Santa Clarita Web & IT

I have been working with Robert Gardener with Santa Clarita Web & IT since April 2015 and have been very impressed by his quick response. He is always available via text for troubleshooting. He explains things in terms I understand. Robert also gave us great insight on SEO and set us up with monthly reports on this so we can stay on the top! I greatly appreciate his effort and time in providing us with support as we continue to change and add things to our website. I do and will continue to refer Santa Clarita Web & IT.

I have read a couple negative reviews on Rob and its just so surprising. If it weren’t for Rob, I would not have my website up and running again. I am so thankful to him.
Almost 9 months ago I worked with a local graphics designer to create my website for a business venture. She in turn hired a web-​programmer and got the job done in about 5 months. This is a separate story. As there were still little quirks, I continued to let them host my site. 2 months into my business starting, orders coming in, this programmer shut his fly-​by-​night business and moved to join HP in Seattle! This we found out from his linkedin profile almost a month later. In the process he shut down my site amongst others. And no he didn’t inform anyone, didn’t give me a chance to transfer hosts etc. and there were no backup files. No communication period!
I held my original project manager/​designer responsible as my contract was with her and not this programmer. She repeatedly emailed/​called but couldn’t make any progress for almost a month. Absolutely mad and frustrated, I contacted Robert. I had previously worked (quite successfully) with Robert on a handful of small projects over the last 3 years.
Robert stepped in, tried to get whatever files we had load up on the new host, but realized we were missing key files. He got the programmers number, contacted him several times over a week. By the end, he even threatened to call the HR of HP! By this time I had given up. I was focused on re-​creating this site. To my shocking disbelief, Robert convinced this dude to send him most of the backup files we needed. He transferred me to a new host, loaded the backup files, re-​touched every page and even improved a couple pages. My heart was back in its chamber!!! What a nightmare, and what an amazing rescue, thanks to Robert. Everything he did was out of the goodness of his heart. He made minimal money on this believe me. I have also learnt my lesson as far as doing my due diligence when choosing vendors. However, Robert is the reason my website is on track again. I recommend him highly.

Rob and ESCV designed our website for us. We were in a crunch as another web guy told us he wouldn’t be able to get it done by our approaching launch date. Rob was able to get our complex website done in the 3 weeks we gave him, and it turned out great. Above this he gave us some great insight on marketing, seo, and a software we were creating. I would recommend Rob to anyone who needs a website done, he was great to work with, on time and provided a ton of value for the cost of the job.

My sites are hosted with Rob at ESCV and I’ve had no problems with down time. Remember the big Go Daddy scare? I had nothing to worry about with ESCV hosting my sites.
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Original review:
This is awful! I paid Rob to build a main website for me and two clone sites under different domains. He was extremely non responsive in my requests to complete the sites and in fact never did finish the last two. I ended up having to pay someone else to do it. Not only that, I have an internet store that cannot take orders from internet explorer users! Are you kidding me??? This has cost me untold thousands of dollars in lost revenue not to mention making me look like a fool in front of my customers. Again, I had to pay another developer to research this problem time and time again. The issue was never resolved so I had to pay for a whole new site from a different developer. Then, to add insult to injury, I received multiple emails from Rob Gardner demanding almost $ 1000 and threatening to file a police report because I refused to pay him any more money. He also intimated I am not a good Christian because I refuse to let him continue to take advantage of me.
I definitely would not recommend ESCV (Santa Clarita Web & IT). I have had excellent luck with my new developer, Small Dog Creative, also in Valencia. I would never have survived this whole nightmare with Rob Gardner if it hadn’t been for them
UPDATE:/ repsonse to Rob’s comments
Rob is lying as usual. I am not going to get in to the he said she said. The fact remains, if Rob thinks I owe him money then he should sue me and I told him such. The only reason he doesn’t is because he knows I would come to court with 6 – 10 of his customers he did the exact same thing to. You cannot take money to do a job, not do it, and then cling to your «contract.»
The bottom line is I continued to pay him for 6 months longer than I should have but did so because he had a family member working with me and honestly I felt sorry for him. After she left my company I continued to pay him for 3 months but finally decided I should not continue to pay for a website that for 11 months could not take orders from internet explorer users. I run an INTERNET STORE and need people with this popular browser to be able to use my site.
When Rob demanded $ 1000 at the end of January, I offered to meet with him and discuss things. He agreed and then cancelled less than 1 hour before the scheduled meeting. I have the voice message he left me and emails to prove it.
I have email trails (dozens of them) going back a year complaining about the work and the fact that the additional 2 sites were never finished. I built a new site because the one he built was junk and had a fatal error.
I challenge Rob to prove one thing of what he claims. He thinks he can bully me by questioning my faith which is both laughable and offensive. He has done this to others as well in fact another individual who has reviewed him on this forum.
If you in any way doubt my word, please feel free to contact me. You really should know who you are considering doing business with. I am happy to provide emails and other proof of everything I have said.

UPDATED REVIEW
I had the same problems with this company 5 years ago, but I gave them a chance again. They said what I wanted was programming they could do. I was told it would be done in about two weeks. In 5 months, it still was not done. It was «almost» done since September of 2011. After months of unrealistic due dates, I was told again that it would be done 1−13−12. That didn’t happen. Through all this, they rarely would return phone calls or e-​mail.
Rob Gardner who owns this business has contacted me me three times asking to remove or change this review. In doing this, he still continues to be in denial about what happened, accusing me of stretching truth. There is nothing I have said in this review that is not accurate.
He has chosen to blast my faith when I have been very patient through all this. If he told me he couldn’t have refunded my money as promised I would have let it go. Instead, he continues to attack me. I truly do pray the best for Rob and have no ill will towards him, but until he can be honest with himself, people should be warned. This is the beauty of Unilocal.People can read these reviews and chose for themselves who they want to do business with.
At the end of January of 2012 Rob Gardner finally admitted he could not do what he agreed to do and said he would refund my money. I offered to let him make payments, but he said he would have me paid in full by the end of February 2012.
We did meet and he gave me two checks. I was told to hold the first one for a day… then deposit the post-​dated check a week later. The first check bounced. In one of the few times I was able to reach him by phone he said he would take care of the bounced check the following Monday. That was the last I heard from him. He never took care of it. There was no reason to deposit the second check.
It appeared that there was no way I would get my refund. Checking with my bank, I was advised to have them put an endorsement guarantee on the checks and wait until there was money in his bank. When there is money, his bank would need to negotiate the checks. I went to Rob’s bank every day for a couple weeks, with no success. One lucky day however, there was money available and I was able to get my refund. I did get my money back with no help from Rob.
Rob Gardner is a nice enough guy and may be a decent programmer, but that was not reflected in how our transaction went down. He seems to lack the basic ability to tell the truth and communicate with clients. Designers and other businesses in our tight community are aware of this companies «issues». Other web programmers are being called on to rescue Rob’s customers, since Rob has disappeared on them.
Perhaps he will learn from what happened here and in the future do a better job working with clients.

Rob Gardner and ESCV set up my website and provide the SEO services for me. The service is very cost effective in that Rob has set up the site so that I can navigate through the administration pages myself and do a lot of the necessary content work on my own. I provide the content, and Rob optimizes it for the website. It’s a team effort that fits perfectly with my needs to maximize my marketing dollars. I have recommended Rob and ESCV to several business owners, and will continue to do so.