Beware of Ravio.com & Corey Wojen AKA c-pr0mpt
 

I am posting this here because I do not want to see anyone else get screwed as I and MANY others have. I feel bad that I didn't come out about this LONG ago but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I know things can come up. Well, I got played for over a year now and have found lots of other people who have been beaten for much more than I lost.

Here are some of them and their comments:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=162298

It appears that Corey owes many thousands of dollars to people who paid up front (either partial or full) for design work that they never received. As always, Corey ignored and then strung them along.

Many of you may think this is an isolated incident but that can't be further from the truth. I started dealing with him back in late 2001 when he designed and installed my first forum. There was troubles and delays even back then but I passed it off as a young designer that was busy or whatever. 6 months later I contracted him to do my second forum, www.PWCRacer.com , which turned into a major problem. I paid him up front and he disappeared on me completely for almost a month, after saying it would be ready within a week or two at the most. I had a number of sponsors signed up for paid advertising and over half backed out when after a month beyond the advertised opening date, nothing was online.
To this date (over a year later), he still has not completed the work I paid for. Even worse, I finally got him to come by to upgrade our Gallery (PhotoPost) so that the credits will be included in the gallery again and he "crashed it" and has not fixed it yet. Of course he has been promising to for over a month.
My members just love it.. They are not happy after all the photos being taken for the state championships disappearing days after they were put up there.

Any way, before any of you consider buying skins, using him for custom work, or anything else, PLEASE do yourself a favor and read the threads in this link.. I do think Corey has real talent when it comes to desgin, but his customer service skills are non-existant and it looks like his eithics have now gone criminal.

David

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...ighlight=ravio

PS. I noticed that a thread over at vb.com was closed when people were complaining about Ravio/Corey. I sure hope that won't be the case here. Everyone in the vB community should be concerned with his activities and the potential for new vB clients to get burned.

Yes I think this is actually a very good thread.

When I first started with my copy of vB I knew nothing. I got the neXus skin and Emerge with install.

I got the skins but no install. Also the skin was all messed up nothing was right on it. Luckly one of my clan members helped me fix it. Today I could fix it on my own. But also now I wouldn't buy skins 1000 other people have.

EDIT: Also it seems he is over loading by readin thoes post.

I'd suggest preparing a contract next time you go and give a complete stranger hundreds of dollars over the internet. Also, if you payed via paypal, copy the receipt and contact your local Police Department ( Online Fraud Department ). Stealing is against the law you know ;) I've noticed that alot of people are being ripped off by alot of designers, you need to pay in a method which results in some kind of proof of cash transaction, but a contract is probably the first step to big deals. I wouldn't advise anybody who is to eager to spend his/her money to purcase services online or you're going to be screwed & taken advantage of. My advice is to be more aware of the possibilities that you'll be ripped off, and prepare yourself for those possibilities in every way possible, don't be to quick to give up your cash, research the credibility of the guy before you give him money which was your mistake.

I am sorry to hear about it all, I hope you get your money back along with everybody else.

Nothing agenst Corey but I have seen this play out before, I do re-call a few posts at vBt from members that had paid for work and not recived anything after months of waiting.

I personally think he has more work then he can handle, mabey he should to learn to not take on more projects when he has multiple clients lined up for work already. But it is hard to say no to someone willing to throw $1,000 or more at you, ill admit that.

A thread like this is allowed, as long as the thread starter sticks to just the facts, without resorting to name-calling or opinions.

Also, it is preferable that the thread starter contacts the service provider in question so that he is given a chance to respond to this thread, as that is only fair.

There's been a thread like this here, WHT, vBT, Yaxay, nameless other places, and Corey fails to reply, but when he does he comes over as being nice and that gets customers walking straight back into his trap :).

yeah, ive seen this before, I run and work for a company who special in vb3 design at present.

weve had 1 customer not like our work and that was after 4 submissions of diff designs, he then wanted a refund, but due to him stringing us out for 3 months and us using 2 of our designers time, the refund was never given, due to the fact he pulled out late and we had made 4 designs.. so he was paying for the labour alone.

its not a good idea to mess your customers about, and ive seen at least 3+ threads now about ravio, christ i got mailed the other week after he screwed over a couple of guys, but due to my services being stretched i had to say no to them.

Personally i dont think hes takin on the number of customers he should be for 1 person.

the same backwards allot of desinger got ripped of by customers, by letting them make a design and then not pay

i read the threads over at, well various places, it's a shame, he was making good money, i hope he sorts it out, but tbh, i prefer xelations work myself so not a loss either way. he did reply on the WHT thread tho' so looks like things might be improving for his existing customers

I've heard about this on several forums. It's sad to see all these people who have had delayed work and paid up front. I agree with AL, he took up too many projects and can't handle all of them.

yep that's as plain as day to see, and then he's not refusing new clients so the work load is just getting worse and worse, it's sad to see, it's also a pain for all the clinets out there.

