DjangoForce

I hired Djangoforce in mid-March 2019 to complete a web and mobile application for an educational portal be launched on May 1, 2019. I found them on a listing portal where they had very strong ratings and when interviewing them, they claimed to be a highly competent and professional team servicing fortune 500 companies and other large international companies. They told me that the job would be easy and fun and that they could complete the job by the May 1st deadline.

In mid-march I engaged in a “discovery call” with the team during which I explained the scope of the project. They asked that I send a “draft sketch of the site,” which I did, not more than 2 hours after completion of the call. The draft sketch included both the design of the web application and the design of the accompanying marketing website. They estimated that the project would cost $31,500 and would be completed by May 1st.

Four days later, during a call with the project manager for the team and the UX/UI designer, I informed the team that an essential component of the application involved sub-administration capabilities, essentially another component of the application that was needed by May 1st. They mentioned that they understood the request and that it could be completed by May 1st. They did not adjust the estimated cost for the project.

The development work began at around April 1, 2019 and I received weekly project status reports on each Monday; the project status reports ultimately projected if a) the project was on-schedule for completion by deadline and b) estimated to be on budget by completion. Each project status report, delivered to me on April 1, April 8, April 15, and April 22, indicated that the project was on schedule and at estimated budget. The team informed me that I would receive a demo of the completed application on April 29th and that the site would launch by May 1st.

Instead, on April 29th, the project was not complete, and the demo showed an project that lacked many key features, among them the 1) marketing website and 2) the sub-administration capabilities described above. Additionally, there were multiple “bugs,” and illogical aspects of the application (for instance, an essential component of the application required that users’ access ‘prompts’ that the user had created in the past, the team did not build this functionality). Furthermore, on April 29th, instead of having paid $31,500, I had paid $37,500, $6000 more than the estimated budget they claimed would not be exceed on April 22nd, only seven days prior to the demo.

To insult to injury, the team claimed they had “forgotten” about the sub-administration capabilities that was described to them no more than 4 days after the discover call in mid-March. They told me that building such capabilities would take a number of hours and thus cost substantially more money. As the deadline for launch was 3 days away and the web application could function without the sub-administration capabilities, I begrudgingly told them to not focus on that aspect of the application and instead build that which was needed for launch. I did, however, note firmly by conference call and by email that they 1) failed to deliver a critical aspect of the application and 2) that their intention to charge a substantial amount of money for an aspect of the project described to them four days after the discovery call, for which they claimed to have understood, and for which they failed to adjust the estimated delivery cost, was disingenuous and dishonest. They have since claimed that I am abusive as a result of these stern emails.

I became increasingly skeptical of the company by early May 1st when 1) the project was incomplete, 2) I spent nearly $40,000 on the project, $8,500 more than the estimate they claimed would not be exceeded, 10 days prior to the deadline, and 3) they intended to charge me extra for a marketing website, a feature that was presented to them as part of my original website sketch.

If it was not clear that Djangoforce was a dishonest company prior to May 1st, it became abundantly clear afterwards. They informed me that the site was nearly complete and they estimated that a marketing website would cost $4,500 and I begrudgingly agreed to the estimate hoping to complete the project as soon as possible in order to begin selling subscriptions and regain lost revenue. In the following 20 days, they ultimately charged $14,500 for the marketing website and for work on tasks that should have been completed prior to April 26th, such as the ability for users to see their old ‘prompts.” I had been charged a total of $52,000 by May 20th. Moreover, despite paying an additional $14,500, the marketing website was incomplete, web application was still incomplete, and work on the sub-administration capability function never began.

Between May 1st and May 20th, Djangoforce “worked” on the site and charged per hour. During this time, Djangoforce postponed their estimated completion date on multiple occasions. I was told that the they would complete the project on May 14th. On May 14th, I was told the project would be complete on May 17th. On May 17th, I was told that their developer was sick and that the project would be complete on May 20th. On May 20th, the project was not complete and they ceased to give further estimated completion dates.

Fortunately, I found a newly published review on a listing portal, by another client, that had a similar experience. This client has spent ~$90,000 on a project projected to cost ~$45,000 and was told repeatedly that their project was “nearly complete” only to spend more money and in return only to receive the promise that the project would still be “nearly complete.” Their project was never completed. They are considering legal action against Djangoforce. I have since also involved a legal assistance in an effort to recoup money spent on a project that was never completed.

Ultimately, I would strongly advise any company seeking development work to refrain from using this company. They are currently involved in two very serious and ongoing disputes, both involving legal representation, and both derived from their failure to accurately assess and process the scope, price, and delivery time for the projects. heir reviews on a few other portals are threateningly poor.

Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this company.

We are currently in a very serious dispute with DJangoForce (Jason Martin, Richie Ward, and Patrick Falvey). We are out many tens of thousands of dollars with only a partially completed product in hand. We are considering and probably will pursue litigation to recover our losses. Let me say also that in 25 years of business, I have never had a dispute that I could not resolve amicably; never sued anyone nor been sued- until now. We selected DJangoForce because they represented themselves as skilled and experienced developers who had a track record of bringing projects in on budget and within schedule. We furnished an extremely detailed and thought-through scope of work which they reviewed and accepted. The project is a client-facing, online insurance premium quoting system with database integration. They assured us they understood and were capable of building what we needed within the budget they proposed. We accepted. Their estimate to complete the project was between $56,700 - $83,160, within 4 to 6 months.

To date we have spent $95,000 and have only a partially functioning product. Regarding the first part of the project, the quoting system, when we requested they refused to deliver and install it or even transfer the code to our server unless we paid them additional monies at their hourly rate; this is after paying them $95,000. Eventually they did transfer the code for free, but only after we brought an attorney into the process. However, we are having to pay our own technicians to get the quoting system to function on our servers and it is not complete.

Regarding the other element of the project, the integration with our database, they were simply unable to deliver it. When I inquired about the cost and time overrun some months ago, we were told they had hit a snag(s) with the integration and that was why the project was late and over budget. At that time, on two calls that I was personally involved in, we were assured they had resolved it and that the project would be completed “next week” (in their own words). At one point, this was used as a reason for us to authorize additional payments. We accepted the overrun explanation at that time and paid the additional monies.

Shortly thereafter, for the first and only time, they asked for additional monies for what I consider to be minor changes of scope of work; we agreed and paid. Then right before another deadline for the completion of the project, we were informed that the integration development was still not functioning properly and they would do no more work on it without more payment (hourly billing). To refresh, we had paid $95,000 for a project budgeted at between $56,700 - $83,160 with NO functioning product delivered. This has been their pattern for 6 months. This is where and why our relationship broke down.

The Bottom line: I can only conclude that we were oversold on their abilities initially, but much worse, on the incremental progress they claimed to be making as we were asked to pay more and more. It was always- “we’ve made it work, we’re on the five yard line.” But we were not even at mid field. Still we believed, and paid more. DJangoForce claims that they have provided hundreds of “unbilled” hours on this project which led to their unwillingness to finish the project without more money, but they refused to even provide a time allocation of how they spent the hours, on which parts of the project, etc.; nor provide an outline of what is working and not working, and why. In a phone conference in which I was present, they told us that this would be a “waste of time” for them.

We are reasonable people. I attest that this accounting is a careful and accurate summary of our interaction with DJangoForce/Jason Martin, Richie Ward, and Patrick Falvey on this project. Selecting developers to build your Web Portal, IT project, or CRM integration is a BIG decision. We advise proceeding with GREAT caution.