Manta Media review: Unethical business practices 75

Manta is ###

I think we should start a class action lawsuit to sue Manta for slander. The information that they have for my company is inaccurate and as many of you have commented they are impossible to contact.

Manta has blocked me from their website, so I have to use a computer with another IP address [ or take my laptop to Starbucks]. I am trying to delete an old corporate name and an old address where I worked. Personally I would like them to remove everything about me from their site, my name and my two corporate ID's.
If anyone is doing a class action lawsuit, COUNT ME IN!

Judith Volpe MD drjudithvolpe@yahoo.com

I just googled myself and found my home address and phone number listed as a "business" on the Manta site! This is a huge invasion of privacy and horribly unethical! How did this even happen and how do I get my stuff removed from this site?

I am on hold waiting to cancel my Manta account. Made the mistake of taking on Premium listing. Deluged by scam calls immediately. Took my phone number off the listing which helped. But in trying to build my product pages I am forced to login in constantly, losing what I wrote or uploaded constantly. Started a help message the day I joined. It is Thursday (six days) and one message came back for me to try another browser or delete history. I have had no assistance after three calls and seven emails. They are that behind in customer service. I think they take three hour lunch breaks from 11 - 2 then mosey back top their desks by 3, home at 4.

I did not really know what Manta was about until today. They hype this is getting a good jump on Google, which I could use, who couldn't. But now I see why. Only hoping all the updates I have just made to my account will hold and it will ring more pro than it did when Manta had it listed as superficial info and no income. Fortunately my customers are looking for liquid fertilizers and organic fertilizers instead of me.

I think Manta needs a few major lawsuits.

the same has happen to my co. if there is a lawyer willing to file class action suit i am will to be the first to join.

This scammer site put my personal info on the internet. I did not approve this. They do not answer phone number listed on site and have not answered my email. They make money listing my personal information. they have ads all over the site. i don't sell anything.

I cant get to the customer help line. i found some one who works there. call him if you need help

Rueben Yao - [protected]

I want to unsubscribe. It should be so simple. An online "click this box" kind of thing. But No. I have to call a number, be put on hold; Eventually leave a call-back number...and then wait. So far maybe 5 x hours? No call yet.
But in the meantime I do get a call from Citibank to tell me my card has been hacked and I apparently spent $1500 dollars on camera equipment in E. Europe...hmm.
To be clear Mantta is most certainly NOT the only supplier I've used this card with, and I am discussing their security protocols with with the other two vendors. However - I would not only like to be free of Manta - as soon as my current contract runs out - and now it does seem that my fraudulent card transactions, and deceased card may make tthat easier than their ridiculous customer service approach. Something very wrong here. Manta - wake up. Get your act together...and yes, please remove me.
.

Manta is clearly a "Criminal Entity" that needs to be taken down.

I sent an email to customer service complaining about their practices and junk mail.
I got a response two (2) business days later, which is nothing more than their usual canned response that one cannot get help from.

Within two (2) business days the junk mail has literally double, all Manta related!

The email that I use was created for business activity so as to separate from customer activity. I have it attached to not less than 50 vendors and did not have junk mail filling my inbox (including TigerDirect) until I "inadvertently" got involved with Manta. Now I get not less than 20 scam mails a day all Manta related.

Well, I have a bit of a different complaint. I was on RV Trader looking for an RV. The name of a company Simon's Trucks, LLC in Victoria TX was the seller. So I google searched the company name and found that it was listed under Manta and it had been check marked as a company verified by Manta. Well, I guess they didn't really "verify" because the company wasn't listed at that address, as a matter of fact, there is no company...and I ended up getting scammed out of 35, 000 when my RV inspector went out there and there was "NO BUSINESS." I am looking into file litigation against Manta for representing that there was a business at this address. Notice the "LLC" in the name, if they just would have called Texas Dept of Corporations, like I did, they would have learned there is NO LISTING for a Simon's Trucks LLC thru the State of TX. SHAME ON YOU Manta for leading consumers on to believe a business is there when you haven't even checked and this business is scamming hundreds of people out of millions of dollars. I will definitely be talking to a lawyer about this one!

If Manta is publishing incorrect and/or outdated information which hurts your business or your personal reputation / life, call an attorney! If Manta's listings are obviously outdated or inaccurate (though no fault of your own if you did not submit anything to them in the first place!), yet they are publishing this inaccurate and/or outdated information that hurts your business or your personal reputation, then by all means contact an attorney and see what your rights are! If your attorney says you have a lawsuit, then proceed as you wish and / or as you are advised! From what I can see, these guys make no effort to call you on the phone to tell whether the information they publish is accurate -- they just publish from whatever source they are pulling this info from, regardless of whether you want a Manta listing or not -- more like they are a self-appointed yellow pages that pushes themselves to the top of the google pile with no input from the many many of the businesses they "list" (without any direct input from the businesses themselves!). Maybe they think they can just do this because "they say so". Maybe they can? Call your attorney and find out! But Maybe when they publish inaccurate and/or outdated info about a business, without even taking a minute to call that business for permission, they might wind up damaging your business? If that is the case, call an attorney! Protect yourself! Protect your business!

