Please allow me to preface this with the fact that I am but one small consumer who owns a small business. Solid Cactus, Inc. Is a much larger, Inc. 500 super fast growth company that will undoubtedly respond to this with much gusto, legalese, and even eloquence. I can't compete with that or their lawyers or there stable of employees whose job it is to go out onto the Internet all day and post "independent" and "candid" remarks about how great Solid Cactus is; so, I won't even try to compete with that. All I can do is tell YOU what they have done to ME and allow you to draw your own conclusions.
In addition, please note that I have a background in Search Engine Optimization and I am very familiar with the process. Due to this, is was obvious to me exactly what a horrible job that Solid Cactus was doing with SEO. I was simply trying to outsource the more mundane tasks of SEO so that I could concentrate on growing my business. It was a nightmare from the very beginning and it wasn't long before my websites starting GOING BACKWARDS in the Search Engines. I had to work feverishly on my own to get them back to where they were before Solid Cactus stepped in to screw me over and RIP me OFF.
I say all this because I truly suspect that there are dozens if not hundreds of Solid Cactus customers who are getting taken to the cleaners by Solid Cactus simply because they don't know any better. Solid Cactus will drown you in articles and fancy reports and target easy keywords to rank on the first page of Google or Yahoo or MSN. The problem is that those keywords do not receive any traffic. It's worthless - but it makes Solid Cactus look good. DON'T BE FOOLED! If you are a current Solid Cactus customer or considering their services, I would be more than happy to talk to you. I would be willing to bet that you are either BEING RIPPED OFF or about to be RIPPED OFF.
Below is the complaint that I filed with the Northeast Pennsylvania BBB Better Business Bureau and the PA State Attorney General...
Thank you for using the Better Business Bureau's Online Complaint System. Your complaint has been assigned case # 22019768.
Filed against:
Solid Cactus
Complaint Description:
I hired Solid Cactus in Mar for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services for 2 websites - $1750/mo ea = $3500 mo. From the very beginning, they failed to uphold their end - written & verbal. After several months of dealing with incompetent SEO account managers (one of whom, David White, was fired by Solid Cactus), I became very upset with Solid Cactus. I sent several emails and eventually I spoke with Farukh Shroff (who has also left Solid Cactus - see a pattern here?). He was so apologetic for the poor level of service & even admitted that they were way behind and making lots of "internal changes." To appease me and asking for a 2nd chance, they gave me a credit and only charged me $950 that month. Later, after they still did not fulfill their end of the bargain, I insisted on canceling the contract. They agreed - with apologies...
BUT! Then they charged me AGAIN for SEO services that were never completed! I called very irate and they said they were sorry - that it was a mistake in their billing department. They said that it would be easier for them to just issue the $3,500 refund as a credit. I reluctantly agreed...
BUT! The next month, my card was charged the full amount for Pay Per Click (PPC) services. They had failed to issue the credit. Again I called - very irate - & they apologized again. They said it was a billing issue and that it could take up to 60 days for the credit to be applied. Naturally, I was furious. This was money that should have never been charged.in fact, I SHOULD have received a FULL refund for ALL the SEO services ($16,450) because they did not do even 1/10 of what they were supposed to do. I told them to issue the refund immediately; however, they said that they could not - that it was against their "policy." I told them that if they were not willing to refund me the money that was legitimately owed to me, then I would cancel my PPC services & not give them any of my future business. They said that their hands were tied (by "policy"). So, I canceled my PPC services; so, there was no way they could issue the credit.
Even so, they refused to refund the money. I told them that I would be forced to do a chargeback (which I had never done before), and they said, "Do what you got to do."
So, I did.
I filed a dispute with AMEX but Solid Cactus just flooded them with worthless paperwork & AMEX said that they were not a court of law. The problem is that the cost of hiring an attorney & traveling from NE to PA to fight this is prohibitive - & Solid Cactus knows that. They know that they owe me the money; but, it would cost more for me to recover it. I wanted to cancel this SEO agreement for nonperformance all the way back in late May - Early June; but, Solid Cactus talked me out of it. Seriously, I should be refunded every single SEO charge that they billed to my AMEX card - totaling $16,950; but, instead, I only asked for the $3,500 that was billed to my card AFTER I canceled. For Solid Cactus to collect that money is nothing short of stealing.
