Yodel = Google Australia
May 30, 2008 at 9:19 am Taco Fleur 88 comments
Our telephone services are outsourced and we just got a message saying we need to return a call to Google Australia! I found it very hard to believe that Google Australia was actually on the phone, so I did some research on the phone number (1800732724 or 1800 732 724), it turns out that the phone number belongs to www.yodelaustralia.com.au
I don’t often write about things that are not directly related to something positive, but I find it a very bad business practice that they’ve employed, and I have also seen other people complain about yodel calling themselves Google Australia.
Seeing that it’s almost impossible to contact Google themselves to lodge a complaint, I am ousting my concerns via this blog and hopefully the next person researching the telephone number will end up at this blog entry.
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Taco Fleur
Taco Fleur
Just random crap 
1.
Mark Rimmer | June 3, 2008 at 6:36 am
Hi Taco,
I’m amazed that Yodel are still continuing these deceptive tactics – they were up to similar things a few months ago (you may have already seen this post)
http://blogpond.com.au/2008/03/13/yodel-google/
Cheers,
Mark
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2.
Meg | June 8, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I agree it’s very misleading…
http://blogpond.com.au/2008/03/13/yodel-google/
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3.
Lauren | July 7, 2008 at 11:09 am
I just had a message left for me from someone working for ‘google’ asking me if I would like to be at the top of the google search engine pages. They left the same number but I knew better than to just call them straight back and so I did a search on the phone number first, and thats when I found this blog. Im glad I did because I dont want to do business with a company that is falsly trying to pass themselves off as google!
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4.
David | November 6, 2008 at 3:56 am
Google does supply support phone numbers but they are based in California, USA. Google does contact larger clients directly, they have a sales office in Sydney.
Best idea is to speak with other adwords competitors to see what they think of the company above and make your own decision. The IT industry is fairly small and I agree that some operators arent very honest, but then again you are dealing with their telemarketing team…
Remember you get what you pay for… good luck!
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5.
Paul | November 14, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I am work for ReachLocal a competitor of Yodel Australia. We are both Authorised Resellers of Google in Australia.
When I contact customers I make it very clear that we are a partner of and not actually Google themselves.
That kind of behaviour is very deceptive and unprofessional.
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6.
Hai Duong | November 21, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hi Guys,
I work for Yodel Australia and our head office is based in North Ryde, Sydney NSW. As a representative of Yodel Australia, I would like to address some of the views and concerns raised in this conversation.
Yodel is currently in the 3rd year of our strategic alliance with Google Australia, and this is because of our continued success in providing quality AdWords management to local Australian businesses. Our processes are completely optimised and refined to provide advertising services to over 7000 clients in Australia and New Zealand. We are also proud to announce that our sales force has been given approval to resell into South Africa, Ireland and the UK.
The key reason for why we’ve been given approval for international expansion is due to the fact that we can replicate our successful local leadership. Yodel deploys a model of sales engagement with Australians that simply clicks!
I’d like to point out that our sales staff are put through an extensive 2 week training course of how behave and interact with clients. Each sales rep is trained on how to effectively represent our company, our Google alliance and our product offering. They also complete some vigorous written testing (much similar to the actual Google Advertising Professional GAP) And this is before they are even allowed near a phone! We practice being completely upfront and we always represent ourselves as Yodel, the 1st Authorised Reseller of Google AdWords in Australia.
I can personally attest to this because of whats on stake. If we were ever convicted of misrepresenting ourselves as anyone other than Yodel, Google has the right to immediately terminate our alliance and we would no longer be allowed to display our credibility. This alone would be disastrous for a company such as ours (As fellow AdWords Resellers ReachLocal, HotGoanna and DirectClicks would agree). Google has every right to protect is global brand and we make sure that we play along…
Simply put, we are an honest company and we always follow “the rule book” of approaching all potential clients.
We’re about to go into our 4th year of providing our professionally managed Google services to Australia and countries beyond. At least Google Australia seems to think we are doing a good job. 🙂
I would be more than happy to answer any further questions you may have. Feel free to email me at hduong@yodel.com.au. I am based in the Sydney office.
There is also lots of great information on http://www.yodel.com.au
p.s. Google doesn’t advertise their phone number because they employ AdWords resellers such as Yodel to do the dirty work!
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7.
Peter | October 18, 2011 at 9:04 am
On the 17th October 2011 I was contacted by a fellow who claimed to be from Google Australia. I was at first skeptical but he sounded convincing so I signed up to a 3 month trial for $530.
When I was emailed the invoice I found it was from Yodel Australia. So Hai, either you are unaware of what is going on with your sales staff or you are lying. Either way I am seriously considering contacting Fair trading to lodge a fraud complaint.
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8.
tracy | December 10, 2008 at 3:14 am
I have just signed up for yodel.
I thought they were google.
They did a one page web pg, with all the incorrect stuff, and now they say give us a few days to correct this.
well I now want a refund to find out if they are for real. I have never heard of yodel.co.nz. I think i was mislead. I want out of this yodel crap!
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9.
k | December 9, 2010 at 6:43 am
be very carefull.. i had a nasty experience with yodel
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10.
unhappy customer | January 25, 2009 at 1:41 am
I signed up with Yodel, the money was deducted instantly but the page never went live for over a month. It was mostly incorrect and the changes I requested were not a priority and did not go through in a hurry. Customer support was less than impressive. The salesperson even went as far as to deny making me the ‘special offer’ that hooked me into the deal in the first place, the ‘one day only’ deal that was too good to say ‘no’ to. I asked for the page to be refunded, it’s been cancelled but I’m struggling to get my money back. Not happy.
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11.
Winston | August 4, 2009 at 1:25 am
Same here. Impossible to get your money back.
I’ve been trying now for two months to get a refund.
Dodgy business – please stay well clear of them!
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12.
