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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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J
9:49 pm EST

ReachLocal Adwords

I've been clear in engaging ReachLocal I will require accountability. I am paying $3,500 a month and only get customer and support calls. Every few leads. I am month 3 and asking for a accountability and we were blamed by my account manager for being difficult, not answering their calls, and overall their performance. I am really not happy. The fact I've had 3 meetings, all where shaping was promised and if anything we have got less leads and more existing customers being tracked is useless. I want my money back, a new project lead, and a better RoI. Being told we can't advertise IT services is useless. If you never could deliver a service you shouldn't have offered it.

Desired outcome: I want an accountability. You have promised leads, you owe us a credit, and you should start again. 3 months credit.

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4:07 am EDT
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ReachLocal please, never use them if you don't want to lose your money!!

Nothing positive to say. This company is a scam and you definitely should stay away from them.
They usually take the money and do nothing to deserve it. So you decide.
That's what happened to me. I know it was fraud, they stole my money and disappeared without providing me the service.
This is my first bad review against them, but not the last one. I will leave others on different websites. All I want is to warn customers (the ones you have and your future ones).

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2:53 pm EDT

ReachLocal they stole money from me and impossible to return it

I had really bad experience with the company www.reachlocal.com.au. I started my own marketing business, but within 2 years this company helped with my business as well as they stole from me. They took more percentages from me as we agreed before. I can’t return this money, and therefore I wanted to warn other people. This company is really dishonest and I hope that one day someone will close it. Share your views about it.

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12:21 am EDT
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ReachLocal ripped off $100, 000 by reach local

I was also ripped off by Reach Local. They were deceptively pocketing an additional 50% of my marketing budget for over three years. This was $100, 000 plus in advertising I never received. I like ever single client I have ever spoken to believed I was paying only 10% total not 60%.

I am now getting it back with interest, it might prove to be the best thing to have happened to me. I have started a digital marketing agency that is righting the wrongs Reach Local are guilty off, by providing a transparent alternative and disclosing the real cost of their service to their customers. I have discovered how to identify each and every Reach Local client world wide current and past clients. I currently have 10, 000 and will have all 25, 000 current clients in a few months.

This is a $600, 000, 000 dollar a year business. $500, 000, 000 comes directly from sem or ppc management services. Of which $450, 000, 000 is commission that their customers have no idea they are paying. I will be happy with the $100, 000, 000 lets go get some.
I am looking for digital marketing partners who will help me call these clients and offer an honest alternative. I have been doing this in Australia with huge success. I have detailed script that works and I can walk each customer through their reach local login to show them exactly how to check how little of their advertising budget is actually going towards Google advertising costs.

Interested?

Post a comment and I will contact you.

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Beverly Wayne
, US
Aug 09, 2015 10:19 am EDT

Hey Ausguy
I am interestedin that list . i am slo aarketing agency.
Please do not hisistate to contact me.
Thank you.

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RichardT2014
, US
Nov 12, 2014 4:17 am EST

Reach Local charged me double of what I initially signed up for and this is how they treat their clients. They are never transparent too of where your marketing expenses have been spent. I would say "Never deal with Reach Local!" I found out that they pocketing over half of my marketing budget as an addition fee. I never would have used their services if I have only known this charge. You could see several companies who offers the same services for only 10% of your monthly budget. Do your own research and check Reach Local reviews on Google by ReachLocal.

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Jeana Sellenschuetter
St Charles, US
Oct 02, 2014 1:03 pm EDT
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Reach local is try to sue my company after the guy who was assigned to me quit and they left us in limbo and never did one thing they said. Then they proceeded to tell me that they will take care of everything. I talked with and met with two people in their St Louis office and said it is taken care of and not to worry. Please call me [protected]

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T
9:51 am EST
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ReachLocal online ppc campaign

It's about time Reachlocal changed their Tag Line - 'We Know Online Marketing" to "We have no clue about what Online Marketing Is'. The manner in which they set-up a Google Adword Pay Per Call campaign is itself doubtful as you never get to see the clicks on Google. They only give you their own interface in which you see impressions and calls. Amazingly, you can be charged for Zero Calls received on a particular day and the amount can be as much as £ 120/- . Our Company was shown the results of their campaigns that they had run for various other companies and we were committed a Call (enquiry) would remain around the £ 15/- mark or below. Our Call rate was hovering around £ 80 mark and when we brought it to their notice, then they somehow managed to 'optimise' the campaign and brought it down to £ 50/- mark. This is more than 3 times the committed price per call. We have escalated this issue to their Head in UK but all our mails and phone calls to them regarding our campaign have fallen on deaf ears. We have asked for a refund of £ 3600/- but they less bothered. This is a WARNING TO ALL. Reachlocal have no idea what Online Marketing is and you will only sink your money if you try to use their services. This is a SCAM as the company believes in thriving by making money while you lose yours. A very STRICT NO and an absolute thumbs down to Reachlocal.

