Advertising – Motortrades ?

[Warren Beard]

I’ve had them call me a few times but would not waste money with them.

I also had a call from another company saying the new magazine is a great success and who can they address the invoice to 😮 I said no way was it me and she said I verbally approved an order with them to advertise. I said no way never, not a chance and I’m not paying for anything, she said "fine, I’ll send the invoice and details to the debt collectors" I said go ahead and hung up, needless to say I’ve never heard a thing.

Do people actually fall for this and hand over money 😮 😕

[Neil Speirs]

quote Warren Beard:

Do people actually fall for this and hand over money 😮 😕

Some poor buggers probably do 🙁

I had a girl on last week thanking me for recently supporting some children’s charity but surprisingly she quickly hung up on me when I said how sad a person she was trying to con honest people for a living & how her parents must be so proud of her 🙄

[Graeme Harrold]

Two phrase I use…………."I an recording this call for staff training purposes……." and "have you heard of TPS, by the way who are you?" Amazing how quick the line goes dead :lol1:

[John Singh]

Its the fourth call in a week from motor trade telling me I’m missing out immensely and its the fourth time I’ve told them I don’t need it thanks!

I told them I’m concentrating on traditional signwriting and they all said:
Oh! Yeah! there’s a real need for traditional brush for van signs!

Really! 🙄

[Graeme Harrold]

quote John Singh:

Its the fourth call in a week from motor trade telling me I’m missing out immensely and its the fourth time I’ve told them I don’t need it thanks!

I told them I’m concentrating on traditional signwriting and they all said:
Oh! Yeah! there’s a real need for traditional brush for van signs!

Really! 🙄

Just had a look at their site, and livery is listed under "Van Signwriting"!!!!!

[Phill Fenton]

quote Neil Speirs:

quote Warren Beard:

Do people actually fall for this and hand over money 😮 😕

Some poor buggers probably do 🙁

I had a girl on last week thanking me for recently supporting some children’s charity but surprisingly she quickly hung up on me when I said how sad a person she was trying to con honest people for a living & how her parents must be so proud of her 🙄

It makes me angry that these scams are still doing the rounds. I reported them to my local trading standards officer once (I even supplied them with a telephone number) to be told that there was nothing they could do to stop it.

In that case what is the point of having a "trading standards" organisation paid for out of public funds. If they’re really that useless and toothless why do they exist 🙄

[Martin Pearson]

Phill, did trading standards tell you why they couldn’t do anything about it ?
I would have thought that telling someone they had to pay an invoice for work that wasn’t ordered or even done was fraud.

[Peter Dee]

After repeated request to be removed from their database, they now get straight **** off.

Also beware of Matchmaker Marketing who promise first page ranking on Google.
Biggest bunch of shysters you will ever come across, do NOT sign up with them.
In fact, I will not even speak to ANY marketing company now, if I want a service I will go out and find it.

[Warren Beard]

quote Peter Dee:

Also beware of Matchmaker Marketing who promise first page ranking on Google.Biggest bunch of shysters you will ever come across, do NOT sign up with them.

I came very close to signing up with these guys but after being stung badly by another similar company called First Search Consultancy I went on line and searched for reviews where I read some very scary stories and all similar to my experience on First Search Consultancy so I told them no way.

[Hugh Potter]

had motor trade ring me again yesterday, of course… i was the only signmaker in the area they were talking too! i told them the same as i did a couple of months back… i don’t wish to advertise, though this time i did haggle them down to £50 before telling them i still didn’t want it! i almost took it for the £350 saving though!

Hugh

[Jon Marshall]

They’ve called us a lot too. To be fair, they have managed to get their site highly placed on Google but I can’t see why I should give them £400 when they don’t do any sort of advertising to get people to visit their site.

At least Yell.com actually spend a considerable amount on marketing.

Let’s face it, you could set up a site like this in hours and start ringing round asking people for £400 for the five minutes work it takes to add the link.

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Sad to say I got mugged off for nearly a grand by these people, even took out the top advertising, so far it has generated 65 hits to my web site in 6 months and no telephone calls at all…..

More details can be found here, I’m seeking legal advice at the moment against them.

hope external link is ok….

http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.ph … h_country=

or go to http://www.canyoutrustthem.com and do a search for motor trades

I don’t normally get caught by these companies but they really worked me over with a promise of enquiries… I feel such a nonce!

[Chris Wool]

quote Peter Dee:

After repeated request to be removed from their database, they now get straight **** off.

Also beware of Matchmaker Marketing who promise first page ranking on Google.
Biggest bunch of shysters you will ever come across, do NOT sign up with them.
In fact, I will not even speak to ANY marketing company now, if I want a service I will go out and find it.

