Hello everyone! A Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers – hopefully you had a wonderful weekend with friends and family, and ate a lot of delicious food.
On to business!
Giveaway Winners:
We have a few giveaway winners to announce! The winner of our Earthsea Cycle giveaway is:
Emily Blaeser (entry #94)
The winner of our Debris Dreams giveaway is:
jlee (entry #35)
Congratulations to the winners! You know the drill – send an email to us (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible.
A Public Service Announcement:
This is a tough part of the stash to write, but we feel obligated to go public and write up this very unpleasant experience – not for us, but because we need to prevent others from falling prey to a very unprofessional designer.
Back in June of this year, we contacted web designer Anna Marie Moore about working on an updated design for our site. We love her work, and were thrilled when she said she was available and excited to work with us on a redesigned header, logo, and business cards. Immediately after receiving her official asking price ($260), we paid in full via paypal on June 13. Anna’s exact words regarding the timeline for the project were:
If it sounds good, then I’d just ask that you make the payment (since the total of the project is under $400, I ask that it’s paid in full), and then I can get started this weekend, and I don’t estimate it’ll take longer than two weeks to get everything done as long as feedback is done within reasonable times
This sounded like a great deal to us, and we were thrilled that she could turn around the design in two weeks – our initial ask was to have the new design implemented by the end of summer.
But then the weeks started to pass. On July 23, we checked in with Anna to see how everything was going as we hadn’t had any communication from her since July 3, and still hadn’t seen any design work. No response. We waited a week to send her another email on July 30, at which point she responded saying that she was exhausted and had been sick, and hadn’t had time to do anything for our design. We of course understood and assured Anna that it was fine, we were happy to give her more time.
Weeks passed again with no communication from Anna. On August 13, we emailed Anna again to check in with her and see if she had any work she could share with us (we still had not seen anything drafted or designed by her). No response.
On August 27, we noticed that Anna’s website had a banner saying that she was not working on any designs and not accepting any new projects. This, naturally, alarmed us, so we sent Anna a message saying that we saw that she was no longer accepting design projects, and asked for a full refund.
Immediately, that same day, we received a response from Anna assuring us that she was working on our project, but things were moving slowly because she had so many other ongoing projects. She wrote:
Please let me know if you’d like me to keep you in the list, or refund the $260. I can’t tell you when I can refund the money exactly as the rent is due with our next check, but I can keep you updated on it. Please let me know what you’d rather do.
We decided to give Anna the benefit of the doubt, and wrote her back with a new firm deadline of October 8 for the new design (this correspondence all took place on August 27 – giving Anna ample time to complete the work, or provide a refund).
More weeks passed with no contact from Anna. We emailed her on October 1 to make sure that the design would be done by the 8th, but received no response.
On October 18, after hearing nothing from Anna since August 27, we decided enough was enough and wrote Anna an official ultimatum demanding our design or a full refund immediately. We also stated that if we did not hear from her by October 22, we would escalate the situation with PayPal and file an official dispute.
We received no response.
On October 24, we wrote Anna again demanding the immediate refund of our money upon receipt of the email. We officially filed a dispute with PayPal (for the record, because our dispute took place 45 days after purchase/transaction, there is nothing that PayPal can do to refund our money – but we reported her for PayPal’s own records, just in case) and also stated that we would escalate the situation further:
As we have not heard from you, we assume that you are unable to complete our design and are requesting a full refund of the paid $260.00 immediately upon receipt of this email.
We have reported this to PayPal and will escalate the situation and promptly pursue legal and/or public remedies as necessary if we do not receive acknowledgement or a full refund by 10/31/2012. These actions include publicly posting about this transaction on The Book Smugglers, facebook, twitter, and any other third party platforms to express our dissatisfaction with service and to warn any future potential customers. We have made every attempt to contact you through all possible means (via email, direct messages on twitter and facebook) and await your response.
On October 30, we received an email from Anna. She told us that things were piling up and she apologized for her lack of responsiveness. She also told us that she could not refund our money immediately because of rent expenses and asked for an extension of November 16 to refund the money.
We agreed to this and gave Anna until November 16 to refund our money. However, November 16 came and went with NO RESPONSE or refund deposit. On November 19 we wrote our final email to Anna saying that we had not received our money and that we would take next steps.
Which brings us to today, November 25, 2012. We would not have posted about this ridiculous situation publicly, except that Anna has a banner on her site saying that she is currently accepting design projects.
We know that we’ll never get our money back, and we’ve made peace with that. This post is not about getting our money back – this is a public service announcement.
We want to make sure that NO ONE else goes through what we went through.
If you are considering purchasing design services from Anna Marie Moore, we implore you to look elsewhere.
(And if anyone knows of any professional and responsive web designers, please let us know!)
