Leapfish is a scam…maybe? (Read the updates)
BY Editweapon @ April 28, 2009
Posting my company’s experience with Leapfish so that others may stay clear of this piece of crap.
- A phone call from a polite Leapfish sales rep came in to my Marketing Manager.
- Leapfish offers to sell us a “keyword that we can own forever…and if you want, you can resell it to other advertisers once they get desperate to own that keyword.” (”scarcity” and “social proof” tactics.)
- “Leapfish is a fast growing company, only been around for 3 months and we’re on Red Herring’s Top 100 list, have an Alexa rank of 20,000-ish, blah blah blah.” (more “scarcity” and “social proof” techniques.) And btw, I see your announcement on your blog about the Top 100, but where is the announcement from Red Herring?)
- Sales rep claimed, “Leadfish hasn’t started selling into the vitamin industry space yet, so you could be the first to grab these keywords.” (More “scarcity”.)
- Price is only $2000 per word, plus a 5% per year renewal…and there’s a money-back guarantee! (”No risk or downside” trigger.)
My marketing manager should have googled “leapfish scam”, and the posts on page 1 alone would have likely scared her off. I especially liked this Tech Crunch article, Leapfish Launches Another Meta Search Engine That No One Will Ever Use.
But, she was being hit hard with scarcity and social proof persuasion triggers, so she bought one keyword. And you know what, I don’t blame her. I’ve been persuaded / suckered before by these exact same techniques. In fact, the name of that sham was Redzee. Cost us a few hundred bucks for the same “always be at the top of Google” promise that was total crock of sh!t.
(A fascinating book on the subject is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.)
The CEO of Leapfish wrote on his blog that 1 of 80 sales people were responsible for the google click fraud and that the matter had been dealt with. My question: You have 80 sales people? Think about that people. Sounds like a boiler room operation to me.
Btw, I searched redherring.com for Leapfish and found no results. So how could Leapfish have been named to the Top 100, and not be on their website? Sounds, fishy.
Redherring.com Top 100 for Leapfish NOT
In googling “red herring leapfish”, I noticed a that Robert Scoble visited the Leapfish office. So I searched Scoble’s blog for “leapfish” and once again, there’s NO MENTION of leapfish.
So I watched the video of Scoble’s alleged visit — posted not by Robert, but under Leapfish’s own youtube account. Can someone tell me if this is a fake? Is the off-camera speaker at the beginning and at the 2:38 mark actually Scoble? (See update with link to Fastcompany.tv below.)
Results of my analysis: Leapfish is a scam. ???????
Update: Mark Kithcart must have been checking his Google Alerts very closely and then sent me this Facebook email.
Hi Patrick, I wanted to get in touch with you and tried calling at 480-626-8568. I am the Director of Marketing at LeapFish and wanted to address your blog post.
It’s not about what’s right or wrong from an opinion perspective but more about what is factual. i.e. Yes it’s really Robert Scoble – you will find the video at FastCompany.tv where it was posted – we were one of his last interviews. That was for one of his segments at FastCompany not on his personal blog.
Also Red Herring has informed us we are one of the Top 100 Finalists for 2009. The results aren’t posted yet – but I have no issues with sending you the email indicating we are indeed a finalist and asking us to attend their awards event in San Diego.
By the way we were also in the March issue of Entrepreneur Magazine as well + a lot more…typically magazines like FastCompany and Entrepreneur don’t mess around with scams and fly-by-nights. Also Scoble was here at our offices in Pleasanton, Ca. If we were a boiler room setup (which was all here for him to see) that would have been a much juicier story – which we are not.
Writing that we are a scam when your facts aren’t verified is not what I would call responsible – but I understand, someone made a decision at your company and you may not think it is the best one.
I’m not here to convince you that we are the everything to everyone but I would like to clear up a few misconceptions that your blog is propagating.
My cell is (redacted) – please call so we can talk briefly.
Thanks Patrick
I replied:
Is there a contact at Red Herring that I can get in touch with to verify your claim?
He replied:
Yes – call me and I will give you their contact information – email and phone.
So then I replied:
I’d rather verify your claim first please.
Based on what your company sells and how you sell it, you do not have my trust and you’re going to have to earn it [via] a 3rd party first.
I can’t believe I’ve already spent this much time on this crap today. But that’s the problem with google alerts I guess. Write a blog post to warn the masses of our experience with you and I end up with you trying to straighten out my “facts.”
PS – I went to Google and found this. I’ll update my blog entry.
http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/search-interface-done-better-google
Summary: Today, I wrote a blog post, which I hate doing anyways to warn the rest of the world to stay away from Leapfish. Then the director of marketing started cyber-stalking me. FML.
Update 2: I read through the 20+ comments on fastcompany.tv, and then emailed this to Mark:
After reading through the numerous negative comments and your rebuttals on fastcompany.tv, I see you have plenty of stamina and you plan to go all 15 rounds. Grrrrrrrreat. (sigh.)
Mark, my *opinion* that Leapfish is a very shady company remains. THERE’S NO VALUE IN WHAT YOUR CLIENTS ARE BUYING. PERIOD.
So if you’d like to write another rebuttal, I’ll post it as an update and then readers can decide between my *opinion* and your “facts”…but I’m keeping the blog post up there, and you’re not going to change my mind.
Summary: Dear Reader, make your own choice. Decide the “facts” for yourself.
Update: Click on the image below to read yet another account of Leapfish B.S.
Update: My post was originally published on April 28th, 2009. This comment left below by Eli on January 24th 2010 — 8 months later — shows that Leapfish continues to rip people off.
