Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Hibu Inc's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Hibu Inc

  221 3rd Ave SE STE 300 Cedar Rapids, IA 52401-1525

  
• 

  Hibu Inc

  2701 Renaissance Blvd King of Prussia, PA 19406-2781

• 

  Hibu, Inc

  2560 Renaissance Blvd King of Prussia, PA 19406

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/07/2024

  Type:Order 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.

  To whom it may concern,My name is **** ******* and my company name is *************************. This summer I started dealing with company called Hibu Inc. Their *** found me and offered me their marketing services. Unfortunately I knew nothing about this company and the *** told me so many wonderful ways they would help me advertise and grow my business that I ended up signing a contract with them for 6 months. Right away when they set up my account the nightmare began. I started receiving multiple calls a day that were not potential clients but actual spam calls. I gave this company a chance to do what they promised but when I was getting calls after calls of spam I complained and they changed my number. After a couple days, the new number started receiving overwhelming amount of spam calls again. They would start early in the morning and wouldnt stop until well into the night. I called the company and asked to break the contract as nothing they promised came to fruition. I was told I cannot break the contract. They kept charging my card monthly. At one point I got so tired of the constant spam harassment that I called and just to take my number down so I dont receive these spam calls, and they did. However, they keep charging my card for the service they didnt provide and now they dont even have a working number for me and still charge my card. After doing a little research now, I understand that this a predatory company that does this to all of their clients. I am not sure how theyre still around. I disputed the charges but they are threatening me to come after me for the remaining balance. Someone recommended I get in touch with the Better Business Bureau and attorney general and seek help. I have already reached out to the attorney general and waiting on their response. Please let me know if you can help me with this.Thank you,****

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/07/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to your issue. Our records show that you had requested to cancel, however you are still within the terms of your 6-Months contract. A request to cancel can be made on your Smart Online Presence product after the 12/13/24 invoice.  Due to your Search and Social ads currently being paused, we are not able to provide an exact date for cancelation.   Currently, those two products have only been invoiced for three out of six months.  A request to cancel the Search and Social can be made once they reach their contracted terms.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/09/2024

   
  Complaint: 22522303
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/11/2024

  Our stance remains the same, and we assert that there is no justification for an adjustment or early termination.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/30/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  I hired Hibu in May of 2024 to help grow my new flooring business' online presence. I explained to the salesperson exactly how I would like my company represented online and how I would like to push monthly sales promotions and the services my company offers. The salesperson told me no problem and said that we would have bi-weekly meetings to discuss these promotions and cover the metrics of the website, these meetings never happened over the course of the 3-4 months I used their platform. I never had one meeting with hibu except for the initial meeting where I signed up. I was paying just over &***** per month for Hibu to provide an online presence for me and generate leads. Hibu's platform with a $***** per month budget produced just 1 viable lead over the entire 4 months. Imagine paying $12,000- $16,000 just to sit in front of one customer. All of the other phone calls their advertising produced was spam from other marketing companies and Hibu counts those as leads on your metrics. I realized rather quickly that Hibu does not know how to advertise for my company. Once they built the initial website they basically disappeared. Hibu wasn't following through with anything they said during the sales pitch, I brought this to the attention of the claims department when I was asking for a refund and they stated that it doesn't matter what the salesperson said, the only thing that matters is a scope of work they provided at the beginning of this campaign, which basically list off expected performance numbers and of course the infamous line " We Don't Guarantee Results". The reason this campaign failed is because Hibu is incompetent, and they did not deliver the customer service to me as their customer. I asked for a refund because they only provided half of the service, they didn't do any of the online marketing I wanted. There is just so much hibu promised and did not deliver on. They basically give you very generic AI looking ads and tell you buzz words to look good

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/05/2024

  Thank you for speaking with us regarding your concerns. We understand that you were concerned about our ability to fulfill our promises. On 05/14/24 when you agreed to the advertising, a SOW (Statement of Work) was emailed to you that listed the expected results of the program.  After a thorough review, we found that your products have exceeded expectations.  Since your website was published four months ago, it has had ***** visits with 96.8% of those being new visitors.  The Display ads averaged ******* impressions and 325+clicks per month, which exceeded expected results of ****** impressions and 210 clicks. The SOW stated that the Search ads would maintain a consistent click-through rate (CTR) greater than 1%. Your Search campaign had a CTR of 3.89%.  You had ten Local Ranking keywords that started at a baseline ranking of 999+ and all ten eventually ranked higher ending at rankings of 1,2, 4, and 10. Based on that information, we have found all your concerns to be in order and have emailed you with a direct number and email, should you have further questions or concerns.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/22/2024

