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June 8, 2006 11:33 AM

MerchantCircle

MerchantcircleThe week's buzz is rising on MerchantCircle, a local search play with a twist. I spoke to CEO Ben Smith this week, and he got me smart on the idea behind it. In short, MerchantCircle is trying to get local merchants to play the search game on their own terms, and I like that idea.

SiliconBeat has some good thoughts on it:

...MerchantCircle has pre-populated its database with generic business listings. Business owners can then sign in to claim their profile pages.

...Smith doesn't view MerchantCircle as a destination site for users. Most people won't go here looking for a local bike shop, although you could. Instead, they'll find MerchantCircle profiles when they're Googling for Palo Alto bike shops, for example.


The "circle'' in the company's name comes from the idea that merchants will create networks of affiliated businesses by adding their names to their profile pages and swapping ads with each other. The idea is to give merchants an incentive to invite other merchants into MerchantCircle. Indeed, Smith is relying on this type of viral marketing to build his business because he doesn't have a cadre of salespeople to recruit business owners.

Garrett French has more on MerchantCircle here, as does Greg Sterling.

  • Posted by John Battelle on June 8, 2006 11:33 AM

  • remember this »
  • Sphere It

Comments

I wrote a piece for ClickZ about MerchantCircle earlier this week that may shed more light on the subject. They're working with Jingle Networks (the free 411 guys) and talking to newspaper firms to help distribute merchants' ads...

I take you back to November 2003, when many online businesses that were built by SEO (including link building) and living the good life of high natural rankings and free traffic were wiped out of business in one fell swoop called the Google Florida Update.

These guys just phone spammed my company (a web startup with no customers) telling me someone posted a favorable review of us on merchantcircle.com, and that we should log on and update our profile. Jerk spammers.

We have just been "jerk spammed"...and on the same day as B!
Checked out our "favorable review". It wasn't even our company!! Esi is the company that was reviewed...and our phone # was listed as theirs!!! Ha-ha
Their customers are going to call us. Lovely...

We recieved the same phone spam as B and Tony. When I logged on our company could not be found. Imagine that. Just another scam?

We recieved the same phone spam as B and Tony and Jim... Way to alienate potential business, eh?!

Wow, you guys got a "favorable review", Coloramic got an "unfavorable review". And I was too stupid to realize it was a scam!!!

I also received a prerecorded message today regarding an "unfavorable rating." But rather than log on to their website and give them another hit, I googled them and found this blog. They obviously have no ethics and I will never do business with them.

Similar story to R. Terry - prerecorded message about an unfavorable rating from "one of your customers". I imagine somebody figured that fear of a negative rating would cause a reflexive hit on their website to find out what it was.

These things are durn near always...is there a good description? phone spam, junk calls, telephishing? And they've stopped giving you an opt-out option to request to be removed from their calling list.

Same story as Don Pikovnik, R. Terry and Jim Kerr: an "unfavorable rating" by one of my "customers".

I can't help but still be disappointed that there wasn't actually a rating there...

I have no idea nor do I care to invite, fantasize, write about why you are under my Googled database but recently I noticed an inaccurate post about me. This "search" finding was truly inaccurate from where I went to school, what the name of a song was that I wrote on which CD. etc. All I know that it's difficult enough to write clefs and treble clefs(will I ever write them standardized?)to repairing, repairing, preparing for climate change indigenously...here where I live. I don't get paid very much in royalty checks(there's hope!) but I sent 2 collections of music in form PA to the Copyright Office this yr. and there will be 2 re-recordings of 2 songs that I wrote in 2002 plus a new Christmas Song,(3 Christmas Songs Out This Year!!) "Santa's Sleigh Froze In Mid-Air!"written in early Aug. by me on blank manuscript paper(writing everything from clefs/treble clefs to accentuation & tempo(timing is real important people!) in the Key of E with B flat and E flat. I'm writing a new collection of non-lyicaled music...some rhapsodies...melodies... I am not an artist...I am not looking for the big spotlight. I know what I have to do...OK? Now...who are you?
K.F. M.A.

The CEO of MerchantCircle.com, Ben Smith, is an ASS for aproving a phone spam scam like this.
I too got a call saying someone had searched on google for my company and left a unfavoralble review of my company on MechantCircle.com. They said we should log on and update our profile. I went there and there are no reviews for my business. These guys are just phone spammers.

Merchantcircle.com is going to go out of business with no one wanting anything to do with them. Jerk phone spammers.

My company received a similar spam call stating that one of our health care providers was slammed on MerchantCircle and that we needed to check it out and respond to it. After checking it out, we found that, like the other responses above, it was all bogus. It's companies like MerchantCircle and their crap like this that keeps the Internet from achieving its inherent potential. It is too bad that companies and people like this get away with the nonsense they do and have no accountability.

Consider writing to your state's Attorney General and/or Public Utility Commission, to complain about the phone spamming.

Was contacted today. I was told that I was given an unfavorable rating. Name did not match business information either.

I also got this scare-tactic phone message claiming that someone posted a negative comment about my business on Merchant Circle. Of course, there was nothing there. But, I had to sign-up in order to see that. Now, I can't get my listing out of there. This is nothing but extortion.
I'm calling my AG.

About 10 minutes ago, I received the same call that many of you have about getting an "unfavorable review" from someone that had found our Google listing. Before going to Merchantcircle.com, I decided to Google them. After reading this blog, I'm not even going to bother going there to see if there really is an unfavorable review. Thanks for the info, folks.

Just received the same call. I supposedly received an "unfavorable" review.I was glad to find this blog and that a buzz is being created about this scam. Blows me away that start-up venture would alientate their prospects from the get-go. Anyone receive a response from merchant circle one this?

Received the same call as those listed above. My 'company' received a negative rating. Too bad my company was placed in the wrong category, and that the mailing address was wrong as well. I guess I will have to run out and hire a PR firm to save my reputation! ;-).

