of today to get the website up and running or the credit card company will take over this negotiation and we’ll go somewhere else.
I should have known better to use a company that doesn’t provide any means of communicating directly with them. They have no phone number, no email address nor any other contact method on their website (other than the ‘Contact us’ form). Another learning opportunity I guess.
Seems as if we aren’t the only ones having this problem. Check out the following:
- Blu Domain !!!!!, Blu Domain hasn’t sent me a website after I paid..
- Keep away from BluDomain – disgusting service
- Update: A month later and still NOTHING.
About Eric D. Brown
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Hi Jon – sorry to hear that….it seems a lot of people are having trouble with BD. How they can remain in business is beyond me. That said, a recent poster (Justin) said he paid for and received his site within an hour of paying…I wonder why there are differences in how people are treated? Could it be the person(s) they are dealing with? I know that was a huge problem for us….the person we dealt with treated us like trash.
try showitfast.com
I have had it for a few months and love it. The software is a bit slow at times but it allows you to fully customize your own flash website with ease. You do not need to know HTML or CSS. They also allow you to do a trial run plus they only charge you $39/month and no set up fee.
Did you have get your money back? I am having the same issue.
Nana- No I never did get my money back, or even a response to the several emails I sent them. I am going to be reporting them to the BBB. I think that you should too, if you are unable to get a refund. Hopefully it will help other people from being ripped off. BOYCOTT BLU DOMAIN! Spread the word BBD!
BluDomain is the most childish, most arrogance ridden company I have ever had the complete displeasure of dealing with in my life. Never…EVER… would I even begin to think about treating a customer the way that they do – and all comes so naturally as if it is actually a required course in their CS training! If you are here researching this company before you purchase a web site, consider yourself one of the lucky few who was warned and just listen – they deserve to be banned from ever doing business again. They are simply lazy and non-caring and I truly hope they begin to realize that 1) competition lies in wait; 2) people talk, especially when really ticked off, as evidenced fully here; and 3) when they are completely "realized" within the photography world as having a customer service that would make a detour into the 7th circle of hell a welcomed and desired experience in comparison. Never in my life have I been belittled and made to feel as if it is they who deserve the service from "us". Absolutely unbelievable. DO NOT GIVE THEM A DIME! There are plenty of choices out there now. They will dry up in due time. Just watch… you'll see.
I too am experiencing their wonderful (NOT!) customer service. Am at my wit's end on how to get a real site from them. (I bought one extra, and hey were supposed to give me one, but it's been over a year and I still can't get questions answered. I am now asking them to turn the hosting over to someone else. Still don't have a live site either. And they want me to pay for another years hosting, after having taken out my site over a year ago. Promised to "get me any site I wanted up and running ASAP!) over a year ago. DON'T IGNORE WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE! If you've not experienced it YET, you are just lucky. It will hit you.
No site is worth this much trouble!
let's seriously file a class act lawsuit! you are not alone. i am a victim of their scam too.
let's seriously file a class act lawsuit! you are not alone. i am a victim of their scam too.
let's seriously file a class act lawsuit! you are not alone. i am a victim of their scam too.
I just dealt with the same person. Though I was told when I got my site, it could be moved to another host after paying for the first year of hosting with blu, I am now told there is a fee to do so. The worst part was the attitude I got, and no offer of explanation. When I asked to speak with her manager, she told me she owns the company!
Same problem with me, I've purchased a site last week of September 09, and still havent received nothing more than an email with their “office hrs” even after tons of inquiries. I'm calling my credit card tomorrow, hopefully they'll be able to give me my money back
PEOPLE. You're emails from BLUDOMAIN are obviously going to SPAM and not getting to you. I am a photographer who has TWO beautiful websites through them, and they have been nothing but super fast and professional! I don't understand where all the bad reviews come from? These sites are awesome for $100-$400! You can't beat it. I just finished building my new wedding website and it was literally finished and live within four days of purchasing. I also pay $100 to host through them, which is SO much easier than hosting elsewhere. I feel like so many people are skeptical to use them, but I think they're awesome, and they return all my emails almost immediately. They also state that if you have filters, check your spam as they have had issues in the past with people thinking they were being ignored.