Caroline Hatcher | June 23, 2012 at 2:15 am
i am having the same issue… did you ever get your money back??
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13.
J DREWETT | May 27, 2013 at 7:57 am
I’m still battling to retreive money they kept debiting back in Aug 2012. Now (May 2013) they have suddenly taken out another debit. Do you know which Ombudsman to contact?
Jo
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14.
Caroline Hatcher | May 27, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Hi Jo
First thing, cancel your credit card and get a new one. Secondly have the bank create an alert so that Yodel cannot withdraw from you. Just threaten them with “I have contacted the ombudsman because you took money from my account without my authority, this is called fraud. I am also going to contact the federal police within 7 days if the monies are not returned into my account immediately. As fraud is a federal offence, this could mean jail time for anyone connected to the unauthorised withdrawals from my account. This is not an empty threat, I just want a refund as you did not promise what you delivered AND you took money from my account without my authority. I signed up for a 3 month trial, that is all, no further authority was given to continue to take money from my account.” I hope this helps xx
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15.
Aaron | February 6, 2009 at 2:59 am
Thanks mate, just saved me time wasted calling the same 1800 number back.
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16.
mel williams | March 9, 2009 at 10:08 am
Yodel Aust. has been my headache for the past 4 months. I signed up for 6 months and paid in full to recieve a great discount ..What a joke I have wasted $4100 on advertising that has not been done proberly .. I made more sales on $150 a month on advertising myself then I have on $700 a month thru them….All I can say is please stay away from Yodel Aust they will bring nothing but grief to your life… and are detrimental to your business and your business success much less your hip pocket…
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17.
Jodie Davis | December 19, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Hi Thank you all for the warnings!! its 20/12/2010 1-2 years after this string was started and just had a call from them…they absolutely STATED that they were from “google ad words” no mention of yodel until they offered a “free” website.
Question to Mel Williams. what did you budget your $150 on for self advertising. As a very new small business I’m struggling to get my name out there and would love to know what you found to be effective. Thank you
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18.
ross | May 1, 2009 at 6:09 am
Yodel are shonks. Poor customer service. Remember to check out the fine print from any company that wants your credit card details before doing anything.
I actaully had a screaming match with a customer service girl to get my money back. She recited the terms and conditions and I eventually wore them down with twice daily calls an a barrage of emails.
Do not trust them they will promise everything to get your credit card number then give you no or poor service as they please.
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19.
Taygan | May 11, 2009 at 3:02 am
Thanks for posting this.. they called me this morning and I have no idea how they even got my number! I only registered my business like a week ago! I told them I was at work so I couldn’t talk, so I would call them back. Gave me some time to do this research and now I know to refuse the offer if they call back!
Thanks again.
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20.
anthony | May 15, 2009 at 4:22 pm
yes it is misleading
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21.
Rene LeMerle | May 20, 2009 at 3:38 am
Thanks for bringing Yodel’s activity into the public forum.
It’s disappointing to hear about other search marketing companies using deceptive behavior to acquire customers – it reflects badly on all of us.
We’ve been in the industry since 1996, and have helped 1000’s of Australian small businesses with their advertising.
If you want some honest Google advertising advice – please give us a call.
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22.
IAN | June 17, 2009 at 11:10 am
I concur with all the negativity above, unfortunately
for me I paid them upfront for a so called Free website $552.00 which supposedly gives me 3 months worth of Google Adwords. Nearly 4 weeks later I still have no live site, I am told they are waiting for a rep to contact me for my keywords. I spoke to one today and he said my site will now be ready in 2 days.
Isn’t the net meant to be quick, should it take nearly a month of delays, phone calls, waiting for phone calls to get a website setup.I dont think so, save your money, dont listen to their spin and find a decent company to deal with.
And if anyone from yodel wants to talk to me regarding this post, I would welcome that after 4 weeks of dodging my calls.
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23.
Wendy | July 15, 2009 at 5:47 am
Thank you for these comments. I have been contacted a few times by Yodel – who never identified themselves as Yodel just as an authorised reseller of Adwords (and implied they were part of Google). I showed some interest and have had numerous calls attempting to get my credit card number for sign up (to manage my Ad Words which are going okay but they say they will make them better… quoting loads of acronyms that they will ‘improve’. To which I said ‘so what’ just get me more calls.
I finally insisted on something written / to view ‘a contract’ as I was not happy signing up for 3 months (just in case)… then I find out they are “Yodel”. So thought I would research them… and hey presto… this is what I read. I wont be signing up.
So for others… watch the persistent sales team!
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24.
Terry | August 5, 2009 at 6:01 am
Yodel Australia deceived me too. I was stupid enough to call them back and sign up, thinking they may be do a better job than me. Almost immediately i requested a cancellation. Yodel Australia could not spell my name or my company’s name correctly in correspondence (they are both simple) so i did not want them to wreck my advertising too.
After finding out about Yodel Australia’s bad reputation I started to worry. And with good reason…
I have now been jumping through hoops for a month, and Yodel Australia keep delaying my refund by referring to their various ‘policies’. First a 14 business day (~3 weeks) evaluation of my reasons and then a 7 business day (~1.5 week) refund processing period.
Yodel Australia are a disgusting bunch and i will do all i can to warn others of their damaging effects on business and shoddy practices.
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25.
Teresa | April 11, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Hi Terry,
I presently find myself in a similar situation to yours. Were you successful in retrieving a refund?
Regards
Teresa
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26.
Carlo | August 12, 2009 at 8:25 am
Outline of Yodel Business Model
1. Sell clients Google Adword budgets (campaigns) at a variable price (X). (ie. X could be 300, 600, 900, etc).
2. Define a campaign length at START. 30 days, 90 days, 180, 365 days. (Y)
3. Divide X by Y = Z “Daily Budget”. Daily budget is the pre-determined limit any business can receive in clicks on any per day.
