Worldwide Marketing Solutions / Worldwideems con? Beware!

Liam7

I have also within the last two weeks been caught by this company. I got suspicious after checking for my front page links which aren't there. Rather than get straight onto the company, I have first done some searches, ending up here amongst many other places.

From reading many posts, at this stage I think it is a waste of time writing to them. The main reason being, I don't think they actually exist at the contact address! They don't show in any directories that I have looked in so far, if you search postcodes on the Royal Mail site, Unit 18, Meridian Business Centre does not show up. I've even used Google Street View to have a look around the Centre & there is no sign or indication of this company.

I have been in contact with my credit card company, not really to get a refund (£139) but to try and make sure they don't get any more. The credit card company was less than helpful, saying that even if I were to cancel my card & have a new one issued this still wouldn't stop them from taking a payment as a credit card is a guaranteed form of payment. They said I should write to the company first & then if they later try to take more money it can be claimed back. Not much help as I am pretty certain that this company is not at the address given !! I've now cleared my credit card balance & it looks like the only way to be sure is to now cancel my credit card account completely. I will write to them by registered post after I have sorted my card, I doubt it will get to them but at least I have tried & have evidence of postage.

I am furious with myself for being taken in by this, I really do know better..........

Premier_2

Come on, who is going to be number 10?

suepreater

i too have been conned by this company - to the tune of £1500! They took payments from my debit card and are threatening to take more. All of the above applies so I wont repeat it but I will be taking these nasty people to court to get the money back. Does anyone want to club together and provide each other statements??? If enough people are saying the same thing they surely cannot get away with it.:mad:

LaserJet

11.

My mother was conned by this scum (well that's an insult to scum) of a company back in Febuary this year, after getting off the phone to them she came to me and said she though she'd been conned.

So she tried to get the £140 back from them but they kept on refusing, until she started going through the small claims court process, they offered her £79 to settle out of court, which she has tonight emailed them to accept the offer as she's in her 60s, recently recovering from a very bad accident and cannot take the stress of fighting the company anymore.

They need to be shut down.

Oh and they told her the person who originally called her and got her to sign up to their bogus service no longer works for them. Hah, yeah right, fat chance, as if.

Scam_hunter

I also today got contacted by this company, and at first i thought i must have done something seriusly wrong, as they opened with 'hi, calling from google!'

....and they never call!!! (they arent needing to cold call i can assure you they are ok for cash!!)

everything that people have written above was included in the pitch.

when they went onto say.. 'we can get your site onto the 1st page of google' , i knew they were trying to pull a fast one, as i receive many calls like this... not so many claiming to be google though!! this was a 1st.

I replied ' I am on the 1st page of google already',
they then said ' yes, well this is a service to put you at the top of 1st page every time!'
i asked for their real name and they reluctantly gave it- 'we are called worldwide marketing and are the uk seller for google'
(i have a netbook with me at all times- so i prob wasnt their best hope of a sale)

i said ' i have just searched, and you arent even well positioned on google'
they said ' type in - worldwidems'
i then said 'who on earth i going to be typing in that as a keyword search?'
i explained to them that i was a marketing expert and there was no way they could improve my ranking, more likely ruin it.... but they were still persistent until i told them that i had too many clients if anything, and that i would be ok without them... I stated 'you found me through google, so my ranking cant be bad.'
they then replied ' we didnt actually, we do a search on peoples visited addresses over 30 days..... blah blah blah'

I interrupted them and said ' no thanks, have a good day!' and put phone down.

basically nonsense.. they were winging it as soon as i started speaking back to them. Even after explaining true s.e.o. techniques that i use, (in attempt to let them know im clued up in this game)
they still tried to waffle about mobile searches!!


These types of !!!!! are always trying it with people who are visible on the net... TAKE IT THAT IF THEY FOUND YOU, YOU ARE ALREADY FINDABLE and dont need them.

If you want a sofa, you buy it from the wholesaler/maker, not from someone calling you offering you one!- same thing here.

I get mad when i see they have conned so many people, we should fight back!! I have found the most effective way to close down companies like this is using their own tactics against them!!!

FOR EXAMPLE-

1. Call them back, recording the phone call, 'hi Is this google, advertising team'
im sure a high percentage will agree they are, giving you evidence to go to court with.

2. call them - unrecorded this time- 'hi, is this google/' , ' we are calling to arrange a convenient timeslot to film an interview with you on location.. we work for a major Newspaper, tv channel, trading standards, watchdog.. what time would suit you for us to arrive today.'

'if you dont give us a time we will print our own story on your false claims and unsavoury dealings'

3. repeat above on daily basis, or ask friends to withhold numbers and do the same... the more different voices the better.

(this may seem childish, but kids are innocent and so are you!- these scumbags are not. They will feel hot under the collar for sure and will eventually most likely move location and trade under new name, but when they that there is resistance, they may at least be more honest in their pitch or their future choice of Profession)

also, you may feel, like myself, a bit better for venting it, and letting them know you are n to them. Im making my first phone call right now!

peterpb

Thanks for all the posts - so I'm not the only one. Signed up for some 'advertising' for my design company. Thought I'd been careful enough, and could tell a cowboy, but sadly no. Feels bad to be scammed. Signed up in May after sales call, cancelled before the 'free' period was up by e-mail, but then they didn't acknowledge reply, then didn't acknowledge 2 letters, until we sent one signed for. Then they did acknowledge reciept BUT still seem to be taking money for a service I stopped after 2 weeks. Last payment went out in August. Will probably have to cancel card, definitely reporting as fraud and will approach the Credit Card Company to see if they can pursue. Would be interested in any joint action to stop them trapping any-one else.

debbie50

ive just been conned out of 139 quid, as everyone else was conned after being told that they are GOOGLE and telling me that i will gets tons of work from the stie, and that i can freeze my account, ive had not one call from this site at all, im sick of ringing them and alls they do is !!!!!!!! me, ive rang then today telling then i will not be renewing, because im not happy with them, i told them its misrepresentation. i was told in return that they will take money from my card,if they cant get it they take me to court, and that i have to put it in writing that i wish to cancel. Then i just happened to come across this site, so ive just rang natwest and theyve told me they wont let anyone take anymore more money from there off my card, and the wont be getting a letter from me, so they,ll have to take me to court!!

MrBaker_2

I just want to confirm all of the negative comments re. the above. I have had to cancel my debit card today to ensure they do not take any more out of my account. My 3 month "trial" has now been 5 months and they refuse to acknowledge letters or e-mail.
I would certainly be prepared to join with others and try to do something about them.

debbie50

well as i expected theyve taken another 116 quid off my card without telling me, and for nothing,, so ive had my card blocked by natwest!!!! even i cant use it, they wont take anymore money from it. and on monday ive to ring a number to report FRAUD!!!!!!!!!!!! because thats what it is, so theyve had 260 quid off me for nothing, how can they be allowed to get away with they need stopping. Oh and im just waiting for the phone call asking me for money!!! SEE YOU IN COURT!!!

ovengreen

Yep, i was called by these people too. I told them as a professional web designer i wasn't needing their services, to be met with a very rude response.

Don't trust many SEO companies because normally without changing the metadata on your website, which needs to be done manually, then there really isnt any other rather dramatic way of boosting your google's ranking.