"I hate to leave a negative review for an Australian company because I use to live here. Their designers are really stupid and dumb. They miss spelled my company’s name on the logo. Support doesn’t want to help with back and forth useless information. They job is not protect the stupid designers so they too must be stupid."
"Bad quality in design contests. Overpriced. Also, customer supports makes you do 5 email interactions back and forth and then ask you to call them. Absurd"
"I decided to give this site a chance since I would be offering original illustration art work rather then logos/graphic design and it started at fine but I soon learned how frustrating it can all be. My first contest looked hopeful, I was rated 2nd or 3rd but you never know if they change their mind or get other people's input. This user had plenty of other completed contest and I could see them used on his official website/products. But two weeks passed and he has not picked a winner. It made me feel bad for the top rated artist.
And it made me realize how unfair it is that we artist have to drop what we are doing to get these intense detailed work in on time, especially to get feed back and do updates and changes to the work but the contest holder gets a whole two weeks to just PICK a winner. Even worse when you noticed the user had been logged in recently.
"
"This site screwed me over as a designer. A few years ago I entered a contest and after multiple (and I DO mean multiple) revisions, emails, messages from the client (I'm telling you, I lost track of the time I had stuck into this logo - I mean the guy was SO demanding, he had me nearly in tears a couple of times), I was told I was going to be chosen as the winner. The time came for the contest to end and lo and behold, I was not chosen as the winner. Ok, that was a waste of time, but no big deal, right? Wrong. Come to find out, the company used my logo anyway! They saved my design, created a vector version of it (something any designer could do) and used it. It was on their website, on their clothing. It was their whole identity! I contacted 99designs about this problem and they basically told me, "**** it up buttercup. There's nothing we can do!" Never again will I work with 99designs."
"This is a report about business fraud.
99designs is offering services for graphic and web design. Graphic design and web design are two separate fields of designs with similar foundations but a very different execution. Web design requires knowledge not only of basics of graphic design but also HTML, CSS an JS to understand the building blocks of website and apps, and if possible knowledge on the limitation of CMS(content management system). Graphic design requires knowledge of how printing machines work. 99designs does not have a filter or an option to separate graphic designers from web designers and because of that clients that enter a contest in most cases end up with designs that can't be developed or implemented into existing client's website structure, because designs have been provided by graphic designer that do not understand building blocks of website or app development - and when that happens client is not alerted by 99designs staff about the issues he might face.
There is also nothing about this in the 99designs legal text (terms of use or privacy issues), so clients who start the web design related contests on 99deisgns are not aware that they could end up paying a product that they can't develop. (mobile optimization as UI design is part of web design, it can't exist without it - 99designs decided to deal only with WordPress design problem that is just a small part of a bigger issue which they refuse to deal with.) - designing for web design projects means designing based on the code which you need to know to deliver a usable product that can be developed - it is not like graphic design that completely leans on free creativity. Web design has a lot of rules, knowing the code to make usable designs is one of them.
One of many real examples in the 99designs business:
The client started a contest for web design mobile optimization of their existing website. (This happens a lot on 99designs and there is no button or option to report the contest after the contest is finished and all designs are revealed.) At the end of a contest, the client ends up choosing the design that can't be used at all in the optimization of their actual website because the coding structure of client's website is completely different and does not support design he chose. Yet 99designs does not offer any client service in that manner to alert the client that the design he chose can't be implemented. 99designs staff says that clients are responsible for that part. Expecting clients to know graphic design, web design, coding, web development and how everything works are just unrealistic because that part of duty is on 99designs staff.
I contacted 99designs about this problem and all I got in reply was them trying to put the blame on me and when I tried to reply, they restricted me from further participation in the discourse which made it obvious they were simply trying to sweep everything under the rug.
This kind of manipulation and exploitation has to stop.
About web design industry:
If a web designer does not understand the code behind his design he will not be hired in this field because he will do more damage then good (every professional agency, institution or organization can confirm this).
And by 99designs staff reply, they publicly said that with them it is completely fine not to know your job because clients (contest holders) should know designers/developers job because as 99designs says, it is client's responsibility to know everything. Yet 99designs is the one that offers the service (not clients), that people (contest holders) use. This is fraud where the company (99designs) is trying to pin responsibility for their fraudulent service on others to keep the profit by delivering the unusable products without any notification in legal texts about the risks clients could face. They even went further by explaining in their F.A.Q. how that is OK and legal by delivering false and wrong information to justify their approach."
"99designs is simply a place to exploit designer like hell, here is my 3 years experience with 99designs.
