- Report: #1202905
Complaint Review: Local Edge - Amherst Internet
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Author Not Confirmed
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Local Edge
61 John Muir Dr Amherst, 14228 Internet, USA
Web:
http://www.localedge.com/b21663924/more
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Local Edge LocalEdge Hurst Media False Promises of service. False promises of Refund Amherst NY
Poor customer service. poor customer response, poor service provision
I contracted with Local Edge (a Hearst Media Company) on April 5th of 2014 for Search Engine Optimization work. I was told the services would include:
- Monthly follow ups regarding progress and SEO improvements
- Ongoing recommendations regarding content on my website that would improve search rankings
- The development and implementation of special code on my website to optimize search results
- The ongoing updating and adjustment of said code
- The purchase of keyword ads specific to my marketing area and services
- ....other proprietary services that would increase my search engine results.
Approximately three weeks after the beginning of the contract, I realized the key words that the company was using were not for my market area. The keywords did not include Human Resources (my industry), or Erie, PA (my main market). On April 29th, I spoke with Patricia Hall regarding the issue. She said they would fix it. During the month of may, I heard nothing from the company as promised - no updates, no recommendations - nothing.
The dashboard they supplied showed no SEO improvement. June went by - no updates, no recommendations, no real improvements. July came and still nothing. I decided to check my logs to see if they did any work on my site - nothing. In June, for another reason, I had to change my admin password temporarily. I left it changed just to see if the LocalEdge would even try to access my site - nothing. After reviewing the dashboard again, I saw that in two search engines, by SEO performance actually got worse! Finally on August 5th, after sending months of payments ($624 each!) I decided to cancel my account and ask for my money back. They finally called me - to see if I wanted to buy more services with credit!!
I Lost all faith and trust at this point. My sales rep Julie said that she talked to the project manager for my account who admitted they dropped the ball on my account. She said the refund had been approved by her manager. August went by - nothing. September went by - nothing. Finally I call. Nobody has heard of any refund. I call my rep again who confirms the refund is being processed. October goes by - nothing. I call again and again nobody has heard of any refund. I call my rep again who is now as frustrated as me. She does some digging and again verifies the refund was approved. November goes by - nothing.
Summary: When I signed up, I was informed that if I was not satisfied with the work, I could cancel. If It was just poor work, a cancellation might be sufficient, but they didn’t even do the work which is why a refund is necessary (and I was told it was approved).
I have seen minimal effects of any of the work that may have been done. In fact, some keywords have decreased in performance (two search engines decreased in numbers)
I am a human resources company in Erie, PA, yet those seems to be the worst performing keywords. These requested key word were not even set up until the end of April when I complained during the “intro call”.
I was told someone was monitoring my account for performance. Obviously that was not true. If that was true, I would have heard from someone more than once since March. I had not heard from anyone in this organization since that April regarding any progress (and that was actually just an intro session). I was told this would happen on a monthly basis to review progress.
Nobody has contacted me regarding website content improvements or recommendations as agreed upon. This was supposed to be an integral part of the SEO improvement plan and to happen on a frequent basis.
Local Edge was supposed to be making “code changes in the background” of my site to improve things. My logs showed that did not happen (which is supported by the lack of results). As a matter of fact at one point, I even changed the admin password to my website (for another reason) – Nobody from L.E. ever even contacted me, so I know they didn’t even attempt to get in. I am certain there has been little or no work done on the back end of my site>
Local Edge failed to live up to a single portion of their end of the agreement with any sort of quality, yet refuse to issue a refund of my money. They were gracious enough to make an "adjustment" to my account. This pretty much meant that they would "allow" me out of my contract and not bill me anymore, but they have refused to issue my refund as they promised.
