Website Design By Monthly Payments - That Never End
Pay as you go websites seem like a good idea. No up-front fees, you get online quickly and there's the offer of support if and when you need it. The monthly payments for such sites range from £10 to over £500.
It's a great deal if you're only planning to be in business for a year - but once you start reaching 18 months and beyond, your website is costing very many pounds. And if you stay in business you just keep on and on paying every month. No thanks.
Paying By The Ever Never
I've had to rescue a large number of refugees from one particular company that has been hugely profitable. You'll know it because it's part of an accompanying printed Business Directory. The horror stories are legion. Hard selling reps bamboozling customers into signing up and then adding extra costly features - and to be honest, they're mostly very dull designs. True costs are often hidden in contracts that are hard to decipher.
Getting support is also nigh on impossible - you speak to someone different every time you call and often get absolutely nowhere and just give up.
Deceitful Web Designers
I have a (now happy) client who took the decision to leave his contract a couple of years ago and have one of my designs instead. He was quids in pretty quickly. Unfortunately, he recently discovered that he was still paying a fortune for a website that they didn't produce - and to add insult to injury, he was finding it very difficult to sort out.
The same company phoned one of my clients this week and the rep informed my client that his website was judged as being not mobile-friendly by Google and would soon disappear from the search results. My client became worried and got in touch with me. I assured him that his site was mobile-friendly and there was nothing to worry about.
Tested it myself with Google's own software - and got the AWESOME! result they give to sites that are up to scratch.
Quite simply, this large Directory was blatantly lying.