3/25/07
Merchant Circle Can Kiss My Consumer Ass
Rants in Bitchland
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I was wandering around the Blogosphere when I got home from New York SEO Class and came across a post at rmay’s blog about MerchantCircle. He was essentially complaining about the lack of usability and useful layout and/or information on the MerchantCircle.com website. But, what shocked me was what happened as a result…
A representative for Merchant Circle commented on his post stating:
“Where most of our nearly 110,000 business owners find value and where we’ve positioned ourselves is optimizing our business listings to come up higher in search engines like Google and Yahoo. We haven’t really targeted to the consumer community to come to us as a search portal for businesses.”
Wait… what? You run a website that has a goal of ranking for business names and general business queries in the search engines, but do not design your page or aim the content at consumers? How does that even make sense? So, basically, Merchant Circle is doing their best to rank in the search engines with the sole goal being to charge businesses to control their listing, but providing no end experience or value to the user?
I was amazed by this. Not that they want advertisers – come on, we all want to monetize our sites, but you’re supposed to provide value to the end user, also known as the consumer in the process. So, I did a little more reading in my fascination at their admission. What I found left me feeling like I had stumbled upon the mafia of business listings on the web.
A recent blog post of theirs (this is the first time in history I have ever been disgusted with someone enough to use the nofollow tag, which pisses me off in and of itself) states:
“Other sites give complete control to customers and their reviews. We give complete control to you, the business owner. Don’t like a review? Delete it.”
What? So, you position your site to look like it is offering reviews for consumers of local businesses, but then allow business owners to delete any review they don’t like? How the hell does that provide any valuable information to the consumer? So, I click on the review page (again, nofollow) for a business local to me. I search for the warning (in plain sight) that any review I may take 20 minutes of my time to write could be deleted at any point in time, because the sole point of this site is to strong arm public perception of local businesses. Of course, I didn’t find it.
Then I go back to the business listings pages and end up on the listing page for my local Boston Cooker (yup, nofollow). Well, I spy the listings for nearby restaurants using the Yahoo Local logos. Now, let’s forget for a second that they display the Yahoo logo for nearby restaurants but there is no link to Yahoo Local in that area. One would assume they are advertising the star ratings as coming from Yahoo local. Village Pizza has a five star rating according to Merchant Circle from Yahoo (screenshot). But, when I look up Village Pizza at Yahoo Local, you see that it actually has a four star rating (screenshot). So, we’ve moved from offering biased opinions (without being labeled as such) to what looks like false advertising utilizing the branding and name of Yahoo Local. Nice.
Back to the blog post… so, MerchantCircle.com states:
“…we also want to make you aware that customers are writing reviews about your business on the web. We want to show them to you and many times those reviews aren’t flattering. Don’t take it personal with us. We just want to let you know so that you can manage your online reputation”
So, my first thought when I saw that statement was some kind of mafia movie flash in my head… “Hey, people are saying bad things about you, and we’re letting them. And we’re making sure they get publicity. If you want protection, it will cost you a fee each month”.
Seriously. So, I do a search for “Village Pizza, Spring Hill, FL” on Google and Yahoo. Sure enough, Merchant Circle shows up top five in each. Funny thing though was the title tag for the Yahoo listing for MerchantCircle.com: “Food and Dining Coupons and more in Spring Hill, FL”. So, I go to the page. Village pizza is on the list of business on the top left, but shoved midway through the list (and also with no rating on this one).
Additionally, at first glance, the only place I see the word coupons jump out at me is in the Adsense block to the right. However, if I’m determined, I finally see a light gray box at the top with a coupons link (rmay mentioned the non-visible without staring links too) and when clicking on it, I am presented with coupons for legal services and carpet cleaning. Wow! Exactly what I was looking for when I typed in my search query at Yahoo.
While I was at the top of the page, I saw a blog link that appeared, from the url string, to be a blog aimed at my local town. I click it and find a blog, written by what appears to be local business owners with absolutely no editorial quality control from Merchant Circle. Several of the posts look like what most of us get when we are hit my blog spam (screenshot). Yes, this section was beyond helpful. The only legitimate information on the page appears to be a feed being brought in via topix.net, which Merchant Circle has chosen to nofollow (I have no idea why that amuses me so at this point).
