Complaint Review: IEPLEXUS IEPLEXUS.COM - Used To Be Internet Advancement Aka InternetAdvancement.com - Lynnwood Washington

I used to work with Internet Advancement and it's funny how they word things. IE Plexus is not owned by Ken or by Todd. Todd stepped down at Internet Advancement and Dwayne W. took his place before Internet Advancement closed. Earnest who was the original owner of Internet Advancement and the real owner of IE Plexus, all the top sales people and Jason Thurston who is in charge of the little SEO IE Plexus does formed IE Plexus after the Internet Advancement was forced by the AG to close their doors. The best part to me is how Earnest is not anywhere on the business licenses, and you never see his name anywhere so these guys can say it is not the same company, but come on. As soon as I learned the mentality of this company I was gone. I can honestly say that I am embarrassed and ashamed to ever have any part of this company. The more I learn about this industry the more I realize how horrible and really criminal these guys are. I mean they now sell people blogs for thousands of dollars that they can download for free at wordpress.com, they spend almost $200 a month to keep the blog, when they could host it on their owned for less than $10 per month. So for a few grand up front and over two grand a year you get a blog you could download for free and pay over $2,000 for about $120 worth of hosting for one year! That's crazy. My advice to all website owners from what I have learned is that there is not some magical technology that will get your site ranking highly and making money. Like everything else it takes work. If any company calls you saying that they are going to make so easy and you are hardly going to need to do a thing and for a few grand they are going to get you to the top of the search engines they are lying, and just want your money and prey on what you do not know. Nothing in life is that easy, at least not for very long. Maybe when the Internet first started there were some sites that were able to make a bunch of money without doing a ton of work, but today there is just too mush competition, and a million of these companies making submission and doing the same things. What I have learned is that quality unique content, relevent to the keyphrases that the site owner would like to be found under is the of most important thing. I hope that this helps some site owners out there to save some money, and find someone willing to teach you, instead of just telling you they are going to magically going to do it for you with some technology you have never heard of before, and makes no since. The more complicated the person you are talking tosounds and makes out what they are selling to be the more full of it they probobly are. And this company and their sales people that know what is going on and continue to sell it anyway are full it.

As a former employee of Internet Advancement and one who worked under Mr. Thurston, I need to add that Mr. Thurston is not revealing all the facts. I am appalled at the false modesty of this individual, as his tenure with Internet Advancement makes him more than just a nice-sounding, reputable businessman with ieplexus.com. The fact is, much, if not all of what Mr. Thurston knows he did acquire from Internet Advancment, and had a direct relationship with Mr. Ken Committee, George Marshall and Ernie of Internet Advancement. Mr. Thurston said that credibility was an issue, and that one should listen to the clients as evidence of whether a company is reliable and reputable. Mr. Thurston also stated that a company's merit is only as good as its products and services. If this is true, then why do these companies seek SEO and SEM marketing in the first place. As an ex-employee of Internet Advancement who gave up a full-time job for what I thought would be a beneficial and lifetime, positive career changed, turned out to be the job from hell. I did learn some valuable information about the s****.. Truth is, there were a lot of disgruntled customers at Internet Advancement. It was more than just a few, it was many, but that is a different topic. What Mr. Thurston did, then, fearing for his economic security based on the double lawsuit filed by the Attorney General for the State of Washington, was to jump ship, form a new company called iePlexus.com and feign ignorance of any misgivings. This kind of lie by omission should be regarded with the highest degree of incredulity when considering the purchase of any advertised services, whether from Internet Advancement or iePlexus. It just proves how shady the whole business is. SEO and SEM really take care of themselves. If the business owners who desire these services have really good products and customer relations already established, SEO and SEM are really irrelevant, and would be a waste of money--like so many clients have said. But there really is a lot of information that Mr. Thurston is withholding regarding his company, which, although he denies it, is a spinoff of Internet Advancement, because he, himself, spun off from Internet Advancement. How Mr. Thurston treats his clients independent of how Internet Advancement treated some of theirs remains to be seen. For now, as a business owner myself, all I can recommend is not to buy SEO or SEM services, and just let the organic/natural page rankings take care of itself. The money that would have been 'invested' in SEO or SEM would be infinitely better served by staying in the owners' pockets, and letting them post here and there about their products and services, the continued pursuits of which will increase search engine rankings and therefore higher potential sales.

Christine -

My name is Jason Thurston, owner and founder of iePlexus. I wanted take the time to respond to your post here and hopefully clear up what seems to be some misunderstandings. I am personally dedicated to creating a reputable company by providing quality service and support that is well above the industry standards. My employees and I pride ourselves on the many positive comments we receive from our clients. It is impossible to make everyone happy, but that is still our goal. Unless I am mistaken, you are not and never have been a client of iePlexus, correct?

I believe that perception is huge; therefore it is important to me that you and others have accurate information about my company:

My company is not a part of, nor is it affiliated/associated with Internet Advancement. Internet Advancement is a completely different company which offers different services. Internet Advancement offers SEO and SEM services. Our services include blog development, customization, social media advertising, and press release creation and distribution.

