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
    Chargeback!
    I just got a full refund after this company tried to take over $3,000 for doing nothing! I simply told my credit card company I did not authorize the charges and that I never saw nor signed a contract because the sales person told me there are no contracts.
  • 0
    Mike B
    If I could give them 0 stars I would. Well I spoke to Wayne Osato for a few months, seemed like a nice guy, promised all kinds of things that they could do. They promised that they would send results to you (never did) They promised Top Google Placement (sometimes) They promised more phone calls (not one in the 3 months that I was with them) I told them that this was a 3 month trial, they said "ok" and they kept charging my account after 3 months (very slick crooks they are). Bottom line, your business will not improve, you will not receive any calls from your ads, they cost a lot, and you really need to look at their fine print.  They make you build a new website, that way they can pull it down as soon as you stop paying, so that your real website doesn't collect the google hits it should. Very slick, also very dishonest. E-mails and verbal conversations don't mean anything to them, they will break their word at a moment's notice. If you think you have canceled your service, you better think again. These cheats know all the ways to keep charging your card. I have been in dispute with them after 4 months to recover 2 months that I canceled with proof, and they kept charging my card. Stay away from them.

    I had done this on Yelp, and Carl the owner came back at me with some BS that Yelp took down because he was not only wrong, but very dishonest. Here is more on what I wrote.

    All of my conversations had been with Wayne. He told me he was my contact person, and never did anyone answer any of his e-mails. You DID NOT REFUND MY MONEY. It's out of my account. I canceled, and you guys kept charging me, it doesn't matter no one was there to retrieve any e-mails or look after Wayne's accounts. You're very dishonest. You had 2 other bad reviews flagged. The truth hurt Carl? I had specifically told Wayne this was a 3 MONTH TRIAL. In no way was I to be billed for the fourth and fifth month. I have the charges on my account, and can very easily post them here. If you don't have that conversation via e-mail, Wayne deleted it! I'm going to go on every web board on the net where you have reviews and tell everyone what you guys did.

    And apparently, Yelp agrees with me, as of 10/22/2010 they took your posting down and left mine up. Bravo Yelp. By the way, Yelp has been by far the best way to advertise. I pay by their pay per click, and it's been working great for my business. I get 3-4 calls per week from Yelp. And it's much cheaper than using a shady company like Performance Media Placement where they took 2 months of my money at $599 per month and not only lied about returning my money, (not returned) but outright took it after I had cancelled!
    Any company that tells you that you have to have them build a website based on Google ads is lying to you. They do it so your company will not benefit after leaving them and they can pull your new website down. They said you have to insert some code into it, and I asked them the code so I could do it with mine, and they outright lied and refused. I did it anyways, and lost BIG. Luckily I had my own website, but it's a total and complete con about having them build you a website. Not only you don't have to (AS GOOGLE TOLD ME) they charge you for that privilege. Google told me that you never have to put any codes from these shady advertising companies into any website to either improve visibility or to keep it on top of any search engine. That's not how it works. This company feeds off of lies.
  • 0
    Mike B
    Yes, avoid big time. I used their services and they defrauded me out of $1100.
  • 0
    Mike B
    How about me Carl? I can tell everyone here my story on how your company is not on the up and up. I'm not a former employee, just an ex customer that is pissed and hell bent on telling everyone what a terrible company you have. Shall I continue??
    Even Yelp took down your response to me and left mine up. How about that Carl?
    Your company stole $1100 dollars from me, I'll be damn sure I get that money back, either by going on every single webboard with your company name on it, and telling my story, or by you doing the right thing and refunding my money. Not 1 call in the 3 months I used your services. Not 1.
  • 0
    Mike B
    They did the same thing to me. Check their yelp reviews on what they did to me.
  • 0
    Mike B
    You're a liar PMP. You don't give out weekly reporting directly from Google. I asked for these a bunch of times and never got one. Why don't you have Kurt write up some more BS about him being a Realtor and a client, when he really works for the company and is really a scumbag by profession?? (He made up a profile on yelp as a customer, but was too fricken stupid and used the same picture on his linkedin page, and on that page he says he works for PMP). Tell Kurt that I said that he is really stupid. At least make up a name or something. I'm not convinced Wayne's father has cancer as the  reason as why you never got back to me or answered any of my e-mails saying "STOP THE ADVERTS AND STOP CHARGING ME"? You didn't. Now you owe me $1100 Carl. I won't stop till I get it all back or you go under. Your choice.
  • 0
    Mike B
    You guys scammed me Marianne. You're a complete liar Marianne. I never got one Google report even though I asked for them. What's the next lie? Can you tell Karl to jump in. I’d really like to chat with him as to why he says bogus things on Yelp as a client, when in fact he is really an employee?? Can you answer me this Marianne, because I have not yet heard enough [***] from your company yet.
  • 0
    Mike B
    Was this review written by Kurt? The [***] who works for you guys and puts up posts on Yelp saying he's a client? You guys are unbelievable. Any [***] can make up reviews, but the ones online are the ones I read. I can make up stuff about my own company if I wanted to, but I let real clients, not fake ones like that [***] Kurt make one up on Yelp, that was flagged. Come up with some more BS fake clients. I don't see any happy ones. Have Kurt go into overtime making up false profiles. Make sure he's supervised, because he's too stupid to do this on his own. He might just use the same picture on yelp as a "client", that he does on his linkedin profile. Yes he really did do this. What a moron.
  • 0
    Mike B
    Sure they do. I believe you Marianne. I also believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Clause, and that Lindsey Lohan has a stable family life.
  • 0
    Mike B
    You mean the fraud speaks for itself. What numbers? The ones your company refused to show me? The ones I asked for and never received? Oh those numbers. Right, ok sure.
  • 0
    Chargeback Tips
    To Mike B.