Pamela Springer the CEO has a Facebook and Twitter. I suggest telling her directly the displeasure with her company. You can also find the personal addresses and phone numbers of the other executives (I did manage to find one and it's not the CFO) and call them. See how they like selective information being visible to the general public. I will not post the private number here, but if you want it, post below and I will send it to you if I check back.

If they were about helping small businesses, they'd make it easy for businesses to opt-out of their directory, not force-feed you to claim your business on their site.

Can we get together and file a class action suit against them? Other websites will remove your listing with just an email address. This site FORCES you to "claim" your business and make it difficult for a business to remove its listing. That is HARASSMENT, not to mention all the EMOTIONAL DISTRESS their site causes in making you worry and spend time getting yourself removed. They post information that is not safe and sometimes hurts businesses and individuals albeit so-called info that is "public" - that is NOT ALWAYS TRUE that it's public record. I am for transparency but not at this level, esp. not for small businesses like home businesses, particularly when they list someone's home address, their income, their number of employees, etc. These websites should be prevented from making such information readily available, but that is another issue. This website is the worse of them all because they make it harder than others to remove yourself.

I recommend that you DO NOT CLAIM your business as a first method of getting yourself removed, as that gives them more power because now you are using their product and must abide by their terms and conditions. Not only that, you would be helping their business to propagate by increasing their number of user accounts. DO try the number I see others have posted on this site and see how far that goes.

To help redress the situation, you can also (in no particular order) -
1. File a complaint with the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
2. Request removal from Google, esp. Cached content of already removed pages: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1663688
3. Another not-so-great alternative: Report to the BBB (a company that is sketchy in itself).
4. Call the CFO at his phone number at 1 am like someone suggested.
5. Call your local news and tell them your story, granted you'll appear on wider media, but the damage is already done anyways.

Hello,
Were you able to reach a CSR to have your information removed? If not, please let us know and we will gladly help you out. The representatives are available Monday-Friday 9am-6pm EST at the number you have listed above.
Best,
Karen

Manta may be a mixed bag. I got two potential customer calls only because Manta put me in the wrong category. Unfortunately I have had to lay my company to rest. Thanks to your info I sent a quick, simple email to help@manta.com asking to be removed.
I got a long (too long to post here) response that had nothing to do with removal but told me how to CLAIM my listing. So tomorrow I'll call Robert Harrington, Customer Success Representative @ [protected] Option 1 to discuss removal.
Wish me luck.

It's great the internet opens up all kinds of things about everything. Manta helps make the world more transparent. I am in favor of Manta and it's great for me to know what size of company I am dealing with. Sure some of the records might not be 100% accurate, but it gives me a good starting point.
What we need next is a website that shows criminal records. This would make more people honest as no one would want to steal in fear that their information would be posted for the world to see.
Do you want to go back to a world without infinite knowledge, before the internet?

Manta is publishing a profile in a fashion that represents that they are the business owner. This practice is outrageous. Manta is not like other social websites - they put together and publish a profile WITHOUT the permission of the business owner(s). On the other hand, Manta is like other social websites were there is little truth to the information.

DO NOT advertise with this company! After a year of advertising with this company I have not gotten one customer through them! My Company has not even been listed through any search engines. The only place you get listed is on Mantas listing only.
I have tried to cancell billing with them, and you cannot get through to them, not do they return calls, or emails. Your better off advertising with Google, or Yahoo!

I recently had a hearing for disability and the judge told my lawyer about me being listed on Manta. I never had a business. Of course all of my personal information is listed. I can not believe the b/s I am probably going to have to go through to fix this. I will talk to my lawyer on what other legal action I will be able to take against them.

George, I'm gonna be calling!

I had someone leave a message on my home phone today telling me that they couldn't find my business and to call them because they wanted to purchase some of my goods. When I heard the message, I called them back and explained that listing must have been a mistake. I googled my name and there it was. I own a business that generates $43, 000/yr with 1 employee. Yowsers! Thanks to this website, I will call them in the morning to remove my personal information. This is some BS!

When you decide Manta is not the devil, and you want to get more traffic to your website, give it a try. Watch your list of "referring sites" in your website analytics and I bet you will see some new traffic coming from people who found you on Manta. I make sure all my clients "claim" their business on Manta. (They want to be found online). They do seem to get a few telemarketing calls, but that happens when they advertise in the paper as well.

