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Outbrain Inc. Reviews (14)

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved
Sincerely,
*** ***

Outbrain
believes all services provided to
VT Enterprises are validHowever, Outbrain
understands the customer is unhappy with its services and will fully refund all
charges to their credit cardThe second charge, after the first disputed
charge, was an administrative error

Revdex.com:
At this time, I have not been contacted by Outbrain Inc. regarding complaint ID ***
Sincerely,
* ***

[redacted]
Dear Revdex.com: Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret the [redacted]...

[redacted] had a negative experience. However, we suspect that [redacted]’s complaint is based upon a misunderstanding of Outbrain’s billing practices, which were disclosed to him when he became an Outbrain customer and via e-mail. Background About the Service Outbrain partners with a network of online properties, which we call “publishers”, and displays the Outbrain user interface (our “Widget”) on such webpages. Our Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websites. Customers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their content. We call promotion of content a “campaign.” Self Serve customers, as their name implies, exert a great deal of control over their campaigns, which they manage through the Outbrain dashboard. They create an account with us, log into our website, provide us with a link to be populated in our Widget, identify a maximum budget to be spent on their campaigns, the dates of their campaigns’ durations, and provide us with a credit card number for payment. Each customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our Widget. We only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to us. As explained in our Standard Terms and Conditions (our “Terms” located at [redacted]), “Outbrain does not guarantee: (i) the placement, positioning or the timi ng of delivery of any Content, (ii) clicks on any Content, or (iii) conversions” (Section 1.4). Outbrain Billing Practices Outbrain charges the Amplify fees to Self Serve customers’ credit cards and engages in threshold billing of new customers, all as permitted by the Terms (see Section 5.2). (Self Serve customers, including [redacted], accept our Terms when they first log in the Outbrain dashboard (see introduction to the Terms).) Outbrain charges Self Serve customers’ credit cards in the beginning of each month for spend during the previous month and also sends Self Serve customers a courtesy invoice. As a matter of practice, Outbrain periodically reviews new customers’ spends and, during the time [redacted] was a customer, charged the customers each time their spend incrementally reaches a new threshold, e.g., $50 and $1000. Additionally, the first time a customer triggers any spend threshold, they will be charged for their entire outstanding account balance. For example, if Customer A launches a campaign on Day 1, Outbrain performs a routine review of customer spend on Day 3, and Customer A has spent $500, Outbrain will charge Customer A’s credit card for the full $500 balance, as it has exceeded a spend threshold for the first time. Outbrain will not charge Customer A again until he spends an additional $1000. Outbrain notifies customers via e-mail every time a spend threshold has been reached and their card is charged. [redacted]’s Campaigns [redacted] claims that Outbrain had repeatedly charged his credit card after he had cancelled his account with us. However, all credit card charges that occurred after his cancellation date, September *, 2015, were for traffic purchased prior to such date. [redacted] ran campaigns with Outbrain from August ** through October *, 2015, spending $711.** in August and $3,094.83 in September, for a total of spend $3,806.14 during those two months. A table reflecting the daily spend from August ** through September *, 2015 is attached hereto as Exhibit A. Billing, Invoice and Payment Summary The timeline below sets forth the dates and amounts of each threshold billing charge to [redacted]’s credit card, Outbrain invoice, and credit card payment. • August **, 2015: First threshold billing charge of $500.00 (Note: Report was generated on August **, 2015 at 1:15pm, and the campaigns had spent $574.89 by that time.) • August **, 2015: Invoice for total August spend of $711.** • September *, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $211.** • September *, 2015: Second threshold billing charge of $1,000.00 • September **, 2014: Invoice for total September spend of $3,094.83 • October **, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $2,094.83 Detailed Explanation • From August ** through **, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $711.**. On August, **, 2015, his credit card was charged $500.00, he was invoiced for the total months’ spend of $711.**, and on September *, 2015, his credit card was charged a second time $211.** for the balance of the August spend. • From September * through *, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $1,980.72. • On September *, Labor Day, an Outbrain employee in an international location reviewed new customers’ spends. He flagged [redacted]’s account to be charged because his spend of $1,980.72 exceeded the next billing threshold of $1,000. However, because the Outbrain accounts receivable team is located in the United States and September * was a legal holiday, [redacted]’s credit card was not charged $1,000 on this date. Instead, this $1,980.72 was invoiced at the end of the month, as explained below. • From September * through *, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $1,114.11. • On September *, 2015, [redacted] cancelled his campaigns and Outbrain charged his credit card an additional $1,000.00 because the next thousand dollar spend threshold had been reached. • On September **, Outbrain issued [redacted] an invoice for his September Amplify fees of $3,094.83, representing his spend from: o September * through * of $1,980.72 that was not charged as a part of the threshold billing and o September * through * of $1,114.11 - the $1,000 already charged to his account on September * and the $114.11 remaining balance. • On October **, 2015, Outbrain charged [redacted]’s credit card $2,094.83, deducting $1,000 paid on September 9 from the invoiced amount of $3,094.83. Upon review of the account, we understand [redacted]’s confusion. However, the charges to [redacted]’s credit card after he cancelled his account were for traffic delivered prior to such cancellation, pursuant to standard Outbrain billing practices, and authorized by the Terms that [redacted] accepted. [redacted]’s total spend was $3,806.14. We have charged his credit card for this full amount and there will be no further charges applied to his credit card going forward. Very truly yours, Meghan M[redacted] Corporate Counsel, Outbrain Inc. Exhibit A Customer Spend Date Spend [redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted] Total [redacted]