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11:28 am EDT
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ReachLocal ReachCast / Marketing

Buyer Beware! Their sales team grossly misrepresented their ReachCast product (very expensive) which is supposed to take over and bolster your online social media. They took credit for MY work as if it was theirs, never did most of the things they sold me on, Then when I complained they "made a great exception" to their one-sided contract but refused to refund the month of NOTHING I had received. Their PPC program is poor and keep claiming my own long term customers calling me as proof of their over-priced over-sold and under performing marketing! I FIRED them and can only HOPE my competition gets duped into using them!

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11:56 pm EST
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ReachLocal awful service

"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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Merav
Newton, US
Aug 09, 2012 9:38 am EDT
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Awful!
They charge so much for clicks! 3-4 times as much as I was paying on my own. And they tell you your budget will be for a month. Except they mislead you and a month is actually a "cycle" in their contacts. Then they make your monthly budget run out faster than a month and you end up spending way more than anticipated. I want my money back and I want out!
Do not use them!

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C
5:52 pm EDT

ReachLocal anything that looks and sounds too good to be true is just that - too good to be true

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. 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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7:54 pm EDT
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ReachLocal cloned my website without permission

Reach Local cloned our hotel website in collusion with Blizzard Internet. We never authorized a mirror website and they built it anyway. The website was a replica of our website without our correct phone numbers or email. Our web traffic was diverted from our paid google ads to this clone where Reach Local was monitoring our clients and harvesting our traffic data. Worst of all Reach Local and Blizzard Internet paid each other with our ad money and the clone website didn't work. Hotel guests were unable to book rooms because the technology errored out at the credit card processing. Hundreds of hotels and resort were involved. The broken credit card processing cost each hotel in tons of lost revenue and aggravated guests. If it wasn't for the lawsuit filed by our company Blizzard Internet and Reach Local would probably still be up to their outrageous behavior.

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really bad review....
Dallas, US
May 02, 2013 4:21 pm EDT

That is really funny! You cant spell, at all. Their service works great for our company, and has for years. They have been in business for over 9 years and are still in business. They are a 1/2 billion dollar company and doing great. RLOC is their ticker symbol. They do not build "cloned" websites. All of my traffic goes to my website. And they are not affiliated with "Blizzard" internet at all. They are affiliated with a company called GOOGLE. Maybe you have heard of them.

http://www.google.com/ads/premiersmbpartner/advertisers-findpartner.html#tab=partner-reachlocal-com

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12:14 pm EDT
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ReachLocal scam artists

Why do you think it is a shame when everyone believes what they read?
I could prove that their Internet Consulting Service has a “rotten smell” on my five fingers.
I’m a businessman from Toronto. I do conduct my Google Adwards program for many years. It is so simple you could train monkey to do that. Recently I became being bomb ordered by their so called “Internet Consultants” through unauthorized calling, who were trying to promote their “gimmicks” without basic understanding what they were talking about. O.K. I told to myself maybe it’s is just a sales personal. But when I checked their own advertising program on Google Adwards I became furious how negligently they burning others businesses money (they proudly declare it as 300, 000 + campaigns), if they don’t know how to manage its own expenses. I have included two screen capturers about their own advertising programs from Google Adwords.
Anyone with a basic SEM knowledge knows that to keep Cost Per Click as much lower as possible you have to have relevant content on your directed to web page and relevant advertising copy wording. And my question: Is it not a scam to charge others for the stuff they themselves have no any glue about.
What you could see from the picture of Markup Validation Service, their directed to Web Page www.reachlocal.ca has 44 code errors and (most important) 24 code warnings. It means that Google charges them extra for their clumsy page maintenance for their own PPC program. You could go to Google Adwords Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines to find out why Google increases cost per clicks. But the previous opponent (a big possibility to be a representative from ReachLocal) who declares that:

“1st off- Reachlocal does nothing with SEO. Its SEM.
SEO and SEM are completely 2 different worlds. In no way does SEM(ppc) affect your SEO (organic/natural listings) on the page. You can contact Google directly and they will say the same thing. “

is purposely lying or once again doesn’t know what is talking about.
From next screen capture analysis even worse. Any marketing student will tell you that to find the best ad copy you need to spend 90% of your time on testing, testing and testing.
Unfortunately the screen capture shows only 8 their ads, in reality there 1, 377 same Ad Copies for different keywords that means in most cases they paid extra for non-relevancy with time frame almost 280 days per year. They vigorously were thrashing their money (how stupid it is) without any test or experiment to get a cheaper price for its own pay-per-click program. Do I have to trust them that other 300, 000 compains for other businesses are run differently and more professionally?
And the last point. Please don’t call yourself Internet Marketing Consultants if you proudly admit that you don’t do anything with SEO (organic/natural listing). I have checked 20 most searched keywords in their field and their presence was only for one keyword and it was place number 40 on Google, no presence on Yahoo or Bing at all. The most businesses, they run advertising program, have its own web sites and do I need so called “Internet Marketing Consultant” from ReachLocal who does not know how to increase my web standing organically to get traffic for free. It is like going to heart surgery specialist who admits that he does not know anything about anatomy or physiology.
By the way, why should they strive to bring more leads to your business doorstep, if their business formula is very simple: Cost pay-per-click + their markup is paid by YOU, no questions to ask.

