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3.8 23 Reviews

ReachLocal Complaints Summary

16 Resolved
7 Unresolved
Our verdict: You can expect a very good level of service from ReachLocal. To navigate their system effectively, thoroughly understand their service scope. Check online forums and review sites for others' experiences. When contacting customer service, clear and concise communication can help resolve your issues faster.
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ReachLocal reviews & complaints 23

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ComplaintsBoard
O
3:05 pm EDT
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ReachLocal excessive charges, no customer service

Company promises advertising on Search Engines, as stated on their website:
"Technology To maximize the value of each advertising dollar, our patent-pending technology intelligently selects media, then tracks, optimizes and reports results for local advertising campaigns".

YET DELIVERS - far less.

Company does not follow advertisers written intstructions as to search phrases to use, charges excessive rates for the ads, fails to provide minimal customer support.

Company also attempts to charge for campaigns beyond the contract terms and fails to deliver minimal customer service.

Representatives are argumentative, obnoxious and refuse to admit to well documented mistakes and over charges.

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unhappy business owner 2
Cameron Park, US
Jan 04, 2011 11:38 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

WHEN ASKED TO END OUR CONTRACT THEY CHARGED MY CREDIT CARD FOR AN ADDITIONAL MONTH
OF THEIR SERVICE.
BEWARE WHEN ALLOWING THESE PEOPLE HAVE YOUR CREDIT CARD FOR AUTOMATIC MONTHLY RENEWALS!

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ErkHtr
tampa, US
Apr 19, 2010 6:36 pm EDT

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=at%26t&everything=Everything

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=superpages&everything=Everything

IVE NOTICED THAT EVERYONE COMPLAINS ABOUT EVERYTHING!

Get a life people- you cant please everyone 100% of the time.

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Micolina
Fort Worth, US
Feb 16, 2015 3:36 pm EST

I worked for Reach Local's Plano office, a suburb of Dallas, TX. There is a lot of truth to the negative reviews and a little truth or these people just got lucky that had the positive reviews. Having worked as an Inside Sales Rep., I can tell you it's a bit shady in the Plano office; I can't speak to any of their other offices. I think C-Level management means well, but the level below them, down to the Sales Managers are low-rent and frankly don't know what they are doing. If you do well selling there, you will get moved into management at that's a fact. The turnover there is really quite something. I worked there for 6 months and saw management and salespeople turnover from one day to the next about 4 times! My manager was clueless, being about 24yrs. old, of course, he had never managed anyone, just got lucky selling a couple of large clients. The CEO stepped down just after I left, and that was a bit odd-- no one would or could talk about it or they'd get a 'talking to'-- personally, I'd stay from any company that requires a contract for an Adwords campaign longer than 3 months. That's about how long it should take to tweak the words until you find the right ones to bring you a return on your investment. If they promise the moon, RUN. Responsible companies are thorough, transparent and never, ever set incredulous expectations with customers. If it's good to be true, then it probably is.

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Mrbizzy
Lafayette, US
May 23, 2013 1:09 pm EDT

I disagree with the positive comments about Reach Local. I have run my own google adword campaign more effectively than Reach Local did in the past. Reach Local claims that they are experst in setting up campaigns. The why is Hades werent they able to set up the territory I was targeting. Why did they take forever to fix this simple fix? Why did they tell me that I would have a dedicated rep evalatuing my campaigns performance and yet I never heard from them? Why do they claim to have an algorithm that evaluates the campaigns performance and adjusts it to optimize the campaign and yet I saw no improvement. Blame it the client's website? I have one of the best website designs out there. Not only do I get compliments from customers but my competitors and other dealers continue to compliment my site. Easy for Reach Local to blame the site, as they service is a total SCAM. Oh and dont you love a company that charges a 50% cancellation fee? WTF? The money they spend on setting up and maintaining a campaign IS MINIMAL compared to the cost of the cancellation fee. NEVER EVER EVER sign a cancellation fee where the fee is 50% of the unearned revenue friends.. EVER. This company is a total scam. I wouldnt be surprised if it is run by the mafia.

Am I affilated with another SEM or SEO company? NO. I am a small business owner who wants to educate other small business owners about being wise on who you work with and how you spend your money. Companies like Reach Local survice not based on their performance but based on fear. They sell fear. As a small business owner in this economy everyone wants to capture whatever sales they can. Reach Local knows the economy is bad. So they drill this fear in to you. The fear of overspending. The fear of targeting the right market. The fear that your competitor has a better campaign.

Here is one test. ASK, no DEMAND that give you serveral references of customers that are satisfied with the campaign and customer service. Here is the response that you are going to get. "We protect the privacy of our customers. Would you want someone calling you?" HELL YES. If I am happy about a service or product, I have no problem having someone call me. SCAM people. A well coordinated Scam is what Reach Local is. I provide references for my work on a daily basis.

