Menu

The good, the bad, and the ugly - discover what customers are saying about Citysearch.com

Welcome to our customer reviews and complaints page for Citysearch.com. We understand that making informed decisions about where to invest your time and money can be challenging, which is why we've created this platform for our community to share their honest feedback about their experiences with Citysearch.com.

On this page, you'll find a comprehensive collection of reviews and complaints from real customers who have used Citysearch.com's products or services. Our reviews are authentic and unbiased, providing you with a complete picture of the company, its products or services, and their customer service.

Whether you're considering doing business with Citysearch.com, or you've already had an experience with them, our community's reviews and complaints will give you a valuable perspective on what to expect. Our goal is to help you make informed decisions about where to invest your time and money, and we hope that our platform will be a valuable resource for you.

Please feel free to browse our reviews and complaints and share your own experience with Citysearch.com. Your feedback is an important part of our community and will help others make informed decisions.

ComplaintsBoard
A
5:33 am EDT

Citysearch.com Please take my advice and don't do business with this company

CROOKS I TELL YOU! BEWARE! the site is connected to citygrid.com aka citygridmedia. they are the worse! I must tell you please take my advice and don't do business with this company! You will regret it and lose alot of money!

Read full review of Citysearch.com and 1 comment
Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
G
G
gmandler
Stow, US
Jul 14, 2012 2:55 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

These guys cannot tell you where clicks came from. I insisted I'd sign up only if I had local clicks and was told that shouldn't be a problem and that only local zip codes would be used. Then I see about 40 'clicks' per day. No way. I've been doing pay per click since 2006 and know my area. There is no way that could have happened unless they were from other zip codes or multiple clicks or robot clicks. Also there was only 1 click to my website out of the 260 or so clicks till I maxed out. That is a terrible click through ratio that almost seems impossible especially compared to other listing services I use.
Something isn't right. I asked them for data as to where the zip codes that provided those clicks are coming from (should be easy right!). Nope they cannot do it. Now that I blocked them from being able to charge my credit card they are threatening me with a collection agency. CityGrid is a company with little integrity in my opinion.

ComplaintsBoard
M
2:03 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Citysearch.com Unethical Business Practice, Scams, Fraud, Racism

Citysearch the online business directory owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, is also an affiliate of Merchant Circle and are based in California and listed in the NYSE as IAC.
I will explain in as much detail as possible of how Citysearch.com promotes a Pay-per click scam and perpetuates racism through their website.

“Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (a common name for Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) is a landmark piece of Internet legislation in the United States, codified at 47 U.S.C. § 230. Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by others:

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

How the Scam works:

If you have registered as a business, let’s say [Atlanta, Georgia] your information becomes part of a public record. What companies like Citysearch.com do is list that information on their web site or you can list it yourself. The fact is that anyone can list a business on Citysearch.com .Once your listing appears you have a good chance of being found by someone who is looking for your type of business.
Read the following:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) September 13, 2009 --
City Search city guides is a popular online Internet service
that Internet surfers use to locate services across the United States, but lately City Search has come under scrutiny for its deceptive scam marketing practices, and as a result, consumers are filing complaints and class action lawsuits against City Search to bring consumer awareness to the deceptive business practices of this company.

This is what one customer’s complaint has to say about City Search, “I am a restaurant owner starting a class action lawsuit against CitySearch.com,
City Search Facing Class Action Lawsuits by Business Customers

I have had fake reviews posted by an anonymous reviewer signing up under multiple names and writing completely fabricated reviews in violation of CitySearch Terms of Use. CitySearch is aware of the problem and ignores it because their policy is to NOT PROVIDE SERVICE TO ANY RESTAURANTS THAT DO NOT ADVERTISE WITH THEM
I actually have internal CitySearch correspondence stating they won't fix the problem unless I advertise and that they do not even review complaints unless you buy advertising from them. The Salesman then goes and uses the problems to blackmail restaurants into buying services. AGAIN I HAVE SPECIFIC WRITTEN INTERNAL DOCUMENTATION detailing their predatory and unethical policies AND ILLEGAL POLICIES. If you have any similar complaints please email me at [protected]@aol.com.”

The Scam:
I currently have Google analytics attached to my website. I have been paying attention over the past few months, since becoming a City Search customer, that I am not getting any "bang for my buck" so to speak. I have been paying over $350 each month and have yet to see any significant clicking to my website. Even the Google cpc, which I understand comes from my City Search account, from June 20 through July 20 is only up to 15 clicks. I can easily get that through Google paying for the advertising myself and it wouldn't cost me anywhere near what I'm paying City Search.

