labah-labah
Joined: Apr 17, 2002
# Posts: 28
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Posted: 2004-Feb-20 22:18
Has anyone purchased their service? Would like to get your opinion and perhaps share some of your results...
PS: Sorry if this is the wrong section of the forum, but I don't know where else to post this topic!
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Mike-Levin.com
Joined: Sep 27, 2000
# Posts: 1988
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Posted: 2004-Feb-23 17:53
Never heard of them. Are they a search engine?
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labah-labah
Joined: Apr 17, 2002
# Posts: 28
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Posted: 2004-Feb-23 19:44
It's one of those things where you type in a search term in your browser's address bar and if a company has purchased that search term, it'll take you to that company's website. In addition, when you search for that term in any search engines, the company that has purchased this search term will show up above everyone else's listings and displayed as a preview (like Wisenut's sneak a peek feature).
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larry12468
Joined: Feb 24, 2004
# Posts: 6
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Posted: 2004-Feb-25 05:28
I was cold-called by Rocket Positions today. They claim to have 15 million users who have downloaded their software on their computers. You can buy a certain search term on an annual basis, and when those 15 million people search for a term you have bought, your webpage actually opens in the browser, taking up about the top 1/3 of the screen. Works for Google, Yahoo, MSN, and a few minors.
Claim to have a patent on the technology. Showed me a live screenshot from their server, of new users being added at a pretty impressive rate. The software is free and supposedly few people uninstall it because it is a fast way to see a search result that should be pretty relevant.
I also want to know what you think of this, I have my doubts....
It is $900 a year for a particular term that relates to my business.
Larry
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Leigh
Joined: Nov 06, 2003
# Posts: 175
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Posted: 2004-Feb-25 06:25
It's a scam. They're the same as searchclimbers. Same as Keywords, Inc. Same as KeywordNavigator.
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labah-labah
Joined: Apr 17, 2002
# Posts: 28
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Posted: 2004-Feb-25 13:16
larry12468 - I received a similar phone call...I wasn't too interested since search terms that would be suitable for our company were already taken. Plus, I don't like the annual fee structure.
Leigh - have you used their service before? How did you find out about them?
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Leigh
Joined: Nov 06, 2003
# Posts: 175
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Posted: 2004-Feb-25 21:00
Leigh - have you used their service before? How did you find out about them?
Search these forums. My links don't seem to be happening lately.
At least one thread I do remember. Last post sometime this month in the "Search Engine Optimization 101" forum. "MSN Keywords" was the topic title I think.
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tifffany
Joined: Jun 03, 2004
# Posts: 3
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Posted: 2004-Jun-07 14:55
My name is Tiffany Nopens and I work for Search Climbers West. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Please feel free to e mail me, my e mail is in my profile.
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tlegends
Joined: Jul 03, 2004
# Posts: 2
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Posted: 2004-Jul-03 22:16
On Friday May 7th I received a phone call from Search Climbers West. I was told that if I bought the search terms, then my company would have the top positions on some of the largest search engines, including Yahoo, Google, MSN and more. I was also told that the terms would work on anyone's computer with the most recent 'Upgrade' of Internet explorer. I was told the price and found it agreeable but wanted to see the contract and review the product. The sales person asked for my credit card but assured me that the sale was not final nor would my card be charged until I signed the contract and faxed it back. I was also told of a 90 day 100% money back guarantee if I did not receive hits equaling or better than at least 1% per month of the number of searches for the same terms for the month of April 2004 on Overture.
I was also directed how to upgrade my browser by installing their "plug-in" to see the way the newest version of Explorer would work.
After I got off the phone, I did some research on the company and also ran "Spysweeper" my spyware-adware program Spysweeper reported the program as adware and advised me to remove it from my system. At this point I decided I did not want to purchase the key words and thought that I was done.
