Complaint: [redacted] Here is a copy of our recent emails with Sean and ENRG We have not received any phone calls from Sean or anyone associated with ENRG in regards to our emails or concerns, which we feel would be an appropriate response, instead we received an email in response to this original claim (number above) several weeks after the claim was filedAgain, we feel a monetary settlement to this matter is the ethical and just next action Emails from Sean (ENRG) and [redacted] : Sean, Our frustration with ENRG goes far beyond the points that you illustrated belowWe feel that you misrepresented yourself in regards to your experience with digital marketing from the beginning, as well as disappeared when you were neededIt is interesting that you laid out points in your email to us which ultimately prove our pointThey illustrate your inexperience and disorganization which caused us to spend far too much money without any resultsI would like to respond to your points laid out in the email to us, not for us, but for youIf you wish to have any success in this business, it is important that you recognize and learn from your mistakesHopefully you will also do right by us and share in some of the cost that you caused through your promises and inexperience Facebook - up front we all looked at Facebook as a vehicle for growth, creating a community and selling blenders Unfortunately, do to no part of our own (and something we ultimately have no control over) the [redacted] Facebook account has continually been shut down As a company, we put well over hours into trying to get this issue resolved A great majority of those hours were my personal time - again, being very much focused on the success of [redacted] I have personally spent countless hours trying to bring closure to this and to this day I have repeatedly had the door shut in my faceIt’s painfully frustrating and with Facebook being a big driver of traffic - it’s been a huge 'momentum blocker’ It was your lack of experience and unwillingness to listen to us which caused not only the problem with Facebook, but you to spend a huge amount of time spinning your wheels, looking for a solutionAll of us were very frustrated by the situation, we had only wished that you listened to us a little bit about possible causes and solutionFrom day one of us getting shut down, [redacted] asked you to switch the URL that was linked to the landing page, it raised a fraud alert with FacebookI later begged you to do it, and was told you would, but never didThe last information that you gave us was that it was one of things that caused the issue, the credit card or the URLGiven the fact that the exact problem replicated itself, its fairly obvious where the source of the problem isThe URL, we didn’t get nearly enough traction in the few days that we were actually live to get the amount of negative feedback that would shut us down, let alone on different accounts Website - We were asked to install an affiliate pl- which we did However, we were not asked to do a complete site audit nor were we aware that the [redacted] website had not had any maintenance or backups for over four months This, combined with the site being hosted on a GoDaddy account was the root cause for the challenges the site was having The Envision team took it upon themselves to completely update WordPress, WooCommerce and twenty or so other plug-ins on [redacted] s site When that didn't resolve the issue we completely transferred the site to an acceptable hosting partner Collectively this represented significant time and effort Again, this was not in our original scope We paid our team to complete this, however did not charge [redacted] a dime to do so We do appreciate the efforts that you put forward on the website, but to the point that you have made on several occasions, that is not what you were hired for, and the reality is, your team week after week used that as the reason for our lack of successBuilding and integrating our website is something that we do have experience withWe all agreed that it would make sense for your team to do it as to prevent more hands from being in the pot and to keep things movingHad we known that this would prevent forward momentum, we would have gladly jumped in and taken over that partWe really wanted you guys to succeed, and gave you every opportunity to do so Marketing - Short of our ability to advertise on Facebook we embraced the next most viable alternative - AdWords We monitored and optimized [redacted] 's account to the point it was getting significantly above industry standard click-through rates and Google quality scores As marketers, we can lead the horse to water - however we can not make them drink The funds spend on advertising worked from a standpoint of driving additional traffic to the [redacted] site Unfortunately, visitors did not convert It is my opinion that until the brand hits a ‘tipping point’ we should consider driving traffic back to Amazon - where customers seem to be buying at a regular clipThis may provide more evidence for future marketing This is one of the areas that frustrated us mostI discussed this in great detail in the last email to youWe agreed that directing any adds to our website would be a waste of time [redacted] and I spent a great deal of time and money testing it on Facebook and AdWords, with considerably higher click through rates than you achieved, with no conversionsYou sold us on a strategy to collect emails, and to a/b test different ad copy as well as offersWhy would you EVER send any traffic to the our website though PPC adsYou missed most of the calls during the time that adwords campaign was running, but we asked on every single one, why you were doing thisWe were told to establish a base lineThe whole point of the engine was to collect emails, you never tried to collect any emails Why is this point lost on you? Marketing Platform - The [redacted] Marketing Platform was integrated and delivered on-time Email automation sequences were written, implemented and executed against "Collecting Emails" is accomplished through sales and content marketing (including videos)Short of the people in the database that have filled out the contact form (of which almost 40% are sharing frustration with challenges) there are approximately names Building that email list takes a commitment from a social media and marketing perspectiveThe majority of "Likes" and posts on Facebook came from the period in which we agreed to manage postings, and we continue to do that today at our expense - Again, this was not something included in our original scope We paid our team to do this and charged [redacted] nothing Again, this really is the source of our frustration, and your point here further aggravates us, please review the initial proposal, and all of the plans before the Facebook fiascoAs of our last call we had over people in our database, all from a popup and section of our website with a free blender givawayWe did not collect any emails from the contact formOf course a large percentage of those were