Usually around this time of year I take about a week to write my Good, The Bad and the REAL Ugly posts from various business’s I have had the chance to work with over the course of the year, this year I have decided not to do that. One of the main factors that contributed to my decision of not writing another Good, Bad, REAL Ugly post is because I felt like I wrote posts about most of those situations already, and feel confident moving forward.
Now with all of that being said and it being the holiday season and the season for giving, I feel the need to post a quick rant and GIVE a little something back to one company that has been all over my nerves lately.
Live Deal is a business that claims to be your “Small Business Customer Connection” and they seem to offer “Smart Marketing. Results Guaranteed.”, based on some of their aggressive tactics I can see how they might be able to generate some decent results…. That is if you can put up with them in the process.
Every single day there is some company that calls Insane Limos and tries to sell clever search engine marketing concepts, and when I mean every day. I mean every single day, without fail. Live Deal is one of the companies that has been calling our business line for customers just about every single day, they are REEEAALLLLLYYY discreet with who they are and why they are calling, better yet they are not only discreet, they are also beyond rude.
A couple of weeks ago the Insane Limos phone rang and Michele answered it, in typical Live Deal fashion they ask, “Is the business owner there?” and immediately after hearing that I am not there, they instantly hang up on whoever answers the phone. This entire thing becomes old pretty quickly especially since I never answer the Insane Limos phone and we have someone that carries the limousine phone on them at all times, it wouldn’t be odd for no one else to be around when the phone gets answered besides the person that answered the phone of course.
After hearing about it as well as the call frequency that Live Deal likes to use I decided to give them a call back myself and maybe help them understand that calling and hanging up in my associates ears is hardly a smart business tactic on their part. The day I called I spoke to a male associate of Live Deal that assured me he was a manager (since I asked for when when I called), I explained to him how tired I was of hearing my associates complain about Live Deal calling and hanging up in their ear, I also made it VERY clear that I wanted all of our business numbers removed from their call list.
Let’s fast forward to current times, actually a little earlier today when Live Deal called yet again…. No worries though it isn’t the first time they have called since I asked to be removed from the list like three weeks ago, like I said they like to be pretty aggressive. We know the phone number that Live Deal calls from pretty well at this point in time, so as soon as the phone rings we have a pretty good idea who it’s going to be. Nothing changed from the conversation that I had with them previously and they ended up hanging up in the ear of the associate that answered the Insane Limos phone again, I immediately asked for the phone so I could call them back, however the associate that was hung up on decided to call them back personally.
Long story getting way too long already and I have already mentioned Live Deal more than enough times at this point, the bottom line is that we have instructed Live Deal to remove our numbers AGAIN. More importantly since Live Deal seems to be so good at search engine’s and helping small business’s with search engine optimization maybe they will do a quick search and see this post, and this message…
Live Deal, I will never do business with your company or any company that conducts business and tries to obtain additional business in such a rude and beyond pathetic matter. Never. Small business’s need partners, not bullies.
If you feel like adding to this topic feel free to leave a comment, if you have ever had a similar situation with Live Deal I would love to hear about it as I am sure most of the small business owners that read my blog would like to hear about it too.
Cole Stan (2)
KyAus @ Those.Tips (2)
SafariDave (2)
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s just way beyond ordinary antiquated cold calling marketing tactic. I wonder if they were even trained of proper phone etiquette? Guess not. They are actually losing more than they ever attempted of gaining. Futile efforts.
Mathdelane @Software Critics´s last blog ..Join Software Critics’ $1,500US New Year Giveaway
@Mathdelane @Software Critics, I would have to agree with you. Seems pretty counter productive to me, I’m sure it won’t be long before there’s an associate or someone that loves them on here telling me how much I suck. That’s usually the case with any rant around here, haha.
Thank you for commenting
@Extreme John, Businesses doesn’t have to be that desperate to get leads but then mistakes backfire.
Mathdelane @Software Critics´s last blog ..Blogging Mafia: Do They Really Exist?