Solid Cactus failed to deliver even a small percentage of what was laid out in the contract. The $3,500 under dispute is an amount that they had already credited to my account. It was only after deciding to discontinue doing business with them that they refused to refund me the credit - they wanted me to apply it to future services.
Your Desired Resolution:
I feel they should refund me the entire $16,450; however, just to resolve this, I would accept the $3,500 that was illegally collected from my AMEX card - nothing less. If Solid Cactus claims the contract was fulfilled, they are lying. Please ask them to provide the following...
The contract says "Solid Cactus will perform the following suite of services for 7 keywords each month for [my 2 web sites]. That is a total of 14 keywords each month. If you take that times 6 months, that is a total of 84. However, they only did work on 7 keywords for each site. Please ask them to show you the work for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th month. This is why I canceled - they were not doing what they were supposed to do.
Keyword Research Analysis was done only for the first 7 keywords for each site - no more! And, it was done poorly even for the first 7. Solid Cactus should have done this for 70 keywords.
Meta Tags/Description Analysis was not done. David White made one minor change and that was it. All the Meta Tags on both sites were created by me not Solid Cactus.
Although Solid Cactus did provide several articles, they only totaled 39 and all these concentrated on the first 7 keywords for each site. No more were ever created - AND most of these were done at the very last minute and then sent to us - they were supposed to be provided monthly. Please ask them for the content that should have been written for the other 70 keyword phrases.
Directories/Search Engine Submission to my knowledge were never done. Please ask Solid Cactus to provide you with the Directories to which they submitted my websites - and, if they did submit them to any, ask them why I was not informed or given login information so I could review or modify the listings if need be.
Link Building: According to my conversations with Solid Cactus BEFORE and after signing up with them, this is what they were supposed to concentrate on. They did not. Ask them to provide you with a list of links that they built. Frankly, it takes 100s of links each month to be effective - to my knowledge, they only created a total of 10 to 20 links - which is laughable and most definitely not in line with our verbal agreement or the spirit of the written agreement. They promised ongoing link building both verbally & in the contract and failed to deliver.
The contract states reports were supposed to be every 2 weeks and then later, in an email from Farukh Shroff, after admitting "unforeseen and unfortunate challenges within our SEO division" - they promised "a weekly summary via email." So, I should have received at least 24 reports and, if they honored what was said in the email, closer to 40. I only received a few and that was only after practically begging for them.
Solid Cactus did NOT create a blog for [my main website] & could have at any time. They did create a blog for [my secondary website]; however, they put it on the wrong subdomain and messed up all the previous SEO work that we had done for our existing blog - a real mess that threw away thousands of dollars already invested into the existing blog. So, Solid Cactus only upheld half of their contractual obligation - and that half cost us money! After begging continually for the blog posts owed to us, they finally did a total of 3! The contract states that they are supposed to provide us with 4 blog posts per month after the completion of the blog. Well, the [secondary website] blog was created after a couple months - so, they should have provided us with 4 x 4 = 16 blog posts - we only got 3. And, it was not our fault that they NEVER even created the blog for [my primary website] - we should have had at least another 16 blog posts for that, too - we got ZERO.
Solid Cactus was supposed to submit 1 press release for each website to PRWeb. This was NEVER done. Please ask them for documentation regarding these press releases and why they were not provided. REFUND $3,500 to my AMEX
Addendum sent to PA Attorney General
All I want is the $3,500 that was stolen from me. Jeff Petrosillo told me on the phone that he would get me the refund. They admitted that it was a messed up deal - that the service was bad.
I'm sure that they are doing this to other people, too. Maybe not refusing to refund them money owed, but, not really doing the work promised. Most consumers no very little about Search Engine Optimization, so they believe what they are told by Solid Cactus. I guarantee that if anyone does any digging, they will find that dozens of unsuspecting consumers and small businesses are being duped by Solid Cactus, Inc.
# End of BBB & PA Attorney General Complaint #
So, there it is. All I know for sure is that Solid Cactus is anything but solid! They will nickel and dime you for everything you have. If you do decide to work with them (and I STRONGLY discourage you from doing so), make sure that you GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. Believe me - I know! If it's not written into the contract they will not honor it.
DO NOT believe anything that any of their sales reps or technicians tell you - they will lie through their teeth later. If you come to an agreement with them verbally, GET IT IN WRITING!
And, PLEASE, do not let them take advantage of you through their unscrupulous Search Engine Optimization services. They are a joke and they are, most certainly, a RIPOFF!!
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