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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Well, I just joined MerchantCircle not even a week ago…one of my contacts notified me of them. I’m not using any paid plan with them, wanted to try out the basic first. But I have connected with alot of businesses relevant to mine and it’s been positive so far.
As for the ratings, I don’t mess with them at all. I recieved high and low…I know someone sabotaged my ratings because my business is relatively new. Doesn’t bother me, at the end of the day it’s up to the consumer. I WILL NOT adjust any ratings because that’s not how I operate…what I get is what I get, even though I know other businesses or people give low ratings on purpose.
I think MC is a great way for small business owners to get the word out about their business. The large fries make enough anyway, and they sabotage more than anyone on the net…but I don’t hear people complaining about them at all.
Thank you. I had never heard of these guys until my business got a phone call (recorded) saying that someone was Googling us and they wanted our phone # for who knows what reason. Luckily, I found your rant using Dogpile and am glad I did. Now I know better than to call them back. Just think, over a year later, and you’re still doing good with that one act. Thanks again.
I just got the same call to check my buiness reputation. Having never heard of this company I searched as a consumer. I honestly can’t understand how a consumer would’ve found then trusted this to begin with. I did not pursue this further. Thanks for the input.
I also own a small biz and got a call that we were being “ranked” by a customer and that I had better go online to subscribe and check this “ranking” for accuracy. I also had never heard of them and found this blog in my research about them. Thanks for the info and heads up. As a small biz owner I’ve got my hands full truing to run a good biz with happy customers and happy employees. Thanks again for having our backs on this one.
the comp. i work for as recep just received a call from mc.com to verify our info on their website for someone who had googled us. i had never heard anything about this and not quite trusting it, i searched for the site and found this one. thanks for the heads up and i agree that if they can call us to let us know then they could give our # to whoever was looking for it. also my employer never signed up for this anyway which gives me another reason to believe that they are not 100% legitimate in their business practices.
I received an automated call this morning saying that someone had a done a Google search and was requesting a verification that my business legitimate. The only thing I had to do was go the website and enter my phone to be declared legitimate. Well I did that, and with a half hour the spam from other businesses started hitting my mailbox. None of it was of any interest to me. I assume those folks paid some kind of fee to access my email address.
Merchant Circle usese deceptive business practices and should be avoided.
Pretty funny stuff. I have been receiving calls from Merchant Circle for probably a year now. I always hang up on them before they can get into their poorly written call script. Even more interesting however, is that I just changed my hosting service recently and wanted to test my search results. Low and behold, I found a listing for my company name with a very old and outdated company cell phone number, in my same line of business, but in a small town 45 minutes away from me, where we have NEVER had an office. I sent in a post to Merchant Circle asking that they delete the listing two months ago…I have not heard back as of yet.
More sleezy work from Merchant Circle. I’m a small business owner of a psychotherapy private practice. About a month ago I got a voicemail from Merchant circle, “Hello, this is Merchant Circle calling. An potential customer has used to verify that you are actually a business. To verify that you are a valid business, call us back at 1-800 blah blah blah.”
I knew it was a scam and ignored it. Then, they called me again yesterday, and leaving a message. “Hello this is Merchant Circle again, and we never received a call back from you to verify that you are a business to this potential customer! Please call us back as soon as you can!”
This is total trash. At the moment, my only web presence is through Psychology Today, which verifies the license of the listers. Plus, I went to Merchant Circle myself to find my business (which I did) and click on a button to “verify” it. Nope. No such thing. Quel suprise. Scum bags!
just hang up whenever they call you.
I had no idea that such things were happening. Goes to show that if you don’t keep up with what is happening on the internet you can sure get behind. Glad I found your site. I’ve bookmarked it so I can keep up with what is going on. Thanks for letting us know about it. Keep up the good work.