+1 to that

[Hugh Potter]

don’t feel bad Mo,

probably the only reason i’ve never been caught out is because i’m such a tight arrrsed git with my money and what i spend it on, must the the Scottish gene from my dads side!

i’ve nearly fallen for it a few times but the only one I pay for is scoot, costs me £50 a year for a £400 listing, they seem to feel obliged to renew at that price every year now so i just do it, i get a bit from it here and there, enough to pay for itself so i don’t worry about it.

the deal was offered when ITV took them over, they were gonna be having a massive tv campaign to promote scoot again but i don;t recall it happening, still, like I say, it’s less than a quid a year!

[Kevin Flowers]

I tell every caller we don’t buy anything over the phone… its normally enough to get them to hang up.

Kev

[Neil Speirs]

I always tell them to hang on until I go get the person that deals with advertising, they normally hang up after 3-4 minutes of silence :lol1:

[Ian Davies 2011]

We just tell all the Google page one people we do all of our website, adwords, etc in-house (which is actually true) they hang up pretty quickly.

Now and again I will indulge them and start asking them questions about adwords and google rankings etc and not one has yet been able to give me an explanation of how it actually works, my advice is do it yourself or find a local expert, know of so many people that have been stung by these page one and top ranking idiots.

Ian.

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

on a more poitive note, I did buy from a phone call from thompsons local, I agreed to purchase data for new businesses opening up in my area, it cost me about £100 a month but I get a database of businesses sent to me every week who have recently opened in the area, this could be anything from builders to fast food restaurant’s. There is everything on there, emails, contacts, telephone numbers, just about all you need. I generally get between 15 and 50 new bits of data every week.

Al we do with it at the moment is mail shot everyone, if I ave the tie I folow up with phone calls.

On average it generates around 5-8 hot leads a month. I have already had back more than enough to cover the entire years data 3 times over so far and still getting calls… I really recommend it.

[Richard Urquhart]

Been with motor trades 6months has a few things going for it and got a contract from the advert, the company are very good at selling but poor customer support, took a while for my 0800 number still it was cheap for me and gives you a nudge on the web Rich

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Well at least someone has a success story with them, thats refreshing and gives me a bit more hope…… still I have been with them since October last year and I don’t have anything to show for it, but It does jump me up the search rankings in my area on google, and I get at least 4 jobs a month from google direct, that cost me nothing other than working on my own web sites SEO settings…. a few evenings well spent I say

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Guys… I thought I better bump this as I have been contacted by another sign company who has had £1700 or is about to have £1700 taken out of his account by them for an automatic renewal.

I have sent off my cancellations for all my accounts well within the 60 days required notice. Here is a copy of the very very very very small print in the contract.

————————————————————–
5. Renewing your Agreement with us
For your convenience, our standard agreements renew
automai cally (a bit like your Car or Home Insurance
contracts probably do) unless you specifi cally request us
not to do so. Our automai c renewal process is detailed
in term 6 of this agreement. If you tell us not to renew
your agreement automai cally, we’ll call you at or before
your renewal date and off er you the chance to renew
your agreement manually. If for any reason we can not
get in touch, your agreement will end and any products or
services will be suspended, deleted or disconnected unless
you get in touch to renew the agreement with us prior to
the service end date.
6. Automai c Renewals
We will automai cally renew this agreement when it
ends unless you tell us not to do so. If you do not wish
us to automai cally renew this agreement, you must either
write to us at Regent House, Hubert Road, Brentwood
CM14 4JE at least sixty (60) days prior to the end date or
send us an e-mail to auto.renewals@motortrades.co.uk at
least sixty (60) days before it is due to end. We recommend
that you send any let ers to us using recorded or signed for
delivery. We will always confi rm receipt of your let er or
e-mail within 7 business days of us receiving it. If you do
not receive a confi rmai on you should send it to us again
as we may not have received it
————————————————————————-

If you want to cancel your agreements I would do it now, or they will be taking your money too, and quite legally. There is lots of complaints about these guys on tinternet, just search motortades complaints on google.

Maybe we should be trying to do something about these people, it’s absolutely daylight robbery. I was complaining to the ops manager last week on the phone, he kept telling me that I was getting lots of calls according to his data and web site visits. My answer? Why on earth would I be cancelling this advertising if I was making money from it? If even one of those calls that you "alleged" I have had turned in to a sale, I would have covered my costs…..! Why would I cancel that? What would I possible have to gain?

These guys are turning over the good people of our industry and getting away with it!

[Gwaredd Steele]

Cheers for the heads-up guys :thumbup2:

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

An update on the other sign company. Motortrades have "upgraded" his listing without permission and they tried to take £2k from his account today, when he didn’t have enough funds to cover it, they tried taking various amounts until they finally managed to take 1k from the account, so basically they wiped him out.

I got a letter from them today also, as I cancelled all further renewals with them "just" in time (60 days notice, today was 60 days bang on)… and because I didn’t sign the electronic agreement that they kept sending, I eventually opened it today and refused the advertising. They sent me an email saying that they don’t normally cancel agreements half way through the term, but as a good will gesture they would take one more payment and cancel the whole lot, so I had a result really.

BUT… they still have my bank card details on file, which worries me. I don’t want to go through the hassle of cancelling the card and having to update all my other accounts, which I’m told is the only way to secure it!