Another blog post (again, nofollow) states:
“…such great small businesses to go to. And without MerchantCircle, they wouldn’t have had the chance to be found on the web. You see, MerchantCircle is their primary web presence.”
Again, the mafia movie pops into my head. Small business owners *do* have multiple chances to be found on the web. They can create their own websites and promote their small business website on the local level and do their own local small business online marketing.
They can utilize consumer portals that are *true* consumer portals like Yahoo Local, Google Local which target the masses or small niche portals like Restaurantica that target a specific industry (in this case, restaurant reviews).
And if a small business is having a problem with achieving a bad reputation on the web? First and foremost, they can improve their own business to better satisfy customers. But, if the occasional angered consumer comes along? They can utilize their own reputation management or hire a reputation management professional whore to help them promote the positive aspects of their business.
I’m not saying reputation management is a bad thing. I’m saying that reputation management, guised as a consumer portal that lists reviews without clearly stating that any reviews can be deleted at a business owner’s request, which allows business owners to pay to be able to control that reputation in their favor after they’ve obtained ranks on their business names utilizing nothing more than a mash up site with no value that uses what I see as scare tactics to gain advertisers is shitty.
Additionally, as a consumer, I’d like to officially tell MerchantCircle to kiss my ass, because I don’t appreciate being directed to a site that, of their own admission, is not built for consumers and doesn’t give me what I want or expect and doesn’t state what I feel is their complete bias.
And apologies Merchant Circle - I’m afraid there is no advertising sign up form that can silence *this* opinion.
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Rae Hoffman
Related Posts:
[...] after reading Rae’s review of Merchant Circle, I headed on over and checked out the SERP for Merchant Circle and what I saw wasn’t pretty [...]
In going after small business fees for protection, rather than making the site an objective resource for consumers, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
One revenue stream will eventually snuff the other, potentially larger, one. Then they will both die on the vine as Joe-Sixpack slowly realized the game is rigged.
Problem here is not just the fact that there are companies on-line with unsavoury practives, but also that there are apparently a lot of companies that buy into their sh*t……
It goes to show that a lot of (small) companies still need a lot in terms of education.
I didn’t know such sites with such business practices existed. Thanks for exposing them. Looks like there is a lot more to net marketing than meets the eye.
Great analysis; this does seem to be, well, otherwise than it should be, and confusing at that.
The thing that bothers me is that, in my experience, a lot of companies are not knowledgeable about the Web, would not spot what was going on, and so could get taken by something like this. On the other hand, the website may just confuse them enough that they simply leave.
Welcome to the real world - it ain’t pretty when the stakes start going up.
Nice rant. Fun to read! I agree wth you on the consumer front, but also agree with ASC: when they stakes go up, it ain’t pretty in business directories.
When I read this: “reputation management, guised as a consumer portal that lists reviews without clearly stating that any reviews can be deleted at a business owner’s request, which allows business owners to pay to be able to control that reputation in their favor after they’ve obtained ranks on their business names utilizing nothing more than a mash up site with no value” I thought - isn’t that what the CofC is? LOL not in every town, but many.
Sadly not too many SMBs are aware. Fortunately. most I meet assume the worst and wouldn’t go with these “outside” portals anyway.
Funny… what about Yelp? Are they not “strong arm”? Isn’t recommending hiring a consultant overboard for a small business? FYI, yahoo will take down any review if you ask…
from The March 25th Chronicle (linked)
–
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/25/MNGV9ORDSH1.DTL
Kridech said he begged Yelp staffers to have a complimentary meal at Senses, hoping that would turn the tide for his restaurant. Instead, he says, Yelp offered to sell him an ad in which a positive posting — including a line from the restaurant thanking the reviewer for the kind words and noting that the business is a sponsor of the site — is placed above all other critiques. But Kridech thought it was extortion.
Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp co-founder and CEO, said in an e-mail, “We think it’s a fun way for businesses to offer kudos to a customer that has said wonderful things on their behalf.” He added that businesses can also use the free messaging feature to defend their reputation.
–
Ich, this is disappointing. So many people take advantage of the less tech savvy businesses owners. My own parents were the victim of some BS scheme which told them their domain was going to be taken away if they didn’t send a $70 check.
