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IN MY OPINION, Traffic Power Sucks! |
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8/18/05 Again, it's been a while since I've updated this site. Sorry, I keep busy with my real job. What's been happening? Lots of fun stuff... Let's see, where to begin. Several people have emailed me telling me that they received their money back from Traffic Power through credit card disputes. Later, according to their emails, they received a letter from a lawyer in Las Vegas threatening them with a lawsuit if they didn't give the money back. I received a little letter from the same lawyer threatening me with a lawsuit if I didn't take "proprietary and confidential information related to Traffic Power's business" off of my website. I called the lawyer and asked him exactly what information he was referring to. He had no idea what I was talking about. This was the guy who signed the letter, and IN MY OPINION, he was clueless. If anyone can find anything at all on this website that could possibly be considered Traffic Power's "proprietary and confidential information", drop me an email at webmaster@trafficpowersucks.com. In other news: Seems that Traffic Power may be up to what I consider their "old tricks" again. I've been hearing from several people, including a couple of ex-employees, that Traffic Power has started a couple of new businesses under new names, and this time they are based in different states. At least that's what it says on the web pages of these sites. Two sites have been found so far, they have been reported to the BBB, and several other agencies (including the State of Nevada Department of Business and Industry, and the Nevada Attorney General) are investigating them right now. If they are proven to be Traffic Power, I'll post details here once the investigators let me know. In more other news: In almost every email I receive, I'm asked the same question: "How can I get my money back from Traffic Power (or 1P.com, or First Place, or Adnetpros, or whatever they are calling themselves this week). And I tell them all the same thing, if I knew how to get money back from these people, I wouldn't have this website up. After two years I'm STILL waiting for my $4001.00. If you ever come out here and this site is not up any more, that means I finally got my money back. Anyway, this is certainly not a guaranteed way to get your money back, but here's something that might help.
Go to
http://www.trafficpowersucks.com/ComplaintForm.pdf. Print
this form out, and fill in the blanks. Get a copy of the contract you signed
when you signed up with Traffic Power. Get a copy of proof of payment (credit
card statement, cancelled check, etc.). Write a letter explaining your
situation. Include dates and pertinent information. Do not bash Traffic Power,
try to be professional! Get the following 4 things together:
1.
The complaint form you just filled out. Once you have this information, you can fax it to: 702-486-7371. Or, you can put these things in an envelope and mail it off to:
State of Nevada Department of Business and Industry If you fax it, don’t mail it, and if you mail it, don’t fax it. You should receive something back from them in about 4 to 5 weeks. As I understand it, these guys have the power to actually do something (unlike the BBB) and it's possible that you will get your money back. Good luck! 5/12/05 Sorry it's been a while since I've updated the site. I'm still getting emails from Traffic Power customers who feel that they did not receive all that they were promised, every day. The big question most people want to know is: Is there going to be a Class Action lawsuit against Traffic Power? Well, the lawyers are still telling me that they are working on it. We were a month away from filing paperwork with the courts a couple of months ago, and then some new information came to light, and the lawyers suddenly had a ton of new stuff to include. Then, apparently there was some new law passed, so that the lawyers can take these guys to Federal court instead of regular court, but that meant everything had to be re-done in a different way. Yadda yadda yadda! Let's go already! I've been trying to get this lawsuit off the ground for a year and a half, I just want to get it done! Though I guess the longer it takes, the better prepared the lawyers will be. Each time I talk with the lawyers, they sound very upbeat, and say that everything is progressing and everything looks good, but come on! Let's get the lead out! As usual, if I ever do get word from the lawyers that the lawsuit has been filed, I will have it posted at the top of every page on this site. Keep an eye out!
1/12/05 I've started to receive quite a few emails from people who have been receiving similar calls from Traffic Power (or 1P, or First Place, etc). According to these emails, these people are being told that if they do not renew their contract with Traffic Power, their businesses will "suffer". They are told that all Traffic Power has to do is "flip a switch" and they will stop receiving traffic. Or, they are told to renew, or Traffic Power will go to their competition and promote them instead. If this has happened to you, please email me at webmaster@trafficpowersucks.com. Here are some examples. Note: I personally have not received a call or email from Traffic Power like the ones I am posting below, these emails were all received by me by people claiming to be Traffic Power customers. There was some question as to why I used the title "Extortion?" in this update, the reason is that the word was used in these emails I received. I have the original emails, with headers attached, which can be traced to show that they are legitimate. These emails were also submitted as evidence during the recent lawsuit against me, and are available to the public via the Pacer website, and as they are available to the public, I see no reason not to list them here. Here are just a few emails I've received with a similar theme: ______________________________________________________________________ Received 10/1/2004:
Hello, Received 1/6/2005 I just got off the phone with the sales rep, (Name Removed) and he said they have been carrying our website placement and unless I renewed with them, they would kill our placement on the engines. Was like I was dealing with some extortion tactic. Very hi pressure guy who said all we have to do is "flip the switch" and (implied) your business is over... Unbelievable scare tactics used.. I asked him to put everything in writing - which he declined. Can they actually do anything to sabotage our placements? ______________________________________________________________________ Received 5/24/2005
Last year, I hired traffic power to optimize for us. We signed a contract for
$3,000 for 1 year. I paid 1500 initial fee until we see some results. After the
first 6 months (December 2004), we did not hear back from anybody. Honestly,
almost even forgot about traffic power. In January, they contacted me and I
requested to cancel the account - we had not seen any work done. As soon as I
sent the cancellation notice they sent me back a results page that showed how
many rankings I have on various search engines. ______________________________________________________________________ Received 6/29/2005
Even after stopping all business with traffic power, and even after the contract
had long expired, we are still getting extortion calls asking for money
and trying to convince (company name removed) to buy into a doorway site they
later built without our authorization. That doorway site is mostly meaningless
content and gibberish that is also banned from goggle. Received 7/15/2005
Please add me to your list. and let us know what's involved in shutting down
Traffic Power. Without going into a long story about our dealings with them, our
experiences are identical with the e-mails I've been reading on your site.