[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
Dear Revdex.com:
Outbrain is committed to responding...

to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret that [redacted] had a negative experience as an Outbrain customer. However, we maintain that we adequately addressed all of her concerns in a timely fashion and that the allegations in her complaint are unfounded and at times, false.
Background About Our Service
Outbrain partners with a network of online properties, which we call “publishers”, and displays the Outbrain user interface (the “Widget”) on such webpages. Our Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websites. Customers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their content. We call promotion of content a “campaign.”
Self Serve customers, as their name implies, exert a great deal of control over their campaigns. They create an account with us, log into our website, provide us with a link to be populated in our Widget, identify a maximum budget to be spent on their campaigns, the dates for their campaign duration, and provide us with a credit card number for payment. Each customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our Widget. As our Standard Terms and Conditions indicate, the number of clicks received is based on Outbrain’s tracking system. We only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to us, not each time the link is featured in the Widget.
[redacted] used our service to drive web traffic to her Kickstarter webpage. She enrolled on April **, 2014. We approved her campaign on April **, 2014. She allocated a maximum budget of $100 to be spent through April **, 2014 (i.e., a $** budget for a four-day campaign) and a cost per click of $0.35.
[redacted]’s Allegations and Outbrain’s Responses
1. “Outbrain charges much more than what you are initially told … [.]”
[redacted] set a maximum budget for her April 2014 campaign of $100. From April ** through **, 2014, the link to [redacted]’s website was populated in our Widget 546,094 times, resulting in 390 clicks. Given that Outbrain does not charge for any clicks exceeding the maximum daily budget (despite cached impressions being in the network), her estimated cost per click during such period was $0.26.
We attempted to charge $100 to the credit card that she provided – the exact amount of the maximum budget she specified – but the credit card was declined. [redacted]’s allegation that we charged her $1** is false.
2. “[Outbrain] refuse[d] to send proof that they have any advertising other than a computer count of clicks that cannot be verified not to be a clicker program. … I am 100% sure that they used a clicker program to boost their numbers but there was no proof of return in any way.”
Outbrain does not use any artificial means of inflating the number of clicks each link receives. [redacted] has not provided any evidence to substantiate her claims.
3. “I have asked several times for proof and they have changed the amount that I owe, but have not provided a sample of where they placed an advertisement.”
(a) The amount due to Outbrain from [redacted] has been constant from the time she herself established the maximum budget on April **, 2014 until the time we attempted to charge her credit card for the amount due.
(b) We provided [redacted] with an example of her link displayed by our Widget. On both May ** and June *, 2014, our customer service representatives sent her a screenshot of her link featured on a publisher’s page.
4. “The result was zero funding for a kickstarter.”
Outbrain only charges for clicks received. We take no responsibility for end user behavior post-click.
5. “If they had of placed the link in as many of the places that they claimed to have then the count would have been much higher.”
The number of times a link is featured on a publisher site is only one of many factors that contribute to the “click through rate” of a link. Other factors include the appeal of its title and the subject matter of the content. We cannot guarantee that any Internet user will actually click on the links we feature in our Widget.
6. “I asked for future use and Outbrain still did not provide where and in what format they advertise.”
We are unsure of what [redacted] means by “future use.” If the reference is to future use of the Outbrain Service, we have disabled her account per our standard policy, given that the credit card she provided to us was declined twice.
7. “I have sent several emails and said that I would speak to them in a recorded conversation and they refused to speak to me.”
Outbrain communicated with [redacted] multiple times during the period in which she was an Outbrain customer. However, she never referenced recording a conversation.
• On May *, she asked for proof that her content appeared on a publisher site.
• On May ** and **, she made the same request.
• On May **, an account representative sent her an Excel spreadsheet containing daily information about her campaign from April ** through April **, 2014 that included, among other things: the number of times [redacted]’s content was featured in our Widget, the number of times the link was clicked, the link’s click through rate, the daily campaign spend, and the estimated cost per click.
• On May **, an account representative sent [redacted] a screenshot of her content featured on a publisher’s page.
• On June *, another account representative sent [redacted] the screenshot again, along with a detailed Excel spreadsheet that listed, among other things: the 924 publisher pages on which her link appeared, the number of times the link appeared on each page, the number of clicks her link received, and click through rate.
In conclusion, Outbrain believes [redacted]’s claims are unsubstantiated and generally false. Outbrain is happy to provide any supporting documentation including e-mail correspondence and audit trails.
Very truly yours,
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]