Unfortunately, fearing losing their domain made them pay before they checked with me. $70 isn’t a big deal, but it could easily have been worse.
[...] spot on the “Best Posts of the Month” list has been reserved for Rae’s rant on Merchant Circle today, and the goofy way Merchant Circle does business. Rae covers a lot — but not all [...]
Hey Rae, I should have rewritten that line because I can see how it could be misconstrued. Let me clarify; there are more than 15 million business listings we’ve created here at MerchantCircle that can be found high on search engines like Google and Yahoo. What we haven’t targeted is for people to come to MerchantCircle.com to find their local businesses, although they can.
Those individual business listings we created ARE consumer facing and we allow business owners to claim them FREE of charge. They can upload pictures, blog, build coupons and YES, DELETE REVIEWS. There’s a multitude of online directory sites that allow just customer reviews and a business listing, but we are the only site that gives business owners a say in their content. If you’re looking for negative reviews of a business on a MerchantCircle page, you may not find it. But you will find the personality of a business with the pictures they’ve uploaded and the blogs they’ve written.
You can criticize MerchantCircle all you’d like, but the people we care about are business owners. I can literally put you in contact with thousands of business owners who use us as their main website - and don’t have to pay someone for SEO expertise or to build them a website. I’m glad we can provide them with a forum on the web to have a voice, FREE of charge, and for their listings to be found by customers.
And do you really have to resort to name calling? It may be what your audience demands from you, but my sincerity is legitimate. I’ll answer any of your questions in person as well as your readers 650-352-1335 ext515. I encourage you to call.
>>>rewritten that line
>>>You can criticize MerchantCircle all you’d like, but the people we care about are business owners
Nope, sounds like you got the original line right, and simply clarified again, that you don’t aim towards the consumer, only the business owner. Which makes you relevant to them and irrelevant to consumers… but in order to GET the businesses, you need to get the search engines, which are aimed at the users.
It is simply a bad business practice, leaves a bad taste, your marketing sounds like scare tactics and your blatant disregard for how a consumer feels about the page their landing on is alarming.
Bottomline, is you would have NO business owners without consumers landing on those pages and “leaving reviews” so it might be smart to your survival to START caring about what we think.
Surely I can’t be the only person going *NYARGH*
Excellent post - digg-worthy for sure!
Excellent post Rae!
Way to make the Digg front page :)
Great post, Rae…I wasn’t aware of what Merchant Circle is doing and how they deal with “online reputation management”.
this is really really horrible. i’m in the process of building a website similiar to merchant circle and now i have to really rethink what and how i am going to do it.
Just do it from a more legitimate standpoint. If you’re only going to show the positive comments about a business, call them “testimonials” and not “reviews”. If you’re going to let business owners blog, maintain some editorial control and give them a guide that teaches them how to blog quality information for users. Offer content useful to consumers, up front and honestly - sometimes, the way you word things can do a lot for clarification. Then market yourself to local business owners via reputable channels - and not by scaring them. Show them the value in your service. You can do that by targeting local small business marketing blogs and websites - asking them to review your site, or making yourself and your company a quality voice in the local small business community. It isn’t what they’re doing, it is how they’re doing it.
Sugarrae, I found your post extremely interesting, but I do have to disagree with you on one point. I think MerchantCircle will be of great value to me as a consumer. I intend to use their site to find out what local businesses have the poor taste to use such a garbage site, then avoid them! I don’t want to deal with someone who thinks sweeping my complaints under the rug is the way to go.
And I’ll make sure the businesses in question know why, too. If enough of us do this, perhaps we can sweep some of the garbage out of the gutters of the Internet. :-)
As for MerchantCircle “caring” about small business owners, anyone who tries to convince a business sweeping unhappy customers under the rug is a sane or effective business practice in an age when I can blog about my experience, tell all my friends, get them to blog about it, etc. cares about nothing but their own immediate bottom line.
>>>FYI, yahoo will take down any review if you ask…
Sorry NO SEO Consultants - seems not to be the case. I just heard back from Yahoo Local’s Kryssa Guntrum who I showed your comment and asked if she could confirm or deny your claim.