2 days later when I checked my credit card account I found that my card had been charged for the contract even though I hadn't signed it. Monday morning I called the company and spoke to Kelly Banuelos. She told me that since I had given them my card number, they felt I had given a verbal authorization to charge it and that I wanted to do business with them. I told her what the salesperson had about not charging my card until I faxed back a signed contract. She said sorry and said she would see what she could do about it. i told her about the results from the Spysweeper program and she was surprised. She stated that they had prided in their company because the spyware programs did not consider their plug-in as adware. She said she would check things out and get back to me.
One week later having no response from Kelly, I called her back. Getting her message service I asked her to refund my money. Multiple calls later she told me that the money would be credited back to my card but it would take ten days. I patiently waited and no credit came. I called again and again and finally I was told that the credit had been processed on June 3rd, and to give it another week, so again I waited. Through the course I phone calls I began talking with Tracy who is an assistant to Kelly. On a subsequent phone call, Tracy told me that the credit was processed on May 28th, but since it was now June 15th and the credit had still not appeared on my account, that she would have the credit processed again that day. Well it's been another 6 days and nothing for credit has appeared on my credit card account. I have even called the card company to verify and no credit.
In conclusion, it has been over a month since I was told that money charged, which I was told would not be charged in the first place would be credited to my account. and it still has not. This company seem to be full of deceiving smooth talkers and little doers. I would advise to stay clear and don't trust them at all. As to the 90 day guarantee, I highly doubt that they would stand behind it. As to the traffic, at this point, I have not even gotten 10% of the hits promised!
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davaddavad
Joined: Aug 02, 2001
# Posts: 928
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Posted: 2004-Jul-04 17:12
welcome to the forums tlegends and thanks for the sharing your story. dave
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txcoyote
Joined: Jul 09, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Jul-09 21:40
Rocket Positions is a flat out scam. They look really good when they demonstrate on your computer. Then you go to somebody else's computer to show them how neat it is. Guess what? It no workee!!! If a person doesn't have a version of their adware that was circulated after you signed up, you won't show up on their search.
One day when I wasn't at work, they called my boss and our company was signed up for it. She paid $1498 for two keywords, with the third one "free." At 750 bucks apiece, they can afford to give you one free. We are in the process of trying to get our money back. As we are still in the first 90 days, we may have better luck than tlegends. I hope so, anyway.
I also wish you the best of luck, t. It isn't fun to be taken.....
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convcapri
Joined: Jun 22, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Aug-12 01:34
Just curious if we have anymore info on the Rocket Positions story.
Darrel
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Collective
Joined: Aug 08, 2000
# Posts: 331
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Posted: 2004-Aug-13 20:16
The program only works if their browser has downloaded the plug-in that is needed to make that site come to the top or be shown when searched from the bar or different search engines. The problem with that kind of marketing is that you don't have a clue who or if there are that many folks out there who has that plug-in on their machine (it's a shot in the dark). They'll tell you they have millions...how can it be proved, it can't. I would suggest against it.
I personally think its a scam of sorts. It works well but I don't know of anyone who would download a third party plug in.
If it was that good of a product and produced good ROI they would give it for free for a trial period...for a week or 2 and let it sell it self and only if you were satisfied, one other thing to be aware of is if they (anybody) calls you be very cautious, cold callers as a rule are always selling something that you don't need to survive in this world. IMHO I hate people calling me...telling me what I need, that's one terrible sales tactic.
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inform
Joined: Sep 09, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Sep-09 17:16
I have some info about them that you might be interested in hearing.
Tifffany@comcast.net
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hiller
Joined: Sep 09, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Sep-09 19:56
tlegends:
Did you ever get your money back? I just learned that I've been scammed for more than $1,200 by this company.
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gmanob
Joined: Sep 09, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Sep-10 02:12
We paid Searchclimberswest 0.00 on 5/6/04 and were guaranteed a minimum of 100 hits per day or we would get our money back on the 91st day. It was obvious after only a couple of weeks that we weren't going to even going to come close to reaching 100 hits per day. After 75 days we had a total of 517 hits whereas the g-tee said we should have at least 7500 by that time. I contacted the president there, Mercer Smith, about cutting our losses short and giving an early refund but he said the hits will increase, just hang in there.
