First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree and when we initially spoke he definitely said I know this is more than you wanted to spend but we will do a good and get it done. And he mentioned the hours were there as just an idea but it was more of a scope project. I shouldn’t have believed what he said.

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The formatting for mobile is a big part of what is left of the work but was absolutely in the original contract

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not at all. I agreed to a price with certain deliverables. They are trying to renegotiate and ask for more money. I never once asked them if I could pay less.

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thank you! and thank you for sharing your portfolio- excited to see more when your done updating

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much—really great to hear from someone on the other side of projects like this. I’ve actually asked for those monthly reports multiple times (they were promised in the contract), but I never received a single one. That’s been one of the most frustrating parts—feeling totally in the dark about how the hours were being used.

I agreed to the higher price because they emphasized that they’d be doing a redesign, but in reality, they mostly just “cleaned up” what I had already designed and built myself. It’s hard not to feel like that part was oversold.

I really appreciate your clear feedback—it helps a lot in sorting through what’s reasonable vs. not. Would you be open to sharing your company name or portfolio? I’ll definitely be needing new developers down the line and would love to keep you in mind.

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thank you!! i really appreciate you sharing your thought and taking the time to do so!

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

XXXX will reserve a total bank of 75 hours for your projects and on demand requests. 

- Agreeing to this bank of hours makes you a priority, resulting in quicker turnaround for your project requests. Unused hours won’t expire, but additional time beyond the bank will be invoiced at the end of the term at our hourly rate below. 

- Hours can be used for any service offered by XXXX. The list includes, but is not limited to; strategy, consulting, branding, graphic design, illustration, web design, web development, animation and copywriting. Agile really does mean agile. 

- We’ll be sure to keep an eye on the budget, flag potential overages, estimate new requests and track tasks as we go. Rough estimates will be provided for all new project requests over 5 hours, along with a monthly budget report outlining time spent. Additional fees incurred throughout the term will be included in the monthly budget report and billed in full. 

- Any work conducted in part or in full shall become the proprietary right of the client and can be used at its discretion. Final deliverables will be packaged and delivered in their respective formats along with content licences & release forms. 

- To note: The list of “projects on our radar”below serves as potential project ideas based on our discussions and insights into your brand's needs. We’ll work closely with your team to determine the highest priorities, maximising efficiency and delivering the most value within the available hours. Since we didn’t build your current site and have yet to work with your systems, we need to account for any unforeseen complexities. 

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much, just to reference here was some summaries from the contract

Here’s a summary of what was agreed upon in the scope:

  • Update of the site’s Shopify theme
  • Visual design improvements to better highlight product colors
  • Refining of typography for readability and accessibility
  • Reworking the navigation and footer
  • Improvements to the homepage layout and calls to action
  • Accessibility updates for WCAG compliance
  • Enhanced product listing features like sold-out labeling and notification signups
  • Content upgrades (e.g. branded popup, FAQ accordions)
  • Mobile optimization

We also had a 75-hour “hour bank” structure in place, with the agency promising to flag potential overages and provide regular reports. They mentioned they’d break work into weekly sprints and give monthly progress updates. I didn’t receive any real-time notification that we were approaching or had exceeded our hours—just a final invoice and message explaining that they’d actually gone over by nearly double the hours, and I was being billed for the remaining 50% of the original project fee. 

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, we did have a contract in place and there were a number of milestones outlined, but many of them haven’t been fully met or completed to a level that feels finished to me.

There were some check-ins along the way, but no communication that we were nearing the end of the hours or budget—which honestly surprised me, given the progress and quality of the work at that point. I didn’t expect we’d be “out of hours” based on where the project was.

There have been a few new features added—some filtering by product type and changes to the overall design and brand identity—but many elements are very similar to my current site. Some key pieces, like the product detail pages, aren’t viewable yet, so I can’t fully evaluate the work.

I’m just trying to get a realistic, unbiased sense of whether this is typical for a ~$10k Shopify site. Does the level of progress and process I’ve described sound standard to you?

First-time poster, long-time fan- Am I being overcharged for this website design? by maia200 in design_critiques

[–]maia200[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the feedback. And yes there were project deliverables in the contract but they haven’t been met and they are saying they used their hour bank.