PLEASE READ BEFORE ANY KEYWORD BUYING:
A High pressure salesman or saleslady will call you concerning your site and won’t back out until they close the deal. Typical of scams! They never give you a chance to think about it and will talk right over you.
I have fallen for it, we have purchased 9 keywords since we have a big advertising budget on other search engines, I figured this a unique opportunity. After 3 months, all we got is 2 clicks from leapfish.com according to their own date.
They do NOT show you from where the clicks are generated as all other search engine do.
No refund of your money, but they never tell you that. Instead they circumvent any questions with more praise about their company. There’s nothing so great about leapfish you cannot find anywhere else.
Buyer beware! DON’T FALL FOR IT AS I DID!
Popularity: 100% [?]
Hi Patrick, Your Blog Post is inaccurate and not factual. I need to speak with you immediately.
Thank You
That remains to be seen. Give me contact info at Red Herring so that I can independently verify your claim.
Booyah achieved.
What a joke! See how they honored money back guarantee in their former incarnation – ePerks.
Patrick,
If I may, I think I may know the reason why the Red Herring nomination is such a “top secret”- I think eve you and can nominate ourselves for the award, according to their website following is required of a “nominee” (or as the call it “applicant”):
* A technology company
* Headquartered in the specific geographical region of the corresponding Red Herring 100 award program
* Privately held and not listed on any exchanges anywhere in the world
* Not a previous winner of a Red Herring 100 regional award – with the exception of Global where the applicant must be a previously selected regional winner or finalist.
I will tell what. I will nominate you and you can then nominate me. Sounds good?
I personally have never heard of Red Herrings awards before I read your post. But looking at their list of winners from 2008 doesn’t look like I missed that much:
http://herringevents.com/northamerica08/redherring100.html
None one company on the list rang any bells. Am I that being on technology?
What truly surprising about your post is that you mentioned about the money-back guarantee. I thought they have learned from their former incarnation know as ePerks, that offering such a guarantee not a good idea:
http://camorealtor.featuredblog.com/?p=10
In my opinion history may just repeat again. In fact, everything I have written above is my sole opinion. It is also my opinion that Google should have prevented LeapFish from using their API after the click fraud fiasco.
My goodness, it would have made a good post on one of my blogs would it not? lol
Keep it up Patrick – love your blog and promise to be back.
LOL…yeah, let’s nominate each other.
Btw, I was thinking more about their 80 sales people tonight. What do you want to bet it’s a commission only job with between 50 – 80% of the payout on each ~$2000 keyword going to the rep?
A commission-only plan is the only structure that supports a 3-month old, non-VC funded, start-up company with 80 sales reps.
And the persuasion tactics used by their reps fit the M.O. of someone who can only put bread on the table if they get a prospect to act.
If we were to believe some one who claims to be a former LeapFish employee, things were much like the boiler room:
http://www.go-beyond-mls.com/leapfish-ceo-uses-twitter-to-assail-bloggers/#comment-10266
Just realized how many misspellings I left in my previous comment. Oh well, as long as some of it made sense
.
I would love to connect with you outside this discussion, feel free to e-mail me.
Thanks gentlemen! I was just contaacted by one of the reps. The noise in the background sounded boiler room to me. After reading this blog and a couple of others, I’m not spending $2000 for a keyword! Thank you gentlemen!
Sean, if you can get a refund, I would dude.
They rang me @ 2am this Morning. Dont they know what time it is in Australia. I almost paid up but contacted a friend in my same business. Man he was rung last week.. After reading these posts. You have save me heaps
Thankyou.. very imformative
Let me tell you, leapfish has scam written all over it.
The latest leapfish scam is that they will click on your ppc ads, get your contact information, and then cold call you.
After the 4th time being called by the leapfish scam team in the last week, I threatened to file a complaint with the FTC if they didn’t stop calling me.
Already filed a click fraud complaint with Google.
This is disgusting, repeated harassment and costing their prospective customers money.
Total BS.
I was solicited by phone by a very honest-sounding telemarketer selling Leapfish to me, a 60 yr. old single mother of a teen. I’d lost my job due to the recession, and for a MOMENT was persuaded by the telemarketer that Leapfish would change my fortunes forever….
When I came to my senses later that same day, I called the Leapfish marketer who referred me to “customer service” who advised me that there was no way out for me, they had my credit card, and would send my account to COLLECTIONS if I did not pay. This is a nightmare! I have called Leapfish’s “customer service” company, DotNext several times, almost pleading for them to cancel my 1 day “account”!
They intimidate me each time I call, and threaten to ruin my credit, and have coersced me into taking a lower costing plan – but REFUSE to honor my request, now demand, to give my money back in full.
To date they have given a partial refund. I was told today by DotNext that I should take a less expensive “plan” because they were keeping my money anyway.
I am going to both the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General about this intimidating, coerscive telemarketing company. If anyone knows of a legal firm representing other unsuspecting consumers against Leapfish/DotNext, please let me know.
BEWARE of LEAPFISH!!!
All people on this thread who have had issues with this company NEED to file FTC compliants. https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ It won’t solve your individual problems, but it will help other people. They scamzillas just tried to contact my spouse. I’m glad she contacted me first but not everyone has been so fortunate. If it looks too good to be true, it almost always is.