Her response:
“No, that is not our policy. All user inputted reviews are initially put through an automated and then human moderated screening process. When a review slips through this filter and is brought to our attention, we review the request/red flag on a case by case basis, but reviews are never removed because a merchant is unhappy with the outcome. Yahoo! Local aims to be a platform for users to be able to make informed decisions and as such, we do not moderate our reviews outside of monitoring for foul or slanderous language.”
Again, that is a direct quote, used with permission from Yahoo Local’s Kryssa Guntrum.
Great post Rae and it’s disappointing to see Merchant Circle has such a lack of consumer & customer focus in a time when I feel discussions in web marketing are moving [positively] forward.
I noticed Kevin L. stated “I can literally put you in contact with thousands of business owners who use us as their main website” - the phrase “and are happy with our service and results” was curiously missing from this statement.
Taking reputation management advice from Merchant Circle is like going to Bada Bing to watch interpretive dance.
I understand that this site may be shitty for many reasons, but I don’t think it’s fair for you to say they’re mob-like because they are positioning themselves as the primary way for small businesses to promote themselves. It’s marketing hyperbole, the likes of which Yahoo! and Google and perpetrators of themselves.
Rae -
Thanks for reviewing Merchant Circle.Their tactics are shameful, but sadly they’re not the only ones out to proft from serving users biased data.
http://floristblogs.com/blogs/avant_gardens/archive/2007/03/27/local-search-users-first.aspx
Myself and other local florists took Yahoo Local up on their offer to point out incorrect listings ( http://realflorists.flowerchat.com/2007/01/05/good-news-from-yahoo-local/ ) only later to discover some of the bad data (phony local florists) was bought, paid for and protected.
Our first-hand experience with Yahoo Local certainly doesn’t match up with Ms. Guntrum’s statement.
LMAO - funnily enough, I get a mass email today since I’m a CJ affiliate for none other than merchant circle. One of the things in their “news for march” section was: “Create your own free business listing to promote your website in our directory. You also get another inbound link credit for SEO.” - so, I guess the quality of the offerings that benefit consumers keeps on rising.
[...] (Hat tip: Cathy, via comment on Rae’s blog) [...]
The quoted items above from Merchant Circle only serve to highlight the problem with just one web site. Sadly this is not an isolated case.
Often times the consumer is unaware that they have chosen a company based on a relevant search that turned out inaccurate data because of either a little black hat SEO, where a company misrepresents it’s actual location, attempting to “gather orders” or paid listings. This practice, may be happening in other industries, but it is dominant in the online arena of the floral industry.
Thanks for the heads up!!
:) So many companies are still around that you just think to yourself: “wait, what…I don’t get…oh never mind.” There is a need for consumer reviews, but they actually need to be by consumers and not heavily edited.
I don’t blame them for positioning themselves in any way they can. Sure is a lot of competition out there.
Definitely DIGG worthy stuff here.
I have over 100 free sites on Merchant Circle.com that I use to try to market my business to other business owner’s. I like it because business owner’s that actually use the site may see what services ADB Merchant Solutions provide and call me for business.
However, out of all the sites that I have posted free, I have not received any actual revenue from any business from MerchantCircle.com.
I like the site but I am focusing on finding a way to push ADB Merchant Solutions to the top.
We save many business owner’s revenue and grow their business by offering merchant services that far outweigh our competitors.
Well, I like this discussion. It is interesting and has opened my eyes to many things as a business owner. Thanks everyone for your input.
[...] Sugarrae: Merchant Circle Can Kiss My Consumer Ass [...]
[...] think it’s great Merchant Circle has a blog. They’ve taken their fair share of criticism in recent months, and the blog would be a great place to talk about their [...]
[...] a recent highly-digged rant Sugarrae, an SEO consulatant, went off on MerchantCircle. While some of what she said was accurate, her [...]
Hmm - it’s ironic I bet their PageRank zoomed due to this campaign and SEO traffic as well.
Now there is an SEO Strategy I never thought of…infamy!
I know this post is a little bit old but I would like to share this information.
I am a business owner in New Jersey, real estate (RE/MAX franchise)
And today morning our office received an automated call stating they were Google and our website has been rated and that we should go to merchantcircle.com to see the review.