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  Was told they could do ******** and instagram ads when I signed up. Upon initial onboarding call they were selling me on web page traffic ads. I told them I have no need for that since it wouldn't be applicable to my business. Sales *** said ignore them and he would get me with the right department. I asked to cancel service he said they could only pause for now and would correct it later. I emailed the contacts I had to cancel service and never got any responses. I called their customer service line and they say only the sales *** can cancel and are still trying to charge me even though they have provided NO services. They wound cancel and continue to attempt to bill me.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/28/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to your issue. Our records show that you had requested to cancel,however you are still within the terms of your 6-month contract. A request to cancel can be made for your ***************** Solution after the 12/11/24 invoice. Due to your Search and Social ads currently being paused, we are not able to provide an exact date for cancelation.  Currently,those two products have only invoiced for two out of six months.   A request to cancel the Search and Social can be made once they reach their contracted terms. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/28/2024

   
  Complaint: 22457888
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  I have notified the account and the sales *** on multiple occasions that this was not the service I signed up for or wanted. They are professional scammers trying to keep billing you for services I do not want. They are harassing me and sending me more bills and will not cancel the account. The account was never fully set up because on the initial onboarding call I let them know this was not what I was looking for and had no need for it.  They refuse to return my $4000 deposit as well. Clearly they have been doing this to multiple people and I'm sure there are many complaints afainst them.
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/29/2024

  Our position stands as previously indicated; you are still within the terms of your 6-month contract. A request to cancel can be made for your ***************** Solution after the 12/11/24 invoice. Due to your Search and Social ads currently being paused, we are not able to provide an exact date for cancelation. Currently, those two products have only invoiced for two out of six months. A request to cancel the Search and Social can be made once they reach their contracted terms.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/09/2024

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  Breach of contract, did not supply services per the scope of work, and still charged full amount with no refunds. ******** customer service. Lied to countless times by VP's and higher level Managers. Data breach, and unathorized login's to our Hibu dashboard, where a company representative changed settings in our hibu dashboard that changed the settings in our email servers that caused email issues that damaged our business, taking away the ability to communicate with our customers, and for customers to communicate with us, damaging our income, reputation, and business as whole. All just for HIBU's entire team to deny responsibility the entire time, and as soon as the evidence was uncovered, Hibu placed a gag order on their employees, and sent us a disengagement letter demanding that we do not contact them anymore.. high class HIBU, with zero business integrity. They know what they did, accidentally or not, and they only care to cover it up and protect themselves, instead of making it right the the "Small and Medium-sized" family owned businesses that they say they "service"... nothing but horrible experiences with Hibu historically, but this is a giant disaster, and HIBU needs to be held repsonsible

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/18/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to the complaint made by **** ****, owner of Dach Fence.  All of the allegations in the complaint are demonstrably false.  Mr. **** has been a customer of ********************** for ten years, with Hibu providing digital marketing and advertising services to three of his businesses over a good portion of that period.  Mr. ***** complaint arises out of the digital marketing and advertising campaign for Dach Fence.  The complaint arises out of Dach Fence experience email deliverability issues. After extensive research and investigation by the Hibu **************************** Product and Operations teams and review and discussion by Hibus Technology team with two of Dachs Fences technology vendors, we concluded and we advised Mr. **** that the deliverability issues did not arise from any work done by Hibu but were attributable to technical configuration issues with Dach Fences hosted email services and domain name services (DNS) neither of which were provided by Hibu.
  
  Contrary to the complaint, there were no unauthorized logins by Hibu personnel to Dach Fences Hibu Dashboard, nor did Hibu make any changes to Dach Fences Hibu Dashboard that could have impacted its email deliverability.  Hibu did not access or change settings in Dach Fences hosted email service or ************ an account and password specific to Dach Fence and unknown to Hibu would be required to do so.   There was no data breach attributable to Hibu.
  
  Numerous employees in Hibus Sales, Customer Service,Technology and Product communicated with Mr. **** and other representatives of Dach Fence for a period of weeks both by phone and email.  In those communications, our employees have at all times been transparent with Mr. **** and provided him with full and complete responses to every one of his inquiries.  The idea that Hibu placed a gag order on its employees as soon as the evidence was uncovered is absurd.  As noted, we did not uncover any evidence indicating that Hibu was in any way the cause of the email deliverability issues.  It was only when it became clear that Mr. **** refused to accept those conclusions or to have a rational discussion and became verbally abusive to our employees that he was instructed to direct all of his communications to our legal counsel.
  