Being an Electrical Contractor in Florida,I’ve seen that most Biz’s that list contractors are loose with thier qualifications.We have Gulf Coast Builders Exchange here and they have a member that has filed bankrupcy twice to elude paying subs,I went and told J and he was in complete denial,but he got his $500 membership fee.If the system worked,only the good guys would survive,in Florida we have SunBiz.org,counties have permit status reports to backcheck,and the good ole DBPR.Because of this logic,we are all paying right now.
I suppose I can understand some of your point(s), as a consumer. However, from MC’s point of view, why would they want their site to be too consumber-based?
a. If they did, no one would click on a Google AdSense Ad to find what they’re REALLY looking for (after possibly not finding it on MC)
b. It is not cool to consider MC an unfair reputation-saving company. That control is left up to the business owners.
c. It is also unfair to say that businesses on MC are illegitimate, shady, or negative in any other way. Even if a business has ONLY good feedback or comments, we can’t assume all the bad ones were weeded out. Maybe the good ones are all that have been posted. A business has to make me pretty angry to post negative feedback on their web site (or someone else’s).
I opened an MC account for a bit of exposure for my NEW web site; backlinks are important. Our niche market would never be found a good MC company, but I thought I would give it a try; and in turn, possibly meet other local business owners.
Everyone has an agenda if you dig deeply enough…
Could some of you give opinions about the type of marketing where a merchant might not at all use the Internet, except a private site, and only use business cards and face to face contact to get new clients. Being this world is so full of selfish and dishonest people. I’m thinking of doing business more discreetly as I’ve described above, since I have a type of business where reputation and honesty is important. I’m thinking of the kind of network that is much more discreet, more private although not cliquish, and more vigilant.
What would anyone in the blog think about this? Is it necessary to go out an be so bold, not giving a whip about who you converse with and try to market. I’ve had some bad things happen from doing business with people on craigslist for example. I had clients thinking I was illegal and even trying to get me to conduct myself against the law. I wondered if I came across that way. I did not see how I could establish a firm network and client foundation off the Internet anymore as I would get so many selfish, dishonest, angry, and mean people. Is this how this Merchant Circle is? Is there anyone whose had positive experiences with it more than negative?
The merchant circle isn’t working. With so many complaints on so many websites about merchant circle, it’s a wonder they’re gone if this is why their website doesn’t come up anymore. One other person just reported how they were getting fake negative ratings and reviews. Fake why? Customer and merchants were not really leaving negative reveiws. :) God, I just signed up with Merchant Circle. Forget it, I’ll delete my listing a second time. I’m scared again:)
Here’s what is says when I try to get on the merchant circle website:
The website cannot display the page
HTTP 500
Most likely causes:
•The website is under maintenance.
•The website has a programming error.
What you can try:
Refresh the page.
Go back to the previous page.
More information
YEah, maybe this Internet review thing wouldn’t be good anywhere. I just tried to give myself a 5 star rating on CitySearch and it worked. A merchant can pretend they are a customer and up their own ratings just as a competitor can say negative things just to boot another merchant down. With the economy already slumping, maybe this review and rating thing isn’t so good, as you can be a viable, honest, great business and get mobbed by your competitors with fake and negative reviews. On the other hand, you can make your 5 star ratings and put your own good reviews up on yourself, and this is dishonest too. So, who can trust the validity of anyone’s reviews online anymore. I think I”m taking down all my listing and going about networking the old fashioned way — by being selective who I do business with, using business cards, maybe a private website, and face to face marketing. I can afford to have my business flounder by ill people online. Nobody can.
I mean I CAN’t afford to have my business flounder because of ill people online, competitors, or defective scripts. Why market the online community when most of what it has to say is negative or erroneous.
one has to market and run their business like it’s underground these days in order to prevent so much negative, malicious, greedy, competitive, and dishonest clients, competitors, and networks from destroying them. Being honest, skilled, and true doesn’t pay off either. Then, there’s the person who competes with you, because they know clients will like the honest and skilled one better. So, either way, if you suck, you won’t get clients, if you are excellent, you may get some clients, but then a snake comes along. I’m going to be more careful.
