Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/24/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  this company was authorized to charge our business credit card on January 30 for marketing services not to exceed one month and services. Our credit card authorization specifically stated that preapproval was required to any additional charges being made to the credit card provided on file. This company took it upon themselves to charge not just a second but also third transaction, this resulted in our company accruing $12,000 more than planned which we communicated to the business owner ******. ****** did not work with us and instead acted on his fast talking salesmanship to try and work around the problem and minimize our concern. We open the dispute with ***** to dispute the charges, the dispute is still ongoing and has been escalated. ****** had offered to give half back of the third charge, even though we had not ever authorize that charge to be made this company outsourced our services to a small team that did not have the capability to perform at a level required to fulfill our business needs which was specified in our agreement. This resulted in a terribly slow process which became drawn out and produced no results that were beneficial to return on investment. The nature of this situation has made it difficult for us to continue business because this company had taken it upon themselves to charge our card, not just once but twice without authorization and we are now in the process of trying to remedy the situation with our bank. The owner will use fast talking salesmanship to try and mitigate your concern, but beware this company does not produce the results it promises and will charge your business without the required pre-approval.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/24/2024

  This client already attempted to charge back with his own credit card company whom declined his request due to documentation provided. Put simply, our primary mission was use digital marketing to generate leads. ***** acknowledges that we did exactly that but that his sales team failed to close deals. We do not handle sales, we do lead generation. Our contract, which he signed, clearly stipulates a ************************************************************************************************************************************************** advance. ***** not only failed to give us any cancellation notice, but even continued to work with our team on the creation of future ads and campaign details. 
  

  The signed proposal is attached. 
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/24/2024

   
  Complaint: 22026359
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  Our credit card authorization clearly states that Pre-Approved authorization was required and that services were on a monthly basis. I spoke with ***** upon the second charge and clearly stated that no further charges were to be made without prior written approval to which He acknowledged. Services were not rendered for the 3rd charge of $6,000, which put us at $18,000 total spent. Data pushed to our CRM was erroneous and not from the fill forms we specifically required customer inquiries to come through. ****** offer to refund half the money show that the company was wanting to keep the money regardless of the prior conversation we had. They did not render services for the 3rd charge because ******** had halted operations, and that is why we continue to dispute the transaction.

   

  Attached is the credit card authorization which clearly stipulates that charges were to be made on a pre-approved basis only. Specificity charged our card without said pre-approval and did not provide us receipts to previous transactions as requested for our business records. Relying on our services agreement to support their stance does not override the requirement to obtain pre-approval as per the CC Authorization form. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 07/24/2024

  This is precisely why courts and credit card companies rely on proper documentation. ***** called repeatedly about his campaign and we had many conversations. But ultimately he decided to keep going and spent copious amounts of my teams time reviewing analytics, building new ads, looking at data and the like. 
  

  Had he provided proper time for cancellation, or for that matter, intended to stop using our service, his constant requests to meet with my team indicated otherwise and those meetings took place to plan the ongoing campaign. Unless ***** has a document signed by me or my team indicating we agreed to allow him to tell us when and how we would bill, this is all a moot point. He does not because we would not allow clients to have us commit resources for campaigns our clients werent committed to. We have a signed agreement that clearly indicates the need for notice on cancellation. Every single client we have not only understands this, but expects it because our entire industry bills the same way given the need to commit labor and marketing spend ahead of time in order to deploy campaigns. ***** biggest challenge is his own business model and the failure of his partner to sell the leads we provided. That was indicated many times by him to myself and our team. We also can show a ton of correspondence from him illuminating the vast amount of time he demanded and got from our staff. This is nothing more than attempt to recoup money from anywhere he can due to his inability to sell and onboard leads. My team put 5x more time and labor to meet his rampant demands in attempt to help him. This is thanks we get. There is no middle ground for us in this situation because even with the last payment, our firm lost money working with his company as ***** demanded a ton of time and hand holding in what are typically simple processes. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/25/2024

   
  Complaint: 22026359
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  We received no valid data as per the agreement and the month of ***** was charged after ***** acknowledged in March that they would not charge without the required pre-approval. I allowed the second month (March) of work to continue because the effort was in motion. The third month (*****) was charged without the required pre-approval and we received no services because we halted work immediately. They pushed erroneous data 2 weeks after the halt. Once again, the company will say whatever necessary to keep the money. Their company relied on our money to keep the effort moving forward. And again, I reiterate, they failed to provide us our receipts for the work performed. The company pushed erroneous data, which was not what we agreed too. The goal was to utilize fill form data and pursue interested parties. They pushed random data for customers who wished not to be contacted. They will say whatever they can to avoid looking like they ripped off a small business. 30 day notice to cancel once again does not supersede the requirement to gain prior approval to charge the credit card as oer the CC Authorization. This company put us over our credit limit and damaged our operational ability. 

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************