Has anyone heard of the above mentioned companies before?
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This is a classic bait and switch scam. The sales rep, Michael Warren, called my company up a month back and promised that we would be at the top of Google 24 hours a day. Now, A month later I received a call saying that my campaign was costing too much money and that they needed more money from me to stay there or they would cancel me. This is true bait and switch, they offered me placement and then when they couldn’t perform as promised asked for more money. Don’t get fooled!
This is a complaint filed by an ex-employee who was terminated for performance reasons. This employee has been blogging us with multiple alias’s since he was terminated in March of 2009. There are many blogs on the Internet similar to this one.
This ex-employee is uneducated and only has a high school diploma, so the argument above is somewhat incoherent. He is confusing the issue between an Adwords Qualified Individual and an Adwords Qualified Company. There is a big difference here. There are no constraints on Adwords Qualified Individuals, just passing the test. On the other hand an Adwords Qualified Company has to have several employees who have passed Google testing, but must be in good standings with Google, including paying Google $100,000 per quarter. Please click the link below and then the O-Z tab and you’ll see the required payments for the United States.
https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?answer=59030
This ex-employee is also making up the story that “he was called by our sales force”, not likely. We don’t call the homeless, just legitimate businesses. We are a multi-million dollar company and we take a great deal of care that our sales reps are properly trained. We have no need to identify ourselves as Google. Very few companies are Adwords Qualified, this is enough.
Google recently shut down its phone support to end-users enhancing our value to small businesses. This is a difficult task for a small business to set up properly and maintain. If Google campaigns are not properly developed, this can result in massive differences in the price paid per click. Google rates every keyword in their system with a Quality Score. Companies with low quality scores can pay as much as ten times or more than companies with high quality scores. There is no fallacy that a well set up Google campaign will cost a fraction of a poorly set up campaign.
This ex-employee states that we have multiple company names and that we “changed their name almost constantly”. A simple whois lookup will show that these names have been registered quite some time ago. This ex-employee is aware of all of these domain names and why we have them. We are a very transparent company. Many of these and why are outlined in the About Us on our site at http://www.performancemediaplacement.com. For reference, we’ve outlined the URLs sited in this blog.
premiumlocallistings.com – we market using this URL on Google, as a neutral URL so the resellers don’t have to sell under our URL. This is spelled out on our site in the About Us under http://www.performancemediaplacement.com
pll411.com – this is a shortcut to http://www.premiumlocallistings.com.
performancelocallistings.com – This is an old URL which we used to use to market our company. pl411.com – this is a shortcut to http://www.performancelocallistings.com.
performancemediaplacement.com – This is our primary domain. Please note that we’re very clear about who we are see the About Us on this site.
g2411.com – this is a shortcut to http://www.performancemediaplacement.com. This makes it easier and quicker for our sales reps to take customers to our site.
Reseller Sites
pll-orange.com – this site was developed for a reseller in Orange, CA.
premierlocallistings.com – this site was developed for a reseller in Austin, TX.
nw411.com – this is the URL to a reseller from almost nearly 2 years ago, who is no longer with us. Only this ex-employee would know this old URL.
Original Complaint posted on RipOffReport.com
Recently, a representative contacted me claiming that he was from Google in an attempt to sell me Google sponsored links at a lower cost than what I currently pay Google for clicks. They said that their flat rate service would enable me to get a better price and greater return on investment than what I currently spend with Google. Through time and inquiry I came to learn that this person did not represent Google, but was representing Performance Media Placement – supposedly a Google Qualified Company. What that means is that 2 people in their company at some point passed an exam that enables them to put a link on their site to Google as follows:
https://adwords.google.com/professionals/profile/org?id=05854057105210448874&hl=en_US
This link shows (you’ll have to copy and past it) that the company has managed a Google account for 90 days and had a couple of employees or owners pass the exam. You may also notice that the company listed is Premium Local Listings, not Performancemediaplacement.com (we’ll get to that reason later).
Being a Google Qualified individual myself, I understand the process well. Google does offer some small financial incentives to Google Qualified companies (I take advantage of them personally), but the click costs are exactly the same for every company or individual buying clicks from Google for Qualified and non-Qualified buyers alike. So the first 2 statements they made to me:
1. They called representing Google
2. They can get a better cost on my clicks
Both are lies. Sure, there are some Quality Score nuances that can be optimized in sponsored link campaigns, but certainly not enough variance to really increase my return on investment while cutting them a slice of my budget – that’s a fallacy. When I asked their representative if they could tell me how much of my budget was actually spent on Google, he couldn’t give me a real explanation and just repeated the lie that their flat rate program would cost me less.
