Most paysite designers are happy to work with their clients to a certain extent, if you give the designer a solid idea of the type of structure you want your site to have, along with a couple of samples of other sites that you like, the designer should be able to come up with something you will like after maybe 1 revision to the overall design/layout and a 2nd revision to correct text/spelling/grammar on the site, etc.

Typically, unless the designer didnt listen to a word i told them or read what i wanted in my project brief, usually once i have the preview layout from them i am usually able to get the finished design after maybe 2 revisions max.

Of course, that doesnt take in to account those design companies that have several designers on staff whom you show the guy you are talking to a sample from their portfolio and they give the work to someone else that doesnt have the same quality of work, that is when the 'real' issues start for me.

Regards,

Lee