The Truth About Local Ad Link

Considering advertising with Local Ad Link? Perhaps you may want to read my experience first. I'm putting this post up because when I was approached by a very persistent Local Ad Link Sales Associate, I looked all over Google for someone to share the experience they had with Local Ad Link (hereafter known as LAL), and couldn't find anything. I did find a LOT of LAL enthusiasts spouting the benefits of their system, but everything came from people who were selling the service, so they weren't exactly unbiased opinions, nor were they from a customer standpoint. Hence the need for this blog. I'll tell you up front, my experience has not been good, in fact it has bordered on a scam. Sit back and hear my tale....

I received a call from an associate of mine named Ken, with whom I had done business in the past, on January 29th, 2009. He told me that he had an amazing opportunity for me. He proceeded to tell me about a new company that he was selling advertising for called Local Ad Link. He told me this new company had revolutionized online advertising and had basically figured out a way around Google AdWords by lumping everyone together in one big directory, and catapulting everyone in their directory to the top of Google Adwords. He quickly directed me to type in the word "diamond" into Google. "Do it, right now!" he said. I complied and typed in the word "diamond" into the search engine. Right away, this popped up:


Right there on the front page of Google, top spot, is a Local Ad Link ad! Payne Diamonds, he said, was a client of theirs and had purchased an advertising package from them, and look at them now! He proceeded to ask me how much I was spending on Google Adwords now. I told him we spent about $500/month and he balked at that. He told me that advertising with them would replace our need to advertise with Google and would save us an unbelievable amount of money and would give us unprecedented exposure, etc, etc etc. Even better, advertising with LAL, said Ken, would allow us to target specific zip codes, so we could show up only where we wanted to show up. I would be crazy to let this opportunity pass me by, Ken told me.

OK, said I, how much to advertise? Here's the lowdown: Different levels of advertising allow you to select less or more zip codes to target. If you wanted the lowest amount of zip codes, you pay $100/month. A higher amount and you pay $150/month. If you want the best deal of 50 zip codes, you pay only $200/month, which is a fraction of what I was paying Google, Ken said. Even better, Ken told me, LAL was having a special for 2 more days only! If I signed up for the $200/month deal by the end of the month (or within the next two days) he could get me a special deal where I only paid $100/month for the 50 zip code packages. The catch? I had to pay the whole $1200 up front. Ken told me to think about it, and not let this opportunity pass me by. It had the potential to change my business. I just had to act now! Look at Payne Diamonds! They are at the top of Google without paying those costly AdWords fees, and I could be too.

I thought about it, and received several calls from Ken over the next two days. Had I decided? Time was running out! I needed to seize this opportunity. Everyone was jumping on the bandwagon! Plus, I could get grandfathered in at this low rate for years to come if I just coughed up $1200 cash right now! Ken assured me he knew this was a lot of money in such a down economy, but promised the investment would be good.

Growing up, my mom always told me "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". We should all listen to our moms more. At least I should.

I decided that this opportunity was worth sacrificing for, dug deep in my pockets and told Ken I was in. He sent me the paperwork, which I filled out and I paid him the money. I completed my company profile and sat back and waited for the magic to start. Only it didn't. I got no leads, no hits, nothing. In fact, Google AdWords still continued to perform great for me, but Local Ad Link brought in nothing. I started to wonder what was going on, since LAL had said it took only about 6 hours to set things up and get you running. I waited several days, then got this email from Ken on February 10, 2009:

Hello friends,

I just wanted to drop you all a quick note to let you know that if your ad on localadlink.com and your presence on google and the other sites has been intermittent over the last week or so I had a conference call last night with their Sr. VP who handles all of the technical work for the company. He explained to us that their original server array was expected to handle their ramp up capacity until around April when they HOPED to have enough business to move to a large and permanent server array structure.

In the last 2 months, they have grown 200 times faster than their most optimistic expectations. I don’t know if you know anything about servers and how they work but basically to perform optimally it’s expected that your server array at it’s busiest time will run at 3%-5% of it’s capacity, leaving 95-97% capacity available to allow no downtime and to pick up the slack for any technical difficulties. Because of the volume that has been pushed through not just the front end where websurfers access the localadlink.com directory at more than 10 million hits a day, but they said last night that their backoffice .net and .com logins have been getting 1.5 – 2 million hits a day. Their current start-up server array has been operating at 90-95% capacity lately which explains the downtime for the sites and inconsistencies in search engine and other site exposure.