Fontaine – I hope BluDomain doesn't realize you have TWO websites with them and only 1 hosting fee.
Seems that according to their tech support an add-on domain (which they offer 5 of in their FAQ) is really the same thing as a parked domain. If I want to have two different domain names going to two different templates among those I've purchased from them I need a separate hosting account for each.
The worst part is getting into a discussion (via their support form) with a supposed tech who either really doesn't understand the difference between parked and add-on domains to just refused to admit there is a difference.
My recent post Friday Favorites – Here Comes the Bride
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Fontaine – I'm glad you are having good luck with BluDomain…but telling multiple people that they aren't getting emails from them is ridiculous. The company has problems as seen from the many many many complaints about them. Don't take my word for it…do a search around the web and you'll see there are many more people with the same problems with BluDomain.
I purchased a web-site from this company and they never sent me my web-site. I e-mailed them repeatedly but i never heard back from them.
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Hi Scott – Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with Blu-Domain. Hope
you get the issue resolved.
Ugh, I purchased a website, domain name and hosting with this company and I am already regretting it. It's been 3 weeks since the purchase and I have yet to gain access to FTP, I was given the wrong template and there has been NO response to my ticket or e-mails sent. I'm giving them another week (it's been holiday season after all) and then I will attempt to do what you did.
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Hi Jenny – sorry to hear about your Blu Domain experience. It seems that they've not gotten any better with their service.
Hello! I am looking for a good company to work with in regards to my website. I like the looks of the bludomain flash sites with the shopping cart option, but have read so many bad reviews that I am not going to go that route. Do you have any suggestions on another company similar to them? Thanks!
**** {editor's note: profanity removed} BLUDOMAIN, they are crooks! We bought 2 sites at once, guess what we are out $800 and have nothing to show for it. We will also be filing a dispute with paypal.
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Sorry to hear about your issues with Blu Domain. They definitely have issues. FYI – I've edited your comment to remove profanity.
If any of you have a facebook you can become a “fan” of bludomain and comment on their site…at least they will have to keep deleting our messages. I have had the same problem…was promised a call over two months ago and of course NOTHING and now the number is disconnected…SURPRISE!
ARRR..so freaking ticked off.
Same experience here! Still waiting. Money has been on their account for over 2 months.
That name Aundrea will go to the grave with me 2-3 years ago. Only went there because the Boutwells recommended them!!
Been there bought the T-Shirt, got fcuked over website downtown, IP address choas in the end the site just didnt bring me no work in too big and clunky. Just pulled it in the end.
Havent really seen much that takes my fancy in the mean time however other than bigfolio look pretty decent. You heard of AOL Hell, Blu is how you feel with BluDomain
I had a similar problem. Wouldn't refund my money. I'm scared. I'm out $115.00. I contacted paypal. They didn't intervene. I contacted Bank of America and assured me that they would intervene. This guy Daniel has been such a jerk to me. Told me to e-mail his boss… telling me she would no "no refunds" as well.
Should I contact the BBB next? HELP!!!
Thank you for this blog.
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Sorry to hear about your problems Jasmine.
Did you pay with a credit card through paypal? If so, contact your credit card company for a refund.
If not, send an email and also a registered letter to Blu Domain and then file a BBB compliant. Keep track of any correspondance with BD and if you aren’t refunded just keep up the correspondance. It took us a good month to get a refund but we had to keep hounded them. Be professional and courteous but forceful.
Twitter: donnyhoneystreet.com
says:
Dang, I found all of this out too late. BluDomain took $200 from my fiance and I over a month ago. We keep emailing and we keep getting responses that someone will contact me in 24 hours. We checked out Better Business Bureau and found this whirl-wind of mess.
I don’t think they realize how stretched financially many of us are. And we get our hopes up thinking their product will give us that leg up in the industry.
Instead I have wasted 6 weeks of time I could of had a site up and hopefully some more work coming in.
Twitter: ericdbrown
says:
Hi Justin – glad you had a good experience with BD…but I think the majority of folks that have commented are saying the opposite. I think the history of the BD's customer service shows a lot of room for improvement…hopefully they have figured out that service is key.
Thanks for stopping by.