Synergy Direct Solution

Response:
Mr. [redacted]
signed up with Synergy Direct Solution on 8/9/2013 for a 3 month agreement for
a Website and [redacted] campaign. The amount paid to Synergy was not $200, but
rather $99. This client signed up during a promotional period that waived any
setup fees, therefore Mr. [redacted] was and has only been charged our monthly
management fee of $99 starting on the date he signed up with us. Furthermore,
in the agreement signed by Mr. [redacted], there was no indication anywhere on the
agreement that we were to wait to build or start his campaign at a future date.
In fact, he initialed and agreed to the following monthly credit card authorization
section:
“I authorize
Synergy Direct Solution to charge my account $99.00 on a monthly basis starting
on 9/9/2013.”
If the client
had indeed requested us to start the campaign at a later date, we would have
changed the agreement to reflect this before asking the client to sign the
agreement to start the billing effective immediately.  There is a section on the agreement that our
sales reps use to indicate post dated agreements called “Other pertinent
information”, however Mr. [redacted]’s other pertinent information section is
completely blank.
In relation
to the complaint about being charged by Google for the [redacted] campaign, Mr.
[redacted]’s agreement indicates that he agreed to a $100 a month budget for his
billing cap, which is the maximum amount of money he was willing to spend for
the click’s received on the ads showing on Google.
Mr. [redacted]
indicated that he never heard from Synergy Direct Solution for months, until he
contacted his bank and realized that he had been charged every month. However,
our office manager placed a “Welcome Call” to Mr. [redacted] on 8/12/13 going over
his campaign, the domain modification process and content requests. During this
call Mr. [redacted] requested that Synergy Direct Solution put our website on two
domain names: [redacted]. He was informed during
this conversation that we would need access to both of these domains in order
to do that.
Furthermore,
the Office Manager reached out to Mr. [redacted] once again on 8/21/13 informing him
that his campaign is now live. During this call, the office manager went over
what content he wanted on his website and a support ticket was submitted based
on the conversation with Mr. [redacted]. The support ticket was completed 3 days
later and a response was submitted to Mr. [redacted] informing him the ticket had
been completed. If Mr. [redacted] had any intention of starting his campaign at a
later date, he had multiple opportunities to discuss that before we began his
campaign. Synergy Direct Solution places courtesy calls before we begin
building a campaign and after the campaign is live to ensure that the client is
educated about our process and that we understand the client’s needs. Mr. [redacted]
answered his phone during both of these calls and spoke to the same person
about the process, which is a clear indication that we were not attempting to
“Hurt” or “Scam” him in any way.
Mr. [redacted] is
also claiming that he attempted to email himself and call from the website that
we created for him but nothing worked. Per the agreement, since he has a
website that is currently associated with the domain name he purchased, we
built his website on a temporary sub-domain so that he can approve of the
website before we take over his current domain name(s). The website we create
is built with the information that Mr. [redacted] provided to his sales rep when he
signed up. If any of the information is incorrect on the website, it is solely
because the information provided to us was incorrect when he signed up. However,
we were able to reach Mr. [redacted] by phone after he signed up, therefore his phone
number was displayed properly at the time the products were launched.
Mr. [redacted] was
only in a 3 month agreement and could have cancelled at any time after his 3rd
charge and Synergy Direct Solution would have immediately stopped all billing
and charges to this client’s account. He did not attempt to contact us at any
point to discuss his account or his products. We were completely unaware that
Mr. [redacted] thought he was supposed to start his campaign in the spring until our
Billing Department called him on 1/10/14 to inquire about his past due payment.
When the Billing Department spoke to Mr. [redacted] he claimed he never signed
anything with us, he wasn’t supposed to be live yet and that he will not be
paying his past due balance. Synergy Direct Solution is not responsible for any
fees charged by other companies due to his financial situation or lack of money.
We never billed any amount outside of the amount listed in his signed agreement.
Had we overcharged Mr. [redacted], or made an error on his billing dates started on
his agreement, we would gladly return his money but this is not the case.  Due to the facts uncovered in this case
Synergy Direct Solution will not be able to issue a refund nor will be
responsible for the Google [redacted] charges or Mr. [redacted]’s banking fees.
Chargebacks
Department
Synergy
Direct Solution