ITS A SCAM PEOPLE. SOUNDS JUST LIKE DOTLESS DOMAIN AND TOP POSITIONS. THEY GAVE ME A CALL TODAY SOUNDED JUST LIKE A BOILER OPERATION TOO. HE IS GOING TO CALL BACK TOMORROW. I TOLD HIM I WANT TO TALK TO MY GROUP AS 35 OF US HAVE BEEN SCAMMED THUS FAR FROM ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THIS. IF YOU WANT TO BECOME PART OF THIS GROUP THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
IT HAS SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM WRITTEN ALL OVER IT.
The rep on the phone to me right now from Leapfish is saying I can sell my keyword back to them anytime I want. And I might even sell it back to them at a profit! They’ll buy it at its current value. Uh, huh. And monkeys will fly out my butt.
Leapfish.com is a sales “Boiler Room” scam!
My friend used to work for them and he quit because he felt that Leapfish.com “keywords” ad revenue model
is shady (base on potential future web traffic that might not exist, goto http://www.compete.com and checkout
leapfish.com unique visitor which is only 166,398).
To sell overpriced ad keywords without website traffics to back them up are worthless and is a scam. In short, they are selling a product that don’t exist……..
The Leapfish sales team environment is just like a scene of that “Boiler Room” movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbIRedOqDwE
Fast talking telesales people calling on real estate agents, insurance agents
and scam these people into buying worthless keyword ads…… Leapfish does not even have a CRM system to manage the sales team. Red flag. Scott Leese, VP of Sales is a fake and incompetent because what kind of company that has 50 salespeople or more that do not use a CRM system? A “Boiler Room” salesteam. So that’s why you hear Leapfish victims complaint that they get multiple sales call from several Leapfish salespeople because their is no way to keep track of all the sales calls.
Leapfish.com and Behnam Behrouzi give Silicon Valley and startups a bad name…..
Leapfish.com and Behnam Behrouzi should be put of of business immediately before
Leapfish will scam million of dollars out of the public and goes bankrupt just
like ePerks.com (Another Behnam Behrouzi’s startup that went bankrupt and scammed millions from real estate and insurance agents….probably took the money from that scam to start Leapfish.com, office location in Pleasanton, CA and they even changed their company name from Brabus Ventures to DotNext to hide their scamming past)
At Google, type “leapfish scam”, “eperks scam”, “Behnam Behrouzi scam” and you will see a long history of scam, deceits against the public………
Stay way from Leapfish.com and tell the public about it.
Just got off of the phone with a Leapfish rep. High pressure, low information. Told him I wanted to do some research on his company and he says Oh, sure, what are you going to do? Search on Google? I said “no, I just looked you up on your own site while your were jabbering away” What is this about click fraud?” Told him to pound sand. Hung up, did a little more research and am glad i did not spend any more time or money on that scam.
Thanks for the 411 guys. I was also called today from leapfish/deadfish. I had to ask him 4-5 times to slow down and speak into the phone so I could understand what he was trying to say; he had no idea what he was talking about. And yes, by the background noise, they are running a boiler-room operation.
As my fourth grade educated father from Arkansas once said, “Philip, a man is only as honest as he can afford to be”.
Anyone know how to get my money back from these guys I bought 3 keywords.. I never signed any contract. I plan to seek legel advice if they don’t respond to my emails regarding a refund. Will also file a report with Ca Better business. Thanks.
same problem I am having. they take the money and RUN! If you find-out where to sand a complaint, please let me know. the attorney general should be contacted, i think, as well.
Hey guys just reading your posts. I have bought a word from leapfish also, but I did not have the boiler room effect as you guys had. My sales person was very nice and not pushy in any way. That is why I bought one word. The thing I will say is that people need to know that if they buy a word or advertisement from a start up company A.K.A LEAPFISH they need to realize that your putting forth an investment that may or may not return to your. Its like buying stock. YOU NEVER KNOW WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN YOU JUST HOPE IT IS WORTH IT. If you do not have the money you should not buy a word any way and stick to google because it is astablished. See the problem isnt with the site its with the thought that every start up company is out to screw you. When its not the case. They are just trying to get big just like google tryed to do at one time before it got huge. If google started to today people would start to talk its a scam its a scam just like every other freaking thing that starts up. So know this leapfish in my mind is not a scam. It is an investment that you may or may not get money or traffic to you sight. If you buy or are looking to buy a word just know that it could flop, or it could be the best decision of your life in marketing. Either way your should be smart enough to realize that before you buy the word. If everyone thinks that a start up company is a scam our internet world will always be boring. I personally love using leapfish that is a huge reason I bought the word. Is because I think the sight is a good tool to use and most of the people I show it to and explain how it works agree with me, even if they never buy a word from it they still like it. IT IS A SEARCH ENGINE, IT WILL EITHER FLOP OR GET HUGE. I just had the money to take a chance and if you do to I believe it is a good chance to get your business out there without an ongoing ppc cost.
P.S. Im not an employee Im just an average joe shmoe that bought a word. I just want people to give the site a try. Im not saying you have to buy a word. Just get used to the sight and I believe you will see what I mean about easy to use and time effecient if you know how to use it.
BTW, you guys complaining about not getting your money back. DID YOU ASK ABOUT A REFUND IF YOU WERE NOT SATISFIED WITH THEM, AND ESTABLISH A TIME PERIOD AT WHICH YOUR COULD STILL GET A REFUND. IF NOT THAT IS YOUR OWN FAULT. Not to be mean to you people but seriously think about it. Whos fault is it if you didnt establish a refund policy in the beginning and now you want a refund. Thats just loonicy.