Morgantwo, you may very well be doing your business a disservice by not being online, and open to public view. Understandably, you want to protect your reputation. We all do.
The issue is not just with MC. There have always been ways for competitors to play dirty and tarnish your image; as there has always been ways for companies to ‘toot their own horns’ fraudulently.
The advent of the Internet has just allowed such things to happen much more publicly; quickly; and most of all, widely. Don’t shy away from online promotion all together.
You have a valid point about choosing better people to do business with, but with a larger pool of people, you will have MORE choices. This is what the Internet is great for – connecting us with POTENTIAL clients. You can still be discriminating about your choices, but don’t fall behind your competition, who may market themselves online, and steal your potential clientèle. What then?
I am a firm believer in ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’, but not entirely in this case. Entrepreneurship is about taking chances. You can do this, and still take precautionary measures to ensure your reputation is up to snuff.
No matter if you are online or not, the rest of the world is. If someone wants to write something bad about you, they will find an arena like ripoffreport.com or angieslist.com. The point is, you don’t have to be online to have your name tarnished online. Additionally, if you have a web site, you will be better able to refute any fraudulent claims, and redeem yourself. Make it difficult for people to believe any bad claims against you by putting your best foot forward online. Keep it positive.
Having a web site is a major factor for many people in determining whether a company is worth their salt. If your web site conveys your true reputation, and has REAL positive reviews from REAL clients, you will be just fine.
Good luck!
I just wanted to say that I think Merchant Circle is great! And it is definitely a way to network with other business owners. After all, they buy services as well, right? Also, when someone accepts my invitation, I look at their website and it makes me aware of what they have to offer! I had one guy who accepted my invitation stop by to give me a bid to clean our windows, and then bought food at our restaurant. Business has picked up as we are able to send out newsletters and coupons free to as many people or businesses that partnered with our business. I did notice it isn’t tailored to consumers specifically, but business owners are consumers too and I look to see who offers in what in my circle whenever a need arises. I haven’t spent a dime with them, and unless you are completely unfamiliar with computers, you don’t need to purchase their services. I do agree with Rae however that perhaps “Testimonials” would be a better phrase than “Reviews” if you are able to delete them although I have never had to do that.
I wish I’d found this post earlier.
This weekend, I hired a boiler repair company in Brooklyn, NY, relying on the rating & reviews at merchantcircle. Big mistake!
The company’s workmanship was poor. Bad enough. When I followed up with my concerns, they exploded into a rant of obscenities and F-bombs, B*tch, etc. It went beyond unprofessional. It was bizarre and abusive. Sincerely, I explained my concerns calmly and objectively. Nothing I said should’ve provoked such an extreme reaction.
I left a review at merchantcircle. In response, the company chose to retaliate by posting my real name, real address, and other “information” about me & my home. Even though most of the so-called info they posted was flat-out wrong. What a pathetic attempt at intimidation. And what a great showcase of their own unprofessionalism.
Also, one other bad review of this company was deleted at some point today. And parts of my original review seem to be missing.
Don’t believe the ratings on merchantcircle. They’re utterly unreliable.
If anyone’s interested at gawking at the ridiculousness. The company is:
NY City Boilers
2337 McDonald Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11223
They also list their business address as 15 Sloan Pl.
FALSE AD ON MERCHANT CIRCLE.
Hi, I am the owner of Brink Roofing also known as Brink’s Kanga Roof “We hop to it”.
I typed up brink roofing in a search to see what I would get.
I got merchant circle, and went to the site. Then I clicked on Brink Roofing where it said this….Qoute…..roofing,shingles-we work thru your homeowners insurance,and don`t carry workman`s compensation ,to save you money we also classify our workers as subcontractors,this way we keep your job as cheap as possible
Payment: we prefer cash to save you money ,so we don`t have to pay taxes or declare your job as income
I can’t believe this. What an outrage! Who should I be mad at here. Did Merchant Circle allow one of my competitors to post this? Have you heard about this happening before? I tried to claim the ad so that I could change it and it just made another listing, but didn’t take that one off. So, I put Spam/Fake ad in the comments section.
