Al Johnson contacted me at the beginning of February regarding his company's service, which is selling leads. I told Al I was very skeptical about doing business with him as I had had problems with 2 prior lead companies. Al assured me his company was different and guaranteed his leads would meet the exact criteria I was looking for or I would not pay for the bad leads. I made an agreement with Al Johnson and on the contract made sure to include that no charges could me made to my account without first confirming with me the amount and obtaining my approval. I then signed and sent back the contract. The first day I received 10-15 leads, they had numerous issues. Bad phone numbers, disconnected phone numbers, bad names, bad addresses, bad email addresses, people saying they don't know how I got their information and people saying they filled out surveys to win a free Xbox. All mentioned here is why I was skeptical and went in on my terms. I immediately called Al day 2 and said I wanted to cancel immediately and to not send me anymore leads. After the call, I continued to receive these leads and ignored them. I called back and spoke to Al and Ryan Borton explaining my frustration with their company and how I felt lied to and mislead. I was then referred to the 'president' of the company Ben Martin. I put together a detailed list of every lead, all the reasons they were bad and emailed them over. Every single lead sent to me was either bad names, phone #'s, ect, or were not reachable. I told Ben Martin I did not feel I should pay for a product I did not receive. Yes I received the leads, but not the type of lead I was told I would. Ben Martin came up with a solution, he said he did not want to lose my business over a bad experience and misinformation, I told him I didn't feel comfortable with his company. Ben's solution was to not charge me for the leads I had received, which was the only fair solution I saw and was happy to receive it. Ben obviously still wanted my business though, so he offered me 5 free live transfer leads which he said usually cost $55/ea. I said, so the slate is clean of our original agreement, he said ' Yes, you wont pay for those, I'm not worried about it, I'm more concerned with having a happy customer and doing future business together'. So all was well, he said to let him know how the free live leads worked out for me and hoped to do business from there. I received the live leads, a few were bad, but a few were good. I called back Al Johnson and Ben, gave my feedback, and said I would like to look into a campaign. Al told me they could only set up a campaign which cost $2500 or more. I told Al that was not what I was looking to spend at the moment, thanked him and said I would call back in the future if a campaign that large interested me. This all occurred during the first 2 weeks of February.
Today is March 21st. Last week I received a message from Al Johnson saying he wanted to set up a date to take care of my payment for my campaign. WHAT CAMPAIGN? This completely shocked me as when Ben Martin, the supposed president, told me I would be paying anything considering the horrible experience I had, I shard that information with Al. I immediately called back Al and had to leave a message, I asked what he was talking about because the issue had already been resolved and asked he call me back. I never received a call back and assumed he realized the call to me was a mistake. Today, a charge of $800 was put against my bank account from NR Leads, another name for AdAuhtority. I immediately contacted my bank and informed them of the fraudulent, unauthorized charge, and proceeded to contact AdAuthority. I had to leave messages at every number I had and only got a response when I left a fake name inquiring about their services. I finally got a call from Ben Martin. Ben Martin was very smug about the situation, even mocking me as he raised his voice to not allow me to speak. Ben claimed he doesn't remember the exact conversation but feels he said the 5 live transfers weren't compensation but suppose to replace the $800 worth of leads. Note that I did not receive $800 worth, I cancelled after receiving 15 horrible invalid leads and they continued to send roughly 20 more against my request. Even if the original problem hadn't occurred that would amount to 35 leads @ $7/ea. Which is $245.00. Ben Martin now claimed what I was saying wouldn't make sense.in fact, Ben Martin lying through his teeth and having an attitude about it didnt make sense.in his newly formed conversation he said he remembered saying that I was to receive live leads @ $55/ea. To the amount of $800, which is roughly 14 leads. If that's the case, why did I receive 5? Why was I contacted over a month later? Ben claims I was billed today because that's what the billing cycle is in the contract. The contact was put together 2/7/08, and according to it payment would be drafted the following Monday (over a month ago) and it wasn't because the arrangement was cancelled by Ben Martin. It seems to me that Mr. Martin is frustrated that even though he waived off the original order and proceeded to provide me 5 free leads, I chose to not do further business with his company, and he now thinks he can just attempt to withdrawal money from my bank account as he wishes. As I kept asking Ben why he would lie and make up a scenario according to his recollection that makes no sense, he choose to just speak over me and then hang up the phone on me. From Al Johnson to Ben Martin, this company has decided to lie, attempt to steal money, and act as if they now have memory loss. This company needs to replace my money and any damages or headaches that have resulted because of it. I will make sure this information is shared across the web, with every possible company I can contact which purchases leads, and the attorney general and department of agriculture in California. I hope this reaction is worth the $800 they have attempted to steal.
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