Plesae do your research. Small business owners work hard for their money in this market. Dont give your money away to Reach Local.
As far it being so good that it is going Public, ask yourself how many other "public" companies have scammed American investors and taxpayers! ALOT!

Good Luck. I will pray for you.

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Reet G
Sydney, AU
Apr 10, 2013 9:53 pm EDT
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No Company have right to deduct money from you credit card without permission. Its all about contact policy.

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Thinksmart
Fort Worth, US
Feb 11, 2011 6:07 pm EST

Man, we all like to talk crap don't we? Everyone that loves to post bad reviews about ANY company. Re-evaluate yourselves and think about how you would feel if these things were being said about you. Answer me one question, find me all your customers you "real business owners" have ever serviced and is EVERY LAST ONE 100% satisfied with what you delivered? Probably not. "you become what you think about all day long" -e.nightingale...so start thinking positive and learn from your mistakes. Don't blame them on anyone else. Thanks!

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jilliankz
Glenolden, US
Feb 08, 2011 2:23 pm EST

Thank goodness for these complaint websites. I didn't bother to look at them until my company had several issues with YEXT.com. A sales rep from reach local called last week to set up a meeting. I said ok, and immediately did my research. and everything that was listed in the above compliants was so true. They bad mouthed yellowbook.com and several other advertising company. My company has a website through yellowbook. and the sales rep said he wanted to put a tracker with a number on there temporarily to track the number of "clicks". they said that they don't build websites. They wanted to charge $750 a month to get our name out there on the web and to get us higher up on the lists when you go to yahoo, google, and bing. He didn't seem to know a whole lot about what he was talking about. it was all [censor]. and he kept getting caught up in it. it was petty entertaining.

1-Always do you research before you meet with a company.
2- realize that depending on your particular company, there may be hundreds of buisnesses just like yours, so you may not be at the top of the list.
3- these sales and advertisers are just about money, not about you or your company.
4- when you do sign, always check and pay careful attention to what they offer and see that they follow thru.
5- take an internet course or talk to somone who knows computers so you know what it is that they are talking aboiut

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Juan Valdez
Mesa, US
Jan 27, 2011 3:48 am EST

I own an auto repair shop. My complaint with reach local is they don't listen and they don't care. With my website I can see from the back end, I can see exactly what text people entered in the search engine to get to my website. In fact in most cases it will take me back to that exact Search page. Reach local kept putting me on the display network which got me nothing but junk clicks and guess what they spend zero seconds on my website. They also do not use negative keywords. For example someone typed in "auto repair manuals" I don't want that click. I repeatedly told them this. and then finally my rep said well just give us a list of the negative keywords you want us to use. I responded with "isn't that your job"... after 2 years with Reach local I would never use them again. I have been running my own adwords campaigns, I spend less, get I higher quality click, and a much higher conversion rate. It's alot of work, but it pays off. As for the product that reach local offers it works but you way way overpay for the few sales you get in return... think twice!

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Loyd Ward & Assoc.
Dallas, US
Jan 25, 2011 8:30 pm EST

All that long winded speech tells us is your not in business, you probably work for them, and your very young. People like us have been in business for a very long time. These folks from the East are taking advantage of a very bad economy with business owners sweating hard for the money. We still have the same bills that add up very quickly. You can talk all you want. Fact is no one is listening because their scam artist and they are greedy at that. We are going to wipe these people out and put them where they belong once and for all. One more thing, , , it's a hand full of people not a big company. Just a handfull of New Yorkers thinking their doing something different. Give us a little more time. We have to show a paper trail to bring them down once and for all.

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Just ME c!
, US
Aug 26, 2010 5:57 pm EDT

I don’t know anything about yext and I the only think I know about yodle is that they “stole” the business model from reachlocal but not the “technology”. I am, however, confused how anyone could say that ReachLocal is a scam. I’d be interested in what parts people think would make it a scam.

Reachlocal offers a scalable, measurable, internet marketing solution.
Any program with ReachLocal is 100% transparent. Advertisers have the ability to see exactly how their ad dollars are working and exactly what their ad dollar is doing for them. They offer a ppc campaign that optimized, they allocate the budget to the keywords that are converting to calls, emails or web events, they also offer display advertising with remarketing capabilities and “coming soon” is a social product that IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY!