Clicks from City Search since May 1, 2009... Zero. I find it difficult to believe that 900 people are looking at my City Search account every month and not 1 clicked through to find out more information from my website. The simple law of averages state's that's just not possible. If any one of these people were actual customers looking for a Hypnotherapist in their area, I'm sure at least 1 would want more information.

While I understand that I signed up for 6 months of service, I don't feel that I am getting what I have been paying for. I would like to find out if there is any way that I can cancel my account without the cancellation fee's as I feel that your company has not lived up to their end of the contract and I've already payed more than enough money for a service that has no real value to me or my company. I'm beginning to think that the only people clicking on the City Search page you set up for me are the one's who your company calls trying to scam into the same deal that I feel I was scammed into.

Here’s the link the original complaint:

http://www.complaints.com/2008/august/27/Citysearch_is_a_scam_and_employees_very_unprofess_183082.htm

How would a racist would use this site to promote discriminatory behavior against minority businesses in their community?
First let’s ask the question, does racism exist?
The main reason why we have racism is because people want to have a sense of power and privilege over another group. Everyone wants to be able to have power and in order to have power you must defeat or overpower others. This is why there is racism. “Racism is the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of one group of people by another based on racial heritage.”
Today in the modern day South or the “New South” as it being called still has the racial prejudices common to their regions at that time of the “Old ‘Jim Crow’ South” but also deeply rooted Bible belt notions of public rectitude.

How does the discrimination occur?

Let’s say someone came into your business or contacted you to purchase a product or service. If for some reason they did not like you the typical response is to post their concerns on the internet. In our research we discovered that minority business owners were more likely to receive 2-3 times as many negative reviews about 20% versus non-minority business who received less than 5% negative reviews on different web sites around Atlanta, Georgia using a mix of various business types.
Many of the negative reviews written against minority businesses contain prejudicial and inflammatory statements that enforce mistrust, suspicion i.e., “Watch Out, Who do trust? or, I would use a more established firm” and others.
The negative reviews posted are in the context of personal attacks and do not give the reader a true experience of the business and go unchecked by Citysearch who promotes this type of behavior in order to sell its Pay-Per Click Program.
I hope that this information has been helpful and informative

We welcome your comments.

Read full review of Citysearch.com
Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
C
10:53 am EDT

Citysearch.com Poor service and illegal activity

Below you will find a copy of two emails that I sent to CitySearch. The first on July 21, 2008 and the second August 27, 2008. The two together explain just how horrific their services are and what an incredible scam their advertising is. [Some names and phone numbers were withheld in this complaint copy]

Email sent July 21, 2008.

Hi Michael,

I currently have google analytics attached to my website. I have been paying attention over the past few months, since becoming a City Search customer, that I am not getting any "bang for my buck" so to speak. I have been paying over $350 each month and have yet to see any significant clicking to my website. Even the google cpc, which I understand comes from my City Search account, from June 20 through July 20 is only up to 15 clicks. I can easily get that through google paying for the advertising myself and it wouldn't cost me anywhere near what I'm paying City Search.

Clicks from City Search since May 1, 2009... Zero. I find it difficult to believe that 900 people are looking at my City Search account every month and not 1 clicked through to find out more information from my website. The simple law of averages state's that's just not possible. If any one of these people were actual customers looking for a Hypnotherapist in their area, I'm sure at least 1 would want more information.

While I understand that I signed up for 6 months of service, I don't feel that I am getting what I have been paying for. I would like to find out if there is any way that I can cancel my account without the cancellation fee's as I feel that your company has not lived up to their end of the contract and I've already payed more than enough money for a service that has no real value to me or my company. I'm beginning to think that the only people clicking on the City Search page you set up for me are the one's who your company calls trying to scam into the same deal that I feel I was scammed into.

Please understand, that I am not saying any of this with anger, as I know that it's hard to put a "tone" to words typed on the computer. I would simply like to go our separate ways. Please call me at [number here] at your earliest convenience to resolve this matter without involving my lawyer and having a big investigation into the practices of your company. Thank you for your time.

C.J. Cantrell

Copy of email sent to the President of the company on August 27, 2008

Dear Mr. Herrati,

My name is Candy Cantrell and I was a customer of CitySearch for a few months. I found the service to be poor and not at all useful for my business. I tried on numerous occasions to reach Michael Goggins, the rep in charge of my account by phone in early July with no response to cancel my account. On July 21, 2008 I sent him an email, with still no response. On the 24th of July I finally called the other number for CitySearch customer service and spoke with someone (you have record of the phone conversation) who's name I cannot find. At that time he offered me 2 free months of service but I opted to simply cancel the account instead. At that time he told me that the account was canceled and that I would no longer be charged. I logged on to my account a couple of days later to make sure that my account was, in fact, canceled and found that it had been. At some point, someone in your company illegally opened again without my permission or even informing me of this activity.