Of course I can’t get ahold of anyone. I called information to get their phone number and they said the address doesn’t exist. Please help!
Kyle
brinkroofing11@yahoo.com
For the money involved in promoting anyone’s business, M/C falls short. I haven’t made a dime. And I’m glad that I didn’t get more financially involved. It’s the sign of the times. The only ones making money in this economy are those who claim to offer you ways to be profitable. They make tons of money on Google ad space while we as merchants go broke!
As a small business owner I like what you have to say, and also want to comment on one problematic area with all “reviews.” I don’t think that reviews should be erased – on the other hand, after 35 years of great client relations and many return clients and hundreds of clients, we have had three clients that were, frankly, fruitcakes, and then maybe another 3-4 who we had differences with where they were unwilling to work with us to resolution.
Sometimes they actually broke their contract and would not meet us halfway. Maybe one of these was simply where we were at fault and they got mad — even though we tried to accomodate and satisfy them in some way. None were willing to go to small claims, so none actually thought they had a case –HOWEVER, they might have written a bad review. Had they doen so, I would have wanted to simply write a rebuttal statement — such as is done on eBay, which I think is entirely fair. And yes, clients sometimes write good reviews — but many busy clients simply don’t take the time, though our business is greatly augmented by referrals.
Food for thought — from one who might have had a bad review from one out of hundreds of clietns and would simply like to write a rebuttal!
Thanks for the warnging about merchant circle — it is not our first choice though they placed us on their site. We have had reviews to merchant circle (clients told me)though they have not been published, probably because we are not advertisers with them
Hey there, interesting and insightful post!
I also find it “interesting” how searches for businesses in Google return a Merchant Circle result….a definite monopoly.
Our company has a MC account, I thought it would be a useful source of traffic for our site and to network with local businesses. Sure the connections are there, but the buck stops at MC with the traffic.
MC users are encouraged to set up their listing with information that would otherwise be gained from your site. Little follow up to your actual site is achieved. Then there is the issue of actually converting any traffic you get….so far we have $0.00 from MC listing views and the small amount of traffic that has viewed out proper site.
Lucky for us, we have a free MC account. We intend to keep it that way.
Kyle – here is a number for an MC Account Manager – Meagan Kennedy – 408-334-3900 . Hope that helps.
Cody,
Fastmetrics
I am actually listed with them but no one pays for the service. It is totally free and just gets your hits up through web crawlers. If you own a site and want it to be hit, then you have to get the name out there in many areas to get robots to crawl it. They just offer the same service that yahoo, yellowpages, and others do. I am not sure why you think it is so bad of a place, since it is totally free advertisement for any site. I have been in business for 16 years and on their list for 2 of those and have had success with getting referals. Not sure why you are mad at them for offering advertisements for companies, but that in no way insures anything about the business they list. But neither does the phone book for that matter. Just my 2 cents worth…which in todays time is only worth 1/2 cent.
Wow, this is horrible on so many levels I don’ t even know where to begin. There are so many offenses in every area – ethical, marketing, service – that I applaud you for managing to write a post that was not 10 pages long. There is another company out there TrustFx.com who has taken the opposite approach – opting for honesty, ethics and transparency. It makes companies like Merchant Circle stick out like a sore thumb. Thank you for taking time to research and share with your audience. If I had heard anywhere else I would not have believed it.
I guess I may be one of the few people out there that actually feel differently about MC. I have been a member since December and the site has increased my exposure quite a bit on search engines. I have actually received a few extra calls because of being found on that site. Sure, there are some downfalls with it in some aspects, but for the most part, it has been a great help to me. But I don’t rely on it solely, and I hope that no one else does either. It’s just another SEO bump in my opinion.
