Local Advertising / Toolbar scam

ComplaintsInternet ScamsPerformance Media Placement

Complaint

0
YouCannotFoolMe
Country: United States
This company is owned by Carl Perkins and Duane Brinson under the name PBH LLC or Perkins Brinson Ho. They created the toolbars discussed here: http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=28710 and profited greatly. They may be at it again with this: http://www.performancemediaplacement.com/OnlineDemo.asp

The sales people they currently employ sell a new type of local advertising that has been reported as fraudulent. Here is a post on some of the things they promise: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords ... 79abadae6&hl=en.

Both Perkins and Brinson worked for Search Initiatives (Now Elocal, Elocallistings, Elocalplumbers, etc.) until they were both "let go" for unknown reasons when the company formed Elocal. http://web.archive.org/web/20070621061940/htt ... om/company.html

Do not be fooled by promises of "exclusivity", 24/7 first page placement, unlimited clicks and other false claims. The company has been known to break many contracts and forces employees to lie. If they do not lie to customers they are fired.

Here are just a couple of the many URL's the company uses:
premiumlocallistings.com
performancelocallistings.com
performancemediaplacement.com
pl411.com
pll411.com
pll-orange.com
premierlocallistings.com
g2411.com
nw411.com

Please do your research before doing any business with this company.

Comments

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  • 0
    Toni
    Maybe your pissed because PMP can offer to your franchise owners what you can't.  Preformance has exceeded what was sold to me.  I had one problem and Carl the owner called me and not only corrected the problem but made it up to me ten fold.  They truly became my marketing partner and my small business is now growing. As a matter of fact I may have to freeze my account(another benefit they offer) so I can catch up.
  • 0
    Debbie
    I'm not going to tell you the name of my business because you will probably post lies about me as well. Get a Life.
  • 0
    Previous Customer
    I was with Performance Local Listings before they changed their name again, how many names does this company burn anyway? I refuse to state my name or company name as I was forwarded an email from an employee with directions from Carl Perkins to slander my name on the internet for performing a chargeback after this company ripped me off in more ways than one.

    I was sold unlimited relevant keywords, 24/7 top position in google, yahoo, aol, yelp, insiderpages, citysearch, cityguide and many many others and exclusivity that they  will only advertise for my company in the areas I purchase for one flat fee per month, guaranteed never to raise, by the sales person. So I buy in, and get told no yahoo, and i will only show on the first page of google and not the top position I was promised. Fine, so I ask to see my listing in the other engines, nothing. Ok, I ask to see a click report showing my clicks on the google partners (aol and others) and there were 0 impressions for the month. Now I am getting frustrated, but get a couple calls, not near enough to cover the advertising costs, but I figure I will give them a chance. Another month goes by and I get a call from one of the techs and am told I am "over budget". I asked what it meant because my contract clearly states I am paying this much for this type of advertising, shouldn't they work the budgeting out themselves? So the tech tells me I need to cut back keywords, areas or they  will cancel my account. Great business tactics, god what a joke. So I trust the techs will do what they can to trim the fat yet still keep me satisfied. The calls then dropped off and my advertising disappeared. When I asked for click reports and did the math I was paying over $50 per click and though another company  the same keywords were costing me $8. At the same time a business partner of mine split off and formed his own company. He went directly to Performance and they duplicated my contract and gave it to him for less money. After he faxed me his contract to brag and I looked online to see his advertisement up and mine gone, I called the company. The tech tells me that the owners knew about the conflict of contracts and refused to cancel the second order. Furious, I demanded a refund for the month lost and they flat out refused. I had to waste more time gathering evidence for a chargeback and wasted more time and money with that process. What a waste of time and money.
  • 0
    robert
    no one pays 50 bucks a click ever period and  you can look up how much it cost per click thru google directly.They did tell me they only work with one company and they would not let me pick a couple of cities, they said they only work with one company in that area and refused to let me add the extra two cities,there words were "they already had a company in that area" i did offer more money still no go finally i got the vp of the sales dept and he told me what the deal was they then sent me the month to month agreement and in writing you have five days to cancel and its month to month Im happy and love the work they have done they host my site for free saves me about 25 bucks a month
  • 0
    Previous Customer
    In response to Robert - I was paying $1800 a month and my last month I received 34 clicks, you do the math. There are also many companies that pay more than $50 a click, do some research...