They said that this past weekend they did a large scale software upgrade, they’re doubled their support and technical staff in the last week and this coming weekend they are going to make the transition to their full scale permanent server array. So bear with the growing pains a bit this week and into next – they’re a very proactive organization from everything I can see – they’re handling thousands of customer and sales agent support tickets a day and expect to be well ahead of the curve in a few weeks. In the meantime, you get to take advantage of your position in your market as the only one getting the benefit of such a powerful and ever growing network. They said last night that they expect by the time they launch their i-supply.com beta in April that an additional 10-15,000 sites will be advertising your organizations in the area’s you have chosen to target.

If you have any questions, usually the best answer is to contact localadlink on their site...I know that a lot of you are very busy, and we didn’t get a chance to talk too much about the business opportunity here for you to make residual income by just referring other people you know and other businesses. If you want to discuss that as well, shoot me an email or give me a call.

So basically, we got an email stating that because they are so busy, our ads aren't working, but do we want to discuss signing up to sell Local Ad Link advertising? On a side note, a little digging showed that Local Ad Link is simply operating as an MLM (multi level marketing) system. Ken was trying to sell us the $1200 package, but then also get us in his "down line". Might be more effective if the product he was trying to get us to sell actually worked. But I digress.

Apparently, Ken received more and more complaints from everyone he sold these $1200 packages to. On 2/19/2009, I received this email:

Hi guys, this is the response I received from LAL today. You can all respond to them directly and keep me informed. I have no more access to them than everyone else using the same support@localadlink.com email address. I have spoken with a few of you guys today and had you do what they suggest at the bottom of going to dnsstuff.com and reading the information. I suggest you all send them an email with your company, login and dns information and ask them to confirm that your ad is in fact in their google ad system. Let me know what they say.

Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: JH 116 [mailto:noreply@localadlink.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 10:37 AM
To: ken
Subject: support [#32849] Re: Request from

Mr. Xxxxx,

We apologize, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I realize you are well beyond the 3-7 day period, thank you for your patience

Here are a few reasons your may not be seeing your ad. Please allow up to 3-7 business days for the ad to fully matriculate into our system.
During the days in which your ad hasn’t entered our Google ad system you are not being charged nor is it part of your subscription time.

A. Depending on where you are currently located and running your searches, you may run into the issue of not seeing the ads as all of our ads are targeted towards the zip codes in which the advertiser requested/ad sales rep set up in our system.

B. We are one of the many advertising partners of search engines, such as Google and Yahoo; therefore, our ads are in rotation with the ads of other companies who are utilizing them as a search engine marketing channel to promote their business. Because of the nature of this business, display of LocalAdLink ads on third-party web sites and platforms such as these are subject to change without notice and is not guaranteed. However, our staff of search engine marketing professionals works diligently to optimize each of our advertiser’s campaigns across the internet to ensure top placement and exposure.

C. Wireless cards issued by phone companies do not use IP Address and prevents geo-targeted ads to be served on your computer.

If you feel none of these apply: please provide the following in order to assist you further with your inquiry tied to your advertiser’s ads not appearing correctly

- Business names/advertisers you are inquiring about
- The current city, state and zip code in which you are
currently running the searches from
- Confirmation of your IP address and location: Please follow
steps below:
- Go to http://dnsstuff.com/
- In the left hand corner, please copy the IP address and
location stated. For instance, Your IP: 24.234.172.25 Near: Las
Vegas, Nevada United States
- Please paste the IP address and location into an e-mail and
send back over to us for further investigation.

Our Tech department and Accounting will certainly address your concerns.