Outbrain has the worst customer service response rate ever. Small publishers such as myself depend on web traffic form outbrain and when the customers service takes it time to get back to you it only means you loose money by the hour. Just to explain my story, one of my credit card got declines on July [redacted] and I replaced the credit card with a new one to charge my outstanding balance the next day at 7am. I've completely lost the full day without a response as to when my account will be activated again. I sent 3 emails with zero response but I guess this is how business is done in the out brain offices.

+1

[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
Dear Revdex.com: Outbrain is committed to responding to the...

needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret the [redacted] had a negative experience. However, we suspect that [redacted]’s complaint is based upon a misunderstanding of Outbrain’s billing practices, which were disclosed to him when he became an Outbrain customer and via e-mail. Background About the Service Outbrain partners with a network of online properties, which we call “publishers”, and displays the Outbrain user interface (our “Widget”) on such webpages. Our Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websites. Customers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their content. We call promotion of content a “campaign.” Self Serve customers, as their name implies, exert a great deal of control over their campaigns, which they manage through the Outbrain dashboard. They create an account with us, log into our website, provide us with a link to be populated in our Widget, identify a maximum budget to be spent on their campaigns, the dates of their campaigns’ durations, and provide us with a credit card number for payment. Each customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our Widget. We only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to us. As explained in our Standard Terms and Conditions (our “Terms” located at [redacted]), “Outbrain does not guarantee: (i) the placement, positioning or the timi ng of delivery of any Content, (ii) clicks on any Content, or (iii) conversions” (Section 1.4). Outbrain Billing Practices Outbrain charges the Amplify fees to Self Serve customers’ credit cards and engages in threshold billing of new customers, all as permitted by the Terms (see Section 5.2). (Self Serve customers, including [redacted], accept our Terms when they first log in the Outbrain dashboard (see introduction to the Terms).) Outbrain charges Self Serve customers’ credit cards in the beginning of each month for spend during the previous month and also sends Self Serve customers a courtesy invoice. As a matter of practice, Outbrain periodically reviews new customers’ spends and, during the time [redacted] was a customer, charged the customers each time their spend incrementally reaches a new threshold, e.g., $50 and $1000. Additionally, the first time a customer triggers any spend threshold, they will be charged for their entire outstanding account balance. For example, if Customer A launches a campaign on Day 1, Outbrain performs a routine review of customer spend on Day 3, and Customer A has spent $500, Outbrain will charge Customer A’s credit card for the full $500 balance, as it has exceeded a spend threshold for the first time. Outbrain will not charge Customer A again until he spends an additional $1000. Outbrain notifies customers via e-mail every time a spend threshold has been reached and their card is charged. [redacted]’s Campaigns [redacted] claims that Outbrain had repeatedly charged his credit card after he had cancelled his account with us. However, all credit card charges that occurred after his cancellation date, September *, 2015, were for traffic purchased prior to such date. [redacted] ran campaigns with Outbrain from August ** through October *, 2015, spending $711.** in August and $3,094.83 in September, for a total of spend $3,806.14 during those two months. A table reflecting the daily spend from August ** through September *, 2015 is attached hereto as Exhibit A. Billing, Invoice and Payment Summary The timeline below sets forth the dates and amounts of each threshold billing charge to [redacted]’s credit card, Outbrain invoice, and credit card payment. • August **, 2015: First threshold billing charge of $500.00 (Note: Report was generated on August **, 2015 at 1:15pm, and the campaigns had spent $574.89 by that time.) • August **, 2015: Invoice for total August spend of $711.** • September *, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $211.** • September *, 2015: Second threshold billing charge of $1,000.00 • September **, 2014: Invoice for total September spend of $3,094.83 • October **, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $2,094.83 Detailed Explanation • From August ** through **, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $711.