I got suspicious after I went to the website and found no review at all, actually they did have all my business information plus all my phone numbers without my permission. I googled about them and found that last year they did a lot of scam by creating fake and bad reviews and than calling the business owners to go to the merchant circle’ site and sign up to see the reviews. So, it seems that this year they are going further than that by sending an automated call stating they are Google. As far as I know, Google doesn’t own Merchant Circle, correct me If am wrong
I can imagine the amount of small businesses are falling into this scam and signing up for the premium service which is paid.
hurray for you.my sentiments exactly.i found 3(so far)horrible reviews about my business.all from one digruntale exemployee.i have 75,000 hours invested myself trying to suceed in 17 years.you do the math.this goof uses his brothers screen name(dumb) and another one (frank rizzo)jerkey boys fame(dumb) and the same day he blasts me he gives a 5 star rating to a crappy pizza joint selling fabricated pizza,mind you he loves it,so we snagged him.hes a drunk,divorced,cant see his own kid,has no privileges,a real loser.his own family wants nothing to do with him.mean while since i moved my business 2.5 years ago business has tripled.because it sucks.i dont think so.your right it is extortion these things are alowwed to be posted and you must pay a fee to have any recourse. well im done ranting.not really but gotta go.thanks sugarrae.please excuse any spelling erorrs.im upset.later john.
thanx for the insight. an automated call came in and told me to check my feedback on their site. i wanted to know what others have said about this site before i check out the feedback. guess this merchant circle is not worth my time. one good thing out of this: i now know about your page.
I did a search on Merchant services and checked out the site after I received a phone call from them. I also found your site from conducting the search. I feel that merchant circle is participating in false advertisement. Nobody wrote a review about my business. The company (merchant circle) did create a blog and offered something to the public that my business does not offer. I would like to sue Merchant circle. This is clearly engaging in deceptive unethical business practices.
[...] ever received in my life. Too bad that I won’t be able to get one of those fun calls from Merchant Circle since they don’t service Canada. (Note to the folks at MerchantCircle, you may want to pick [...]
As a member of Merchant Circle and a small business, I never thought the features of the site was worth my 29.00 a month so I never brought into it. All I have taken advantage of is the FREE services. Now that I know how they really operate, I’m glad I haven’t forked over any money in something I believed in the beginning was not worth it.
Anybody think i should consider making an opensourse kind of merchant directory site on my domain storelocation.com so we could compete with the cooperate world and make a site that actually would help the business owner and not corperate america .
Send me some email with some ideas.
[...] taken with a chunk of salt. If this is all new to you, click the link earlier in this paragraph, or read Rae’s rant about them, or Peter Krasilovsky, who says the “vast majority” of their merchants [...]
Merchant circle is dubious anyway.
I find it hard to belive crooks can take your money and give nothing.
Merchyants circle can also kiss mine
I have tried to cancel my connections they dont understand
i just got a call from a “recorded” voice saying a consumer had left a positive message about my business and to take a look at it on MerchantCircle.
Having never heard of this Merchant Circle, I did a search and took a quick look. but what really caught my eye in the search was all the negative stuff coming up ON THE FIRST page of the search. that was enough for me to know i’m not bothering to investigate this site as a potential tool for my business.
Wow, excellent article on merchant circle. The site sends a confusing message, at first glance it looks like a very useful tool but in digging a bit deeper and after reading sugar’s review, it got me thinking about my own business and how we use reviews. If anyone gets a chance, I would like some feedback on what you think about http://www.moguling.com , many of same claims
I also just recieved a call from merchant circle about a customer who googled and came to their site to find my contact information. The automated message, between the static, said something about how I needed to come to their site and enter my phone number in the blue/grey box. If they needed my phone number, how did they call me? I instanly smelled scammish business practices and started looking around for reviews.
THANK YOU for your review.
I just got the mafia “call” and proceeded to look them up. I also scanned the page to find you comment……….I’m not even wasting my time by looking at it. Thanks for savings me valuable hours that will be better spent on real work.
They can kiss mine too……………………
I received the dreaded marketing call from Merchant Circle today. Due to our office receiving so many of these types of calls, I have decided to listen to them, right down the number and call them back. Try doing that a few times, its interesting. But this one sparked my curiosity. Thanks for saving my time, I don’t care to check this web site out after your read.
