reallynotacomplainer
Los Angeles,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, September 01, 2011
I signed up with Linktech last July (2010) for two phrases after being stalked by the salesperson. He told me that others in my office had signed up and those people were well respected. I should have known when one of the other agents had cancelled his account within the 1st week.
The salesperson made a ton of promises, for example a custom website that they would have a tech call me to help set up and customize. He stated that even though I had my own website their website would give me a lot more presence on the web. Not only did I never receive a link to the site within the 1st month, but I never got a call to set it up. When I did see their website templates they were a complete joke. When I called customer service they said that he should have never suggested their template sites because my site was much better and that there was really no additional web presence because they just sold key phrases. They then told me that might phrases were not that great and wanted to change my phrases. I SHOULD HAVE CANCELLED THEN!
Months later (after $150 set up and $98/mo) I had no measurable result from their services. I called to ask how to measure the results and they said that they can send me reports upon request but that it costs them money to run them so they don't make it known that these reports are available. i asked them to run the reports and they said that they would email them to me. Well, I never received the reports. A couple months later I called to cancel my service. They said it would be cancelled, but indeed it was never done. That was in April 2011.
In August 2011 I noticed another charge on my bank for LinkTech and was not happy. I called, the customer service person promised me all sorts of credits and told me everything I wanted to hear. he said he would get me at least 2 months credits ($98/mo) and suggested that I reduce to one phrase and that he would help me set up my Google Analytics account to be able to track the progress. He said they had a record of my call in April but that there were no notes at all about the call, which is convenient since I called to cancel. he said it was unusual to not have any notes regarding a call and that was why he was going to try to get me a larger credit. He again said that they have to pay for the reports and this would solve my tracking the results problem. I asked why they don't just tell everyone about the Google Analytics option and he said that he has mentioned it to management. He then said he would take everything to management and call me back. That was the second week of August.
At the end of August I noticed another charge for $98 from Linktech on my bank account. Now I was furious. I called, there customer service rep said he saw that the last guy did not call me back as promised, apologized and then told me that they would credit me for the charge that went thru for $98 that day (Aug 29) and that they would charge me $14.95 for the previous month. the crazy thing is he said that was what I had agreed to...which never happened. I asked for management to review the recording since the previous rep had not made notes but they said it wasn't recorded. This rep said that the most they could do is credit me for those two charges. i explained that the last rep said I would AT LEAST get a credit/refund for July & Aug and not I was only getting part of Aug and the new charge for Sept (they charge in advance not rears). So now they basically got another $98 from me and I was also paying $14.95 for Aug.
Today I checked my bank account and only saw a refund for $83.00, which technically should have been $83.05...but whatever. I called to ask about the other $98, ws left on hold for 15 minutes, and finally the rep came back on the phone and said he would submit it today...we'll see if it happens.
BOTTOM LINE:
1. Their salespeople and reps are very nice and professional, but NOT on your side and will BS you to try to keep you paying. When you finally say I am definitely cancelling my account they become very rude.
2. Their service is a joke and produces no measurable results. When you ask for a report they tell you that it costs them money to run the reports...who cares!? because I am paying for your "service."
3. Their websites and features are beyond weak.
4. You would be better off taking your $ and setting it on fire...or utilize pay per click where you can at least have a measurable result. It may be small based on your budget but at least it is better than nothing.
GotInsight?
United States of America#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, October 10, 2010
First and foremost, who is LinkTech Solutions? Below is a link to their
information on BBB. Notice that they are "LinkTech International" on
BBB and that they are not an "accredited business." This is because
their previous registry with BBB was LinkTech Solutions Inc. (about a year or
two ago), and that company had so many cases against them that they changed
their name. Notice that within the last year or so their new unaccredited
business name has already received 27 complaints and a letter grade of C-.