This Week on The Book Smugglers:
With that unpleasantness out of the way, lets move on with our lives to the good stuff! On Monday, Ana kicks off the week with a middle grade review bonanza! Ana reviews The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry, Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay, and Two Weeks With the Queen by Morris Gleitzman.
On Tuesday, Thea takes over with a review of YA dystopia Renegade by J.A. Souders.
Wednesday, we kick it old school: Ana reviews a book by one of her favorite authors, Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis. And, later in the day, Thea reviews Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George.
On Thursday, Thea reviews YA Historical/speculative fiction-steampunkish novel The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress (at long last!).
And on Friday, we close out the week as a stop on the official blog tour for Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes – we have a guest post from the author, plus Thea reviews the book later in the day. And over at Kirkus, Ana reviews the highly acclaimed second SFF novel from Nick Harkaway, Angelmaker.
But that’s not all! On Saturday, December 1, we kick off our favorite end of the year holiday festivities – SMUGGLIVUS! We’ll have an official breakdown of our guests and introduction to the event on Friday, so stick around.
Until then, here’s a little teaser image for you:
Smugglivus. It is coming.
~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers
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I can’t tell if you are on WordPress or Blogger, but I would recommend talking to Lea Christine. I had contacted several other designers with no response, and Lea got back to me almost instantly. Unfortunately I couldn’t hire her since she doesn’t do full blog makeovers on WordPress.
I have a graphic designer friend (local) that I have known for years, and we had met months ago to sit down and figure out everything for my blog. I’m still waiting for the design, and have only seen a little bit of the work she has done on it. I didn’t pay anything up front, and after reading your PSA, I will not. Especially since I’d hoped that my own would be finished by now.
Anna Moore was actually one of my top choices, but I never contacted her because her prices seemed too high.
As others have said, I think you can still get your money back. You have the emails, too; I cannot believe she spent your money before completing the project. That is horrifying!
Okay, that’s just not nice, but I do agree with Melanie.
Never pay until services are rendered, or only pay a portion of the amount agreed upon for services like this. It doesn’t make what happened to you any less unfair, but that’s something to remember next time!
OMG! I paid Anna to code my site back in June/July and after a few preliminary emails – I never heard back. When I demanded a refund, she said she had been “sick” and all her money was going to doctor bills and such.
Gah. I don’t like scam artists.
You should ALL report her to the BBB. She already has one complaint filed with them.
Here is the link to her on the BBB
Im sorry to hear this! We had our site re-designed with Anna and didn’t have any problems with her in the beginning. After everything got set up and was up and running she had a list of things that still needed to be finished on the blog. After repeated attempts in getting her to complete the work, it never happened and we just left it. I didn’t want to keep sending emails as it was going nowhere. We are extremely happy with the re-design but wish that she could have completed it in its entirety. As I know absolutely nothing about the coding done, we are just making do with how it is. I am so sorry that you had to go through this!
It looks like her site is now down. Not sure if she pulled it, or if something else happened.
Jeffrey West is super great. He’s in design school and his prices are very fair. He’s done quite a few of my author’s for the publishers.
Whoa. This is serious. Especially since she has done it to so many others in the comments. Not that I’m not sympathetic to her “rent” situation but she can’t use YOUR money to pay for it when she hasn’t provided you with what you ordered. Over and over. I don’t know why she thinks she CAN keep your money?! I’m shocked!! What a scam. Her site has been taken down so I assume she is out of business which is a good thing. If she can’t hack it because she’s been sick etc then she should have taken it down long ago. Or she was just collecting more money from poor wee souls.
Really sorry to hear you had such an awful experience with this person, and as a fellow designer I feel disappointed to be amongst someone of this unprofessional calibre. Unfortunately while we might know the principles and skills of design, many institutions fail to teach designers the business side of things. I know I’ve learnt things the hard way …
I agree with the other commenters – you should only pay a portion of the agreed fee before commencement. Usually 50%, or less. Better yet, a sound contract will help protect both parties—but that’s not often practical in real circumstances.
What really baffles me is why would she deliberately jeopardise losing your business? I mean, a responsible designer would treat every new client/project like it’s their baby, but you have got such a huge audience; this is a major portfolio/profile boost, I would have thought!
I just hope your message gets across the right avenues, because this kind of behaviour is unacceptable at any professional level. We spend so much time trying to educate clients on the value of design, and it’s so frustrating when one of our own botches it up so royally.
Sorry to hear that you’ve had trouble with that blog designer, you guys were really patient with her and I’m surprised that she wasn’t even afraid of losing you as a client. In any case, I think your current design still looks great. And that Smugglivus poster looks awesome! Looking forward to the lineup for this year.
Wow, I’m so sorry to hear about that situation… I got my design through http://www.likelylola.com and loved them. They’re main page is acting a little funny, but if you click through to any of the posts, you’ll see the actual site. I had a fast turn around time of only a couple weeks, and Laura was very responsive to all of my requests. You can see the final design at my website On Starships and Dragonwings, but I know that Laura can do a lot less cutesy of designs too if that is what you are looking for ;-).