expressing frustration, it is our customer service contactCustomer service is an area that we pride ourselves onYou set up a platform, which you never usedWe had calls weekly for a month straight regarding your progress, discussing Ad copy, email sequence strategyWe begged you to test this platform with the emails that we had the free blender giveaway You don't even know the source of the emails that we have, or how many we haveYou refuse to touch on thisYou keep mentioning things that you have done outside of your original scopeNone of which were productive or led to salesThat is the problem, you did not do anything that was in the original scope THAT IS WHAT WE HIRED YOU FOR [redacted] Fired Us - [redacted] did not fire [redacted] and I’ve never fired a clientWe help clients and if it make sense to go different ways - we do it on good terms and in a supportive way He was actually looking out for your marketing budget and suggested no more money be spent until the site could be tweaked to increase conversionsThat is all - no offense intended here [redacted] told us that there was nothing more that he could doThe call ended with me saying so thats it, and he said yes, thats itI’m not sure what you call it, but I would not call it supportiveI than attempted to call you, and left messages as well as texts, didn’t hear back from you for several weeksYou than emailed, with basically telling us the sameYou have been MIA for most of this process, we attempted to make this work, and really do like youWe love our company more! We spent years cultivating this dream, and thought you would be a great partner with us moving forwardThat is what makes us so bitter, we really feel taken advantage ofI do understand that to move forward as a marketer in the ever changing media landscape that we all live and work in, it is important to always evolveYou may have had a huge amount of success in DRTV, and want to take in digital marketingYou are clearly skilled at sales and managing client relationships, so it does make sense to learn digital marketing on someone else's dimeYou may have even had the best of intentions, you simply underestimated the complexity of the mediumI get it, but please put yourself in our shoesWe started this company with nothing, clawed our way to create a product and generate revenueWe took a risk partnering with you, and we understood that riskWhat we did not expect was you to use us as a platform to learn digital marketingAll we wanted was you to do what you promised, unfortunately you did notNow all we ask is that you make it right financially Best, [redacted] Sincerely, [redacted] and [redacted]
Complaint: [redacted]Here is a copy of our recent emails with Sean and ENRG. We have not received any phone calls from Sean or anyone associated with ENRG in regards to our emails or concerns, which we feel would be an appropriate response, instead we received an email in response to this original claim (number above) several weeks after the claim was filed. Again, we feel a monetary settlement to this matter is the ethical and just next action.
Emails from Sean (ENRG) and [redacted]:
Sean,
Our frustration with ENRG goes far beyond the points that you illustrated below. We feel that you misrepresented yourself in regards to your experience with digital marketing from the beginning, as well as disappeared when you were needed. It is interesting that you laid out 5 points in your email to us which ultimately prove our point. They illustrate your inexperience and disorganization which caused us to spend far too much money without any results. I would like to respond to your points laid out in the email to us, not for us, but for you. If you wish to have any success in this business, it is important that you recognize and learn from your mistakes. Hopefully you will also do right by us and share in some of the cost that you caused through your false promises and inexperience.
1. Facebook - up front we all looked at Facebook as a vehicle for growth, creating a community and selling blenders. Unfortunately, do to no part of our own (and something we ultimately have no control over) the [redacted] Facebook account has continually been shut down. As a company, we put well over 100 hours into trying to get this issue resolved. A great majority of those hours were my personal time - again, being very much focused on the success of [redacted]. I have personally spent countless hours trying to bring closure to this and to this day I have repeatedly had the door shut in my face. It’s painfully frustrating and with Facebook being a big driver of traffic - it’s been a huge 'momentum blocker’.
It was your lack of experience and unwillingness to listen to us which caused not only the problem with Facebook, but you to spend a huge amount of time spinning your wheels, looking for a solution. All of us were very frustrated by the situation, we had only wished that you listened to us a little bit about possible causes and solution. From day one of us getting shut down, [redacted] asked you to switch the URL that was linked to the landing page, it raised a fraud alert with Facebook. I later begged you to do it, and was told you would, but never did. The last information that you gave us was that it was one of 2 things that caused the issue, the credit card or the URL. Given the fact that the exact problem replicated itself, its fairly obvious where the source of the problem is. The URL, we didn’t get nearly enough traction in the few days that we were actually live to get the amount of negative feedback that would shut us down, let alone on 2 different accounts.
2. Website - We were asked to install an affiliate plug-in - which we did. However, we were not asked to do a complete site audit nor were we aware that the [redacted] website had not had any maintenance or backups for over four months. This, combined with the site being hosted on a GoDaddy account was the root cause for the challenges the site was having. The Envision team took it upon themselves to completely update WordPress, WooCommerce and twenty or so other plug-ins on [redacted]s site. When that didn't resolve the issue we completely transferred the site to an acceptable hosting partner. Collectively this represented significant time and effort. Again, this was not in our original scope. We paid our team to complete this, however did not charge [redacted] a dime to do so.
We do appreciate the efforts that you put forward on the website, but to the point that you have made on several occasions, that is not what you were hired for, and the reality is, your team week after week used that as the reason for our lack of success. Building and integrating our website is something that we do have experience with. We all agreed that it would make sense for your team to do it as to prevent more hands from being in the pot and to keep things moving. Had we known that this would prevent forward momentum, we would have gladly jumped in and taken over that part. We really wanted you guys to succeed, and gave you every opportunity to do so.