BTW Andrew, I DID ask for a refund, within 24 hrs, and Dotnext told me they would send me to collections if I did not pay. No respectable company would treat a customer like this. Today, “Michael ext. 711″ (he said that was his name) in “customer service” at Dotnext, which is in the same office as Leapfish, told me buying a word from Leapfish (2 words cost me $1280.87!!!) was the same as buying a domain name… like $9.99/yr. for a domain???. Once again I was told they were keeping my money.
If you think that is fair, Andrew, then maybe you DO work for Leapfish/Dotnext.
Leapfish rep contacted me earlier. She avoided my questions of how much it costs, and I finally stopped her and said, answer my question or you get dial tone. I told her this. Search engines pop up and go away pretty frequently. Everything this engine does can be done through third party plugins with firefox, and most of it i done with google chrome straight out the download. What are they really offering?? And why do people sign up for pay per click ads with google anyway??? I’m sorry, but that is idiotic. I would pay for a pay per-signed contract!! But even a click through is no guarantee of money. And lets face it, that is what business is all about. Your better off advertising on a site with a known user base.
LOIS, I do not work for leapfish. But you just said it, you asked within 24 hours. You did not ask before you spent over a thousand dollars. THAT IS YOUR FAULT WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT. Im not saying that it is a good policy for leapfish to not have a full refund in a certain amount of time. All I am saying is, IT IS YOUR FAULT, NOT THERES. Bad business maybe, but ignorance on your behalf on this matter does not make them a crooked company because you did not establish a proper way to receive money back, before you did business with them, if you were not satisfied. This goes for any company you deal with. Not just leapfish. No one is going to look out for you except for yourself. You are surely mistaken if you think very many companies actually care for there costumers at all if any. They want to treat you just good enough to use there services. THEY CARE ABOUT MONEY. ALMOST ALL OF THEM. Im sorry for those people that feel like they have been taken advantage of but the fact still remains that most of the time it is do to ones il informed self that gets them into a situation that leaves themselfs feeling scamed.
Casey, about you asking about the price of advertisement in the middle of someones salespitch and expecting to get an answer is also crazy. If you knew anything about marketing you surely know that no one is going to tell you the price of something before they tell you all about there product. No matter if it costs very little. But I do agree with you in saying that you are most likely get more bang for your buck in this point in the game advertising though a well known company. Thats why I say that leapfish is like an investment. You are not going to get much out of it right now.
ANDREW, while I agree I am, in part, to blame for trusting such people, my stomach turns at knowing I was robbed. I signed-up based on what I thought were Leapfish statistics, only to find-out the telemarketer gave me Google stats! That’s when I called to cancel. I never returned a confirmation email of my order, nor did I agree to their Terms & Agreement email. The Attorney general’s office may become involved shortly. Leapfish/Dotnext is out for the money ONLY, you are absolutely right. They couldn’t care less about good public relations or customer satisfaction. People need to know this. I paid for a “lifetime” ownership, and despite my change of plans (I don’t even need the service any longer) – they are keeping over $400 of my money! They couldn’t care less I am a single, unemployed mother.
Andrew, you are astroturf for Leapfish. I don’t care what independent view you claim to have. It’s clear you’re carrying the flag as a favor to someone there.
And I’m getting pissed off reading your insulting comments to people like Louis who got strong-armed into a sale. You and your shitty excuse for a spell-checker are not welcome here.
I filed a complaint with the FTC. Here’s the info I put in.
http://editweapon.com/dropbox/b0a7f397d47557f6b2da27f1f54f48f8.png
I encourage everyone to do so…https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
Thank you for your support. The world needs more heroes like you!
Editweapon, I do not care at all what you think about me nor my crappy spelling. There are worse things in life than not being able to spell wonderously. It might have to do with me not checking it at all after I type it, if that tells you how much I care about how well its spelled. ITS A FREAKING BLOG. I’m not carrying any flag for anyone at leapfish. I just have my own oppinions. I’m not saying that there way of doing business is good. I never said that at all. All I’m saying is that people like to point fingers, when most of the time they are to blame for not digging deeper into the company before spending there hard earned money. LOIS I’m not out to hurt your feelings, sorry if you took it that way. I’m not a heartless prick. Im sorry for your money loss but the fact remains PEOPLE POINT FINGERS THE WRONG WAY MOST OF THE TIME, not just you LOIS. I am curious though as to why you decided to try to get your money back as soon as you bought the word. Either it is because it put you into a cash pinch for a moment and you didnt think it through or you got on some sight like this LOOKING for bad things about the company and you found them and thought, OH NO I better get my money back. For all those people that look for something bad to find about a company, ANY COMPANY, you will find something bad no matter if they are a great company (NOT SAYING LEAPFISH IS A GREAT COMPANY). Someone is always out to say dont do business with them they are crooked. I’m done, I will not post anymore, It will not do anything for all the negative people who look for the bad in any company anyway. They will always view the glass half full.
I made the mistake of acting too quickly when I “bought” 2 word-placements from Leapfish, then realized, almost instantly, 2 things:
I couldn’t afford the risk, AND the stats they gave me were Google stats not Leapfish. So, you are right, Andrew, I screwed myself. All they care about is the money – not the customer.
I gave Leapfish my credit card number to hold a keyword. They said they wouldn’t charge my card until I gave them approval because I wanted to verify their company. As soon as I gave them my card they charged me about $1500 right away without my authorization and refused to refund it. This company is very unethical and IMO the product is worthless. I do plan on getting my money back through my bank as they were never authorized to charge my card.
Lois,
If you still have patience, write a review on Alexa http://alexa.com/siteinfo/leapfish.com#reviews – thay have been astroturfing there as well but they often send people to Alexa “see” their traffic statistics.