  Mr. ***** statement that Hibu charged him the full amount is also not correct.  As matter of goodwill, Hibu allowed Dach Fence to cancel its contract with Hibu effective as of September 9, 2024, notwithstanding the fact that Dach Fence had not fulfilled the required six-month contract term, and waived the monthly payments that would be due for the balance of the contract.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/19/2024

   
  Complaint: 22259151
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The statements provided in Hibu's repsonse are inaccurate in regard to the situation. The issue from the beginning , is that Hibu has chosen the narrative path that best serves Hibu, exactly as they are doing in their response. Hibu's responses would be better received, if they were accurate, honest, and transparent in their verbiage. HIbu's internal investigation was not reported accurately, or honestly, to Dach Fence, as we have evidence and proof of this. To which, the BBB will help find no resolution within the powers of the BBB. Multiple Hibu employees were caught being dishonest, and were so far from transparent in this process. Hibu denied Dach Fence our own IP information, which is illegal, and a breach of our privacy and data rights, amongst other issues. Hibu's internal investigation also uncovered that Hibu services WERE a direct part of the problem based on one of their email services utilized, as stated by an internal Hibu employee amongst each other in a written proof format. And, in fact, Hibu did send Dach Fence a letter to "Not contact any other members of our sales team or any other Hibu employees", within less than 1 calendar day after a discovery phone call with (2) VP's at Hibu, as Dach Fence shed light on the evidence of the cause of the issue... For Hibu to state that they did not in their reponse would be inaccurate in itself. We have digital and paper copies of this, directly from Hibu...  It is fine that Hibu takes this stance on this matter. Hibu's stance from start to finish displays pure negligence, lack of integrity, and lack of professionalism, and I expect nothing more from Hibu in the future. It's a shame that such a large company with as many resources as Hibu has, can treat the small-medium sized businesses that they market to serve, in such a manner. An easy resolution could have been made if Hibu acted in a timely manner at the beginning (Long ago), when Dach Fence brought these issues to Hibus attention, just days after Hibu services were initiated. But, instead, Hibu took the stance that they had no involvement or direct cause from the beginning, with or without just evidence or reason, even as time passed, and more discoveries were made, including by their own internal team members. NOW, the cause of this issue (as stated by Hibu consultants via an internal investigation, and supported by evidence provided by Dach Fence's IT Team) has completely "cooked" our email server, resulting in Dach Fence needing to propagate to an entirely new email server due to Hibu's services effect on our infrastructure, and lack of diagnostic early on to revert the damages done. Not to mention the extreme stress and loss that this has placed on our business infrastructure. Whether Hibu wants to admit that here at the BBB, or not, is a measure of Hibu's ethics, and the understanding of what it means to do the right thing. But we are way beyond that now, as Hibu has taken their stance from the beginning, regardless of facts and evidence uncovered from investigating this matter. Hibu will continue to select the narrative that best serves a favorable outcome for Hibu; not what is the best and right thing to do in its entirety, regardless of facts or evidence to this matter.
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/01/2024

  As we stated in our response dated September 18, 2024, following extensive investigation including fact-finding and discussions with Dach Fences technology vendors, Hibu concluded that the problem experienced by Dach Fence with email deliverability was not caused by Hibu and was in fact attributable to configuration issues with Dach Fences hosted email services and domain name services (DNS) neither of which were provisioned by Hibu.  We again note that we have made Hibu personnel from our Sales, **************** Technology,Operations and Product teams available for extensive discussions with *******.  Mr. **** may not like what he has heard, but that does not make what we have told him inaccurate.  *********** actually has proof that Hibus services were a direct part of the problem, or as he alleges for the first time in his September 19 response that Hibu has somehow breached his privacy and data rights, he has not shared any of that with us.  Lastly,we have not cut off Mr. ***** right to communicate with us; we have simply told him to direct his communications to our Legal Department.  That was in response to the threatening tone of communications ******* was directing to our employees.
  
  All that said, we are sorry to part ways with a long-time client like Dach Fence and we wish Mr. **** well in the future.  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/01/2024

  As we stated in our response dated September 18, 2024, following extensive investigation including fact-finding and discussions with Dach Fences technology vendors, Hibu concluded that the problem experienced by Dach Fence with email deliverability was not caused by Hibu and was in fact attributable to configuration issues with Dach Fences hosted email services and domain name services (DNS) neither of which were provisioned by Hibu.  We again note that we have made Hibu personnel from our Sales, **************** Technology, Operations and Product teams available for extensive discussions with ************************ may not like what he has heard, but that does not make what we have told him inaccurate.  *********** actually has proof that Hibus services were a direct part of the problem, or as he alleges for the first time in his September 19 response that Hibu has somehow breached his privacy and data rights, he has not shared any of that with us.  Lastly, we have not cut off Mr. ***** right to communicate with us; we have simply told him to direct his communications to our Legal Department.  That was in response to the threatening tone of communications Mr. **** was directing to our employees.
  