3. Marketing - Short of our ability to advertise on Facebook we embraced the next most viable alternative - AdWords. We monitored and optimized [redacted]'s account to the point it was getting significantly above industry standard click-through rates and Google quality scores. As marketers, we can lead the horse to water - however we can not make them drink. The funds spend on advertising worked from a standpoint of driving additional traffic to the [redacted] site. Unfortunately, visitors did not convert. It is my opinion that until the brand hits a ‘tipping point’ we should consider driving traffic back to Amazon - where customers seem to be buying at a regular clip. This may provide more evidence for future marketing.
This is one of the areas that frustrated us most. I discussed this in great detail in the last email to you. We agreed that directing any adds to our website would be a waste of time. [redacted] and I spent a great deal of time and money testing it on Facebook and AdWords, with considerably higher click through rates than you achieved, with no conversions. You sold us on a strategy to collect emails, and to a/b test different ad copy as well as offers. Why would you EVER send any traffic to the our website though PPC ads. You missed most of the calls during the time that adwords campaign was running, but we asked on every single one, why you were doing this. We were told to establish a base line. The whole point of the engine was to collect emails, you never tried to collect any emails. Why is this point lost on you?
4. Marketing Platform - The [redacted] Marketing Platform was integrated and delivered on-time. Email automation sequences were written, implemented and executed against. "Collecting Emails" is accomplished through sales and content marketing (including videos). Short of the 500 people in the database that have filled out the contact form (of which almost 40% are sharing frustration with challenges) there are approximately 250 names. Building that email list takes a commitment from a social media and marketing perspective. The majority of "Likes" and posts on Facebook came from the period in which we agreed to manage postings, and we continue to do that today at our expense - Again, this was not something included in our original scope. We paid our team to do this and charged [redacted] nothing.
Again, this really is the source of our frustration, and your point here further aggravates us, please review the initial proposal, and all of the plans before the Facebook fiasco. As of our last call we had over 900 people in our database, all from a popup and section of our website with a free blender givaway. We did not collect any emails from the contact form. Of course a large percentage of those were expressing frustration, it is our customer service contact. Customer service is an area that we pride ourselves on. You set up a platform, which you never used. We had calls weekly for a month straight regarding your progress, discussing Ad copy, email sequence strategy. We begged you to test this platform with the 900 emails that we had the free blender giveaway. You don't even know the source of the emails that we have, or how many we have. You refuse to touch on this. You keep mentioning things that you have done outside of your original scope. None of which were productive or led to sales. That is the problem, you did not do anything that was in the original scope… THAT IS WHAT WE HIRED YOU FOR.
5. [redacted] Fired Us - [redacted] did not fire [redacted] and I’ve never fired a client. We help clients and if it make sense to go different ways - we do it on good terms and in a supportive way. He was actually looking out for your marketing budget and suggested no more money be spent until the site could be tweaked to increase conversions. That is all - no offense intended here.
[redacted] told us that there was nothing more that he could do. The call ended with me saying so thats it, and he said yes, thats it. I’m not sure what you call it, but I would not call it supportive. I than attempted to call you, and left messages as well as texts, didn’t hear back from you for several weeks. You than emailed, with basically telling us the same. You have been MIA for most of this process, we attempted to make this work, and really do like you. We love our company more!
We spent years cultivating this dream, and thought you would be a great partner with us moving forward. That is what makes us so bitter, we really feel taken advantage of. I do understand that to move forward as a marketer in the ever changing media landscape that we all live and work in, it is important to always evolve. You may have had a huge amount of success in DRTV, and want to take in digital marketing. You are clearly skilled at sales and managing client relationships, so it does make sense to learn digital marketing on someone else's dime. You may have even had the best of intentions, you simply underestimated the complexity of the medium. I get it, but please put yourself in our shoes. We started this company with nothing, clawed our way to create a product and generate revenue. We took a risk partnering with you, and we understood that risk. What we did not expect was you to use us as a platform to learn digital marketing. All we wanted was you to do what you promised, unfortunately you did not. Now all we ask is that you make it right financially.
Best,
[redacted]
I would like to respond to the Complaint sent by [redacted] of [redacted].
Please note To this date no official notice has been sent to us that we’re not longer working on their account. When we received the complaint we were still working to get their marketing...
program working.
First of all, the complaint was sent to our attorney on November 10th and reached us December 9th due to slow communication. We received phone calls from Revdex.com that week – and I immediately called back.
I’ve since spoke to [redacted] and indicated we would prepare a response.
Attached to this document is a file with the original scope which clearly states the overall budget and the marketing technology stack which they mention. Every item on this scope was completed and can be produced. Our firm continued to produce what was needed and went above and beyond to work with the [redacted] client to get their business up and running.
Note: No monthly technology fees were paid for and although the proposal says $24,000 for media – we spent a fraction of that before we were suggested to discontinue due to lack of conversions.
Prior to discovering the Revdex.com complaint, On December 4th, we received a letter response from [redacted] explaining their frustration. Our immediate response was to sit down and try to work things through. I received one text from [redacted] directly no phone call. My team did have a call with them on their regular weekly call which we have had every week with updates since the beginning of the project.
