Dan Sturgis, Sturgis Design
http://www.sturgisdesign.com/main.html
This guys takes your money and you get nothing!
Beware of this guy!
In April of 2008, Dan Sturgis of Sturgis Design, was hired by myself to build a website comparable to Adult Friendfinder. Mr. Sturgis informed me that he was very experienced with this type of site and gave me sites to visit that he had built as reference points. I was very impressed by his work and hired him to build the site that I had previously described to him. The price for the site that he quoted me was $43,000.00. The terms of our agreement was 50% down and the other 50% paid upon completion of a working/operating website.
On April 29, 2008, a cashiers check was sent to Mr. Sturgis by express mail in the amount of $5000.00. I was assured that with this initial payment that Mr. Sturgis would be purchasing the software, scripting, licensing, and anything else necessary to begin building the site that was promised in our agreement.
On May 13, 2008, Mr. Sturgis was sent an additional $15000.00 by wire transfer to:
Dow Chemical Employees Credit Union
Acct. # 92142705
At this time I was assured things were progressing as planned and would begin to see glimpses of the site as it was being built. He reassured me that everything was progressing nicely and didn’t give me any reason to believe otherwise. I was told that everything necessary had been purchased, such as licensing, software, scripts, etc. and the only thing left was the building of the site and perhaps a few incidentals.
On June 9, 2008, Mr. Sturgis was wired an additional $10,000.00 to the same account. He explained to me that in order to continue on the site this money was needed to pay his employees for the work being done on the build of the site. At this time, I still hadn’t seen anything visual regarding the site, but was once again assured that shortly, I would be able to see it or at least a proto-type of the site being build.
On June 10, 2008, I wired another $1,000.00 to:
Dan Sturgis
National City Bank
Gladwin, MI 48624
I was told that this $1,000.00 was for unexpected expenses that had occurred.
At this time I still hadn’t seen any visual proof of anything that the money had supposedly bought or of the projected website. To say that I was extremely nervous at this point was an understatement.
After repeatedly asking about the site and being reassured everything was going as planned, Mr. Sturgis informed me that he was out of money and in order to finish the site the balance of the $43,000.00 would need to be wired to him. He still couldn’t provide me with any proof that anything had actually been done according to our agreement. I then proceeded to ask Mr. Sturgis to refund my money, less expenses of course.
After asking for a refund and requesting that all data be turned over to me, I was informed that my software, licenses, scripting, etc. hadn’t actually been purchased but was instead being rented/leased to him on a monthly basis.
It is my opinion and belief, that Mr. Sturgis used all of the money given to him for personal gain. I still at this time haven’t received any type of refund, but do know that at the time money was being sent that Mr. Sturgis purchased a new motorcycle, a new boat, and paid off past due bills. What he did with the money isn’t my business as long as he had produced the website as promised by our agreement. I still have not seen or heard from him since requesting a refund. I now believe that his intention from the beginning or our agreement was to defraud me and take my money and run. I also believe that he had me wire money to a private account so that he wouldn’t have to claim the money as income to the IRS.