4. Presume on average, $1 of the $5 budget is used. Yodel will keep those $4 as “FORFEIT CREDIT”.
Example: Over 100 days, your business will receive only $100 of its advertising spend. Yodel will receive $400.
Yodel, in this example would receive 80% commission for your advertising dollars.
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27.
Carlo | August 12, 2009 at 8:43 am
Terry,
I recommend you place a call to your state department responsible for consumer protection.
Under NSW law,
“you have a ‘cooling-off’ period of five business days during which you can choose to cancel a sale over $100”
-NSW Office of Fair Trading
IMPORTANT TO NOTE,
Yodel deliberately implement stalling tactics to avoid loss of sales within the cooling off period.
The cooling off period is 5 BUSINESS DAYS. This can be done by POST, FAX or EMAIL.
You’ll receive only the email address of the salesperson who sold you to cancel via. This isn’t enough.
To ascertain the correct email address, you’ll need to call their Toll Free number. You’ll then be redirected and hung up and lead on.
This is performed in the hope the buyer will abdicate their rights in frustration.
The best method of overcoming this issue is to visit their website, send REGISTERED POST to their office.
REGISTERED POST – CONFIRMS THEY’VE RECEIVED YOUR MESSAGE and CANT HIDE BEHIND YOU DIDN’T SEND IT ON TIME.
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28.
Carlo | August 12, 2009 at 9:03 am
YODEL CONTACTS
For those struggling to get through the Yodel run around, here are some company contacts that will help you through.
Their Youtube videos indicate that key people within the business are
Paul Harvell – Managing Director
David Mayman – Unknown (FulfilNet Director – Parent Company)
Michael Gerardis – General Manager
Kynan Albassit – New Sales Manager
Matt Walker – Internet Sales Consultant
David Thew – Corporate Accounts Executive
Hai Duong – Marketing Manager
Natasha Howard – Yodel Accounts Manager
Janty Mohammed – Business Development Manager
Pierre Ajram – Referral Channel Manager
email address provided info@yodel.com.au
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29.
Michelle Klement | August 21, 2009 at 1:04 am
Wow, I wished I had read some of these posts before I did anything with Yodel and then referred two of my team onto this company who they are now making money from which I was supposed to have been paid a referral fee which of course never eventuated.
Poor customer service, phone calls NEVER returned, promised reports never sent, the exact way NOT to run a company.. and to be frankly honest, I cannnot see any point of contacting any of the people above as none of them are “ever available” or “in the country” …
Honestly, it’s companies like this that makes people very vary of the internet marketing industry!!
GOOD ON YOU YODEL for showing how best NOT TO RUN a business!!
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30.
Calvin Wood | September 23, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I have a number of clients who have similar sentiments. I work for Reach Local Australia, and I would suggest we offer a different experience. I am located in Victoria.
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31. Best Way To Get Noticed On The Internet | South Gippsland Website Design | September 29, 2009 at 1:18 pm
[…] OH DEAR! – As usual, I did a google search for complaints regarding any company I am considering dealing with and came up with these interesting customer reports. […]
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32.
Inanna_Co | October 29, 2009 at 12:47 am
don’t believe anyone from Yodel, dont give them your bank account details! your money will shrink in no time without you knowing!
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33.
tania | December 30, 2009 at 1:47 am
Hi guys,
There are more than 100 ppl in the same situation that i have been in touch with in the last few days, we have contacted the fair trading dep and ACCC and are in the process of making a formal complaint to get our funds back. Email me if you want to participate.
tania@jellibeanz.com.au
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34.
john wright | January 10, 2010 at 2:49 pm
i signed up with them in november everything i have just read on the internet is true i could not beleive the pathetic rubbish they put together for me i was worried about looking like fool and tried for weeks to get them to fix up the stupid wording it was as if little children had put it together as far as i am concerned i am dirty on google for allowing these rip off artists to use their name of course google knows their selling methods and so do our so called fair trading people none of the people i know have ever heard of yogel the comments re-yogle sale tatics were used on me not happy at all tania .thanks for trying to do something . john
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35.
Rick Marton | March 16, 2010 at 12:31 pm
hi there – just add our story – they are shonky!
In October they sold us 12 months subscription for $299 – never heard from them to get our keywords. and have emailed them at least 4 times to get them to call us. No luck.
Two days ago they take another $150 from my credit card totally unauthorised and without permission. Keepig in mind it is only 5 months since we paid for a 12 month subscription I think they are just now scamming money and again no reply.
This company is fraudulent and I have started reporting them to the authorities.
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36.
shivam seo | March 19, 2010 at 5:03 am
don’t believe anyone from Yodel, dont give them your bank account details! your money will shrink in no time without you knowing but make sure when ? you conversation with any one security term condition you know very well
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37.
Roslyn Garavaglia | April 23, 2010 at 3:56 am
I’m a web developer in Brisbane. For the past 12 months Yodel has been approaching my clients 2 days after I make their website live! How in the hell do they know when a site goes live???
We spend time, money, efort into selling websites and AdWords and here is Yodel trying to undermine everything we do. It’s appalling behaviour. I have notified Google and talked to some guy at Yodel……neither are interested in behaving ethically. We’re just an ant in the scheme of things and really resent this kind of poaching and so do our clients who notify us and forward Yodel’s emails onto us.
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38.
Roslyn Garavaglia | April 25, 2010 at 12:33 am
Continuing on about the last complaint i registered with Yodel. My client has since told me, he received 3 phone calls in a row on the same day from Yodel telemarketers 2 days after his website went live.
Each telemarketer introduced themselves as “Google calling”.
The first call confused him (why was Google calling him), the second call caused him to panic (why isn’t my web developer handling Google calls, what has she done wrong) and the third call just angered him, he felt harassed.
This is not the first time this has happened to a client of mine. One lclient was actually reduced to tears by a Yodel bully.
