stung by LookSmart

charged for non-US listings for US business

[rroberts]

I recently added a new site to my LS account, bringing the total to 9. My budget has been modest but ample, and I had no real reason to limit clicks. 12 days into the billing cycle, I received notification that my budget was reached.

The new site is an affiliate site promoting a U.S.-based auto club. Approximately 2/3 of the clickthrough charges were for the UK and Australia. I complained that reviewers should have been more specific in their description, and requested a refund for mis-direcred clicks (hah!). LS offered to modify the description at no additional charge, but of course, no refund.

I feel ripped off. An account-holder cannot stipulate country listings, and it appears that LS takes advantage of this, then claims that they can't retrieve click information (although they manage to retrieve enough to charge me).

I'm seriously thinking my ppc money will be better spent elsewhere.

I don't expect solutions from this forum, but maybe others have had similar experiences. Thanks.

[digitalghost]

Many have have similar experiences. All I can offer is this, I no longer recommend LS to anyone, for anything. I can spend my clients' money on more productive avenues. :)

[skibum]

I've had no noticable international click problems, but do not trust their click counts on the small biz listings, though they seem to be more in line the last month or two.

You'd think a refund might be in order when the clicks charged equal up to 2x those recorded on your end, however you just get a form letter. It is virtually impossible to get a response from customer service even when inquiring about spending big bucks with them.

[Jillibert]

Skibum..........when was the last time you tried to contact Looksmart with an issue?

I contacted them and received an excellent reply in two days.

And it was not a form letter...it was an email reply directed to me and signed by the writer.

[skibum]

Well, I filled out the contact form looking for info on LookListings "Big Biz" twice in December. No response, NADA, nothing. I emailed many times trying to get ahold of someone there about what seemed to be extremely high click counts on their end when compared to our records and got form letters and no response from a real person, no refunds, no one looking into the issue.

One of their tech people was on this board and offered to help but never responded to sticky mail when click records were sent to them along with the clicks we were charged for. We don't spend enough with them anymore to worry about it.

[Jillibert]

Skibum................the guy from LOOK who was on here was answering questions about technical issues NOT accounting issues.

LOOK have been closed for the holidays and are back on Monday.

Maybe you should direct your questions to them on Monday.

[stechert]

Skibum,

I stopped posting/replying at the request of our legal team - please don't let our earlier discussion stop you from contacting customer service and working out the problem.

Thanks,
Andre

[skibum]

I appreciate your efforts stechert, and am glad to hear the lawyers are happy. It's unfortunate, though not at all surprising that this would be the outcome.

Unfortunately that doesn't help resolve any outstanding issues, and neither does "customer service".:(

I've given up on LookSmart.

[WindSun]

"...at the request of our legal team..."

Sigh...

Once more the lawyers win.

Since it looked like LS might be changing it's attitude on support, we were considering actually signing up for it.
However, when the leagle beagles are running customer support, I think I will find another place to put my money.

I wonder if Google got to where it is on the advice of it's lawyers?
Does Google even HAVE any lawyers.....?

[GoogleGuy]

Some of my best friends are lawyers, WindSun. :) Sorry to hear about that though, stechert.

[WindSun]

"Some of my best friends are lawyers, WindSun. :)..."

And you ADMIT it? :D

[Good_Vibes]

Never, ever, give money to LS.
:P

[Marcia]

>>ADMIT it?

I've heard that some people actually MARRY lawyers. We even have a member who openly admitted to it. ;)

[WebGuerrilla]

>>I wonder if Google got to where it is on the advice of it's lawyers?

Google got to where it is because they are still a private company. You can pretty much bet money on GG receiving a similar request from his legal team after a Google IPO.