One thing I have learned is that a tell-tail sign of a scam can be found in the WHOIS listing of the site. And this merchantcircle.com fits the mold perfectly: Anonymous registration through Network Solutions. No contact information for the Admin at all.

Ditto the unfavorable phone call. The people are completely unethical.

Add my business to the phone-spam "unfavorable" list. Interesting how they started with "favorable" reviews, then switched to "unfavorable" when that apparently didn't work. Pure slime.

I had the same phone message with an unfavorable review, thank goodness I googled them (as most are apparently). Decent idea, bad business. I can't wait for the inevitable copy cat sites to pop up and follow these jerks.

Got this today too, and found your blog while googling this spam/scam. Who are these guys? We are a public radio station, for goodness sake!
Glad to have found you, at any rate.
Lois Bent

Well what do ya know, I freaked out when I got the recorded message that I had a "negative" rating and right away went to their web site. I found my business and checked out my score. It was given a 3&1/2 stars. Not quite the "negative" score. I checked further at other local businesses that were listed and found a business that I know whom I think may have given away my info. to these people. I also noted a restaurant nearby that had a 5 star rating! There's no way this restaurant could have scored a 5 star rating. I hope these people do not spam me again! I won't be fooled again!

Same story as everyone else. One of my people got a phone call saying we got an unfavorable review - phone spam. The information was marginally accurate; the 'negative google review' was four stars out of five.

They also pregenerate 'ads' for local businesses. Ours shows a restaurant. We build motion simulators.

Apparently they think we're branching out.

This is really unacceptable - spam followed by borderline extortion. If I can't get the listing deleted, two people will receive phone calls in short order - my lawyer, and theirs.

Same here. Fortunately we do business with a small group of clients all of whom know us personally. This does reak though and I am going to send a note to the NJ Attorney General.

What a trash outfit! Phone spammed us with their pre-recorded "unfavorable" message. We googled them first, guessing they were but midden. We didn't go to their site.

They're not going to win until they become a real business -- and from what they've exhibited so far, they are going down a very wrong track.

Hey guys, I pinged CEO Ben Smith so he might respond...

Same story as the rest about the merchantcircle unethical and possibly illegal activities.

I'll stay away from these guys! Far away.

I'll also warn any small business that these guys have a bad reputation with an awful lot of small businesses.

Same spam call made to my business......these guys have some balls.......I called the 1-866-849-3243 number from which the call was made and they have the guts to actually ask you to opt out of further calls.....

Give venture cap firm Rustic Caynon Partners a call @ 1-650-654-8500 and complain about the sad state of their investment

Same call, Merchantcircle is a scam and I plan to call the PA Attorney General to report this phone scam. I saved the message to send PA Attorney General also am considering contacting my attorney.
I think someone should spam the crap out of their business, fry thier servers. One could only hope....

Hi John:

We address the issues in some of the comments on your blog below. What’s more interesting than our little company’s issue is what you point out about search in your post. The pile on effect is really interesting. It is also interesting how were able to get an enormous amount of feedback from people so quickly because of the open communication on the web.

We are looking to help merchants and search allowed us to know we had an issue quickly so we could work it. It really does provide a lot of value to a small company like us. Of course, some of it as has been pointed out by others might be the classic web echo, but regardless it is interesting. The content below can be found on our site with links at the URL above.

MerchantCircle is focused on delivering services to enable local businesses to find more clients. As part of this service, we provide a web page for each merchant as well as tools that merchants can use to get the word out about their business (blogs, coupons, newsletters). The free MerchantCircle service is (as the name indicates) free and is being used by over 50,000 merchants currently.

Merchants can receive ratings and/or reviews on their MerchantCircle listing. In the past, some merchants have raised concerns about not finding out their listing was available and more importantly that a consumer had posted information on that listing. We have been experimenting with many different methods of informing merchants when their listing changes. For example, when a listing is claimed, we notify the merchant via multiple methods to confirm identity. Some of these methods involve pro-actively contacting merchants who may not visit the site regularly or are unaware of the listing. These efforts have been made to try and manage a merchant concern.

As you can imagine, this required some investment and some effort. In fact, for a while the entire team of 9 personally contacted local merchants. Anyone who was worked with lots of users can probably guess that this approach does not work when rapid growth occurs. Some of the experiments seem to be having unintended consequences and had some execution issues. We are working to address those issues while continuing to deliver value to merchants.

In addition to our efforts to keep you informed, our system allows users to invite local merchants to join their network, or MerchantCircle. The growth in merchants has resulted in a large number of invites on the system over the past few weeks as merchants figure out that adding to their network will increase the ability of local customers to find their listing. We have received some concerns about this and are working to improve the situation.

Merchants have complete control over their information on MerchantCircle. If anyone would like their listing to be removed from MerchantCircle please email remove@merchantcircle.com and include your business name and phone # and we will remove your listing from the site and your contact information from our system within the day.

If you would like to use MerchantCircle to help grow your business, we look forward to working with you to continue to improve our ability to bring you local customers.

Ben

I also was suckered into going to Merchant Circle site by their "negative rating" phone spam today. I knew the rating couldn't be true because I've been in biz 25 yrs, have a small base of clients, all personally known to me, and they are highly satisfied. Still, I worried that the crazy Web world would hurt my biz after hearing that phone spam msg today. I wish I had first searched for your site and not even logged on to them. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your spotlighting them. I will ignore them, except for calling the CA Atty Genl and warning friends. And ditto for them having my name misspelled AND for listing my street address (which I have NEVER listed in any public directory). It gave some clarity to learn they're hooked up with 411.com, which seems a low-quality directory site. After 25 yrs of never listing my street address, SBC (now AT&T) erred and gave 411 my street address last yr; and at the same time, they also listed my unlisted # in directory. It was a real hassle to get them to correct these two errors, but talking with SBC Exec Office, I finally got cooperation and a small credit on my bill for the hassle. Thought 411 corrected their records at same time. Apparently the fall-out is still happening though, since now the private info leaked out from 411 to Merchant Circle, etc. How can you stop these people without getting hooked in to their system even deeper?????