What services does LinkTech Solutions claim to provide? LinkTech sells internet
ad space to real estate agents in the US. They tell you lots of fun facts when
they call, but what they do not tell you is that the service they claim
to exclusively provide to you is really not "exclusive" or a service that
THEY provide at all. Signing up to be at the top of internet search results is
something that YOU CAN PROVIDE FOR YOURSELF directly with the specific search
engine of your choice, for half the cost and none of the hassle. Check it out
for yourself at these web addresses:
(((Redacted)))
However, you will not find LinkTech
telemarketers harassing for your money in all 50 states, as it is illegal in
many. LinkTech only stalks the real estate agents in states that have loop
holes in their telemarketing laws. "Put me on you do not call list,"
you might say. Not in Oregon, or a dozen other states for that matter. Wonder
if you state is protected? If they are calling you, there is a good chance you
live in one of these states with the loophole. Be assured there is nothing you
can do to stop them from calling, and they WILL call again. Why? You might ask
(especially if you where quite blunt with them the last time you spoke). Because of how they operate internally, which
leads me to the next point.
What is a day in the life of an employee like at LinkTech? The business started
in some guys living room with little more business than a VISA machine. Feel
secure, dont you? Especially since they pride themselves in getting credit
card information from you real estate suckers, but strangers none the less, in
less than 15 minutes. And now, several years later, you may think they have upgraded
their business professionalism, as their many YouTube videos will show you,
like this one. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymkPGdadqwY&feature=related)
. But you cannot help to ask, what kind
of company needs to make video's about their totally awesome work environment?
A company that needs to convince you they have a totally awesome work
environment. Every morning there is a group huddle in which the sales members
are first berated, then encouraged to strong arm, manipulate, and force credit
card information out of real estate agents in record time with giving as little
information as possible to the agents, or as the LinkTech managers call them
" desperate people who don't have a clue how to sell a house or
themselves." And while the staff is not being reminded of how incompetent
and worthless the client is, they are being reminded of how incompetent and
worthless they are.
You might be wondering at this point just who is responsible for this entire charade, or the man behind the curtain so-to-speak. Next time they call you, don't get too mad at the poor soul on the other end of the line trying to sell you ad space. They most likely just got hired, and will most likely quit or be fired within the next few days. Here are the men responsible. Ask to speak with Mohamed Hariri or Omar Yusuf, the company managers. They both outspokenly take pride in being so filthy rich from their scheme at such a young age, have no college education, have no respect for anybody who does, and encourage their sales staff to have the same attitudes. Here are links to their Facebook accounts.
Omar Yusuf http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=636848581Mohamed (AKA Mo) Hariri http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=569308596
But most of your money is also going to owner, Meir Yaniv. Or should I say, the lead singer of foreign rock band Abused Romance. While Omar and Mohamed are busy cracking the whip on their sales staff here in Oregon, Meir is over in his home country Israel living out his musicians fantasy and on your dime. I have included a link to the band website below. But do not be fooled by the grandeur and professionalism of the band website, they have very few fans and no presence in Hollywood. All the funding is straight out of the LinkTech Solutions bank account. So enjoy the music video, you paid for it!(((Redacted)))http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=509100100
Desperate for work, as all recent grads are, I had a brief
stint working for LinkTech Solutions a while back, and after having read all
the reports about LinkTech Solutions on this website and others, I felt
convicted to provide further insight about the situation and about the company in
general so that consumers and legal agencies may be better informed about
exactly with whom they are dealing.
First and foremost, who is LinkTech Solutions? Below is a link to their
information on BBB. Notice that they are "LinkTech International" on
BBB and that they are not an "accredited business." This is because
their previous registry with BBB was LinkTech Solutions Inc. (about a year or
two ago), and that company had so many cases against them that they changed
their name. Notice that within the last year or so their new unaccredited
business name has already received 27 complaints and a letter grade of C-.