Review: DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! They talk a great game but when it comes down to it they don't hold to it. We asked for months to see a completed website and they wouldn't let us, so after paying hosting fees for months we finally picked one and as we discussed with the original sales person we expected to see our current website content dumped into their web design. They didn't even put our correct business hours on their sight! We don't build pools and they have information on the benefits of building pools. No wonder they didn't want us to see a finished product, a monkey can do a better job then they did. Then you call to speak to someone and get a message to submit a ticket and never hear from anyone. I finally get a live gal and start to vent my frustration only for her to continue to interrupt me, put me on hold, and when my frustration boils over tell me I was rude and wouldn't listen and be no help at all. This company is one of the worst I have ever dealt with. Just look at [redacted] and it says it all for you!Desired Settlement: We want all of our money back. This company is a scam and we did not get what we were promised.

Business

Response:

Review: We hired this company act as an agent for us for website design and Google Adwords advertising. we placed a request for them to terminate our Google adwords campaign and service and sent this request to them via their own ticketing program. They agreed to take action, but this never happened and thus we accrued additional charges from both their firm and google in the amount to $235.50 in charges on our credit card. We have asked them to reimburse us for those charges, however , they have refused. They had offered us to have a one year free service, but we declined since we are still left having to pay these charges.Desired Settlement: We would like Synergy direct solutions to pay for just the charges we incurred due to their mistake nothing more and we are hoping you may be able to assist. They advised us that we would have to call Google and dispute the charges, however, I called Google and they told me it was up to Synergy Direct solutions as our account manager to resolve this issue. Google told us that if we protested our disputed charge they would send us to collections. So we are stuck with this problem and have reached impasse.

Business

Response:

Synergy Direct Solution takes pride in our customer service. This has been our sole focus for many years. With thousands of client Nationwide it is understandable that a few become unhappy for one reason or another. As it is with any customer service issue, Synergy attempted to resolve this issue internally by offering several solutions to the client. After making these attempts to resolve this issue the customer continued to be unreasonable. The customer wants Synergy Direct Solution to reimburse him for charges from another company. Synergy will not refund money that was not collected by our own merchant account. The client agreed to Google's terms and conditions along with Synergy's terms and conditions. This client must handle this issue with two different companies because he agreed to the terms and conditions for two different companies and received charges from two different companies. Synergy Direct Solution offered several remedies including a direct refund to the cardholder as well as free services but the cardholder would not accept the offer and immediately threatened a chargeback.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

Synergy Direct solutions originally did not offer any solution to the problem that they created as my account manager for both the website service and Google services. Using their required ticket system I originally requested that they terminate our company account , however, after sending an email to them directly they did not terminate the account as requested.

This company scammed 3 months of money from me! I canceled with them 2 different times and they kept charging my credit card. Finally they quite after I canceled my credit card, When they found out that I canceled my card they threatened me and are sending me to collections. Finally they did send me to collection for $445 when the original amount was $100. My attorney is handling this. do not use this company! I would also like to add that they do not actually do any advertising for your company. They just say that they do. Do not EVER use this company!