  All that said, we are sorry to part ways with a long-time client like Dach Fence and we wish Mr. **** well in the future.  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/03/2024

  Type:Order 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.

  Due to HIBU's bad faith and misrepresentations of contract expectations prior to entering six month contract with them, we found that HIBU is practicing deceiptfully, lacks clean hands, failed to disclosed management fees to this day, and HIBU's bad actions constitute breach of contract. We have attempted to escalate this to upper management and escalations team and they refuse to release us and to acknowledge such actions, and continue to refuse to address our questions and concerns.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/09/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issues. Our records show the client had requested to cancel; however, they were still within the terms of their 6-month contract at that time. Hibu has now terminated the contract. We understand our client is also concerned over the *** of the products. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work, which stated that Hibu would maintain a consistent click-thru-rate typically greater than 1% for the Search, and in the past 90 days Hibu has exceeded this with a 2.23% click-thru rate. The SOW also stated that the Display would receive ****** to ****** impressions and 100 to 200 clicks, and in the past 90 days Hibu has exceeded this with ****** impressions and 228 clicks.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/09/2024

   
  Complaint: 22232478
  
  I am rejecting this response because: HIBU did not disclose their management fees for ****** SEO, enticed me to enter into a contract based on good quality leads; we did not enter into a contract with them to give me increased click through rate.  It is costing us over $800 per call on the few calls they did provide.  This is not what we agreed to.  Our contract was to generate revenue to target commercial plumbing and we have not received any commercial plumbing calls.  It was never discussed with us that all they were offering was clicks, as most of the crappy leads are sales calls, scrap metal calls, competitor advertising agencies trying to sell us services, etc. They have not delivered commercial plumbing calls, as was promised to me by ****** prior to entering contract.  There is a recording of that call and it specifically states that I am only interested in generating and converting sales for water heaters which later got changed to commercial plumbing per **** who stated that water heater category was too competitive and that we would have better success if we switched to targeting commercial plumbing.  That didn't work either, and the cities targeted got changed but that didn't work either.  HIBU does not know where the calls are coming from when we asked them to identify and specify where the calls are originating from; they are crediting themselves with leads coming from other sources of our website and they don't even have the key word of commercial plumbing listed and targeted on my website that they also created.  When we asked them why none of the thousands of dollars of advertising dollars weren't working, they said it was because my budget was too small.  We doubled our budget and increased the amount, and still, same crappy results;  I was then told my budget was still too small. 
  They wanted me to continue to dump more and more and higher amounts of money into an advertising campaign that was fraudulent and failing all along, regardless of keywords, targeted markets, and to this day, still haven't gotten a single commercial plumbing lead from HIBU.  HIBU falsified their claims, acted in bad faith, did not disclose to me that my budget was too small PRIOR to entering into a 6 month contract with them that they were required, did not perform the terms as I understood by the meeting of the minds when we spoke over the phone with ******, and HIBU's lack of lcean hands is what led us to seek termination of the contract since back in April 2024.  They were procrastinating in order to let the six month contract roll out and did not address our concerns, answered our targeted questions as to the management fees and where leads were coming from, etc., thus the contract is null and void due to HIBU's bad faith actions.  We are seeking a refund on the moneys they collected from us since April 2024.  They also charged our credit card after we emailed them that we were removing any and all authorizations on file to automatically charge our credit card.  We had to contact our bank to block them as a vendor and to dispute the charges that have not been resolved to this day.  