**. On August, **, 2015, his credit card was charged $500.00, he was invoiced for the total months’ spend of $711.**, and on September *, 2015, his credit card was charged a second time $211.** for the balance of the August spend. • From September * through *, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $1,980.72. • On September *, Labor Day, an Outbrain employee in an international location reviewed new customers’ spends. He flagged [redacted]’s account to be charged because his spend of $1,980.72 exceeded the next billing threshold of $1,000. However, because the Outbrain accounts receivable team is located in the United States and September * was a legal holiday, [redacted]’s credit card was not charged $1,000 on this date. Instead, this $1,980.72 was invoiced at the end of the month, as explained below. • From September * through *, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $1,114.11. • On September *, 2015, [redacted] cancelled his campaigns and Outbrain charged his credit card an additional $1,000.00 because the next thousand dollar spend threshold had been reached. • On September **, Outbrain issued [redacted] an invoice for his September Amplify fees of $3,094.83, representing his spend from: o September * through * of $1,980.72 that was not charged as a part of the threshold billing and o September * through * of $1,114.11 - the $1,000 already charged to his account on September * and the $114.11 remaining balance. • On October **, 2015, Outbrain charged [redacted]’s credit card $2,094.83, deducting $1,000 paid on September 9 from the invoiced amount of $3,094.83. Upon review of the account, we understand [redacted]’s confusion. However, the charges to [redacted]’s credit card after he cancelled his account were for traffic delivered prior to such cancellation, pursuant to standard Outbrain billing practices, and authorized by the Terms that [redacted] accepted. [redacted]’s total spend was $3,806.14. We have charged his credit card for this full amount and there will be no further charges applied to his credit card going forward. Very truly yours, Meghan M[redacted] Corporate Counsel, Outbrain Inc. Exhibit A Customer Spend Date Spend [redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
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[redacted] Total [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:There are several problems with their explanations and proof of services provided. My request for future use would have been for the relaunch of the same book project on kickstarter. I requested proof of how they calculated clicks. If they are banking on people not figuring out that a simple computer program can create these clicks then they are mistaken. The scam is so common that you can buy clicks from businesses in several of the country tries that they have offices in. I asked for screen shot proof of all of the locations that they proclaimed to have advertised and they could not provide proof. Of course they would provide a count of clicks but if they did not show proof of individual computers with real people clicking then people should be aware that they are being scammed. I have repeatedly asked for proof that this was not the case and was hoping that it was legit but they seem to like to repeat themselves and shirt explanation of how they cannot assure that it's not a computer generated click count. I strongly suggest that the Revdex.com post this complaint so that people have fair warning. Just because there is a count it doesn't mean it's a real one in that they themselves are doing the clicking. If you have no results it's of no concern to them and they are preying on people that might not have a good understanding of how votes for competition are paid for in these same countries. Ethics are assumed and proof is all I asked for. This isn't like a newspaper where you have x amount of recipients so it's more suspicious when that m a my clicks magically happen with so much interest and no results in a actual product sold. The web page had fifty thousand clicks and that wasn't selling anything yet I set up post cards and calanders and they sell within two days. I start the kickstarter and get 1 person with outbrain that had no geological connection yet even that was a pledge and not a purchase. I'd strongly recommend taking a realists view on what they are promising as it really is way too good to be true and oddly enough my gut feeling is correct.

[Your Answer Here]
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear Revdex.com:
Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret the [redacted] had a...

