Modern Marketing Systems sold us 25 microsites in July, explaining that we would get Adsense dollars as people clicked on the ads on the sites. They also lured us with letting us put our own business websites' links on the microsites as well.
We paid $6,000 for these sites. That amount was to cover all expenses for the first year we were told. We were given a guarantee that if we did not make back at least 120% of our money in a year, we would get our money back up to the 120% and give the sites back. If we chose to keep any of the sites, we would have to start paying hosting fees for each one we kept (after that first year).
That sounded like a pretty good return on an investment (120%). However, we only made about $2.00 the whole year in our Adsense account, and they don't pay out until you get to something like $100. I called a few times during the year and was told once that the sites needed to be sent to promotions, and the other times I was told they did not know why our sites weren't performing well. I figured we would bids our time until the year was up and get our money back.
Once the year was almost up, Jim Ford called to tell us that we did not pay Hosting Fees all year so that is why our sites did not do well. He said it was our fault that we didn't ask about Hosting Fees when we signed the invoice a year ago. At one time, he said it was a lot their fault for not catching that we hadn't paid them, and a little bit our fault for not asking about it.
As far as we were told, there were no hosting fees for the first year—that was included in purchase price. Jim said the only way to have a chance of getting the 120% back the contract calls for is to sign up for another year and pay the hosting fees this time. We don't trust them to keep their word next year either and are afraid they will just take us for more money and still not deliver on their promises/contracts.
An attorney we contacted said we had a case against them, but since we live in NY state it would be hard to get jurisdiction over them. Plus we can by no means afford attorney fees.
When I tried to file a formal complaint with Modern Marketing, Jim Ford hung up on me. When I called again to try to finish my complaint, he said he did not want to hear anything negative or he would hang up on me again. So I gave up on dealing directly with them.
We contacted the BBB in Arizona, the Attorney General in Arizona and the Attorney General in New York (where we live). All three have sent our complaint to the company, but we have heard nothing in reply for at least a couple of months except for one rude phone message from Jim Ford on our answering machine.
Everyone who has a problem like this with the company needs to contact the BBB and Attorney General in Arizona. IF enough of us complain, they may listen and take up our cause.
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