Well anyone who had these problems can come to me for advice ;)

Seriously though, this is bad. I hear that some cases have been sorted with Corey giving a major discount for those affected. Maybe he's getting back on track. But the fact is that you don't take on more work than you can handle :)

I would just like to say that I am no way involved in this matter. I have said before in that webhostingtalk thread that I am in no way affiliated with ravio.com or vbskins.com anymore because of this matter. I'm not going to ruin my reputation because of someone else.

:rolleyes:

I don't really have an opinion on this, since I don't know Corey and never have never used any of his services. But I do have to laugh at those of you who just handed over $1000+ with out even seeing results. I mean WTF were you thinking? Not to be harsh or anything, I'm not sticking up for Corey either, I just think that was a stupid move really. You placed way to much trust in him...

And if you had a contract with him, that means he signed a legal agreement. Ever heard of a lawsuit? File one. I don't think starting a little riot on message boards is going to do anything, but tarnish their reputation. But whatever, I wish you and your little gang good luck with RavioWarning.com. You'll need it. :p

i've also not lost anything thru all of this but i can say, that helped :rolleyes:

what gives you the right to come in here and gloat, that's just not right, don't act like a tosser, obviously there was a contractual agreement otherwise so many ppl wouldn't have started legal proceedings.

if you have nothing constructive to say don't say it at all!

It wasn't only here either. I've seen posts at vBulletin.com about it, vBulletin Templates, the Viper Host support forums...I mean it's rather lame. I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by doing this. Do you think Corey is going to see this and all of the sudden decide to finish your projects? I highly doubt it. You're making yourself look bad more so then Ravio, in my opinion. You could have done it in a more adult/professional matter, instead of just posting a little rant at every forum populated with vB custumors.

I am glad to know that it won't be closed (unless it becomes abusive) or deleted. It bothered me a great deal to see that happen over at vBulletin.com even though I had no part in that thread.

You have a good point and I will be sure and send him the link. Most of us would like nothing more than to hear from him (for a start).

That is exactly what happened to me. He smoothed things over with me (a number of times), and I wanted nothing more than to believe that it was mistakes, family emergencies, etc. In the end, it didn't matter.. Very few of his promises were ever followed through with. When I tried to post about the problems I had, I got jumped on by a number of his groupies, or my posts were deleted.

Corey is very likeable and a great designer.. The other problem is there was not many custom guys out there when I first met him, and even now.

Attrox,
The problem is that NOBODY was coming out (I AM GUILTY) and letting everyone else know what was going on in the background. Meanwhile he was turning out designs that were pretty damn impressive with a lot of clients that would totally vouch for him.
I didn't just send money to someone I found out of the blue. He was a MODERATOR here, he had tons of people on Yaxay and many other places that would vouch for him.. Say how great his customer service was, etc.
When you are living all the way across the USA from him, you can't exactly sit down and shake hands or twist his neck when he doesn't perform. Making that worse is there was a severe lack of custom designers (that is changing now, thankfully!) so you had to get in line for him.. Not the other way around.

And that is exactly what happened.. Everyone wanted his work and he didn't say No to most people. He crossed the legal line and started taking money and not putting out work. Further, many people seem to think that he was just over-loaded.. I do not think that is the case.. I don't think he was working 5 days a week.. More like playing with the money he got and then doing work when it suited him.

With regards to legal remedies, I am looking into them myself. I have a good friend that is a lawyer here in Texas that is going to assist me. The problem is that he is up in Michigan or some other place. Interstate lawsuits are a real pain. We're looking into jurisdictional issue now. Its starting to look like I can make him travel down here or get a default judgement if he does not show. There will however be a problem if I were to have to take the matter up in his state. Most people can't afford to travel up there, attorney fees and room & board for a few thousand dollars. I have only used him for personal sites.. I don't have corporate backing. So, if I can't have the venue in my state, I am just screwed and will have to write it off.

David

What do I hope to accomplish by this? Is it not apparent? I DO NOT want anyone else to get screwed over by this guy. I will NOT allow him to finish anything of mine now(It has been over a year), or mess up anything else, such as my galleries, etc. I gave him NUMEROUS deadlines and finally fair legal notice. That end is done, however I am not going to keep it a dirty little secret any longer. See all those people over at WHT that have been taken for a ride? If I had posted like I am now a while back, chances are those people wouldn't have gotten taken for a ride, or at least would have been much more careful.

You are entitled to your opinion. I really don't care if you think I look bad. I've already stated what I do care about. As for professional resolutions, I have tried that for over a year with him.

I agree with you entirely. I've seen cases such as this over time, and Corey deserves all the bad karma coming to him.

I really don't get why people idolize the guy. It's just a little Photoshop work. Judging by some of the posts I've seen, he gets about $300-$500 an hour too...ridiculous IMHO.

Besides that, I think the car going backwards at 6SpeedOnline.com (I believe that's the site I'm thinking of, but it's down at the moment) is pretty funny. What kind of rocket scientist does a backwards motion blur? :D

If he is so over loaded why is he dishing out vBskins templates? I don't get him.

Like why wouldn't he just finish what he started instead of avoiding stuff. Someone eventually is just gonna say screw it and own him in court. Why would you want that for your self?

