Complaint Review: Elevatesem.com - Elevate SEM Kirkland WA / Scottsdale AZ - Internet

Well they got me again, what can say. I have been trying unsuccessfully for a over a year now to run a home based business and I bought some marketing from Elevate SEM and its a nightmare.

I started out working with some company called Focus or Lightwave or something, it seemed like every time I turned around a different person was calling me. I got set up selling leather hand bags online. It was supposed to be really easy, and of course it wasn't. I quickly found myself more than $10k in debt with no way out.

That's when ElevateSEM.com came calling, as my apparent savior. They list there number as (800) 936-4465 on the website, but always called from a 425 number. A guy named Scott called me and assured me that everything that had happened to me was typical, but not to worry. He was going to help put me back on track, find a solution to my debt problem and finally give me a team to work with.

This was literally the phone call I waiting for!! He introduced himself as Scott Edward from Elevate SEM, and was giving me a call about my Lightwave site. He was very nice and showed me a lot of information I had no idea about. We viewed the Google Guidelines, looked at the Title tags of my website and a bunch of other things I had never head of. I was finally feeling better about things, boy was in for a real surprise....

Before long I was talking to several other gentlemen at the company (Sal, Eric something and one other person), as it appears Scott's job is just get poor uneducated people like me on the phone and then pass it off to someone else who is going to get me to sign up. Don't I feel like a sucker now. I felt like it was odd when he said he wanted me to talk to someone else. I wish I had listened to my gut feeling... Well I hate to admit it, but I signed up. It just seemed like such a good deal and he was so nice. He even told me that his own Mother had a site, and that he wouldn't recommend something to me that his own family member used. BIG MISTAKE.

First I spent over $2000 on their "search engine optimization (SEO) service" I was told a technician would be assigned to me and my worries were over. This was only the just the beginning of worries...

I had several calls from other people working at Elevate SEM, all excited to get me signed up and take my money, but no one was actually talking about the work, or how they could help me. This seemed a little odd, but I was assured I would be talking to the technicians soon. Maybe a month later I get a call from Sal again, a guy who says that he is my technician, he gave me some videos to watch and homework. He also let me know that all the work I had paid for was completed. I thought this was kind of odd, since I hadn't seen any changes on my website, and still had no orders. But I said OK and went about following his lead.

Another month or so goes by and I get another call, but this time from another sales person (don't remember his name). This guy claims to know all about my site and leather handbags, and that really the first sales man, Scott, was wrong. I don't need the SEO, but that I need the social media marketing (SMM) and pay per click (PPC) marketing. But not to worry, I would get a great discount! It would only be another $5k dollars to get this going. I panicked and said wait a moment, whats going on here. I just paid you guys like a month ago and to be honest I don't see anything different at all. And I didn't have any sales.

Well this guy told me this is normal, nothing to be worried about, just takes more work and time. Something about 6 months to see any real results. So we went back and fourth and finally I just gave into the pressure and signed up. And to the guy did seem knowledgeable in all these internet marketing terms, he knew all sort so stuff about SEO and SMM and PPC. Even discussed linking and Google Webmaster Tools. I feel dumb for not doing my own homework. Too late now....

Well you can probably guess where this is going, another month or two go by and still nothing. I do notice some different stuff on my site now. And I do get a crap load of emails from all sorts of places, but still no sales! What the heck. How the heck did I just get talked into spending a total of $5k more and still I don't have anything to show from??

So I start calling in and complaining. I am given the run around and told to use technicians for help. I finally get an appointment, and tell the guy I did all the homework, now what? You know what he tells me? That I did all the work wrong, and its my fault the site isn't working!!! I was furious!! I thought I paid you guys to help the site, but apparently all I was getting some stupid COACHING once again. And Scott swore up and down this was not a coaching company!! I can not explain how angry I was.

Now at this point I am really feeling desperate, I have picked up another $5k in debt and still nothing is working and I don't know what to do. Nothing this stupid company, ElevateSEM.com sold me did anything. I still get calls form these scam artists and they still try to sell me things!! How about a new website? How about this? How about that? I don't even know what that crap is and no I don't want it.

What I want is my money back! Ha good luck there. I have called in and talked to one jerk after the other. Some guy started calling me, threatening me that I better still pay my monthlies, we are under contract. At one point I called back trying to find Scott, the con man that got me started on all this trouble and they claimed he didn't work there any more. I was irate!! Let me tell you, I feel sorry for these guys whenever the Attorney General gets a hold of them. Buyer beware!! I looked them on here and they have another report accusing them of being liars and scam artists.

All I can say is don't be me. Don't go further into credit card debt because this Elevate SEM won't do anything but make things worse. Do your homework, Google any company, read their rip off report reviews. If I had done that I would have never don't business with these fraudsters. Avoid any phone calls from the 425 area code. Especially from ElevateSEM.com (425) 307-1582.

Let's get together and file a class action lawsuit against these scammers!