10/27/04 The BBB now has 57 complaints listed for Traffic Power. Personally, I've never seen a company with this many complaints at the BBB. I'm guessing they have a lot more that aren't listed yet, it takes a while for the BBB to update.
9/8/04 Although Traffic Power's site is still online, I have been receiving reports from people who have been contacted by a new company called "1P.com" or "First Place". Check out their site, the phone number is the same as Traffic Power's, and from what I've been hearing they are giving the same "promises" (or IN MY OPINION "lies") as Traffic Power. Don't be fooled! Remember the name, and if they call you, ask them why they have to try to fool you with a fake name. Could it have something to do with all of the complaints with the BBB? SEO Recommendations: OK, I receive a lot of emails from Traffic Power customers who feels that they did not receive all that they were promised every day, and a lot of you ask me the same question: "Can you recommend a good SEO to me?" Let me answer everyone here and now, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Here are my reasons. 1: According to emails I've received, Traffic Power claims that my website, and every other website that you find online that says anything bad about them, is from their competition trying to make them look bad. All of the emails I post on my "Your Emails" page? I have been told in emails that Traffic Power will tell you that I make them all up. The truth is that since I started my campaign against Traffic Power I have never recommended ANY SEO to ANYONE. You are welcome to test me, especially you Traffic Power drones, send me an email from a hotmail account or some other free, untraceable account, and ask me for my recommendation. Offer me money! It doesn't matter, I will not give you a recommendation, because that might lead some people to actually believe that www.trafficpowersucks.com is one of these "competition" sites. And the "fake" emails I have listed? They are real, I can prove it. If I had the time, I would post another 1000 or so today, but I have work to do, maybe tomorrow. 2: The other reason I won't recommend any other SEO is, I hope, fairly easy to understand. I gave my hard earned money to Traffic Power... IN MY OPINION I obviously don't know what I am talking about when it comes to picking a good SEO. If you want advice on which SEO to use, ask someone who made the RIGHT choice, not someone who lost $4001.00 to, IN MY OPINION, a rip off company. BBB Update! 7/14/04 - Finally, the Better Business Bureau has updated Traffic Power's listing. It went from "Satisfactory" to 27 complaints, with a lot of warnings about dealing with them. Yes! Thanks to everyone who kept complaining to the BBB, it took a long time, but now Traffic Power can't use their "Satisfactory" record as a sales aid. Thanks to www.seoconsultants.com/ for the heads up on this matter! Want to see it yourself? Just go to www.bbb.com and search for the business name Traffic Power. Email updates 7/14/04 - I just added a ton of emails I've received to the "Your Emails" page, sorry it took so long. I have more to add, but I don't always have the time. It's funny, but I still get people who doubt that Traffic Power is doing anything wrong (it's rare, but true). All I have to say is, go read the emails I have been receiving. Then go to the LINKS page, and read what people have posted on other sites. After you've done all your homework, ask yourself this question: Have you ever seen a company with so many people complaining about it? Google bans Traffic Power Customers! OK people, now we have proof. I've been hearing from a lot of you that have said you were banned by Google because of Traffic Power, yet Traffic Power says that Google is just "re-indexing". Friday, I received an email with a link to the following story, here's our proof: http://www.webpronews.com/ebusiness/seo/wpn-4-20040630GoogleBansSEOFirmanditsClients.html Note: As most of you know, Matt Cutts from Google confirmed this, just got to http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/confirming-a-penalty/ to read the proof. I am currently trying to get in touch with the writer of this article, Mark Carey, if I can get an interview I will post it here. Google and Traffic Power: Are Traffic Power customers being banned from Google because of Traffic Power's practices? A lot of people seem to think so, and judging by the emails I've been receiving, I think so too. I have been trying to set up an appointment with someone at Google to talk about this situation, their legal team has been notified of the upcoming Class Action lawsuit against Traffic Power. I currently have lists of tens of thousands of pages submitted by Traffic Power, I wonder what would happen if Google were to drop all of those pages? I also wonder if Google would be willing to join the lawsuit. Every page breaks at least one of Google's rules for listing. I will post as soon as I hear something. Have you complained to the Better Business Bureau about Traffic Power? IN MY OPINION, Traffic-Power uses their "clean" record with the BBB as a sales gimmick. I complained about them almost a year ago, and every time I checked the BBB website about them, it still says they have a Satisfactory Record and they have responded to all complaints. I finally received an email from the BBB today, it says: "The Bureau is in
receipt of your complaint. Your complaint was submitted to the company on
August 18, 2003. The company did respond to your complaint and the response was
mailed to you on September 9, 2003. You stated that you were not satisfied with
the company's response. Your rebuttal was mailed to the company on October 21,
2003. The company does not have to respond to a rebuttal. If the company
responds to it, the additional response will be forwarded to you. As of June
2004 the company has one (1) "Unresolved" complaint. If the company receives
one (1) more "Unresolved" complaint, they will receive an "Unsatisfactory"
record for "Unresolved" complaints." |