Here’s what I think. I think there are a lot of small PPC companies that are loosing their best customers to companies like ReachLocal and they are scared because they don’t have the technology, the man power or the capabilities that ReachLocal has. I believe that these are the people who are post negative things about ReachLocal online. My suggestion to any advertiser out there is to do your own research. Call ReachLocal and have them come out and show you what they do. Remember is 100% transparent. You know exactly what you will be getting. Call Yodle and have them show you what they do. Don’t read bad reviews and automatically think that it’s the truth. ReachLocal was the 39th fastest growing technology company in 2009. They won the fastest growing technology company from deloitte in 2009. The only other internet company to win this award was google in 2004. I doubt they are a scam. Do you homework and I assure you that you will find that maybe some of the companies out there are scams or guessing but ReachLocal is NOT one of them.

Thanks!

Happy Thursday.

Oh, in case you want to research them.

http://www.reachlocal.com

ComplaintsBoard
A
12:18 pm EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

ReachLocal bad service

Reach Local is an internet advertiser. The program does not work. They say you are paying to reach customers in your area, well we are in the North Shore section of Massachusetts and we were getting calls from California, Colorado

Florida Connecticut and everywhere else. We told them at the end of three months we were not happy and the salesgirl wanted to come in and show us what we were doing wrong! This is a program set up by them it was what they were doing wrong. We told her not to come in and just end our contract with them. They ended our contract 4 or 5 days into the month but charged us for a whole month $1600. . Lesson learned never give your credit card to an advertising company to automatically put the money on your credit card. We even have an email from them stating that we would have to pay the 4 or 5 days and we would receive the money back for the rest. They won't give us the money back. So don't fall into their trap this is a sleezy company.

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LocalMarketing
Carrara, AU
Apr 15, 2014 1:11 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Reach Local guy called me yesterday and lied to me about his identity, saying that his friend is a new local client and he needs help.

He asked me a lot of question about my services and about my current clients.

I have just received an email from my client who was very distressed about them and their tactics.

I am in the local marketing space, so obviously they are targeting all my current clients.

I never posted a bad review about anyone but simply I had it enough.

If you have been approached by the Reach Local sales person please avoid as a plaque an save your soul.

They are the lowest kind of people on this planet and you need to avoid them at any costs.

Thank you.

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jonesgeorge
BALNARRING, AU
Nov 07, 2013 5:00 am EST
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Just found out that Reach Local is a Scam! Are you aware that on top of the 15% Management fee they charge on every dollar you give them to advertise, they also retain 40% of your total spend as a commission? If you are using Reach Local, please log into your account, click on the advertising tab, click on reports, choose search activity. Then go the bottom of the page and click distribution details to see how many of your advertising dollars are actually going to Google. You will be shocked how little they use. The worst part is they would never had disclosed this to me, had I not uncovered it myself. Their rep has now come back, tail between legs, with 1 month free and 10% Management Fee from now on...BUYER BEWARE!

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jones75
toronto, CA
Aug 27, 2013 3:44 pm EDT
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VickiW www.shopincanada.com is one of the biggest scams going. They prey on local businesses looking for a "free" listing on their site then have their "qualified reps" call back almost daily trying to upsell you, when you say no they remove your "free" listing for the site. If you are one of the stupid people who say yes they will promise you the moon and the stars and NONE of it ever materializes. They have a "money back guarantee" whereas if you don't see the results you want they will renew the ad for another year, just what people want another year of no business from http://www.shopincanada.com it's a BIG SCAM, buyer beware.

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Glenn
Irvine, US
Jan 19, 2013 11:03 am EST

Review of DexKnow, Reach Local, and other flat rate, blind spend Pay Per click (Google Adwords) programs offered to SMB's http://www.whitehatterseo.com/dexknows-reachlocal-review-of-online-marketing-programs/#

It's not an outright scam, but it's a poorly structured and highly diluted approach to a real SEM effort. AKA, borderline scam

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emyth
Los Angeles, US
Mar 09, 2012 11:52 pm EST

"REACHLOCAL" Simply awful. The worse company you could ever hire to handle any aspect of your internet marketing. Upper management is always out to lunch and you will never get past the front lines who are mediocre. If you are a business owner beware. If you are an employee and you hire this people, you might as well kiss your job good bye. Having done business with this company is the worse mistake of my life. The amount of money wasted by having believed their first month or 2 smoke screen has been devastating.

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emyth
Los Angeles, US
Mar 09, 2012 11:48 pm EST

" REACHLOCAL" Simply awful. The worse company you could ever hire to handle any aspect of your internet marketing. Upper management is always out to lunch and you will never get past the front lines who are mediocre. If you are a business owner beware. If you are an employee and you hire this people, you might as well kiss your job good bye. Having done business with this company is the worse mistake of my life. The amount of money wasted by having believed their first month or 2 smoke screen has been devastating.

