Vendors: Web Design Horrors

A salutary lesson can be found in this article frm Business Week

WHOSE DOMAIN IS IT?

Small business owners are getting a lot less than they bargained for from some Web vendors. "This happens all the time," says Jan Hulswit, a sales associate for Chesterbrook (Pa.) Web hosting company 1&1 Internet, where Holmes' domains are registered. Hulswit says he gets about eight calls a day from business owners in similar predicaments. "People think they are getting someone reliable to build their Web site, and they don't think about the details, such as actual ownership," he says. "When things go sour, the designer comes out on top. It's almost like [small business owners] are being held hostage."The most common problem is that the Web developer, rather than the business owner, will register the domain name. Other times designers vanish before a site is finished. And a business owner whose expectations are unclear is asking for trouble. Full Article