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

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/13/2024

  Our position has not changed. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/03/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  Do Not hire Hibu!!!! They took my money and never set up the services they promise. I hired them on April 2024 to do marketing on my social media platforms and for ****** paid adds. ****** never was connected, they started charging me amounts not agreed to. I tried to call and have these issues correct but they don't return or take my calls. I am told by email they will not cancel. They set you up on a subscription and keep billing. My website is not hosted by them and they have never paid for a ****** add for my business even though they are still charging me for it. Not an ethical company

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/09/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issues. Our records show the client had requested to cancel; however, they are still within the terms of their 6-month contract. Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made on 10/23/24. We understand our client is also concerned over the *** of the products. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work, which stated that Hibu would maintain a consistent click-thru-rate typically greater than 1% for the Search, and in the past 90 days Hibu has exceeded this with a 7.91% click thru rate. The SOW also stated the Display would receive ****** to ****** impressions and 90 to 125 clicks, in the past 90 days Hibu has exceeded this with ****** impressions and 501 clicks. The SOW stated the Social, with an objective of reach, would receive ****** to ****** impressions, Hibu has exceeded this by ******* impressions. Our client was concerned about the ****** Business Profile not being connected. The client was sent an email requesting permission for Hibu to have access to the listing. Hibu did not receive a reply and was unable to connect the listing. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/08/2024

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  On June 17, 2024 I met IN PERSON with Debbie ***** to discuss moving forward with Hibu to help with building my son's small kitchen and bathroom business. He is just starting out and struggling to make it. I agreed that he needed some type of advertising help. She said to start it would be approximately $700. I expressed concern about that amount of money but she said we could make changes to make it lower than that but to start it would be $700. I gave her my credit card IN PERSON and after she had it in her hand she said "oh we take two months to begin" she had already taken my credit card and after checking with American Express it actually ended up being $1,981.00 more like 3 months. In addition and moreover concerning, is that she did not give me the contract to read and sign it was an IN PERSON MEETING and the proper thing would have been to let me read and sign instead she signed for me "TA". She should have given me the contract to read and sign, if she would I have never signed it.I called her immediately later that day telling her that this was all too much money for my son but she just kept saying give me a chance and ignoring me. I called Michelle ******** and she never got back to me. I also immediately called American Express to tell them about the incident and to block any future charged by Hibu. I tried to resolve the issue with Debbie ***** and Michelle ******** and they both did not get back to me declined to meet with me. I called Hibu to report the matter and they said there was nothing I could do. I was stuck with them. I attempted to resolve the matter with Hibu because American Express told me to do so. When I could not resolve the matter I filed a dispute with American Express for the charge. I do not know what else to do. I thought I would trying disputing with BBB to help myself and others that might also be taken advantage by them. I don't k I would appreciate any help from you. Thank you. Vivian ***** ***** ******** 

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/15/2024

  We
  appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issue. Our records show the
  client had requested to cancel; however, they are still within the terms of
  their 6-month contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to
  cancel can be made for their Smart Online Presence package on 12/19/24 and for
  the SEO on 1/7/25. We understand our client is also concerned over the fact
  that the contract was marked as telephone authorized. During the in-person
  meeting, our Sales Representative had computer issues and submitted the order
  as telephone authorized to be able to continue with the consultation. A copy of
  the contract was emailed to the client at the email she provided as soon as the
  order was submitted. During the meeting, the client was advised that a
  two-month deposit was needed with the setup fee. Her credit card was charged
  $1899.36 which is the 2-month deposit as well as the setup fee. After the
  contract was authorized, both our Sales Representative as well as our Regional
  Manager responded to the clients calls but due to scheduling were not always
  available to meet the same day that she requested the meeting. Neither were
  advised by the client that she wanted to cancel. We have relayed this
  information to the client. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/29/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  Hibu made my website inaccessible to new and existing clients when i missed a payment. I never agreed to this in our contract. This action by Hobu is coasting me thousands of dollars, and my website is still unavailable

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/01/2024

  We appreciate the chance to talk with our client regarding their concerns. Our clients concern was that their website had been shut down. In the terms and conditions that our client agreed to on 11/08/23 it is stated if payment is not received,Hibu reserves the right to suspend or cancel all or part of the Services and access to them.  Before this action was taken there were multiple warnings provided to our client via phone and email regarding their past due balance. This account has since been paid current and services have been reinstated as requested by our client.  We are looking forward to our continued business relationship with them.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/22/2024

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  Company was hired to redo website, company changed structure off website without my permission. Company has promised to double my leads, while lead generation has performed poorer since hiring company. **************** rep AND call center are combative and unhelpful. Company has hidden clauses that extend my contract beyond a timeframe previously discussed. I tried to terminate contract, company tells me repeatedly that they cannot/will not take requests to cancel my contract until 15 days prior to their arbitrary cancellation date. Numerous attempts to solve problems with quality of service, clear communication of said services, and attempts to notify of discontinuation of service have gone unaddressed and/or blame me for not reading the companys webpage outlining terms and conditions. I simply want to stop my service NOW. I do not want to pay for another month, as this companys service has caused undo financial hardship on my business. If it is not legally possible (which I doubt) I want them to acknowledge that I will no longer be billed after the contract period (which they deceptively moved)

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/25/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issue. Our records show the client had requested to cancel, however they are still within the terms of their 6 month contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made on 9/30/24. We understand our client has additional concerns. We have been unable to reach our client for specific details on his concerns but have provided them with a direct number and email. We will address all our clients concerns when he is available. If you can relay this information to them as well, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/17/2024

  Type:Product 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.