Send an email to support@merchantcircle.com and the listing is down automatically within one day.

Spammed by Merchant Circle today too. As for the above post by Dave today re: Who Is info, I disagree. Having what he refers to as an "anonymous" (actually private) listing with Network Solutions isn't always a red flag. I choose to keep my registration private, to avoid spam and inadvertent sharing of my street address, etc. However, unlike MerchantCircle, at my web site I not only list my name, PO Box mailing address, and have an online form for e-mail, but I ALSO give a phone number. MC does not.

Why should I feel it's safe to send an e-mail to support@merchantcircle.com? I don't trust the company! I would like to be able to phone them to get deleted, and I want a non-toll-free number so they won't again have my phone # and perhaps start telemarketing me more. So Ben, how about it? Got a real, non-toll-free # where you can take my info to remove me from the web?

@Ben from merchantcircle.com: Very nice speech. However, let me clarify one point. I am not a ‘merchant’. I am a security consultant with an expertise in Information Warfare and Internet related fraud and con-games. You used some harvesting method to obtain my phone number, nothing more, nothing less. When your war dialer called my telephone number today announcing that my site received a ‘negative rating’, your colors were revealed. You expected the obvious: I would panic and want to see who is giving me ‘negative ratings’. However, I don not require your assistance in adding ‘local customers’ to find my listing. I obtain clientele because I am a professional and have expertise in what I do. You, on the other hand, have attempted to employ fear tactics in order to obtain clients. A better, and much more honest approach. would have been to contact people directly and discuss your services. So please, do not use the fact that so many people responded to this Blog as a positive point about the ‘enormous amount of feedback from people so quickly because of the open communication on the web’ People are responding here because they are disgusted with your tactics.

Add another unhappy business owner who was called and told my business had a negative rating on your site - yet I didn't exist on your site....

IF I had joined your service as a member of my own free will, and IF I was concerned about any negative ratings posted about my company, and IF I had opted to receive notifications of such ratings, and IF I had told you that it was ok to notify me by automated phone call, I wouldn't be making this comment now.

If you had promoted your service properly and were a good Netizen, you would have no problems.

If I continue to receive phone calls or emails from MerchantCircle, complaints will be made to the proper authorities.

Thank you.

-Joe

Hey Ben,

Great sales pitch...........where is the explanation for your unethical tactics..... calling a business and telling them there is an "unfavorable rating" when there was none........Nothing like lying and sucker punching potential customers..........reallllll smarrrrttttt

Our family owned company also received a phone call today indicating that we had received a NEGATIVE rating. When I went in to search this, I noticed that we had a high rating.... I am glad that I found this site which lists other companies that have received the same phone scam as our company did. AND.... to think our company phone, company cell phones and our home phone is on the NO CALL LIST!!!!!!!!!
Our company has been in business for approx. 12 years and to my knowledge we have never had an unsatisfied customer. We have subcontracted for the same builders for the past 12 years and have even added builders via "word of mouth" from concrete plants, builders, sponorships of local children sports and satisfied home owners. We have continuous repeat work requests from home owners and builders who know we do it the old fashion way - WE TAKE PRIDE IN OUR WORK AND PERFORM IT JUST LIKE WE WOULD PERFORM IT FOR OURSELVES........(Imagine that - it would seem that "word of mouth" and taking pride in your work performance are still the way to go)......
To this company that phone scammed us I will say, "Stop phone scamming our company and do not e-mail our company..... Our company will continue to do business the way we always have."

Thank you.

The Office of Farmer Concrete, Inc.

This is definetly a scam. Today we got the same "negative post" call. Ben's post just confirms this is a business with no ethics. too bad this post does not come up if you google mercantcircle.com. Folks don't build their business for free, they don't deserve it. They have a link to remove your listing, you must email: remove@merchantcircle.com , will give you an update to see how long this takes.

I searched for a phone number for Merchant Circle and their apparently affiliated 411.com directory only listed one number. It was 650-917-9972. I phoned this number as I want to get off their lists and don't want to send them an e-mail (so they then have the ability to start sending me e-spam as well as phone-spam). I got a one-time ring through tone, then the 3-octave tones that precede a disconnect message, then a fax tone. With repeated dialing, it's the same story although sometimes the first two are reversed before the fax tone comes on. Hmmmm . . . wonder why they don't answer or list a different number? And wonder if Ben of Merchant Circle will post a real phone number on your site, John Battelle, so businesses can phone Merchant Circle to get off lists. Is Ben of Merchant Circle listening?

Wow, so happy to see I'm not alone, though I suspected as much. I got the same call two days ago and, like some others, panicked at the thought that someone had negatively rated my services on a site I'd never heard of, never mind subscribed to.

Investigative work is part of what I do. With that I was able to obtain Mr. Smith's direct email address. I explained my story and advised him that his failure to reply with an explanation and apology would result in my notifying media outlets of his scam. If you're interested, you might try ben@merchantcircle.com. Probably a waste of time though, I got no response. Google has served me well to see all the hype he's managed to get out there to media outlets, will be interesting to see if it backfires on him.