Review: I was contacted by a saleman from Synergy Direct and he sold me on and marketing plan for my website for my pool business and it all sounded good and I agreed to let them build the web site and charge $200 for building the site but I stated I did NOT want the marketing to start until spring because I was at the end of my season and people don't look for pools in the winter time with a foot of snow on the ground and temps below zero and he agreed and it was NOT supposed to start until spring time so I never heard back from them as to my web site or anything until a few months later I was going over some issues with my bank account with my local banker and found that Synergy Direct had been charging my account every month and on top of that they gave permission to Google adwords to charge my account and at the time of talking to the salesman, I asked him twice if $99 was the total charge for everything per month once I agreed to start it in spring time and he said yes but it was a lie, Synergy direct was charging $99 per month and Google adwords was charging almost $100 per month and the salesman told me that the pay per click was only a few cents per click, well I don't know how that many people was clicking on my site in the middle of winter to ad up to almost $100 within a 50 mile radius and I havent got one phone call or email but hundreds of people are clicking on it, doesn't make any sence at all so after filing a dispute with my bank for the hundreds of dollars taken out of my account and the bank fees associated with these charges that they where NOT supposed to charge until spring, I called Synergy Direct and the lady that answered the phone was not helpful at all so I asked for a Supervisor to talk to and she said she would have him call me but I never heard from so I called back a few days later and the same girl told me that they are refusing to call me back or talk to me to get this mess straightened out, so she told me what the web address was to the site they built because I never heard from them after the first salesman so I thought they just didn't want to do it so after checking out the site they built for the first time, I tried to email my self from the site and call the phone # on the site but none of them worked, I also tried googleing my key words and everything that has to do with pools and that site never came up, it couldn't be found anywhere, so they have been charging me for a site that don't work and can't be found on the web, I told them don't charge my account no more and refund my money that they took without my concent but they refused so now my bank account is overdrawn, I have hundreds in bank fees due to them taking my money, my home and car insurance is being canceled because the auto withdraw didn't work, my business bank account is going to be closed because of this so that means I will be out of business with no way to make a living or feed my family, I have everything on video recording and witnesses to everything I have said and I see now that they have been reported to [redacted] and other people have been scamed like this too, this is a bad company to do business with, they will hurt you and they don't care if they hurt you, they need to be stopped, if they don't return all my money I will have no choice to hire an Attorney to file a law suit for several hundred thousand dollars.Desired Settlement: They need to return all my money from Synergy Direct and Google adwords and pay all the bank fees.

Business

Response:

Response:

Mr. [redacted]

signed up with Synergy Direct Solution on 8/9/2013 for a 3 month agreement for

a Website and [redacted] campaign. The amount paid to Synergy was not $200, but

rather $99. This client signed up during a promotional period that waived any

setup fees, therefore Mr. [redacted] was and has only been charged our monthly

management fee of $99 starting on the date he signed up with us. Furthermore,

in the agreement signed by Mr. [redacted], there was no indication anywhere on the

agreement that we were to wait to build or start his campaign at a future date.

In fact, he initialed and agreed to the following monthly credit card authorization

section:

“I authorize

Synergy Direct Solution to charge my account $99.00 on a monthly basis starting

on 9/9/2013.”

If the client

had indeed requested us to start the campaign at a later date, we would have

changed the agreement to reflect this before asking the client to sign the

agreement to start the billing effective immediately. There is a section on the agreement that our

sales reps use to indicate post dated agreements called “Other pertinent

information”, however Mr. [redacted]’s other pertinent information section is

completely blank.

In relation

to the complaint about being charged by Google for the [redacted] campaign, Mr.

[redacted]’s agreement indicates that he agreed to a $100 a month budget for his

billing cap, which is the maximum amount of money he was willing to spend for

the click’s received on the ads showing on Google.

Mr. [redacted]

indicated that he never heard from Synergy Direct Solution for months, until he

contacted his bank and realized that he had been charged every month. However,

our office manager placed a “Welcome Call” to Mr. [redacted] on 8/12/13 going over

his campaign, the domain modification process and content requests. During this

call Mr. [redacted] requested that Synergy Direct Solution put our website on two

domain names: [redacted]. He was informed during

this conversation that we would need access to both of these domains in order

to do that.

