Dear Revdex.com: Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional mannerWe regret the [redacted] had a negative experienceWe 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 blogHer 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 *, e-mail, [redacted] requested to close her accountWe disabled her account on April *, We invoiced and charged her $for services rendered from April * through *, instead of $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 $and provided her with an updated invoice Second Billing Issue [redacted] received a May invoice for $and on June *, e-mailed us regarding the amount due Outbrain Remediation [redacted] was accidentally charged for one click on campaign contentThe amount was never charged to [redacted] ***’s credit card because we corrected the invoice on the same day we received her e-mailWe 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 accountWe inadvertently enabled [redacted] ***’s old account, which had a substantially similar nameIn a June **, e-mail, [redacted] informed us that her account was activeWe disabled her accountUnfortunately, this accidental activation was not communicated to the finance team, so we invoiced her $for services rendered in June Outbrain Remediation On July *, 2014, [redacted] e-mailed us regarding this invoiceWe did not charge [redacted] for these June servicesWe responded on July *, apologized and offered [redacted] a $credit to use our services to rebuild our relationship and earn her trustWe explained that we are implementing internal safeguards to prevent this type of issue from occurring in the future We appreciate [redacted] ***’s feedbackWe had independently begun to evaluate our process for closure of customer accounts so that others will not experience these issues in the futureWe are working to improve our software and the communication between the customer service and finance team to ensure an excellent end user experienceWe sincerely apologize to [redacted] for this unfortunate series of events and the inconvenience caused Very truly yours, [redacted] ***
Outbrain has the worst customer service response rate everSmall 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 hourJust 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 7amI've completely lost the full day without a response as to when my account will be activated againI sent emails with zero response but I guess this is how business is done in the out brain offices
[redacted] Dear Revdex.com: Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional mannerWe regret the *** [redacted] had a negative experienceHowever, 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-mailBackground 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 webpagesOur Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websitesCustomers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their contentWe 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 dashboardThey 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 paymentEach customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our WidgetWe only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to usAs 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 invoiceAs 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., $and $Additionally, the first time a customer triggers any spend threshold, they will be charged for their entire outstanding account balanceFor 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 $balance, as it has exceeded a spend threshold for the first timeOutbrain will not charge Customer A again until he spends an additional $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 usHowever, 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 [redacted] through October *, 2015, spending $[redacted] in August and $3,in September, for a total of spend $3,during those two monthsA table reflecting the daily spend from August [redacted] through September *, is attached hereto as Exhibit ABilling, 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 $(Note: Report was generated on August **, at 1:15pm, and the campaigns had spent $by that time.) • August **, 2015: Invoice for total August spend of $[redacted] • September *, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $[redacted] • September *, 2015: Second threshold billing charge of $1,• September **, 2014: Invoice for total September spend of $3,• October **, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $2,Detailed Explanation • From August [redacted] 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 $[redacted] for the balance of the August spend• From September [redacted] through *, [redacted] ’s campaigns spent $1,• On September *, Labor Day, an Outbrain employee in an international location reviewed new customers’ spendsHe flagged [redacted] ’s account to be charged because his spend of $1,exceeded the next billing threshold of $1,However, because the Outbrain accounts receivable team is located in the United States and September [redacted] was a legal holiday, [redacted] ’s credit card was not charged $1,on this dateInstead, this $1,was invoiced at the end of the month, as explained below• From September [redacted] through *, [redacted] ’s campaigns spent $1,• On September *, 2015, [redacted] cancelled his campaigns and Outbrain charged his credit card an additional $1,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 [redacted] through [redacted] of $1,that was not charged as a part of the threshold billing and o September [redacted] through [redacted] of $1,- the $1,already charged to his account on September [redacted] and the $remaining balance• On October **, 2015, Outbrain charged [redacted] ’s credit card $2,094.83, deducting $1,paid on September from the invoiced amount of $3,Upon review of the account, we understand [redacted] ’s confusionHowever, 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,We have charged his credit card for this full amount and there will be no further charges applied to his credit card going forwardVery truly yours, Meghan M [redacted] Corporate Counsel, Outbrain IncExhibit A Customer Spend Date Spend [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 providedMy request for future use would have been for the relaunch of the same book project on kickstarterI requested proof of how they calculated clicksIf they are banking on people not figuring out that a simple computer program can create these clicks then they are mistakenThe scam is so common that you can buy clicks from businesses in several of the country tries that they have offices inI asked for screen shot proof of all of the locations that they proclaimed to have advertised and they could not provide proofOf 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 scammedI 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 countI strongly suggest that the Revdex.com post this complaint so that people have fair warningJust because there is a count it doesn't mean it's a real one in that they themselves are doing the clickingIf 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 countriesEthics are assumed and proof is all I asked forThis 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 soldThe 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 daysI start the kickstarter and get person with outbrain that had no geological connection yet even that was a pledge and not a purchaseI'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 mannerWe regret the [redacted] had a negative experienceWe 