This prompted some research – especially after noticing they had a different company name cited on their Google Qualified link (Premium Local Listings). I found they have changed their name almost constantly. Here is a list of company names they have used just in the last 2 years:
premiumlocallistings.com
performancelocallistings.com
performancemediaplacement.com
pl411.com
pll411.com
pll-orange.com
premierlocallistings.com
g2411.com
nw411.com
Then, I found the complaints of their victims:
i checked these guys out. they wanna be like a combination of reachlocal and yodle. goobers
[...] Performance Local Listing who runs under several names like Performance Media Placement, Premium Local Listing and many more caught my eye when a sponsor from the Colorado Help Center reported a semi-speciousness call. [...]
[...] the rest here: Performance Local Listings | Performance Media Placement | Premium … By admin | category: seo placement | tags: few-clients, hakes, listings, performance, [...]
[...] original here: Performance Local Listing | Performance Media Placement | Premium … By admin | category: seo companies | tags: all-kinds, conversions, did-not, [...]
[...] more from the original source: Performance Local Listing | Performance Media Placement | Premium … By admin | category: google links sponsored | tags: currently-pay, flat, lower-cost, [...]
[...] More: Performance Local Listing | Performance Media Placement | Premium … [...]
It is strange to see how many different sites the internet has on this topic! I don’t know if I’m ever going to need to be back here, but it’s nice to know I stumbled upon the one that has some useful info if this ever comes up for me another time
http://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/WbhWX6afrACJIgjLdxnpzg
If you think they lied, call the FTC. The more calls the FTC gets about a company the more likely they are to do something about it. After all they were created to monitor trade. So instead of just posting complaints online call them.
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
This company is owned by Carl Perkins and Duane Brinson under the name PBH LLC or Perkins Brinson Ho. They created the toolbars discussed here: http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=28710 and profited greatly. They may be at it again with this: http://www.performancemediaplacement.com/OnlineDemo.asp
The sales people they currently employ sell a new type of local advertising that has been reported as fraudulent. Here is a post on some of the things they promise: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords … 79abadae6&hl=en.
Both Perkins and Brinson worked for Search Initiatives (Now Elocal, Elocallistings, Elocalplumbers, etc.) until they were both “let go” for unknown reasons when the company formed Elocal. http://web.archive.org/web/20070621061940/htt … om/company.html
Do not be fooled by promises of “exclusivity”, 24/7 first page placement, unlimited clicks and other false claims. The company has been known to break many contracts and forces employees to lie. If they do not lie to customers they are fired.
Here are just a couple of the many URL’s the company uses:
premiumlocallistings.com
performancelocallistings.com
performancemediaplacement.com
pl411.com
pll411.com
pll-orange.com
premierlocallistings.com
g2411.com
nw411.com
Please do your research before doing any business with this company.
THIS COMPANY IS A COMPLETE SCAM! THEY LIE AND SAY THEY ARE WITH GOOGLE! TOTAL SCAM!!!
I have worked for Performance Media Placement for over a year now. I am so happy to say that the majority of our clients are very happy with the services we provide them. We DO get our clients on the first page of Google in the sponsored link section 24/7 with unlimited clicks and the all the pertinent key words. We are a month to month service so we absolutely do everything we can to get the results our sales people promise our clients. Just this morning a limo company in Napa let his rep here know that instead of dusting off his limos he is now booked thanks to our company. Last week we got an email from another client that is putting his campaign on pause because he is getting so much business that he can’t handle all of it due to the campaign we ran for him. We will hold the cites he advertises with us in and not charge him until he is ready to get up and running again. He raved about the service he gets from us and about his rep. Yesterday one of our client added a bunch more cities to his campaign. His monthly fee went from $400 to $1500. I’m quite sure that would not have happened if this client was not thrilled by the results we are getting for him. These are just three true examples of the feed back we receive periodically. We have had a few sales people who were not being honest and they were fired promptly. I would not work for a company who scams people out of their hard earned money. I am proud to work for Carl Perkins at Performance Media because I know we are helping people, especially in this horrible economy. I feel good when I lay my head on my pillow at night. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them for you 888 248 2488 ext 108 Thank you for your time.