    Here are some tips on what info to provide your credit card company when charging back. Remember, a customer can chargeback as many times as they wish and use different complaints every time as long as they are valid to why they feel they deserve a refund.

    1. Did you read, get read or sign a contract before you gave the sales rep your credit card information? If not, that is illegal. PMP has performed this tactic for years.

    2. Sales reps pitch a no contract guarantee. If you were promised there would be no contracts, print out any emails and these 3 pages showing that sales reps guarantee that there are "NO CONTRACTS". Any contract sent to the credit card company you did not view, sign and/or approve is void. http://www.ocgoogleguy.com/Businesses/OC_Google_Guy_Trabuco_Canyon_CA.htm 
    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kurt-steinhebel/1a/10b/13b
    http://www.listown.com/writing-editing-translation/oc/201002/143116.htm

    3. The illegal sharing of your private information between companies. If you were not aware, all your personal information is processed by PBHLLC. If you have never heard of this company, inform your credit card company that your private information, including credit card info, has been shared with another company without your permission. There is nothing in the contract or privacy policy that states PBHLLC will be collecting and storing all your private information.

    4. If your initial contact was via an email like the ones here: http://www.callercomplaints.com/SearchResult.aspx?Phone=714-544-2607 one could assume bait and switch as described by the FTC: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/baitads-gd.htm 

    5. If they continued to charge you without your permission every month, it can be assumed they never contacted you to get your CVV code on your credit card in order to recharge you again, assuming they manually charge every recurring order. You might be able to check with your credit card company or authorize.net to see if your CVV code has been used for these recurring charges. If so, it is illegal for companies to store CVV information, and should be reported immediately! Here is a link with info to report this to the credit card company: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=265954. One more thing, if the emailed "contract" you may have received contains your CVV code in it, this is a violation of privacy and puts your credit card at risk.

    Remember not to just blog, file your complaints:
    http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/requ ... plaint&hl=en_US
    https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
    http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
    https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx  

    There are many ways to win a chargeback if a company has grossly misrepresented the product through fraudulent sales tactics and refuses to provide either the product described or a refund. These are just a few tips based on Mikes experience. Hopefully this information can be of help, take care!
  • 0
    Mike B
    I wish I had done this. Great advice btw. I didn't do my homework, and I didn't research the company. 2 big mistakes I won't ever do again. I cannot claim fraud now as it's too late. I didn't sign any contract, but didn't need to as I had a verbal over the phone. Nothing was ever signed. I will talk to my CC company again to see what the deal is if I can refile my claim.
  • 0
    Chargeback Tips
    To Mike B.

    If the only contract you agreed to is verbal and you never saw or signed a written contract you must make this clear to the credit card company. PMP is more than likely sending their written contract to the credit card company in their defense no matter if you saw, agreed to and/ or signed. If a portion of the contract was only to be charged for 3 months of service and they continually charged you, then PMP initially voided the verbal contract. An important thing to ask your credit card company is if they used the CVV to perform the recurring charges. You should even call PMP to see if this information is being stored.
  • 0
    Direct Local Solutions
    The scam keeps changing names: http://www.directlocalsolutions.com/
  • 0
    Yelp
    Yelp deleted yet another comment of Carls on Yelp! Boohoo yelp is so unfair to Carl because he wont pay them. Again the looser fails to reply to the complaint and tries to shift focus onto his unfair relationship with a true advertising giant. Of course he will slander and badmouth a competitor when none of his companies can compete with the technology, roi, reporting, value and honesty Yelp offers. What a schmuck!
  • 0
    Candi R
    Carls deleted response on Yelp:

    Mike,

    Of course Yelp deleted my review.  This is part of their problem.  They want me to pay.  As you and I know we clearly stated that your service as provided in full.  Your credit card company and your bank agreed.  Here are some comments about Yelp!  This is common. Like all these people we can't contact support by phone, email or form.  

    It is amusing Carl bashes Yelp yet promotes them on his websites and gives customers a "Strong presence in local directories, Yelp!..."
  • 0
    Chargeback works!
    Get your money back from these creeps! I asked if my CVV was used for more charges and it was!!! They told me this is highly illegal and will be investigating asap. Call your credit card company to see if your CVV has been comprimised. This is basically identity theft my cc company told me.
  • 0
    Another List
    So the name game never ends, lets dish em out:
    www.greenleadtreeonline.com
    savingsinoconline.com
    ebiz411.com
    globaladwordsresults.com
    www.netappsconsulting.com
  • 0
    More Name Changes
    So the name game never ends, lets dish em out:
    www.greenleadtreeonline.com
    savingsinoconline.com
    ebiz411.com
    globaladwordsresults.com
    www.netappsconsulting.com
  • 0
    PBHLLC Investment Scam!
    Try to find PBHLLC's parent company Performance Media Placement Scam on Google, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, etc. and or search for the many other names they go by now like Green Lead Tree Online Scam, Savings in OC Online Scam, EBIZ411 Scam, Global Adwords Results Scam, Net Apps Consulting Scam or many of the other scam names they hide behind to SCAM people out of their hard earned money. If you receive spam, unsolicited phone calls(for example telemarketers) from any of these websites listed, please phone the FTC, IC3, SEC, Google and any other organization to let them know of the illegal activity performed and the investment scam they may have tried to hard sell you or your company into.
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