The 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.
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!!!!!!!!