Company and developer can't get along - going separate ways - now what?

[KRB007]

After almost a year of one frustration afer another, our web design company told us they can't help us any more. Now we have lots of money tied into a site that I designed, but they built. I am going to have to find a new web company that can handle the scope of this project and fix all the mistakes and problems that this company was unable to handle. I am so frustrated I could cry. Please help. Has this happened to anyone before? What happens next?

Can they hold our website hostage? The site at the bottom says "Copyright ...." and their name, but they didn't design the site!! All they did was take our layouts and construct them online.

How will we go about getting the website to our new company? How do we find a company who'll do this? Don't most developers want to start from the ground up?

Any advice you have will be most appreciated!
:( :confused:

[Reli4nt]

This happens often enough unfortunately. It sounds like someone either breached a contract or failed to use one in the first place. Consider it a lesson learned.

Any decent developer or firm should be able to handle picking up where someone else left off. I know I have. Actually I have to finish something next week that someone else flaked on.

Do you not have access to the hosting server? Have they been paid for their work so far?

FYI Copyright is not simply a matter of design. Design is usually less than a quarter of the total project.

[Compguy Pete]

I have to agree... it's been a week since you posted where are you at in this?

Have you paid them in full? If not wait till you have a hard copy of the files in hand. Offer a pleasant exchange of payment for the files.

From there I would stay local in your choice for a new developer if possible. Get referrals from other people you do business with. People are never afraid of handing out suggestions of hard working companies.

[KDLA]

A client of mine had this happen, too. When selecting a new web host, make sure that they have the same platform as your former host. Else, you'll have to redesign everything anyway. My client made the mistake of choosing a webhost with a homegrown CMS that was basically put together with duct tape and popsicle sticks. When my client finally couldn't stand the problems further, we couldn't move the site anywhere without it breaking. Finally, we just decided to trash it and recreate from scratch.

BTW -- it could be that your site is a CMS, too. That might explain the copyright info. They own the CMS displaying the site.

[Theremin]

I hope you don't have this all built in one of those CMS tools, like the prev poster mentioned. Those make the ugliest code ever. I had to rebuild a clients site as well after I got in there and saw what the code looked like and simply told him I couldnt work with the site the way it was. I still used his hosting company, but deleted all the files that were up there and just wrote the code and pasted it up there by ftp. totally bypassed the CMS.

Frontpage code is better than what those things turn out :P

Anyhow, I hope you find a good developer you can work with. As stated before, ask around and get referrels. It is usually a lot better than just picking a name in a phone book.

S!
Jason