I am a Realtor in Austin, TX and own a website that produces the majority of my business. I was contacted via email on January 4th by Global Response Technologies in regards to website optimization with the subject: We Guarantee Search Engine Results. I contacted the sales department and was told the following:
Global Response Technologies uses $40 million in software to optimize websites.
The optimization process takes 30 days.
The cost of optimization is $1500.00 plus a $79.00 per month "maintenance fee" to maintain search engine placement.
Global Response Technologies are continually developing and upgrading state of the art strategies producing major results for their clients.
I would no longer need pay per click accounts.
I was shown a website "optimized" by Global Response Technologies that had a 75% increase in their website activity after 30 days.
My satisfaction was 100% guaranteed.
I signed up for their service on January 5th, and was given 3 days to back out. Before I signed the contract I made it clear that $1500.00 was well above my budget, but if everything was up and running in 30 days I would cancel my per click accounts to pay for the optimization. The sales rep offered to take a payment of $750.00 on January 5th, the second payment on February 4th, and the first maintenance fee would be deducted March 1st. The reason that these payment arrangements were made is because I made it clear that this was well over my budget.
The optimization specialist contacted me on January 5th to select my key words and get started with the optimization process. It was 4 days after I signed the contract that I got an email that stated that in order for the service to work to it's full potential it was suggested that I register my domain name for 10 years as well as sign up for both free and paid reciprocal links. It also stated that the next point of contact would be in 90 days, after the optimization process was complete. Because my site is hosted through a webmaster, it would be $300.00 to register my domain name for 10 years.
I emailed both the sales rep and the website specialist complaining that I was told 30 days, not 90 days as well as inquiring as to why I was not informed of their "suggestions" before I signed the contract. They asked me to be patient and that the additional suggestions were just that, suggestions. On February 1st the company deducted the second payment as well as the maintenance fee-both before the contracted agreement. Again, I called the company and asked where they were in the process and was told they needed the password to my site-they had done no work to my site.
After several emails and phone calls I was put in touch with Ashley Tonella, who initially identified herself as the customer service supervisor. I told her I felt I had been deliberately deceived and asked for a full refund. She said that I had not given them a chance, and that the process could take as long as 6 months! She said she would not refund any of my money. I asked to speak to the owner of the company and Ashley informed me she was the owner. I asked her where she got $40 million for the "technology" her company claimed to have as well as how many employees she has in her "state of the art" facility. The answer to both questions was, "it is none of your business". I warned Ashley that I was going to report her to the BBB as well as usacomplaints.com and as many other agencies that I could think of. She told me to "go ahead".
I have filed a complaint with the Utah Better Business Bureau, and have learned that this company is not in good standing with the BBB. It has also had several complaints in the last year. I foolishly did not check with the BBB prior to giving these scammers $1500.00. As I made it perfectly clear to the man that sold me this bogus service, I have lost all of my advertising dollars to this company.in addition, the leads on my site have gone from 32 in January when I was paying on a per click basis, to 6 for the month of February.
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