Thursday, August 27, 2009

WARNING Main Street Host Scamming Statesboro Ga Businesses

Just found this little gem from Statesboro Ga News:

Main Street Host has been cold calling Statesboro and area businesses regarding search engine placement (aka SEO or Search Engine Optimization). These folks will charge you upwards of $600.00 a year (or more), make a bunch of promises and not do what they say they will do.

Main Street Hosts is a scam outfit, they will take your money and run. They prey on the naivete of small business owners.


I guess a better way to phrase what Main Street Host will do is charge you a lot of money for very little work. The kind of work they do is so simple that you could do what they do with little or no effort. An eight year old child could perform better search optimization services than Main Street Host employees.

All you have to so is search Google for "mainstreethost scam" or "Main Street Host Scam".
Any time a company cold calls you and tries selling you something, be sure to check online via a search engine to make sure they aren't scammers.

Most of the time you can search by company name or by phone number and add "scam", "rip off" or similar to see if there any complaints online about a particular company.

The best defense is to NEVER buy a product or service from a company that emails you or cold calls you.

If you have been scammed by Main Street Host, we suggest that you file a complaint with the New York Attorney Generals office, Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Comission.

Main Street Host is also known as Utilities International Inc. Better Business Bureau Report
"Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to unanswered complaint(s). "
-----
OrgName: Mainstreethost.com
OrgID: MAINS-6
Address: 4250 Ridge Lea Suite #69
City: Amherst
StateProv: NY
PostalCode: 14226
Country: US
NetRange: 64.78.208.0 - 64.78.223.255
CIDR: 64.78.208.0/20

14 comments:

April Sadowski said...

They called me up today. I always find it funny when they try to get me to buy into SEO. I always say "I don't care too much about people finding me. It can't be that hard - you did."

They were offering me a special promo of $9.99 a domain to do a diagnostic on it.

Pass.

Anonymous said...

I am a small business and i just posted my web-site live 2 days ago. They called and offered these services to me and i was interested. This is the type of thing that i was having questions about now that our site was up. Well i sure am glad that i read people well because all of the things i have just read about them is true. They kept saying, " Lets just set you up with our payment center" and i had to keep telling them that i still had questions that they weren't answering. They kept going back to their original sales pitch every time i asked in detail how they might optomize my site searchability. I finally got frustrated with the woman (mind you this was the "manager") and told her that i would not be signing up for this service if she could not give me an answer to my questions. PLEASE BE WARE OF THIS COMPANY! I feel strongly that this is a scam and a way to hack into your life! oh and not to mention they used the worst line i have ever heard in telemarketing " its only a nickle shy of $10" HAHAHAHAHA!

Michele Stapleton said...

These guys call me at least once a month even though I am on the do not call list. And every time I tell them NO I AM NOT INTERESTED. (My web host is a friend and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB and I am already really high-rated with Google.) I have asked them over and over to take my name off their list, and still they call.

IMHO if a company is really good, they don't have to use telemarketers to drum up customers. Word of mouth from satisfied customers will do the job.

Anonymous said...

They called me today. Keep in mind that for $49 buck or whatever they said, they would let me know whats wrong with my site. THEY WON"T FIX IT, just let me know..... If your on page on of Google your doing good without them!

Thanks,
A&W Disc Jockeys
www.aandwdiscjockeys.com

Anonymous said...

I don't think you are talking about the right company before I signed with main street host I called and e-mailed several of there clients and all had the same remarks. there sites rank well and they are getting a lot more hits. I hired a couple of SEO company's in the past with no results I have had GREAT results and would tell anyone to use main street host. they take care of my site and are aways there to help me and answwer my questions. so before you believe people who have nothing better to do with there time but write blogs look into in my opinion the top SEO company main street host and remember if a SEO company can't get there own company ranking they can't get yours ranking. when you do searches main street host is always number one.....so THINK people don't just read the bad look at there plus and experience.

joe

Anonymous said...

You must work for them, Joe. If your bad grammar is any indication, I'd say you do their copywriting.

Jon Coward said...

Response to Michelle,

There is nothing wrong with hiring an SEO expert or Internet marketing company who calls people. No matter who they hire, you should check them out before you pay money to a stranger. my company uses a sales force and I have callers... but I'm also ethical, back up my claims and can be thoroughly researched and have testimonials and references. I do not use black hat techniques and believe in full transparency.

The problem lies in the fact that too many lies about what is and isn't SEO are all over the Internet. That's why I give a full free report of what's wrong with a site and you can decide whether to have it done or not. I have built my reputation as a straight shooter. But to merely dismiss any company who calls you and insist we do business from W.O.M only isn't realistic.

Anonymous said...

Help! I'm one of the poor small business owners who got sucked into the MSH vortex! So now what? My "contract" is about to expire (that's a good thing), but they have total control over my Website: hosting, email, SEO, Links, Facebook and Twitter pages, Website Design, Google AdWords campaign and Analytics...everything! They also have my credit card number to which they are charging $50/mo to "Monitor" my Google Ad Campaign.

I've read the horror stories of others trying to stop MSH from charging their credit card. Anyone have any GOOD, CONCRETE suggestions for me about this and the future of my Website?

Sean said...

We were ripped off by this company. They did not provide any of the services they promised. When I began the dispute process with Visa -- Visa got back to me and said the charge was legit.

I'm in the process of rebutting that BS. The charge may have been agreed to me but the company did not do the work, they don't return my phone calls, and they refuse to return emails as well.

IMO they are frauds because lying about what they will provide and then not providing it, then refusing to discuss a remedy for the fact that the services were not provided, and then refusing to refund the money for services not provided -- sure seems like fraud to me.

R.L. said...

I am glad that I re-entered the word "scam" with the Main Street name...and got here. They cold-called me this p.m. and I wanted to research first so my standard put-off line is 'yes, please call me back tomorrow at the same time". What I noticed most was the absolute unprofessional and overly candid manner of the sales person. I thought he must have been stoned off his tree! Will take heed of all that this thread offers. Thanks for saving me a "lunch at Appleby's" as he said the cost would be.

Anonymous said...

I was contacted by MSH and signed up for there analysis. It was only 9.95. I am happy with the information there company gave me and was very happy to see how they could help me and my business. I own a small chain of candle stores and I have seen no issues with Main Street Host yet. Tiffany M.

Anonymous said...

These guys are absolute TRASH!! They keep calling me even though I've told them over and over that I'm not interested in their services. I have flatly told them to stop calling me several times. What legitimate company that says they will remove you from their call list and then doesn't deserves ANY business? Why do they think that I would ever do business with them?? These people are lowlifes and/or just completely stupid. Period.

Anonymous said...

Here is what I am doing anyway. i was looking for a SEO expert on craigslist and such. Placed ads - shit like that. It occurred to me, "why not type in 'search engine optimization' and see who comes up in top results"? Well shoot, it looks like mainstreet host came up in the top results. Huh. Some people make claims -- logic dictates that if THEY come up in the top results in THEIR industry - they must be doing something right. I am going to give them a shot!!

Anonymous said...

I gave Main Street Host an opportunity to perform about six months ago. The failed miserably! Not only did they fail to perform as promised, the screwed up my web site, which I then had to pay someone else to fix. This outfit is a SCAM from the word go. I sent them a letter telling them not to have any involvement with my web site, and demanded a refund. No reply, of course. Four months later, another cold call telling me my web site is screwed up, according to their diagnostics they 'embedded' into my web site. (without my permission or knowledge). I am filing a formal complaint with the N.Y. Atty Generals Office and the FTC.