Again, thank you for your extreme patience!

support@localadlink.com



---- Original message ----

> ADS SOLD NOT SHOWING UP.
>
> Hi, I am in Utah and I have sold a bunch of $1200 ads in the last week
> = of January. We had a problem with the ads not showing up under the
> AE = who sold them. Last week with the help of Bill Buettner, the ad
> sales = showed up under the AE's back office, but none of the ads have
> gone live = yet. It's been 3 weeks and not one of the businesses show
> up on = localadlink.com in the zip codes we choose and none of them
> have shown = up on Google at all. Now I know that you say that you
> don't guarantee = the results on Google, but in Utah, every single
> company that I know = that has signed up here has shown up in the top
> 3 at least 90% of the = time. The companies and usernames we sold
> under the AE (Now BB) randyb = have not shown up. Can someone please
> make sure that the ads are live = and pushed out to the appropriate
> sites and respond to me with an email = when that's finished.
>
>
> Please send emails out to those people explaining to them the reason =
> their ads don't even show up on localadlink.com let alone google or
> any = other sites as they all keep looking for it. Email me back to =
> confirm that their ads are reset and their clock
> = as well.
>
> Thanks
>
> Ken

After reading this thread through, I realized two things: 1) LAL is completely unorganized and is unable to provide the services we paid them to provide and 2) Ken has no power to fix it, since he told us all he has no more access to the company he works for than we do. I guess that's the beauty of having an MLM sales staff who is more interested in making a quick buck than in creating a long term business relationship with their customers.

At this point, having received confirmation that what I suspected is true (that my advertising is non-existent) I decided to request a refund for services not rendered. I sent the following email to Ken on 2/23/09:

Hi Ken,

I'm having some serious concerns about Local Ad Link. Nothing is working, we're not appearing in any search engines, and I was not impressed with the company's response to your email you sent last week. I'd like to request a refund minus 1 month for February, even though we have seen zero result this month. I'm not seeing this as being the investment I thought it was going to be. Can you help me get a refund processed?

Thank you!

I got no response from Ken. The next day, I sent the following email:

Hi Ken,

I didn't hear back from you yesterday. Have you been able to get my refund processed? Please let me know.

Thanks!

No response still. And Ken is very connected. He's got his iPhone with email constantly at his side, so to get no response from him was uncharacteristic. On the 25th of February, I got the following response from Ken:

I didn’t get your email until late last night. I’m out of town right now. I have been working with LAL to get things resolved, and everyone thinks it’s just the way their system has handled a few specific ads and yours is one of them. I’m expecting to hear back from them today and I’ll give you a call as soon as I hear back to tell you what they have to say and also to find out about a refund. I’ll get back to you soon.

Ken

I'm assuming he was out of town in South America, or somewhere else equally out of his cell phone provider's range, or his iPhone was broken. Later on in the day, I got this email from Ken on 2/25/09:

I actually heard back from the Sr. VP Brian Underwood via email last night, this has been pushed that high. I can tell you that they are still technically “pre-launch” which I think I told you and so there are some bugs, but they have millions and millions of dollars invested and continuing to be invested to get the technology right. I have clients that this continues to work for brilliantly. If you do google searches for “diamonds” or “furniture” or “golf” you see them popping up at the top all the time. Your ad was sold that last week of the major 50% promotion and for some reason they appear to need to be repushed through the ad server. I am waiting to hear back from them on everything – I’m just giving you an update. I can honestly tell you that I still believe this is an incredible tool for you guys and the price you paid is going to be a drop in the bucket with how much exposure it will give you, plus the fact that it locks in your renewal price for year after year. If you can be just a little patient with them to get this fixed, if it doesn’t work I will bounce on as many people skulls as I have to get you a refund.

Nothing has changed since your email this morning, just wanted to give you a bit more info. I’ll get back to you soon.

Ken

I was happy to see Ken's commitment to getting me a refund if Local Ad Link's system continued to not work. Since he is a business associate, and someone that I trusted, I felt secure in that. The next day, I got an email from some Yahoo named Trevor. Here's what it said:

I was working with Ken this morning to resolve some accounts that he is representing that are uniquely experiencing some difficulties. As you are one of our advertisers that has unfortunately been in that group, I want to extend my sincere thanks for your business and your patience while we fix the problem. These items are being addressed today. Thanks for your support during our Beta stage and look forward to servicing you in the forward.

Cheers,

Trevor R. Williams | VP International Business Development | twilliams@beyondcommerce.com

| M: (702) 241 - 2339 | O: (702) 463 - 7000 | F: (702) 463 - 7007
Corporate Headquarters | 9029 South Pecos Road, Suite 2800, Henderson, Nevada 89074

OK, side note: It absolutely annoys me to no end when people sign their emails with "Cheers". Seriously people, you're not in London, and you're not in a pub. Stop trying to act like you're an international business mogul if you work in Henderson, Nevada.

