"Designer was unskilled and didn't follow directions. I paid for 3 logo designs and only got 1, and it looked as though he put no thought into the aesthetic of the design even though I gave clear, specific directions on style and look. The design was very low quality, on par with Fiverr, but at least on Fiverr, I pay less. Also, Design Crowd automatically keeps $30 (if you choose a private design) even after the refund. I was ripped off. Never again."

"I got 100+ designs that were completely off strategy. It was obvious that no one read the creative brief. 99 submissions were poorly designed. The single high quality logo was cut-and-paste from another similar company. It couldn't be trademarked. What a complete waste of time, money and energy. I asked for a refund. They offered to run another contest, but I didn't want to waste more time since so many of the submissions were from their "Elite" designers. I asked for a refund based on their 100% guarantee, but they kept a $90 "posting fee". I got absolutely nothing in return. This is a ripoff, because you post your project on a fully automated platform. There's no cost to the company a project is posted. Absolute ripoff."

"I made a contest for my website, paid €500 in total and found out the website is coded very badly. I asked for a Wordpress site, but apparently it got made with another platform and then transferred to Wordpress.
I uploaded the zip file but the designer kept the content on his hosting. So, once I uploaded the site there was no content.
I've sent him a message but he never responded. Why should he? He got paid aleady?
Went to a local computershop to get it fixed, he managed to get the content back but the content was still on his hosting company in India. Got invoiced €150)
Then I contacted another webmaster to fix it and he couldn't do it either. Got invoiced €55
Then I contacted the customer service and after a week the designer finally responded and fixed the issue.
Then I installed a backup plugin and the backend crashed and all content was gone. Couldn't log in anymore into Wp-admin.

From here on I decided I had enough of this. This project already costed me €700 and still have nothing.
Now I gonna make it myself with standard themes and plugins (€200)

So far I've spent €900 for practically nothing and got scammed by a rude Indian guy who delivered the website with no content, low quality images, no support, no contact info. His name is SBSS (previously SMart)

Conclusion:
Be carefull if you do 'business' with a third world country, they have low standards, get paid very well for very minimal work, and offer very little support afterwards. He got paid like €250 in total in a country with an average $5/day income. This, for only a few hours of work. He even asked for 200 more before the project was finished because 'it is a lot of work for extra pages'. (read, you're Western, filthy rich and I wanna get something for nothing and gonna scam you).

"

"I'm a designer and sold some work to them over 5 months ago. They have not paid and keep giving excuses, it's clear that they are not going to pay and after some research, it seems apparent that this has happened to a lot of other people.

Disgraceful behavior praying on the goodwill of other people.

Avoid this company.


"

"I'm a designer, in my free time between projects I love to browse contests online to find something inspiring for ''my soul''. I have accounts on designcrowd and 99designs. Design Crowd is the WORST place if you want to work as a designer. I won a lot of contests there few years ago, but there was always an issue with payment, with waiting so I stopped working there. Recently, I got notification that I won some contest that started 3 years ago, so I entered again to finish the handover, I started receiving some offers directly from the clients to design a logo for 40 dollars and similar (no, thanks!) so I figured out that I can create my services, so I did. None of my services is under 400 dollars, but still I keep getting invites to work for 40 dollars. I complained, they said that there is nothing wrong, they can see my services in the amount that I set.. I gave up deepening the conversation on that subject.

Since that handover it's been more than 2 weeks, source files are sent, logo bought, and I still didn't get paid. They told me that I should be patient. Yes, patient :) without any explanation for how long should I be patient - a month, a year? Client bought my logo, he is using it and I didn't get paid and all they have to say is ''be patient''.

That is the reason they have zero good designers, 99designs took them all and will keep them all, because they treat us like part of the team, community is great, support is great, rewards are great and I get paid the same day if everything is ok.

I never give bad reviews, or reviews at all, but at this level of frustration, after been treated with disrespect, I just couldn't resist."

"I have been using designcrowd.com as a frelancer for approximately for 4 years, I have experienced tricky service but since 2014 I have noticed great improvement in service and support from the staff, payment have stayed within 5 working days, customer to designer mediation, the better you understand the competition environment the better you become on delivery, winning is up to the project owner, I've had return customers, one-on-one projects and participation awards

As a designer on online platforms you can only make money by showcasing your ability, even when a project is not guarenteed you're able to convince a project owner/client to purchase your designs by following the brief and following feedback "

"unfair winner select.
winner take price others work for nothing.
This is very good site for designers who like to wast time for nothing and work as slaves "

"A staff of incompetent! Ignorant Customers! Contest SCAM! It's A BIG FRAUD!

This is right name: www.FraudCrowd.com !!!!"

"DesignCrowd is an unethical organization that takes advantage of graphic designs. DesignCrowd is the single worst thing to happen designers AND clients. The call center and customer service agents have absolutely no idea what is going on. Designers are unpaid for designs. Clients are overwhelmed with bad designs. Do no patronize DesignCrowd. Shame on them."