I phoned Yodel to complain and was given a wall of words, “We’re reputable, we don’t do that, our team is fully trained, yadayada”. I had to literally scream at the guy to get a word in. When I finally got his attention, of course he denied bad practice and then had the gaul to offer me to be a reseller for them! That is, hand all my clients over to Yodel!
So how do they get to know about my client’s new websites?
The minute you submit a site to a local directory, say True Local, maybe Hot Frog and others – these directories are Referrers for Yodel! So everyone is trying to get a slice of yours and your client’s money. I say, forget local directories in future, they’re pretty useless in driving traffic to your site anyway. I’ll be watching carefully from now on to determine who is a referrer – and they don’t post the fact on their websites either which is deceptive.
By the way, Yodel likes to say they’re an authorised reseller for Google. Here’s the latest from Google.
Google has withdrawn the reseller program for a while because resellers are syphoning money off from their clients creating very unhappy Adwords customers.
Google adwords is good and Google is reputable. Companies who exploit the good name and good products Google offers are crooks and Google won’t tolerate it.
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39.
vito | December 21, 2010 at 11:34 am
hi roslyn thanks heaps just read your article , i was wondering how yodel got my number after i signed up with true local..im in adelaide im looking net web page on a budget can u help or know someone who can & thanks to you and everyone else, there not gonna any money from FUCK THEMMM
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40.
Rick Marton | April 24, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Her’s an update on our earlier post. After calling them about the $150 they took unauthorised they apologised and said they’ll pay me back – it was a system error. Imagine my surprise when the same day they promised me I’d get my $150 back they charged me another $450. After 8 phone calls and 5 emails I finally got stuck in to them because they wouldn’t reply. I fought to get my $450 refunded (that’s right the $150 was a mistake but they said the $450 was for a subscription which I never agreed to)…Then i had to try and get my $299 back. They declined me but then I told them that i’ll continue my campaign of sharing this story on social media. They said that they’ll refund my money for the campaign they never ran ONLY if I remove all postings about them on facebook (they never said other sites). So essentially the refund was a bribe to remove stuff. I got $300 back today (great accounting going on there they refunded $1 more)…
They are still shonky and I have contacted Google but never got a reply which is really disappointing.
The funny thing is at every step of the way, Yodel tried to make me feel like they were doing me a favour and that i was being unreasonable. They took $899 and from what i hear i was lucky to get it back.
Also due to their money grabbing, my bank cancelled my credit card which was a huge inconvenience and I spent over 12 hours of emails and phone calls in trying to get this issue recovered.
They need to be shut down!
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41.
scott thomas | May 11, 2010 at 12:50 am
I too have had very bad experiences with these guys.
Apart from all the poor customer service issues I can talk about, on two separate occasions they taken money from credit card “in error”.
In both cases they have said “sorry” but then explain about some process that have to go through before they can return the money.
And then they take well over a month to return the money. All money they had no right to take in the first place.
How many other people have had this happen? How much money are they taking off credit cards “in error”? And then taking their sweet time in returning the money?
Do not use these people!!
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42.
Tyler Crosbie | May 17, 2010 at 1:50 am
Here’s my dealings with Yodel.
Over a year ago, they rang, ‘we can do your adwords’ spiel. We felt like we could use a hand. ‘We will increase your sales and not your spend’. This didn’t happen. Sales stayed the same. We were on a 3 month thing, at the end of the 3 months, we said ‘Thanks but no thanks’
Our campaigns had been altered and really we made a bad decision, but I don’t blame them, as much as I blame us for not backing ourselves, (we’re a husband and wife team running an online business), we were actually doing a good job.
3 months later, Yodel take money from our credit card ‘in error’. I ring say ‘hey you guys have made a mistake’, money is refunded with profuse apologies and a promise that this won’t happen again.
6 months later, (this week), I see Yodel have taken another $700 dollars out of my credit card and whilst I’m looking at this online going ‘FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU’ they then take another $1300 out of my account… ‘FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU’ I go back on my account and I missed 2 months ago when they took $150 out of the account.
I’ve rung them, but the account manager hasn’t returned my call, I’ve rung my bank and have been advised to call FOS, (Financial Ombudsman Service), which I will be doing. The bank say that FOS are cutthroat and have been known to shut a business down in 10 minutes for this kind of carry on.
I run a business myself and it’s just not acceptable for Yodel to help themselves randomly to my money!
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43.
Rick Marton | May 17, 2010 at 2:04 am
Tyler – please feel free to contact me if you need more ammunition. This is ridiculous! They should have been shut down long before this – something is wrong with our consumer protection laws in Australia if they are allowed to continue operating.
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44.
rod | May 17, 2010 at 7:13 am
Yodel is just the worst. Please stay away from them. My click rate went down overnight. I signed for a three month trial, 2500 dollars. After my sales went down 60%, I asked Yodel to stop managing my ads. They did this and when I restarted my original ads, sales and clicks went back up overnight. Justin Kilic has refused to pay refund. They cant seem to get anything right, even their lies. Justin, client relations consultant, on refusing my request for refund, quoted, ‘a 6 month subscription was clearly purchased’, when it was a three month trial period. He claimed their click rate was higher, just another lie and have their paperwork to prove it. Also Justin claimed i quit programme too soon. If i had waited any longer, I would have lost business. I have exact details and examples if anyone wants them. Please dont waste your money on them or listen to their lies.
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45.
rod jack | May 19, 2010 at 2:31 am
more exact info on earlier post.
