Square63 delivered a disastrous product & the CEO hasn't replied to attempts to resolve the issue
As of October 9, 2023, the CEO has not responded to our attempts to amicably resolve the issues cited.
We hired Square 63 to build a new website and backend system. We had a good site in place for them to use as an exact roadmap, however, we were looking to upgrade. In our very first email, we clearly stated 3 objectives for the new system requirements. Speed, marketing enhancements and site flexibility and scale.
We presented all of the requested materials and asked for a SOW and quote from the CEO & Founder, Baber Javed. We were presented an SOW, and a quote, and did not negotiate, we simply accepted their SOW and agreed on payment terms. We began working together in April 2021, with a ‘safe’ estimated launch date of January 2022.
When we finally launched the site on July 27, 2022, our nightmare began. Not only did the site not meet the three clearly stated objectives, it took us and our clients spiraling down. We found ourselves with a TERRIBLE product. We were left with a MUCH worse site than before, and with every “fix” they made, it introduced multiple new issues. The tech was inherently flawed because the CEO was asleep at the wheel. All the while, fraudulently charging us for “Senior” engineers while having amateurs build the site.
Within three months, it was obviously, we’d been delivered a system that couldn’t even be fixed. So I hired a few technical specialists to review the Github repositories and code to see why we were experiencing so many problems, bugs and issues on the site. Despite being charged for Senior engineering, not a single best practice had been deployed within the code. No test cases had been built in, which explained why every ‘fix’ led to the introduction of multiple new issues on the site. After we received several expert opinions, we were told the system was unsalvageable. The people reviewing it were appalled at what they’d delivered.
We had to start over just 3 months after launching a new site. There was no time to waste, so we got started, however, while rebuilding the site, we experienced complete data losses three times when the system went down because Square63 did not built any back-up mechanisms into it’s infrastructure. So when the site they built went down due to the lack of infrastructure to support a reasonable amount of traffic, we lost EVERYTHING! The only reason we could proceed was because our team pulled daily reports.
I communicated all of this frequently to the CEO / Founder, Baber Javed, who tried to blame others for the flaws. Not what I’d expect from a CEO. I pointed out our original objectives, and while small efforts were made to try and rectify the situation, each effort led to further loss and destruction of our business. I started CC’ing our attorney on all communications to document the progression of events as I could tell the CEO did not care that the product they delivered was useless and he was not going to make the situation right, despite us proposing a number of scenarios to help us rebuild.
We were fraudulently charged fees that were overly excessive, being told we had senior engineers building the site (we later learned our main developer had one year of experience) and when we reached out to settle the matter, we were entirely ignored by the CEO, Baber Javed. This leads me to believe he has NO intention of caring for his clientele when things go wrong with the products they deliver.
I would be happy to share the Github repositories and all code / artifacts so if you’re considering working with this company, you can review their work in advance and hopefully avoid the same nightmarish outcome. I’m also happy to share the correspondence so you can see what to expect from the CEO, Baber Javed, when their products fail entirely.
Due to Square 63’s location in Pakistan, it makes any legal recourse difficult. Which means the integrity of the Company’s owner(s) / leaders is critical. I cannot stress enough what a nightmare working with Square 63 has been and therefore will furnish any / all information needed so others can avoid the same mistake by hiring this Company. It nearly killed our business as we struggled daily to find work arounds to help our clients and ultimately, moved everyone over to a SaaS platform while we rebuilt our site.
October 9, 2023
Unprompted review