I have been in business 25 years and have never received a letter like the one from [redacted]. I took it to heart. In response, I sent the following letter to them which addresses a number of issues including some mentioned in the complaint.
[redacted] & [redacted],
I hope you both had a good Thanksgiving.
It took me some time to digest the email you sent and I wrote the letter below several weeks ago. My apologies for the prolonged delay in getting back to you - this was a tough one.
I've been helping clients grow their businesses for over twenty years now. Throughout that time, my underlying focus has been to treat my clients like I'd want to be treated and make a positive impact on their business. I’ve been very successful at that.
Our engagement with [redacted] is certainly no exception. If I take a look at your email and really think about what transpired I think the majority of the frustration actually came from Envision trying to help with things we could not control. Perhaps that was a mistake and we should have focused only on what our objectives were, get names and market to them.
Here are a few points...
1 Facebook - up front we all looked at Facebook as a vehicle for growth, creating a community and selling blenders. Unfortunately, due to no part of our own (and something we ultimately have no control over) the [redacted] Facebook account has continually been shut down. As a company, we put well over 100 hours into trying to get this issue resolved. A great majority of those hours were my personal time - again, being very much focused on the success of [redacted]. I have personally spent countless hours trying to bring closure to this and to this day I have repeatedly had the door shut in my face. It’s painfully frustrating and with Facebook being a big driver of traffic - it’s been a huge 'momentum blocker’. UPDATE: On December 16th, due to my determined efforts to escalate this to Corporate the [redacted] account has been REACTIVATED. I have attached a letter explaining this and the reasons why which are helpful for our overall marketing campaign.
2 Website – We were asked to install an affiliate plug-in - which we did. However, we were not asked to do a complete site audit nor were we aware that the [redacted] website had not had any maintenance or backups for over four months. This, combined with the site being hosted on a GoDaddy account was the root cause for the challenges the site was having. The Envision team took it upon themselves to completely update WordPress, WooCommerce and twenty or so other plug-ins on [redacted]s site. When that didn't resolve the issue we completely transferred the site to an acceptable hosting partner. Collectively this represented significant time and effort. Again, this was not in our original scope. We paid our team to complete this, however did not charge [redacted] a dime to do so.
3 Marketing - Short of our ability to advertise on Facebook (a constant problem) we embraced the next most viable alternative - AdWords. We monitored and optimized [redacted]'s account to the point it was getting significantly above industry standard click-through rates and Google quality scores. As marketers, we can lead the horse to water - however we can not make them drink. The funds spend on advertising worked from a standpoint of driving additional traffic to the [redacted] site. Unfortunately, visitors did not convert. It is my opinion that until the brand hits a ‘tipping point’ we should consider driving traffic back to Amazon - where customers seem to be buying at a regular clip. This may provide more evidence for future marketing. Addition: we have also offered to continue to modify landing pages to build their list so we can send the email sequences we wrote to them. We have offered this strategy and have yet to receive [redacted]’s support to move forward on this strategy.
4 Marketing Platform - The [redacted] Marketing Platform was integrated and delivered on-time per our scope. Email automation sequences were written, implemented and executed against. "Collecting Emails" is accomplished through sales and content marketing (including videos). Short of the 500 people in the database that have filled out the contact form (of which almost 40% are sharing frustration with challenges with the blender making it a customer service issue outside our control) there are approximately 250 names. Building that email list takes a commitment from a social media and marketing perspective. The majority of "Likes" and posts on Facebook came from the period in which we agreed to manage postings, and we continue to do that today at our expense - Again, this was not something included in our original scope. We paid our team to do this and charged [redacted] nothing.
5 [redacted] Fired Us[redacted] did not fire [redacted] and I’ve never fired a client. We help clients and if it makes sense to go different ways - we do it on good terms and in a supportive way. He was actually looking out for your marketing budget and suggested no more money be spent until the site could be tweaked to increase conversions. That is all - no offense intended here.
I hope that this helps to share what actually happened. Bottom-line, I've never gotten a letter or email like this in 25 years and regardless of the scenario will always do the right thing. In this case, I would offer:
• 1. We will invest to Revise the Existing e-book opt-in page to capture names that we can deploy our email sequence to. Since the previous e-book page did not convert - we will work with our DR copywriter to revise it.
• 2. I suggest that you Leverage [redacted] 17,000 subscribers by allowing her to upload and distribute the videos according to a content schedule - within the video there will be a card driving to the free e-book opt- in- we will be sure that both [redacted] and [redacted] get access to the names and that the consumer isn’t confused by receiving emails from either. She is onboard with this and we just need your go ahead. This has always been part of our original plan.
Please let me know if you want to jump on a call to discuss a go forward plan. We also have several technology expenses including Sprout Social and Klipfolio that we will discontinue if you are not using them. That may be another topic of discussion.
Best Regards,
Sean
Revdex.com, as you can see, we have over delivered on our scope – although we admit the results in acquiring names have been stymied by our getting kicked off Facebook. I have fixed that problem and we are ready to offer our list building strategy with appropriate adjustments to prevent the issue again.
I am available and willing to work with [redacted] and will commit to the above offers for no additional cost. Not because I agree that we owe them anything but in the end, we want to see them successful.
Of course we would ask that they remove this complaint first please.