Furthermore,

the Office Manager reached out to Mr. [redacted] once again on 8/21/13 informing him

that his campaign is now live. During this call, the office manager went over

what content he wanted on his website and a support ticket was submitted based

on the conversation with Mr. [redacted]. The support ticket was completed 3 days

later and a response was submitted to Mr. [redacted] informing him the ticket had

been completed. If Mr. [redacted] had any intention of starting his campaign at a

later date, he had multiple opportunities to discuss that before we began his

campaign. Synergy Direct Solution places courtesy calls before we begin

building a campaign and after the campaign is live to ensure that the client is

educated about our process and that we understand the client’s needs. Mr. [redacted]

answered his phone during both of these calls and spoke to the same person

about the process, which is a clear indication that we were not attempting to

“Hurt” or “Scam” him in any way.

Mr. [redacted] is

also claiming that he attempted to email himself and call from the website that

we created for him but nothing worked. Per the agreement, since he has a

website that is currently associated with the domain name he purchased, we

built his website on a temporary sub-domain so that he can approve of the

website before we take over his current domain name(s). The website we create

is built with the information that Mr. [redacted] provided to his sales rep when he

signed up. If any of the information is incorrect on the website, it is solely

because the information provided to us was incorrect when he signed up. However,

we were able to reach Mr. [redacted] by phone after he signed up, therefore his phone

number was displayed properly at the time the products were launched.

Mr. [redacted] was

only in a 3 month agreement and could have cancelled at any time after his 3rd

charge and Synergy Direct Solution would have immediately stopped all billing

and charges to this client’s account. He did not attempt to contact us at any

point to discuss his account or his products. We were completely unaware that

Mr. [redacted] thought he was supposed to start his campaign in the spring until our

Billing Department called him on 1/10/14 to inquire about his past due payment.

When the Billing Department spoke to Mr. [redacted] he claimed he never signed

anything with us, he wasn’t supposed to be live yet and that he will not be

paying his past due balance. Synergy Direct Solution is not responsible for any

fees charged by other companies due to his financial situation or lack of money.

We never billed any amount outside of the amount listed in his signed agreement.

Had we overcharged Mr. [redacted], or made an error on his billing dates started on

his agreement, we would gladly return his money but this is not the case. Due to the facts uncovered in this case

Synergy Direct Solution will not be able to issue a refund nor will be

responsible for the Google [redacted] charges or Mr. [redacted]’s banking fees.

Chargebacks

Department

Synergy

Direct Solution

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I have video recording of it all, they can't deny video, I have shown it to [redacted] and they agree, NOBODY in there right mind would pay hundreds of dollars to advertise pools when we have a foot of snow on the ground and below zero temps in the hardest Winter we have had in decades, I clearly told them I DO NOT want it started until spring. The salesman told me it only cost a few cents per click, so they are saying that thousands of people were looking and clicking on this site in the middle of winter costing hundreds more dollars, I don't even get that many clicks in the high season and I recieved no calls or emails out of all them thousands of clicks, BULL. I checked the site, it did not work, the email didn't work or the phone contact DID NOT work. They were supposed to optimize it for a 50 mile radius, how ever I checked it and couldn't find it anywhere under my key words. They are NOT doing as they promised so the salesman lied about what they were going to do for me. Anyone that does business with this company is just asking for problems. They did NOT contact me to tell me the website address, there is no correct info on it, no pool models, there was no reason to take it live, it was a NON producing site with NO info that would get me any calls, very unprofessional. There are others that have reported this company to www.ripoff.com, I am repoting them to the U.S. Attorney general and Fox news, this kind of corruption has to stop, there are people taking there lives over scams like this and it looks like they have cost me my business, my bank account is so screwed up from them taking money out of my account that they were not supposed to take and now my account has to be closed, it has cost my insurance to be dropped, my [redacted]# to be turned off because they took that money out that was there for the other bills. Pool builders have to suvive in the winter time and not create more debt, this company has destroyed my business and my life. LIKE I SAID, VIDEO DON'T LIE. I will be making it known all across the country about what this company has done to me, they are dirty greedy crooks who is out to hurt the little guy. WHAT A DISGRACE, PATHETIC LOSERS THAT HAS TO SCAM INOCENT PEOPLE TO GET THERE GREEDY MONEY , WHAT A [redacted] SHAME. Bottom line, the site don't work, the contact info don't work, the site can not be found where I told them I work and they took my money when I told them not to do it until spring, they did nothing to talk my money for.

