Worldwide Marketing Solutions / Worldwideems con? Beware!

good3

Is there any way to find out if Oldham Trading Standards got anywhere with this? I do hope so - after being threatened with court and insurmountable additional charges I have just finalised payments with them - they're a bunch of B******* and I hope they get what's coming to them.

wellyella wrote: »

Hi all

Just to let you know I had a call from Oldham Trading Standards today and they are taking action against them. :-)

I too was conned out of £300 by them. They made out they were google (hmm a pattern has formed here hasn't it!), took money they weren't authorised to, and were downright rude!

Fingers crossed we all get a refund and they get put out of business.

good3

Just to let you all know after countless emails I have finalised, paid (in full and final settlement) and closed FOREVER my account with this bunch of creeps. I do accept that if I had read the online agreement and read it again to get what it was saying I could have saved myself time, worry and money - chalk one up to experience. However after being told the charges were to be roughly £800 I managed to get them to settle for £100 paid right now, today, 30 minutes to accept my offer otherwise the offer would be off the table, they said yes, then they tried to say no we meant £100 now and the rest within 2 weeks - and I said "I have an email from you saying that you would accept £100" and they finally agreed. It's money well spent if I never fall for anything like this again and £100 is worth it to get them to disappear from my life. Happy? Not really - bloody ecstatic it's over though!

good3

Sorry just want to add to all those newbie victims my advice when dealing with WORLDWIDE MARKETING SOLUTIONS:

If you are (like me) gullible enough to have signed up for their once in a lifetime, one month trial - it is not a one month trial it is a rolling contract - didn't tell you that did they?

When you realise your mistake - send them countless emails stating that you wish to close your account with immediate effect. Do this WITHIN THE FIRST 30 DAYS. Record all conversations and tell them that they are being recorded (it's the law) because they say they record theirs but will not send you a copy of them.

After 30 days you have to give them 30 days notice to close your account, which basically means you will have to pay them for the second and third month. OUCH!

If you ARE over 30 days, then again send them countless emails, confirm each telephone call but more importantly SEND THEM A RECORDED DELIVERY LETTER confirming your emails and the fact that you want to close your account with immediate effect or a date that has been agreed on the phone AND by email.

Don't leave them any slimy little loopholes to jump out of. DO cancel your card and ask your bank for a new one, I know it's a pain BUT it's easier to stop them getting more money and virtually impossible to get it back when they keep helping themselves to your hard earned cash.

Finally don't beat yourself up about it, I am an intelligent, hardworking female and I took the bait and so did all the other people on here - you are a good decent person unfortunately that is not what we are dealing with here.

If you want to leave me a message or question - don't hesitate to contact me.

P.S. Don't try to appeal to their compassion - they don't have any

vendetta1

Just had a shocking experience with these guys! Thank goodness I didn't fall for their scam! Close shave! Found this forum when I was about to ring and complain to Net Search Management - I have bad mobile service and the salesman called me a "sad bas***d" when he thought I couldn't hear him - not the best sales technique - so then when he asked in the next call 2 seconds later whether we would go with this, said no as didn't appreciate been spoken to like that, to be told "Your website's s**t, you stupid b***ch, drop dead!" Polite boys aren't they? Thank you for letting everyone out there know about their scam - I so nearly went for it, so pleased I got the salesman with a foul mouth!
:eek::mad:

atto09

I too fell for this trap today.

They seem to have tightened their belts a bit with regards to incoming calls. Any incoming calls were answered with "Good morning/afternoon, Worldwide Marketing", however - they are still persistent in introducing themselves when they call you as "Google"

I have had to cancel my credit card to avoid any further payment being taken off

I had several phone calls with this company - customer service does not seem to be top of their priorities

Once I sent my email stating "I wish my account to be cancelled with immediate effect", I received yet another phone call, initially from their manager, who cut me off after finding out I had made multiple phone calls in which they refused to refund me.

I then received a phone call from one man telling me that this was his birthday and he did not appreciate being "harassed by a deluded customer". He told me that the online agreement didn't apply to me as I was a "special case". I did not wish to take this, and he started shouting at me.

Eventually, he agreed to cancel my account and said he will send me a confirmation email. I am yet to receive this

Avoid at all costs

Please also post your experience to Watchdog. (I cannot post links as a new user)

The more people who post, the more likely it is that this company will be featured

HHH101

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing........