Ben, I've run my business successfully, with no complaints, no lawsuits, no refunds requested, for 10 years now. Looks like you won't be able to make the same claim....ever. You owe every person whose posted here an apology. Look how much time has been taken away from these small business people (the very same you say you want to help) because of your lack of business ethics. Those of us who were foolish enough to fall for your scam spent a good deal of time and effort navigating your site to see our 'negative review'. My daughter wanted to go pick apples. I had to tell her no because my business was 'having a problem'. Maybe you should explain to my ten-year old what the 'problem' was. And look at how many people will NOT be doing business with Merchantcircle. And these are just the people that found this thread, I'm sure there are MANY others. But, rather than being contrite in your comments, you chose to try to market your business. Despicable

As for my fellow respondents, I urge each of you to make the call to the Attorney General of your state. The more often they hear the name Ben Smith and Merchantcircle, the more they are likely to act on our complaints.

Finally, thanks to Mr. Battelle for providing this forum.
John Kenny
Receivables Management
Mohawk, NY 13407

I also received a call yesterday, September 27, 2006 concerning an "unfavorable review" of my business. I've been in business as a piano technician/tuner since August 1965 when I started my senior year of high school. My nineteen year old son majoring in computer science gave me the idea to search yahoo for this "MerchantCircle.com" and this blog was found. I also had the 866-849-3243 phone number on my Caller ID Module but I didn't try calling it. I may try my Attorney General here in Missouri concerning this phone scam, though. I also wish to thank Mr. Battelle for providing this forum for our comments/discussion.
Van T. Robinson
Robinson Locksmith and Piano Service
Cape Girardeau, MO 63703

I got the "negative review" call. Another service tried this a few years ago, but I can't remember the name. The recorded message said something about finding us on google, so I decided to google merchantcircle.com, and voila! I found you and had my suspicion confirmed.

I sent Mr. Ben the following message:

Don't ever call my business again. I suspected you were a weasel spammer and now know it for sure after reading the tons of messages from other businesses that you pulled the same sleazy phone trick with - "negative business rating."

One thing is certain I didn't join Merchantcircle because I smelled a rat. And you, Ben, are the CEO Rat of a company I will never do business with and will make a point of verbally trashing at every opportunity. I repeat don't ever contact me or my company again!

Brick & Mortar Gallery
Tacoma, WA

Long story short, I fellow business owner got the phone message and told me about it. I went to their website to check on my business and found it with a very low rating, but no reviews. I called their office in Los Altos, which is nothing more than a front phone number with a full message box. Managed to find a contact number for their old PR agent and called her, she gave me the number for Buddy Smith and told me he would be able to help me. I called Buddy and argued back and forth with him for fifteen minuets or so about their business practices, finally I gave him my name and number so he could have someone call me right back to help me with my questions.

Ryan called me about three minuets later. Every answer he gave me sounded like they were prepared. He did admit they still had many kinks to work out in their system. When I asked him about the phone calls they like to do, he started by saying that they are trying to be proactive with their customers. That is where I had to cut him off and tell him they are not their customers because they have no services with them and the calls are nothing more than solicitations. His answers changed almost every time I worded a question differently as well, almost as if he forgot what he previously said and had to make it up all over again. When I asked him about their front phone number for their office going directly to voicemail, telling me the box was full, and disconnecting the call, he said they were having trouble with their current service provider, while Buddy told me they were not answering the phone because all of the employees there are engineers.

That is a very short version of it believe it or not. If you have trouble contacting their company by phone you can try calling Buddy Smith at *number redacted for privacy reasons....JB*, he is fun to argue with at the very least, although he was able to get Ryan to call me back very quickly. He is not related to Ben Smith either it seems (according to him).

I think I will start working on filing a report against them with the BBB, as well as contacting their parent company.

Thanks, Brandon, for the phone number. I just called Buddy and he said he'd remove my number immediately.

Also want to echo John Kenny's comments. My daughter wanted my attention too. I don't think these MC folks ever considered the ripple effect their practices would cause. Thanks to Battelle's site, I believe they'll get the msg.

I did alert my congressman and also registered a complaint with the atty genl,in conjunction with the "do not call" agency.

Hopefully that's the end of the subject for me. Enough time wasted responding to this scam. Thank you again, John Battelle. Your site was a great help.

Don't bother going to the media.......these smart guys would probably love it........why???? because right now no one knows or cares who the hell merchantcircle is........lets help them keep it that way.

Please do call 1-650-654-8500 and complain to Mark Menell / Rustic Canyon Partners, He sits on the Board of this mickey mouse company.

Imagine a hairstylist getting this phone call! A negative review? Our salon is not even listed!!!!!!!!

A quick follow-up....This morning I got an email from Merchantcircle advising that someone had rated my company, clicked the link to see the rating, no rating, no review. I have demanded that my listing be removed and that I receive no further emails with the exception of one confirming that my listing has been removed. I have saved the recorded voicemail, the email received and those I've sent. I'm careful to document all of this. I will call the numbers provided above, thank you for providing them. I will call my AG again and will continue to follow this thread. Merchantcircle and Ben Smith have gotten under my skin. Anyone who knows me, knows that was the wrong thing to do........
John Kenny
Receivables Management
Mohawk, NY 13407

Add me to the list: I also got the "negative rating" phone call, thought it was a scam but felt obliged to check it out. Cost me time, and therefore money, and considerable aggravation. Unbelievably shoddy business practice, and I am insulted by Ben Smith's, um, response in his post above. I hope his "little company" finds itself in a world of trouble. He has certainly generated plenty of ill will, and needs to learn something about business ethics. I will NEVER do business with Merchantcircle and will do my best to spread the word about their slimeyness here in my state.

