You've paid the invoice. The site is live. You asked a question and the agency went quiet. Something feels off but you can't put your finger on it. Here's the checklist.
Three or more of these from the list below? You've been done. It happens. The point now is to stop paying for it and get it unf-cked.
The twelve
01. They won't give you the admin login
"We manage that for you" is cowboy-speak for "we're the only way to change anything, so you have to keep paying us". You own the site. You own the login. If they won't hand it over, that's a hostage situation.
02. The CMS is branded with their agency name
Cowboys build on their own proprietary CMS. They tell you it's "custom" and "tailored to your business". What it actually is: lock-in. You cannot migrate. You cannot edit. You cannot hire another developer. That's the whole point.
03. You got invoiced for plugins
Your plugin list includes things like WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, Contact Form 7. Open-source. Free. If your build invoice lists these as "custom development" line items, you've paid somebody to install a free plugin and describe it as work.
04. Every change is a "phase two"
"That wasn't in scope" is the cowboy's four-word get-out. Then you get quoted for each small change. Updating a price? £250. Adding a testimonial? £400. An actual business would make those changes free, because they take three minutes.
05. Your site is on their hosting
Not their cloud account at AWS. Their hosting. Their shared server. If you leave them, you lose access. Legitimate agencies use your hosting or help you set up your own.
06. The site was "designed on WordPress"
Half the SMEs in Britain are on WordPress. That's fine. But if the agency's one-trick-pony is WordPress + a page builder (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery) and they sold it to you as "custom design", you paid £15k for a template with your logo on it.
07. You can't see the analytics
"We'll send you a monthly report" is cowboy for "we control the data and what you see of it". Your analytics should be in your Google account. You should have admin access.
08. They scheduled a 45-minute call for every tiny change
Agency efficiency is measured in how little your tiny change ruins their week. If a one-line copy tweak needs a "catch-up call", you're paying for their Tuesday afternoon.
09. The site is slow
Run a PageSpeed check. If mobile performance is under 50, the work was not done by someone who knew what they were doing. Performance is not optional in 2026. It's table stakes.
10. The code on the page includes the agency's signature
Open the HTML. Search for "Designed by" or "Built by" or the agency name. Their ego in your markup slows your site down and is a marketing channel you didn't agree to fund.
11. You don't know what you bought
Ask yourself: can I list, in plain English, what I got for my money? If the answer is "a website", you don't know. Which means the agency could have delivered anything. That's the vagueness the price hides inside.
12. They pitched you on "storytelling" or "brand narrative"
These are fine concepts. They are also a route by which the agency charges you £8k for a one-paragraph tagline and three mood boards. If "storytelling" is on the invoice, you paid someone £400/hour to write "we care about our customers" and call it strategy.
What to do next
Count how many apply to you. If it's three or more, you've been done. The site you have is almost certainly cheaper to replace than to maintain. The audit will tell you exactly what's salvageable, what isn't, and what a decent rebuild costs in 2026 money.
If it's one or two, you might have dodged the worst of it. A quick review sorts what's left.
Zero? You found a decent agency. Rare. Tell us who they are, we need more of them.