TrueLocal.com.au Conducting Aggresive Followup
Truelocal.com.au is a relatively new Australian directory to the space. From immediate rivalry that was cast throughout the web between the Australian TrueLocal and the US TrueLocal, Truelocal.com.au has been nothing short of advertised... and is about to get some more, though in the negative sense. The original debacle between the US owner and the Australian version, personally I have nothing much to say, except the US owners are complaining about a mistake they missed, in that if they wanted to branch out into the Australian space, then they should have registered an Australian business and the domain to match. That is that.
Now, for the important stuff. A user posted their encounter with TrueLocal.com.au after submitting their business to them, and this is what followed:
A few days ago I listed my site with them. Today they rang me just as I was going into the dentist. They nagged me about ringing back later, but I firmly told them not until tomorrow because I would have a numb mouth. While I was in the dentist chair, my mobile was ringing non stop until I had to get up & turn it off.... 7 missed calls. Then when I left the surgery I no sooner got in my car, and the phone rung again.... it was them again! I told him that I was sooooo not impressed, and that I had said to ring tomorrow, he said OK.... but I said don't bother.
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The phone started ringing at 7am this morning... office & mobile phone! 3 calls on each! And like I am going to answer the phone at that time of the morning!
Now its time to find out who to ring to tell them to pull me from their bloody directory! And let them know what I think of their heavy handed techniques!
What pisses me off the most is..... if I had wanted to have a paid listing.... I bloody well would have done one in the first place!!
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Well...I sent an email to tell them to leave me alone... and I have since given up on sleep as a bad joke. (I didn't finish working till 5.30am this morning... so first phone call came after 1 & half hours sleep.... so hence a little grumpy - ok I confess.... VERY grumpy!)
Since my last post I have had 5 calls on my mobile, and 4 on my work phone! So finally decided to answer it to tear shreds off them.
It seems I didn't read the conditions properly! (usually I don't because my sites don't breach most of the normal conditions) Well.... it seems that each submission gets a call back to confirm the submission. Fair enough, they should leave a message saying that if I didn't submit it to call them back. But NO.... it seems that Murdoch's employees are more zealous than that. They want to talk to you to convince you that your submission is doing no good with search engines without being a paid submission. But still I think they could leave that speel in the phone message. Not keep ringing & ringing & ringing.
And to make a pain the neck situation worse.... I submitted 4 sites.... so I'm not only getting the calls off one rep, I'm getting them off 4 reps!
So if your thinking of submitting to this site... my suggestion is:
1. Don't submit more than one site unless you want to be hounded by different reps.
2. Listen to them the first time, because othewise they will keep ringing again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again >> and on & on... until ya finally tell them to bugger off.
3. Or better yet... Don't Do It!Continueing Post
yeah... I even got another 5 calls since last posting! Told the guy to pull my listings, and that I'll be making it known what pests they are. He hung up saying "I was just doing my job" before I got to ask for his bosses phone number! grrr
I'm just not sure which part of "leave me alone" they didnt understand.
Pretty dismal Mr Murdoch!
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Guess what! Two days later and another 2 calls!!!
What is it with these people!
I told this guy that he had better tell his boss that there is going to be a lot of unfavourable writeups on their conduct & practices now!
Well, that sounds like some very aggressive marketing from TrueLocal.com.au to me. My input... I would be quite wary about submitting to their service considering the aggressive followup procedure you seem to agree too when submitting.
Another point I will point out, is their privacy policy. You have no privacy when you read the legalities of the document.
We may share your information with other companies which are related to ALS within Australia. We or they may also use your personally identifiable information to assist us in improving our products and services and any of us might be in touch to let you know about goods, services, or promotions which may interest you.
ALS may disclose your information to its service providers and contractors from time to time to help us to provide and market our goods and services to you. We may also share your information with third parties who provide prizes for competitions or reader offers. If we do this we generally require these parties to protect your information in the same way we do.
I must say that last sentence that I bold is pretty amusing... which basically means, you have no privacy when you provide us your details, and we are going to share them with every partner company, their companies and even telemarketing companies that give away prizes... yeh! It goes on to release a lot more of your information to pretty much whom ever they please.
This is merely reporting the details of a customers disatisfied services and encounter with TrueLocal.com.au. You make up your own mind!
