Another email about this company last year:We need some advice please. We were cold called by [name deleted] about a website, which I think you are aware of, and basically we`ve been screwed. After listening to the sweet talk of the salesman, we were persuaded to part with £200 by debit card for 2 domain names. A promise to keep the site at the top of the search engines, such as google etc. The site up and running witin 7-10 days, hosting for £20pm., but we did not agree to pay for this by direct debit, the only bit of caution. He promised to send off an imformation pack as soon as we sent the text for the site, which we did on the same day, 12th Jan. After not hearing anything from them after a few days we tried phoning several times, but he was never available (hiding) We eventually spoke to his manager, who promised to investigate. At this point we began to get suspicious and concerned and contacted the visa debit dept of our bank who deal with disputes. They advised us that they had had several complaints about [name deleted] and suggested that they could act for us to recover our outlay plus costs if we heard nothing from them after 30 days and advised no further contact with them from us. Unfortunately the pack arrived 2 days ago, the 2nd site did not materialise, the text is useless and probably contravenes the trades descriptions act. We would appreciate any advice on how we should prcede from here.
And another from last year:I have been contacted by [name deleted]. To a web site novice their service appears almost too good to be real---Gauranteed Google first page, resubmitted evry 48 hrs etc.. have you any experience of these people, or what are the questions I should be asking other than price of course- £258 .95 per annum in fact!
(As an aside, I had a look at this person's site. It was nowhere on search engines. When I looked at the source code I saw why - long lines of invisible text on his homepage consisting of keywords. This trick worked once upon a time, but nowadays it just gets you penalised by search engines.)Would you like to look at our site? Although hosted by [name deleted], an internet co who promised to get it search engine rankings its very hard to find with search engines.
This is an established company that cold calls rental owners and promises them things they can't deliver - guaranteed first page placement on search engines.
If you get a call from a company like this, and you are tempted, hang up. Because if you are tempted you are still to learn that the guarantee of being on page one of a search engine is nonsensical. You will not be on page one for any search phrase that people might actually type into a search engine. You MAY be on page one for your name, along with the village your house is in. Or for a long sentence from your homepage. But that isn't actually terribly helpful, and certainly not worth the prices you will be charged by these snake-oil salesmen.
Note also that being re-submitted to the search engines every 48 hours may sound very impressive but it is as useful as writing to Santa Claus every 48 hours - it only needs to be done once, and even then it isn't going to have much effect.
If in doubt about offers like this or anything else to do with your rental business - ask on the forum first.
