pammclure Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Am new to this site and have just realised that the question I asked in the recent 'Website Templates' subject, may be better as a stand alone. I am having awful trouble getting the template I have paid for from Blu Domain (wish I had found this site prior) and they will not communicate with me. I am frustrated that the only access I have is via an info or support email or fax, which they refuse to respond to and that I can't ring and speak to anyone as nothing is listed on their website and the number given in WHOIS is no longer in service. I was wondering whether any of the many contributors who have had experience with BluDomain may have a number that they could pass on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoneguy Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Well, unfortunately, you are amongst a pretty long list of customers that are dissatisfied with their services lately. Use the search function here, there are numerous threads with complaints about them. Here is one phone number registered to them...720-535-5648 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted November 14, 2007 Author Share Posted November 14, 2007 Thank you Mike. Unfortunately, that is the number that comes up 'out of service'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.W. Wall Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 You might try BBB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted November 15, 2007 Author Share Posted November 15, 2007 Excuse my ignorance, but what is BBB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoneguy Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 Better Business Bureau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted November 15, 2007 Author Share Posted November 15, 2007 Thank you for all your help. It is much appreciated. I will investigate (I presume it is an American agency and I'm in Australia) and see where I get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_chang Posted November 18, 2007 Share Posted November 18, 2007 Just wanted to add my experience so far... Unfortunately, I too ordered a website from Bludomain over a week ago and have yet to hear any confirmation from them, even though they took the money out of my Paypal account six days ago. I wish I would've done a search on this forum and found all the bad experiences with them before I handed over my money. I went with them instead of designing my own because I thought I could get a website up faster, but looks like that won't be the case here. A very bad first impression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted November 18, 2007 Author Share Posted November 18, 2007 Tim, I finally received my template yesterday. It took 21 days from my first contact to get it. Definitely not a fast turn around. Still, I like the template I have chosen. After regular emails to them, I was so frustrated that I decided to take the action that was recommeded here (BBB) but thought I'd have one last attempt at contact and faxed them at the number I had sent the contract to. Still no explanations as to their poor service but at least I got my template (they claimed they had sent it twice but I never received it)the next day. I mentioned in that fax that I was attending a photography college and that my fellow students (40 of them) were waiting to see how I went with Blu Domain before jumping in themselves. Anyway, I am now working on it and IF their service improves and all goes well from here on in, I will be fair and report it here. However, if it doesn't, I will also report it here as a warning to others. I too, wish I had found this site before I went through this nonsense. I would fax them and give them a time frame before you will report their lack of product delivery to PayPal and claim a refund. Maybe that will help. Good luck with it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_chang Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 Hi Pamela, That's relatively encouraging news I guess. I don't mind waiting a couple weeks but they're just keeping me in the dark with no contact whatsoever. Had they been a smaller/less well-known company, I would be sitting here wondering if I was just swindled out of my money. I appreciate your update and I will report mine too as it unfolds. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted November 22, 2007 Author Share Posted November 22, 2007 Just thought I'd post an update about my BluDomain situation. After receiving my template I found out that my hosting service (www.webcity.com.au) gave me incorrect information about their ability to meet the system requirements of the template. Then, addining insult to injury I had the misfortune to speak to the rudest, most arrogant customer support manager I could imagine so I promptly cancelled their service. I was at desperation point so I requested BluDomain to host the site, knowing they could meet their own system requirements. Since the point of contacting them with the information about my previous hosting service, they have been fantastic. Their contact has been prompt and informative and my site is now, finally live. I must say I LOVE their template and the ease with which you can negotiate the back office. Let's hope this continues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_chang Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 That's great news on your website! Care to share it with us? :) Unfortunately I've yet to hear from Bludomain and it's been over a month. I filled out a Request for a Call online and got an automated response saying they'll contact me within 48 hours, and that was 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure what I can do at this point. I wanted to get a website up for the holidays since business is picking up, now it looks like I'll be lucky to have one before 2008.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 That's not good news at all. Try faxing them. It may help. My website is up and running but I still have some stuff to do for the galleries. My problem is that what looks great on my monitor and prints up well doesn't necessarily translate to everyone else's monitors so I'm looking for a mid point. The images that seem to be OK are those with very little post editing, so that's what I've put up so far. It's still a work in progress but I'd like your feedback - good or bad. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_chang Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 I really like the clean look of your website. The colors look very vibrant on my calibrated monitor. So you're saying the more editing you do the quality of the picture goes down? After you edit your pictures are you saving them in sRGB format? Also, do you do all your editing in raw and save it only once as jpeg when you're done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 Thanks Tim. I mostly edit the basic stuff in Adobe Lightroom and then, if I want vignetting or anything more than that (which wouldn't be a lot because I'm still an infant in terms of editing) I use PS CS2. I export from LR in TIFF to PS and then save the whole thing as either a TIFF or JPG when I'm done. If I don't edit anything much then what appears on other's screens seems to be OK. If I do edit, while it may look fine on my calibrated screen, it seems that uncalibrated (and, unfortunately that is the majority) screens don't cope. I have absolutely no idea why this is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julee_wyld Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Pamela, "I would fax them and give them a time frame before you will report their lack of product delivery to PayPal and claim a refund. Maybe that will help." Thanks for the advice. I feel so stuck since they are not responding to my requests to give live for over a week now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel_ablan Posted January 27, 2008 Share Posted January 27, 2008 I really like their templates, but hesitant due to the lack of response I've read here, and on other forums. Also, it's unclear how to use their templates. Can you upload directly to the site and have a photo instantly embedded? Or do you need to edit the entire site locally and upload each time? I recently bought a Fluid Galleries 2 site, and within 24 hours, they had it installed on my server. I log in, and upload photos. The site does the rest. However, there isn't much creativity in the template / look. Perhaps with Fluid Galleries 3, if it is ever to be released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dana_milstead Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Daniel, I bought my site, and had it live in six business days. I got the "juan" template. I think they have gotten a lot of the bugs worked out with their staff. I was very pleased with my concierge. She answered my questions in a timely manner and was very polite. Their templates are very user friendly. They have a mass upload feature which I LOVE. They recommmed resizing your images, and they give instructions on how to do a bunch at one time through Adobe Photoshop. I really enjoyed working on the site, and encountered no problems. It did take a few days to actually get the template to start working on the site, but it was worth the wait. Once you go live, you don't have to worry about waiting for bludomain to do anything else for you anyway. Best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwaire Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I'm joining the list of frustrated customers. Ordered the template on 02Apr08...and have yet to receive it. I received one email after I sent a report ticket in ("Missing Site") asking for basic information that should have been on record from my purchase...name, email address, template name, etc... I was really excited about my template and getting up and running. Bottom line..the customer service sucks! Anyplace without a phone number has got to be trouble. I'm learning that the hard way. Poor me was naive enough to think that I would be able to reach out and call someone if necessary. DOH! Livebooks is looking better to me now, although their price tag doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason_pate Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Hi I'm considering a 12-step program with Blu-Domain too. 5 business days after payment...no word. Great looking product - badly managed! Stay clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlp Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 I have the Fluid Galleries for my site. It's getting the job done pretty well. If anyone is interested I have an additional install I purchased for another site that I did not use. Let me know if you're interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eli_sloves Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 Hi out there, I purchased my site template from Blu Domain also. Had some dificulty at first when going live. Had them host and everything went fine. Last month I received an email froma potentioal customer asking why ZI hadn't replied to a request for info from my web site. I checked it out and was not able to send myself an email. Logged onto other accounts and tried the same to no avaol. Filled out a ticket to BluDomain and got no response in the time frame they said they would. Sent again. Still no response. Requested a phone support beyond 36 hours. Still no response. It has been over 4 weeks. What can I do. I guess I'll change hosting to someone else. Does anyone have a phone number that is good to contact them on? Eli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pammclure Posted December 1, 2008 Author Share Posted December 1, 2008 Hi Eli, The only problem I've had with email is that, on one of my accounts, I get every message twice. I've advised them but the issue hasn't resolved yet. Once I got over the initial problems with getting my website, I have found them very good. I would be careful about hosting with someone else because some other providers aren't set up (and won't modify your account) to run the email. As far as I know, Bludomain don't have a contact number for voice calls, however they do have a fax number, the one you send your contract back to. This was how I finally got some assistance after my many email queries received no response. Worth a try. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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