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DR Stein&Ross
San Diego , US
Nov 07, 2009 4:08 am EST

Worst Company, had four reps in the last six months and are very uneducated and doubt the manager had a College Degree or knowledge of the internet world, cancel and kick them out they will sell you lemons and tell you it is lemonade.

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Bartely
, US
Nov 08, 2011 6:14 pm EST

ReachLocal is a total scam, this company is not good with SEM, or SEO, try someone else.

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Shajers
, US
May 29, 2011 5:52 pm EDT

ReachLocal.com is a scam! Their sales people are extremely rude, they use techniques that are absolutely ridiculous! Once you sign their contracts you will find out that what you are actually getting from them. Complete scam! Ask them how much their mark ups are and how much you are actually getting for your investment. $1 means $0.50 or less when buying your pay-per-clicks from ReachLocal.com. Do not believe or trust this company! They will knock on your door as much as they can, but they also knock on your competitions door and tell them and sell them on everything and anything they know from you. They don't shy back selling to you and all of your competition as well. They are not loyal, they are not trust worthy. They are a scam!

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Icanmakeafakesn
, US
Sep 25, 2010 1:07 am EDT

Wow sounds like you should be running your own sem firm. So you wrote a complaint and never ran with them.

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11:40 am EDT
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ReachLocal why it is a rip off

Why do you think it is a shame when everyone believes what they read?
I could prove that their Internet Consulting Service has a “rotten smell” on my five fingers.
I’m a businessman from Toronto. I do conduct my Google Adwards program for many years. It is so simple you could train monkey to do that. Recently I became being bomb ordered by their so called “Internet Consultants” through unauthorized calling, who were trying to promote their “gimmicks” without basic understanding what they were talking about. O.K. I told to myself maybe it’s is just a sales personal. But when I checked their own advertising program on Google Adwards I became furious how negligently they burning others businesses money (they proudly declare it as 300, 000 + campaigns), if they don’t know how to manage its own expenses. I have included two screen capturers about their own advertising programs from Google Adwords.
Anyone with a basic SEM knowledge knows that to keep Cost Per Click as much lower as possible you have to have relevant content on your directed to web page and relevant advertising copy wording. And my question: Is it not a scam to charge others for the stuff they themselves have no any glue about.
What you could see from the picture of Markup Validation Service, their directed to Web Page www.reachlocal.ca has 44 code errors and (most important) 24 code warnings. It means that Google charges them extra for their clumsy page maintenance for their own PPC program. You could go to Google Adwords Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines to find out why Google increases cost per clicks. But the previous opponent (a big possibility to be a representative from ReachLocal) who declares that:

“1st off- Reachlocal does nothing with SEO. Its SEM.
SEO and SEM are completely 2 different worlds. In no way does SEM(ppc) affect your SEO (organic/natural listings) on the page. You can contact Google directly and they will say the same thing. “

is purposely lying or once again doesn’t know what is talking about.
From next screen capture analysis even worse. Any marketing student will tell you that to find the best ad copy you need to spend 90% of your time on testing, testing and testing.
Unfortunately the screen capture shows only 8 their ads, in reality there 1, 377 same Ad Copies for different keywords that means in most cases they paid extra for non-relevancy with time frame almost 280 days per year. They vigorously were thrashing their money (how stupid it is) without any test or experiment to get a cheaper price for its own pay-per-click program. Do I have to trust them that other 300, 000 compains for other businesses are run differently and more professionally?
And the last point. Please don’t call yourself Internet Marketing Consultants if you proudly admit that you don’t do anything with SEO (organic/natural listing). I have checked 20 most searched keywords in their field and their presence was only for one keyword and it was place number 40 on Google, no presence on Yahoo or Bing at all. The most businesses, they run advertising program, have its own web sites and do I need so called “Internet Marketing Consultant” from ReachLocal who does not now how to increase my web standing organically to get traffic for free. It is like going to heart surgery specialist who admits that he does not know anything about anatomy or physiology.
By the way, why should they strive to bring more leads to your business doorstep, if their business formula is very simple: Cost pay-per-click + their markup is paid by YOU, no questions to ask.

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Youarenotarealbiz
, US
Sep 25, 2010 9:40 am EDT

Double post. Seems like a competitor.

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12:12 pm EDT
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ReachLocal can't perform

STAY AWAY FROM REACH LOCAL! I was running my own Google Adwords campaign for four years with with an average of 60 visits a day for my small kitchen & bath showroom. I had a visit from a Reach Local salesman that said he could also bring me Bing/Yahoo and other search engines for what I was paying for only Google. Nothing could be further from the truth, in the first 2 1/2 days I had a total of 14 visits. I immediately sent them a certified letter firing them from doing my online advertising. That was the Sept. 3 2010 and they are still running my account and won't stop and today is Sept 13 2010. They are still running about 13 visits a day how pathetic! I hope I don't have to get an attorney involved to make them stop. STAY AWAY!

