Local Advertising / Toolbar scam
Complaint
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.
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
1) Do you give every new client the 24/7 first page, unlimited click, unlimited keyword NO CONTRACT guarantee in writing?
2) Do you give the percentage of money spent in Adwords that these wonderful business people give you every month?
3) Do you give a keyword keyword list to the client to approve before the advertising begins?
4) Does any client approve the the "100 unique rotating internet ads" your sales people brag about. An example in writing can be seen here: http://www.listown.com/writing-editing-translation/oc/201002/143116.htm.
5) How many times are you asked to "upsell" a client because the Adwords advertising is "over budget"?
6) Does your god approve of bait and switch tactics, cold calling, email spamming with false promises of "...potential customers looking for...in your area..." *taken from: https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/Ch3MAZF-YgAJSgjKWaIeRg
Please be honest and answer these simple questions.
One more thing, if you are going to invoke your deities name, make sure it is for a purpose you have complete faith in.
Perform a search on Google for any and every phrase you can imagine that you would use to find an advertising company.
Is PMP anywhere on any of the pages? Are they in the organic, map or sponsored link (Adwords) sections? If not, how can you depend on them getting your business any better placement when this is their supposed bread and butter?
A lockout and mass layoff isn't unheard of. Maybe the company name or "reseller" name will change again.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/directory.html
Please read how Google describes the difference between the certifications they offer and right below that "What kinds of companies or claims should I avoid when considering Google AdWords?" http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/faq.html#difference
As you can see again and again PMP makes "guarantees" that Google clearly states to AVOID! Let Google know about the claims this company makes here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/requ ... plaint&hl=en_US
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/directory.html
Please read how Google describes the difference between the certifications they offer and right below that "What kinds of companies or claims should I avoid when considering Google AdWords?" http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/faq.html#difference
As you can see again and again PMP makes "guarantees" that Google clearly states to AVOID! Let Google know about the claims this company makes here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/requ ... plaint&hl=en_US
"Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly."
"Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly."
1. YES
2. To my knowledge no one ever asked. Should we work for free? Are't we entitled to make a profit? There is so much work that goes into running a Google campaign effectively.
3> Yes. If a prospect ask we are happy to send them the list of key words and phrases. The customer could even request key words and we will do our best to supply them This happens all the time.
4. Again to my knowledge no one has asked and if they did we would be happy to supply them with it.
5. NEVER however we get calls almost on a daily basis from happy clients who up sell themselves by adding more cities because they have got great results. The biggest up sell I know was a campaign that went from $400 a month to $1500 a month.
6. No I'm sure my God would not approve. I'm sure he does approve of the way we go above and beyond to help our clients achieve their business goals and how we do genuinely care about each and every one of our clients we are lucky to have.
I would not be true to myself if I were not truthful with others.
I don't know who you are but I do have an idea and I think your out of line giving me advice about my faith.
Have a great day!
Following question 1) Is this "24/7 first page, unlimited click, unlimited keyword NO CONTRACT guarantee" online somewhere on a PMP site that can be printed out? I can find an actual contract that mentions different terms than what you are stating here, but nothing with these "guarantees".
Following Question 2) No one ever asks? Sorry, that is unbelievable if these prospective clients are sold the Adwords product honestly. Of course any company deserves to make a profit if the product that has been advertised meets or exceeds the guarantees of the sales pitch, advertising, website, etc. If said product has been delivered and is far below the promises made by any representative, advertising, website, etc. doubt may be raised in the honesty of the sales pitch and possibly the company.
2a) Can you please provide the average percent of your clients budget is actually spent in Adwords. This is probably the easiest and most persistent question asked. WHY DOES PMP REFUSE TO GIVE THIS INFORMATION?
For the rest of the questions, should it matter if the client asks for this information? All information should be provided for good record keeping and honest business practices. Why keep any information hidden from the company paying you to provide it?
Just to be clear, no person can ever question another persons faith, only their actions and words.
EDMUND G. "JERRY" BROWN, JR.
(916) 445-9555
http://ag.ca.gov/
http://www.naag.org/current-attorneys-general.php
Does Performance Media Placement still share an office with the techs from Elocallistings? How can you call yourself competitors when you share the same office space, phone lines, technology, Axciom database (ore was that stolen?) and so many other things? You don't see Google and Microsoft sharing the same office space they perform all their technical work and customer support in. Please, feel free to answer with lies, there is plenty of paper to backup these facts.
You know this is not true. How could it be? We plainly state our terms and conditions for each of our campaigns and we supply our customers with Google reporting sent directly from Google each week. Our contracts are month to month. If our customers thought for a minute that they were being screwed they can quit at any time.
Why don't you just get a job and go away.
We have contacted this blog as has our attorney and in summary there is nothing we can do but respond to these blogs. This is the new world. A world of false information where anyone can anonymously harm another with no consequences whatsoever. Prior to the Internet and the use of anonymous free speech, if any of these remarks were published in conventional media there could be swift and definitive recourse on our part. However, we are stuck with our only recourse, which is to respond.
Unlike our ex-employee, we are extremely transparent. Our website plainly states who we are, what our products are, and the terms and conditions of our services. Our phone number is plainly stated on every page of our website for both our sales offices and our support and corporate offices. Our terms and conditions (the same as those in our contract) are plainly stated in the footer of our website. If you’d like to know more about who we are, simply check us out in the About section. We clearly state how to look us up on the California Business Portal.