On August 15, 2008 at 9:15am, which I still have saved in my voicemail, Michael Goggins called me. I tried calling him back 2 or 3 times with no return call back. I assumed the matter was resolved, until August 25, 2008 when I went to get new tires on my car. At that time I was told that my card was declined. I called my roommate, [name here], and asked him to look at my account and tell me what had happened because as far as I knew, there was plenty of money in my account to cover that $185 purchase. He said that there was a hold placed on my account from your company in the amount of $264.65.

At this time it was about 6pm EST and I tried to call CitySearch to resolve this matter. I was transferred over and over, placed on hold, hung up on while on hold, sent to the wrong departments and so on. I called on both my personal and business cell phone for an hour and was given the run-around by everyone that I spoke with until, conveniently, you were closed at 7pm EST. I just cannot even begin to tell you how disappointed, but not at all surprised after the poor service I had received in the past, at the complete lack of professionalism and customer service from your employees.

I called the bank to dispute the charges and there was nothing they could do until the transaction had gone through because at that time it was just a hold placed on the account. I was stuck at the tire place, embarrassed, with no way to pay for my new tires even though I had, until your company illegally withdrew the money from my account, the funds to cover that important purchase.

The next day, August 26, 2008, I called again and spoke with a man named Ray. As you can imagine, I was understandably not the most pleasant person and will freely admit that. I wanted to have my money back. He asked me to forward the email that I had sent to Michael Goggins on July 21st to him, which I did. At that time he offered as a "courtesy" to refund me only $200 of the $264.65 that was withdrawn stating that I would only be refunded the amount from July 21 (the date of the email). This was unacceptable after everything that I had already gone through, and the fact that I was told by a representative of your company that I would no longer be charged, so I asked to speak with a supervisor.

I spoke with Joyce Marshal and she stated that she would listen to the phone conversation from July 24, 2008 and get back to me between 3:00pm and 4:30pm on August 26. I informed her that after 4:30pm I would be in session with clients and would not be available. She did not call me back until 6:05pm at which time, as I had previously stated, I would not be available. I did not get out of sessions with my clients until 8pm at which time your company was closed.

This morning, after my first client, I again called Joyce Marshal and was again only offered a refund for the amount after July 21, 2008. She stated that she listened to the phone conversation and that the man I spoke with on the 24th did not say that I would not be charged. This is wrong. I know what I heard, and I specifically asked him if I was to expect any more charges because I need to be able to keep up on the money coming in and out of my business. I am not a stupid person, and I make my living as a hypnotherapist listening to people and taking down every detail. I know what I heard.

This is my last resort before contacting my attorney and the BBB and any other association that I can find. I am not, at this time, asking for compensation for the fact that my account was illegally opened again after I had canceled it, I am not asking for compensation for the fact that I was completely humiliated when I went to make a purchase with my hard-earned money, I am not asking for compensation for the run-around and frustration that I have endured since this illegal transaction took place, or the hours upon hours I have spent trying to resolve this matter. I am also not, as of yet, asking for compensation for the physical and emotional toll that this stress has taken on me. All I am asking for is my $264.65 to be deposited back into my account by end of business day today. If this matter is not resolved today, you will leave me no other choice but to seek legal assistance which will end up costing your company a lot more that the additional $64.65 that I am asking to be returned to me.

I can be reached until 4:30pm EST at [number here] at which time I will, again, be in session with clients as they, and my business, are first priority. After all of the unprofessional, poor service I have already received, I certainly hope that as president of the company you can show your employees what good customer service really is.

C.J. Cantrell.

Read full review of Citysearch.com and 10 comments
Hide full review
10 comments
Add a comment
D
D
Dorothy Gayle
, US
Dec 09, 2015 2:55 pm EST

Bills Friendly Auto Service has a website. Under it is a long list of other review site for his company, sponsored by your company as well. Look at
Bill's Friendly Auto service/Complaintboard.com. They knew it had to be posted. You do not want to be associated with someone involved in possible identity theft. All companies associated with him will be investigated if something is compromised. MALICIOUS WEBATTACK

R
R
Rokka
, US
Aug 21, 2012 1:06 pm EDT

I wouldn't do business with them, I learned the hard way.

A
A
Alaskan-1
Seminole, US
Oct 13, 2012 1:30 pm EDT

So much I could write you a book... But, read closely there agreement you have to sign even to try to change wrong information they post. That tells you miles..