Well, they never increased at all and when I called on the 91st day I spoke to Kelly Banuelos who said I would get a refund after they did the "proper paperwork". It's now been over a month and we have not gotten a refund and our emails to them go unanswered.
Our next step is to contact the Colorado Attorney General's office.
If anyone has a similar story we would like to hear from you.
Thanks.
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skicdave
Joined: Sep 13, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Sep-13 23:48
I've been cold called by the folks at Direct Search/Search Climbers as well as Cloud Nine, both pitching Rocketpositions. All one and the same. Direct Search offered keywords for 499. Could nine offered 'a special' at 995 each if we bought 2 keywords for a 6 month term (additional 6 months was free).
Sounds like iGetNet all over again. (we received dozens of calls from various sales affiliates trying to sell us keywords for the same product). Nobody bothers to even spend 5 seconds before calling to find out anything about who we are, and what we do either... tsk tsk.
Interesting concept I must say. Of course there are no stats on how many people search a particular keyword, yet they must track this in order that the technology works. They also provide reports on page views, which really is much like page views of a banner, but they consider it much like a click, since your page is viewable... true but it is in a very small frame. I see it more like an interactive HTML banner. Probably more effective than a banner, but not by much. A text listing would be much more valuable to me.
As a fixed priced I'd say you'd have more success buying a keyword like 'computers' than 'teflon frying pans. I'm not for this fixed price for everything concept.
Why would anyone download the plugin? In reality they are saying to people... "Hey download this cool plugin and you'll receive some more advertising that clogs up the top of your search results... oh but its relevant!".
They'd have more success if they gave stats on each keyword they sell you and just sold a text listing... cheating Google, Yahoo, MSN though (legal issue??)...
Reality is, the number of searches on keywords you may buy most likely don't justify the cost, and just cuz my site is showin in a very small frame doesn't mean they have delivered me a visitor. I count that if they have interacted in some way.
They all seem to say "hey but they are lots of your competitors buying them up! Selling a ton here!" Sure if you have a room full of telemarketers cold calling every website on the planet, someone will bite... doesn't mean they aren't getting burnt.
I'll have to ask a few sites I know that have apparently bought into it how it is working out for them.
[ Message was edited by: skicdave 09/13/2004 04:06 pm ]
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tlegends
Joined: Jul 03, 2004
# Posts: 2
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Posted: 2004-Sep-15 14:57
As a follow up to my experience, I never got a refund directly from Search climbers. After dealing with them I contacted my credit card company and requested a chargeback. It was done and Searchclimbers did not respond. So I did get my money back. After the notice I wrote in various forums, I called Tiffany who works for them and responds to the comments in the forum. She seems like a very nice girl who means well but works for a company that sucks.. The only reponse she could give me was that I had to talk to the owner Mercer Smith. I didn't bother, because I had already put in a chageback with the credit card company and my gut feeling was I was going to get more run around
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tracybrian
Joined: Oct 25, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2004-Oct-26 00:02
Cool board. I registered just to say that I have been riped off by these fools. I found this message board when I was tring to search for more info on search climbers. We have been in the process of getting a refund for about 2 weeks now. I have a feeling this is a turn-and-burn operation though. It is nice to see I am not alone.
Brian Barringer
[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 12/19/2005 10:59 am ]
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emillionaire
Joined: Feb 08, 2005
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 2005-Feb-10 20:49
I have spoken with one of the companies involved and they assure me that all the previous co's are a scam rocket pos - rabbit mktng etc. the tech is suppost to be way improved and propogated on 28 mil sys. Is this true is there any way to check if something got you real traffic or not? the co they are under is windows positions. does it work now and did msoft creat the tech and own the pattent and is it on over 20 mil systems????
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