Ok. I have to cool off now. The profile that infurated me has been promptly removed. I just had to ask. That's a relief.

OK. Sent them an email. Got the below response. I'll see if thefollow through ou the promise to remove the profile.

Hello Darrell,

Thank you for your email. The company profile has been removed from Manta.com. Search engines such as Google routinely visit web pages and remove unusable search result listings from their pages on the World Wide Web. It may take a few weeks before a listing is removed from a search result page on the Internet

If you have any additional questions or concerns feel free to contact us so that we may be of assistance.

Best regards,

This "manta" company is evil. I do not even own a business but here is my cell phone number which is published publicly NO WHERE else along with my income and my home address. I'm going to email my congressman.

On behalf of Manta, I'm sorry to hear that many of you feel angry or upset with our organization. Our intention is to help small businesses succeed by providing a place for business owners to advertise their companies, find business related resources and a place to network with other small business owners. It sounds like most of you have concerns with the data we post on our site. Here is some insight on how basic company information is collected on Manta: The basic company information on Manta is collected by third-party publishers through multiple sources, including public company financials and trade records; public records such as business registrations and government registries.

Sometimes new business owners register their business under their personal contact information because they don't have another place of business established yet. When we receive the information we have no way of knowing if the business owner has listed their home address or business address. This, among many other reasons, is why we allow business owners to claim their profile on our website. We want you to have control over your business brand and the information you share with the general public. We also want to have accurate data on our site, so if you find your company information is incorrect or inaccurate please let us know by calling [protected], option 1 or emailing us at help@manta.com.

Thanks for voicing your concerns. We appreciate any and all feedback from our customers.

Sincerely,
Anna with Manta

Pamela Springer is the President & CEO, Manta. I am very, very skeptical of Manta. I 'unsubscribed' a number of times over the past several weeks, yet continue to be bombarded by their unwanted and unsolicited junk mail. By their own admission on this site, their phone number is clearly listed on the Contact Us page. This is a lie. It is not. Here is the (current) number however - [protected].

My rule is that I don't do business with any company that does not prominently display their phone number. Otherwise they have something to hide.

You can write to President and CEO Pam Springer at 8760 Orion Place Columbus, OH 43240 and tell her to quit posting your information. Its hard to see where Mantra adds any value.

Manta.com or D&B somehow thought that a blog post I made complaining about a company I had ordered a product from made me the owner of that company. So now I'm getting calls to my cell phone in 6am. I have "claimed" my "company listing" and removed my cell and home address. But it's obvious that Manta's business process is horribly broken and mangled. As should whoever came up with this idiotic idea.

I'm a construction worker who was looking for companies to call. I thought I had found a goldmine with Manta. (Look at all these companies to call!) I wasted two hours writing down companies, the cities they were in and their phone numbers. After calling them all I got was annoyed private residences and businesses who had nothing to do with who I thought I was calling. These "companies" can only be found on Manta's other fake sites: merchantspan, yellowpages, yellowpagesgoesgreen, constructionwork, etc. Is this illegal?

Yes, they have a legal right to information that's part of the public record.

But it's idiotic for Manta to post the home addresses of independent artists and other private individuals who are required by the state to hold various business licenses. It would make better sense for them to limit themselves to storefronts and other locations that are open to the public.

It's also idiotic for them to post info without confirming it with the business owner for accuracy, and to post business info without even letting the business owners know so we can correct inaccuracies.

And it's idiotic for them to leave out-of-date info on the site for all eternity, and never make any effort to update it.

They could have made it their goal to post current and accurate business information for the benefit of the consumer, with the consent of business owners. Then business owners would have been willing and enthusiastic partners, and consumers would have a source of accurate and appropriate information.

But that would have involved work. ;oP

I can understand you like your privacy, we all do. However think about it a moment. First, they are simply compiling information provided by the state, by businesses that youve done business with, and from databases already available on the internet. They put it into one convenient place so that people can search for a business type, or a business by name. Yes occasionally mistakes will happen (though since manta isnt creating the information, they really are not the ones to be bad at. Blame google, or your state commerce department, or anyone) Like here in Minnesota the state commerce department is clear that business owners havent a right to privacy in regards to some information. As a consumer, I use manta to see who I am doing business with, and yes I WONT do business that claims they make millions but really makes what a 'mom&pop' would like one poster said, not because you make that little but because your a fraud who cant be honest with your clients in your image. As a business man who's sole source of income is new clients, I use manta to generate prospects. And all this FTC nonsense, since publishing information thats public record, and not priviledged in any way isnt against the law, the FTC will worry about real issues.

