Merchant Circle has apparently changed its tact for getting small businesses to sign up. In the past, there have been numerous reports that it autodialed SMBs and notified them they had to check out the company’s website to see their “bad review.” Now, the message is much more positive.
An acquaintance in New York City transcribed a message his business received last Sunday at 4 pm. Here is the text of the message:
“Hello, we are calling to let you know that after searching Google a satisfied customer found your website on MerchantCircle.com and gave you a positive rating for being a good local business. To see your rating go to MerchantCircle.com and enter your business telephone number into the blue box. Again, that’s MerchantCircle.com.”
The problem, of course, is that there were no reviews.
It is difficult to tell how widespread the new campaign is. Company Executive Doug Kilponen, speaking at ILM a couple of weeks ago, indicated that such efforts did not account for the majority of the company’s 300,000 registrations. Nor did they come from auto spam efforts that hit all of the businesses in the proximity of a registrant–something else we have heard about Instead, Kilponen said the vast majority come from more viral efforts. Many businesses recommend the service to their neightbors.
Kilponen also said that with companies such as IAC coming on board to cross promote Merchant Circle and brands such as Citysearch and ServiceMagic, it projects that one million SMBs will be signed up by the end of 2008. IAC was part of a $10 million round for Merchant Circle that was recently announced.
At ILM, Kilponen indirectly acknowledged the telemarketing and spam issues. He said the company has been entreprenurial, and launched 100 ideas. “Four or five” of them have been bad ideas, he said, seemingly putting them in the past tense.
Ah…good ol MC up to there old tricks again. When is the FCC going to crack down on their autodialing?
How can anyone expect to build a business in that manner?
Not only are they building a business that way, they’re being rewarded with huge investments and partnerships with IAC. Unbelievable.
The question for me is, Does anyone believe them when they say these tricks “don’t account for the majority” of their signups? I sure don’t.
Got the same voice mail today (1/13/08). What bull(edit)!
I had a client play “the call” to me today. Same story–positive review mentioned in the message, no review on site. Clicking through the SERPS today I notice a lot of fresh comments on old MC blog stories. Looks like a new wave of activity from these spammers is underway.
My business got a recorded message from Merchant Circle today. I googled the company instead of following the instructions left on the message, which is basically the same message detailed in this post. I’ve already wasted enough time determining that they are a scam. I’m not going to spend anymore time going to their website.
Merchant Circle has called our donation line 12 times in the last 3 days telling us “someone has left a comment about our company” and to enter our telephone number to see to it is on their website! Does anyone have a phone number for this? It costs us money for them to call.
I got the same message today (4/22/08)…good thing I decided to google this site instead of blindly subjecting myself to more calls. And I agree with Amy Stewart…this is costing business money when we have to waste valuable time listening to this S**t.
I got the call today (4/24/08), reminds me of the Better Business Bureau when I started my business in 1998… “We recently had someone leave negative feedback for you and you’re not allowed to see it or respond to it unless you pay us money.!” I never did business with them either.
And again… I just got one of these calls. Googled the company and found several PAGES of complaints about their tactics. I’m not about to go to their site and give them traffic, especially when I know our company has never signed up for something like this - the bosses are all too clueless to have figured this out without my help, and I’d never heard of them before today.
I received one of the Merchant Circle automated calls in my voicemail box this morning.
It said “Hello, this is the Merchant Circle Verification Department. We are calling regarding a customer who found your Merchant Circle Page on Google. On Monday, May 12, 2008, this customer asked us to verify that you are indeed a legitimate business. To verify your business, go to Merchant Circle.com and enter your business telephone number in the blue box. Again, that’s Merchant Circle.com. Thank you.”
We do not have a Merchant Circle Page and do not intend to have one.
Received the same message as Dave (from May 15, 2008) today, caller ID is 866-849-3443, unavailable. Really pissed with this type of tactics.
Yep, scam - called my office three times today!
One Trackback
[…] Krasilovsky: Merchant Circle Goes Positive in Telemarketing Effort It seems like my least favorite company of all-time continues to use telemarketing spam in order to […]