Thanks John for this blog.
I got a positive rating around June and did nothing because I expect that. I guess this little criminal ben decided to send me a negative rating on the Sept. 27th. I am best friends with all my customers and knew this was a scam. I read all the blogs and you are all going about it wrong. Little ben is not afraid of your calls. Benny is scared you will think like him ( a criminal ). This is what you need to do with these worms. The scam works because of the all companies that advertise on there site. They get these companies because of how many hits they get from there scam. Mr. Battelle should go on there site daily so the rest of us don't have to ( only one hit ). Mr. Battelle then puts on his blog all the advertisers name and any info. The rest of us then check this blog when ever we can so John gets tons of hits and then we all e-mail, call, snail mail, etc the companies that support these rats. This will really work if we tell 10 people and they tell ten people. Eventually merchantcircle will not be able to pay anyone to put an ad on the that web page. Power in numbers. BOYCOTT BOYCOTT
Thanks JEH

I too got the bogus negative review message in Washington State. I'm planning to call my attorney general. Thanks for the phone numbers.

I got the negative review call a couple of days ago. I was dubious, went to the site and found no reviews at all. I did find out you can "rate" yourself, so I did multiple times. Woo-hoo! I also wrote three "reviews", one of them advising any actual searchers who found the site to ask a local service professional for a referal if they needed one, and not to rely on bunk sites like Merchantcircle. Not surprisingly, my listing is gone today.

my husband recieved this voicemail too, and was worried about who could have given his small business a negative rating. I would like to follow up on this to make sure this phone harrassment is not happening. He was seriously stressed about this.

When i got the "unfavorable review" call a few days ago, i resolved to google this merchantcircle. On my drive home from work, i was rolodexing in my mind what client would have had reason to do such a thing. I then proceeded to forget about it entirely until I googled the name just now and found this blog. Glad i didnt make the call nor go to their site. How idiotic of them to entice people that way.

As I mentioned in my 9/27 post here, Merchant Circle had posted my street address. I give out only my PO Box. Today I see that another web biz, Tyloon, has posted it too. Is Tyloon connected to Merchant Circle?

I got a FAX from 866-849-3243 for a typical pump-and-dump stock (IDGJ, or ID Global).

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.!!! A joyous Thanksgiving dinner at my home and no I didn't have time to go to Orchestra Hall and listen to "Broadway Hits." I wanted to go..
Go...and play the Steinway piano...but I made homemade pumpkin pies, cherry & cherries jello lemon yogurt salad, creamed onions, homemade bread stuffing, real mashed potatoes, yams with orange and marshmallows, green bean casserole, apple walnut salads, 23.75 lb. turkey, homemade rolls, accompanied(oh, the percussion!) olives, radishes, home canned pickles, spinach dip & crackers/ black bread, chocolate bon bons, appertifs and Dairy Queen chocolate chocolate mint chip blizzard birthday cake.
So many "funny looking" paper plates went to people that now there is almost nothing left cooked from turkey.
Back to my last music collection this 2006. It's 1 wk. from when some of my new Christmas music will be out.
The kitchen is for "R. Ray, Emeril, Paula Dean, Betty Cr ocker.' They do the "Best Of The Best."
I have to finish my work this yr. & God Bless You All!
Oh, please listen to my new Christmas song, "Santa's Sleigh Froze In Mid-Air!," ' 'cause it's 2006 all the way home. 2 of my songs that I wrote in 2001 are up for awards, "Candlelight Candle Bright, and Oh Christmas Treee What Will You Be?" All good...as I do write great Christmas Songs and my sister-in-law Karen wanted the CD that I mentioned Tommy in, "Christmas Lights Up Heaven," at Thanksgiving Dinner..which I gave her..along with new music of course....lyrics and music written for the piano...copied, stapled as songs...the songs...

God Bless!

Thursday evening I will be listening at Orchestra Hall to "The Nutcracker." I my own music to write but look forward to Peter's(aka) wonderful presentation. No much more writing here as this going to be a musical Christmas!
Enjoyed by family, friends, I have some serious writing to finish...and God help me...as with our troops abroad.
See...a funny thing here...I'm in the same standing of help as beloved troops abroad...as written a joyous tune, "Christmas Special Delivery," but I'm in the same standing same being same slowness same same same..
So...I have to go.. and God Bless Us All!
We need and pray believe in and live his teachings..
Anyway, my new Christmas songs probably come out next wk.!
Every ones right...i don't get much money or even "saying's or "We want you to play this Christmas piece at our Church..." I get nothing...
Nothing...so I have to finish writing again at Ground Zero, nothing...'cause that's where I'm at...the beginning...where there is nothing but ice, hole, darkness, light, blank, nil, death etc.
So...please buy my new Christmas musical recordings. Thank you!

Bummer! I see you have removed the phone number for the guy who worked for Merchant Circle and previously was able to remove my listing after I called him. Unfortunately, once again Merchant Circle has posted my street address with my business name, even though (as mentioned in my 10/16 post) I only give out my PO Box. This time Merchant Circle has misspelled my name. It coincides with the misspelled name given to me over the phone earlier this month by a person who claimed to be working for Experian, was calling from an ID # 888-929-3282; said his name was Daniel Juarez and he was in the Phillipines. He had my street address. I may have been a sucker as I believed he was actually Experian and I gave him the corrected spelling of my name--and asked him to delete the street address from records and list only the PO Box #. Does Experian actually make such calls??? (Never got one before.) And can you PLEASE post a phone number for Merchant Circle??? I don't want to e-mail those folks and start getting spam!!

You may add us to the list of better things to do than answer the Merchant Circle recording. As if small business men (and women) don't already have enough to keep them busy.

I just received the same phone call inviting me to go check out my rating after a customer supposedly Googled us and left a rating (at least it was allegedly a positive review). However, given the small and specialized nature of our client base, I would be very surprised if that was true, and since I had never heard of Merchant Circle, I Googled them and found my way directly here. At least I'm not alone!

Got the same jerk-phone-spam a few minutes ago here too - saying we were googled and given a positive rating. (What, no more scare tactics about the negative ratngs any more?)

Then I sent Email to their 'support' address asking to be added to the MerchantCircle do-not-call list. And after that, I found this here web page and now I suspect my Email will go unanswered.