If you are thinking of using Yodel, then do so at your own peril. In the 9 days of Yodel controlling my site, there was 12500 impressions and 414 clicks, this is their information sent to me. On regaining control of my adwords, impressions went to 26000 and clicks to 469 in 6 days, at a lower cost. Of course my sales went down 50%. Ivan Teh, who sold me a 3 month trial period said there would be improvement in my average position of 4.2. When Rima from Yodel did the new ads, my site listings were down 50 %. On getting back control of my site, I asked Justin kilic, client relations consultant, for a refund of the balance I paid, a total of $2500 for 3 month trial. His reply after 4 days, was that yodel would not give me a refund because I had clearly agreed to a 6 month subscription, it was actually a 3 month trial period, which is on their invoice received after money was taken out of my credit card. He quoted a higher click rate which is just a lie. He also said I should have given them more time. If I had done that my business would probably be closed. Ivan Teh said there would be an improvement in position, nothing about going backwards. If anyone has had any success in taking them to court, please let me know. I will be listing this information in every forum I can find to warn other people. Happy to supply any other info if you need it
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46.
Gusher | May 26, 2010 at 3:10 am
I was burned by YODEL.
I did a Google search to see if they had hopefully gone under, and found this thread, and joined just to tell the truth so fewer people can be conned.
I was doing my own Adwords quite successfully, but a persistant “Chris” from YODEL said I could pay less as they paid less for clicks, and they would get me more clicks for my buck.
The clincher for me was when he said that any unused portion of my credit would be refunded in full if I decided to opt out. Stupid me didn’t get it in writing. “Chris doesn’t work here anymore and that’s not our policy”.
Tried to opt out, credit card debited again etc etc- seems a common thread. must have written something next to my name on their computer cause as soon as I identified myself they became hostile and referred me to their legal department each time I called. Then basically it was a suck eggs greeting and take it to court- you’ll lose cause we’re bigger than you.
I wrote a letter to Google to let them know how shonky a company Yodel was and that they were trading on the back of Googles name to give themselves undeserved credibility.
Whatever you do. Read the fine print and send these people a cheque if you’re dumb enough to proceed. Under no circumstances give them your credit card details.
The funny thing was they called again to renew my contract!!!!!!!!!!!
I see I’m nothe only one posting their displeasure with YODEL on several web forums. People be warned…..
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47.
Ky | May 28, 2010 at 5:43 am
These Yodel guys are really shonky. Hard to believe they have not been shut down yet!
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48.
Thickhead | June 3, 2010 at 5:18 am
Hi Yodel Sucks
2 weeks since they told me my add would be up and running ill just stick to DIY Adwords
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49.
Kellie | June 8, 2010 at 9:16 am
It does frustrate me that companies out there are providing poorly managed campaigns and avoiding customer complaints.
Always read the fine print when it comes to SEM companies. Yodel does state in bold writing in their Terms and conditions….
6.4 The subscription amount is the amount agreed to on the order form at the time of sale. You understand that your subscription amount (less GST and account maintenance fees) is divided into equal daily budgets for the term of your subscription.
Any unused daily budget will not roll over into the next day.
So if your daily budget is $30 and you only spend $10 on clicks Yodel takes the other $20.
The company I work for manages your budget and it only gets spent when a targeted customer clicks on your relevant ad….so any daily budget left over rolls into the next day and so forth.
I’m a SEM advertising consultant with over 18 years experience in marketing and advertising. If you’re needing help at all and would rather deal with a boutique agency that strives in customer service, targeted campaigns and transparent reporting please let me know. I also know all the pros and cons of all major SEM companies out there.
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50.
Random | June 15, 2010 at 5:24 am
Our story is a little different. We have not signed anything, but were also not told about the T&Cs. We got pestered by phone for days asking if we wanted to renew. The rep “implied” if we didn’t renew soon, our campaign would end. He had half a dozen chances to remind us of the automatic renewal policy, but didn’t. In fact, I’m not sure why they bother calling to renew anyway!
Our manager cancelled the deal verbally 2 months ago. We weren’t convinced they were generating quality clicks, and our own SEO activity was working nicely. We noticed some ads still running, but figured they were going to use that as a goodwill thing to tell us how good our clicks have been. Instead, we got billed for another 3 month campaign.
I’ve spoken to 3 different staffers today, and they contradicted each other. One said that verbal cancellation was all they needed, yet another pointed to the terms which state an EMAIL or written cancellation is the only way.
As we have no SIGNED contract, I don’t see how they can hold our money while they review our refund. Perhaps we should challenge it with the credit card company instead? They have more clout, I’m sure.
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51.
adam | July 2, 2010 at 2:32 am
i wish to state after dealing with yodel that i believe all the above complaints and the people stating these complaints are not from any company with a conflicting interest.
this country’s laws fully supports all businesses no matter what there intent. yodel can do as they like and they know it. if all else fails they can always go bankrupt.
do not give businesses permision to take money out your bank account say you will transfer money to there account instead. if they have aproblem with this tell em to go get f——….
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52.
Debra | July 6, 2010 at 2:21 am
Yodel got me – they continue to feed on my credit card at their leisure. They not longer answer my emails & phone calls have been reduced to screaming matches. Renee @ Yodel tells me it is at the managers discretion as to when they will stop charging my credit card! Charming business practices. I would be happy to join the many, many others in a class action against these thieves.
I plan to spend the next week posting warnings on every web site I can find to warn people about this scam & if anyone can help me make the charges stop I would appreciate it.
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53.
Rob Dromi | August 18, 2010 at 11:19 am
Hey Debra – if you still need a hand im moved by your situation and would be happy to see if i can help you out, see comment 43 or you can drop me a msg at http://www.supergluemedia.com.au/contact-us/ or you can DM me on http://www.twitter.com/robdromi
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54.
Rob Dromi | August 18, 2010 at 11:12 am
Hey all,
Just reading what has happened to people here and how it still continues really upsets me.
So much so that i feel like if i dont offer to help im only adding to this mess!! so if you need a hand with getting customers or results using the internet contact me and ill personally help you..
-no im not google .
– no im not chasing ambulances here i just hate that some people are happy to put thier customers through hell
-yes i get results from being found on google and other search engines
-yes i care,
-yes i believe we should help those that need it, instead of turning a blind eye!!
