Complaint Review: Nexpromo / Adam Mirza - Houston Texas

I searched the internet around the last week of March (2014) looking to hire a company to help advertise for my business online. I came across Nexpromo.com and figured I’d give them a call. I spoke with ADAM MIRZA who said he was the CEO/Owner and advertises for companies online and thus produces leads. He and his company constantly promote the fact that they “only invoice you for the calls we send you…” and “We ONLY charge you for qualified calls…” They also advertise that there is NO RISK: “There is no risk involved with our pay per call program. We take all the risk by investing in your success, and if you don’t success we don’t succeed!” (Nexpromo.com)

This company asks for your information and they generate a phone number that will be linked to your company phone number, so that they can record and report all the calls they’ve driven from their end. They also charge you on a per call basis under specific requirements. For example, Adam told us he wanted $70 per call for “qualified leads” which we both decided must meet a 3-minute call duration. He then sent me a (digitally) signed Agreement, basically stating the methods in which Nexpromo would advertise and would ONLY charge for calls that met the agreed upon requirements. I signed this Agreement and sent it back to him.

Adam also said he would need a completely refundable deposit of $1,750.00 and that this deposit would be refunded once the business relationship ended and after the last invoice was billed (if there were any billable calls that is).

Nexpromo’s actual Agreement states: “A onetime deposit of the first 25 calls calculated by $70, and is a requirement upon acceptance of proposal and before start of campaign. All deposits are made through PayPal for your security. All deposits are refundable, and refunded if and when you decide to terminate services with Nexpromo. All Deposits can be either adjusted in your last invoice, or refunded in full if all prior invoices have been fulfilled.”

Adam assured me that my money was safe because he chose PayPal as his main payment method for his clients. I then felt safe and transferred the money. What Adam failed to tell me, and perhaps didn’t know, was that PayPal clearly explains in their Security & Protection Requirements page that your transactions/funds are ONLY protected if “the item is a physical, tangible good that can be shipped“– and that you’re NOT covered if it’s a “digital good” that cannot be shipped. So I was pretty much stuck and had to rely on Nexpromo’s/Adam’s word, hoping they were trustworthy, honest people.

During the first few weeks of April, Adam did send leads, about 30 in total; however, none of them reached our agreed upon requirement of the 3-minute call duration. Since I had my own call reporting site, I saw something that seemed, at the time, like something suspicious was going on and then I was unable to log into the call reporting site Adam had provide me login information to. I then tried calling Adam on his phone for days with no response. Obviously, I felt I needed to take action to protect myself and I filed a claim with PayPal (not knowing about their protection requirements). Adam then decides to write me an email, seeming to be very defensive and aggrevated that I had filed this claim and said that he was sick in bed. I apologized and explained how I had concerns and that he didn’t respond for days. He then only sent 1 email once every few days and I repeatedly asked him to just refund me my deposit and we can part ways.

These emails began around May 6, 2014. I then told him I would report him to the BBB and asked that he not to steal my money. He only responded with “he’s still sick in bed” and they have “plenty of stand up clients”. He also said he decided he was going to charge me for certain calls that he previously was not going to bill me for (per the Agreement, they were not “billable”).

Then on May 12th, Adam tells me: “Before you go on slandering our company and making accusations please consider what we have spent on you:” and he lists the ADVERTISING COSTS that he’s now decided to charge me for as well– NONE of which was discussed beforehand nor was this included on our signed Agreement. He says he spent almost $700.00 using Google Adwords, $350.00 of Website Development (didn’t ask or need a website) and $20 for the web domain, and that my total refund would now be just $711.30 (from the original $1,750).

This, of course, was and is completely outrageous and unacceptable to me and I then quoted his Agreement to him and said that these expenses were not my responsibility. His website, Nexpromo.com, even states that they “invest $3-5k capital to promote your business“. I told Adam that the word “invest” means “to put money to use in something offering potential profitable returns”. Investments are not the same as “expenses”.

I then try calling Adam on or around May 13th and he doesn’t answer and emails me saying he won’t speak to me over the phone because “your behavior clearly states that my blood pressure will shoot through the roof again“. And I must say, I have never yelled, screamed or cursed at this person, so this seems like an excuse not to confront the situation. After this day, it seems Adam had my phone number actually blocked. I can reach his company voicemail from all phones except for my own.

His email then goes on to say: “We didn’t do anything, you got nervous and decided to try your case with PayPal a billion dollar company. They called us we presented our case as a defendant and the case went in our favor. Do you actually think a company commended for ethical judgment would make a mistake on a $1700 claim? It was out of our hands and the judgment came from PayPal. You call us a fraudulent company, yet even after PayPal decided you weren’t owed anything we still tried to work it out with you. Are you really going to be greedy and tell us to take the loss because you decided to get nervous? How is that ethical in any way, what court or jury would agree with you? As of now we are getting our lawyer ready for this situation, and highly regret taking you on as a client.”

Basically Adam says they haven’t done anything wrong and proudly says that PayPal took their side, but he still doesn’t mention their Seller Protection Requirements; therefore, I had no chance in the matter. He then calls me “GREEDY” for expecting them to take “THE LOSS” because I got “nervous”, and threatens to take me to court when they are the ones who won’t give me back my hard-earned money, per our signed agreement.

I have asked him to even go back and double check the calls to make sure there weren’t any billable calls and that I don’t mind at all paying for calls that met the requirements on our Agreement. He hasn’t seemed to agree with this and has still been stalling the whole resolution of this matter. I then even offered to take a loss myself and compromise saying I’d pay him for 2-minute calls, and he still seems to be unaccepting of this and continues to postpone and/or avoid the refund.

As of today, May 22nd, there’s been no resolution, haven't heard a PEEP from this person -- and I’m currently working with the Houston Police Dept. and they have an open case on this company. I have filed a claim/complaint with the Better Business Bureau, multiple Consumer Protection Agencies, and the Attorney General, and looking into small claims court.