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Centurion Age Management
Fort Lauderdale, US
Feb 24, 2012 6:15 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I too hired Reach Local in SouthEast Florida after having a salesperson I trusted go over there. He beleived it would work. THey promised 500 calls and 50 closings a month. In two months I got 6 inquiries - 4 calls, two internet inquiries and closed none. I was completely misled and plan to challenge their credit card charges. When I went back to my rep - all I got was lip service. He said he made changes and still, no calls. I asked for upper management to talk tome and its been 3 days and still, nothing. THey just don't care. No problem, I changed the credit card to stop the campaogn and I've got the email saying I would get 500 calls/month - total 1000 calls for two months and the analytics saying I got 6. That is seriously off. I should win this one.

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drpark
Costa Mesa, US
Dec 07, 2011 12:30 am EST
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Reach Local is definitely not worth it.
They promise a lot but don't deliver.
They are high pressure and force you to complete a useless agreement even after it's clear that it isn't working at all.
Their SEO directs to their site so it hurts your online presence.
Avoid like the plague, in my opinion!

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LostSearcher
Dallas, US
Sep 30, 2011 10:25 pm EDT

If you are internet savvy enough to find and read this comment then you are internet savvy enough to do a much better job of marketing than reachlocal……
If you run daily, weekly or monthly specials on your website, forget it. The search engine clickers that you are overpaying for will never see it. Reachlocal "snapshots" your site and replaces the phone and email addresses, the clickers see an old version of your site. Your site is frozen for the duration of the contract, no changes. They also overbid keywords to get to the top position- a waste of money (unless your google), but they are making a percentage of that wasted money...see the conflict? If you do take the time to teach them how to market your business, well that just gave them a new market to sell to. Your competitor down the street will be grateful. Not a scam..just bad business.

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chiro 1100
, US
Sep 19, 2011 8:46 pm EDT

I have a business in Georgia they did the same things as all the others. They put you off so they can get a few more days and then charge the credit card. I do not know how these sales people in Georgia for reachlocal can look at themselves in the mirror. They have NO business morals. They only care about the making the big hits. There big excuss of not allowing you to cancell or renegotiate your campaign is the we are NOW A PUBLICALLY TRADED COMPANY. They are the worst of worse> Be carefull they will take your money and not serve you well.
CHIRO 1100

ComplaintsBoard
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9:33 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

ReachLocal terrible experience

I received a letter from Reachlocal Marketing regarding being selected to be a Mystery Shopper. I had put my name in to be a mystery shopper at a web site a long time ago and thought that they finally picked me. They sent me a check for $2, 945 (bank check that looked very real). They wanted me to go to Wal-Mart, buy some items which I can keep, send the bulk of the money to someone identified in the letter thru Money Gram or Western Union and then fill out a form regarding both transactions. I called the number on the letter and spoke to someone who gave me further instructions and had me fill out an acceptance form. It all sounded real but too good to be true. I did google Reachlocal Marketing and found a company call Reachlocal who sounded good - nothing bad appeared. I then deposited the check in my bank account. Something bothered me and I did some more checking and found complaintsboard. This time I searched for mystery shopper and found lots of these scams using a different company name but the same requests. I called my bank and they got a hold of the fraud department who will put a hold on the check. They told me that they have been seeing this type of thing for the last month and the check will bounce. What this company wants you to do is not wait for the check to clear but immediately follow the instructions on the letter sending your money to them which you will never get back. Although I am writing this before the check bounces I wanted to alert others that they use different names but use the same scam. Anything that looks and sounds too good to be true is just that - too good to be true!

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Lashaun
, US
May 22, 2011 11:36 am EDT

ReachLocal Marketing wrote me a letter stating that I was selected to participate in becoming a mystery shopper. The wanted me to deposit the check in my bank account when the check clear wanted me to mystery shop with some and western union or moneygram money to someone . But I went to cash the check and it was a bad check.

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SEM Pro
xxx, US
Dec 09, 2009 4:22 pm EST

David, OK but what about the other 20+ complaints about the service through ReachLocal?

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SEM Pro
xxx, US
Dec 09, 2009 4:21 pm EST

What about the other 20+ complaints?!

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David Glaubke
,
Oct 29, 2008 6:25 pm EDT

ReachLocal, Inc. (www.reachlocal.com) is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California and is in NO WAY affiliated with the above-mentioned Reachlocal Marketing.

ReachLocal, Inc. is a provider of local online marketing solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses in more than 25 cities around the world and does not provide, nor is associated with any entity that provides, “mystery shopping” services.

If you have any questions regarding this, please call David Glaubke, ReachLocal's Director of Corporate Communications, [protected] x1136

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www.reachlocal.com

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