  I have been entered into a contract that I did not agree to nor did I sign and they are charging me $1000 more a month than I discussed with the sales rep but Again never signed a contract. The contract is signed Email approved and I did not email approve it. I cant get a resolution within the business because according to what Ive seen, this is a common practice for them

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/30/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to the complaint made by ***********************, owner of Landmark 1850 Inn.  Our records show that **************** authorized the contract with Hibu on behalf of Landmark 1850 Inn by email dated April 3, 2024 for a website and other digital marketing services. After authorizing the contract and after authorizing payment of our charges via credit card, **************** then participated in a consultation call with our fulfillment team to discuss in detail the specifications and content for the website and the other digital advertising and marketing services purchased.  Hibu provided the services to Landmark 1850 Inn per the terms of the contract. Given the foregoing,Landmark 1850 Inn is not entitled to any refund from Hibu.  That said, as a matter of goodwill, we have allowed Landmark 1850 Inn to cancel its contract with Hibu effective as of July 18 notwithstanding the fact that Landmark 1850 Inn has not fulfilled the required six-month contract term. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/13/2024

  Hibu stated in their response that I authorized a contract by email, which I did not, and they cannot produce any such authorization.  Their **** ************************** sat down with me in ***** 3, 2024 and quickly went through the different levels of service and the prices, and told me that I needed to authorize a withdrawal of $374 from my debit card once the website they were building was approved by me.  This is all that I authorized. We discussed the future and my options for a contract that *** or *** not include online advertisements in addition to the website.  I stated to him that I wouldnt be interested in any other level of service until after my business was up and running, the Grand Opening being ***** 13, 2024.  I even sent him a text later that day, that I can produce, reaffirming that I was authorizing a withdrawal of $374.  Then that money was withdrawn from my account BEFORE I approved the website, a website which was ** produced, (which I was also not told would be the case), and completely inaccurate and unacceptable.  While we were working to correct this, (me still unaware that it was an ** program that was creating it), I was charged another $374 in May.  Then in June, after struggling with the issues the ** was creating for me by pulling 30 years of information from the internet placed online by the previous owners, (inaccurate and outdated information, outdated pictures that look nothing like the business looks currently, pictures that are stock internet pictures or over a decade old), my account was then charged $2200, and I was informed when I called Hibu that I had a contract for $1374 a month for a duration of 6 months, and that this $2200 charge included a proration.  I asked that all of their product be removed from my domain, as it was all incorrect and unacceptable.  My phone line was also tied to theirs, which caused many problems as people couldnt directly call my business anymore, but I was told nothing could be removed due to the contract, which again I had never approved.  I had spoken to various people at Hibu throughout this time frame, along with my **** all of whom provided different information ranging from one saying that he was cancelling my contract and removing the website and that Id receive a refund, to sending me to other departments for help, to being disconnected or hung up on, to finally filing multiple claims only to receive a response the next day that the claim was closed and nothing was adjusted.  The rep did nothing but tell me that I had buyers remorse.  Again, I never authorized any contract with Hibu and the contract I received by email, which I had to be told existed and told to look back to ***** emails to see it for the first time, says email authorized where my signature would be.  I didnt even know the email was there, therefore I obviously never authorized it!  I had a call with the fulfillment team on ***** 3, 2024, only to go over what I wanted the website to portray, never any discussion of a contract.  All of the calls I place to them or interacted with them on are recorded, (confirmed by them), yet not a single person that works for this company is willing to go back and review these calls to confirm my claims of fraud. HIBU is running a scam and evidence of it can only be found on Reddit, as they delete all comments from every other platform.  My lawyer is beginning a class action lawsuit as there are so many people who have had this same experience with Hibu.  I am entitled to a refund for all charges, including the initial $374 that I authorized for withdrawal, because I was told I would be approving the website that they built before this money was withdrawn, and I never approved the website at any point, as it was always unacceptable with incorrect information and pictures that ** had pulled from my ******** page showing the progress of remodeling before we opened, with unfinished areas of the business and no current pictures of my business or food.  Hibu was also running ads through something called social app on my ******** page, that I had to find and delete every day for months, because they were ** generated, inaccurate and unacceptable, and I couldnt get Hibu to remove them due to the contract.  Again, I never approved a contract, ads or the website.  ************ was completely detrimental to my small, new family owned business.