Andrew, you do sound like a heartless prick. What did Lois do to you to deserve your rage? If I were you I would apologize. Yes people make mistakes. Lois realized she made a mistake within 24 hours. LeapFish seams to unable to learn from the past at all. But I am going to leave it at this for now… However I am considering to start petition to Google so they revoke your Search API since in my opinion LeapFish has repeatedly violated Google’s TOS.
Vlad,
Thank you for siding with me about Leapfish and Andrew’s defence of their reprehensible behavior towards me, and M (recent complaint) – and thank you, again, Editweapon for posting the FTC complaint address, which I used to file a complain. You know Vlad, there are decent people in the world and there are thieves who take from decent people. Money is all the thieves care about, and they are not smart enough to make their own money in an ethical way, so they take it from others. The way they treat others will come back at them, eventually. Thank you for standing-up for me. Leapfish has made my life harder, but you and Editweapon make it a little better.
Vlad,
I wrote a review on Alexa, as you suggested. Looked like a put-on by Leapfish/Dotnext employees. Hope sharing my experience will help others. Thanks again, Vlad.
Lois,
Hopefully it will help to get your money back. They seem to be keeping eye on the reviews. One reviewer by the nickname “scarlettsmommy” had actually retracted their original review- most likely in exchange for the refund. Good luck.
Vlad did you not read what I wrote. I said I’m sorry if Lois felt like I was attacking her, that was not my purpose, nor did I say that leapfish was in the right for not having a return policy of some sort. All I am stating is that IF YOU DO NOT GET ALL OF THE INFORMATION ON A RETURN POLICY BEFORE YOU BUY SOMETHING THEN IT IS YOUR FAULT. Bad business or not its still not a companies fault. I dont care if people buy words from leapfish or not, I just get tired of people saying that they got screwed when they really screwed themselves by not digging deeper BEFORE they spent there money. Dont attack me for my views VLAD. Its not just with leapfish, its with all sorts of things, people spend money realize they made a mistake and then try to reverse THERE MISTAKE, NOT THE COMPANIES. Nobody has held a gun to these peoples head and said buy this or you die. People make poor choices everyday and then want to push the blame off on everything else except themselves when its THERE FAULT. Now on the other hand if terms were established before the sale and then the company backed out then there is a major difference and they are in breach of contract. LOIS im not with you or against you Im just trying to make a point.
Same goes for M, why on earth would you give your credit card number out. Does leapfish have some policy written on paper saying that they will hold a word on credit, if you give them your card number. If there is show me, AND dont say the salesperson said they would because that dont cut it. I mean come on people. Bad business by leapfish but bad move by you M.
sorry I said I wouldnt post anymore but I had to defend myself after someone calls me a heartless prick. Not heartless just have no sympothy for ignorance. Ok no Im done Im sure Vlad or Editweapon will have something to say about me but o well, Im sure I have been said worse about by far more important people.
Andrew,
I would like to point out that I wrote that you do sound like a heartless prick. I did not say you are one.
I don’t know you, my observations are based on what I have read and you might very well be an honest and caring person.
Andrew no offense you very much sound like an employee! Leap Fish is criminal and I cannot wait until Google shuts them down. I have a client who signed up and tried to cancel within 2 hours and they have threatned litigation and yet she hasn’t signed anything! What a crock! Shame on you!
Hi Kerry,
I’m in a similar boat. Never signed an agreement, or confirmation with Leapfish, and they are keeping my money as well. No conscience. No integrity.
My client is fighting it with the backing of our company! They are not a debt collection agency and cannot threaten litigation as it is considered harassment and is illegal. With a little research online you can fight these bastards! Report them to the better buisness beureau, send an email to Google, call your credit card company and look into your local laws on debt collection and contracts. Don’t let them scare you out of money because all they do is win! Also, anyone can go to small claims court.
Sean, according to Google traffic estimator the cost per click for the keywords you have mentioned is from $2.08 to $6.82- my source https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox
As getting 400 visitors for those terms from LeapFish, I think you either are lying or LeapFish is screwing with you. They simply do not have the volume of users to deliver such traffic.
Just had a phone call 2 minutes ago from Leapfish. That is my 4th phone call in 6 weeks. I am in Australia, what annoys me is they go through your site and leave fake details then ring you and offer to sell me the top keyword spot for my business http://www.desirewealth.mymaxsystem.com using the keywords maxgxl etc, then tell me all my competitors are already on board. How can the top keyword still be vacant if they are already on board. He wouldnt take no for an answer, had to hang up. I have reported them to the ACCC “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission”. I have had several of my downline rung up who have got ads on google etc. The comment by phil about it sounding like a Boiler room operation is so close to the truth.
Seriously it all sounds good and the 2nd time the rung me I almost got sucked in, do your due diligence and research them before you commit, thanks to editweapon for making people aware.
We should be paying this site money for saving us money…..
A customer experience rep contacted me, we had several positive conversations, and the issue has been, thankfully, resolved.
This will be my last post.
Once I get a sales call the 1st question I ask is: “How much?” — That usually stammers them, because they haven’t really pitched anything yet ^_^
The leapfish sales weasle said: “It would only be a number if I quoted you a price without showing you the site.”
So I types[sic]in ‘leapfish’ ctrl+enter and the meta window takes oh 15 seconds to load (high-quality servers no doubt)
He goes into his script about permanent keywords, and yada-yada… “How much?” I ask again.
