On the night of December 24, 2209 (Yes, Christmas Eve), I made a big mistake.

Because I’m a well-respected online marketing consultant, I always feel obligated to watch what is going on in and around our industry so I can point my clients to what is good and keep them from the bad.

That night I received my up-teenth email about making Google Search a home-based business. I know that, if you receive e-mail at all, you know exactly which one I’m talking about. And, in case there is more than one company selling this product, this one is owned by a company named “Creative Search Training”.

The offer states that you can get a trial period to view the training for 5 days for a dollar so I decided to throw in my last bit of money (the dollar) that I didn’t spend on Christmas and see what this was all about. The info sounded promising and since that’s exactly what I do, I figured I could evaluate the information pretty quickly.

Now, because of the holidays, it took longer than I thought so, on the third day, I was billed the additional $129.95. That’s OK… it was my fault but I also know that a consumer has 3 work days to get out of an agreement so the following day – the fourth day – I called to cancel and get a refund.

And, THIS is where the whole problem began.

Before I get into what has happened since, I want o say that Creative Search Training and/or the course could be an outstanding, up-and-up company with a good product. I really do not know. HOWEVER, their one giant weakness is the billing company that they hired.

The company is supposedly called “Customer Care” out of Phoenix Arizona. Whether they are part of Creative Search Training, I, again, do not have any idea but after reading the following on “Ripoff Report“, I’m leaning towards the fact that they are.

Nevertheless, as I said, my first call was a pleasant one and the representative immediately offered me a refund and gave me a confirmation code for my records. I was told that refunds are processed pretty fast BUT (here it comes) “by law they have 30 days to get my money back to me”.

Three weeks past without anything happening so I thought I’d check up again. I was told the refund was “in process” but that I should remember that they had 30 days to get my refund back to me.

On the 31st day I called and was told that they tried to refund the money but the bank refused it. Little do they know that I play pool every Thursday night on a team with the Executive VP of my bank. I told him their story and he took it upon himself to find out that, in fact, no such transaction attempted to take place.

Now I realize that I’m dealing with a group of lying bastards and that I shouldn’t believe a word they say. However, they still have my money so I’d better play along.

I was next told that, since the bank rejected the money (snicker, snicker), they would have to mail me a check. BUT, checks are only cut every other Tuesday. The call took place on Monday, February 1 and, of course, the following day wasn’t the Tuesday that checks are cut.

So I wait………….

Now it’s Thursday, February 18 and, as you can probably guess, still no check.

We are now 56 days into attempting to get a refund that, BY LAW, is supposed to be to me within 30 days.

So, here’s the bottom line, folks. A company is only as good as how they treat their customers and, whether or not this Customer Care (funny name for a rip-off company) is part of Creative Search Training or not, the idea that they are still aligned with these losers prods me to tell you that, if I were you, I would stay as far away from this Google business as possible. No company worth a damn would do this to their customers and/or prospects.

They didn’t know that I own this extremely high-ranking blog nor do they know that one of my clients os a big0wig attorney out of Virginia who said his firm would take this on for a couple of weeks of free consulting. I’m vindictive enough to give away my time to make sure my money is delivered back to me as promised.

I will keep you all informed.

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UPDATE: This morning (Feb 23) I spoke to a representative of Customer Care named Darin and he told me that he was going to ge the owner to sign a check for me either today or tomorrow to go out immediately.

Darin explained that the company had some internal problems that caused a backlog in terms of refunds and that they have adjusted and are getting back on top of things. We’ll see how that works. If, in faact, I really get my check in the next few days, I’m going to have to rely on others to let the world know whether this turns out true or not. Even when this closes it’ll still be able to be found if you search Customer Care’s name so add things to it (positive as well as negative. BE FAIR)

I’ll let you know if/when the check arrives…

Filed under: Local SEO talk

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