I have been using LinkedIn for the last two months as a lead gen tool and one day, I stumbled upon a paid service. It offered to automate lead gen for you on LinkedIn by helping you define and find your ideal customers, engage with them and send out human inspired personal messages.
While I usually ignore the testimonials, what got me hooked on this was the following offer:
"Sign up, try your first week for $1. After that, it's just $149 a month."
Mix in their money back guarantee, and the deal was sealed:
"If at any point in the first 30 days you don’t absolutely love [service XYZ], we’ll not only give you a full refund, but we’ll send you $20 for wasting your time."
I filled in my data, connected my company credit card and signed up. Soon after, I got a welcome email and a bit after that, somebody pings me on Facebook, saying he was my account rep, helping me to get started.
I found it unusual to be communicating on Facebook, but what the hell, let's do it - his profile looked legit, he sent me voice messages that were legit, so yeah.
I was hungry for them leads.
And that caused me trouble.
After the initial setup was complete - I gave him access to my profile, told him what I offered as a service and who I'd want to target as my ideal client.
Starting from this, my connections were growing day by day and quite some people started replying to my messages.
3 weeks into the game, I had 0 results and pinged my "account rep" on Facebook, saying that I'd like to end my trial and get my money back.
His answer: "Don't worry, I'll prolong it indefinitely for you. We'll make this work together."
What followed was a bit of a strategic change, but the results wouldn't come.
I was busy with client work the last week and forgot about it. This morning, I get a SMS message on my phone that they just charged my credit card with another $149.
I ping my guy immediately, requesting a refund of $298 as well as to close all contracts. Which contracts by the way? I searched my email and didn't find a single agreement. I went to their website and couldn't find a way to log into my customer profile or end my contract. I checked their "Terms of Service" link, which is not existing.
Now I get a bit nervous and call my bank.
I wanted to cancel the billing on my credit card, which is not possible. I wanted to lock this company out of my credit card, which is not possible.
After making it clear on Facebook and sending an email to their official email address, I am left with a bad taste in my mouth. A company I don't trust has access to my company credit card that has a limit which could hurt me and my business, and I am only left with the option to lock my entire credit card, which my bank advised me not to do.
Now, apart from the fact that this can be regarded as naive behavior on my part, this got me thinking.
What will I do in the future to avoid experiences like this?
What will I do to protect me, my company and my money online?
What are you guys doing in such situations?
How do you protect yourself?
While I usually ignore the testimonials, what got me hooked on this was the following offer:
"Sign up, try your first week for $1. After that, it's just $149 a month."
Mix in their money back guarantee, and the deal was sealed:
"If at any point in the first 30 days you don’t absolutely love [service XYZ], we’ll not only give you a full refund, but we’ll send you $20 for wasting your time."
I filled in my data, connected my company credit card and signed up. Soon after, I got a welcome email and a bit after that, somebody pings me on Facebook, saying he was my account rep, helping me to get started.
I found it unusual to be communicating on Facebook, but what the hell, let's do it - his profile looked legit, he sent me voice messages that were legit, so yeah.
I was hungry for them leads.
And that caused me trouble.
After the initial setup was complete - I gave him access to my profile, told him what I offered as a service and who I'd want to target as my ideal client.
Starting from this, my connections were growing day by day and quite some people started replying to my messages.
3 weeks into the game, I had 0 results and pinged my "account rep" on Facebook, saying that I'd like to end my trial and get my money back.
His answer: "Don't worry, I'll prolong it indefinitely for you. We'll make this work together."
What followed was a bit of a strategic change, but the results wouldn't come.
I was busy with client work the last week and forgot about it. This morning, I get a SMS message on my phone that they just charged my credit card with another $149.
I ping my guy immediately, requesting a refund of $298 as well as to close all contracts. Which contracts by the way? I searched my email and didn't find a single agreement. I went to their website and couldn't find a way to log into my customer profile or end my contract. I checked their "Terms of Service" link, which is not existing.
Now I get a bit nervous and call my bank.
I wanted to cancel the billing on my credit card, which is not possible. I wanted to lock this company out of my credit card, which is not possible.
After making it clear on Facebook and sending an email to their official email address, I am left with a bad taste in my mouth. A company I don't trust has access to my company credit card that has a limit which could hurt me and my business, and I am only left with the option to lock my entire credit card, which my bank advised me not to do.
Now, apart from the fact that this can be regarded as naive behavior on my part, this got me thinking.
What will I do in the future to avoid experiences like this?
What will I do to protect me, my company and my money online?
What are you guys doing in such situations?
How do you protect yourself?
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