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7:46 am EDT
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ReachLocal software doesn't work, scam

These guys know there software doesn't work but they keep selling it. In a meeting with them to discuss why our company was not coming up in the search engines as promised, they kept getting errors during the demonstration that was to prove their software worked. They wanted "full, unprotected" access to our server so they could "fit the problem on our end". We told them to get out! These guys are thieves. BEWARE!

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6:12 pm EDT
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ReachLocal click fraud

I tried reach local and were promised an increase in traffic to my website throue search engine marketing. I gave them a shot for 3 months and did not really get any more calls than I was getting before I tried them but all I did was spend a lot of money finding out what kind of scam these people are running. Now I am getting like 40% click fraud from this company obviously they sit around and click my website all day. Seems to me they would and could find a better way to spend their time. This is a bunch of crap. I hope that this company and their employees can sleep at night knowing what they are doing. I am setting up an online campaign with att and they have a click fraud department I hope that we can expose this company to the kind of business ethics that come from midieval times. Shame on you scam artists you will burn in hell someday. Yhere should be a law against the click fraud artists STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY THEY ARE OBVIUOSLY LOWER LIFE FORMS MORE LIKE POND ### OR LETS SAY BOTTOM FEEDERS THAT IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT

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tomdonaldmovers
Lower Gwynedd, US
Apr 27, 2010 10:40 pm EDT
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I doubt that they actually have people sitting there and clicking your ads all day. I've read around the web and have seen mixed reviews. If you ask me all of those companies are the same att, reachlocal, yodle, etc and they probably all have click fraud departments (they wouldn't have as many customers as they do unless they have it). I'm not sure att is your answer as they are good at publishing the yellow pages. It sounds like you might want to get a smaller company as I've heard they work for companies that really want to see more details about the clicks.

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6:20 pm EDT
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ReachLocal rude sales person

So this guy with "Reach Local" walked into my store and told me he could improve my SEO, online traffic etc. I asked him to email the appropriate person at my company who makes these decisions for my stores. He emailed my sales and marketing department and called me to follow up. Here's where it gets funny:

ME: Hello, thanks for calling
Reach Local Sales Person: Hey, I just wanted to follow up with you on the email I sent
ME: Sounds great, the people in my marketing department will review your email and if they find it compelling will certainly get back to you.
RLSP: Well who can I contact over there and talk to in person?
ME: They get a lot of solicitation each day and prefer all initial correspondence to be done by email for this reason, but I assure you, if they are interested in your services they will contact you.
RLSP: Well that sucks I am not a solicitor, i came into your store!
ME: I'm sorry that's just the way they prefer to handle things.
RLSP: So what the hell do I have to do write them a poem!?
ME: Ummm, I'm not sure
RLSP: This is ridiculous! I came into your store! I mean, how compelling can I be in an email!?
ME: Ummmm, okay thanks for calling.
RLSP: Yea.

I then proceeded to Google their business and big surprise came upon this, glad the guy was such a jerk before I decided to do any business with them. Sounds like this place puts a lot of pressure on its sales people.

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tellusthetruth
Jacksonville, US
Jan 13, 2011 6:45 pm EST

Actually the S1 filing states just 14, 000 client reachlocal rep, and the award your talking about much like the mashable award, was voted on by every employee at the company in order to receive the award. people were told to vote for reachlocal daily using facebook, twitter and their different emails so the votes would count as 5-6 votes from the same person, done daily. i know i was told to do it too.

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Optimistic
, US
Apr 15, 2010 8:53 am EDT

Interesting interaction, but one interaction hardly represents the bulk of an organization They must be doing something correctly to have 20, 000 clients and be ranked by Deloitte as the FASTEST GROWING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY IN THE LAST 5 YEARS.

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ReachLocal misrepresentation

I signed up for their Search Engine marketing program (pay per click) because their technology and transparency seemed very attractive. Sure, their rates were high, but if they could deliver what they said they could, it seemed worth it. What a waste of $3000 - this was the most expensive lesson I'vve learned. After touting themselves as the experts, they then went on to ask me for my list of key words I'd already been using on my own pay per click programs. They also told me I had to shut off all my other advertising I was doing online so as not to interfere with their program. What this lead to was our business phone NOT RINGING at all as they told me to be patient and let the campain ramp up. After two weeks of no results, and many missteps on their end (which they admitted to) they kept telling me to be patient. Well, after 6 weeks and hundreds of dollars and no results, and admitted mistakes on their end they refused to refund any of my money. They did let me out of my contract one week early, but this was the biggest waste of money I have spent in all of my years running a busniess. This was also the worst customer service experience I've ever seen. They actually told me, yes we made the mistakes, but no, we do not hold our people accountable for those mistakes. Unbelieveable. BEWARE!

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Merav
Newton, US
Aug 09, 2012 9:44 am EDT
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Awful! Im one week into my contract with them and im fuming. I actually started crying about it.
As a small business owner it feels horrible to be taken advantage of and That is how I feel.
I wouldnt wish Reachlocal on anyone. Even my worst enemy!