I can’t think of anyone to recommend — my hubby does my site work– but I’m sorry you got screwed.
On a happier note, can’t wait to see the reviews you’ve got planned for this week. The books look great.
I’ve only seen the finished products, but I’ve been following Lissa ( http://lissapattillo.com/ ) on Twitter for her manga reviews, and she’s done several designs for others I follow. She’s got a good sense of style!
I can’t believe this..I was actually in the middle of a design job with her. I contacted her at the end of Oct., she said she could have it done by the end of this month, she asked for a down payment of half the cost, which I paid, and she even sent me a preliminary look a week or so later. But I haven’t heard anything since then. I emailed her on the 19th, and again last night after seeing this, but still no word. And now her site is gone. I just put in a dispute with Paypal.
I also wanted to recommend Paper Wings Design Studio. Cialina is really amazing.
[...] it has been brought to my attention, via The Book Smugglers, that I have been cheated and taken for a fool, along with several other bloggers who have hired [...]
Port City Digital is a very professional and responsive design company. Their clients tend to be traditional businesses, but if you’re shopping around it’s worth taking a look!
I am a Graphic Designer with 15+ year experience, I also design websites as well.
Cheers
Luke
How horrible! I’m so sorry that happened to you. You should definitely file a complaint with the BBB. Even if you don’t get your money back, hopefully it will let everyone else know she’s a scam artist! It’s pretty simple to do; there’s a step-by-step form online: http://bit.ly/Wsf8S9
In other news, I can’t wait for your review of The Friday Society!
Thanks, everybody! For your support, for the awesome recommendations and for sharing your own horror stories. When we posted this we were not expecting to hear such similar stories about her but in a way we can’t really say we are surprised.
And thank you for letting us know about the BBB. We filed a complaint today.
Oh my goodness, she is giving the graphic design industry a bad reputation. How payment is usually done is half upfront, and the other half at the completion of the project. (this is to assure the designer isn’t being “tricked” into doing work, only to have the client back out later) And a contract always helps.
After reading her story, it sounds like trying to get rent from a stubborn tenant.
As a graphic design major, I wish I had someone to recommend, but the graphic designers I know do websites, but not wordpress. Good luck!
I just had my site designed by Ayana Walker of Inner In2ition, LLC (innerin2ition.com). A friend referred her to me and I instantly fell in love with her work. She is very reasonable and replies to my emails almost instantly. I was very pleased. Hope this helps! Sorry to hear about your experience with Anna. It’s people like her that give great web designers like Ayana a really bad rep.
oh no! i’m so sorry to hear about your experiences, that’s awful! two potential web designers for you: siteclick, and anna dorfman are both responsible, professional web designers. good luck, ladies!
Another recommendation for the pot — Katherine Sinnott, http://www.sinnottsolutions.com/
That is just awful. I would be devastated if something similar had happened to me!
If you’re still looking for recommendations, I’d check out Katelyn Brooke Designs (http://www.katelynbrookedesigns.com/). She was quick to respond to my inquiry, and any further design changes I asked for. She only requested partial payment, until we had agreed on a final design together, and only asked for the remaining balance to be paid upon installation. In all, it was only about a two week process and I’ve had nothing but compliments on her amazing and colorful design!
Dave at The Albatross Landing does great work. While he mostly works with small businesses, I’d still highly recommend him for your site.
This is terrible! I could definitely recommend Hafsah at Icey Designs (www.iceydesigns.com). She does ask for a full payment before starting your design, but I can assure you that nothing like this will happen with her. She is an active blogger in addition to an active designer. She recently did my new design (www.ilikethesebooks.com) and I love it to pieces. She is super quick and professional.
Initially, I didn’t really like that you named names in your post, but then I read all the way to the bottom and saw that she’s try to do it again
You are very justified in writing this post.
Thank you for sharing this information about the designer. I am so so so sorry for your loss of money.
I am so sorry you guys have to go through this. I, for one, will never hire Anna to design my blog and thank you guys for alerting others to her poor business practices/ethics. What a thief and shame on her!
As far as blog designers go, Lori from Imagination Designs is amazing. I really love my blog design, and she’s such a doll to work with. Very attentive and punctual.
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So sorry this happen to you, applaud your professionalism and thank you for spreading the word and educating others.
I’m so sorry this happened to you! Thank you so much for sharing your story. I’ll forward this on my blog/twitter so hopefully no one makes the mistake of working with her.
I had Livia at Butterfly-o-Meters do my website design (wordpress and blogger). She was so pleasant to work with and we had over 100 emails back and forth over the course of a month, tweaking designs and making it look just the way I wanted. She requires half payment up front and the rest upon installation.
[...] How about when we were swindled by a designer out of our money (she took off with the money with no design to show) then when we posted a PSA about, it came to [...]