what i like to do is work with agencies for a limited trial period. i give them a couple of easy, medium, and hard tasks, and see how they fare. based on their performance, i hire them or move on to someone else.
This helps me test the hypothesis that this is the right group for the job.
That said, I don't know if that would have helped OP. It seemed like timing (End of year is always a slowdown due to holidays, and Feb-April are when other clients start ramping back up) was not on their side, but breaking things down into more bitesized work could have helped. Most of the work I saw was mockup/design work, which is more creative/subjective than your typical "Make button do X" kind of task.
This helps me test the hypothesis that this is the right group for the job.
That said, I don't know if that would have helped OP. It seemed like timing (End of year is always a slowdown due to holidays, and Feb-April are when other clients start ramping back up) was not on their side, but breaking things down into more bitesized work could have helped. Most of the work I saw was mockup/design work, which is more creative/subjective than your typical "Make button do X" kind of task.