negative experience. We have remedied the problems that arose while [redacted] was an Outbrain customer and will take all steps possible to ensure that these issues do not occur in the future.
Background
On October **, 2013, [redacted] created an account to promote content on the Diamond Envy blog. Her campaign was approved on that same day and began running on October **, 2013, with no end date. [redacted] encountered various billing issues after closure of her account. [redacted] references four problems in her complaint; however we only have record of the three issues detailed below.
First Billing Issue
In an April *, 2014 e-mail, [redacted] requested to close her account. We disabled her account on April *, 2014. We invoiced and charged her $70.00 for services rendered from April * through *, instead of $40.00 attributable to services rendered from April * through *.
Outbrain Remediation
On May *, 2014, [redacted] e-mailed us and disputed charges incurred from April * through *. On May *, 2014, we promptly refunded her $30.00 and provided her with an updated invoice.
Second Billing Issue
[redacted] received a May invoice for $0.15 and on June *, e-mailed us regarding the amount due.
Outbrain Remediation
[redacted] was accidentally charged for one click on campaign content. The amount was never charged to [redacted]’s credit card because we corrected the invoice on the same day we received her e-mail. We e-mailed [redacted], apologized and sent her a corrected invoice.
Third Billing Issue
On June **, 2014, we received a request from another customer to enable their account. We inadvertently enabled [redacted]’s old account, which had a substantially similar name. In a June **, 2014 e-mail, [redacted] informed us that her account was active. We disabled her account. Unfortunately, this accidental activation was not communicated to the finance team, so we invoiced her $70.00 for services rendered in June.
Outbrain Remediation
On July *, 2014, [redacted] e-mailed us regarding this invoice. We did not charge [redacted] for these June services. We responded on July *, apologized and offered [redacted] a $300.00 credit to use our services to rebuild our relationship and earn her trust. We explained that we are implementing internal safeguards to prevent this type of issue from occurring in the future.
We appreciate [redacted]’s feedback. We had independently begun to evaluate our process for closure of customer accounts so that others will not experience these issues in the future. We are working to improve our software and the communication between the customer service and finance team to ensure an excellent end user experience. We sincerely apologize to [redacted] for this unfortunate series of events and the inconvenience caused.
Very truly yours,[redacted]
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Review: Outbrain charges much more than what you are initially told and they refuse to send proof that they have any advertising other than a computer count of clicks that cannot be verified not to be a clicker program. I have asked several times for proof and they have changed the amount that I owe but still do not give a sample of where they placed an advertisement. The result was zero funding for a kickstarter. If they had of placed the link in as many of the places that they claimed to have then the count would have been much higher. I am 100% sure that they used a clicker program to boost their numbers but there was no proof of return in any way. I asked for future use and they still did not provide where and in what format that they advertise. I have sent several emails and said that I would speak to them in a recorded conversation and they refused to speak to me.Desired Settlement: I refuse to pay for this scam. I feel sorry for anyone that buys into it. It looks good from the advertising but its fake.

Business

Response:

[redacted]

Dear

Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret that [redacted] had a negative experience as an Outbrain customer. However, we maintain that we adequately addressed all of her concerns in a timely fashion and that the allegations in her complaint are unfounded and at times, false.

Background About Our Service

Outbrain partners with a network of online properties, which we call “publishers”, and displays the Outbrain user interface (the “Widget”) on such webpages. Our Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websites. Customers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their content. We call promotion of content a “campaign.”

Self Serve customers, as their name implies, exert a great deal of control over their campaigns. They create an account with us, log into our website, provide us with a link to be populated in our Widget, identify a maximum budget to be spent on their campaigns, the dates for their campaign duration, and provide us with a credit card number for payment. Each customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our Widget. As our Standard Terms and Conditions indicate, the number of clicks received is based on Outbrain’s tracking system. We only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to us, not each time the link is featured in the Widget.

[redacted] used our service to drive web traffic to her Kickstarter webpage. She enrolled on April **, 2014. We approved her campaign on April **, 2014. She allocated a maximum budget of $100 to be spent through April **, 2014 (i.e., a $** budget for a four-day campaign) and a cost per click of $0.35.

[redacted]’s Allegations and Outbrain’s Responses

1. “Outbrain charges much more than what you are initially told … [.]”

[redacted] set a maximum budget for her April 2014 campaign of $100. From April ** through **, 2014, the link to [redacted]’s website was populated in our Widget 546,094 times, resulting in 390 clicks. Given that Outbrain does not charge for any clicks exceeding the maximum daily budget (despite cached impressions being in the network), her estimated cost per click during such period was $0.26.

We attempted to charge $100 to the credit card that she provided – the exact amount of the maximum budget she specified – but the credit card was declined. [redacted]’s allegation that we charged her $1** is false.

2. “[Outbrain] refuse[d] to send proof that they have any advertising other than a computer count of clicks that cannot be verified not to be a clicker program. … I am 100% sure that they used a clicker program to boost their numbers but there was no proof of return in any way.”

Outbrain does not use any artificial means of inflating the number of clicks each link receives. [redacted] has not provided any evidence to substantiate her claims.