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 blogHer 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 *, e-mail, [redacted] requested to close her accountWe disabled her account on April *, We invoiced and charged her $for services rendered from April * through *, instead of $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 $and provided her with an updated invoice Second Billing Issue [redacted] received a May invoice for $and on June *, e-mailed us regarding the amount due Outbrain Remediation [redacted] was accidentally charged for one click on campaign contentThe amount was never charged to [redacted] ***’s credit card because we corrected the invoice on the same day we received her e-mailWe 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 accountWe inadvertently enabled [redacted] ***’s old account, which had a substantially similar nameIn a June **, e-mail, [redacted] informed us that her account was activeWe disabled her accountUnfortunately, this accidental activation was not communicated to the finance team, so we invoiced her $for services rendered in June Outbrain Remediation On July *, 2014, [redacted] e-mailed us regarding this invoiceWe did not charge [redacted] for these June servicesWe responded on July *, apologized and offered [redacted] a $credit to use our services to rebuild our relationship and earn her trustWe explained that we are implementing internal safeguards to prevent this type of issue from occurring in the future We appreciate [redacted] ***’s feedbackWe had independently begun to evaluate our process for closure of customer accounts so that others will not experience these issues in the futureWe are working to improve our software and the communication between the customer service and finance team to ensure an excellent end user experienceWe sincerely apologize to [redacted] for this unfortunate series of events and the inconvenience caused Very truly yours, [redacted] ***
Outbrain has the worst customer service response rate everSmall 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 hourJust 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 7amI've completely lost the full day without a response as to when my account will be activated againI sent emails with zero response but I guess this is how business is done in the out brain offices
[redacted] Dear Revdex.com: Outbrain is committed to responding to the needs of our customers and prides itself on conducting business in a professional mannerWe regret the *** [redacted] had a negative experienceHowever, 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-mailBackground 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 webpagesOur Widget displays links that navigate to content on other websitesCustomers like [redacted] want to drive web traffic to certain webpages to increase the visibility of their contentWe 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 dashboardThey 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 paymentEach customer also designates a “cost-per-click”, the amount paid to Outbrain each time a user clicks on the link featured in our WidgetWe only charge a customer each time an end user clicks on the link the customer provided to usAs 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 invoiceAs 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., $and $Additionally, the first time a customer triggers any spend threshold, they will be charged for their entire outstanding account balanceFor 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 $balance, as it has exceeded a spend threshold for the first timeOutbrain will not charge Customer A again until he spends an additional $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 usHowever, 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 [redacted] through October *, 2015, spending $[redacted] in August and $3,in September, for a total of spend $3,during those two monthsA table reflecting the daily spend from August [redacted] through September *, is attached hereto as Exhibit ABilling, 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 $(Note: Report was generated on August **, at 1:15pm, and the campaigns had spent $by that time.) • August **, 2015: Invoice for total August spend of $[redacted] • September *, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $[redacted] • September *, 2015: Second threshold billing charge of $1,• September **, 2014: Invoice for total September spend of $3,• October **, 2015: Outbrain charges credit card for $2,Detailed Explanation • From August [redacted] 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 $[redacted] for the balance of the August spend• From September [redacted] through *, [redacted] ’s campaigns spent $1,• On September *, Labor Day, an Outbrain employee in an international location reviewed new customers’ spendsHe flagged [redacted] ’s account to be charged because his spend of $1,exceeded the next billing threshold of $1,However, because the Outbrain accounts receivable team is located in the United States and September [redacted] was a legal holiday, [redacted] ’s credit card was not charged $1,on this dateInstead, this $1,was invoiced at the end of the month, as explained below• From September [redacted] through *, [redacted] ’s campaigns spent $1,• On September *, 2015, [redacted] cancelled his campaigns and Outbrain charged his credit card an additional $1,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 [redacted] through [redacted] of $1,that was not charged as a part of the threshold billing and o September [redacted] through [redacted] of $1,- the $1,already charged to his account on September [redacted] and the $remaining balance• On October **, 2015, Outbrain charged [redacted] ’s credit card $2,094.83, deducting $1,paid on September from the invoiced amount of $3,Upon review of the account, we understand [redacted] ’s confusionHowever, 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,We have charged his credit card for this full amount and there will be no further charges applied to his credit card going forwardVery truly yours, Meghan M [redacted] Corporate Counsel, Outbrain IncExhibit A Customer Spend Date Spend [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 providedMy request for future use would have been for the relaunch of the same book project on kickstarterI requested proof of how they calculated clicksIf they are banking on people not figuring out that a simple computer program can create these clicks then they are mistakenThe scam is so common that you can buy clicks from businesses in several of the country tries that they have offices inI asked for screen shot proof of all of the locations that they proclaimed to have advertised and they could not provide proofOf 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 scammedI 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 countI strongly suggest that the Revdex.com post this complaint so that people have fair warningJust because there is a count it doesn't mean it's a real one in that they themselves are doing the clickingIf 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 countriesEthics are assumed and proof is all I asked forThis 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 soldThe 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 daysI start the kickstarter and get person with outbrain that had no geological connection yet even that was a pledge and not a purchaseI'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]