Well, it looks like anything else I might have to say about all this has already been said... ;) Thanks, JB, for this web page.

Just a quick note on MerchantCircle and its reason for being viral

After receiving an email from the Governors office inquiring to my email that I had supposedly sent them, I did some checking and here’s what I found. MerchantCircle had sent an email to the Governor of Connecticut fraudulently using my name as the signatory which boasted about the MerchantCircle service and asking them to sign up. Yes, they in-fact, took my personal email after I was jerk phone spamed, high jacked my email address and sent emails out making it appear they were from me with the intent of endorsing their service.

After days of aggravation over the issue (it’s my reputation not theirs) I officially reported the fraud to the State of Connecticut and to MerchantCircle, the State has promised to look into the fraudulent practice of Merchant Circle. MerchantCircle honored my request to cease and desist notice and removed my account. No apology, no answer on their practice – just hiding from phone and email inquires.

Their practice is certainly viral but not a mystery anymore –Ben Smith and Wayne Yamamoto are common internet spammer and scamsters of the worst kind that give legitimate companies a bad name.

L. Rubin

We just got spammed as well. How does John Battelle end up talking to someone like this CEO and NOT know that the guy and company are not legit??

Just received a call from these idiots about a 'favorable review' on my company. Just what the internet needs.. more shitheads like these guys.

Just received a call from these idiots about a 'favorable review' on my company. Just what the internet needs.. more shitheads like these guys.

I recommend that anyone getting scammed like this- I got a call today- go to www.alexa.com and put in www.merchantcircle.com. When it comes up, look for text that invites you to post a review and click on that. I just gave it the lowest score, stated it was a scam to drive up their rankings with all those (free)clicks, capture all visitor emails (which they probably trade and/or sell), and capture your money for suppossed access to the bogus low rankings you have- that don't even exist. It is working. They have a high rank. Help to knock them down by spreading the word.

I RECEIVED THE "UNFAVORABLE REVIEW" SCAM TODAY, AND WAS VERY SUSPECIOUS,BUT HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON UNTILL FINDING THIS SITE. THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP. I WILL BE PASSING THE INFO ON TO THE MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL.

Got the call in St. Louis today. "Negative" reviews from my customers. I typed in a phone number from the phone book in their site, saw that it required registry, then Googled them and got this blog.

Thank you all. I've been in business for 30 years and was suspicious but your comments sealed the deal and they didn't get anymore info from me. They will die the painful death they deserve. Curious that in my IN Box today were a Nigerian "be my partner" and a UK Lottery winner scam email. Must be my Lucky Day!

We got the call today in Alaska. I found this site first because I didn't want to give their web site any additional "hits". Thank all of you for posting, it is a big help to sort out scams which seem to be more and more frequent now days.

Well, you might get a laugh out of this. I did. I'm a cop who just got through interviewing a suspect over the phone and a few minutes later I checked my messages and got "The Message". You know, the "Negative Rating" one. I figured he wasn't too happy with me after I told him he would be in front of the judge soon :) I thought he did me on "Merchantcircle" but I figured the message was BS so I Googled it and got this BLOG.

I thought it was funny, but hey maybe I am easily amused. Good day all... (BTW, this is a useful Blog) Hopefully the CA AG will shut this clown down

Yup... Negative ratings for our Iowa based business as well. Time for Merchantcircle.com to get a life. Come to think of it... Perchance we should all log on, and post negative feedback for them :) Does anyone think that their call system would let them know? What justice indeed!

Thanks for all your comments regarding merchantcircle.com. We received a phone call from them today suggesting a "negative rating". As I was suspicious(knowing all our customers) I choose to google them prior to going directly to their site. What an ENORMOUS amount of information I have found regarding their unethical tactics (on this site as well as other website's and postings). Please continue to spread to word about this as will I.

I sure hope no one has put money into a piece of garbage company like merchant circle.
Their ethics stink, what a waste of my time, chasing a lie
I have better things to do for good customers & contacts.
These people have the ethics of a Fred Phelps group.

Well, they're *still* at it six months later... It's 3/12/2007, and the first post here about the jerk-phone-spamming was 9/18/2006.

Our business got the "unfavorable review" call, as a ploy to get us to visit their site and sign up. Clearly shady business practices.

Do NOT support this business, or others which use these deceptive marketing techniques!!!

THIS PHONE CALL MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL. THIS COMPANY IS A LETCH . ROTTEN . WASTE OF TIME . NOT WORTH TIME TO WRITE THIS . STAY AWAY FROM . SCAM

This piece of crap business, and I hesitate to say business when it is probally some fat slob sitting in front of a computer too lazy to start a real business. This place needs to go, we all don't have time to be getting fake phone calls while we are trying to work.

trying a whois shows that merchantcircle is hiding behind a network solutions anonymous registration account. Apparently they are too afraid of listing their company details in their whois info, or they are phone spamming so much that keeping that info public is a liability. Complain to network solutions that they are providing anonymous cover to a phone spammer, and they shouldn't be providing ANY services to a spammer of ANY kind.


Got their "customer left negative feedback, go to our site and enter your number" phone spam today, caller id shows "unknown" and "866-849-3243" as their calling number. Note that when you call a toll-free number, your phone number shows up in their records regardless of whether you block your number during your call or for all of your calls "all-call block".


That number, once again, 866-849-3243

That number, once again, 866-849-3243

That number, once again, 866-849-3243

That number, once again, 866-849-3243

That number, once again, 866-849-3243

That number, once again, 866-849-3243

So, today is March 13, 2007 and thanks to your site, we chose not to login to merchantcircle. We are on the do not call list, and they still spammed us, so we are reporting them. We suggest all others do the same. If your business is on the do not call list, you can go to the website to file a complaint. Thanks again for all the info! DO NOT SUPPORT THIS SITE BY BEING CURIOUS!!!!

