Wedding Lead Site Review (and warning)

Chris Harding · September 23rd, 2009, 02:56 AM

Hi All

I think you have it better there!! I'm with a company called "serviceseeking" who invite clients to post their "job" in a category and then vendors can submit a quote. They classify the job as big, medium or small and attach a quotation fee of 5, 10 or 15 credits to each job!! 1 credit is $1 BUT you can only purchase "credits" in multiples of $50.00!!!

Details of jobs are sketchy to say the least and are often confusing!! "I need photos and video for my wedding" No times, no dates and if you want more you have to quote and cannot contact the client until they have accepted your quote!!! You really don't know whether you are quoting for 2 hours or 10 hours!!! When I approached them all they could say is that they would refund my credits if the customer didn't specify a date and I was booked on that day.

However I do actively have a listing with a couple of wedding directories which puts me on the first page of Google (well, the directory, not me specifically) but at least clients will click the link are have a choice of a dozen videographers(with myself amongst them)

As Chris Hurd says, DVInfo is highly ranked in Google and also many other forums too!!! Google seems to be very quick to index forum posts and I often will find posts from myself on Google a day after they are made. Hmmm maybe that's the way to advertise??? Just have a dummy forum that Google will pounce on!!!!

Chris

Jason Robinson · September 23rd, 2009, 12:20 PM

I just posted that AllWedding.com started a monthly debit to my account. I received the following terms reply from this company:

This is your subscription fee for the leads account. This is explained during signup.

Which is of course NOT explained at signup, and is NOT present in their TOS. I pointed this out after actually reading all 5 pages of their TOS, and performing several searches for key words to find any text I might have glossed over as my eyes entered a legalese induced coma. And there is no such language in their contract.

I said as much in a followup email to them (more on this at the end).

AllWedding.com simply did it because they thought they could get away with it. And of course, their policy of refilling your account back to $30 at the end of the month automatically means that the subscription fee they just hit you with is non-refundable (because all automatic payments to them are non-refundable).

So I will say it again.... do not contemplate doing business with this company. They will steal your money if they can and have already proven to me that they are willing to simply initiate automatic debit transactions against your bank account with no warning, just to see if they can get away with it.

I am filling out a complaint for the local MD office of the BBB with this company.

Now, in a small bit of refreshing news, I just got a followup email to my rebuttal of Allweddingcompanies.com crooked practice. This email claims that they have refunded the most recent charge though my bank has yet to verify this claim.

In any case, I took the drastic measure of reporting this to my bank and canceling the debit card and having a new one re-issued since I can't trust ANYTHING this company says.

Bryan Daugherty · September 23rd, 2009, 12:32 PM

Ouch. Sorry you had such a rotten experience, Jason and thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have taken to monitoring my interactions with them much more closely since your postings. Thanks.

Jason Robinson · September 23rd, 2009, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryan Daugherty

Ouch. Sorry you had such a rotten experience, Jason and thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have taken to monitoring my interactions with them much more closely since your postings. Thanks.

Note that participation with this company means you are automatically agreeing to a monthly subscription service, even though their TOS never says so. So if you want their leads, you have to pay a $6 / month fee even if you get no leads and don't buy any existing leads. This is not mentioned in their TOS at all.

Also note that the company AllWedding.com / AllWeddingCompanies.com is the same company as LocalExperts.com, so participation with that company is also likely to be filled with fraudulent charges and hidden fees.

Jason Robinson · September 23rd, 2009, 01:06 PM

AllWedding.com appears to be the parent company for ALL of the following domain names on the same server (virtually all of them wedding, or event business related). This information available via the public DNS system using a reverse DNS query available on the web site WHOIS & Reverse IP Service.

edit: I removed the list of domains so that this company would not receive links or even any references from DVInfo.net. Click the link above to find out if a company you do business with is a shell company for AllWedding.com

Jason Robinson · September 23rd, 2009, 01:15 PM

ok even more information. The previous list of 33 domain names are just the domains listed on one of their two servers. They also have 208 domains hosted on their other server.

I initially posted them, but I deleted them from this post so as not to gain more attention to themself. Just go to the above link to find out of a company you do business with is a shell company for AllWedding.com

Jim Snow · September 23rd, 2009, 01:37 PM

Jason, that's very useful information. The fact that a company would have that many web identities tells you everything you need to know about their business ethics. They are trying to build an automatic money machine with actual customer service having nothing to do with their "business".

Andrew Smith · September 23rd, 2009, 08:16 PM

They look like they have the morals of a domain squatter.

Andrew

Philip Howells · September 24th, 2009, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Harjo

Nothing beats a human referral.