Please read this page to understand what Google feels are violations of their certification program: https://www.adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=152979
As you can find within this post and on many other complaint posts this company violates many of Googles policies and laws:
Cold Calling and automated calls that are illegal in many states:
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-859-2301
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-243-2488
Spam:
http://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/Ch3MAZF-YgAJSgjKWaIeRg/3
http://www.mail-archive.com/cygwin@cygwin.com/msg27204.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/cygwin@cygwin.com/msg28532.html
http://www.jimcarroll.com/2003/10/the-lengths-theyll-go-to
As you can see Google is against the main selling points of this company and what the employees “guarantee”:
* “Deceptive or non-transparent pricing…discounts on keywords, exception to the auction (don’t have to pay by CPC, etc.), ability to purchase keywords in bulk…” – This company promises unlimited keywords and clicks at a flat monthly fee. How many PMP customers receive expense or click reports that show the Adwords budgeting?
* “Selling AdWords as ‘listings’, implying permanence” – This is in many of their resellers names and in the name of the site that carries the Google qualification.
* “Guaranteeing certain ad placement, or that ads will appear at all times” – As you can read in the replies, company sites, employee profile pages and fake testimonials from ignorant PMP employees, the main selling points are statements such as this: “We DO get our clients on the first page of Google in the sponsored link section 24/7 with unlimited clicks…” Please Marianne, check the TRUE attrition rate for this company.
For any current customers that want to see if this guarantee of 24/7 first page placement is being upheld ask for an “Impression Share Report”. This report will tell you the percentage of time the ads were shown during a specific time period. Every keyword and ad should show 100%; if not, the first page 24/7 guarantee has been broken which is a violation of their own contract and grounds for a 100% refund. Request to receive this report directly from Google to avoid any possible manipulation from any employees of this company. The best bet would be to request Report Access to the account. Then you will be able see the data directly from the Google Adwords website.
More deceit from the company is the use of the qualification logo as can be seen here:
https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?answer=12777&cbid=1qgysxgatztd6&src=cb&lev=index
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=5552b71c25f02a43&hl=en
Below are some resources to report any wrong doings you may feel this company may be performing:
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/request.py?contact_type=gap_complaint&hl=en_US
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
http://www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
http://www.onguardonline.gov/file-complaint.aspx
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/coldcall.htm
More reporting Resources:
http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/territory.htm
https://secure.nclforms.org/nficweb/nfic.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/spam/
https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx?panel=2
http://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/stateattorneygenerallist.php
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/stateconsumeragencieslist.php
http://www.emailscammers.com/report-email-scams/
http://www.report-online-scams.com/contact.html
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/feedback.htm
Obviously not this company if they display the Qualified Company logo yet only hold Qualified Individual status: https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?answer=12241&hl=en_US
As you can see, there is a big difference in what PMP discusses on this page, http://www.performancemediaplacement.com/Legitimate.asp, and the qualification they hold.
Below are links to the minimum requirements that any company should hold to manage Adwords accounts in my opinion.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller
http://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=12272
https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=18572
Any company selling Adwords shouldn’t violate Googles polices:
http://www.adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=152979
You can search for “Google Certified Partners” on Googles website here: https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/
Good Luck!
Do you believe you are owed a partial or full refund? Below is some advice on how to ensure your company receives the advertising as agreed upon. If you find an advertising company has not performed according to their contract it is best to approach them with the evidence and provide your side to try and work out an acceptable solution. If no reasonable solution can be agreed upon there is another solution to possibly getting a full or partial refund. This should only be done if nothing can be worked out between you and the company and all communication breaks down. Call your bank to dispute the charges or chargeback. Only call your bank and dispute the charges for the reason(s) you feel the company did not perform as “guaranteed”. In order to truly know if the company is performing as promised good record keeping from the beginning is necessary.
Here are some tips that could be followed:
* Request everything any sales person tells you on the phone or in person in writing and/or get permission to record the phone call for your records. This is extremely important as “guarantees” are made by certain sales people that Google employees “…have no problem saying that all of these claims are completely false.” As you can read here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=6df889d79abadae6&hl=en
* Request, in writing, how much of your monthly fee will be spent on Adwords and/or the other PPC providers.
* Request “Read Only Access” to your Google Adwords campaign. You will be able to view the account to inspect keywords, ads, check the pricing and other valuable statistics like the amount of clicks and overall cost. You wont have the ability to make changes, but having access to this information to print out for your records is EXTREMELY important.
* If report access is refused or you just want to receive the reports, ask them to set up a regular schedule and send you these reports: Overall Campaign report showing pricing and all keywords and ads being used, Search Query Performance report, Impression Share Report, Keyword Performance Report, Ad Performance Report and Geographic Performance Report. These reports should come directly from Googles email: adwords-noreply@google.com.
