Complaint Review: MerchantCircle

As a member of MerchantCircle I signed up for one of their SEM packages (Search Engine Marketing). (Google Adword campaign) (Sponsored ads) It's called the "PremiumCircle" Package, for $99.00 per month. At first it did really good. It was coming up on every search of my keywords and key phrases. It was coming up in top positions related to my business, within the sponsored ads portion of search results. Over time, I  started noticing a sharp drop off  in impressions. I
inquired as to why, because my campaign had been running for well over a year, and now I couldn't find the ad to save my life. I requested and to my surprise received a copy of my account activity. On the report was a list of my keywords and key phrases, and how many clicks each one received.  One keyword that took me by surprise was getting major clicks. The Keyword was "MerchantCircle" I NEVER  authorized MerchantCircle to use THAT keyword. NOW I understood where all my visibility was going. I was also told by Teresa Mendez, a MerchantCircle employee that many other business owners had that keyword in their campaigns as well, but she wasn't sure HOW it got there. Regardless of her promise to remove the keyword MerchantCircle from my campaign, I immediately canceled my paid services with them. It wouldn't surprise me if this practice is still going on today. My recommendation is if you do use this business directory site, DO NOT purchase anything they sell. You will regret it.