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MAM
Lehigh Valley, US
Jan 31, 2011 6:01 pm EST

whoever listed all the comments obviously works for reach local. they did the same thing to my company and they advised they only issue credits, not refunds. now where did it say that? what a scam!

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ErkHtr
tampa, US
Apr 19, 2010 7:15 pm EDT

I am reading many of these complaints and a majority of them are from the same people over and over again- competitors, or past employees. I own my own web marketing company and have used reachlocals PPC services for about 4 years- I signed on as an authorized seller back before they had a local sales force. Out of all the companies I have used, reachlocal has brought my customers the best results.

Its a shame then everyone believes what they read.

I looked up Superpages, at&t, and yodle-- and they all have awful reviews. What people need to realize it is impossible for a company to please 100% of their clientel. Its a shame that people have to go on these "complaint boards, " and try to ruin a companies reputation.

You have to ask yourself- ReachLocal is such a bad company...
Why do they have an 85% campaign renewal rate?
Why are they getting ready to go Public?
Why do they have an A+ with the BBB?
Why were they just named #1 Fastest Growing Technology Company in N America?

1st off- Reachlocal does nothing with SEO. Its SEM.
SEO and SEM are completely 2 different worlds. In no way does SEM(ppc) affect your SEO (organic/natural listings) on the page. You can contact Google directly and they will say the same thing.

-3rdly Reachlocal has over 300, 000+ campaigns running right now. You simply cannot please 100 % of your client base. For any business owner- you know this is IMPOSSIBLE. As Im sure you have experienced-- you always have that customer here that will complain and you can't please NO matter what you do.

4th - If your pay-per-click campaigns isn't getting the call volume you would like- WHY don't you take a look at your website. If you have an AWFUL website- why is anyone going to call you? You cant Blame that on ReachLocal.

5th- People talk about exoborant fees. They are a business- you are paying them for a service so you dont have to deal with the headaches of trying to set up an internet marketing campaign across 5 different search engines- then try to manage them all! The mark up is minimal.

Do you own your business to run a profit? How much did you make off of replacing that garage door spring or the bathroom remodel you did last week?

6th you have the ability to sit down with your rep and monitor your keywords at anytime. Are they going to disclose their entire keyword list? No, that is all of their hardwork. Why would they hand the entire keyword list over to you?

If all the keywords are correct and you are getting visits to your website-- HOw can you blame Reach local for customers not calling you? Fix YOur website!

I don't advise The GOOGLE adwords EXPERT to switch to reach local. You know your business better than anyone.
But if you are not a Complete expert with setting up an online presence on Google, yahoo, bing Etc then ReachLocal is the place to be. You could be wasting thousands of dollars if youre running campaigns on your own.
They are an adwords Qualified company- they have been through the google testing.

Nothing is 100% perfect, but if you have a great product and a great website- ReachLocal will do an amazing job for your company.

Reachlocal is not a perfect fit for every single business- the business model does not work for 100% of all businesses- but 85- 95% of the campaigns run very well.

If someone is Upset they run and tell 20 people. If they are happy, you'd be lucky if they told 1.
This is the sad thing - Where is the page for the 100, 000 happy customers?

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8:35 pm EST
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ReachLocal difficulty canceling

Tried for quite some time to cancel ReachLocal's service. Got the runaround, then finally learned my (then ex-) employee was being commissioned by them as their "sales agent, " when someone at ReachLocal finally said to cancel service, you need to contact _____ (my ex-employee!). Has anyone else experienced difficulty terminating their relationship with ReachLocal?
Gary Kawesch
[protected]@gmail.com

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ReachLocal scam

Don't buy the hype. Don't buy the lie. The pitch was that we woul maintain or even improve our results with our pay per click adversising. They managed to cause us to lose over $100, 000 in sales via thier "optimized system" for a $500, 000 company to lose that much is crushing for us. Now i am having to hire lawyers and fight it in court.

We are currently in a contract dispute and if i can save any companies from having to suffer like we have it will feel a little better.

They will pitch you 6 months or 12 month contracts that are total BS. The time has no bearing on the contract it is the $ amount. All of which is buried in the fine print.

THEY ARE A HUGE WASTE OF MONEY AND DO NOT DELIVER ON ANY PROMISES

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LindsayR
, AU
Nov 11, 2014 4:38 pm EST

If any Reach Local client want to know exactly how little of their advertising budget is actually being paid to Google them follow these steps:
1. Login to your account
2. On the left side of the screen you’ll see all of your options. Click the + in the REPORTS option to reveal the drop down list of sub options.
3. Click Distribution Details
4. Now click the EDIT FILTERS button to reveal drop down menu function for Campaigns, Month, Year.
5. Choose which campaign you’d like to report on, choose the time period etc
6. Click Update Report
I was sent this detail and had no idea they were taking any additionl fees from my marketing budget i believed i was paying 10% management fee only, because this is what i was sold. Liars!

