I cannot warn you enough to stay away from Publicity Guaranteed. I am a small business owner and signed a contract with them two years ago now and it has been nothing but problems ever since. First of all, their contract is atrocious and by signing it, I set myself up for disaster. I now have legal training and wish I had begun my legal education prior to signing this contract.
My issues arose with Publicity Guaranteed when I decided, after being a client of theirs for some time, that their placements were not benefiting my business. My advertisements were being placed in small town newspapers and no-name periodicals and my credit card was automatically being charged for each placement, without me ever seeing an invoice or summary of charges. When I chose to cancel the contract, I chose the wrong medium by which to cancel (their contract stipulates that contract termination may only occur by either party sending a 30 days advance written notice via overnight or registered mail.)
Unfortunately, I was not aware of this and assumed that I had adequately terminated the agreement. I did not hear from PG for sometime after cancellation when, approximately seven months later, I checked my credit card statement to find that PG had charged me 3000 dollars for a placement. When I contacted them, they claimed that they did not receive notice of termination by the proper medium and did not consider the contract terminated. They then threatened to take me to court for over 15,000 dollars if I did not pay the 3000 dollars owed.
I agreed to pay the 3000 dollars, cancelled the contract by overnight mail, and assumed all was settled. Then, some time later, I received a court summons notifying me that PG was bringing me to court claiming that I owed them 15,000 dollars. I am still not sure where they came up with this amount, as they have always withdrawn funds for all monies owed and I have paid for all known services.
After doing some research, I have found that I am not the only person to have had major issues arise out of a contractual relationship with Publicity Guaranteed. There are numerous warnings by frustrated consumers stating that PG did not perform the terms of their contract and then brought lawsuits against their clients. (If you would like to check up on their CURRENT lawsuits in which they are the Plaintiff, check out the following link for the Fairfax County General District Court, where they have a whopping 22 cases currently in the court system:. Just do a search for Publicity Guaranteed and choose the Fairfax County General District Court.
I sincerely hope that you heed my warning to stay away from Publicity Guaranteed, as well as company president Alex Konanykhin and partner Nat Kurok, who has been rather unpleasant throughout this entire experience. I truly believe that they are a predatory company, entering into contractual relationships with small businesses with the intent to one day bring lawsuits against these businesses.
0 comments