American Business Link

Review: Business states that the President of the company signed up for a 3 month trial and did not cancel. Now they are sending a bill for the "advertisement". We are a sign business here at Hillis Outdoor and do sub contracting. We have no need to advertise with a company. If we needed to advertise we could use any of our signs to do so. Also the President of the company travels and is unlikely to ever be in the office to answer the phone. I talked with the person at American Business Link and ask if they have a recording of them speaking to the president signing up. They do not have one. However they do have a recording where one of our employees answered the phone and they told them to cancel the service that we never signed up for it.Desired Settlement: That customer stops calling and faxing for a service that we never signed up for and the adjust the billing that they are trying to get us to pay.

Review: I was contacted on 9-**-13 by American Business (later identified to me as American Business Online and American Business Link). The first person I spoke to ([redacted]) said he was calling to see if we wanted to "cancel our term before it went to auto renewal." It has to do with our website and online listings, he was not clear about the service provided. I am fairly certain he told me they sent us something recently in the mail about it, but when told him I didn't recall seeing anything from them, he changed his story and said I would be receiving an invoice. I asked him a few questions, such as who signed up for this service, and he told me he didn't have any of that information, but he would transfer me to a different department that would verify my information. (not give me information) This business did not sound familiar to me, and we don't make a practice of verbally approving anything. I cannot locate a contract for this business. I was transferred to a recorded line ([redacted]), our business was identified incorrectly ("[redacted]" instead of "[redacted]) which confirmed to me that we did not sign up for anything with this company, or our business name would be correct. I did point out to her the incorrect name, and I'm sure it is correct now, but it wasn't at the time. This is also when their business was identified as American Business Online. I cancelled the "auto renewal" and asked for details to be sent to me. They both referenced an invoice for $599 that they were going to send to me. I asked both of them to give me details, send me information etc... and they both were double talking and trying to make it confusing and dismissing my concerns. If this was a legitimate contract, why would they want to call me to "cancel" the auto renewal? They would want the term to auto renew because it's more money for their business. If this was legitimate, we would potentially want to review the info and see if we wanted to continue with the service. They didn't even give an option to continue with the term, they made it clear their intent was to cancel the term before it auto renewed. It makes no sense. We are on auto renewal programs with other legitimate businesses and/or services, and we receive notice that something will auto renew unless we contact them, but never have I had someone contact me to initiate cancelling a service that makes their business money. I was asked if I was the one to authorize payment, and to spell my first and last name. After I got off the phone, it still wasn't sitting right with me, so I called back, at ###-###-####. The customer service rep identified the business as American Business Link. I told her I had just spoken to [redacted] and I wanted a copy of our signed contract sent to me. She asked my business name and almost immediately said that our account "was not opened on a signed contract" but rather opened "verbally with an option to cancel at any time." We do not verbally sign up for services with unknown companies, and I am not authorized to do this without approval from my boss, the owner. Anything that pertains to money goes through me, to the business owner for approval. I asked the rep to send me documentation showing we signed up for this service and she said she would send it out. This is a scam, we did not authorize anything, and they use a scare tactic of "auto renewal" to get you to verbally agree to pay an invoice that you don't owe, so that you don't end up "owing" an additional $599 next term.Desired Settlement: I want them to cancel the invoice, and not try to bill us for anything (reference cancellation # [redacted]). I want them to never contact us again. I want them to be held accountable for what seems like illegal practices.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by American Business Link regarding complaint ID [redacted]

I was contacted by them to ask the status of the invoice I sent. I told the rep that I would not be paying that invoice and that I filed a complaint with the Revdex.com. They indicated that they were surprised and had no knowledge of my complaint.

After that phone call, I went on the Revdex.com site to review the complaint, and it looks like my complaint was sent to the wrong business. My complaint was against American Business Link Online, and it looks like it was sent to a different company with a very similar name. I did call and left a message for someone at the Revdex.com to that effect but nobody has called me back. I think the complaint needs to be resent out to a different business, I have had no dealings with the business that the complaint was sent to.

Sincerely,