What services does LinkTech Solutions claim to provide? LinkTech sells internet
ad space to real estate agents in the US. They tell you lots of fun facts when
they call, but what they do not tell you is that the service they claim
to exclusively provide to you is really not "exclusive" or a service that
THEY provide at all. Signing up to be at the top of internet search results is
something that YOU CAN PROVIDE FOR YOURSELF directly with the specific search
engine of your choice, for half the cost and none of the hassle. Check it out
for yourself at these web addresses:
(((Redacted)))
However, you will not find LinkTech
telemarketers harassing for your money in all 50 states, as it is illegal in
many. LinkTech only stalks the real estate agents in states that have loop
holes in their telemarketing laws. "Put me on you do not call list,"
you might say. Not in Oregon, or a dozen other states for that matter. Wonder
if you state is protected? If they are calling you, there is a good chance you
live in one of these states with the loophole. Be assured there is nothing you
can do to stop them from calling, and they WILL call again. Why? You might ask
(especially if you where quite blunt with them the last time you spoke). Because of how they operate internally, which
leads me to the next point.
What is a day in the life of an employee like at LinkTech? The business started
in some guys living room with little more business than a VISA machine. Feel
secure, dont you? Especially since they pride themselves in getting credit
card information from you real estate suckers, but strangers none the less, in
less than 15 minutes. And now, several years later, you may think they have upgraded
their business professionalism, as their many YouTube videos will show you,
like this one. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymkPGdadqwY&feature=related)
. But you cannot help to ask, what kind
of company needs to make video's about their totally awesome work environment?
A company that needs to convince you they have a totally awesome work
environment. Every morning there is a group huddle in which the sales members
are first berated, then encouraged to strong arm, manipulate, and force credit
card information out of real estate agents in record time with giving as little
information as possible to the agents, or as the LinkTech managers call them
" desperate people who don't have a clue how to sell a house or
themselves." And while the staff is not being reminded of how incompetent
and worthless the client is, they are being reminded of how incompetent and
worthless they are.
You might be wondering at this point just who is responsible for this entire charade, or the man behind the curtain so-to-speak. Next time they call you, don't get too mad at the poor soul on the other end of the line trying to sell you ad space. They most likely just got hired, and will most likely quit or be fired within the next few days. Here are the men responsible. Ask to speak with Mohamed Hariri or Omar Yusuf, the company managers. They both outspokenly take pride in being so filthy rich from their scheme at such a young age, have no college education, have no respect for anybody who does, and encourage their sales staff to have the same attitudes. Here are links to their Facebook accounts.
Omar Yusuf http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=636848581Mohamed (AKA Mo) Hariri http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=569308596
But most of your money is also going to owner, Meir Yaniv. Or should I say, the lead singer of foreign rock band Abused Romance. While Omar and Mohamed are busy cracking the whip on their sales staff here in Oregon, Meir is over in his home country Israel living out his musicians fantasy and on your dime. I have included a link to the band website below. But do not be fooled by the grandeur and professionalism of the band website, they have very few fans and no presence in Hollywood. All the funding is straight out of the LinkTech Solutions bank account. So enjoy the music video, you paid for it!(((Redacted)))http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=509100100
Bill H
Naperville,#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, June 08, 2010
I'm an agent with 11 years of experience. I consider myself pretty tech-savvy. I've had my own websites, and my own web-based business, so I probably know more than the average guy about websites, search-engine optimization and similar concerns.
I also received a call from this company about three months ago. They were offering me a guaranteed Google placement for the phrase "Houses in Naperville Illinois," which is my market area. I asked the caller to call me back the next day. In the meantime I looked at their website, dug around a bit, and decided they were legitimate.
I probably should have checked with Google to see what the same search term would have cost me if I'd bought it directly from them, but I didn't. I still haven't, so I'm not saying it would have been cheaper... I simply don't know. And Linktech was going to provide me with a template website, which of course Google wouldn't.
The next day I agreed to try LinkTech's offer. And yes, I was a bit nervous giving them my credit card number too. This was on a Friday afternoon. The caller told me I would receive an email confirmation and receipt, which I did. She also told me I would be contacted on Tuesday by the team that would set up my website.
On Tuesday I was contacted, as promised. By then I had another idea; I work for Baird & Warner, a large independent company in the Chicago area, and each agent has their own company webpage. I had put some time and effort into mine, so I asked the LinkTech team member if my Google respondents could be linked directly to my company site, instead of their template site. I was told this would be done within 72 hours. As I recall, it only took about half that time.