I sensed that this was a scam. I went to the site, found no rating at all (after spooking me with "negative ratings" on my voice mail), and tried to contact them. No email address. No phone number. Even my cell phone's call back feature didn't work on them. These people suck...

Our business telephone line just got spammed by these "people"

I hope there is a special place in hell for "people" like these who use deceptive practices.

Our business is not mentioned anywhere on their site and yet their spam telephone call said customers were reporting unfavorably about our business.

Their recorded message violates the FCC TCPA (Telephone Consumers Protection Act) prohibition on the use of recorded or computer generated messages.

Also, they are a telemarker and did not give me a telephone number where I can call to have them remove me from their list - another violation of the TCPA.

We are also on the Federal and state do-no-call lists.

I will be reporting this to everyone possible.

Given the dates of the complaints above, it looks like merchantcircle phone-spammed customers in September and are back at it again in March. Yep, got the same message, knew instantly it was a fishing expedition scam designed to play on the fears of legit business owners who care about their reputation.

Their email address is questions@merchantcircle.com and I'm sending a copy of these blog entries to them so they can see just how much negative buzz they're creating for themselves on the net. I can't believe any sort of quasi-legit company would be so dumb as to fail to apprehend the fact that in today's world nearly everyone uses Google as truth serum. The first thing I did when I got that call was Google their name and this is what came up. Only complete morons would pay a phone-spamming company to foster ill will and bad word-of-mouth about themselves.

Here is a fax number listed for MerchantCircle
Merchant Circle - Mark Hall*
210 Main St., Suite 100 Tel:
Los Altos Fax: 650-917-9972
94022 merchantcircle.com

So Start Faxing them to death!

650-917-9972

Well, they must be at it again. I can't say it any better than the below quote. I'm wondering if they are calling the regular line or the toll-free line. I don't think I put the toll-free lines on the no-call list.
"So, today is March 13, 2007 and thanks to your site, we chose not to login to merchantcircle. We are on the do not call list, and they still spammed us, so we are reporting them. We suggest all others do the same. If your business is on the do not call list, you can go to the website to file a complaint. Thanks again for all the info! DO NOT SUPPORT THIS SITE BY BEING CURIOUS!!!"

I too fell for it, however, I am soooo glad I googled first.Never went to their site and am angry and frustrated. Thanks for all the heads up on the issue.

This is such a scam, we are not a business but got this phone call ... I did have it removed and used my junk email addy to do it. They had us listed as a company that hasn't been in business in over 25 years.
Get real, what a farce.

Well, they must be at it again!
This is the second time that I have received their 'phone message'. The first time, I ordered them to remove my company from their listing. So, too, with this call.
I am a small, private firm with a VERY exclusive client base.

5 months ago, I wrote (above):
"Then I sent Email to their 'support' address asking to be added to the MerchantCircle do-not-call list. And after that, I found this here web page and now I suspect my Email will go unanswered."


Sure enough, we got their pre-recorded phone call again today. Grr.


I just now called the 866 number which Johnny Penguin posted above, and pressed "1" to stop further "messages" from the number I called from. If you don't hear from me in, say, another 5-6 months, I guess maybe it worked.


Now off to the alexa.com site that Toni Coleman mentioned ...

I just got the favorable review message on my phone about 20 minutes ago. Scam detector went off and low and behold what a Google search brings me. I went to their site and did find my company without signing in, but no reviews. Well, since they're representing me without my permission I clicked on the review link and reviewed my own business. Surprise! We got a great review! I also filed a complaint since we're on the do not call registry.

I find Ben's message way up this page about how they're working out the kinks to be very amusing since here it is, 11 MONTHS later and they're still practicing the same underhanded business practices.

They told me my company had a favorable review, but there was none there. They also has a google form indicating that
" There were no results for found on Google.com."

which is odd, since I there are pages of links to my business at listing .. someone shoudl tell google that these folks are lying and misusing google's name.

Just received a spam call form Merchant Circle. I filed a complaint. My business is on the do not call registry.

Same tale of spam call regarding a favorable review. I think that once you contact the company and give your phone #, that gets around the do not call list by implying that you voluntarily replied to them therefore you're now a previously contacted client. Clever spam scam.

I have been spammed twice by this company....Merchant Circle. Once they said I got a positive rating and another time a negative rating. I put my phone number in at their site and they say they have no record of my business. They should be put out of business by their dishonest unethical practices. I am going to report them. I have top ratings in my local area in the best magazines. They try to make you paranoid as if they have a superior rating system that people should rely upon.

When you review this blog contact your state's authorities about them.

August 4, 2007. They are still at it. Got the call yesterday. Same story, positive rating though. Didn't go to their site, as I smelled a rat,(rats stink when they are dead)Anyway, googled them and found this great site and all you cyber warriors, so thanks, "when life gives you a lemon......." G-man

These folks keep calling my home phone number. I can't get rid of them.

Yes, they are definitely “still at it”! I just received the same phone call as everyone else on my voice mail this morning. HOWEVER, I refuse to log on to their website after reading so many of these postings. I WIL NOT give them the satisfaction of thinking that their phone call worked and got me out to their website. I WILL NOT give them another hit. It’s the only way to drive a “business” like this out of business. If you’re like the rest of us, you Googled the company and possibly landed here first. Don’t respond to their website and do your part to help make merchantcircle.com go away! Thanks!

Sunday morning they call me with the "negative review" scam. Glad I googled and found out for sure it's a scam without going there. How have they stayed in business for this long?

I, also received a call from them this afternoon. I was on their list last year and fell for it. I suggest people contact their state consumer affairs department, better business bureaus and attorney general's office. I will do no business with anyone scuzzy enough to use an automated phone call to suck me in. Calling on Sunday is even lower. I hope they go out of business too.