   

  
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/16/2024

  As stated previously, our records show that **************** authorized the contract with Hibu on behalf of Landmark 1850 Inn by email dated April 3, 2024, for a website and other digital marketing services for a term of six months. After authorizing the contract and after authorizing payment of our charges via credit card, **************** then participated in a consultation call with our fulfillment team to discuss in detail the specifications and content for the website and the other digital advertising and marketing services purchased. It was during this call that **************** advised that all products could go live on April 20, 2024, as that was after Landmarks grand opening.  Hibu sent emails to **************** with proofs of the website on April 18, 2024, and April 30, 2024, and in those emails requested that she provide feedback on those proofs.  A further email was sent to **************** on May 2, 2024, advising her that the website would go live in 24 hours and that once the website went live, Hibu would begin creating Search, Display and Social ads for Landmark.Hibu sent emails to **************** with proofs of the remaining digital products on May 8, 2024, and in those emails requested that she provide feedback on those proofs. A final email was sent to **************** on May 10, 2024, advising her the remaining digital products were set live. **************** requested a number of changes by Hibu to the website and other digital advertising and marketing content by texting and emailing her sales representative with the changes, both prior to the go-live date in response to the proofs emailed and thereafter.
  
  All that said, Hibu allowed Landmark 1850 Inn to cancel its contract with Hibu after two months and did not require Landmark 1850 Inn to fulfill the six-month contract term it had committed to.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/28/2024

   
  Complaint: 22003895
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I never authorized the contract with HIBU.  Their *** wrote a contract that I never viewed or agreed to. ******* would like HIBU to produce an email approval of this contract, since they continue to say that that is how I approved it. ******* didnt even know it existed until June when they charged my account over $2200 for a $1374/mo contract plus a prorated amount that I didnt, and never would have agreed to. ******* specifically told the *** on April 3rd that I wouldnt even consider running ads until the end of the summer.  The only thing that I ever agreed to was to have my card charged for the amount of $374 after I approved the website that they were building for me, which I never approved of because it was absolute garbage, and had pulled pictures through AI from my ******** page that showed my business while it was in renovation. ******* was unaware through this entire process that the pictures on the website wouldnt be chosen or taken by my ***. ******* specifically told the *** when we met on April 3 that I didnt want to run any ads at that time or have any other services provided other than having the website built and cleaning up the search engines information, which was never done.  And even when a search engine was corrected as far as hours of operation by me personally, Hibus AI program would pull information from the web and change it back, because there are so many decades of old info out there on my business, as it has the same name that the previous owner operated under for 40 years. ******* never approved the website to go live, because I never approved any copy of the website that was sent to me. ******* never agreed to have HIBU run my phone line through their phone number and service. ******* never received proofs of any of these ads or products that were added onto this contract without my knowledge. ******* would like HIBU to produce the emails of these supposed proofs.  The call that I had as a consultation was presented to me as an opportunity to express what I wanted the image of the business to be on the website, of which none of my priorities were achieved in a way that reflected my needs, because they were all written and compiled by **.  The only communication I had with Hibu was to ask them ***eatedly to take all of their services off of my domain because they showed inaccurate in hours of operation, pictures, and people calling their phone number that was attached to my domain without my approval, causing people to hang up when they called my business because of the recording that they heard when the HIBU line answered the call.  All of these phone calls I made to HIBU were recorded through HIBU headquarters, and if someone would listen to them they would see that what Im saying is all documented by HIBU all of the times that I called.  The texting and emailing I did with the *** was never satisfactory, and he also knows that I never agreed to any of these services.   The only communication I ever had with him other than asking what this supposed contract and charges were about, was to send him pictures in a panic after I saw the website that had been created for me to approve, with my business in the process of renovation, or old pictures from a decade ago that the previous owners had posted on ******** in the past.  Nothing showing my business or product as it looks now.  Theres no reconciliation provided in HIBU saying that they allowed me to cancel my contract early, because I never approved or signed a contract.  Again, Id like them to provide copies of these approvals, which they cannot. ******* never agreed to nor was emailed any proofs of social ads or any other services. ******* did not know these existed until I saw them on my ******** page and had to delete them every day because they were inaccurate.  This contract is and always has been invalid and a refund is required of the charges that were made to my account for the monthly amount of $1374 that was charged, plus the prorated charges and the initial two charges in April and May for the website which was never approved. Also, as far as the matter being settled, I still receive phone calls daily from HIBU asking me to pay the rest of my contracted amount.  Every single time I talk to someone there its the same runaround, and has been since the beginning.  My *** continues to tell me that I have buyers remorse, which is an absolute lie as he knows what I agreed to and didnt agree to.  This is an absolute scam and if I was wrong, there wouldnt be so many people across the BBB website and Reddit saying that the exact same thing happened to them, and that if you continue with HIBU and dont fight for your business, they will also EXTEND your contract without your knowledge. Im not satisfied with cancellation as theyve stolen so much money from me already. *******ll say one more time, because it doesnt seem to get through, please provide the email approval of this supposed contract, or refund the money.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/29/2024

