NettSolutions Overpriced, Underserved, and Way Undeserved Orange County California
I have never used RiPOff Report before, mainly because I consider it a drastic measure. However, American Express was of no use to me when I asked for mediation of my dispute with NettSolutions, and after I got no return email from the Legal Department at NettSolutions, I will do the only thing that I can, and warn people not to use the company. I try to support American Businesses, but in this case, I made a wrong decision. They talk a good game, but their goal is only to get the money, then say they did their job. I would have fared better with Google Adwords, as I have in the past, but I just didn't have the time to spend focusing on SEO. After being hounded by callers from India and the Philippines, I decided to cast my die for the American company that had been calling me a lot over the weeks before I signed up.
Alyse, who no longer works for the company, handled my account. She called me over three months or so to express her company's concerns that my resume company could get better placement. I had not been spending for advertising, having placed my money in re-doing our website. She was very easy-going, youthful, articulate, and talked about how they could get me placed at the top search engines for the states in which I was interested in advertising. She said that they could come up with a campaign and we could focus on two states in particular where there would be a large demand for resume-writing.
I have been quite busy, I told her, and Alyse was confident that our arrangement would work. She told me that I would need to pay a set up fee of $575, a one-time payment, then each month I would pay $375.00. That sounded really expensive to me, I said, but she said with the results that I would get with their company, I'd be able to pay for the fees with just 2-3 resume clients (we only charge $95 per page at the most). Sure, that was true, and if I was getting a bevy of new clients, it would be worth the charge. So, believing that you have to spend money to make money, I signed their documents.
From then on I didn't hear one peep from anyone. I waited for the resume clients to come rolling in: none. Not one. This was over 3 months. I did have local clients, because we have a word-of-mouth reputation and we advertise in our local phone books. I wanted to branch out, however to resume serving nationally, as I had in the past when I had used Google Adwords, myself. As Alyse had targetted two states in particular, I figured we'd do alright. Mind you, in one state, we had already served many clients, but in the other state, we had only served a few in the past.
Alyse suggested the keywords that she thought would bring me the business. They were pretty broad, but I trusted her agency's understanding of my website statistics and what keywords were the best to use for a business of its nature. Well, I waited, and waited, and waited for results. Weeks wore on and I was busy with other things, but I expected to hear from someone from NettSolutions.
None.
No telephone call from Alyse telling me what happened. I finally called the company. Alyse no longer worked there. So who was handling my case? And where were the results? Those are logical questions, right?
Well, I spoke to someone from the coompany who said that we could figure out what wasn't working but didn't really address what they had done in the first place. It was as though she accepted that the company didn't deliver, but because I signed a document saying that they would place me at the top of the search engines, that was it. They had done their job. I could have placed my company at the top of search engines myself for less than $200 per month using Google Adwords, so what were they doing that was so special. I asked to speak to the legal department, and was given an email address that we not returned, but never received a response. The NettSplutions rep called me to say, "let's fix this." By this time, however, they had lost credibility to me. You don't exactly feel comfortable if a doctor puts a cast on the wrong leg, does one? I wanted a refund, I didn't want to use their "net solutions." I asked someone in the business who told me that the company's website did a poor job of explaining itself (that might have been corrected since I told them of my friend's complaint). I was also told that there should be a more thorough analysis of my account, so that I could really understand what was taking place behind those "numbers" they gave me. The woman handling my account said that we could work together to use my campaigns that I had created for AdWords. Why am I paying you if we're going to use my campaigns from the past? I thought THEY were the experts?
My questions are the following:
Was ANYBODY minding my account after the money was received or was that a done deal, already?
Why didn't I get copies of the wording of the campaigns used to garner me clients.
Shouldn't I have received word from the company that my money, my hard-earned money was received, either in an invoice or email? No. They got the money and that was enough for them.
It took me many attempts to get some records from them to show how many hits I was getting, and when it was presented, it was just a list. I didn't see any spreadsheet to explain to me which keywords, parts of the state, which search engines were giving me the most traffic.
I will write all of my $900 off as a loss and stamp my forehead, "STUIPD," for believing that this company had my interests at heart.
As a resume business, we work very closely with the customer, emailing them daily, giving them updates, asking questions, letting them proof everything before we accept full payment from them. This company did none of those things. Are they the worse company in the world? I don't know. But I will likely NEVER spend that kind of money on a company that claims to give me top placement. You can put a sign in forest and say you advertised. Well, that's basically what they did. They put some words up on a search engine, pasted it at the top, and let the money come gushing in to them, not for me.
Their ad is gimmicky and gives the impression that they are very savvy about what they do. Silly me, to believe it. Someone who knows about the business explained to me that their web page was actually confusing and it didn't really explain WHAT they were promising. NettSolutions may not be the worst company out there, but learn from me: do not use a company that can take your rent money but not give you one ounce of shelter. Do not use NettSolutions.
This is not meant to be defamatory in any way, and the defense to defamation is truth. I swear to the above, under penalty of perjury. I wish I could find Alyse, the employee, to understand what happened. I'm sure she has stories to tell. And if she doesn't because, she, too ended up being incompetent, then shame on the company for not informing me who was handling my case. They just didn't care. They got another sucker's money. And that's their goal. Take the money, and run.