Leap Creative/48 press

[Shaun]

Just wondering if everyone has had their problems resolved with Leap Creative?. PM me if preferred

[MikeW]

Just wondering if everyone has had their problems resolved with Leap Creative?. PM me if preferred

Hi Shaun. I have been in contact with Lee over the past week regarding business cards. I received them yesterday. A good job done in very quick time. If all goes to plan I should have my new wedding brochures tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

[Jiggles]

Being owner of a design company I know how work can catch up and take over. Its sad people are having problems as delays can hurt the customer and the business doing the work. Leap has done great work for a lot of members and its good to see people getting their issues resolved (all be it slowly). Its good to hear peoples opinions on the situation and their advice as I can take note from this and use it when dealing with my own customers. I recently hired a new graphic designer to help meet deadlines better and quicker and avoid a similar situation to whats happened at Leap.

if anybody's been left in a tricky situation needing design work feel free to contact me on here via PM or my website www.kalaxhosting.co.uk and I will be more than happy to help get people out of a hole!

Callum

[DazzyD]

...

Jonny Boy - I wouldn't feel too guilty about the way your thread has turned out. There is loads of positive advice and opinions being given here so, if Leap take any of it onboard, you OP may have helped to improve the customer experience of their clients in the future. Likewise, any business operator / service provider who reads the thread may pick up a few tips thus improving customer service on a wider scale!

Being owner of a design company I know how work can catch up and take over. Its sad people are having problems as delays can hurt the customer and the business doing the work. Leap has done great work for a lot of members and its good to see people getting their issues resolved (all be it slowly). Its good to hear peoples opinions on the situation and their advice as I can take note from this and use it when dealing with my own customers. I recently hired a new graphic designer to help meet deadlines better and quicker and avoid a similar situation to whats happened at Leap.

if anybody's been left in a tricky situation needing design work feel free to contact me on here via PM or my website www.kalaxhosting.co.uk and I will be more than happy to help get people out of a hole!

Callum

See, Jonny Boy? The comments we've made on here have made Callum think about how he could improve his business. Even though the comments and suggestions were originally aimed at Leap in an effort to try and help Lee help his customers better, they've also, potentially, helped to improve the customer experience of Callum's clients, too! That's hardly a negative!

[Jonny Boy]

Some serious thread ressurection here...but rather than start another one... my saga continues.

Well: months after the fact it's come to crunch time. To add insult to injury I recently learnt a local DJ has had design work taken on AND completed in the time I have been waiting to just HEAR from these people.

After being promised again and again that I would see the work done on my website development I still have didley squat (save 3 jpegs of design proposal....wow, that was worthe the several hundreds I've pre-paid then.)

Would appreciate any guidance on my next steps. As background, the most "recent" timeline:

w/c 22/7 - I was informed by email that a worst case scenario I'd be able to view completed page designs by 24/7 when Lee would call to "go through" them. I was away so said I could not view until 26/7. I see/hear nothing for 2 weeks.

6/8 I manage to speak to Lee on phone. He says it's all done except for a few bits of coding of interactive elements but I can view it on test server but with all the functionality.
He says he'll email over links for me to look at that afternoon, for me to look at in the evening, or email if there's issues loading into test server.
I see and hear nothing for over a week.
My polite texts and calls to chase up (perhaps I've given wrong IPaddress, I think) are ignored. Last straw.

15/8 - i send an email copied to all 3 contacts AND main inbox, to say to cancel further work on the project, and give them two weeks to respond with either (a) all work completed so far to be sent to my new designer to copy ("rip") and complete or (b) a refund to be paid; or I will begin legal steps. I wish them the best personally, but hold all equally culpable and have lost faith in the company and cannot proceed working with them.

I hear nothing for 2 weeks.

I happen across Reece's business profile on Facebook and PM him. He replys he's not seen the email personally but will chase it up the next day (that was Tuesday.)
Today is the deadline - and beside leaving more voicemails have still not been called/emailed back.

Next, I understand I will have to issue letters by recorded delivery (there are 2 addresses listed on the website, so will send to each) to the same effect of the email, to prove I've made every effort to be reasonable.
If there is no reply in another 2 weeks to these, I will commence Moneyclaim...which is a bit daunting, so I may be picking some brains for anyone who's gone down this route. Please PM me if you can offer some tips/advice.