He stammers again, I tell him he can give me a # and I’ll think about it or he doesn’t and I hang up. He says: “$500 + 5% per year.” I challenge his earlier statement that it’s a “one time fee” he finally admits the 1st statement was untrue. I told him “Let this be a lesson in sales. NEVER tell a lie to a perspective customer, and if you have to tell lies to make a pitch them work someplace else.”
Bogus sales calls are bad enough, but when you call my cell — that’s it! I get angry and I lash back. I’m the President of the god damn company — I have people I’ve trained how to politely get rid of bogus salesmen. Who the hell does this twit think he is to be calling me directly?
Yep, I got scammed too. Wish I had seen this site before Leapfish scoundrels got my CC. Almost immediately red flags went up, and it was too late. Within twelve hours, even before the charge went through my CU, I asked for a cancellation, no charge or refund. I called “Customer Service” (What a joke, there is no customer service, only people who will do everything to separate you from your money.) Asked for cancellation and refund. I find I was a stupid fool for believing their HIGH PRESSURE BOILER ROOM SALES PERSON. I am 74 and should have been wiser, was too believing. I need to pay for cancer surgery, and eye surgery for myself and wife. Hoping to better our financial position, I worsened it, by dealing with Leapfish Telemarketer SCAM!
I agree with others here, I believe very much that Andrew is with “Leapfish” I hear the very same things on the phone from Leapfish that I see Andrew write here, pretty much word for word. I am fed up with Leapfish SCAM,SCAM, SCAM! I told their rep. that I did not call them, they called me, and am sick of this SPAM SCAM. He said sounds like something to eat, and I told him this Leapfish is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth, it makes me sick.
thanks for the tip — I just added cashjunkie to my DNS black-hole.
This sleezzy company called Leapfish sent me an email yesterday, I just read. I’ll tell you it makes me madder and madder at such tactics. It is like when Leapfish gets your CC they think they have you locked in for life. With threats of legal action if you cancel or do not pay. We will see what the Legal Attorney has to say about this. (Threatening if the contents of email is disclosed to anyone.) We are not in the dark ages, and I think the Attorney General will like to see the email that I received. Pretty threatening, but we are a fighting group now! Down with Leapfish! Down with Leapfish! They could have worked this out nice, but they didn’t. Lets really get them on the run, we do not need this kind of crappy businesses in America! I am beginning to believe that they are a Mafia type of organization.
Like others here I never signed any such agreement with Leapfish!
Do we still have free speech – freedom of the press? Can criminals be brought to light?
Is Leapfish not a Mafia criminal type of operation. I tried to cancel Leapfish keywords “gourmet organic candles” and received a threatening letter about canceling. (”One time fee” with leapfish??? Once you “buy” life time keyword you are also locked in to a 5% annual fee for ever, And they refuse to cancel!) I was told that if they did not continue getting money from me they would ruin my credit and turn me over to credit collection. Then to top it off and let me know that they are criminals, and do not want leapfish keyword operation out in the light, there was a foot note from Michael Andres:
” michael.andres@leapfish.com| http://www.leapfish.com
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. It may also be privileged or otherwise protected by work product immunity or other legal rules. You may not copy this message or disclose its contents to anyone. You are hereby notified that disclosing, copying, disseminating or distributing this email or the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please delete it immediately.”
Leapfish could have accepted my cancellation and refunded my money and that would have been the end of it for me. But their underhanded tactics has let me know that the world needs to know about leapfish and their unsavory keyword operation. Perhaps this is the way they have picked to get traffic??????? Make people mad enough and they will comment. I believe in free speech, though there are those like leapfish and others who it seems want to stop freedom of the press when their questionable tactics are brought to light.
[...] Leapfish is a scam…maybe?- Patrick Sullivan Jr is offering his opinion about leapfish. The blog have attracted number of comments- well worth reading. [...]
To All,
I have written many things on this blog out of total frustration and the initial responses I received. A client rep contacted me and I am keeping my keyword and all of the issues have been resolved regarding my account. I was happy to find out from the Client rep that I have actually been receiving impressions and click-through on my account that I was unaware of. I’m still a keyword owner!
I have been totally scammed by Leap Fish and am mad enough to want to see them in jail. The AG of California has my complaint. Please make sure yours go there too, and to the SEC as well!
I am glad I read this blog and comments. I have been called by the same folks five times in one week. They missed the point of what I do, and focussed on a tiny part of my business. I decided that if they call me again, I will report them to the FTC. I make it a rule not to respond to people who cold call me since I do not know who they are.
Leapfish is the greatest company ever. The employees come and go with no real schedule, they have assistants feed them grapes and rub their feet while they call realtors and offer financial freedom and success through key word advertising. It’s not a boiler room, it’s a palace of sex, money and worshipping of jesus. No one makes 150 calls a day while getting yelled at by an over strung, under slept sales manager. Try Leapfish, it’s better than every search engine put there.
“Yo, Google congratulations and I will let you finish. But LeapFish is the best search engine of all times! OF ALL TIMES!!!!!”
[...] Leapfish is a scam…maybe?- Patrick Sullivan Jr is offering his opinion about leapfish. The blog have attracted number of comments- well worth reading. [...]
[...] Leapfish is a scam…maybe?- Patrick Sullivan Jr is offering his opinion about leapfish. The blog have attracted number of comments- well worth reading. [...]
[...] If my memory serves me well, there were few other bloggers who, after being encouraged by me left reviews with Alexa. Alexa have since removed those reviews [...]
