Buyer Beware www.elocallisting.com

[Thomas Bliss]

eLocal Listing (www.elocallisting.com) called me this week and the Sales Person started the call with the very deceptive practice of pretending to be a prospective customer. He asked if I was Photographer in the Tucson area and what was my schedule like? What do I shoot? He was looking for photographers in the area, yada yada yada. I spent two minutes on the phone with this guy before he flipped and became a salesperson to sell me SEO services to get me listed in the top of Google and Yahoo. Yea sure.

Needless to say I was pissed off. I would beware of this company. The scheme is just that. They charge a one time $99.00 set up fee and a monthly fee of $149.00 . If you wish to be in the Visibility Zone for one city. (Reg. $299/mo & $299 set up) WOW! I can get a whole bunch of PPC for that money. But thats not the point, I've got no problem with making a buck, and they have every right to charge what the market will allow, the point is that they practice deceptive sales techniques, and thats just wrong

Buyer Beware.

If you are on the do not call list they also broke the law!

[Thomas Bliss]

Originally Posted by John Gibbel

If you are on the do not call list they also broke the law!

Hey John,

The work around is that they don't cross reference when pulling phone numbers off your website. So This must be a small boiler-room operation. When they pull our numbers off our websites I guess they don't have to follow those guidelines.

Or do they?

Tom

Maybe they hve a loop hole!

Can I register my business phone number or a fax number?
The National Do Not Call Registry is only for personal phone numbers. Business-to-business calls and faxes are not covered by the National Do Not Call Registry.

[Thomas Bliss]

Today I got an email from elocallisting:


Hello,

My account was removed from you website. Our company actually does provide a service to Photographers. There also was a somewhat negative blog on your site about our company, and I wanted the opportunity to respond. We actually have hundreds of photographers as active clients all across the country. I would appreciate it if I was given the opportunity to respond.

Sincerely,

Greg Royse
VP of Operations
eLocal Listing, LLC

===============================================
===============================================


Mr. Royce,

The "Negative" post was posted by me.

I personally have had at least 10 calls from your company, and I have made repeated request to be removed from your call sheet with no success. You have even used my 800 number and billed the call to me.

The facts that I related to our membership are just that, facts. Your sales person was deceptive, rude, and just outright lied.

I see other people have had the same experience as reported on www.ripoffreport.com, and an alleged "insider" recently posted a rather unprofessional rebuttal, something to the effect that Karma is a Bitch. Post: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/...Off0261634.htm

I don't have a problem with people making a living, but lying, and deception puts you in the ranks of a con man.

Not mention that your company does not comply with the The Federal Trade Commissions "Do Not Call List", otherwise I would have never heard from your company in the first place.

Now then, if you still feel that a rebuttal is called for I will consider posting one for you, however I will not give your firm access to our membership to further perpetrate your scheme.


Thomas Bliss
President, IAAP
The International Association of Architectural Photographers
www.iaap.us
www.iaap.co.uk

[ccarothers]

Here's an update folks. They just called me for the first time. sales person was completely up front about what they do and their prices have dropped considerably: now $79 set up fee and $89 per month. Their "claim to fame" over ppc is that ppc only shows up in sponsored search column while they show up in local listings and claim to improve rank in natural listings as well.

Anyone out there actually tried these guys?

Cameron