PenjiReviews of penji.co

They were quick to take my money as a small nonprofit, yet my project was never fixed or resolved. We are deeply disappointed that this was the case.

After my initial engagement, the CEO reached out to me with a promise to do better, agreeing that they had dropped the ball. Making me an offer I couldn't refuse, I gave them another try. They were again inconsistent, lacking any attention to detail, and unable to follow clear instructions (that their own art director had said made perfect sense). I really wish it had been different.

I had high hopes for Penji, but my experience was frustrating and ultimately not worth the investment. Despite providing clear briefs and multiple rounds of feedback, the designs consistently fell short of expectations, requiring excessive back-and-forth to reach an acceptable result. What should have been a streamlined and efficient process turned into a time-consuming ordeal. In contrast, I was able to get better-quality work elsewhere, faster, and at a fraction of the cost—without needing to micromanage every step. If you're looking for a hassle-free design service that delivers quality work without endless revisions, I’d strongly recommend looking elsewhere. Based on my experience, Penji did not live up to its promises.

Really poor service. You literally wait ages for a subtle revision. Doesn't give you that in-house designer experience. They start your work and that work takes ages be it a simple logo iteration. Or if they come up with something within stipulated time, the work is substandard and really one could do a better job. There will always feel a disconnect with your brand and it's vision.

Disaster of an experience. Comparing for 2 weeks side by side with Design Pickle, same "Pro" plans. After 2 weeks we've received 8 fully completed projects from Design Pickle and we've received 2 fully completed projects from Penji. Exact same projects. We paid extra for the "daytime" plan with Penji that advertises "same day turnaround", but not once did we receive daytime output or a same day turnaround. When we contacted customer support about it, they were confused then figured out that our plan didn't show 'daytime' so they had to fix it in their system. Next, the 'disaster' of the experience is that the designers don't fully read your very detailed scope of work, and deliver projects missing key elements. Then, when you point that out, it becomes a 'revision' that they fix and deliver the next day, or the next, or the next, so at this rate you get one delivery in a week, where Design Pickle got it right the first time, or, when they didn't, they at least checked back for comments and fixed things right away. Designers on Penji (a) never check in to tell you they've read a comment (b) deliver the project with errors at the very end of the work day then (c) vanish not to be heard from again until the next day, where they make another delivery with an error. Finally, to confirm the full level of disaster, we escalate an urgent request to "support" to have a delivery with an error fixed, they put a new designer on it, who, although they fix a typo delivers a completely different project, missing half of the animated elements from the first designer. So they fixed one thing but broke the rest of it. Guess what? We'll now wait another day for them to read about this mistake... and it goes on and on and on. The problem with Penji is (a) designers don't read (b) they deliver half baked goods daily and count each minor fix another day's revision (b) you can't talk to anyone realtime or even know if they see your comments, except ONCE A DAY in batches. You type something, they don't read it until the next day, make a flawed delivery, and then vanish again. Dividing our monthly payment for the service, we've now paid $500 for 2 designs that we could have got for $80 on Fiverr. Design Pickle has real time communication with not only the designers, but team leads and others, so you can communicate throughout the day and stay on top of things. A message to Penji goes unanswered and there is no real time collaboration. They advertise a method to "switch designers" but the feature doesn't actually exist in the platform. In short, their front end website looks slick, but the backend system is a disaster. As much as I want to like Penji, Design Pickle is the clear winner in every aspect so far.

It's frustrating working with people who's second language is English. The team just couldn't understand what I wanted and I felt like I was talking to myself for most of the time. I asked for a refund within 1 week.

Not satisfied with the work. Just didn't get well after the first project. Didn't feel confident that I'd enjoy the service.

We looked to Penji to handle some internal overflow projects. We work in design and are familiar with design specification and scope of work requests. We submitted a very detailed request that included everything needed for an experienced designer to get started. What we received was an amateurish joke. We decided to cut our losses and end the relationship and take advantage of their 30 day money back guarantee - we were only a couple days into the subscription. This initiated the PENJI shakedown, where our request to refund was resisted again and again. After email after email, they finally admitted that the designer was worthless and what was presented to us as a draft was. In their own words “this designer wasn’t of quality.” However, after they admitted they assigned a talentless designer and wasted our time, they stopped responding to emails and still have not acknowledged our right for a refund. Perhaps our case is an outlier, but I cannot recommend PENJI. Dishonest business practices coupled with a pool of dubious “designers” is a recipe for disaster. UPDATE: No, Penji, you don’t get to lie by responding to my review with bogus claims. You DO shy away from giving a refund. I have asked for a refund, but still have not received confirmation of it. Even the response to my review says you have not refunded me. Since posting this review I have received three more emails from different people asking me to either reconsider or to explain why I want a refund, even though I have explained that many times in multiple emails and cancelation requests. Penji hides behind a money back guarantee claim, but uses harassment to wear down the customer in an attempt to not honor the request. Stay away from this dishonest company. UPDATE July 4, 2022: I have screenshots of all the emails from Penji that show your most recent comments are false. I will not retract this review. Everything I have stated is true. I requested a cancelation on July 1. Following that request, I received multiple emails over the next three days from as many as four different people telling me to reconsider. These include the following Penji workers: 1) Katie Heugle | Support Specialist, 2) Mason Graves | Support Specialist, 3) Jo (no last name given), 4) Rumana Thajudeen | Support Specialist Penji needs to get a handle on how it manages cancelation requests.