Marketing Campaign Solutions, Gary Prado
& East Congress Street #611G
Savannah, Georgia
United States
Phone: 800-660-6863
marketingcampaignsolutions.com
I initially found Gary Prado, Marketing Campaign Solutions on a insurance industry forum called www.insurance-forums.net. He had great reviews at the time I payed for his service, so I decided to give him a chance. We discussed a marketing campaign where his company would telemarket to create leads, then live-transfer the leads to me. He pulled a report saying there are 25, 000 potential leads and he should be able to deliver 7 transfers per hour to me. Based on a 40 hour campaign, he said he would deliver 35-50 live transfers in a week. I payed him $949 on May 24 for a 30 hour campaign, and that was the last time we talked.
Ten days after I made a payment his company started working, here is what happened:
Wednesday, June 4th - after they finally started, I received no leads or transfers.
Thursday, June 5th - I received no leads or transfers.
Friday, June 6th - I received no leads or transfers.
Monday, June 9th - 1 transfer was received, I called 10 times, and I left 3 messages for Gary Prado, the owner to figure out what was going wrong, this is not what he promised.
Tuesday, June 10th - 1 transfer received, I called 7-8 times that day, I left 2 messages for Gary Prado, the owner, sent 3 emails
Wednesday, June 11th I emailed emailed Gary Prado the owner, I left 2 messages, I then called Capital One to dispute charge.
Thursday, June 12th Gary Prado finally contacted me by email, not by phone. He said there are too many Spanish speaking people here in South Florida for an effective campaign, and he is having family problems, and is moving.
After paying him $949, he started 10 days late, instead of at least 35 transfers, he delivered 2. To make things worse, he intentionally avoided my phone calls and hid behind his assistant instead of dealing with a fixable problem. To top everything off, the signed agreement says I will be charged $849 for a one time, 30 hour campaign, plus $10 per transfer. A total of $869 should have been charged to my card, The $849 for the 30 hour campaign, then $10 times 2, for the 2 transfers I received. I was ripped off. I payed $949 plus he charged be another $15, for a grand total of $964 for 2 transfers! I payed $482 per transfer. That is astronomical!! I can buy a live transferred lead for $30 from a company called www.vimo.com. Since Gary Prado's company delivered 2 transfers, it is fair I pay for those, so please deduct $60 from the grand total. $904 should be refunded to my card.
Gary Prado claims to have spent hours calling, which I believe to be a lie, he owns a very advanced calling system, that dials 25, 000 numbers in an hour, which could possibly create all the leads he sent me in about 2 hours. He claims to have sent me leads, and his assistant actually did. The problem was they were not in the correct format, so I could not open them. When I tried to call Gary Prado about this problem, he wouldn't answer the phone. So he sent me leads yes, but because I was unable to view them and use them in my database, they were totally worthless.. I did not sign up for a service for him to send me leads, I signed up for a service for him to live-transfer leads to me. Him sending this shows that he may have run his campaign for a few hours, but he is showing a lot of fluff, without any evidence of doing what we initially discussed.. which was a live transfers lead campaign!
I have a couple exhibits I would like to point out for you to have a more clear picture.
Exhibit A Original signed agreement
Exhibit B the letter I faxed to Gary Prado 06/11/08, after 4 days of him not returning my calls.
Exhibit C A time sheet report that Gary Prado manipulated by copying and pasting my name on it, from the original agreement I signed. I never saw this report, nor did I agree to anything he was doing. He forged my name on this time sheet!! How can you trust someone that forges names?
Answers to some other questions you asked.
Merchant's cancellation/refund policy was never explained, nor is it visible on any paperwork I signed.
Attempts to resolve matter were only done by email. Gary Prado did not return any phone calls I placed, only a few emails. On June 12th, he finally emails me this I would be more than happy to refund the difference of what we did not use for telemarketing. I said he did not deliver what was promised, and I want the full refund minus the 2 transfers he sent me. On June 12th I asked how much money he was planning to refund, and I have not heard from him again.
Merchants response for a request of credit This is comprised of 15 nasty emails, this guy sent to me, however He did say he would give me a partial refund for the hours he did not use. I asked him how much will be refunded, and he never replied with a response. I called him to get details, and he did not answer the phone.
Written acknowledgment from the merchant stating credit is due Exhibit D
The last thing I would like to bring up, is a posting I made at the place I originally found Gary Prado, Marketing Campaign Solutions, on the website www.insurance-forums.net. I was reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced anything like this. I looked at the reviews over the past 3-4 months, and agents and associations that once recommended him, stopped endorsing him. There are negative comments everywhere on this message board. Just type in Marketing Campaign Solutions on www.google.com or www.insurance-forums.net, and you will see for yourself. It really didn't surprise me when I read these things, but I will leave you with EXHIBIT E, the post I made on the insurance forum. All of the derogatory remarks and comments are from other agents around the USA that were burned as well by Gary Prado, Marketing Campaign Solutions. An agent with the screen name NewHealthStrategies, hit the nail on the head. He called working with Gary Prado at Marketing Campaign Solutions the Worst experience of my almost 30 years in sales.
33316d
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
U.S.A.