Complaint Review: Expo Sure USA Inc.

We were approached by sales person 'Tom' from Long Island Food Critic to produce a review of our restaurant.  We set an appointment and learned Tom represented Expo Sure USA Inc. which is a company that provides 'positive' reviews of restaurants as a free service when you order their email news letter marketing services.  All for the reasonable price of $195/month.  We thought it sounded great, signed up and then were asked for a check for $980.  Shocked, we backed off and learned there was a hidden startup fee of $395 and they wanted six months in advance.  We backed off the deal immediately and were told by Tom, not to worry about it - they would work with us.

We made payment of $590.  Three months later we had not seen any attempt to begin copy on the email newsletter and no attempt to set up the restaurant review.  On October 12th in a call with our representative - we expressed dismay and concern that we more than two months had passed and no review had been scheduled and they were reluctant to begin work on our email newsletter topic.  We were told at that point that not all restaurants necessarily received reviews and it if so it would take many months.  In addition, we should not expect an email newsletter for up to six months.  Shocked at the difference between what we sold and subsequently expecting vs. the services we were receiving, we told them we would withhold the remaining $390 payment they were requesting until we saw some work product.  In addition we requested to speak to someone in charge.   The company was openly evasive on who our account could be escalated to and we continually put through to generic voice mail accounts.  When we told our account rep we would not make the final payment and wanted to escalate our concerns we received a threatening certified letter from their legal department two days later.  This is not a company we can do business with and we strongly recommend Buyer Beware!  Know Exactly What you are Buying and Know Exactly what Timeline you will get your purchase in.  So far all we have seen is stall tactics and highly unethical behavior.  It raises the question is this how they make money preying on unsuspecting small businesses.