Employees from HIT Web Design were seen carrying boxes from their headquarters in Provo, Utah to their cars on Tuesday, March 8th. The company was founded as Heritage Web Solutions in 1999. In 2007, HIT achieved the amazing accomplishment of rising to number 22 on the Inc. 5000 list, appearing again in 2008 and 2009. HIT Web Design was a full-service web design and hosting provider for thousands of customers.
The liquidation and eventual shutdown of the company comes a year after controversies. During its time in business, HIT Web Design was the topic of 972 complaints at Utah’s Better Business Bureau. These mishaps range from employees not being paid for working to customers claiming the work they paid for was never complete. The company has used a variety of “Doing Business As” (DBA) names over their many years in service. These names include:
- The Heritage Group
- Heritage Web Design
- Heritage Web Solutions
- Yellow Page Partners
- Chamber Partners
- HIT Web Design
In May 2010, the media reported on the shady business practice of HIT. The President of the BBB in Utah was interviewed and revealed that a complaint stems from every single state in the U.S. except South Dakota and Maine. Therefore a total of 48 states had some form of complaint against the company.
When interviewed, the company’s co-founder explained that the web design business is tricky. Since it is a consulting-based industry, contractual and fee agreements between the company and client vary based on the needs of the customer. Therefore, expectations are often misaligned and good relationships can easily turn bad.
At this point, it is unclear whether these many customer service complaints had an relation to the closing of the organization. As of Tuesday, the main phone line has been disconnected with a message from the operator stating, “”Thank you for calling. Our current hosting customer’s accounts are being serviced by Fibernet. They’re a reputable hosting company that’s been around since 1994. Please contact them for more information.”
The web design and hosting business is a cut-throat, tricky industry to be in. Unfortunately if the company does not provide excellent customer service, there is another startup that will. Although this may not be the cause of HIT’s downfall, it surely was a contributing factor. Just a few years ago the company was at the top. With 972 mishaps, this is the end result.
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