I am sorry to hear that you had an unsettling experience with Internet Advancement, but I am glad that you were eventually refunded. As a business owner I understand the hardships you go through while building your business. With that being said, the information you have provided is inaccurate and untrue. You have obviously been misinformed, and now you are the one attempting to sabotage my company in retaliation. You have spoken with at least one of my employees and you were informed of the fact that our company is not a part of or associated with Internet Advancement, but I do not see anything about that in your post. In fact, I personally offered to speak with you while you were on the phone to clear up the misunderstandings, but you quickly declined. Why is that?

It is true that some of the employees of my company used to work for Internet Advancement, myself included. Internet Advancement hired over a thousand individuals over the years. Many of these people are highly skilled individuals. Passing judgment on theses individuals based on their previous employment is not only unfair, it is slanderous. In my opinion, the following 2 points are very true, and should be taken into account before passing any judgment:

1. Your previous employer's reputation does not accurately describe you as an individual (I am not providing a personal opinion of a company with the following statement, I am making a point). The way a company is run is ultimately determined by the owner(s), not the employees. It is not fair to pass judgment on an individual based on their previous employer, or the employer's reputation.

2. Your current employer's reputation should not be judged based on your past employer's reputation. A company should be judged based solely on the quality of services that company offers, and you can only judge the level of services if you have actually used their services or purchased products.

I am personally an online consumer as well. I determine who I purchase from based on the reviews of their products and services I find online. There are many occasions when I have read a negative review of a company that was posted by a customer which has helped me decide whether or not to move forward with that company. However, it is posts like these; posts made by individuals with a grudge; posts made by individuals who have never even worked with the company they are reviewing that cause me to question the credibility of most reviews and reviewers, as well as the review sites.

Consumers should only consider information from actual clients when determining the quality of services for a particular company.

If anyone has any questions, or concerns, you may contact me directly at [email protected].

Regards,

Jason Thurston

I have dealt with both companies and I am sure as an employee you know more than me about them, however if you were a regular consumer you would get confused too with all the name changing, owner changing, ex-employee companies or whatever it is you all do up there. I saw those two mentioned as owners of Internet Advancement, so my association is still valid. They may not be associated with IEplexus on paper or through professional dealings, but they trained, worked with and employed many of the ones who are now. I have talked to many companies and associations who know what you're all about at both companies. They also filled me in about your other companies: Internet Advancement, 4greatbuys.com, Ieplexus.com, Onesourcewebsites.com, Seowholesale.com, Mobilepenguins.com, Futurerankings.com and probably many more.

Perhaps I should have mentioned Doug Russell who works for IEplexus now too, the first sales guy who promised the world to me and couldn't deliver when I was with Internet Advancement. Or perhaps I should have mentioned the countless others your organization has trained and molded into pro scam artists and manipulators. Perhaps I should congratulate you on your ability to work the system and find loopholes that allow you to go virtually untouched by officials who should be there to help consumers like me in need. I failed to mention those things and kept what I had to say on the lighter side in my first response, but don't think for a minute that I won't continue to add more intimate details from my experience and research with your company/companies if you continue to respond with hostility and act like I am inaccurate with my report. You can continue to argue semantics all you like, it doesn't hide the original reason I posted in this manner, your company (more than one) took advantage of me and my family.

How can you work for a place knowing all this? Sad for you George, you can surely do better.

I have dealt with both companies and I am sure as an employee you know more than me about them, however if you were a regular consumer you would get confused too with all the name changing, owner changing, ex-employee companies or whatever it is you all do up there. I saw those two mentioned as owners of Internet Advancement, so my association is still valid. They may not be associated with IEplexus on paper or through professional dealings, but they trained, worked with and employed many of the ones who are now. I have talked to many companies and associations who know what you're all about at both companies. They also filled me in about your other companies: Internet Advancement, 4greatbuys.com, Ieplexus.com, Onesourcewebsites.com, Seowholesale.com, Mobilepenguins.com, Futurerankings.com and probably many more.

Perhaps I should have mentioned Doug Russell who works for IEplexus now too, the first sales guy who promised the world to me and couldn't deliver when I was with Internet Advancement. Or perhaps I should have mentioned the countless others your organization has trained and molded into pro scam artists and manipulators. Perhaps I should congratulate you on your ability to work the system and find loopholes that allow you to go virtually untouched by officials who should be there to help consumers like me in need. I failed to mention those things and kept what I had to say on the lighter side in my first response, but don't think for a minute that I won't continue to add more intimate details from my experience and research with your company/companies if you continue to respond with hostility and act like I am inaccurate with my report. You can continue to argue semantics all you like, it doesn't hide the original reason I posted in this manner, your company (more than one) took advantage of me and my family.

How can you work for a place knowing all this? Sad for you George, you can surely do better.

I don't know "James" in Houston is (or is it "Christine"?), but as a current employee of Internet Advancement I do know that James/Christine needs to get his/her facts straight. He/she included "Ken" and "Todd" in his/her list of Ieplexus personnel, but Ken and Todd are not connected with Ieplexus in any way, period.

To state that "IEPLEXUS.COM Used To Be Internet Advancement" or to include Ken or Todd in any description of the Ieplexus ownership or staff is misleading. James/Christine, you are misinformed.