If I remember the original sales call correctly, I believe I was promised that my name and link would appear at least one time in every three that my search term was typed into Google. In actual practice, it seems to happen EVERY time, so I have no complaints about that.
I am having a problem with the whole situation, but it's not one I blame on LinkTech. Right now, if people get directed to my company site, they have the option to sign up to search the MLS. However, they have to take the additional step of identifying me specifically as their agent. If they don't, when they request info on a specific property the lead just goes into the system, and not to me. (And of course, if they're just passing through my site on the way to get access to the MLS they have almost no reason to be "loyal" enough to me to put my name in as their agent.)
I do know that I haven't received any calls or emails from people who have found me through my LinkTech Google search term, and I'm disappointed but I can hardly blame LinkTech for that. The term itself (Houses in Naperville Illinois) is a bit awkward. I suspect it's simply not used that much. And ReMax is also paying for the term and also appears whenever it's searched (although I'm always first and they're second), so I'm sure some traffic is going to them. But again, that's not LinkTech's fault; they didn't promise me exclusive rights to that term.
At this point I'm trying to decide whether to have LinkTech set me up with their original template site, or just cancel.
Here's a couple of questions you should probably ask LinkTech before you sign on, and I'm not saying these are big Perry Mason grill-the-suspect type questions... they're just things I'm sorry I didn't think to ask.
1. Is there any way to find out how much traffic the search term you're about to purchase through them is currently getting on Google? This would obviously be very helpful to know before you spend money on it.
2. How customizable is the template site they give you, and how much of a hassle is it to get it changes done? The template site was nice enough, kind of a typical realtor website. I've seen a lot worse, but of course it wasn't very personal.
3. Is there any way to fine-tune or change the search term? In my case, "Houses in Naperville" would probably be more effective than "Houses in Naperville ILLINOIS" since Naperville has 150,000 people and there's only one of them (and therefore most people wouldn't usually inlcude "Illinois").
4. Can they put a traffic counter on your template site, so you know how many people are actually visiting it?
Finally, to respond directly to BJ in Rockford's report; If you read through it, BJ signed up for the service, got cold feet (or buyer's remorse) and decided to cancel before ever actually trying it. Notice BJ doesn't complain about being billed for any more than the original charge... it seems like they responded to his/her cancellation promptly.
For me, LinkTech did exactly what they promised, in a timely fashion. They communicated well with me, and responded to my requests. It hasn't been a roaring success, but that's probably more my fault than anyone else's. I don't see anything here that deserved the BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE comment.
Bill Harrison, Baird & Warner, 630-235-9382
Linktech Solutions Inc
Tigard,#5UPDATE Employee
Tue, August 05, 2008
"BJ" stated; "It seems LinkTech is under investigation (civil) by the Florida Attorney General's office for: Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices involving telemarketing, misleading refund and recision policy, misrepresentation of services/failure to provide service and possible 817.802 violations. Subjects closed business and fled area. Case number L06-3-1052. see the site:http://myfloridalegal.com/lit_ec.nsf/investigations/177D4FC46055B49B8525712D00592954" We are not under investigation by the Florida Attorney General. That company is LinkTech Solutions LLC. We are LinkTech Solutions Inc. out of Tigard, Oregon. Almost the same name however two completely different companies. We(LinkTech Solutions Inc) specialize in internet marketing. Linktech Solutions LLC supposedly helped consumers with credit repair(according to the Florida report) "BJ" also stated; "While I cannot prove it, since I did not give them a chance to bill me again for a month's worth of 'service', I suspect they take your money without providing ANY web site search engine placement." We have over 6000 clients nationwide all of whom are on Yahoo.com. Even the complaint that "BJ" is corresponding too says we put him(Scott Osmon) on top of Yahoo.com. This accusation is completely false and unwarranted. "BJ" also stated; "I never tried their actual service, so I cannot complain about them. They are correct. I never let them try." These are "BJ's" exact words, i did not change them in the slightest. Tim Meyer Vice President of Operations [email protected] www.linktechsolutions.com