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RealSEM
Long Beach, US
Nov 22, 2011 11:26 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Good luck in your dispute. I have been doing pay per click for over 5 years now and I have seen their "optimized" system which is nothing short of cookie cutting copy & pasting on exact match city specific queries. There's no optimization in that. They actually don't even abide by Google's Aesthetic Policy. All 3rd party Google AdWords advertisers are REQUIRED to tell the client how much they spent in clicks and what they are charging as a service fee. Reach Local does not tell anyone what they pay Google and what they charge as a service fee. Normally when a company is shady about this it's because they are pocketing around 60-80% of the total amount.

Here are my responses too Just Me n my knowledge...
"If all the keywords are correct and you are getting visits to your website-- HOw can you blame Reach local for customers not calling you? Fix YOur website!"
- hahahahaha wow you really don't have much knowledge there now do ya? When it comes to optimization there buddy landing page optimization is another testing factor. It is YOUR responsibility to get the best ROI (that's Return On Investment) for YOUR client. Have you ever ran a multi-variant test with landing pages with AdWords Website Optimizer tool? I'm guessing not. You should be ashamed of yourself.

"I don't advise The GOOGLE adwords EXPERT to switch to reach local. You know your business better than anyone.
But if you are not a Complete expert with setting up an online presence on Google, yahoo, bing Etc then ReachLocal is the place to be. You could be wasting thousands of dollars if youre running campaigns on your own.
They are an adwords Qualified company- they have been through the google testing. "
-for being and AdWords qualified company they don't abide by the Aesthetic policy. Hell, anyone can become an AdWords Qualified Company. The tests are easy.

"4th - If your pay-per-click campaigns isn't getting the call volume you would like- WHY don't you take a look at your website. If you have an AWFUL website- why is anyone going to call you? You cant Blame that on ReachLocal."
-again you should be ashamed of yourself. Anyone well versed in PPC knows that it is THEIR responsibility to improve overall Conversion Rate. Blaming their website is a copout. It's YOUR job to test different landing pages!

"5th- People talk about exoborant fees. They are a business- you are paying them for a service so you dont have to deal with the headaches of trying to set up an internet marketing campaign across 5 different search engines- then try to manage them all! The mark up is minimal."
-What's the rate? I'm sure you don't even know or are willing to lie and say its something small. Way to NOT abide by Google AdWords Aesthetic Policy.

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Just Me n my knowledge...
Modesto, US
Jan 22, 2011 5:45 pm EST

It is funny how the emplyees of ReachLocal are so brainwashed to say the same things over and over...
As an employees of Reach Local, you are taught to tell the world that at one time you were the fastest growing company named by Delloite in 2009. All that means is you had to hire so many people to replace the people that left. Reach Local does not take care of its employees. This is an internet company promoting branding... yet they do not brand themselves! They send their "consultants" out to sell internet marketing to businesses yet do not pay for their internet connection!

This is a comany that does not care about their employees... why would they care about making someone else profitable?

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ErkHtr
tampa, US
Apr 19, 2010 7:01 pm EDT

I am reading many of these complaints and a majority of them are from the same people over and over again- competitors, or past employees. I own my own web marketing company and have used reachlocals PPC services for about 4 years- I signed on as an authorized seller back before they had a local sales force. Out of all the companies I have used, reachlocal has brought my customers the best results.

Its a shame then everyone believes what they read.

I looked up Superpages, at&t, and yodle-- and they all have awful reviews. What people need to realize it is impossible for a company to please 100% of their clientel. Its a shame that people have to go on these "complaint boards, " and try to ruin a companies reputation.

You have to ask yourself- ReachLocal is such a bad company...
Why do they have an 85% campaign renewal rate?
Why are they getting ready to go Public?
Why do they have an A+ with the BBB?
Why were they just named #1 Fastest Growing Technology Company in N America?

1st off- Reachlocal does nothing with SEO. Its SEM.
SEO and SEM are completely 2 different worlds. In no way does SEM(ppc) affect your SEO (organic/natural listings) on the page. You can contact Google directly and they will say the same thing.

-3rdly Reachlocal has over 300, 000+ campaigns running right now. You simply cannot please 100 % of your client base. For any business owner- you know this is IMPOSSIBLE. As Im sure you have experienced-- you always have that customer here that will complain and you can't please NO matter what you do.

4th - If your pay-per-click campaigns isn't getting the call volume you would like- WHY don't you take a look at your website. If you have an AWFUL website- why is anyone going to call you? You cant Blame that on ReachLocal.

5th- People talk about exoborant fees. They are a business- you are paying them for a service so you dont have to deal with the headaches of trying to set up an internet marketing campaign across 5 different search engines- then try to manage them all! The mark up is minimal.

Do you own your business to run a profit? How much did you make off of replacing that garage door spring or the bathroom remodel you did last week?

6th you have the ability to sit down with your rep and monitor your keywords at anytime. Are they going to disclose their entire keyword list? No, that is all of their hardwork. Why would they hand the entire keyword list over to you?

If all the keywords are correct and you are getting visits to your website-- HOw can you blame Reach local for customers not calling you? Fix YOur website!