Please call sales or support anytime to discuss what you will be getting before purchasing anything from us. Our services are month to month so there is little risk to you. We also offer some unique advantages over other online marketing programs in that when you market your products or services though us, all changes and modifications are always free. Free and continuous updates to your marketing, which means you can give us a call and modify your areas to be marketed to, keywords or keyword focus, and types of marketing campaigns. This means when you are quoted a price from us, there are no additional costs for any changes! No more fees.
Feel free to call us anytime to go over the full set of keywords by which we market your company. We will gladly send you a copy. We can also set you up to receive reporting directly from Google on a weekly or monthly basis. This will be sent to you directly from Google, thus giving you an un-filtered view of your campaign performance.
For most of our customers we develop a custom website, which many of our customers make as their own website, replacing their existing website. All changes to the website are free as well. Just call us at support and we’ll gladly make any changes necessary; we’ll add new information, develop new graphics, make and update coupons, etc. Yes, for free!
We take our customers’ success very seriously. We would not be in business on a month to month contract if we were not successful. Our programs have to provide a strong return on investment (ROI), or all of our customers would cancel and we’d be quickly out of business. Check us out on the California Business Portal and you’ll see we’ve been around for 10 years.
These bloggers shouldn’t be given any credibility unless they are willing to identify themselves. Bill Cosby recently had to make an announcement that he “wasn’t dead”, countering bloggers postings!
If PMP really has an attorney that has looked over these blogs, please let them review the business practices of PMP and give their opinion here. Ensure they provide contact information so that potential clients and customers may contact them for any possible questions, complaints or discrepancies that may arise from "guarantees" given on the phone and/or email that is not provided on paper. Since your company is so up front and devoted to being "extremely transparent" this should be no problem.
What ever happened to the "24/7 first page, unlimited click, unlimited keyword NO CONTRACT guarantee" some of your sales people have sold to clients? There was a promise from an employee that represents your company saying this information would be provided on a PBH LLC website for download and print. There are blogs from the CEO and employees stating this sales pitch, yet none of this information can be found within any contract provided by PBH LLC.
The credibility of a blogger can be verified through the facts presented. Please provide a proper rebuttal and give information based on the questions asked.
Success for PMP's business doesn't mean success for their clients. Does Maydoff ring a bell?
How about addressing the concrete questions asked about the disclosure of Google Adwords COSTS in your campaigns (percentage of budget)? A former employee - whistle blower - exposed the true nature of this scam when they informed a client that only 2% of his dollar spent with PMP actually went to buy clicks on Google. Performance Media Placement (a dba of PBH LLC) is operating the biggest Adwords rip off in the history of Adwords management. Why don't you respond to the real substance of your company's abuse of Google Adwords and your client's budget?
Is the number of clicks and cost per click including the total monthly Adwords spend sent to all of your clients? How about impression share?
Instead of answering pertinent questions or even trying give a tiny shred of evidence PMP handles theirs clients with care, this employee tells the clients to "quit at any time" if they feel they are being screwed. I guess that would be fine except the company more than likely paid a setup fee and monthly advertising fees. If they feel they are being screwed isn't something supposed to be worked out instead of telling the client to simply "quit"?
http://www.callercomplaints.com/SearchResult.aspx?Phone=714-544-2607
http://pgrasso.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/fun-with-spammers
http://www.callerfinder.com/714-544-2607.html
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-859-2301
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-243-2488
http://www.tablenow.com
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/WbhWX6afrACJIgjLdxnpzg
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/PPI6MohK6QDT9QjMbb8e8A
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/Ch3MAZF-YgAJSgjKWaIeRg
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/hac6JzG8VgDULgjLZl0dog
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Internet-Marketing-Companies/Performance-Media-Pl/performance-media-placement-ri-8534e.htm
http://blog.seanhakes.com/2009/12/10/performa ... local-listings/
http://scamvictimsunited.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... 6b3ea0c3c54fdcb
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=28710
http://www.callertracer.com/714/714544-phone-lookup.php
http://www.vacationrentalscommunity.com/forums/t/2560.aspx
http://www.jimcarroll.com/2003/10/the-lengths-theyll-go-to
http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/th ... ponseTechnology
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=374712
http://www.seorefugee.com/forums/general-off- ... menu-redux.html
http://portalresponsetechnologyscam.blogspot.com/
http://download.cnet.com/MySpace-Guardian-Toolbar/3000-12941_4-10543654.html
http://professionalwebservices.blogspot.com/2 ... ngine-data.html
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=19723
http://bluepenguinsoftware.com/spyzooka/blog/ ... pyware-profile/
http://www.sunbeltsecurity.com/threatdisplay. ... 83866ABFBD276A0
http://spywaredetector.net/New%20Folder/spywa ... e.GoDOTless.htm
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/pbhllc.com
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=19723&highlight=GoDotless
I didn't even have to look hard to find this info. It looks like this so called ex-employee has been following the company and blogging for many years, if the ridiculous accusation is true. I mean wow, this person must have no life and a ton of email addresses.
Great job on trying to shift focus away from the accusations of deceptive practices and not giving any real answers. Oh wait, it was actually very pathetic. Just answer the questions and stop making up lame excuses.