   Complaint: 22003895
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  I never authorized the contract with HIBU.  Their *** wrote a contract that I never viewed or agreed to.  I would like HIBU to produce an email approval of this contract, since they continue to say that that is how I approved it.  I didnt even know it existed until June when they charged my account over $2200 for a $1374/mo contract plus a prorated amount that I didnt, and never would have agreed to.  I specifically told the *** on April 3rd that I wouldnt even consider running ads until the end of the summer.  The only thing that I ever agreed to was to have my card charged for the amount of $374 after I approved the website that they were building for me, which I never approved of because it was absolute garbage, and had pulled pictures through AI from my ******** page that showed my business while it was in renovation.  I was unaware through this entire process that the pictures on the website wouldnt be chosen or taken by my ***.  I specifically told the *** when we met on April 3 that I didnt want to run any ads at that time or have any other services provided other than having the website built and cleaning up the search engines information, which was never done.  And even when a search engine was corrected as far as hours of operation by me personally, Hibus AI program would pull information from the web and change it back, because there are so many decades of old info out there on my business, as it has the same name that the previous owner operated under for 40 years.  I never approved the website to go live, because I never approved any copy of the website that was sent to me.  I never agreed to have HIBU run my phone line through their phone number and service.  I never received proofs of any of these ads or products that were added onto this contract without my knowledge.  I would like HIBU to produce the emails of these supposed proofs.  The call that I had as a consultation was presented to me as an opportunity to express what I wanted the image of the business to be on the website, of which none of my priorities were achieved in a way that reflected my needs, because they were all written and compiled by **.  The only communication I had with Hibu was to ask them ***eatedly to take all of their services off of my domain because they showed inaccurate in hours of operation, pictures, and people calling their phone number that was attached to my domain without my approval, causing people to hang up when they called my business because of the recording that they heard when the HIBU line answered the call.  All of these phone calls I made to HIBU were recorded through HIBU headquarters, and if someone would listen to them they would see that what Im saying is all documented by HIBU all of the times that I called.  The texting and emailing I did with the *** was never satisfactory, and he also knows that I never agreed to any of these services.   The only communication I ever had with him other than asking what this supposed contract and charges were about, was to send him pictures in a panic after I saw the website that had been created for me to approve, with my business in the process of renovation, or old pictures from a decade ago that the previous owners had posted on ******** in the past.  Nothing showing my business or product as it looks now.  Theres no reconciliation provided in HIBU saying that they allowed me to cancel my contract early, because I never approved or signed a contract.  Again, Id like them to provide copies of these approvals, which they cannot.  I never agreed to nor was emailed any proofs of social ads or any other services.  I did not know these existed until I saw them on my ******** page and had to delete them every day because they were inaccurate.  This contract is and always has been invalid and a refund is required of the charges that were made to my account for the monthly amount of $1374 that was charged, plus the prorated charges and the initial two charges in April and May for the website which was never approved. Also, as far as the matter being settled, I still receive phone calls daily from HIBU asking me to pay the rest of my contracted amount.  Every single time I talk to someone there its the same runaround, and has been since the beginning.  ** *** continues to tell me that I have buyers remorse, which is an absolute lie as he knows what I agreed to and didnt agree to.  This is an absolute scam and if I was wrong, there wouldnt be so many people across the BBB website and Reddit saying that the exact same thing happened to them, and that if you continue with HIBU and dont fight for your business, they will also EXTEND your contract without your knowledge. Im not satisfied with cancellation as theyve stolen so much money from me already.  Ill say one more time, because it doesnt seem to get through, please provide the email approval of this supposed contract, or refund the money.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/29/2024

  The client's concerns have been reviewed multiple times and there is no merit to adjust the account. All programs have been cancelled as of 7/18/24.