I don't advise The GOOGLE adwords EXPERT to switch to reach local. You know your business better than anyone.
But if you are not a Complete expert with setting up an online presence on Google, yahoo, bing Etc then ReachLocal is the place to be. You could be wasting thousands of dollars if youre running campaigns on your own.
They are an adwords Qualified company- they have been through the google testing.

Nothing is 100% perfect, but if you have a great product and a great website- ReachLocal will do an amazing job for your company.

Reachlocal is not a perfect fit for every single business- the business model does not work for 100% of all businesses- but 85- 95% of the campaigns run very well.

If someone is Upset they run and tell 20 people. If they are happy, you'd be lucky if they told 1.
This is the sad thing - Where is the page for the 100, 000 happy customers?

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11:15 pm EDT
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ReachLocal terrible company

This company is absolutely awful. I was suckered into a contract with them to run a PPC campaign for me. However, should have done my homework ahead of time. They have numerous complaints from former clients and employees regarding their business. Not a single person I spoke with in their office had any real clue as to online marketing. The manager tried to step in and help the rep out because he knew the rep lied to me as to the capability of the company and couldn't answer basic questions.

They do not do Split testing, they cannot test abandon rates on webpages or shopping carts, they do not know what keywords are leading clients where on your webpage. The pitch total accountability yet you have to demand to see the keywords. When I saw the keywords that were "working" for me, the top ten included my company name in some variation. Really? No kidding. People searching my name want to do business with me?

I got out of my contract because they refused to remove my company name and I went back to running my own Adwords and have had more success...Do yourself a favor, do your research, pick a REAL SEM firm to do business with and AVOID REACHLOCAL AT ALL COSTS...SCAM ARTISTS

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ReachLocal rip off

I own a med size tree service. I have used a couple of companies for cpc advertising and have been successful with it. Reach Local contacted me, asked for an opointment to come to my house and show me how they could help me by managing my cpc campain. They said that they would get better results for less money. They hard selled me into signing a 3 month contract for 1500 a month.
I am now in the third month and am completley furustrated with the level of disservice that i have recived. They are charging me $9-$12 for the key words that i have been paying $3.50 for for the last year through other companies. They refuse to make any corections in my bill and it seems that they enjoy the level of frustration that they are causing. I have called my way up the chain at reach local and they basicly pass the phone around the office and get a good laugh at my expence. I have been in business for five years and this is the bigest mistake that i have made bar none.

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ausguy
Prahran, AU
Nov 04, 2014 2:50 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Do ReachLocal disclose their actual costs or how much they've actually paid Google to their clients? Do they really get 65% of our entire budget as a secret fee? My answer is YES. They have done this to me and with other clients too. Post in here so we can see how many have they've ripped off.

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DML1
Beltsville, US
Jun 15, 2011 2:52 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Reach is not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but you HAVE to have a good website to convert clicks to calls. A website is judged in .5 seconds and if you don't make the cut then you do the math. I am dumping Reach Local, but not because they are a "scam". I am looking for something better. After 2 years of service - and a lot of phone calls from customers, we are tweaking our ads. What I am unhappy about at the moment is the statement that we cannot change our ad budget as we wind down our last 2 months. We have changed budget many times based on the volume of calls, but now they care how much advertising we do. This it petty and childish. Why does a company burn bridges with their clients? BAH!

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Just Me n my knowledge...
Modesto, US
Jan 22, 2011 5:36 pm EST

I have to let you know that ReachLocal's employees may seem arguementative because they are constantly micro managed, recruited from other companies with lies, charged for their benefits, no match on their 401k, and then made to go to their weekly "sweat shop" callday every tuesday with expectations to set a certain amount of appointments. So, they truly don't care about your business at that point in time. The security of a paycheck to bring home becomes the fore front.

That is all I will say to stick up for the employees. As far as the company itself, ... They are experts at losing employees. If you give a two week notice. They give you your final paycheck and send you on your way. Not to mention making sure they know everyone in your pipeline at that pont in time! WOW! rude.

So, no wonder they could care less if you don't get the results you were promised or had expectations for. they don't even care about their employees! The people makeing them the money in the first place!

Also, btw... SEO is where it is at and where the internet marketing place is going. Google is making a big shift in 2011, so make sure you do all you can to optimize your web site. then, you will not need to "pay per click".

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gralerie
Waxhaw, US
May 18, 2010 4:56 pm EDT

I would like to have "ErkHtr" tell me why I shouldn't get me $5, 000.00 back from Reach Local, when the sales rep, who was more like a used car salesman, told me that they would increase traffic to my site tenfold. And when they didn't, (surprise, surprise) the sales manager told me that unless I can prove that he told me that, I'm pretty much SOL.

They also told me that .88% click-thru rate was average, when Google themselves tell you that if it's below 1%, then the ad isn't targeted appropriately.

Then on top of all that, I hired an SEO/web marketing reconn specialist, who found out that reach local was using keywords that included los angeles and washington state when I'm located in Charlotte, NC (the other end of the country)!

I'm not complaining about the number of conversions from clicks to calls. I'm not complaining about SEO as opposed to SEM. I'm talking about being told they would deliver something and them not delivering it!