Attrox the reason people pay that kind of money up front is for security. Whenever I have a new client they pay me a 25% deposit up front for the work. Then they sign a contract giving both them and us security in the deal. It basically says that if they bail out of the contract without paying in the middle of it after we wasted our time working for them then the deposit is non-refundable. However if we breach the terms of our original agreement or we have to bail out of the job for some reason which has no association with the client, then the deposit is refundable.

For a legitimate design-company a deposit is not just so they can rip off the client and run to Mexico with their money - it's so the client and the company has security in the deal.

- Dean

That actually is a good thing to say Dean - All designers should use such a model;)

Satan

I totally agree, i emailed him for an outline/price quote and got nothing back. How reliable was that, his skins are good, most definitely but his services seem to be shot down along with his reputation .

When these first started out I was pretty defensive of Corey, but the pure pass of them has made me rethink that. he's just got too much work to do it as well as he should.

Didn't people have contracts with him? :) Any ammount of money like that I would ensure a contract is signed (it doesn't take very long to fax one back and forth). But I guess what's done it done :(

and what about the vb.org design he should made ? what happend with that ?

Never happened ^^ :)

But he just came out with the new "Dungeon Skin" for vB3 while all these people who have paid all that money are being ignored.. Pretty lame..

If you have had a problem and would like to submit it, please visit:
www.RavioWarning.com

I bought the Dungeon skin on Wednesday and noticed it had some bugs in it. Corey and I had several exchanges back and forth through the support system till everything was worked out. I had also got my skin after payment instantly. I have never had a problem with Corey and support in the year that I have been buying skins. Corey has always been there to help.

P.S. I had to reply to this message under this old name because my other name wouldn't accept my new email address as licensed.

I have a story to share about my experiances with Corey.
About two years ago, when I first bought vBulletin, Corey and I agreed that he would make me a skin, and install it for vB2 for $50 dollars. I know this is cheap and he usually charges more, but we both agreed to this price.

This was back in September 2001.

I would send him an AIM msg about every week asking him how progress is, and he would ignore me most of the time, or say it's fine.

November 2001, I get an email. It's a .jpg of the forumhome skinned, and it looked pretty snazzy. I asked him when he was going to install it, and he told me he was too busy and I should slice the image and install it myself.

The problem with this:

a) I only had the forumhome skinned
b) I had no buttons
c) I didn't pay 50 bucks for a .jpg, I paid 50 bucks for a skin

So basically, I got ripped off.
I am not trying to flame anyone in this. I am just sharing my experiance with Corey.

I have been overseeing this thread. Complaints of Corey and my own small little problems have persuaded me to go with the team of Dameon and Matt from Inside The Pixel. I am happy that Corey has come out to this thread and responded to the clients that have been left in the dark amidst this recently decline in Mr. Wojen's business ethics.

I am happy that Corey admitted that his ethic has declined. It is a bold move to come out and tell us that. We deserve to know, clients and potential clients alike. It seems as if Wojen has a "new life" as I like to call it. Let's hope it turns out well.

I guess I might as well input my little Wojen story. I have contacted him numerous times over different potential projects. I guess it got annoying that he would reply and not get the job. I still feel that I should get replies. My friend is going with him for a big forum project. He replied an hour or two after my friend sent a request for a quote, asking him to elaborate on what he wants. My friend has confidence in Corey, and that can be a good thing.

The InsideThePixel team seems well fit for taking on what Corey does. It is a good setup. Dameon designs, Matt codes. My project is fairly large. It is a top-notch forum design, numerous hacks (some of which require more images), and installation. It has been about 1 and a half month since Dameon first confirmed the beginning of my project. My experience has been 99% good, 1% bad. I think the bad just came from my anticipation. :) In my opinion, Dameon and Xelation can do anything Corey and his team can do. They even have a custom PHP programmer that works exclusively for them. I see potential, and they will suceed. Trust me. His name is known all over, and he has been designing for only 3 months.

Who would I go with? Right now, I see Dameon being my choice. Corey is excellent, but I would first have to see an improvement in how he runs his business.

I have been in contact with Corey for well over one year for a QUOTE a simple quote on a site that I needed designs for. I was more than willing to shell out thousands for the many skins I needed. Everytime it was like well we need this for design inspirations and this and that and the other thing. Now I am on the hunt again for some serious designer who wants to make some loot. Corey just got too me way too much and I am sorry to see that I really am. The guy does some great work but if you cannot be consistent with your clients then you will not be around for very long.

People are talking about cutom templates not premade. Cutom templates he supports a bit better and also the get right away isn't him activating it its a script.

I got a few skins from Corey, but I don't remember my username/password to login to download them again. I accidentally deleted the photoshop images and now I need them again.

He won't respond to my emails that I've sent. Any ideas on how I can get the photoshop images?

ya at memebers login say forgot your password ;)

I don't even remember what my username was or the email I subscribed with....it was a long time ago.

You can check out the site, www.groove-salad.com , I'm not trying to mislead anyone.