green noise

This post is in support of Blog Scam Awareness Day. Today was named as such in response to the experiences many bloggers have experienced in dealing with Sarasota, Florida based blog and web designer, Jessica (Bailey) Sanderson, formerly of Delicious Design Studio. It is important that our stories get out there – not just in the distant hope of getting our monies refunded, but more so to raise awareness of Jessica and other people like her, that look to exploit honest bloggers by promising quality design work and great customer service, but end up robbing people of their money.

I started this blog because I enjoy writing, and the sense of community that comes from posting my thoughts in an open forum where people can interact. What better way to connect with people from all over the world? And I picked the WordPress platform, because I love the configurability of it, and the seemingly limitless ways to customize it. In addition to thousands of free themes, there are tons of amazing and reputable designers out there who put their talents to work in creating custom themes that reflect the unique personalities of the blogosphere. It was my intention, shortly after I moved to WordPress, to have a custom theme made by one of these designers, as I loved the idea of having something that was made just for me. After reviewing some portfolios, I decided to contact Jessica Bailey, of Sarasota, Florida. At the time, she owned her own design business, and the site for that business had some really great, eye-catching designs. There were numerous accolades on her site from happy clients; I thought that her work was awesome, and that her talents were a perfect match for what I wanted my site to look like. Had I known then what I know now, I would have had the sense to run for the hills rather than hire her – this is my story.

In March of 2009, I contacted Jessica via e-mail (the only option presented on her business’s website, whcih should have been a red flag from the start). I described what I was looking for, and generally what my blog was about. She got back to me within a day and told me that she was really happy I’d contacted her, and that she was excited to work on my blog design. She explained the process of how everything was going to work, a price quote for what I was looking for, what I could expect as far as timeframes from start to end, mock-ups, etc. I told her that was fine, and that all was a-go. Very shortly after that I received an invoice. I wanted to make sure I made it onto her (apparently rapidly filling) schedule, so I paid it immediately. I e-mailed her to confirm that she’d received the payment, which she had, and she informed me that I was on the schedule for “summer”. While I thought that was kind of a long wait for a simple blog design, and not entirely certain of the exact meaning of “summer”, I kind of chalked it up to her having a lot of clients (her designs were great, so it made sense) and left it at that.
In July, I decided to touch base with Jessica, just to see where things stood, and maybe get a clearer picture of “summer”. I didn’t recall her e-mail address off the top of my head, so I once again contacted her via the “Contact Us” form on her business’s website. Rather than getting a response from Jess, though, I got one from a gentleman I’d never heard from before. He informed me that he was the new owner of the business, and that Jess was no longer affiliated with them. He gave me her personal e-mail address and said I could reach her that way. This is when the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach started. But I still wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, so I contact Jess’s personal e-mail. She got back to me and very breezily informed me that yes, she had in fact sold the business, and was designing under her own name. She assured me that she could work much faster this way. She also told me that I was on the schedule for the third week in August, and my design would only take about 5-7 days to complete once she started. I felt somewhat reassured at this point. I still had a nagging bit of doubt, but ignored it and once again let things be.
On September 8, I still had no design, and hadn’t had any contact from Jess since our exchange in July. I sent another e-mail, wanting to know what was up. She said that she had started on my design the week before Labor Day weekend, and would have it to me within a week or two. I was more than a little bit annoyed by this point, what with two blown deadlines, little to no communication, and nothing to show for my frustration. But, I reasoned, I had paid her, so she’ll do the work she was paid to do. I was, apparently, completely wrong. And her e-mail response on September 8 was the last I’d heard from her.
Now, it’s February 1, 2010. Nearly a year since this whole debacle began. I’ve sent her multiple e-mails, even offering to let her “off the hook” of designing my blog, if she just refunded my money. No response to that. I filed a complain with the Attorney General in Sarasota, and e-mailed her to let her know, thinking that might get a response – nothing. I e-mailed her to let her know I’d filed a complaint with both PayPal and my bank in an effort to get my money refunded ($212.50, FYI), and I got nothing back from her. I also e-mailed her to let her know that I’d contacted an attorney, again to no avail. I’ve messaged her on Facebook (her profile is private, so I couldn’t post anything on her wall) and got nothing back. I sent her a message on Twitter, where we mutually followed each other. Her response was to not only stop following me, but to block me from following her or sending her direct messages. Where before, I could potentially believe that maybe she just wasn’t getting my e-mails, I now had proof that she was actively ignoring me, as well as going out of her way to eliminate methods of contact.
While I should have done it sooner, I began researching Jessica Bailey, now Jessica Sanderson (one of the last Twitter updates she posted before I was blocked from viewing her feed was that she’d married her longtime boyfriend, Conor, a tattoo artist in Sarasota). Each day that I looked, I discovered that I wasn’t the only person who’d been victimized by her – not by a long shot. I now know of at least 30 people she’s scammed, and have been in personal contact with many of them. The amounts of money she’s stolen (because this is theft) range from person to person, but are generally a couple of hundred dollars – not a huge sum when looked at individually, but quite a bit when you realize how many people have been affected.Many of these victims are also located in other countries, which means that they have little to no legal recourse. These two facts (amounts and locations of victims) could lead one to speculate that she thought this through – if you’re scamming people who have no legal right to sue in this country, and you’re taking amounts of money that would be dwarfed by the cost to legally recover anyway, it becomes all too easy to make fast money. Add in the fact that you’re nearly unreachable, and it’s a nearly perfect scam. This is a scam I’ve got a feeling she’s been looking to duplicate, too – in the time surrounding all of these issues, Jessica started a number of other ventures, and was designing under other names. Do some looking online for references to webdesigngal, patternsandpixels, thetattooedmama, and jessicalenee (to name a few) and you’ll start uncovering details that can help piece this all together.
I don’t know if I, or any of my fellow victims, will ever have money refunded. And I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that it’s mostly a matter of principle at this point, anyway. We were all taken in by someone in whom we had at least some level of trust, and that trust was exploited so shamelessly by someone who obviously doesn’t care about hurting people. I worry about the kind of example she’s setting for her young daughter, and it bothers me that she’s raising her (at least partially) with stolen money.  I worry about the victims who invested money for web designs for their businesses, who subsequently lost money because Jess’s lack of work prevented them from launching their site on time (or those few who DID receive a design from her, but it turned out to be so poorly done that they had to hire someone else to fix it). The list goes on and on.
So many of us have been ripped off in various ways by Jessica Bailey, and it’s disheartening to think that she’ll never attempt to right the wrongs she’s done, or even give a damn about them. But, maybe by banding together like we are today, those of us who have a story to share about how they’ve been scammed by her can draw some attention and make her take notice, and also maybe prevent this type of thing from happening to others in the future.