Hiring Anthonys Agency was the worst business decision I ever made.
I hired Anthony Martinez / Anthonys Agency to create a new website with improved user experience and easier checkout. He charged more than I was expecting (5x what the last guy charged) but he talked a good game so I went with him.
The website he delivered was harder to use than the original. Navigation was difficult. The search function returned multiple pages of irrelevant results. My own employees couldn’t find what they were looking for. How could I expect customers to?
Website sales dropped and continued to drop until we were selling about 1/3 of our previous sales.
Anthony told us it was due to incomplete descriptions, categories and tags. An employee and I spent 3 months trying to improve the descriptions, categories, tags, variations and SKU numbers. I think some of that should have been ported over from the old site by his team but we did it out of necessity.
Finally, out of desperation, I restored the old website. It was that or start laying people off. Sales instantly rose 2.75x in $ amount (comparing the 7 days before to the 7 days after restoring the old site).
Anthony refused to do anything to make the situation right, either by offering a refund or fixing the problem. His only suggestion was to have us pay him for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which I declined. He screwed up the site and then he wanted me to pay him again to fix it.
Between cost of site plus lost revenue, hiring Anthonys Agency was the most costly business mistake I have ever made.
What I learned (that I probably should not have had to):
1.Buyer beware. Carefully vet web developers. Check reviews, references and examples of previous work. Make sure that they have experience with your type of site. A good sales presentation does NOT translate into a good developer.
2. Tie compensation to performance. From now on I will give 1/2 up front and the other 1/2 if there is a noticeable increase in sales in 2 months.
3. Don’t accept a product until it is truly finished and ready to go. My team should not be making the changes that I paid someone else to make.
Anthony seems like a nice guy. It is unfortunate that he didn't work with us on a solution and I felt it necessary to leave a negative review.