"Please do not use design crowd. They are all well and good until you realise the way they treat the designers that are working hard trying to make some kind of money knowing that with however many designers competing against them for the same prize they are unlikely to get it. I submitted a design for one project that, admittedly, was not my best piece of work, but it was not awful. I had stuck to the brief that the customer had given and provided them with a design that had still taken me quite some time to produce.
Well, the designcrowd staff decided to reject it from the site before even letting the customer see it. There was no explanation as to why, so I contacted their customer service to politely ask why, expecting to get a polite response from someone who may have had at least a single hours worth of training on how is appropriate to behave when you work in customer service and how isn’t! Sadly I was wrong, as the email I got back was a rambling torrent of overkill from a service consultant about how **** they thought my design was, and continuing on to how in their view (and I quote) it “lacks Elements of Design, such as Form, Space, Value, Line, Shape, etc. [Your] design also lacks Principles of Design, such as Contrast, Emphasis, Balance, Proportion, Harmony, and Rhythm” which (and I do not say this at all to support my work, I purely want to point out their inappropriate behaviour) was simply not true. The customer had provided a logo which I had texture slightly and then centred in the image. They had also provided a title, but no request as to how it was done, so I added that myself and worked it around the extents of the logo, then finally placed it all on a textured cloudy background. The client asked for a minimal clean design. I stuck to the brief.
Appalled and insulted by their reply I wrote back to them to inform them as such. I informed them that I believed it was inappropriate for them to delete designers’ hard work before showing it to customers just because they don’t like the look of it. I then apologised in case my reply had come off rude, but reminded them I was actually quite insulted by how they had responded before. I therefore told them that I wanted no more to do with them and could they terminate my account as I don’t want to work in this way, I have far to much other stuff going on to be part of that.
The reply I got back again was from the same person, which I didn’t anticipate as I thought considering my email was a complaint about her behaviour, another member of staff would have handled it. She very rudely replied once again that if I “can’t handle any criticism then I should look elsewhere! Thank you!”
Frankly, appalled is the only way I can describe how I’m feeling. I’ve taught myself design work in a desperate attempt to try and find ways to help with finding my degree. I don’t enjoy making designs from terribly short briefs knowing that with 30 odd designers also working on the same brief I’m unlikely to get paid for my work anyway! This was not a hugely important matter. All designcrowd had to do was either not eliminate my design, or provide me with a decent reason as soon as they did, about why they did, without me having to chase them up to get one. And all this employee had to do was follow very basic customer service training.
Neither of those things happened"

"We hired DesignCrowd to work up a new logo for convenience store chain. We bought 8 designs from 4 designers. One designer submitted a design that was no where near what we had asked for. I gave him feedback and he returned a revision that was still far off request. I then advised him I did not want him to submit any further designs as he had taken up 2 of my 8 designs. Despite this instruction, he submitted 2 more that were not solicited thus using up 4 of my 8 options all of which were useless. I did receive a design that we used as we were under a lot of pressure but felt ripped off as we didn't get what we purchased. i did reach out to DesignCrowd. They did not return a call but did return an email. Their customer service representative Jennifer emailed me several times and asked the same questions over and over and acted as if she just couldn't understand. With that said I called her myself. I explained our issue over and over but again Jennifer just talked in circles and made no attempt at making it right with us. This was an unfortunate decision as I did not ask for my money back but rather that DesignCrowd make some sort of concession. None was made and thus I can not in good conscious give them a good review. Unfortunate choice on their part as we are printing company that farms out design work routinely! "

"I have been waiting for a month for payment of a selected design. The client paid immediately but after numerous emails to Design Crowd and a few responses, they claim that they are short staffed. They admitted that many other designers havent been paid (as if that was comforting).

There are numerous other designers who have never been paid. Steer clear of this scam! They are on RipOff Report and I hope they get sued SOON!"

"I have a mixed review since I hired two different Designers for two very different projects. The first Designer created a Logo design for one of my upcoming products. I am thrilled with the Logo and the way that DesignCrowd handled the transactions on my behalf...However...the next project was hiring a graphic Designer for a book series that I wrote. After awarding two campaigns ($229.00 total for the Designer...) she quit working on my project after only a couple of non-usable drafts....completely useless to me as I had hired her for numerous finished illustrations! This lack of commitment cost me my entire project! Now I have to start all over again! DesignCrowd is standing behind their refunding me the $69.00 which was their fee....however...they HAVE ADMITTED TO have NO CONTROL OVER THEIR DESIGNERS AFTER THE "CAMPAIGN MONEY HAS BEEN PAID BY THE CUSTOMERS!" I was told that "the Designers are pretty much on their honor as to complete what they have been paid to do!" DesignCrowd did try to communicate with the Designer on my behalf...but she has ignored them as well....So, unless a Customer can afford that sort of a "gamble"....my advice would be to work with Designers within the USA or your own country of origin...At least that way you may have some recourse...sad and frustrating!"

"This was the absolute biggest waste of money I have ever spent. The designers are terrible--even the highly ranked ones who submit designs do a blow-off job because they don't care, they've got more expensive projects to handle. Oh, and my project cost $575.00. And all they do is encourage you to "guarantee" it--even after you have launched the project. We made this mistake, as it seemed like only low-end designers were submitting, and it is a mistake that costs us our money.

We literally laughed at the bulls**t, pre-made font submissions. I have 84 designs so far and they are not usable. No one follows ANY advice or feedback you submit. We have a business to run."

"The set up process is confusing and unclear. I started a non-guaranteed contest to try out the service for designing a website banner/header. The results were completely terrible and the number of results didn't even come close to what the website said I would get. I extended the contest and changed it to guaranteed (for payment to a designer) as it seemed to be the only way to get decent results. The website states that DesignCrowd will work with you if you still don't get results you want. The results were still really lacking - very few designers participated and the quality was bad. Customer service extended the contest again (3 weeks now) and reached out to designers. After another week, only a couple more designers submitted designs (better quality), but still not at all what I felt was promised by the site and the quality was still not what we were looking for. At this point, I asked for a refund. In the end, DesignCrowd only refunded me 60% of what I paid and I got 0 results. I agreed so I could move on and stop wasting my time with a low quality service that clearly doesn't respect their customers. Great waste of $85 and 3+ weeks. Time to hire a professional designer and move on.

If you use this service, be prepared to receive terrible results, pay for results you aren't satisfied with, or waste weeks and weeks trying to get what the service promises up front.

Really disappointed both in the service itself, but especially the terrible customer service. I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND THIS SERVICE TO ANYONE."