Complaint: [redacted] Here is a copy of our recent emails with Sean and ENRG We have not received any phone calls from Sean or anyone associated with ENRG in regards to our emails or concerns, which we feel would be an appropriate response, instead we received an email in response to this original claim (number above) several weeks after the claim was filedAgain, we feel a monetary settlement to this matter is the ethical and just next action Emails from Sean (ENRG) and [redacted] : Sean, Our frustration with ENRG goes far beyond the points that you illustrated belowWe feel that you misrepresented yourself in regards to your experience with digital marketing from the beginning, as well as disappeared when you were neededIt is interesting that you laid out points in your email to us which ultimately prove our pointThey illustrate your inexperience and disorganization which caused us to spend far too much money without any resultsI would like to respond to your points laid out in the email to us, not for us, but for youIf you wish to have any success in this business, it is important that you recognize and learn from your mistakesHopefully you will also do right by us and share in some of the cost that you caused through your promises and inexperience Facebook - up front we all looked at Facebook as a vehicle for growth, creating a community and selling blenders Unfortunately, do to no part of our own (and something we ultimately have no control over) the [redacted] Facebook account has continually been shut down As a company, we put well over hours into trying to get this issue resolved A great majority of those hours were my personal time - again, being very much focused on the success of [redacted] I have personally spent countless hours trying to bring closure to this and to this day I have repeatedly had the door shut in my faceIt’s painfully frustrating and with Facebook being a big driver of traffic - it’s been a huge 'momentum blocker’ It was your lack of experience and unwillingness to listen to us which caused not only the problem with Facebook, but you to spend a huge amount of time spinning your wheels, looking for a solutionAll of us were very frustrated by the situation, we had only wished that you listened to us a little bit about possible causes and solutionFrom day one of us getting shut down, [redacted] asked you to switch the URL that was linked to the landing page, it raised a fraud alert with FacebookI later begged you to do it, and was told you would, but never didThe last information that you gave us was that it was one of things that caused the issue, the credit card or the URLGiven the fact that the exact problem replicated itself, its fairly obvious where the source of the problem isThe URL, we didn’t get nearly enough traction in the few days that we were actually live to get the amount of negative feedback that would shut us down, let alone on different accounts Website - We were asked to install an affiliate pl- which we did However, we were not asked to do a complete site audit nor were we aware that the [redacted] website had not had any maintenance or backups for over four months This, combined with the site being hosted on a GoDaddy account was the root cause for the challenges the site was having The Envision team took it upon themselves to completely update WordPress, WooCommerce and twenty or so other plug-ins on [redacted] s site When that didn't resolve the issue we completely transferred the site to an acceptable hosting partner Collectively this represented significant time and effort Again, this was not in our original scope We paid our team to complete this, however did not charge [redacted] a dime to do so We do appreciate the efforts that you put forward on the website, but to the point that you have made on several occasions, that is not what you were hired for, and the reality is, your team week after week used that as the reason for our lack of successBuilding and integrating our website is something that we do have experience withWe all agreed that it would make sense for your team to do it as to prevent more hands from being in the pot and to keep things movingHad we known that this would prevent forward momentum, we would have gladly jumped in and taken over that partWe really wanted you guys to succeed, and gave you every opportunity to do so Marketing - Short of our ability to advertise on Facebook we embraced the next most viable alternative - AdWords We monitored and optimized [redacted] 's account to the point it was getting significantly above industry standard click-through rates and Google quality scores As marketers, we can lead the horse to water - however we can not make them drink The funds spend on advertising worked from a standpoint of driving additional traffic to the [redacted] site Unfortunately, visitors did not convert It is my opinion that until the brand hits a ‘tipping point’ we should consider driving traffic back to Amazon - where customers seem to be buying at a regular clipThis may provide more evidence for future marketing This is one of the areas that frustrated us mostI discussed this in great detail in the last email to youWe agreed that directing any adds to our website would be a waste of time [redacted] and I spent a great deal of time and money testing it on Facebook and AdWords, with considerably higher click through rates than you achieved, with no conversionsYou sold us on a strategy to collect emails, and to a/b test different ad copy as well as offersWhy would you EVER send any traffic to the our website though PPC adsYou missed most of the calls during the time that adwords campaign was running, but we asked on every single one, why you were doing thisWe were told to establish a base lineThe whole point of the engine was to collect emails, you never tried to collect any emails Why is this point lost on you? Marketing Platform - The [redacted] Marketing Platform was integrated and delivered on-time Email automation sequences were written, implemented and executed against "Collecting Emails" is accomplished through sales and content marketing (including videos)Short of the people in the database that have filled out the contact form (of which almost 40% are sharing frustration with challenges) there are approximately names Building that email list takes a commitment from a social media and marketing perspectiveThe majority of "Likes" and posts on Facebook came from the period in which we agreed to manage postings, and we continue to do that today at our expense - Again, this was not something included in our original scope We paid our team to do this and charged [redacted] nothing Again, this really is the source of our frustration, and your point here further aggravates us, please review the initial proposal, and all of the plans before the Facebook fiascoAs of our last call we had over people in our database, all from a popup and section of our website with a free blender givawayWe did not collect any emails from the contact formOf course a large percentage of those were