Technology, Strategy, People and Projects

Blu Domain: Poor Service Defined

by Eric D. Brown on May 14, 2008 · View Comments

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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:

Written By Eric D. Brown

Eric is a Consultant, Entrepreneur and Doctoral Student focused on helping organizations cross the chasm that exists between Business & IT. Eric writes extensively about technology, strategy, people and projects at http://ericbrown.com. In addition to this blog and his consulting work, Eric is an avid & passionate photographer and writes about photography, shares photographs and reviews products at Photography Minute.

Avery McConnell

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.

Tory

**** {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.

ericbrown

Sorry to hear about your issues with Blu Domain. They definitely have issues. FYI - I've edited your comment to remove profanity.

calligraphychic

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!

Jenny

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.

ericbrown

Hi Jenny - sorry to hear about your Blu Domain experience. It seems that they've not gotten any better with their service.

scottgruber

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.

ericbrown

Hi Scott - Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with Blu-Domain. Hope
you get the issue resolved.

Fontaine

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.

ericbrown

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.

Name

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

Jessica

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!

blusucks

blu domain is horrible! is anyone who would like to join me in filing a class action law suit against them? i know there are hundreds (literally) of you out there who have been complaining about the horrific service by bludomain. let's do something about this!

Steve C.

I wish I would have saw this post before I purchased my website over two weeks ago. I received the same BS email how I'll receive my template within 24-48 hours. That was two weeks ago and I still haven't seen anything. They won't reply to my emails and I grabbed their phone off of whois.net and left a message with no reply. They have great designs but terrible communication and business skills. It took two days just to get an email from them when I bought my site!!! That should have been my first clue but of course they have a zero refund policy.