If you need a hand can contact me a few ways,and as im not charging for my help here ill promise to get in touch with you within 24 hours, if your international just let me know your skype details.
My twitter details are twitter.com/robdromi or one fill in your details on http://www.supergluemedia.com.au/contact-us/
Hope those that were in caught in the mess have had some luck since writing thier comments.
Rob
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55.
Debra | August 20, 2010 at 12:12 am
Thank you Rob!
ANZ bank took on my problems with Yodel – it has takes 2 months to get a refund of there over charging. I closed my business account that they were feeding off but I am still liable for any charges they care to hit me with until mid November. Even then the bank will again consider it a fraud & recover funds.
These guys need to be put out of business so if you plan to take any action against them then I would be happy to put my name down as a very unhappy customer.
The fact that I have no internet advertising for my business as a result of this costs me but I just will not go there again.
Thank you again debra
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56.
Marmalade | August 20, 2010 at 2:52 am
At the end of the day be very careful of any provider out there. Make sure you know your industry cost per click average using Google Keyword Tool. There are companies out there putting a huge margin on the cost per click and you wont know any different.
If they don’t charge a setup or management fee then ask how do you make your money and just don’t believe any reports unless it’s from adwords. It’s ok to have a small margin on keyword all businesses need to make money but some are just ridiculous. Know your quality score, cpc, positioning etc then make a informed decision and never give bank details away also do direct deposit. Know your contract terms and how much notice to give if you want to cease.
also does your money roll over into the next month if it’s not spent. I believe yodel do not do this so beware.
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57.
Sara | October 17, 2010 at 5:14 am
I wish I had found this page earlier. I signed up for a 3 month contract with yodel and have not receved advertising, and they have taken a fourth month payment from my credit card unauthourised. They will not refund it and I have had to raise a transaction dispute through my bank.
Now that I have read this blog I think that I am going to have to just cancel my credit card to stop additional payments being taken.
What a pain!
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58.
Sara | October 17, 2010 at 5:17 am
PS Good to hear you have already got ANZ onto your case. I am just lodging my complaint with them now. Hopefully they will realise that Yodel is dodgy
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59.
Angela | October 27, 2010 at 5:17 am
I mistakingly signed up for yodel because i fell for they whole speel that they were the largest google reseller and much better than reachlocal. DO NOT EVER SIGN UP OR USE YODEL. THEY ARE THE WORST COMPANY EVER. do not deal with these liars they NEVER return their calls, they pass their problems onto a different person each time. They don’t take complaints and BRIANNA my account manager does not like being TALKED over apparently and doesnt even try to solve any issues besides telling me to send her some keywords in order to “find out the problem”. I already know what the problem is. YODEL.
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60.
Jason | November 15, 2010 at 8:24 am
I reiterate all the negative comments above, I am based in NZ and if you ever get a call from these guy’s hang up the phone, you are already doing a better job than these clowns.
When dealing with any reseller, state that you want to have them work as an admin on your adwords account so you retain full control and can loggin and check on progress regularly.
Also this means you can kick them out and not have to start all over again.
ALWAYS set up conversion tracking, Who cares about clicks, you need to see your sales data to be able to refine your campaign effectively
USE Google Analytics and check regularly to see what is going on.
State your objectives and expectations clearly before entering into an agreement, NEVER enter into a long contract, always say that this is on a trial basis, say two months is a good amount of time to get things cranking, and if they do not perform end it straight away and look elsewhere, i am experimenting with some other companies, if I find a good one i will post it here.
Last thing, make sure you are the only one in your category with them otherwise they can use your success for your competitors benefit.
All the best in your business!
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61.
Sara Dobson | February 27, 2011 at 2:51 am
Hi Guys
Just a warning, After all the issues with Yodel, including having all my cards cancelled and reissued to stop them randomly taking money. They call back under the name Blink Digital and offered me Facebook advertising. I did a search on blink digital and guess what? Same address. So if any calls from Blink Digital or Yodel run run run and keep your credit card close!
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62.
kev berndt | March 9, 2011 at 3:10 am
yes, i had to cancell mine too!!! they removed money 8 months after i verbally cancelled the account..we had a 3 month trial period with very poor results,. so i advised i was not continuing..dont deal with yodel or blink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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63.
kev berndt | March 9, 2011 at 2:31 am
i just had a phone call from a smart mouthed gentleman telling me he was from Blink digital and that he “had information “that i had utilised google adwords in the past.. Yodel Australia RIPPED money from my account without my authority! I had a nast fight on my hands to be reimbursed.. I wasnt going to mention it on the net.. untill today the slimey people at Blink .. ( AKA Yodel).. tried to pretend they wernt yodel.. well, i just rang the yodel 1800 732 724 number, yodel answers, and i asked to be put thru to Blink digital ./.re adwords.. bam.. i am connected!! dont deal wioth yodel, dont deal with Blink! You will not get the results!!!! slimey. slimey … i have emails regarding the unauthorised removal of maney from my account.. finally i got my money back after ringing Google australia them selves.. ( yes there is an ustralian office ).. and i threatened taking the matter to tv.. most disgusting email saying they couldnt refund me.. and it was my fault etc… suddenly.. a very apologetic email.. and some guy saying.. “he was just doing his job “when he initially refused the reim bursement of the funds to my account.. shame yodel, shame blink!
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64.
Chad | May 6, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Just saw this blog and thought to add something here. BEWARE OF YODEL. They got me a trial for month. They save the credit card details and kept charging without any notice. Took very long to get my money back after million calls. Its not a genuine company at all. BEWARE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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65.
jackelin | May 16, 2011 at 4:51 am
yeah Yodel has called me about 10 times a week saying that they;re google – a lot of bad blogs out their about them so i agree stay away from Yodel australia
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66.