Leapfish is basically a simple website site where you can search the web and quickly switch between the results from Yahoo, MSN and Google. Leapfish has a cool features just like Bing that loads videos quickly but from what I can tell Bing is much better. Leapfish also pulls data from Yelp, Amazon, Ebay and a few other sites as you search. I cannot see any reason why this website is going to be popular because it just does not have much to offer. Leapfish generates money by selling advertising similar to other search sites. A telemarketer from Leapfish called me and said that Leapfish was partnered up with Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The Leapfish sales person tried to manipulate me into thinking that he could put my company on top of all the search engines. The Leapfish sales people use high pressure techniques over the phone to make you think that you have to buy specific key words before the advertising spots sell out. The sales guy I talked to on the phone claimed that he could not even tell me how many times my key word was actually searched. I looked up the company’s web traffic and quickly realized that Leapfish is a scam. If no one really uses Leapfish, then the keywords are worthless.Please beware that this company sells useless advertising to unsuspecting business owners.
Take care,
Mike
“Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give.”
W. Edwards Deming
I have to join the “alarmingly fast growing” group of people dissatisfied with Leapfish.
Needles to recount my experience which pretty much resembles the other ones posted in here and in several different blogs and media outlets, they can basically resume in this:
*Intimidating aggressive Sales department
*They give you statistics and facts that do not correspond to reality
*They tell you it is a one time fee and omit the 5% yearly recurring fee
*They can’t give you a traffic number for your keyword through their site (and that’s exactly what they’re selling to you).
*And they will charge your credit card without your authorization, not even if you ask to see a contract or terms of service beforehand, they will ask for your credit card in order to do that and then charge it anyway.
Customer Service is just an extension of the sales department and they use intimidation tactics and threaten litigation which is illegal too; so If you are trying to solve a problem with them I strongly recommend you record the phone conversations. (let them know you are doing this beforehand so you can legally use them to defend your case)
They will refuse to give your money back even if there is a wrong doing on their part or you changed your mind or want to reverse the transaction even minutes after it’s processed by them.
If you have a complaint there are several things you can do and I’ll try to enlist some in here, but will encourage you to post more if you have any other:
*Make a click fraud complaint at Google.
*Report it to your Better Business Bureau
*make an FTC complaint http://www.FTCcomplaintassistant.gov
*Make a complaint to the Attourney General
*Call your Credit Card and ask them to hold the payment, and also file a complaint through them.
*Leave Reviews on Alexa and explain your case http://alexa.com/siteinfo/leapfish.com#reviews
*Keep a copy of every communication you send and receive from them, specially of the ones you send if they refuse to answer.
*Forward all your email communications and complaints to: Leapfish CEO Ben Behrouzi ben.behrouzi@dotnextinc.com
*Let your voice be heard, twitter, blog, talk about it in facebook, digg articles that relate to your situation, but do something and not go unheard.
And finally do not let this go unresolved. Go forward with this and fight for your money and your rights.
I am doing it and I will keep you posted of the advances in my case.
Leapfish is a complete rip off. They use high pressure sales tatics to get you to buy their service with no way to get out of the contract. Stay away from these guys.
I spoke to a representative who assisted me and completely resolved my original issue. The company is absolutely NOT a scam as they stayed true to their word regarding their dealing with my account.
I signed up with leapfish and made payments on a keyword. When my business went under and I tried to cancell (not even asking for a refund just not to be charged more) the took me to collections. All they want is the money, very pushy sales guys, TOTAL SCAM!!
Nice site Mr Sullivan
Will look around more came here and glad I did off a google search so thanks on that tip 
Going to have a look around thanks
John Sullivan Peace
Leapfish? Shady? Here is where I chronicled my experience: http://shorespeak.com/blog/2009/09/a-brief-tale-of-sleaze/
Fortunately by bullshit alarm went off quickly!
Near miss with leapfish:
I got the 2hr pitch last night and luckily hung up without making a purchase. People have compared the tactics to car sales: I can go toe to toe with any car salesman, this was more like a time share. The only things missing were the free tickets to Disney. The snotty attitude, high pressure and disdain were all present and accounted for. During our lengthy conversation he asked for my url and had me spell it several times. After reading all of the scam reports today, I realize that he was trying to find my google ad. Fortunately my pay per click balance was low and my ad was suspended! He would have placed a few clicks right there to bump up my ad costs-unreal.
The sad part is that despite all of the red flags I can still feel the tug of the dream. I’m a small business with handmade products and chances are I’ll never be able to beat out the big dogs for position. It would have been nice to be on top of the dog pile for once.
I got a sales call from them recently, checked them out and have seen and read evidence of a total disregard for decorum and integrity in writings and responses from multiple managers (from the founder to this Mark). I am grateful for you and others for chronicling your interactions and helping everyone to see what happens in a truly connected and seamless marketplace.
A leapfish salesperson left a message on my answering machine stating something to the effect that they were looking for “coaches such as myself for a project.” This inferred, to me, that they were looking to hire for coaching services. I called them back, and the salesperson staged his talk so as to keep me on the phone for nothing. For example, he started out with “Are you familiar with Leapfish?” I was not, and that gave him license to drone on and on about the company. I slowly realized he was just trying to sell me something. I think Leapfish uses deception in its business practices.