All I can say guys, I have have wasted about £7-900 with this advertising, it returned me the sun total of diddly squat!

[Hugh Potter]

What they just did to the other company sucks. I’m certain that even though my car insurance will renew automatically, that they write to me giving me 30 or 14 days notice and for me to let them know if I don’t want to renew. Pretty sure they must do that regardless of terms.

I keep a small next egg with my parents, it’s for emergencies but its deliberately enough to get me, my van and 4 handy mates to anywhere in the country, do a little collecting, have a good night out and back again. I’ve never needed to use it or call on the guys but if your example of being wiped out happened to me, I’d already be sat waiting at their desks.

Makes me soo angry that something like that can be allowed to happen. Could they pay the bank to recall the payment?

Hugh

[Andrew Martin]

quote Mo Gillis-Coates:

BUT… they still have my bank card details on file, which worries me. I don’t want to go through the hassle of cancelling the card and having to update all my other accounts, which I’m told is the only way to secure it!

All I can say guys, I have have wasted about £7-900 with this advertising, it returned me the sun total of diddly squat!

If you paid by direct debit then cancel the direct debit at your bank after you cancel the contract with motortrades or if by paid by card call for a charge back on the grounds of unauthorized payments, but again make sure you cancel the agreement with motortrades first, certain cards protect you better against this sort of thing than others.

[Peter Dee]

Beware all these fast talking cold callers. I signed up with Matchmaker Marketing who improve Google ranking.
I wanted to change some of my keywords but no-one would return the calls so I cancelled within the required period; by phone, website and email + fax.
They never replied to anything and continued to take money off my card.
Mastercard weren’t interested because I had given them authorisation so in the end I had to cancel the card.
Lesson learnt.
ANY cold caller selling website optimisation or Google high ranking gets told to shove off in no uncertain terms.
Funny how they all withhold their phone numbers….
Bunch of tossers. It makes hugging an Estate Agent seem quite comforting.

[David Hammond]

I had a touch local rep call in offering all the services under the sun. What should have been about 4k, he could do for £600?

I signed up for their free adverts, and made it perfectly clear I wasn’t going to pay, but they still pestered me!

I wasted about 2 hours of his time and told him no… he would have shortly after our meeting got a £90 fine for overstaying the 1 1/2 hours in the car park. :lol1: :lol1:

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Had a good result with these rogues peoples. In response to continued harrasment and some great postings on web site complaint forums from some freinds of mine, they have finally released this "contract" update…. Yay…. One up for the small guy! (>) happy bloke

On the 14th of July 2011 MotorTrades customer services replied to the following topic in this forum link: http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.ph … h_country=

With the following wording
——————————————————————————–
Our standard agreement does contain an automatic renewal provision, (which is probably similar to your car and home insurances, gym memberships, RAC / AA and many other directories), including those offered by BT Customer Street and the ufindus brands.

We now clarify this within our confirmation call, (the recorded call that we make with you prior to you being invoiced and billed), we include it within your order, within your agreement, detail it on your sales order and on your invoice and send you an email relating to it, as part of your electronic agreement.

We also remind you throughout the term of the agreement via newsletter and give you further opportunities to opt out of this element of the campaign, which many customer choose to do.

Whilst our standard agreement does allow us to raise an invoice under the automatic renewal provision, we do not currently operate this procedure. If your agreement is due for an automatic renewal, our renewal and retention team would call you and invite / encourage your renewal under the terms of your order.

For you to be invoiced or billed for a further period, you would have to say yes to the sales team, and then further confirm the order and approve and authorise us to bill you again in a recorded confirmation call process made with a member of the Operations Team.

These calls are conducted to a pre-set script, and you could not be billed or invoiced without approving such a further order. Our renewal policy is shortly changing to a rate card based renewal programme and additional discounts will be available for customers based on the length of their relationship with us with additional discounts available for early bird renewals, (which is where customers choose to renew their orders prior to the current end date).

We’ll be sending customers a newsletter shortly regarding these changes.

If any customers have a query with regards to their order, or the status of their automatic renewal, please contact us directly on either 01277 89 77 70 or 01277 89 77 73 or by email.

Any customers that wish to opt their agreement out of the automatic renewal programme should contact optout@motortrades.co.uk quoting their sales order number (which can be found on the top right corner of your invoice or sales order or within the subject line of your electronic agreement.

We’ll always acknowledge receipt of your request within 2 business days (usually faster) and confirm the change has been made by both email and telephone.

Many Thanks,

—————————————————————————-

It’s nice to get this kind of result, no more taking money without asking properly, a reminder is good. However I still don’t recommend this advertising for our trade, well it’s not worked for me and a few other sign companies I know……

[Jason Davies]

How do they meet the PCI DSS compliance that the credit card companies have now insisted upon? Is that covered by the initial agreement? Once you have cancelled this should kick in. Any problems straight to your solicitor or the FSB.