G
G
German Sanchez
San Ysidro, US
Oct 05, 2012 8:57 pm EDT

Criticism

In 2005, Citysearch was criticized by a blogger for their alleged inflation[7] of user submitted ratings and reviews. Citysearch has since updated their ratings system. Citysearch has also stated that they have the right to refuse to post or to remove any user review that violates the terms of use. Reviews that are subject to removal include unacceptable content such as profanity, personal information, promotion of illegal activity and harmful content.[8] In November 2007, Citysearch partnered with MerchantCircle [9], a company that conducts automated telemarketing to small businesses to sell them online advertising packages.
Users have criticized Citysearch for deleting and censoring genuine reviews, but taking little to no action against fake reviews.
After registering, Citysearch offers no apparent option for closing one's account.

L
L
Logical Sense
San Antonio, US
Aug 21, 2012 1:17 pm EDT

Yeah, geez, what kind of complaint is that, we want the juicy details!

J
J
jerrigger
Portland, US
Feb 12, 2010 12:23 pm EST

I agree strongly with all of the above complaints. I've done business with CitySearch for more than 6 months and can no longer stand the rip off. I only wish I had quit them earlier. I too have been following the clicks to my website using Google Anaylitics. The clicks originating from CS cost me nearly $100 per click compared with about $2 per click through Adwords. The stats provided by CitySearch show all kinds of activity to my CS page (about $500 per month), but, somehow only 5 customers have been serious enough to click through to my website. Ridiculous. As a comparision, I get almost 10 clicks per month from industry specific directories for merely $15 to $20 per month. I also get many clicks from free directories, such as uscity.net and others. I could go on. Don't trust CitySearch.

M
M
Marcie Judelson
San Francisco, US
Oct 04, 2009 5:22 pm EDT

IF ANYONE HAS INITIATED A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST CITY SEARCH, LET ME KNOW.
I HAVE HAD SIMILAR EXPERIENCES TO THE ONES LISTED, ABOVE.
IN SHORT, I BELIEVE CITY SEARCH IS OPERATING A SCAM.

Marcie Judelson
[protected]

marciejudelson@comcast.net

J
J
John Doe
Salt Lake City, US
Aug 19, 2009 3:23 pm EDT

They just did the same thing to me today... Charging me 255 even though I closed my account on the 27th of last month and my normal charges were about 25.00 a day

Mike Hale
ClickStart
[protected]

C
C
citysearch revealed
,
Sep 19, 2008 9:44 pm EDT

Folks. Here's how CitySearch rips you off...

Let's say you own a dress shop in Chicago and you only serve the Chicago market. You contact CitySearch and setup a listing/profile page for your shop to be listed on CitySearch's "Chicago" directory because that's the market you serve. You give them a budget and guess what, you quickly receive enough visitors to your profile page to max out your monthly budget! It doesn't seem to matter how high or low your budget, somehow you get enough clicks to max it out. How can this be? Gee golly how can your little dress business get so many hits? Especially when you don't see an increase in business on your end. No phone calls, no emails, no big jump in visitors to your own web site, virtually nothing.

The answer?... drum roll please ...

When you sign up for a listing for your "Chicago" business to be posted on their "Chicago" focused pages, you think that's all you get, right? Heck no. It turns out they also bury on their site dozens of additional links for your business. They post these buried links on pages that are devoted to other cities/markets. So, they list you in Chicago as expected. But they also place listings/links for your business on their pages for Atlanta, and Los Angeles, and Houston, and New York, and San Diego, and St. Louis, and so on. Each of these additional listings or links automatically "redirect" to your “Chicago” profile page when they are visited or "clicked" ... once clicked, presto! You are charged for the visit to your profile page. Remberber, CitySearch charges you when someone (or something) lands on your profile page, not on your own web site.

Now, these links are quite buried so no actual person will find them in a normal search. So who finds them? Search engine spiders do.

There are thousands of them out there that race around the web day and night. They follow every link they can find no matter how buried the link may be. These automated spiders are used by firms like Google, or Yahoo, or lesser known search engines to catalogue the entire web. Anyway, when you have dozens of links plastered all over CitySearch’s site you’re gonna get “hit” by these spiders and then get charged by CitySearch.

