Complaint Review: Internet Advancement Aka 4GreatBuys

I was initially contacted by someone who said they liked my site, wanted to include it in their mall, free. I could call them about it. This was the bait and switch for getting a very high pressure sales job from 2 salesmen from Internet Advancement. They promised lots of hits, orders, gave me a reference who said that indeed, this had happened to her site (wish I could remember her name and website, Vickie somebody). They were going to give me a deal: instead of the usual $2000 (approximately) for six months, they'd charge me $984, about half payable up front, the rest in equal monthly installments. Within two months, hits should start to go way up.

Kraig Michaels, one of the salesmen, also promised me that if I wasn't happy for any reason, I could get my money back.

Hits had been about 3-4/day prior to signing up with IA. After two months, no change. Close to 3 months, hits edged up to about 7/day. I complained, they said wait a bit longer.

I finally called, and asked for my money back. I was told that I couldn't get my money back. When I asked to speak with Kraig Michaels, I was told he was on leave due to personal matters and might not be coming back.

And in fact, legally I may not have much of a leg to stand on. To the naive, which I was, the contract looks splendid. Within 60 days they will get you "at least a top 10 placement on one or more of Client's "key words" or "key word phrases" (determined by company's optimization of same) on at least 6 of the major search engines for the 6 months of htis agreement. This guarantee begins 60 days after Company's initial optimization of keywords.."

Keywords is important. They help you come up with keywords, but if you don't know how keywords work in this business... well, lets just say picking keywords is an art. Now, in hindsight, I know that some keywords are so general that they are worthless in terms of getting hits. But those general ones are the keywords that got top ten billing on search engines. The keywords that are more specific--that might have gotten me some hits--never get those top placements. That's my experience, at least. But I had no idea about that when I signed up.

Moreover, you have about 14 different keywords and key phrases. All they are promising is that one of these will be in the top ten on six search engines.

Furthermore, 6 out of 16 search engines doesn't necessarily mean you'll get onto the good ones.

In summary, the promises they make are underwhelming if you really understand what's going on.

Mark
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.