expressing frustration, it is our customer service contactCustomer service is an area that we pride ourselves onYou set up a platform, which you never usedWe had calls weekly for a month straight regarding your progress, discussing Ad copy, email sequence strategyWe begged you to test this platform with the emails that we had the free blender giveaway You don't even know the source of the emails that we have, or how many we haveYou refuse to touch on thisYou keep mentioning things that you have done outside of your original scopeNone of which were productive or led to salesThat is the problem, you did not do anything that was in the original scope THAT IS WHAT WE HIRED YOU FOR [redacted] Fired Us - [redacted] did not fire [redacted] and I’ve never fired a clientWe help clients and if it make sense to go different ways - we do it on good terms and in a supportive way He was actually looking out for your marketing budget and suggested no more money be spent until the site could be tweaked to increase conversionsThat is all - no offense intended here [redacted] told us that there was nothing more that he could doThe call ended with me saying so thats it, and he said yes, thats itI’m not sure what you call it, but I would not call it supportiveI than attempted to call you, and left messages as well as texts, didn’t hear back from you for several weeksYou than emailed, with basically telling us the sameYou have been MIA for most of this process, we attempted to make this work, and really do like youWe love our company more! We spent years cultivating this dream, and thought you would be a great partner with us moving forwardThat is what makes us so bitter, we really feel taken advantage ofI do understand that to move forward as a marketer in the ever changing media landscape that we all live and work in, it is important to always evolveYou may have had a huge amount of success in DRTV, and want to take in digital marketingYou are clearly skilled at sales and managing client relationships, so it does make sense to learn digital marketing on someone else's dimeYou may have even had the best of intentions, you simply underestimated the complexity of the mediumI get it, but please put yourself in our shoesWe started this company with nothing, clawed our way to create a product and generate revenueWe took a risk partnering with you, and we understood that riskWhat we did not expect was you to use us as a platform to learn digital marketingAll we wanted was you to do what you promised, unfortunately you did notNow all we ask is that you make it right financially Best, [redacted] Sincerely, [redacted] and [redacted]
Complaint: [redacted]Here is a copy of our recent emails with Sean and ENRG. We have not received any phone calls from Sean or anyone associated with ENRG in regards to our emails or concerns, which we feel would be an appropriate response, instead we received an email in response to this original claim (number above) several weeks after the claim was filed. Again, we feel a monetary settlement to this matter is the ethical and just next action.
Emails from Sean (ENRG) and [redacted]:
Sean,
Our frustration with ENRG goes far beyond the points that you illustrated below. We feel that you misrepresented yourself in regards to your experience with digital marketing from the beginning, as well as disappeared when you were needed. It is interesting that you laid out 5 points in your email to us which ultimately prove our point. They illustrate your inexperience and disorganization which caused us to spend far too much money without any results. I would like to respond to your points laid out in the email to us, not for us, but for you. If you wish to have any success in this business, it is important that you recognize and learn from your mistakes. Hopefully you will also do right by us and share in some of the cost that you caused through your false promises and inexperience.
1. Facebook - up front we all looked at Facebook as a vehicle for growth, creating a community and selling blenders. Unfortunately, do to no part of our own (and something we ultimately have no control over) the [redacted] Facebook account has continually been shut down. As a company, we put well over 100 hours into trying to get this issue resolved. A great majority of those hours were my personal time - again, being very much focused on the success of [redacted]. I have personally spent countless hours trying to bring closure to this and to this day I have repeatedly had the door shut in my face. It’s painfully frustrating and with Facebook being a big driver of traffic - it’s been a huge 'momentum blocker’.
It was your lack of experience and unwillingness to listen to us which caused not only the problem with Facebook, but you to spend a huge amount of time spinning your wheels, looking for a solution. All of us were very frustrated by the situation, we had only wished that you listened to us a little bit about possible causes and solution. From day one of us getting shut down, [redacted] asked you to switch the URL that was linked to the landing page, it raised a fraud alert with Facebook. I later begged you to do it, and was told you would, but never did. The last information that you gave us was that it was one of 2 things that caused the issue, the credit card or the URL. Given the fact that the exact problem replicated itself, its fairly obvious where the source of the problem is. The URL, we didn’t get nearly enough traction in the few days that we were actually live to get the amount of negative feedback that would shut us down, let alone on 2 different accounts.
2. Website - We were asked to install an affiliate plug-in - which we did. However, we were not asked to do a complete site audit nor were we aware that the [redacted] website had not had any maintenance or backups for over four months. This, combined with the site being hosted on a GoDaddy account was the root cause for the challenges the site was having. The Envision team took it upon themselves to completely update WordPress, WooCommerce and twenty or so other plug-ins on [redacted]s site. When that didn't resolve the issue we completely transferred the site to an acceptable hosting partner. Collectively this represented significant time and effort. Again, this was not in our original scope. We paid our team to complete this, however did not charge [redacted] a dime to do so.
We do appreciate the efforts that you put forward on the website, but to the point that you have made on several occasions, that is not what you were hired for, and the reality is, your team week after week used that as the reason for our lack of success. Building and integrating our website is something that we do have experience with. We all agreed that it would make sense for your team to do it as to prevent more hands from being in the pot and to keep things moving. Had we known that this would prevent forward momentum, we would have gladly jumped in and taken over that part. We really wanted you guys to succeed, and gave you every opportunity to do so.