Tina | August 17, 2011 at 6:34 am
Here’s another burnt customer. Yodel are the most fraudulent company I have ever dealt with. I too was sucked into a 3 month trial campaign, paid up front with a credit card and was told – in writing – that I would only pay for the clicks received and any unused amount would roll over and the campaign would be extended until my initial budget was used up. Wrong. They started deducting money as soon as the 3 months was up,without my consent or authorisation and only refunded my money after persistent, angry threats. Incredulously, the same month they refunded the first fraudulent deduction, they took another unauthorised amount out! They did this the following month as well. NEVER, EVER deal with Yodel, they are the most deceptive company I have ever come across.
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67.
brian | October 2, 2011 at 5:13 am
i agree with every insult and complaint written. yodel australia are just a pack of thieving slags.
google should be ashamed of themselves about being associated with these rip offs.
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68.
Peter | January 4, 2012 at 6:29 am
As A Customer of Yodell we are dissatisfied with there billing practices and deceptiveness, i have cancelled our quarterly contract with them and requested numerous time to stop billing which to this day has been ignored, when i call they promise to get the representative to contact me this hasn’t happened
1. instead of billing quarterly there billing monthly or more we are so far out of pocket for more than 2900.00 dollars
Peter Stafford – Adelaide
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69. Dear Mr. Zachariah, Or How You Should Not Do SEO/SEM Business – Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Blog. SEM and SEO challenges discussed. | February 21, 2012 at 8:01 am
[…] http://blogpond.com.au/2008/03/13/yodel-google/ https://australiansearchengine.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/yodel-google-australia/ http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1089094 […]
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70.
Princess Fee | March 6, 2012 at 7:01 am
Thanks for your blog!! I just got a call from them stating they’re from Google Australia, but it sounded a bit fishy, so you’ve stopped me wasting my time!! Thanks!!
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71.
Simona Stace | March 29, 2012 at 2:26 am
The people from Yodel are nothing but CROOKS they took my website and said they made it . They took payments out of my credit card with no authority and know that I have cancelled they have disabled my web site. Do not have any dealings with these people
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72.
Michelle Crain | May 8, 2012 at 7:18 am
To all those unhappy Yodel customers. I too unfortunatley have been stung by Yodel, I verbally agreed to what they called a 3month subscription for the one off amount of $404 in July 2011. And yes stupid me gave them my credit card details and yes I have paid for it ever since. I am now going down the legal route and if anyone is interested in considering a class action against Yodel Australia aka Fulfinet Australia Pty Ltd etc etc I would love to hear from you.
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73.
Caroline Hatcher | June 23, 2012 at 2:35 am
hi michelle, add me to your class action
thanks Caroline Hatcher, GP Catering
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74.
charmaine | June 21, 2012 at 8:09 am
We have had a horrible time with Yodel. The “Search Marketing Analyst” was terribly unhelpful and could not even spell the search terms they were listing! They never sent any monthly reports, and when asked said that ‘google generated them automatically’. They illegally deducted money from my account without my authorisation or even an invoice to explain – and it took countless phone calls and emails and 8 MONTHS for them to return this money. I complained about their service and their customer service sent me “Clauses 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 respectively” which in effect state that “Yodel makes no warranty that Yodel will meet your requirements”.
It seems from other peoples notes that Yodel frequently helps itself to other peoples bank accounts, with no apology. Is this even a real company or just a scam??
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75.
Rami | July 26, 2012 at 1:45 pm
AVOID AT ANY COST.
I USED THEM FOR MY NEW BSUINESS FOR 2 years, and then I decided to start learning how tomdomit and I even started master classes for google Adwords .
I was shocked !!!
In March 2012, after I learnt how to get exacte numbers from google, yodel was saying that I was using my budget always, for 2 years !!!
Google showed me that I never reached my daily budget and yodel never told me, and always encouraged me to go for a higher budget.
From March 2012 to June 2011, they owed me almost $2000.
When I contacted them,many I showed the proofs from google, the agreed to my numbers apologized and gave me 3 month for free for what happen.
But I lost the trust and I knew they are thieves, but I had to take the 3 months, and then monitor Nd decide.
Again, in those few months,mthey owe me over $1000 !!! But what was different this time, that yodel started to get sick of me, and they didn’t want to refund my money, but only give me free month to advertise.
HOW CAN I STAY WITH THEM AFTER ALL THAT, AND THEY OFFER U FREE CREDIT AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED.
July the 7th 2012, I stopped working with them and they are not refunding my money back.
And since then, I started my own advertising and the clicks trippled and the calls also trippled and I have the proofs from google analytics.
Imused to average on a $30 daily budget, 23 clicks, in the last 3 years.
Since I started my own campaign, on a $25 daily budget, I get and average of $60 clicks daily, and sometimes I reach the 120 mark a day . With yodel the max cliks I ever got was 29 !!! How shocking
I’m taking things further to google, and to fair trading .
WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM STOP.
THEYNARE SIMPLY THEIVES.
rami
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76.
Raquel | September 25, 2012 at 6:28 am
Omg I have been also victims of yodel Australia that is now trading under Blink Digital and google experts . They have done all of those things mentioned including having a sales rep lie to me and tell me he could guarantee 2nd position and then rang me later telling me a competitor was about to buy my spot and I would not be able to have that spot if they did. They he conned me into giving money I had allocated to live off immediately to have the campaign up by the weekend , of which is my main business days, then provided me with nothing even though I told them I’d rather wait and use my own Adwords account to ensure I didn’t lose business… Then non stop problems and not good customer service. Then they try to push me into another agreement of which I can’t see details, that I must pay monthly in advance, and tell me I have no choice. When I refuse the deliberately did not renew my account balance and basically held my business trading for ransom so that they could force me to agree to move to their sister company- google experts for 5% more. They have taken advantage of my dire advertising situation and financial stress and hit me when most vulnerable. Now I have to start over with a new company and miss out on advertising until my campaign is up!