    http://www.spyfu.com/TopList.aspx?listId=3
  • 0
    Marty
    Google would not state that Performance Media meets ALL the standards that Google requires if they were ripoffs. PMP over produces.  They give thier clients what they promise and more. So stop lieing and get a freaking life ERIC.
  • 0
    YouCannotFoolMe
    Please show me the statement Google has made that Performance (whatever they go by now) meets these imaginary "standards". They are not official resellers so I am confused where Google made any statement in favor of this company. In fact, Google has threatened to shut down the accounts for making fraudulent claims. They simply have the same qualification any two individuals can get by meeting three requirements.
  • 0
    Adam (yes, I'm real)
    I was just called by them and was hung up on once the sales rep realized that I knew he wasn't "with Google" as he stated several times. Google doesn't directly call anyone for paid placement. So, I called his supervisor and was told he would be fired for this behavior... I doubt it. Performance Media is like a lot of companies out there that sell paid placement - except they lie and charge too much. The one I'm with gets me in the top box of paid listings (not the right side that hardly anyone pays attention to) and they do it for $150 per month for 5 keyword phrases... and they're out of England! Performance (whateve they call themselves now) is not a good company to deal with and clearly know nothng about their customers when they cold call them. Don't waste your time!!!
  • 0
    Adam (yes, i am real)
    Anyone else notice that the writing style for the "positive" messages about this company seem very similar. A lot of exclamation points!!!!!! Hmmm, seems like an employee posing as a customer to me. Odd to say the least. You make up your own mind. But, I wouldn't be suprised if their managers post the good comments on here... since this site comes up first when you google their name with "scam" after it.I guess anyone can make money off of Google these days, but you can't escape bad customer service. We should all be thankful Google makes finding complaints this easy.
  • 0
    Neil
    In my opinion, the correct word to insert in the name of Carl Perkins and Duane Brinson' company "Performance Media Placement" is FRAUD.  When given
    my bank information for a "credit check" and verification, little did I
    realize they were going to invade my bank account.  They initially identified themselves as Google and later when specifically asked if they
    were in fact Google, they replied they were Google's marketing arm.  Although the sales rep said they had no contract, or agreement, I requested a print-out of their applied actions before we proceeded further.  The next morning I received a ten section agreement/contract that they inserted my typewritten name showing I had ageed to all the terms
    including a bank ACH.  I immediately e-mailed a denial to P.M.P. disclaiming my approval and called my bank requesting a "Stop-payment" on
    anything coming from that company.  Three days later P.M.P. initiated a
    ACH with my bank attempting to withdraw over a thousand dollars.  FRAUD
  • 0
    Audrey Mondello Real Estate
    I used performace media for the past few months and I have found them to excelon a to what they proised me.  I always show up on the first page regardless of what word people use to search for new homes or apartments.
    I was spending about $500 more on advertising before I signed up with Performance Media and now other tan home magazines being on Google is the only advertising I need to do.
    I'm thrilled with the way they treat me and will continue to use them as long as I am in business. I highly recommend this service.
  • 0
    YouCannotFoolMe
    These guys never stop committing fraud and changing names.  The just registered a new domain name:

    http://www.performancelocalmarketing.com/

    Look familiar?  The fraud train never stops
  • 0
    Confidence Buster
    After reading this companies page about "Who's Legit" and seeing that they do not even fall within the criteria they explain (Google Qualified Company), I know they must not be completely honest. Following the link on their own site reveals they are as qualified to manage my account as much as any individual on Craigslist and the Pennysaver. It also states that the qualification is only for one person, yet they display the link on several websites. Does this single person setup and maintain the advertising for the clients of all of these websites? Telling lies about your credentials should be illegal in my opinion.
  • 0
    goofyfoot
    Performance Media Placement has been the best money I have ever spent on advertising. I have yeilded work from it every month.
  • 0
    Jason
    If so please give your web site name and a few key words you have specified in your mktg campaign.
  • 0
    Jason
    Please let me know where your cake shop is located and your web address so i can check out the work they did... Thanks
  • 0
    FTC Caller
    If you think they lied, call the FTC. The more calls the FTC gets about a company the more likely they are to do something about it. After all they were created to monitor trade. So instead of just posting complaints online call them.

    https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
  • 0
    SEO expert
    This company is a Scam and all the "postive posts" here about them are by their employees.

    DONT GET SCAMMED!
  • 0
    google employee
    they have been reported to the FCC ... it wont be long before they go down!
  • 0
    Shills = Sales Reps
    These guys are really sloppy when it comes to putting up fake reviews about how great their inflated cost Pay Per Click reseller scheme.  When you check out their rave review at Yelp, you'll find a picture of a guy representing himself as a satisfied client:

    http://www.yelp.com/biz/performance-media-placement-laguna-hills

    The name of the Yelp reviewer is Kurt S.  Here is Kurt again:

    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kurt-steinhebel/1a/10b/13b

    Kurt S is also known as Kurt Steinhebel - a "GOOGLE Page 1 Specialist" at Performance Media Placement.  He even used the same photo.  It's telling to see that the one "legitimate and independent" GOOD review of Performance Media Placement is in fact a sales rep working for the company.  It doesn't take long to determine the source of spin control in this forum.  

    As so many have discovered, these guys are simply reselling Google Adwords - a service that can be managed by legit companies who offer transparency (actual percentage of your budget being spent on Google clicks).  The irony is that these flat rate pipe dream purveyors actually have the nerve to talk about "who's legit" on their site.  Answer - not these guys according to the real customers complaining here and elsewhere.
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