3. Marketing - Short of our ability to advertise on Facebook we embraced the next most viable alternative - AdWords. We monitored and optimized [redacted]'s account to the point it was getting significantly above industry standard click-through rates and Google quality scores. As marketers, we can lead the horse to water - however we can not make them drink. The funds spend on advertising worked from a standpoint of driving additional traffic to the [redacted] site. Unfortunately, visitors did not convert. It is my opinion that until the brand hits a ‘tipping point’ we should consider driving traffic back to Amazon - where customers seem to be buying at a regular clip. This may provide more evidence for future marketing.
This is one of the areas that frustrated us most. I discussed this in great detail in the last email to you. We agreed that directing any adds to our website would be a waste of time. [redacted] and I spent a great deal of time and money testing it on Facebook and AdWords, with considerably higher click through rates than you achieved, with no conversions. You sold us on a strategy to collect emails, and to a/b test different ad copy as well as offers. Why would you EVER send any traffic to the our website though PPC ads. You missed most of the calls during the time that adwords campaign was running, but we asked on every single one, why you were doing this. We were told to establish a base line. The whole point of the engine was to collect emails, you never tried to collect any emails. Why is this point lost on you?
4. Marketing Platform - The [redacted] Marketing Platform was integrated and delivered on-time. Email automation sequences were written, implemented and executed against. "Collecting Emails" is accomplished through sales and content marketing (including videos). Short of the 500 people in the database that have filled out the contact form (of which almost 40% are sharing frustration with challenges) there are approximately 250 names. Building that email list takes a commitment from a social media and marketing perspective. The majority of "Likes" and posts on Facebook came from the period in which we agreed to manage postings, and we continue to do that today at our expense - Again, this was not something included in our original scope. We paid our team to do this and charged [redacted] nothing.
Again, this really is the source of our frustration, and your point here further aggravates us, please review the initial proposal, and all of the plans before the Facebook fiasco. As of our last call we had over 900 people in our database, all from a popup and section of our website with a free blender givaway. We did not collect any emails from the contact form. Of course a large percentage of those were expressing frustration, it is our customer service contact. Customer service is an area that we pride ourselves on. You set up a platform, which you never used. We had calls weekly for a month straight regarding your progress, discussing Ad copy, email sequence strategy. We begged you to test this platform with the 900 emails that we had the free blender giveaway. You don't even know the source of the emails that we have, or how many we have. You refuse to touch on this. You keep mentioning things that you have done outside of your original scope. None of which were productive or led to sales. That is the problem, you did not do anything that was in the original scope… THAT IS WHAT WE HIRED YOU FOR.
5. [redacted] Fired Us - [redacted] did not fire [redacted] and I’ve never fired a client. We help clients and if it make sense to go different ways - we do it on good terms and in a supportive way. He was actually looking out for your marketing budget and suggested no more money be spent until the site could be tweaked to increase conversions. That is all - no offense intended here.
[redacted] told us that there was nothing more that he could do. The call ended with me saying so thats it, and he said yes, thats it. I’m not sure what you call it, but I would not call it supportive. I than attempted to call you, and left messages as well as texts, didn’t hear back from you for several weeks. You than emailed, with basically telling us the same. You have been MIA for most of this process, we attempted to make this work, and really do like you. We love our company more!
We spent years cultivating this dream, and thought you would be a great partner with us moving forward. That is what makes us so bitter, we really feel taken advantage of. I do understand that to move forward as a marketer in the ever changing media landscape that we all live and work in, it is important to always evolve. You may have had a huge amount of success in DRTV, and want to take in digital marketing. You are clearly skilled at sales and managing client relationships, so it does make sense to learn digital marketing on someone else's dime. You may have even had the best of intentions, you simply underestimated the complexity of the medium. I get it, but please put yourself in our shoes. We started this company with nothing, clawed our way to create a product and generate revenue. We took a risk partnering with you, and we understood that risk. What we did not expect was you to use us as a platform to learn digital marketing. All we wanted was you to do what you promised, unfortunately you did not. Now all we ask is that you make it right financially.
Best,
[redacted]
Sincerely,[redacted] and [redacted]
Dear Revdex.com,
I would like to respond to the Complaint sent by [redacted] of [redacted].
Please note To this date no official notice has been sent to us that we’re not longer working on their account. When we received the complaint we were still working to get their marketing...
program working.
First of all, the complaint was sent to our attorney on November 10th and reached us December 9th due to slow communication. We received phone calls from Revdex.com that week – and I immediately called back.
I’ve since spoke to [redacted] and indicated we would prepare a response.
Attached to this document is a file with the original scope which clearly states the overall budget and the marketing technology stack which they mention. Every item on this scope was completed and can be produced. Our firm continued to produce what was needed and went above and beyond to work with the [redacted] client to get their business up and running.
Note: No monthly technology fees were paid for and although the proposal says $24,000 for media – we spent a fraction of that before we were suggested to discontinue due to lack of conversions.
Prior to discovering the Revdex.com complaint, On December 4th, we received a letter response from [redacted] explaining their frustration. Our immediate response was to sit down and try to work things through. I received one text from [redacted] directly no phone call. My team did have a call with them on their regular weekly call which we have had every week with updates since the beginning of the project.