3. “I have asked several times for proof and they have changed the amount that I owe, but have not provided a sample of where they placed an advertisement.”

(a) The amount due to Outbrain from [redacted] has been constant from the time she herself established the maximum budget on April **, 2014 until the time we attempted to charge her credit card for the amount due.

(b) We provided [redacted] with an example of her link displayed by our Widget. On both May ** and June *, 2014, our customer service representatives sent her a screenshot of her link featured on a publisher’s page.

4. “The result was zero funding for a kickstarter.”

Outbrain only charges for clicks received. We take no responsibility for end user behavior post-click.

5. “If they had of placed the link in as many of the places that they claimed to have then the count would have been much higher.”

The number of times a link is featured on a publisher site is only one of many factors that contribute to the “click through rate” of a link. Other factors include the appeal of its title and the subject matter of the content. We cannot guarantee that any Internet user will actually click on the links we feature in our Widget.

6. “I asked for future use and Outbrain still did not provide where and in what format they advertise.”

We are unsure of what [redacted] means by “future use.” If the reference is to future use of the Outbrain Service, we have disabled her account per our standard policy, given that the credit card she provided to us was declined twice.

7. “I have sent several emails and said that I would speak to them in a recorded conversation and they refused to speak to me.”

Outbrain communicated with [redacted] multiple times during the period in which she was an Outbrain customer. However, she never referenced recording a conversation.

• On May *, she asked for proof that her content appeared on a publisher site.

• On May ** and **, she made the same request.

• On May **, an account representative sent her an Excel spreadsheet containing daily information about her campaign from April ** through April **, 2014 that included, among other things: the number of times [redacted]’s content was featured in our Widget, the number of times the link was clicked, the link’s click through rate, the daily campaign spend, and the estimated cost per click.

• On May **, an account representative sent [redacted] a screenshot of her content featured on a publisher’s page.

• On June *, another account representative sent [redacted] the screenshot again, along with a detailed Excel spreadsheet that listed, among other things: the 924 publisher pages on which her link appeared, the number of times the link appeared on each page, the number of clicks her link received, and click through rate.

In conclusion, Outbrain believes [redacted]’s claims are unsubstantiated and generally false. Outbrain is happy to provide any supporting documentation including e-mail correspondence and audit trails.

Very truly yours,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:There are several problems with their explanations and proof of services provided. My request for future use would have been for the relaunch of the same book project on kickstarter. I requested proof of how they calculated clicks. If they are banking on people not figuring out that a simple computer program can create these clicks then they are mistaken. The scam is so common that you can buy clicks from businesses in several of the country tries that they have offices in. I asked for screen shot proof of all of the locations that they proclaimed to have advertised and they could not provide proof. Of course they would provide a count of clicks but if they did not show proof of individual computers with real people clicking then people should be aware that they are being scammed. I have repeatedly asked for proof that this was not the case and was hoping that it was legit but they seem to like to repeat themselves and shirt explanation of how they cannot assure that it's not a computer generated click count. I strongly suggest that the Revdex.com post this complaint so that people have fair warning. Just because there is a count it doesn't mean it's a real one in that they themselves are doing the clicking. If you have no results it's of no concern to them and they are preying on people that might not have a good understanding of how votes for competition are paid for in these same countries. Ethics are assumed and proof is all I asked for. This isn't like a newspaper where you have x amount of recipients so it's more suspicious when that m a my clicks magically happen with so much interest and no results in a actual product sold. The web page had fifty thousand clicks and that wasn't selling anything yet I set up post cards and calanders and they sell within two days. I start the kickstarter and get 1 person with outbrain that had no geological connection yet even that was a pledge and not a purchase. I'd strongly recommend taking a realists view on what they are promising as it really is way too good to be true and oddly enough my gut feeling is correct.

[Your Answer Here]

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Review: This account was canceled and they keep charging it...Outbrain attempts to charge us repeatedly for services, which have been successfully disputed.Desired Settlement: CANCEL!!