Sounds like we juts have to let the world know about it:) RT on the way…
DiTesco´s last blog ..DiTesco’s Weekly Echo #15
@DiTesco, haha well thank you DiTesco all though I was just planning on venting ;) Didn’t realize anyone read this crap, especially since I don’t use a SEO company to gain traffic here
Thats pretty bad. Why would anyone be sold on that tactic. I get cold calling from marketers everyone in a while. Its funny, they are SEO companies calling my Web Design Firm / SEO Consultant services asking us if we need services from them. And no they are not wanting us to hire them for contract work or for us to contract for them. Several of them call / email at least twice a month. Now I just ignore them since I know the numbers they use and let itgo to voice mail. Luckily for me, they finally got the picture and only email about every several months.
element321´s last blog ..Daily Delicious Posts Dec 21th 2009
@element321, you know I think you might have turned me on to something. Maybe I need to call them back and “Update my number on file” and just give them our fax number, would be very exciting to hear that sound each time they called
The fact they call you about services when it’s your business just shows the insanity, worst part is people easily fall for those tactics all the time, or at least I would guess that they do since these companies keep rollin with that style.
I am almost tempted to setup up google voice and hand that number out to these types people and let it go to voicemail. That way I can delete their junk voice mail (google voice offers voice to text translation on their site) without having to waste the amount of time checking voice mails. Not sure if it will work, but it might at least confuse them for a little while.
element321´s last blog ..Daily Delicious Posts Dec 21th 2009
@element321, I wouldn’t see why that wouldn’t work. I will have to ask Steve (he comments here from time to time) his thoughts on that, he’s a Google Voice pro.
Ok.horrible horrible story &
you can be 100% sure that their website will never ever ever be “Site of The Day”
Cheers
Will
P.S. If. on the other hand, ExtremeJohn would like to be included in the listings of better quality people at whatawebsite …please just say the word
Will´s last blog ..ShirleysZone.com
@Will, haha I appreciate that all though I’m not sure about being a better quality person.
It’s funny. I did some cold calling for Trammel Crow back in Austin in the ’80s.
It wasn’t that damn difficult… as long as you understood that some people would buy right away, some people would never buy, and some people needed some selling.
Cold calling is art that’s been lost.
Dave Doolin @ Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..7 Tips for Producing Snackable, Factual Content
@Dave Doolin @ Website In A Weekend, long gone Dave, long gone.
@Extreme John, smells like opportunity.
Opportunity to do it right!
And I have an idea…
Dave Doolin @ Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..Blogging Goals for 2010: Answers are Easy, the Questions are Hard!
It will be interesting to see if this company has taken the time to set up some of the brand monitoring systems (Google Alerts, etc). Especially as this will alert them to this post, giving them a chance to explain their approach to marketing (if you can call it that).
I get this all the time, people contacting me and asking if I want them to handle my SEO. I’m pretty sure I have that part of my business covered.
Karl Foxley@SEO Blog´s last blog ..Possibly The Greatest CommentLuv Update To Date
@Karl Foxley@SEO Blog, that’s an interesting point. You would imagine the cream of the crop would certainly have some Google Alerts set up.
@Karl Foxley@SEO Blog, I give it less than 24 hours from now before there’s someone or something said. What, who knows.
@Extreme John, I’m going to keep checking back to see if you get a response and what it could possibly be.
Telemarketing can be a great way to generate leads but what you’ve described is nothing more than harassment.
Karl Foxley@SEO Company´s last blog ..How To Mask Your Affiliate Links Using PHP
One of my favorites always was the copier people. They would call saying they serviced your copier and needed to send you more toner yet they needed to know your make and model number so they could send the right product. When asked what the company was they would immediately hang up. It annoyed me at first, then I would make a game by interrupting them or hanging up myself.
But my all time favorite was when we would give the name of one of our delivery drivers as the owner’s name and then people would call back asking for him. Even the owner did this. Actually, we had a lot of fun with callers at that one employer, but now I’m off topic. 
@Anne, holy crap I love that idea. We are doing it, can’t wait to tell them a cool name that just cracks me up instantly when I hear it.
Sounds like a great company to do business with! Please, don’t give them my phone number!
@Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee, number forwarded.
We get calls like this all the time. The call goes something like this, “did you know we can get you ranked on the first page of Google for such-in-such keyword? Oh really! Why don’t type that keyword in and tell me where I rank…you’re on the first page…CLICK!” Idiots…
@Matt@Marietta GA Real Estate, that sounds about right.
Coincidentally you know a guy VERY good at search engine optimization. What would you like me to rank them for? I can anchor them on thousands of inbound links for you. Shit I can make this page show up number on for you for anyone who ever searches for live deal hah!
@DJ airek, being a good search engine optimization specialist is not an easy thing you must exert alot of effort to do so.
Dave Dauber´s last blog ..MLM Marketing Mindset–New Year’s Resolutions?
Nice comment spam. Suck it Dauber
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