I agree with this view in principle with the one codocil that the referee usually expects the same price as the referrer got. When that's two years back the difference can be 2-300 UKL.

As far as paying for leads is concerned, I'd rather spend the money getting our site high in the natural listings. We're currently on P1/2 on Google for most of our keywords and we're constantly reviewing the detail on the site and regularly (not over frequently of course) submitting to the search engines.

September 23rd, 2009, 12:20 PM	#17
Jason Robinson Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 1,997	Another update from this company I just posted that AllWedding.com started a monthly debit to my account. I received the following terms reply from this company: This is your subscription fee for the leads account. This is explained during signup. Which is of course NOT explained at signup, and is NOT present in their TOS. I pointed this out after actually reading all 5 pages of their TOS, and performing several searches for key words to find any text I might have glossed over as my eyes entered a legalese induced coma. And there is no such language in their contract. I said as much in a followup email to them (more on this at the end). AllWedding.com simply did it because they thought they could get away with it. And of course, their policy of refilling your account back to $30 at the end of the month automatically means that the subscription fee they just hit you with is non-refundable (because all automatic payments to them are non-refundable). So I will say it again.... do not contemplate doing business with this company. They will steal your money if they can and have already proven to me that they are willing to simply initiate automatic debit transactions against your bank account with no warning, just to see if they can get away with it. I am filling out a complaint for the local MD office of the BBB with this company. Now, in a small bit of refreshing news, I just got a followup email to my rebuttal of Allweddingcompanies.com crooked practice. This email claims that they have refunded the most recent charge though my bank has yet to verify this claim. In any case, I took the drastic measure of reporting this to my bank and canceling the debit card and having a new one re-issued since I can't trust ANYTHING this company says.

September 23rd, 2009, 12:32 PM	#18
Bryan Daugherty Major Player Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Lexington, Ky - USA Posts: 552	Ouch. Sorry you had such a rotten experience, Jason and thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have taken to monitoring my interactions with them much more closely since your postings. Thanks. __________________ 3x-HD1000u - Ikan 8000HD- custom i7 PC - Vegas Pro 13 and 11 64 bit - Premiere Pro CS4 - and a whole mess of other equipment...

September 23rd, 2009, 01:06 PM	#20
Jason Robinson Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 1,997	Companion companies AllWedding.com appears to be the parent company for ALL of the following domain names on the same server (virtually all of them wedding, or event business related). This information available via the public DNS system using a reverse DNS query available on the web site WHOIS & Reverse IP Service. edit: I removed the list of domains so that this company would not receive links or even any references from DVInfo.net. Click the link above to find out if a company you do business with is a shell company for AllWedding.com Last edited by Jason Robinson; September 23rd, 2009 at 01:19 PM. Reason: spelling & more info

September 23rd, 2009, 02:56 AM	#16
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Hi All I think you have it better there!! I'm with a company called "serviceseeking" who invite clients to post their "job" in a category and then vendors can submit a quote. They classify the job as big, medium or small and attach a quotation fee of 5, 10 or 15 credits to each job!! 1 credit is $1 BUT you can only purchase "credits" in multiples of $50.00!!! Details of jobs are sketchy to say the least and are often confusing!! "I need photos and video for my wedding" No times, no dates and if you want more you have to quote and cannot contact the client until they have accepted your quote!!! You really don't know whether you are quoting for 2 hours or 10 hours!!! When I approached them all they could say is that they would refund my credits if the customer didn't specify a date and I was booked on that day. However I do actively have a listing with a couple of wedding directories which puts me on the first page of Google (well, the directory, not me specifically) but at least clients will click the link are have a choice of a dozen videographers(with myself amongst them) As Chris Hurd says, DVInfo is highly ranked in Google and also many other forums too!!! Google seems to be very quick to index forum posts and I often will find posts from myself on Google a day after they are made. Hmmm maybe that's the way to advertise??? Just have a dummy forum that Google will pounce on!!!! Chris

September 23rd, 2009, 01:15 PM	#21
Jason Robinson Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 1,997	ok even more information. The previous list of 33 domain names are just the domains listed on one of their two servers. They also have 208 domains hosted on their other server. I initially posted them, but I deleted them from this post so as not to gain more attention to themself. Just go to the above link to find out of a company you do business with is a shell company for AllWedding.com

September 23rd, 2009, 01:37 PM	#22
Jim Snow Trustee Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Santa Clara, CA Posts: 1,104	Jason, that's very useful information. The fact that a company would have that many web identities tells you everything you need to know about their business ethics. They are trying to build an automatic money machine with actual customer service having nothing to do with their "business".

September 23rd, 2009, 08:16 PM	#23
Andrew Smith Equal Opportunity Offender Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 3,016	They look like they have the morals of a domain squatter. Andrew