Regards,

Business

Response:

Response:

In regards to Mr. [redacted]’s claim about his video evidence and [redacted] pursuing his claims, we have yet to be contacted by anybody and have no concern about the video footage he claims to have since we have not done anything illegal. We treated Mr. [redacted] the exact same way that we treat new clients, therefore his claim about having a video that we cannot “deny” is absurd. Our hope is that Mr. [redacted] has video of his conversation signing up with us, as that will prove that every term and condition on his agreement was read to him before he signed it, during that phone call.

Mr. [redacted]’s claim that “they are saying that thousands of people were looking and clicking on this site in the middle of winter costing hundreds more dollars” has no validity and we are completely unaware of where he would get this information. Google has complete tracking of every single [redacted] campaign, which shows the exact number of clicks received every single day, what ad the person viewed, what keyword they typed in to see that ad and the cost per click that the client pays. Mr. [redacted] has never requested any of these reports to review, therefore he is providing exaggerated and false information about the campaign that we ran for him.

Furthermore, after review of his campaign, it appears that his Ads were shown 274,160 times resulting in 732 clicks on his ad in over 5 months. In fact, during the entire time the campaign was ran (over 5 months), he only incurred a total cost of $444.65 based on his clicks which means he was paying an average of $0.61 per click and staying well under his $100 a month budget that he selected when signing up. His claim that “NOBODY in there right mind would pay hundreds of dollars to advertise pools when we have a foot of snow on the ground and below zero temps in the hardest Winter we have had in decades” is obviously not true. Considering that his ad appeared during searches of his exact keywords 274,160 times during the winter months proves that he has absolutely no knowledge of the searching trends of his industry. Also, he was advertising hot tub keywords, which one would assume would be much more popular in the winter.

We have all records of each time we communicated with Mr. [redacted], his signed agreement, the tickets that were submitted to him and from him and have provided all of this information to his credit card company to review since he has disputed the charges. We will not be refunding Mr. [redacted] any money, per the direct instruction from his financial institution while the dispute remains open. We will resolve Mr. [redacted]’s dispute through our internal process and his financial institution will determine if he is indeed entitled to a refund.

As far as the complaints regarding his financial status, Synergy Direct Solution has nothing to do with his money management skills and we have no information to provide about the debt he has put himself into. Had he not signed up with our company and provided billing information for his services, we would never have billed his account nor provided any services to him. Upon signing any agreement and agreeing to monthly charges, we are sure Mr. [redacted] was fully aware that we would be charging him. As mentioned in our previous response, Synergy Direct Solution has never billed him any charge that was not outlined in the agreement signed by Mr. [redacted].

Review: I have contracted with Synergy to handle an online marketing campaign for my business. After the first billing period I had a fraudulent charge on my credit card that was link to this account, my credit card company closed this account and issued a new account. I did receive one email from Synergy to correct this billing information. I blame myself that it was put on the back burner and forgot about. Yesterday I received a transmittal from [redacted], Collection Agency. This infuriates me, not since the initial email have they tried to contact me to resolve this issue. Now I have a $[redacted] bill that I don't even know if any services have been rendered, coming from a collection agency. If this is how they handle their billing department, I'm not sure I wish to work with a company that handle's matters in this way.Desired Settlement: I wish to know if any services have been rendered that I am being billed for. I have seen no activity on the Facebook page they created and want to know what I am getting for the $575.