1/2
We are DroiX and we have hired Soft-Loft to migrate our Products from Magento 1.9 to Magento 2 and apply and modify a theme (To match our brand look) we have already bought, add a few extensions and have our blog and how-to built-in.
The idea was to make the platform look updated, and as we have already built an online platform ourselves with no developers or designers (Google it – it's the .net website) we have an idea how it should look and how much time/resources this would take, (Basically, porting only the products and installing a couple (3) extensions we have purchased)
The start of a project is perfect (You are shown documentation, informed that you can track the work done via a git repo, you are being invited into a Slack channel where you get updates and an MVP is provided - everything seems to be going great, and you are under the false sense of security while you are being presented with the illusion that your money are well spent).
You are being given an estimate of $40/Hour (Which is fair for the type of service they claim to provide/company they try to portray) However: The service, professionalism and the quality of work are similar to a $100-200 freelancer off any freelancing website. (Take your pick – Your money will be better spent) As a “test build” we have hired a freelancer with the same Requirements Document and we have gotten the job Soft-Loft have done for $2900 for $250
Unlike any other standard “negative review” - We would like to assume part of the fault: We have believed their promise (Shown on the Company’s Profile) of “Hiring only the best Magento development experts, we offer a full 100% money back guarantee – if a provided solution doesn’t meet your quality standards, it doesn’t meet ours!” and fell for their illusion of a professional company/CEO, experienced developers, designers and project managers.
The first part of a project with Soft-Loft is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), where you will be providing, you’re a list of your requirements. Here is where our problems began without us even knowing.
As an e-commerce company with over 7 years in the Business, we have cooperated with many developers, and whilst even a small team would understand that an MVP encompass a functional platform, Soft-Loft would disagree here. Soft-Loft takes the MVP verbatim (letter for letter disregarding any common-sense), and the outcome platform will be an MVP approximately 15% completed.
We (DroiX) have agreed with Soft-Loft that we will purchase a theme, and provide them with documentation that would illustrate all the changes and improvements to the already designed/coded theme. Install a few extensions and integrate our Blog and How-To
The theme can be found here: https://martfury05.magebig.com/ or by Googling Martfury 05 MageBig as TrustPilot doesn’t allow links – Do contact us and we will happily share everything
2/2
After $2900 and almost 3 months later this is what we have:
https://droix.soft-loft.com/ (The attached link is hosted on soft-loft's domain, if it’s not available at the time of the reading, contact us and we will happily share their “progress” in form of Screenshots) - As you can see, we have gotten the theme we purchased, with our products, a few extensions installed and a changed colour.
During the MVP, as we have provided all the changes and improvements, we wanted we have been told that it will go over the MVP budget, so they must be added to the next phase.
After we have gotten the link for the website with soft-loft's claim that it’s “Done”. We could not believe what it has been presented and we have asked for a report of time spent – Which you can find at: https://imgur.com/a/zra21ei - This will fully illustrate the type of service they offer “9 hours = $360 for Home page modifications” - No modifications have been done - Almost 4 hours for Menu/Footer updates – As you can see, there are NONE – The “ready” website still contains references/content from the Theme.
Now, here it comes when we have brought it up to Petr Datsko (Their CEO) and another lot of issues arose
Needless to say (As it has already been mentioned) - The professionalism is not in the discussion. Not that we are trying to march the “Client is always right” approach, but the rudeness with which we have been treated and the feeling of being cheated were very strong. He did not (After hours of communications – Again: Feel free to get in touch with us, we are willing to share our whole communications) even consider listening to us, and adamantly claimed that the way our money have been spent is not our problem, as long as they have completed a few points from the Requirement Document.
On a closing note, after almost a month since we have gotten the website and thinking this through, we don’t want this review to come off as Desperate or as a cry for attention, we have made our peace that we won’t see the money and that we have wasted our time with this company. But we really don’t want someone else to end up in the same situation we did.
Signed,
DroiX Management – Eugene and Cristian