I have been in business 25 years and have never received a letter like the one from [redacted]. I took it to heart. In response, I sent the following letter to them which addresses a number of issues including some mentioned in the complaint.
[redacted] & [redacted],
I hope you both had a good Thanksgiving.
It took me some time to digest the email you sent and I wrote the letter below several weeks ago. My apologies for the prolonged delay in getting back to you - this was a tough one.
I've been helping clients grow their businesses for over twenty years now. Throughout that time, my underlying focus has been to treat my clients like I'd want to be treated and make a positive impact on their business. I’ve been very successful at that.
Our engagement with [redacted] is certainly no exception. If I take a look at your email and really think about what transpired I think the majority of the frustration actually came from Envision trying to help with things we could not control. Perhaps that was a mistake and we should have focused only on what our objectives were, get names and market to them.
Here are a few points...
1 Facebook - up front we all looked at Facebook as a vehicle for growth, creating a community and selling blenders. Unfortunately, due to no part of our own (and something we ultimately have no control over) the [redacted] Facebook account has continually been shut down. As a company, we put well over 100 hours into trying to get this issue resolved. A great majority of those hours were my personal time - again, being very much focused on the success of [redacted]. I have personally spent countless hours trying to bring closure to this and to this day I have repeatedly had the door shut in my face. It’s painfully frustrating and with Facebook being a big driver of traffic - it’s been a huge 'momentum blocker’. UPDATE: On December 16th, due to my determined efforts to escalate this to Corporate the [redacted] account has been REACTIVATED. I have attached a letter explaining this and the reasons why which are helpful for our overall marketing campaign.
2 Website – We were asked to install an affiliate plug-in - which we did. However, we were not asked to do a complete site audit nor were we aware that the [redacted] website had not had any maintenance or backups for over four months. This, combined with the site being hosted on a GoDaddy account was the root cause for the challenges the site was having. The Envision team took it upon themselves to completely update WordPress, WooCommerce and twenty or so other plug-ins on [redacted]s site. When that didn't resolve the issue we completely transferred the site to an acceptable hosting partner. Collectively this represented significant time and effort. Again, this was not in our original scope. We paid our team to complete this, however did not charge [redacted] a dime to do so.
3 Marketing - Short of our ability to advertise on Facebook (a constant problem) we embraced the next most viable alternative - AdWords. We monitored and optimized [redacted]'s account to the point it was getting significantly above industry standard click-through rates and Google quality scores. As marketers, we can lead the horse to water - however we can not make them drink. The funds spend on advertising worked from a standpoint of driving additional traffic to the [redacted] site. Unfortunately, visitors did not convert. It is my opinion that until the brand hits a ‘tipping point’ we should consider driving traffic back to Amazon - where customers seem to be buying at a regular clip. This may provide more evidence for future marketing. Addition: we have also offered to continue to modify landing pages to build their list so we can send the email sequences we wrote to them. We have offered this strategy and have yet to receive [redacted]’s support to move forward on this strategy.
4 Marketing Platform - The [redacted] Marketing Platform was integrated and delivered on-time per our scope. Email automation sequences were written, implemented and executed against. "Collecting Emails" is accomplished through sales and content marketing (including videos). Short of the 500 people in the database that have filled out the contact form (of which almost 40% are sharing frustration with challenges with the blender making it a customer service issue outside our control) there are approximately 250 names. Building that email list takes a commitment from a social media and marketing perspective. The majority of "Likes" and posts on Facebook came from the period in which we agreed to manage postings, and we continue to do that today at our expense - Again, this was not something included in our original scope. We paid our team to do this and charged [redacted] nothing.
5 [redacted] Fired Us[redacted] did not fire [redacted] and I’ve never fired a client. We help clients and if it makes sense to go different ways - we do it on good terms and in a supportive way. He was actually looking out for your marketing budget and suggested no more money be spent until the site could be tweaked to increase conversions. That is all - no offense intended here.
I hope that this helps to share what actually happened. Bottom-line, I've never gotten a letter or email like this in 25 years and regardless of the scenario will always do the right thing. In this case, I would offer:
• 1. We will invest to Revise the Existing e-book opt-in page to capture names that we can deploy our email sequence to. Since the previous e-book page did not convert - we will work with our DR copywriter to revise it.
• 2. I suggest that you Leverage [redacted] 17,000 subscribers by allowing her to upload and distribute the videos according to a content schedule - within the video there will be a card driving to the free e-book opt- in- we will be sure that both [redacted] and [redacted] get access to the names and that the consumer isn’t confused by receiving emails from either. She is onboard with this and we just need your go ahead. This has always been part of our original plan.
Please let me know if you want to jump on a call to discuss a go forward plan. We also have several technology expenses including Sprout Social and Klipfolio that we will discontinue if you are not using them. That may be another topic of discussion.
Best Regards,
Sean
Revdex.com, as you can see, we have over delivered on our scope – although we admit the results in acquiring names have been stymied by our getting kicked off Facebook. I have fixed that problem and we are ready to offer our list building strategy with appropriate adjustments to prevent the issue again.
I am available and willing to work with [redacted] and will commit to the above offers for no additional cost. Not because I agree that we owe them anything but in the end, we want to see them successful.
Of course we would ask that they remove this complaint first please.
Sincerely,
Sean K. F**