* Check the placement of your ads regularly both in Google and using this tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool. If your ad cannot be found take and save screenshots for your records.
If you look over all this information and you feel the performance is not as expected, talk to the company first to maybe gain a better understanding of the information and/or see what adjustments can be made to coincide with the promises made by the sales person. If there is a refusal to stick to the “guarantees” made by the company all the information above could be given to your bank to review your dispute. If you have not been directed to read and/or sign a contract, ensure to emphasize this point to your bank. Below are links showing some guarantees made by the company and the promise of “NO CONTRACTS”:
http://www.ocgoogleguy.com/Businesses/OC_Google_Guy_Trabuco_Canyon_CA.htm
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kurt-steinhebel/1a/10b/13b
http://www.listown.com/writing-editing-translation/oc/201002/143116.htm
http://www.searchterms.com/blog/local-search/what-your-business-needs-to-be-successful/
These can be printed out and sent to the bank as well.
If PMP is such a great company at performing these first page, unlimited click and keyword campaigns that produce massive conversions, why do they not use any PPC service themselves? If they are so great at map placement and other SEO, why can they not be found for ANY relevant keywords surrounding their business?
Another thing, why does PMP list that they advertise for people on sites like Yelp, Facebook, Merchant Circle, AOL, etc. as shown on every homepage of their “resellers”? Where are the terms non-existent for these listings in the PMP “contract” that many sales people, IN WRITING, say do not exist?
Another point, the FAQ on the PMP site states that every client get access to Google Analytics and phone tracking from kall8.com, yet this code can not be found on the landing pages. Why is that? If there is an extra fee for these programs I would imagine it would be stated somewhere within the site, yet it is not.
Are these examples of “Bait and Switch”? That is left up to interpretation, but here is what the FTC has to say: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/baitads-gd.htm
-Begin Quote-
“Sec. 238.0 Bait advertising defined.1
Bait advertising is an alluring but insincere offer to sell a product or service which the advertiser in truth does not intend or want to sell. Its purpose is to switch consumers from buying the advertised merchandise, in order to sell something else, usually at a higher price or on a basis more advantageous to the advertiser. The primary aim of a bait advertisement is to obtain leads as to persons interested in buying merchandise of the type so advertised.
Sec. 238.1 Bait advertisement.
No advertisement containing an offer to sell a product should be published when the offer is not a bona fide effort to sell the advertised product. [Guide 1]
Sec. 238.2 Initial offer.
(a) No statement or illustration should be used in any advertisement which creates a false impression of the grade, quality, make, value, currency of model, size, color, usability, or origin of the product offered, or which may otherwise misrepresent the product in such a manner that later, on disclosure of the true facts, the purchaser may be switched from the advertised product to another.
(b) Even though the true facts are subsequently made known to the buyer, the law is violated if the first contact or interview is secured by deception.”
-End Quote-
This is a very interesting conversation, but really misguided. Why are all the naysayers individuals that have never done a campaign with Performance Media Placement? The company offers its services for a very reasonable cost, with no long term contract (Its all month to month) and it doesn’t hide anything! The guarantees are on the website, anyone can see them at any time, and so is the customer service number. If you are an actual client and feel you have been taken advantage of, please contact me personally and let me know. rbenjaminblair@gmail.com
Benjamin – What part has been misguided? This company provides the so called reviews for their clients and refuses to answer simple questions. Here is one very simple question: Why is the cost per click and monthly click spend kept from your clients?
Find “Google Authorized Resellers” here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/directory.html
Please read how Google describes the difference between the certifications they offer and right below that “What kinds of companies or claims should I avoid when considering Google AdWords?” http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/faq.html#difference
As you can see again and again PMP makes “guarantees” that Google clearly states to AVOID! Let Google know about the claims this company makes here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/request.py?contact_type=gap_complaint&hl=en_US
[...] Performance Local Listing | Performance Media Placement | Premium 10 Dec 2009. Google recently shut down its phone support to end-users enhancing. pll- orange.com – this site was developed for a reseller in Orange, CA.. nw411.com – this is the URL to a reseller from almost nearly 2 years ago,. Pingback from Performance Local Listing – a multi million dollar company?.blog.seanhakes.com/…/performance-local-listings-performance-media- placement-premium-local-listings/ – Performance Local Listing | Performance Media Placement | Premium [...]