That statement is enough to totally discredit whatever ratings service / site who offers this to sweeten their deal. Consumers need to made aware of these services so that they can make informed choices as to which ratings service is honest
You clearly have too much time on your hands. I could go into more detail to elaborate why this article is foolish but why waste my time and energy.
Here is a good one for you! I ALMOST signed up yesterday until I found this blogpage. I exited out of “Merchant circle” just in time NOT to verify my account.
I recieve an email today from them stating this. And I quote…” Your invation has been accepted by “****” company. Now that ***** has joined your network, we encourage you to write a positive review of their business. Each review you write adds value to your network increasing traffic to your site.” WHAT? I have never been to this business but they want me to not only write a review but a favorable one in the disconnected “hope” that it will increase traffice to my site. HOW? What kind of games are they playing?
Mark
I am tired of people calling my cell phone and asking for Computer Edge. One caller tonight indicated that people may be getting my cell phone number from Merchants Circle. If so, I would like them to cease and desist and make amends for the calls I have to pay for.
#3 for phrase “Merchant Circle” ! No, you don’t need SEO to rank in Google :)
You cant trust “reviews” from any website, because so many of them are bogus. I admit I’m biased because I’ve also had competitors spreading lies via on-line “reviews”. Because of that, I dont have a big issue with businesses being able to delete “reviews”.
That said, I agree that MC is a sleazy company, using many sleazy tactics. The business “listings” created are advertisements, and that fact should be made clear to the reader. And, it would be more appropriate to call the “reviews”, testimonials instead.
In my opinion, the worst thing they do is to create messages “from” one listed business, and send them to another. The “from” business does nothing to initiate this message, and has no knowledge of it’s existence. In other words, it’s a blatant forgery.
Here is the text of “invitation” messages that MC creates and sends of fraudulently:
“I’d like to invite you to join my neighborhood network on MerchantCircle. MerchantCircle helps me build stronger relationships with the other businesses in our neighborhood. It’s been a big help for me to get referrals and to reach customers. It’s exciting to see our local community take shape online, so I hope you’ll connect with me and ABC Widget Company! It’s free to join and only takes a minute to sign up and connect.”
I have received this message many times, purportedly from other businesses. In reality, they are created by merchant circle, with a forged (unauthorized) signature line.
Others have also received this exact message, “signed” by me. I have never written this message to anyone.
I called them on this about a year ago, and they said it was a mistake and would not happen again.
It started happening again last week.
Joe Deasy
US Cargo Tools
Hillsborough, NJ
This article was written on March 2007. Visiting the current version of MC, i’ve seen that it does give merchants more options for promotion and such. Do you have an updated viewpoint of MC now that it’s 2 years later? Just curious as to what you think now.
Thanks.
Daniel
Waaaaa… crybaby bloggers. Who are you promoting? Merchant Circle is just another business listing site to help small businesses get exposure and it works just fine. It’s another tool for businesses that can not afford high priced SEO consultants. Go back to bitchland where the only rank you pull is from in your shorts. You will probably delete this post anyway. Oh No! That’s what you’re bitching about!
Nope Aedan, I’ve got no problem with letting you show anyone who comes across this post that you’re an asshat :) Thanks for taking a break from second life to share tho! Cheers.
I myself have had a couple of reviews deleted from them. What makes it so frustrating is that it was for a business with terrible customer service and I wanted to warn others of them. Little did I know that my honest review would be deleted. Tried again, deleted again.
I will never even go to Merchant Circle again except to warn others of this business every few months (as my review keeps getting deleted).
Thanks for writing this article, Rae. Its great to see that its on the front page after typing “Merchant Circle” on Google. I’m so you already do this, but don’t take the criticism heavily. The person who wrote before me must not have noticed that this article is two and a half years old, and it sort of makes their point quite idiotic.