The sticky thing is that if work HAS been done, I can't afford to pay for my new designer to start fresh without getting the refund...I'd be happy to take what's been done, take part-refund and go from there but being left entirely in the dark by all 3 contracts has left me entirely in the air. I have missed the window to market my relauched business for Autumn '13 wedding fayres so cannot guess how much potential work I will miss in 2014&15. (Marketing with my present old site is like throwing good money after bad to be honest.)

On the plus side, I have evidence the new (local) web design business I found are reliable and trustworthy...but then I thought that of Leap too and even defended them vehmentently earlier in this thread.
What a fool am I. It's like my own judgement is faulty and it feels like I can't take any business relationship on faith at the moment.

I am so So SO SO angry I actually feel physically ill. Sorry to vent, but i felt you needed to know that even for someone willing to cut breaks then sliding scale can be pushed SO far the other way. :-(

[ukpartydj]

Unsure if this applies to refunds but for debt you can get a solicitor to send a letter for something like £5.
I'd imagine it'd work in this situation where they probably don't want to go to court or have a judgement.

[DazzyD]

Unsure if this applies to refunds but for debt you can get a solicitor to send a letter for something like £5.
I'd imagine it'd work in this situation where they probably don't want to go to court or have a judgement.

That's a very cheap solicitor! Can you share his/her details???

Jonny Boy. I really really can't believe after all this time that the situation hasn't been resolved. I think it's time you put any allegiances you feel you may have to Leap Creative (have you even met Lee or any of his team???) to one side. This is business, after all. When you mix business with personal this is when your judgements become clouded and it effects your way of thinking. This isn't the best way to do business! (and I think you've agreed with this somewhere earlier in the thread!).

Let's ask some questions. Do you have it writing exactly what Leap Creative were going to do for you and by what deadlines? If so, then your task is easy. Get yourself over to www.moneyclaim.gov.uk and start your claim there. I would suggest that, as Leap Creative has taken your money but failed to deliver the promised goods, your claim is for the money you paid them plus interest at whatever the daily rate is. You can also include in your claim the costs of recovering the money which would include the costs of using the MoneyClaim service.

If you don't have it in black and white, things become more difficult as it's harder to prove but it's by no way a lost cause. I'm not a solicitor so I'm not going to claim I'm offering accurate legal advice. It may be a good thing to speak to a solicitor or legal advisor for further guidance. Are you a member of a trade union (Unity, perhaps? Or any other TU?) or do you have certain insurance policies? Often these memberships and policies include free "initial" legal advice. This could be your first step as this will help you better to know your rights. And a good solicitor will be able to advise you of your chances of success should the case have to go to court (the vast majority of such cases are settled without the need to good to court - it's amazing what a correctly-worded letter can do! ).

Anyway, once again, good luck!

[DJDC]

They have been advertising quite a bit on FB recently as well.

I wanted a new website and after seeing this I went to Callum at Kalax, it was a challenge getting everything moved between my provider and his system but with good comms was all sorted in 24 hours and only a couple of weeks to set it all up.

[Jonny Boy]

Some correspondece w/Reece on FB yesterday but previous promises teach me not to hold breath.

I did have an initialy proposal of service emailed as PDF plus I've kept emails, so that all useful when it comes to Moneyclaim, am sure. Didn't realise you could add interest & the cost of Moneyclaim itself INTO the claim.... from what I've read online I do need to have an official letter first. (A business can always claim they've had email problems and not recieved electronic communications.)
Thanks for advice/support Daz. I may PM you later - not sure how I'll work out the daily interest.

You're right about mixing business & personal... lesson learnt. No allegences.
I have met Lee actually - I travelled up to Manchester for Costa-fuelled brainstorming sesh at start of webdesign process. We got on really well and have a lot in common in some respects. As I have always said - a lovely chap.

[equinoxdiscos]

Just thought I'd drop a quick email to say that all my dealings with Leap Creative/48 press have been fantastic - web site, business cards and brochures. I recently had another 50 brochures printed with some new photos and minor changes. Great quality and value for money.
I'm sorry that others have not had the same experience as me, but I personally cannot fault their service at all.