Reviews of PixelGems Software (Website Designer)

Robbin Yager

Beware of Pixelgems. We (luckily) pulled out before we published/hosted our website with Pixelgems because they breached the agreement to create a fully functioning website for our company. Here's what happened. After months trying to complete our website with Pixelgems we began to realize that our concerns - some of them quite serious and ongoing - were not going to be resolved. Our website is our only business tool and needs to function flawlessly across platforms. We communicated throughout the design process that there were problems such as unfinished sidebar content, sticky pages that trapped the visitor, overlapping content and crowded text, wrong/missing menu links, and failure of the homepage to properly load responsibly to iPad and iPhone (noted since the very early stages of building the site) among others details. One example: we needed two sentences to be entered into a payment form to which we have zero access to make changes. One sentence had 5 typos entered by Pixelgems staff and it took weeks before they were corrected. On the pages we could access to makes changes ourselves, we had to design and code the site content otherwise it would have remained with crowded text and overlapping elements, including headlines. This process was incredibly time consuming for us to do as they have no style sheets to work with. In addition there was no response from Pixelgem staff to questions about how our pre/post publishing services were to be handled, email, form functions, diagnostics, code validators, link checker, spell-checker, etc. After months of exchanging emails with lists concerning the same uncompleted or malfunctioning designs, eventually Pixelgems made it clear that no further changes or fixes were forthcoming after which we determined it was best to discontinue our agreement and move along to another strategy concerning our website rebuild. We requested that we come to a compromise by receiving a full copy of the website as built to date, along with all relevant documentation, and a refund for the amount charged for the yearly hosting package that would not be used. In addition we asked a partial refund because the site was never completed and launched as written in our agreement. Unfortunately the files are locked into Pixelgems privately keyed Client Management System (CMS) not usable outside Pixelgems hosting service. Even if the site had been completed and we wanted to host elsewhere, this would not be possible as Pixelgems will not allow us to access their key files to unlock the codes for our website. To date we have only received incomplete/unusable website files. Regarding a refund and recovery of files we had paid for, we took Carl Geng to court to demand compensation, but because there is no wifi available in the court rooms we couldn’t demonstrate the malfunctioning website over the web. Carl Geng had a copy of our website on his computer. The judge took one look at the home page and immediately determined we were lying. At one point she was almost yelling at us. The judge had zero understanding of websites and business needs. We managed to have the hosting package payment refunded in full, but this experience from beginning to end was absolutely horrible.

Charlene Watson

Very happy, affordable package and our new site has proven to be an amazing sales tool. We get new leads now on almost a daily basis!

Rick Sullivan

Been a long time customer from back when your guys started in 1998, to be honest there were some growing pains back in 2012 and they had some staff who were not overly competent. Our first site was good, but when a rebuild was done in 2013 it was plagued with issues. I understand these staff are gone, left in 2014, which is good as they were less then qualified to build anything in my opinon. A bit disgruntled, but then In 2016 we were offered a complete redesign and rebuild from ground up, all the problems went away and the new site works perfectly and very pleased. The new staff is awesome and highly skilled, I can ask for anything and they can code it. We have many amazing custom features now. Goes to show you the staff you have make all the difference

Tracy Mclaughlin

Can not beat the value, service and quality. These guys only do custom work, custom designs, no templates. Just have to ask, and it can be built because they are real programmers here. I was really surprised at the affordability, especially for custom work And then the ongoing support, I don't worry about the site, its all taken care of for me

Lynda Adams

So helpful and I can not say enough about how they have taken care of me. Have had our site with them now since 2003. If i need help I just call and they do it - great service!

Amanda Reynolds

We had a wordpress site before, and it was hard to manage for someone who is not a computer person. I had to always pay someone to do updates for me and over the course of a year I paid almost $600 in cost to have someone do this for me. On top of that I was also paying Godaddy a hosting fee, so my annual cost to run my website was just under $1000 per year. This did not include any SEO work, just upadates. When time came to rebuild and refresh our site, we contact PixelGems - they built me a custom site. I showed them what I wanted and they built it. I was able to have several revisions until it was exactly what I wanted. They have a web management system that is so easy to use, and now I am doing my own updates easily saving me hundreds. They host the site for me, and with my hosting I get support. My annual cost went from just over $1000 down to just under $300!! Best value!!

Bryant Garner

Knowledgeable coder, full support, they take care of all my needs been very happy clients for over 15 years now

Joann Lane

The new design looks amazing, and the website is working great!! I love it. It only took me 15 minutes to feel comfortable with the new web management system. We have been a client for over 10 years now, this is our third rebuild with you guys and we are very pleased cause can always count on the on going support

Randy West

I think it all looks great! I know when I am on an Iphone the mobile site looks perfect and all the features are working too. I personally have a google pixel phone and noticed that the site layout gets a little distorted on that device. But other than that we are very happy with everything!

Ajax Malone

I hired Pixelgems to upgrade both my business' website and software package. After an amazing sales pitch, we signed contracts, and entered into a couple of the most challenging and traumatic years that my business has ever experienced. With an established online business that had outgrown its website's capacity, we worked hard with his programmers and designers to define our needs and start to design our site. Our meetings were frequent at first, and then started to peter out. I contacted Pixelgems multiple times, using every platform that I could think of. FINALLY we got action, and our site was ready to launch - it had bugs, but I was confident that we would work them out. How wrong I was. Karl Geng avoided my calls. He refused to return my emails. When I pleaded with him to allow one of his programmers to work for us freelance to fix the errors, he would not allow him access to the site to make those changes... nor would he make them himself. And then our data uploads stopped working - we edit and add hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of data to our inventory every day. We called. We emailed. And finally after having the umpteenth customer call, or order a book that was no longer in our inventory, we changed our homepage to reflect the fact that Pixelgems would not fix our website. From there, things got crazy. Karl Geng suspended our website. He locked us out of all of our pages. We couldn't take our website with us, as it was his content management system that held it all in place. We scrambled to have another website put together. In the meantime other clients of his contacted us - they could see that we were going through what they were going through as well. I had meetings with some of his staff whom he had not paid in months. I have never dealt with such an unprofessional, negligent business person in my life. Do NOT hire this company. Do NOT do business with this man. He is a thief with fancy web skills that he may, or may not grace you with, despite taking your money. I am HORRIFIED that I was conned by this individual, and that my business suffered as a result of it. I will never forget what he put myself, my company and my staff through - avoid him at all costs, and do not waste your money, time and emotional effort with this person.

Haley Wakefield

Our experience working with PixelGems, namely Karl, has been exceptional, and exceedingly so. Karl is highly skilled & honest in offering + executing practical & aesthetic web solutions in all the ways that we have creatively envisioned. He has helped us translate our website across platforms, and we now have a full mobile-friendly user experience. I have read a poor review or two on here, and they simply do not square with the experience our business has had with PixelGems, especially Karl who has helped me (with patience & promptness) in satisfying my many requests to build on & grow our website. Thank you for your amazing work & dedication to our business!

Holly Walsh

Thanks for everything, the new site is perfect. We had 10 hits from the website this week for new work. I checked and our hits are thru the roof. This website is working!!!! Great job, and such a deal