Ripped off by Internet Advertising Company

maz9999

Hello
We have recently opened an internet ECommerce shop and were contacted by a Company (who at the moment will remail nameless) for them to promote our site with Google Adwords, they said they could get our Company at the top of the google searches with the keywords we supplied for £200 per week, and also offered us full money back if it didnt work
After the first week it was obvious that we could only access the advert via a search on google from one of our 4 isp's and most of the keywords we supplied wernt coming up, we tried on numerous occasions to contact the company who didnt return phone calls or emails, we advised to cancel the account and for them not to take any more than the initial £200 we which had put down to experiance.
The company persisted to take £200 on various occasions (not weekly) and are still doing so to this date, (still not replying to emails)
I have contacted Barclays who have started an investigation but say that until 31 days have expired they cannot get any money back for us.
I asked about closing the account but they said they could pay the company from one of our other accounts , if anyone has any ideas about how to stop this company from Bankrupting our business before it gets started I would be most gratefull
Thank you

RadoJo

Hi,
I work with Google AdWords a lot and can confirm that no company can guarantee top positions without a variable budget, and depending on your keywords that could cost a fortune! Have you asked them to confirm what they have actually done? Have you checked through all the sponsored results for the keywords you supplied to see if you are just ranking lower down?
If you have a contract with them, is there a built in serice level agreement which they are bound to meet in order to fulfill their obligations to you - I would suggest that is the best way of going about reclaiming the money, although I am not quite sure why you can't cancel the payment? What kind of payment system did you set up? Is the money going direct to Google, or are this company spending it on your behalf as a third party?
Sorry to bombard you with questions!

maninthestreet

Is the payment to the company being made under a direct debit agreement for a bank account, or are they debitting a credit card under a continuous authority agreement?

maz9999

Hello
Thanks for the input
there was no agreement other than a telephone call, they supplied what they would do in an email , which was top ranking all the time with the keywords we supplied, which didnt happen at all when I searched on a different isp than the the one they new we used, the payment was taken with a debit card, after the first payment went out after we had instructed them not to take another payment, we called the bank and cancelled that card, but they have still taken the money out again somehow ?

maz9999

here is a copy of their original email
Further to your conversation with Mike here is a little more information regarding our Google Adpack service.

We will provide GUARANTEED number one on Google for your chosen category in your preferred area.
There is no long term contract, we operate a month by month pay as you go service. Because there are no long term contracts this service can be cancelled for any reason, all we ask is 72 hours notice prior to your next billing date. There are no cancellation fees or hidden costs.

The cost of the package to you will be an ongoing monthly fee of £950 pcm for each category or area you take with us. This first payment, consisting of the setup fee and the first month, is taken using a secured credit or debit card transaction and there after we can setup a direct debit/standing order or we will take rolling payments from your card on the set billing date.

If you wish to run a few test searches, for some of our other customers with the same service, please feel free to take a look at some of these examples.

1. Signmaker in Belfast = you will find
2. Couriers in Colchester = you will find

Both these customers are listed number one through us. The package they have is the same as yours, but obviously there are some minor differences as all listings are tailor made to each companies needs.

If we do not provide the services we offered you will receive a full money back guarantee.

As agreed Mike will call you back to discuss taking this further.

If you have any further questions please feel free to reply to this email
I look forward to having you on board with us,

Regards

RadoJo

I am still not quite sure why the bank say they can't help - one payment to a company is not ongoing authority to debit your account, and I really don't think they could pay the company from another account without your permission. To be honest, it sounds as though they are giving you the run around as well unless there is more to it?

As for this company, do they have a dedicated sales line? Could you withold your number? If they know you're calling to complain they won't answer, but if they think you might be new business you might stand a better chance of getting somewhere. Also, did they set you up with a Google account which you can access, or are they managing the campaign themselves?

Also if you could post their name (completely up to you, I understand if you don't want to, or you can PM me if you prefer) I would be interested in their supposed 'technique' for keeping you at no. 1 and to see if there is anything on their site which I can definitively say is a lie, thereby giving you a case to take to Trading standards possibly?

maz9999

hi
the payment went to the company themeselves, they have actually just called me since I suggested that we would be contacting this site , they said we still owe them £800 for the work they did, and i cannot prove they didnt do the work ?even though when we searched for the keywords on google it didnt come up with various search engines, they asked what we should do now, and when I said I wouldnt pay the £800 they said they are taking it to court ? which I replied would be the best thing, and the Court could decide, what a pain !!!

maninthestreet

Make sure you keep the original of that email for the court case! It's up to them to prove their case to the court, and they are going to struggle to do that if searches on google don't produce the results they promised in their email.

suckmaster.burstingfoam

maz9999 wrote: »

Hello
...which was top ranking all the time with the keywords we supplied, which didnt happen at all when I searched on a different isp than the the one they new we used

Just to clarify, they can't have set-up Adwords so that it would only show your advert to users of your ISP. It doesn't work like that - you can target certain areas of the country/world, but not specific ISPs.

fudgeukraine

Prob have been scammed or at least promised unobtainable things. No company, even my company (who are a huge player in the field) can promise 1st place for SEO or PPC as it depends on so many factors such as your site and the quality score. Try Barclays as they should be able to do something, otherwise, I'd suggest that, based on distance but also on the amount owed, to pay a visit to the company to see if your presence can persuade them to part with the money!

RadoJo

Maz - I've pm-ed you some more specific info, but these people do seem to have a certain 'flexible' approach to the truth.