I'm complaining about them either not knowing what they are doing OR not doing what they are being paid to do, on purpose!

I'm complaining about being treated horribly as a customer, not getting the services promised and not being compensated or refunded for any of it!

DO NOT USE REACH LOCAL! They are the biggest scam ever!

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chrismu
Hawthorne, US
May 04, 2010 6:02 pm EDT



As you can see I found this other post and it’s the same guy defending reachlocal. A little digging and this guy is clearly a reach local employee or PR rep. God this is why people hate companies like reachlocal. atleast be smart enough not to make it so easy to clearly spot your fake "comments"

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chrismu
Hawthorne, US
May 04, 2010 5:56 pm EDT

“I am reading many of these complaints and a majority of them are from the same people over and over again- competitors, or past employees. I own my own web marketing company and have used reach locals PPC services for about 4 years- I signed on as an authorized seller back before they had a local sales force. “ Wait a minute here! So if you own your own web marketing company what are you doing using reach local for web marketing? It’s like me saying oh yeah that mechanic is great I use him all the time and by the way I’m a mechanic. This is clearly a reach local employee or PR manager. It’s amazing how some of these companies start grasping at straws when their little scam is put out to the light and the complaints pour in. if you had any shame reachlocal! You would just hand all these people their money back for doing a poor job with their web marketing needs. And next time at least be smart enough not to incriminate yourself with some stupid comment like the one above.

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ErkHtr
tampa, US
Apr 19, 2010 7:03 pm EDT

I am reading many of these complaints and a majority of them are from the same people over and over again- competitors, or past employees. I own my own web marketing company and have used reachlocals PPC services for about 4 years- I signed on as an authorized seller back before they had a local sales force. Out of all the companies I have used, reachlocal has brought my customers the best results.

Its a shame then everyone believes what they read.

I looked up Superpages, at&t, and yodle-- and they all have awful reviews. What people need to realize it is impossible for a company to please 100% of their clientel. Its a shame that people have to go on these "complaint boards, " and try to ruin a companies reputation.

You have to ask yourself- ReachLocal is such a bad company...
Why do they have an 85% campaign renewal rate?
Why are they getting ready to go Public?
Why do they have an A+ with the BBB?
Why were they just named #1 Fastest Growing Technology Company in N America?

1st off- Reachlocal does nothing with SEO. Its SEM.
SEO and SEM are completely 2 different worlds. In no way does SEM(ppc) affect your SEO (organic/natural listings) on the page. You can contact Google directly and they will say the same thing.

-3rdly Reachlocal has over 300, 000+ campaigns running right now. You simply cannot please 100 % of your client base. For any business owner- you know this is IMPOSSIBLE. As Im sure you have experienced-- you always have that customer here that will complain and you can't please NO matter what you do.

4th - If your pay-per-click campaigns isn't getting the call volume you would like- WHY don't you take a look at your website. If you have an AWFUL website- why is anyone going to call you? You cant Blame that on ReachLocal.

5th- People talk about exoborant fees. They are a business- you are paying them for a service so you dont have to deal with the headaches of trying to set up an internet marketing campaign across 5 different search engines- then try to manage them all! The mark up is minimal.

Do you own your business to run a profit? How much did you make off of replacing that garage door spring or the bathroom remodel you did last week?

6th you have the ability to sit down with your rep and monitor your keywords at anytime. Are they going to disclose their entire keyword list? No, that is all of their hardwork. Why would they hand the entire keyword list over to you?

If all the keywords are correct and you are getting visits to your website-- HOw can you blame Reach local for customers not calling you? Fix YOur website!

I don't advise The GOOGLE adwords EXPERT to switch to reach local. You know your business better than anyone.
But if you are not a Complete expert with setting up an online presence on Google, yahoo, bing Etc then ReachLocal is the place to be. You could be wasting thousands of dollars if youre running campaigns on your own.
They are an adwords Qualified company- they have been through the google testing.

Nothing is 100% perfect, but if you have a great product and a great website- ReachLocal will do an amazing job for your company.

Reachlocal is not a perfect fit for every single business- the business model does not work for 100% of all businesses- but 85- 95% of the campaigns run very well.

If someone is Upset they run and tell 20 people. If they are happy, you'd be lucky if they told 1.
This is the sad thing - Where is the page for the 100, 000 happy customers?

S
S
scammed
houston, US
Aug 23, 2009 3:37 am EDT

living well is the "best revenge"

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Celia
Bethesda, US
Jul 31, 2009 3:51 pm EDT

I have heard a bunch of stories about how aggressive the Reach Local sales reps are but I did hear one company say they liked their Reach Local rep. I feel sorry for the people who are stuck working for the company.

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no reachlocal!
, US
Jul 29, 2009 4:19 pm EDT

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your stories about ReachLocal! The sales representatives in this company are arrogant, careless and rude! They don't care about what the customers really need, they just want to GET you. So, when you are approached by ReachLocal sales robots, because they all sound exactly the same, don't be shy to ask them what do they know about your business and your needs first before they "educate" you.

They are ignorant!

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