I am a business owner and I am extremely frustrated by merchant circle. They spam me about reviews left about my firm that do not exist, and have now resorted to calling and leaving messages. Again, no reviews, just a come on to register for their site. The only way I have found to call them is from Kevin L’s post, above, whose extension doesn’t even emention his name. They are BS firm in my opinion.
M.C.Com called me on the phone said for me to check out my company name and a good review of my Co. from I thought maybe one of my customers look up there site M.C. Com. TO find no review Buttt I can make one up real quick thats bulls___t THANKS for reading your collum NOT BUYING IT Is everthing on the net a ripoff other than e-bay/paypal small business owner
MerchantCircle allows ANONYMOUS reviews which is outrageous at best. Our competition berated us with a negative review and even though we are allowed to delete these messages, we don’t have time to finagle with such shitty practices. My account has been deleted!
GAG!! Get a grip people and get a life. Merchant Circle is not the maffia. No one is holding a gun to any merchant’s head and saying join. Merchant Circle is about small businesses networking together, and consumers are always welcome to join in. Ever time someone does something for the small fries the larger fries always have to complain.
I have not received any calls, as a business owner from Merchant Circle regarding anything bogus or scamming. It’s not very business-like to put this company down when they are trying to help business owners who just want a little free marketing advertised on the web. I like Merchant Circle and they do not pressure me. It’s up to me to respond for the packgaging available to buy. They are networking all of us to give us a chance to get some clients. I have received so many phone calls asking for money to advertise. I am proud and relieved Merchant Circle invites us for free. Keep up the good work, Merchant circle!
Hey Helen -
Get your head out quick - Merchant Circle calls me
all of the time. High pressure and quick talking jerks try to confuse me. If you do not know the lingo, you can be swindled very easily.
With more clients like me this company can get rich. Maybe your company has money to throw away, but our does not. And I don’t like being talked to like I am stupid (it is lack of knowledge).
Helen, did you ever feel like you are on the wrong side of the issue??? Like at all of the post above yours!
Thanks sugarrae!
Jo
This is informative post - I can see that Merchant Circle is not geared for the retail customer. This is a good point. But I find the site excellent for Business to Business commerce. I believe this is what the site is designed for. I do find that it works well for obtaining business from other businesses. Their SEO is excellent. I use their provided blog to post short discription of arcticles on my local blog. The serach engines pick up the titles very well - great. Better seo than what I can do directly from my blog. So I think it is a great service. They also allow you to provide multiple links to your web landking pages. So for business to business the site is great for building networks and not so good for retail consumers. But their SEO is great for posts on their provide blogs for both retail and business customers.
As for Yahoo local - I have an issue with it. They will deactrivate my listing if I add a URL to the listing - why - well it took me six months to get an answer - they stated that the business does not have a physical address and it is just an internet business. Well, the business has had a physical address for 100 years but yahoo knows more than the business owners.
Your post is having me thing about better alternative networks for the retail customer 0 thanks for the post.
Again great post! I reviewed the policy for comments and I read that you can NOT delete individual comments. You can clear all comments and start over. I think this is fair - if you beleive something is not fair then you must delete all comments along with the good ones.
I just got a recorded telemarketing call from these jerks (MerchantCircle.com). Having recently put our business number on the no-call list, I listened to the pitch anyway just to get a telephone number to report. No luck. Just a message that said, more or less, “a customer recently submitted a review of your business on our website. To find out what they said, go to MerchantCircle.com and enter your telephone number.” I knew it was a con, of course, but I was curious. To be brief, they even lied about the customer review. Just a come-on to sign up. No surprise, but just further confirmation that these guys are real scumbags.
I don’t have a business, and just received a voicemail that Merchant Circle was trying to verify that my business was legitimate, and to please go to their website and log in.
Hey, please give Merchant Circle a BREAK ?
At LEAST they give us merchants the ability to delete bad reviews.
Google does not care if a BAD “Review” was actually a competitor using a phony email to destroy the reputation of a reputable company.
They offer very good value for the little guy, and that would be us.
WHY would any business owner not like MC! hmmmm lets see: Its Free and The BEST SEO tool available. Its up to the consumers to make up their own mind through due dilegence. All we can expect MC to do is help the consumer find us. THANK YOU MC, chris