How can you verify what I'm saying? How can you tell if CitySearch has listed your firm on dozens of pages that have nothing to do with your geographic market? Simple. Do a Google search that contains two terms. 1) Your company name (it helps if your company name is fairly unique) and 2) the word CitySearch. What you’ll find are links to your paid listing in the city you chose, but also dozens of other listings in random cities around the country. Google may determine many of these listings are very similar and post the following text at the bottom of their search results list: “In order to show you the most relevant results, we (Google) have omitted some entries very similar to the (#) already displayed. If you like, you can (link starts here) repeat the search with the omitted results included.” Press that link and you’ll see all the additional links CitySearch has posted. Links that you did not request and that do not apply to your business’ geographic territory (assuming you are a small or mid-sized company with a regional focus). Press any of those additional CitySearch links, say the Atlanta link, and it will automatically forward to your Chicago profile page. Congratulations, you just charged youself for a visit!

In addition to the links on dozens of CitySearch City pages that are unrelated to your business market/geography, they give your info to “partners” who post links to your profile page on their web sites. Some of these will not be geography specific either. But CitySearch doesn’t care. What they want are as many links to your profile page as possible. More links means more clicks (even clicks by spiders). More clicks means they make more money. Simple as that.

Anyway, there’s a good reason why they create “profile” pages for you and charge you when the “profile” page is selected. I mean, wouldn’t it be better if they sent people directly to your website instead? After all, you’ve likely invested a lot of time and money on your site to communicate your brand, what you sell, etc. Do you really need a profile page with your address and contact info? That’s already on your own site! What gives here?

The reason they and others like Yellowpages use "profile pages" is so you cannot see and monitor in detail the click activity for that profile page. They control the page, they control the server, they control the data. All you get from them are crude visitor reports. If they charged you when people clicked directly to your actual web site then you would be able to monitor the activity in great detail. How so? Well, if you have a decent web analytics program you could see what time of day the clicks occur on your site. If a lot of the clicks occur between midnight and 5 a.m. there’s a huge chance the clicks are not human, rather they are spider activated. Or worse they are activated by humans who are overseas and paid pennies to click on sites like yours to raise the click count. Here’s another thing you can check with a good analytic program …. How long are the visitors on your site? If a lot of the visits are less than 1 second then you know the visit was by a spider. They come and go within milliseconds and show up on most analytic programs as a 0 second or 1 second visit. Again, you can only monitor this sort of stuff on your own site with a tool like Google Analytics (a free program). But since you are charged for clicks on your CitySearch profile page, you are at their mercy when it comes to reporting. And all they share with you are raw visits or something like that. And as I’ve discussed you have no way of knowing who or what caused those visits, when they occured, and so on. I have talked with CitySearch's click fraud team (the foxes that guard the hen house) in the past and demanded more detailed reports. I was promised them but was also told that they would take weeks to produce. Did they ever send them? No. They never called back. They never sent the reports. I can't say I was surprised.

In closing, I see someone has initiated a class-action lawsuit against CitySearch. I wish them luck.

T
T
Todd Klein
,
Sep 12, 2008 12:48 pm EDT

I am a restaurant owner starting a class action lawsuit against CitySearch.com. I have had fake reviews posted by an anonymous reviewer signing up under multiple names and writing completely fabricated reviews in violation of CitySearch Terms of Use. CitySearch is aware of the problem and ignors it because their policy is to NOT PROVIDE SERVICE TO ANY RESTAURANTS THAT DO NOT ADVERTISE WITH THEM. I actually have internal CitySearch correspondence stating they won't fix the problem unless I advertise and that they do not even review complaints unless you buy advertising from them. The Salesman then go and use the problems to blackmail restaurants into buying services. AGAIN I HAVE SPECIFIC WRITTEN INTERNAL DOCUMENTATION detailing their predatory and unethical policies AND ILLEGAL POLICIES. If you have any similar complaints please email me at itk@aol.com.

Elevating the Voice of the Consumer

Empowering Real Complaints

At ComplaintsBoard, we understand the impact of genuine consumer grievances. Our platform is a dedicated space for authentic voices, where complaints, both positive and negative, are shared with honesty and transparency.

Dedicated to Validating Complaints

We are committed to ensuring the authenticity of every complaint. Our team uses rigorous verification methods to confirm that each complaint stems from a real customer experience, maintaining the integrity of our platform.

Encouraging Detailed Complaint Narratives

We value complaints accompanied by concrete evidence. Be it a photo, a detailed narrative, or additional documentation, such substantiation lends credibility to your complaint, aiding others in making informed decisions.

Balanced and Constructive Dialogue

ComplaintsBoard is more than a platform for airing grievances; it's a community where balanced dialogue is encouraged. We welcome complaints that not only point out issues but also recognize any positive interactions, promoting a fair and comprehensive perspective.

A Free and Impartial Platform for Complaints

Our unwavering commitment is to provide a free and unbiased platform for all complaints. Every complaint is given equal importance, ensuring your concerns are heard and respected, irrespective of their nature.