Business

Response:

[redacted]

Dear Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret the [redacted] had a negative experience. However, we suspect that [redacted]’s complaint is based upon a misunderstanding of Outbrain’s billing practices, which were disclosed to him when he became an Outbrain customer and via e-mail. Background About the Service Outbrain partners with a network of online properties, which we call “publishers”, and displays the Outbrain user interface (our “Widget”) on such webpages. Our Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websites. Customers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their content. We call promotion of content a “campaign.” Self Serve customers, as their name implies, exert a great deal of control over their campaigns, which they manage through the Outbrain dashboard. They create an account with us, log into our website, provide us with a link to be populated in our Widget, identify a maximum budget to be spent on their campaigns, the dates of their campaigns’ durations, and provide us with a credit card number for payment. Each customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our Widget. We only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to us. As explained in our Standard Terms and Conditions (our “Terms” located at [redacted]), “Outbrain does not guarantee: (i) the placement, positioning or the timi ng of delivery of any Content, (ii) clicks on any Content, or (iii) conversions” (Section 1.4). Outbrain Billing Practices Outbrain charges the Amplify fees to Self Serve customers’ credit cards and engages in threshold billing of new customers, all as permitted by the Terms (see Section 5.2). (Self Serve customers, including [redacted], accept our Terms when they first log in the Outbrain dashboard (see introduction to the Terms).) Outbrain charges Self Serve customers’ credit cards in the beginning of each month for spend during the previous month and also sends Self Serve customers a courtesy invoice. As a matter of practice, Outbrain periodically reviews new customers’ spends and, during the time [redacted] was a customer, charged the customers each time their spend incrementally reaches a new threshold, e.g., $50 and $1000. Additionally, the first time a customer triggers any spend threshold, they will be charged for their entire outstanding account balance. For example, if Customer A launches a campaign on Day 1, Outbrain performs a routine review of customer spend on Day 3, and Customer A has spent $500, Outbrain will charge Customer A’s credit card for the full $500 balance, as it has exceeded a spend threshold for the first time. Outbrain will not charge Customer A again until he spends an additional $1000. Outbrain notifies customers via e-mail every time a spend threshold has been reached and their card is charged. [redacted]’s Campaigns [redacted] claims that Outbrain had repeatedly charged his credit card after he had cancelled his account with us. However, all credit card charges that occurred after his cancellation date, September *, 2015, were for traffic purchased prior to such date. [redacted] ran campaigns with Outbrain from August ** through October *, 2015, spending $711.** in August and $3,094.83 in September, for a total of spend $3,806.14 during those two months. A table reflecting the daily spend from August ** through September *, 2015 is attached hereto as Exhibit A. Billing, Invoice and Payment Summary The timeline below sets forth the dates and amounts of each threshold billing charge to [redacted]’s credit card, Outbrain invoice, and credit card payment. • August **, 2015: First threshold billing charge of $500.00 (Note: Report was generated on August **, 2015 at 1:15pm, and the campaigns had spent $574.89 by that time.) • August **, 2015: Invoice for total August spend of $711.** • September *, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $211.** • September *, 2015: Second threshold billing charge of $1,000.00 • September **, 2014: Invoice for total September spend of $3,094.83 • October **, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $2,094.83 Detailed Explanation • From August ** through **, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $711.**. On August, **, 2015, his credit card was charged $500.00, he was invoiced for the total months’ spend of $711.**, and on September *, 2015, his credit card was charged a second time $211.** for the balance of the August spend. • From September * through *, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $1,980.72. • On September *, Labor Day, an Outbrain employee in an international location reviewed new customers’ spends. He flagged [redacted]’s account to be charged because his spend of $1,980.72 exceeded the next billing threshold of $1,000. However, because the Outbrain accounts receivable team is located in the United States and September * was a legal holiday, [redacted]’s credit card was not charged $1,000 on this date. Instead, this $1,980.72 was invoiced at the end of the month, as explained below. • From September * through *, [redacted]’s campaigns spent $1,114.11. • On September *, 2015, [redacted] cancelled his campaigns and Outbrain charged his credit card an additional $1,000.00 because the next thousand dollar spend threshold had been reached. • On September **, Outbrain issued [redacted] an invoice for his September Amplify fees of $3,094.83, representing his spend from: o September * through * of $1,980.72 that was not charged as a part of the threshold billing and o September * through * of $1,114.11 - the $1,000 already charged to his account on September * and the $114.11 remaining balance. • On October **, 2015, Outbrain charged [redacted]’s credit card $2,094.83, deducting $1,000 paid on September 9 from the invoiced amount of $3,094.83. Upon review of the account, we understand [redacted]’s confusion. However, the charges to [redacted]’s credit card after he cancelled his account were for traffic delivered prior to such cancellation, pursuant to standard Outbrain billing practices, and authorized by the Terms that [redacted] accepted. [redacted]’s total spend was $3,806.14. We have charged his credit card for this full amount and there will be no further charges applied to his credit card going forward. Very truly yours, Meghan M[redacted] Corporate Counsel, Outbrain Inc. Exhibit A Customer Spend Date Spend [redacted] Total [redacted]

Review: On 4/*/14 our business account was cancelled via a written request and this was confirmed on 4/*/14 by the Outbrain team. We have since then had 4 issues with continuous billing. We continue to receive bills for a service that no longer exists with Outbrain. I have contacted their team on each occasion to resolve the matter and was told it was resolved. I am unable to reach them by phone to discuss the matter with management.Desired Settlement: Outbrain should resolve these issues immediately within their system to ensure a smoother service for future clients.