I am professional designer with a huge experience, I was one of the top most designer in Elance (Every professional designer know that site), after it merged with Upwork I tried 99designs as Upwork was also a scam, full with fake projects and horrible clients. So I thought to work through 99designs but unfortunately it worse than Upwork, in my 3 years I competed more than 500 contests where I was made only 5 contest, even for a very experience designer like me has the wining ratio of 1:100, it does not matter how qualify you are but you can't compete with 100 other designer, even if you come up with some innovative design and appreciated by the client you will find other will start working on your concept, they will modify your concept and eventually someone else will win the contest, it's a place where designers forget their own capability and start working on something else to win the prize, they will show you $199 prize money but trust me you will never ever will win that no matter how much you try or how talented you are, it's just like you go to purchase a new shirt from a shop and you choose only 1 shirt among 1000 others, it does not mean that other 999 shirts are not good, it just the choice of the client, so in my opinion you will have better chance of winning in forex trading( only 5% success ratio) rather than wining in 99designs, only99 designs and the clients are the winner here, for a designer it's like hell, save your time and energy, don't fall in the trap of this kind of sites where designers always exploited. Being a designer, I know how much effort and time we spend on each and every design but you will see not a single client will respect or bother to give you a feedback to your designs before they declined it even we provide it free, that's pathetic experience.
NOTHING IS FREE, so respect your profession, your dignity and moreover your time and your career.
"
"It's a scam. From a contest holder:
"This is a joke. Lxxxxxx coerced Dxxx Hxxxxxxxxxxx into choosing him as the winner of the contest so he could get the job without any competitors getting in the way. This is a breach of contest rules and unfair to all other designers. We apologize to all the legitimate designers that probably could have won the contest with designs that were much better than this garbage. It's an unfair process and 99designs needs to declare the contest unfair and rigged. 99designs should disqualify Lxxxxxx and refund the money back to Dxxx Hxxxxxxxxxxx. Unfortunately this is not happening and DH will be seeking legal relief to remedy the situation.""
"I am a contest holder and paid over £400 to hold a competition
After a couple of days I tried to log in to leave the hard working designers reviews and feedback, so they could modify their designs before the end of the competition (in 2 days)
I was shocked to find out that 99designs had blocked my account and wanted me to upload a copy of my passport (no way), before I can access my account
I checked with my credit card company to see if there was an issue with the payment, no there is not the money has been taken
I am now waiting for a response from their customer support department, who appear to be non existent
In the meantime time is running out for me to leave feedback and get the designs modified"
"They deleted my account for no specific reason without warning."
"I'm a designer and I'm terrified of what's happening there.
In the contest only my design had the best rating and I won. But ... Later comes the message my work was chosen by chance. Sorry, I do not understand how you can choose randomly !!!
About the limitations in the competition. I know that I still have a contest for reaching the limit (I consider them). But for some reason I can participate only after a week. What a new rule !!!
In one contest my work was deleted. I was told that this is a copy of my other work. Although the design and images are completely different. What a mess goes up
From support in general, no sense, either do not answer, or the only answer is - all according to the standard.
Why such a terrible attitude towards designers !!!!!"
"Was scammed hard. Paid $475 and expected original designs. I couldn't have been more disappointed. I did a reverse-image search of each logo submitted. Every single logo was plagiarized, so I requested a refund, but 99Designs ignored me completely. Beware! Thankfully I found another company (vxlogos.com) to design my logo and couldn't be happier. "
"Terrible experience. Tried contacting their helpdesk on numerous occassions since my designer could not speak english and couldn't read my brief.
They told me oh well get over it.
Been trying to get in touch with them and they keep ignoring.
Asked for a refund and they said no, we will extend your contest period longer.
If you want to waste 600 bucks on the most basic package rather go to fiverr. Much better experience for 10 times less the price."
"Terrible experience as a contributing designer. The site lacks some of the important qualities of a "real contest" and you are completely at their (99Designs) mercy. I participated in many contests. I was selected as a finalist in six of them. Of the six two selected other winners (totally ok) and two selected me (that was awesome of course) but two never selected a winner at all...they just let the contest go stale. Then, out of the blue, with no warning after just a few months, I got an email stating that my account with them had been suspended. Just like that - they stated my designs did not meet their high standards. Well, first of all, what exactly are their standards? There is no documentation other than a single page that provides a few suggestions about how to make your design more favorable. Second, how could I have made it to the final round in six contests and how could I have received four (and sometimes five) star ratings and positive comments on my designs if the quality of my work was so poor. Lastly, so what if it wasn't Manhattan advertising pro quality. Why shouldn't I have the same opportunity to submit a design to a contest as any other person. Isn't it the very definition of "contest" to provide fair competition among people with varying skill and experience allowing the "best" to filter to the top? Interestingly they suspended my account (meaning I had zero access to it) while I had funds waiting to be transferred to me. My recommendation - avoid at all costs. Another thing to consider, something I found frustrating when I was working with them was that they advertise original designs but allow their participants to use stock images and clip art in their designs. Unfortunately these are the people that win the most contests. If you really want to do this type of design work, there are other crowd sourcing sites out there - or you could just start your own freelancing site and really exercise your creativity."
"tried this company but they could not deliver for me. Too many options but none followed my specifications"
"Signed up for a contest for my design. Received 34 submissions. Customer service has gone straight to voicemail for two days now and I cannot get a callback. I can't cancel the contest as I was told I could, and the designs that were submitted either A. have copyrighted material stuck in them or B. Look like they were made in MS paint. "