So I write back to Trevor:

Trevor,

I have actually requested that Ken get me a refund. I have not seen a single result in a month, and I’m not convinced that Local Ad Link can deliver anything that was promised . Anything you can do to expedite the refund would be appreciated. I'd like to see this completed by tomorrow if possible.

Thanks in advance for your help.

No response at all. I send another message several days later on 3/2/09:

Gentlemen,

I have not seen this refund/credit on my credit card yet. Please give me a status update ASAP as to when I'll see that. Just to reiterate, I'm not interested in waiting for the problems to get worked out, I'd like to have a refund processed ASAP.

Thank you

Nada. Nothing. No response at all. On 3/6/09, I sent a message with that was a little more blunt:

Gentlemen,

It has been over a week since my email to you both. I have received absolutely no response from either one of you. This is very disappointing. The mark of a reputable company is its ability to provide service for their customers and respond to their needs even when they are not satisfied with your product. I had no problem getting a response within minutes when I was a prospective customer, but now that I am experiencing problems, I have radio silence for over a week.

I still haven't seen my requested refund come through on my credit card. This is unacceptable, and I'm getting increasingly frustrated every day. You charged me for a service that, through your own admission, is either defective, incomplete or inoperable. You are a growing company, and I don't think you want to get the reputation for treating customers like this. If others hear about experiences like this, your corporate brand, which you've invested so much in, becomes the label of a scam that should be avoided at all costs.

Will one of you please email, call, or respond in any way today to let me know the status of my refund? If neither of you is able to handle this request, please provide me with the number of someone higher up that I can speak with to express my dissatisfaction.

I look forward to your prompt reply

Unbelievably, I still got no response from either one of these guys. I finally was able to reach Ken on the telephone and he passed the buck to Trevor. He told me that Trevor had declined to give me a refund, even though he knew his system was not working and he had bilked me for $1200.00. I'm not sure what business school Trevor graduated from, but here's a little newsflash to him: that is not a good business practice, Trevor. Not good at all.

I told Ken I wanted him to make good on his word to "bounce on as many people's skulls" as necessary to get me the promised refund. Ken said he had no control over that and could not make good on his word. When I expressed my frustration at his not keeping his word, he told me, "If at the end of your one year contract, you haven't made at least $1200, I will personally write you a check for $1200." Ken, that's what my mom used to call a "pie crust promise", easily made, easily broken. Believe me, I'm not holding my breath for Ken to start passing out checks next February.

Ken told me that I should check the stats again on their back end system, because thing were probably looking up. I did, and here is a screen shot of their statistics tracking system for the week of March 12, 2009 through March 17, 2009:

I am getting absolutely no exposure, no listings, nothing. Here is another screen shot taken this morning:

So there you have it. If I had to do it all over again, I would not give this company one dime of my money. They simply can't produce. Two more things: This morning, I googled Local Ad Link and got this surprising listing:

Free? Really? Why on earth then was I hit up to spend $1200 to be listed?

And lastly, this should come as no surprise to anyone, but Google is on to LAL's shenanigans. Their ads do not show up anymore on any Google searches. This shouldn't surprise anyone, since LAL's game plan was to tell everyone they didn't need to pay Google anymore. I mean, how dumb do they think Google is? This morning, a search for Diamonds brought up no trace of Payne Diamonds. In fact, not only are there absoultely no Local Ad Link ads for showing up (other than the ones they pay for to promote their own shady MLM practices), but Payne Diamonds has been blacklisted. They are nowhere to be found.

I've grown tired of writing emails to LAL and getting no response. If LAL refuses to be ethical, I want others to know so they aren't taken in the way I was. Also, I really would like to issue an open invitation to Ken and Trevor to address my complaints. Trevor and Ken, if you won't refund my money, then make my investment worthwhile. If there's something I need to do differently, tell me. If there's something you need to fix, fix it! if LAL ends up working wonders for me, I will gladly post any positive experiences I have. For now, unfortunately, I have nothing good to say about my experience with Local Ad Link. Final assessment? Buyer Beware!!!!!!!!