Business

Response:

Dear

Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional manner. We regret the [redacted] had a negative experience. We have remedied the problems that arose while [redacted] was an Outbrain customer and will take all steps possible to ensure that these issues do not occur in the future.

Background

On October **, 2013, [redacted] created an account to promote content on the Diamond Envy blog. Her campaign was approved on that same day and began running on October **, 2013, with no end date. [redacted] encountered various billing issues after closure of her account. [redacted] references four problems in her complaint; however we only have record of the three issues detailed below.

First Billing Issue

In an April *, 2014 e-mail, [redacted] requested to close her account. We disabled her account on April *, 2014. We invoiced and charged her $70.00 for services rendered from April * through *, instead of $40.00 attributable to services rendered from April * through *.

Outbrain Remediation

On May *, 2014, [redacted] e-mailed us and disputed charges incurred from April * through *. On May *, 2014, we promptly refunded her $30.00 and provided her with an updated invoice.

Second Billing Issue

[redacted] received a May invoice for $0.15 and on June *, e-mailed us regarding the amount due.

Outbrain Remediation

[redacted] was accidentally charged for one click on campaign content. The amount was never charged to [redacted]’s credit card because we corrected the invoice on the same day we received her e-mail. We e-mailed [redacted], apologized and sent her a corrected invoice.

Third Billing Issue

On June **, 2014, we received a request from another customer to enable their account. We inadvertently enabled [redacted]’s old account, which had a substantially similar name. In a June **, 2014 e-mail, [redacted] informed us that her account was active. We disabled her account. Unfortunately, this accidental activation was not communicated to the finance team, so we invoiced her $70.00 for services rendered in June.

Outbrain Remediation

On July *, 2014, [redacted] e-mailed us regarding this invoice. We did not charge [redacted] for these June services. We responded on July *, apologized and offered [redacted] a $300.00 credit to use our services to rebuild our relationship and earn her trust. We explained that we are implementing internal safeguards to prevent this type of issue from occurring in the future.

We appreciate [redacted]’s feedback. We had independently begun to evaluate our process for closure of customer accounts so that others will not experience these issues in the future. We are working to improve our software and the communication between the customer service and finance team to ensure an excellent end user experience. We sincerely apologize to [redacted] for this unfortunate series of events and the inconvenience caused.

Very truly yours,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Review: Outbrain attempts to charge us repeatedly for services, which have been successfully disputed.

In March/April 2015 Outbrain did not render their services as promised. Our promotional article about databases ([redacted]) received almost entirely what appeared as fraudulent traffic clicks or amounted to gross negligence on the company's end in rendering of their service to us. Instead of "largest and most respected media properties", "unique placements find the right audience for your content", which were the services Outbrain sold us, nearly all clicks for came from sites featuring half-naked woman or celebrity gossip sites.

We offered to pay for 16 clicks, which came from legitimate and relevant sources, but the company rejected our offer. Unable to resolve the matter with the company's customer representative Chris M[redacted] we disputed the charge with our credit card company [redacted]. We supplied all correspondence we had with Outbrain and other evidence of their non-performance. The bank investigated the case, contacted Outbrain and resolved that our dispute had full merit. Consequently the charge was reversed, and we were credited the amount. We have since not used Outbrain services.

On July ** Outbrain charged our credit card again. When confronted with this, their Accounts Receivable manager Eileen E. S[redacted] said that according to them we are trying to not pay for the services provided. Having no other recourse we contacted [redacted] again to dispute this latest charge, which now has no merit whatsoever.Desired Settlement: Outbrain must immediately refund the charge and stop issuing bills to us. They should apologize to us for bad service and for wasting our time.

Business

Response:

Outbrain

believes all services provided to VT Enterprises are valid. However, Outbrain

understands the customer is unhappy with its services and will fully refund all

charges to their credit card. The second charge, after the first disputed

charge, was an administrative error.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

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