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77.
Raquel | September 25, 2012 at 6:34 am
Also I was shafted by Rima Hasham who apparently is the head supervisor below the owner. She has been very rude and oppressive and when threatened with fair trading for breaching the fair trading act repeatedly she decided they wanted to dump me immediately without any contingency plan for my business. Ive lost over $800 in 2 crucial advertising days on the week of a long weekend! Now I facing losing all trading until next week!
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78.
Dori | November 8, 2012 at 5:42 am
After finding this blog, I think Blink Digital is doing me over too, I’m not alone and can’t believe its happening to us. They have recently made an unauthorised transaction from my credit card, I keep leaving messages and get phone tagged. The accounts contact is at Yodel, same address on the next floor. No response so far. If I don’t get my money back I’ll take it up with ACCC and Fair Trading. Any advice?
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79.
Kelly | November 29, 2012 at 5:11 am
Dori and Raquel, we are currently in dispute with Blink Digital for $5,500 worth of unauthorised deductions from our account after agreeing to a 1mth $200 trial. They are impossible. I’ve spoken to A Current Affair and they are REALLY interested. Would you like to contact me if you are interested in joining me in exposing these bastards on national television. I’m pretty much intent on destroying their business.
They target small businesses and class ANY conversation you have with them as agreement to their services. They are devious and need to be exposed.
I have set up my comment for notification by reply email of followup comments. Let me know.
Cheers
Kelly
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80.
Dori | December 3, 2012 at 7:02 am
Hi Kelly, Unbelievable, you must be so frustrated! I’m happy to discuss with you, can’t put contact details here, how can I get in touch with you? Regards, Dori
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81.
Shane | December 11, 2012 at 6:56 am
Hi Kelly,
I to have been ripped off by these clowns, same as all the others, unauthorised credit card debits, lies, no action, no returned calls, the run around, I even went to their office and sat down with one of their reps to try to get my package started months after I had paid for it. ( he has since resigned). iT HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE
My latest input was from one of their SEO experts who put a load of garbled rubbish on my website as a blog, The content was completely incorrect for my business and looked as if it was written by a five year old.
Complete with all the spelling mistakes… I complained of course after 5 phone calls to a person who could barely understand english, she was also an expert from the SEO dept. I gave her detailed instructions on all the mistakes to be corrected, after the corrections were done I noticed she missed half of the issues we had spoken of… , after the second email to them, she removed some more of the rubbish but still not all….(I have a copy of the first blog it makes interesting reading, even if you knew nothing about my business you would not be interested in dealing with anyone who would print such drivel on their web page)) I would love to bill these people for my time spent tring to fix the garbage that they supplied as a proffesional service…..
.Yodel is only a tradeing name registered with fair tradeing, Blink Digital is the company. They are the same people in the same office.
They have no expertise what so ever in anything they do.. I have never seen this level of incompetence or blatant deception in any other company I have had dealings with, its been a stressfull time.
I am happy to share my story with you if it will help, I have no real expectation that I will ever get any satisfaction from them, and of course a refund will never happen, my saga has been going on since January this year and can only be described as fraud. I paid almost $2000.00 up front for a ” no more to pay” package.
I would be happy if we can stop them from doing this to any one else
Shane
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82.
v | February 1, 2013 at 1:32 pm
Hi Shane, I just found a debit of $350 on my credit card from Blink Digital. I didn’t know who they were until I googled them and found it is linked to Yodel. I also saw all the complaints. I stopped dealing with Yodel about 8 months ago. My bank said as long as they have my credit card they may continue to take money out so I am cancelling my card. A huge inconvenience!!!
I wrote to A Current Affair and hope to get them on to these crooks and anyone else reading this who has dealt with this company I suggest to email ACA as well so that a story can be made to warn others.
I can’t believe they are getting away with this.
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83.
Spotter | December 19, 2012 at 11:23 am
OMG. Me too. Same dodgy story about an error leading to an unauthorised credit card withdrawl and now no return calls or emails when I try and recover the money. I had to cancel my card to stay safe. Blatant fraudsters. Lets hope A Current Affair can chase them over a back fence and ACCC or Fair Trading can stop them.
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84.
Gary | March 14, 2013 at 10:42 am
Try $10800.00 yodel scamed my acc after i g ave them my acc no 20 months later i finaly found out why my acc was allways low , a increase in frequency ! yes a one only fee they said $350.00 .I have no one legaly gives a shit ! its unorthorised direct debits ! police dont care ! accc , Qcat, !! What a stupid society do we live in where this can happen in buisness .YODEL CRIMNALS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $10800.00 & they got away with it tell everyone !@!!!!
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85.
Kelly | March 15, 2013 at 2:21 am
Contact them and dispute it. Harass them till you get the response you require. It’s taken three months but they have finally refunded 4,400 of the 5,500 we disputed them taking. We did have to threaten legal action. Report them to the ACCC as well and notify consumer affairs. A Current Affair are interested, but wanted more examples. I’ll happily talk about our experience with them if you also make contact with ACA.
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86.
Gary | March 15, 2013 at 3:33 am
Thanks for the encoragment ! never give up 🙂
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87.
Chris H | May 29, 2013 at 1:26 am
Blink Digital is the other 1 to watch out for. It’s the same company under a different name
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88.
Olya H | May 31, 2013 at 3:08 am
STAY AWAY from Yodel!!! It’s a scam! They take your money and that’s it! They don’t deliver what they’ve promised! I’ve just lost my $450 with them and I want to warn other people so they wouldn’t make the same mistake. I’m going to lodge in a complaint to Fair Trading and a few other places next week and also will be talking to my lawyer to see what can be done to shut them down. If there are other people who wants to fight them and get your money back please leave your reply to this message so we could get in touch. Good luck everyone!
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