I closed my business in 2006. The information on Manta.com still has my business listed as in operation. The information being posted about my business on Manta, profits them by selling the Dunn and Bradstreet reports to my potential customers who are interested in my business and think I still am in business.
I have contacted the attorney general about this and they suggest I get an attorney. All I ask of manta is to take my ad off their website and return any monies that my potential customers have spent on their website. It is Fraud if Manta is using my potential customers to make money. If I don't get a response from Manta, I WILL copy this to the FTC and to my attorney.

It's idiotic for them to post private residents, such as apartment buildings, in the case of those who work at home. That could be dangerous for those who have been victims of stalking or abuse in the past, and as a result have chosen not to list their residences in the local phone book.

And it's even more dangerous as well as just plain inconsiderate because we're not told that our home addresses are being listed on the site... let alone ~asked~ if we want our home addresses listed on the site, as well as whether we want the listing and whether our information is correct, which would be the considerate way of doing business. (Businesses do typically welcome free publicity, after all.)

And then they don't update the listings. They listed my business address as an apartment I moved out of half a dozen years ago, so I had to go in and "claim" the listing in order to update it... when I accidentally discovered that I was listed there. The way they operate is very unprofessional.

And apparently the telemarketers who use Manta as a way of targeting businesses don't bother reading the listings, otherwise they would know that I (Cicada Art Jewelry) don't have a storefront and therefore don't need to buy products and services that a storefront business would need.

All the information posted is public from the state you file your business in. Not sure how that is private information. You provide it to the state yourself. This goes fall all sites that have information about you. Info123, InfoUSA, ReferenceUSA, etc.

Manta.com is a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet. Contact them directly, and then also http://allbusiness.com, and one other site. I don't recall which one it is, but it is also a D&B company. Be nice, but if they give you ANY grief, you can file a report with the FTC and at http://ic3.gov. AND feel free to inform them that you are or will have done so if your info is not immediately removed. I would do this first anyway, just for the careless nature of how they publish their information. It will take a little leg work, but will make you feel a whole lot better than just posting random rants here and there.

These types of companies are purchasing lists of businesses wholesale from the state where you register your business. Sucks, huh? But, it's true. These companies might argue with you that it is merely "public" information that they are publishing, but they are doing so in a manner that can potentially jeopardize the privacy and security of many small businesses—especially when theses small businesses are home offices. Good luck, and be sure you go through all of the steps listed above. We did, and our information was removed right quick.

I just found my business listed with all totally wrong information and showing the owner as someone I have never heard of. Although, I have been getting various pieces of mail at my office addressed to this person. Not only was the name in error, the years in business were off by 24 years! I have been in business for 40 years! I also find it interesting that this company is supposedly headquartered right here in my home town. Columbus, Ohio. And I also find it interesting that the CEO lives in an apartment! Nothing wrong with that...LOL! I do Real Estate Rentals and Leasing! I will be calling them tomorrow without fail...

I just learned that I am listed as a business owner in Sebastopol, Ca. Wonder how the IRS would react to that. I am retired and have neither the business nor the income that they claim I have. I have emailed them twice, asking them, for the sake of my privacy, and accuracy in general, to please remove the listing. They won't even respond. Sites like Manta ruin the internet...they peddle lies.
I am not done with them...I WILL get that listing removed.
PaPa Vince
Sebastopol, CA

I've been asked to contact Mr. Troutman. Manta has listed several hundred business contracted to the Department of Defense. The number listed here is not valid. How do I reach someone from Manta?

Company information:
VIOLATION 4th AMENDMENT: MANTA.COM MANTA MEDIA INC
United States

Manta is in violation of 4th Amendment rights to many unknowing persons. They purchased my information from the business registrations office - incredulous. I believe it is time to congregate together and file a suit, for monies are being made on private personal information that is purchased from a third party sources. And Manta, since you have so irresponsibily listed my personal home address, if anything happens to myself or my family, Manta and affiliates will be held liable. I demand my information and profile be removed from Manta.com and Manta Media Inc immediately. Enough requesting, perhaps Monday is a good time to see just how many Constitutional Lawyers would line up, especially if we all come together.

We spend money with adsense and noticed a very disproportionate number of clicks from manta.com. Tracing these clicks back, it would seem that when they list a company they do google adsense links for "related companies" (AKA, competitors). However, nobody in their right mind would click on our company from the pages they provided. This appears to be click fraud. I.e., we pay Google to generate clicks to our site. Google is paying manta.com. Now, we have excluded them (and their partner "ecnext.com") and put it in a report and refund requiest to Google. Keywords: manta, manta.com, ecnext.com, click fraud, goole.