Your agency launched your site with the contact form broken
A broken contact form at launch usually means the agency never tested it before going live. The fix itself is a five-minute job - the weeks of waiting are the agency's queue, not the work. You can ask for a refund of the lost period, request proof of testing, and move to someone who actually checks their own work before billing you.
What actually went wrong
A contact form is the simplest part of a small business website. The visitor fills it in, hits send, and the message arrives in your inbox. There are only three things that need to work: the form itself, the bit of software that sends the email, and the inbox address it sends to.
When a form is broken at launch, one of those three things was never tested. The form looks fine on the page - it accepts the message and shows a thank-you screen - but nothing arrives. The visitor thinks they have contacted you. You have no idea they exist.
The honest answer is that nobody at the agency filled in the form and checked their own inbox before invoicing you. That is the entire problem.
How many enquiries you lost
This is the part agencies do not want you to think about. If the form was broken for three weeks and your site gets even one enquiry a day, that is twenty-odd potential customers who tried to reach you and got nothing back.
They will not try again. They will assume you ignored them, or that you are not interested, and they will go to the next plumber, therapist or cafe on the list. Whether you run a salon in Manchester or a letting agency in Cardiff, every missed enquiry is a customer who now thinks you cannot be bothered.
The lost revenue from a broken form usually dwarfs the entire cost of the website. Agencies rarely volunteer this calculation.
Why it took weeks to fix
The fix takes minutes. The wait is the agency's internal queue - your ticket sitting behind someone else's redesign, somebody on holiday, and an account manager who has to forward your email to the developer who actually does the work.
You are not waiting for the work. You are waiting for your turn.
The standard agency response is some version of "we are looking into it" followed by silence. Then a fix, with no apology, no refund, and no explanation of how a launch could happen without anyone testing the most important form on the site.
What to ask the agency for now
Three things, in writing:
- A refund or credit for the period the form was broken. The site was not fit for purpose during that window. You paid for a working site.
- An explanation of their launch testing process. If they have one, ask why this form was not tested. If they do not, you have your answer about why this happened.
- Confirmation in writing that the form is now being monitored - meaning someone gets alerted if it stops sending again.
If the response is vague, defensive, or comes with a quote for "ongoing support", you have learned everything you need to know about who you are paying.
How to stop this happening again
A working contact form has two simple safeguards. First, send a copy of every submission to a second inbox - so if your main one breaks, you still see the messages. Second, set up a monitor that sends a test message through the form once a day and alerts someone if it fails.
Both take about an hour to set up once, and then they run forever. The reason your agency did not do this is that nobody told them to, and they were not going to volunteer it.
This is the kind of thing I set up by default on every site I look after. SkipTheAgency's Maintained plan is £65/month and includes the form monitoring, the backup inbox, and someone (me) who actually checks the contact form works before saying a site is live. Most local agencies charge £150/month for a service that, in your case, demonstrably did not include testing the form.
You can move at any time. If your current agency owns your domain or hosting, I handle the transfer for free. The site keeps running while it moves.
Frequently asked questions
How long should it take to fix a broken contact form?
The actual fix is usually 10-30 minutes once someone looks at it. If it has taken weeks, you are waiting on the agency's internal queue, not the work itself. There is no technical reason for a delay longer than a day or two.
Can I get a refund if my contact form was broken at launch?
You can ask for one and you have a reasonable case. The site was not fit for purpose during the broken period, which means you did not get what you paid for. Put the request in writing and keep it polite but firm.
How do I test a contact form myself?
Fill it in with a real message, send it, and check the inbox it is meant to arrive at. Do this from a phone as well as a computer. If nothing arrives within a minute, it is broken.
Why do agencies launch sites without testing the forms?
Launches happen in a rush, testing is treated as the client's job, and nobody is held responsible when something goes wrong. The work gets handed off between several people and the final check often does not happen at all.
Should the contact form send me a copy of the submission?
Yes, and it should ideally also send a copy to a second inbox as a backup. That way if your main inbox has a problem, you still see the enquiries. It costs nothing to set up.
How do I know if my form is silently broken right now?
Test it. Send yourself a message through it and see if it arrives. If you have not received any enquiries for a few weeks and your traffic is normal, assume the form is broken until you have proved otherwise.
Your contact form should never be the thing that breaks
SkipTheAgency's Maintained plan is £65/month and includes daily form monitoring, a backup inbox, and someone who tests the form before saying a site is live. Free migration if you want to move.
Message me on WhatsApp