Still at it -- received the phone call this am. Glad I googled them first. Thank you for this web site!

well, I too have been bothered by this fake fradulent company. It is not as though we have enough to be worried about being a small business owner! They can Kiss my ____!

I own a major recording studio, and am very busy working into the wee hours of the morning recording bands writing radio jingles etc. These days especially with the net, my good reputation is more important than ever. I got the "favorable comment" call in mid August 2007. With the volatile nature of the net recently with email link phishing, websites that infect your computer etc, my bullshit detector went off and I googled merchantcircle.com first. I saw this and the only time I lost was reading these posts, for which I am gratefull. I will follow you up Mr. Smith with the law. Do Not Call list has a little $10,000.00 fine for you courtesy of me. According to what I read here it seems to me you are simply exploiting people's natural anxiety's because they want to do good by people, and are waisting their time. I'll bet you are going to have to spend a lot of days at a court house with the attorney general and you won't be making money. And "Just in case" you should know my reputation is fiercely defended by some of the best attorney's in the country. I also used to work for a law firm as a court appointed trustee. If you are doing what they say here it really is a low down despicable trick.
Stay away from me and my business, I want nothing to do with your company or you. Be sure you and your friends speak the truth. DO NOT CALL ME AGAIN. If you or your friends should decide to hurt my business or reputation
it will prove even more catastrophic then the damage you have done to yourself already. It takes good will to suceed in business. I don't see any here.

Mike

I called the Investors mentioned above and reported it and told them they are supporting a scam and phone spamming and to remove me from their list immediately. They said I probably got reported by a customer... I told them that was a scam and to just remove me. We'll see, if they call again, more measures will be taken. Enough is Enough.

I must be in the minority. I like Merchant Circle. They have a lot to offer for free. I think I recieved the phone call about a year ago. Recently I rediscovered them and joined. They are growing.

It's November 15, 2007 and Merchantcircle is still phone spamming. Got another call this morning. I've used the removal page three times over the last year and our entry keeps reappearing.

At this point all hope is lost. There's no way to avoid this scummy company. What's really amazing is that there are venture capital companies willing to pour money into supporting these idiots.

Someone with time should compile all these complaints into a merchantcirclesucks.com site.

check out www.oddbodd.com . Close to launching and has built-in moderation, great content and included services for businesses and they'll be sending out a marketing kit to all the businesses who register with a list of where they can find reviews about them and what to do if they don't like it. They are building the first CORRECT database where every business in the system knows they are there and has control over the content. Merchant circle still allows anyone to post anything on your listing! Support the first video based business directory that is designed to be honest, helpful for both businesses and consumers and can be free too! www.oddbodd.com. Oh, and they are building a team of local sales reps to help the small businesses who don't understand all of this too.

PS. I am the owner of oddbodd.com and started it from a small business owners perspective because of companies that were trying to scare people into doing business with them. My phone number is on the site so please feel free to call me if you have any questions or suggestions on how we can make it better for you.

I, too have not been unhappy with the lack of moderation on MerchantCircle. I noticed a lot of you complaining about being on the "do not call" list too. Unfortunately business to business calls are exempt from the do not call registry. (See this website http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/alerts/alt129.shtm)

It does not, however, give them the right to lie, and to think they just received another 10million in funding too!

We received a spam phone call this morning...on a Sunday...saying we had a positive comment. So I went to the site and there aren't any comments at all about us. Just a pop up to sign up for their service. I'd never do business that way. I also wasn't able to find an email address on the website to complain to them.

I too got a recorded junk call on my business line claiming that MerchantCircle got a favorable post about my business. Of course, I found no such post. From reading earlier comments here, it seems that MerchantCircle's practice is to call firms to make false statements in hopes of stimulating its own business/traffic.

With so many posts (above) reporting bogus junk calls, it may constitute fraudulent advertising on the part of MerchantCircle.

I think it's about time that everyone who received such a junk call, report it to their state's office of Attorney General. A list of all state AG's, as well as their email and phone number is at: http://www.naag.org/

This crap has got to be stopped!

Disclaimer: The following is not legal advise.
Contact a licensed attorney in your state
before taking any action.

Concerning federal law and how it MAY apply to the type of junk calls made by MerchantCircle:

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) states at 47 USC sec. 227
(d) Technical and procedural standards
(3) Artificial or prerecorded voice systems
The [FCC] shall prescribe ... standards for systems ... used to transmit any ... prerecorded voice message via telephone. Such standards shall require that -
(A) all artificial or prerecorded telephone messages
(ii) shall, during or after the message, state clearly the telephone number or address of such business, other entity, or individual...

I'm not sure, but I don't think the MerchantCircle junk call included a phone number or physical address during the call. The TCPA was drafted in 1991 - before the internet's practical existance. Back then, the term 'address' meant 'physical address'. So, the lack of a physical address or phone number during the pitch may make the MerchantCircle calls a violation of the TCPA.

The TCPA does not require a state Attorney General to receive a report of 2 violative calls within in 12-month period for the AG's office to act against a TCPA violator.

It may be productive to report violative MerchantCircle calls to your state Attorney General. Again, you can find your state AG at: http://www.naag.org/

Just got my first recorded spam telemarketing call from MC this morning, telling me about my "positive rating". As many of you have found they have a private whois registration and no contact phone # on their site. Real ethical huh?

I do NOT recommend sending them any written or email requests to "remove" yourself from their spamming, as this will surely lead to even more spam from them and dissemination of your info to even more spammers.

All my telephone numbers - including my business' - have been on the FTC's DO NOT CALL list for over 2 years.

I have no prior business arrangement or dealings with them and they are not a non-profit organization or charity.

Therefore they are breaking FTC LAW, to the tune of $11,000 per incident.

To quote the FTC site:
"A consumer who rece