I imagine some, if not all, of you have had calls from various companies offering to post your web site at the top of their sites for a fee. I've had such an experience and having recently cancelled, became irritated enough to bring it up on my blog.
I'm not naming names and I'm certainly not condemning all web sites with search engines. I'm sure they're not all the same. However, I am speaking solely of my own experience and suggest that you research before you commit.
OK... so I didn't do my homework but committed (on a month-to-month basis) to have my web site displayed on a site in order to drive potential customers to me and increase my business.
After making that commitment I realized the following:
- In order to get to my web site you would have to enter in an "exact" phrase.
- If you enter "similar" phrases my web site would not be on the first page.
- It won't be on the second page or several pages after that. (either)
So..... I tried to cancel and found out more:
- Month-to-month billing requires that you to speak with someone in customer service before you were permitted cancel.
- An email notice of cancellation was not sufficient (nor was it accepted).
- When you called customer service you were confronted with high pressure sales tactics to keep you on their site.
- Trying to end the conversation (without being rude and hanging up) was nearly impossible.
- Before they will cancel, you have to fax your cancellation in to them. (Why couldn't I have done that in the first place!)
- .... And so on and so forth!
Well, after a rather heated phone conversation with a "customer service" representative (customer service in this sense is truly an oxymoron... with emphasis on..... !), I got to the fax phase and sent that in to complete my cancellation. I must say that I didn't feel, as a customer, that I was getting any service at all!
I guess I'm naïve in some sense of the word because I believe customer service should be just that. I believe that helping the customer should be the first priority even if it means they want to cancel their account..... and you shouldn't have to give a reason! I'm canceling my account "because I want to!"
(Sr. Victorene... I know what you did after you retired!)
Needless to say I will never get involved with this nameless company again and certainly will avoid placing ads on any search engine web site ever. I'm resolved to the fact that I can do more (on my own) to drive traffic to my website and I think I can do it better! After all, they said they had 100 hits on my web site in the two months I was involved with them... I had 100 hits on my web site during the first week of publishing it... and without their service. I think I have a better track record.
Thank you for the opportunity to vent.
It is humorous, after all, and it was a lesson well learned. I will research before I commit... and may even ask for a free "test drive" so I can analyze service and effectiveness.
Yeah... you're absolutely right lol... who in their right mind would let me do that.
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I had a similar experience with, believe it or not, Top Producer ......... they would not cancel it until the year was up -- e-Neighborhoods did the same thing!