Yes, I too have been caught by this company and have lost a lot of money. I will be dealing with this in the same way that everyone else has e.g trading standards. Not only have they not honoured the terms of their original agreement including the agreed time period, they have taken further payments fraudulently and for what????

McI_2

I did the same as all others on this thread. I had a call which I thought initially was from Google, agreed to spend £118 but they took further monthly payments from my account. The deal on the phone was clear - after one month they would contact me and see if I wanted to continue and they failed to contact me to ask. I complained to my Bank of 44 years HSBC who said Worldwide marketing say they have a contract with me and they side with Worldwide Marketing. I have now lodged a formal complaint with HSBC over sloppy way they deal with fraud (they clearly did not ask for a copy of the contract as it does not exist) and will pursue to Financial Ombudsman if no satisfactory response is received. I have also written to Oldham Trading Standards. Given the history of the authorities allowing this scam to continue for so long I am not hopeful the scam will be stopped. I hate to admit it but I am a solicitor (not normally litigious) and all it takes for scams like this to succeed is for a few good people to do nothing. If HSBC and trading standards do nothing I will pursue through courts.

pammie1

Add me to the list. I had a call from Katie Smith echoing all the above. The call seemingly was generated from a free online ad I did. I'm a new business. It all seemed really good. I can't believe I have fallen for it. I'm the original Mrs Disbeliever, but like many, I was called on a day where somehow all my good sense was out of the window.

I was called by Katie at about 0930 on Friday morning (its now Saturday night). I was trying to deal with a customer too so asked her to call me back. She did at about 11am. She went through all the above blurb ... will guarentee me to be on top of list ... one month trial and then can stop at anytime .... not locked in to anything. Telling me about some of my competitors who were at the top right now were her clients.

I cringe everytime I think how I have been taken in.

No point in labouring over it all now. I just have some questions if thats ok?

What do I do next. Do I have to wait to cancel? As I agreed to a 'trial'? I am really upset and confused about all this. I've been slaving over getting a brand new business of the ground and am as broke as broke can be ... which is probably why I fell for it - the promise of the phone ringing with custom.

Oh lordy ... I have got to tell OH about this now. He is going to be so mad with me

Sorry for the 'edit' ... I forgot to say, the confirmation email they sent me with the welcome pack attached won't open. I replied to it, but the reply came straight back to me !!! Any significance do you think?

Are there any further updates on this bunch of pigs

pammie1

After reading all the these posts over and over, its clear that attention to detail is very important. I could do with some help on how to word a cancellation email and recorded delivery letter please.

I really want to try to get this done right. Thanks sooo much if you can help me x

pammie1

Thought it may help to see the copy of an email I got from them ...

Thank you for placing your order with WorldWide Marketing Solutions Ltd to advertise on Google.
We can now confirm that payment has been received and your campaign is now active and your adverts will be live within 48 working hours (unless otherwise agreed)! I asked for the campain to start on the following monday morning
You can find your advert by going to www.google.co.uk and searching the following key phrases:
We strongly recommend you don't click on your own advert as this can affect the exposure of your campaign. Your trial month has started and your campaign will be active every day for 1 month from when they first go live.
Have removed the list of key words they had written

5/6 days prior to your month end we will email you with a report to show you the results.
With well over 1 Billion searches a day, we trust that Google will work very well for you, just as it is doing for millions of businesses across the world, and we hope you decide to continue to use our expertise after the one month trial has elapsed. We do recommend a bed in time of 12 weeks, as this is the average lead time between someone searching online and buying/placing orders. The subscription is on a month by month basis, as detailed in our online agreement, which you can find on www.worldwidems.co.uk
Once again we would like to welcome you to Worldwide Marketing Solutions Ltd and we will work with you to ensure maximum return on your investment with us.
Kind Regards,
Customer Support
WorldWide Marketing Solutions
Telephone: 0161 633 6003 (Primary contact)
Email : customerservice@worldwidems.co.uk (Secondary contact)
Note the small print at the bottom of page

Worldwide Marketing Solutions operates independently. We are not employed, endorsed, or agents of Google™. 'Google™' and ‘Google Adwords™’ is a trademark of Google™, Inc., or facebook™