Hello everyone.. I have read all the posts on here. I have been contacted by 1 rep of leapfish. My partners and I have just launched a business to help others succeed in any business they choose to pursue, online and offline. I thought it would be very good to get on leapfish. I believe it can be good or bad to buy keywords on there. It is a gamble. I did my research too, and they do not have a ton of traffic each month. That is the bad thing. The good thing is that the traffic is rising, and it may be big in like 5 or 10 years once they find out what works better for there site. It’s kind of like the stock market I guess. I am still considering doing it. I have always been a risk taker. On google I know many people who have failed very bad with Pay Per Click. We do our own, but one of my partners is very good at it. (thank God for that). I think for myself, I will risk it, and think long term for the rewards. They told me I can sell it also, so I guess I might just get the spot, maybe get some more traffic in the mean time from leapfish, and maybe have a big pay later on off of there website. That is the plan anyways. Wish me luck, and good luck to everyone in whatever it is you do. Great to comment with everyone. Take care..
Ray MacDonald
http://www.themillionaireapproach.com
Ray,
Where do you you get those figures from? LeapFish thought would they will be next “viral” sensation. The statistics they are referring to (Alexa or Compete) are quiet inaccurate and often can be gamed in short term. If you look at their traffic in 5-6 months period it is easy to understand there is nothing sensational about LeapFish nor it’s traffic.
They have Google analytics code installed on their website so they can just share those stats and shut the hell up critics like myself.
Vlad, I do understand there are not good numbers right now. I have never worked for anyone for my whole life and been a risk taker too. I am 33 years old and my partners and I have Launched one month ago. I mainly was talking about 5 years down the road. I like the permanent spot, and like I said, I know a lot of people that have failed on Google Pay Per Click adwords, by not knowing how to use it correctly. We use google adwords and get good results. As I said, only because my partner knows how to utilize it properly. If I were to spend $3,500 on a spot on leapfish and they did explode to 20, or 30 times there traffic, I could make a very big amount when that happens on selling my spot. Maybe I wouldn’t want to sell it though, because if that happened then that means my business would be doing great numbers off of leapfish. I know there are no guarantees but like I said earlier, it is a gamble. It is a risk I may take. It might not pan out, but I have never worked for anyone but myself in my life, only by taking risks. I will be back on here to network more with more people. This is only my opinion and I hope I did not mislead anyone that reads this..
Ray MacDoanld
I was on the phone with a rep 2 months ago. He just called me up today to let me know that the growth of the site is unbelievable, averaging a half million visits per month. He said how they were mentioned in over 200 articles/reviews and they also were running a National TV ad. They have a little PR monkey getting the name out, but if it is such a good site, howcome I never heard of it once? They call me week after week, attempting to scare you into signing up by claiming all the keywords are taken except 1. YEA RIGHT! haha, thats what you said 2 months ago buddy.
What really made me turned off to LeapFish, was when I asked him how many times my targeted keyword was searched through leapfish. He told me that he cannot provide me with that information. Now, when I registered with adwords, they tell you exactely how many times the keyword is searched, and there is an extensive system set up to inform you of the search stats for that specific keyword, which is very important. For the rep to tell me that he is not allowed to provide me with that information makes me strongly believe that LeapFish is complete bullshit. Im gonna pay you $5000 and not know 1 bit of the amount of impressions that is expected!
In my eyes, LeapFish is just another company attempting to make their service out to be the best around, when in all reality, you will get more for your money through traditional methods of advertising (ie AdWords, ads on relevant sites, etc.)
Looks like a good search engine.
Have receive at least 10 calls from Leapfish. I was thinking about purchasing. But after reading this blog I have decided against it. One of the things that hit me is that Leapfish is trying to sell you something that doesn’t even exist yet! Plus, it’s obvious that the whole marketing angle of Leapfish is that they are not selling pay per clicks. They are structering their advertisment differently. Well, that’s a red flag right there! Their whole pep talk is about selling advertisment! What? They have is ass backwards. It’s just the same a multi-level marketing. Remember – If the sales approach is about money first and not results first then it’s a scam!
PLEASE READ BEFORE ANY KEYWORD BUYING:
A High pressure salesman or saleslady will call you concerning your site and won’t back out until they close the deal. Typical of scams! They never give you a chance to think about it and will talk right over you.
I have fallen for it, we have purchased 9 keywords since we have a big advertising budget on other search engines, I figured this a unique opportunity. After 3 months, all we got is 2 clicks from leapfish.com according to their own date.
They do NOT show you from where the clicks are generated as all other search engine do.
No refund of your money, but they never tell you that. Instead they circumvent any questions with more praise about their company. There’s nothing so great about leapfish you cannot find anywhere else.
Buyer beware! DON’T FALL FOR IT AS I DID!
Yikes, thank heavens, I found your blog. They just called this morning. Fortunately, for me it was at a bad time to talk with the Leapfish rep. So she is calling back this afternoon. Should be an interestsing conversation.
Please if your were scammed try following up with your credit card company instead of them.
To everyone that has left a comment here about Leapfish:
A) I am happy my blog post has served as a warning for some that googled before signing up.
B) It sucks that people are still being scammed / ripped off by this company.
C) I’m shocked that Leapfish is still in business.
D) If you own a blog, website, etc., please link to this blog post ( http://editweapon.com/leapfish-scam/ ) with the anchor text “leapfish”. That will cause this post to rank more highly.
I just get a call from them today, really nice people, good talking , but they want my money for nothing
!!!!
Thank you to post this because I foound it on Google in a good time to say no!!!!
Patrick, I have been doing it for quiet some time- linking to this post. Initially I thought encouraging people to leave reviews on sites like Alexa would be a good idea. However, Alexa has removed several negative reviews (even after the Dec 1 FTC guidelines)- I believe one of those reviews was your, wasn’t it?
Another good site to link to would be BBB.org – LeapFish is currently rated there at D on an A++ to F scale.
I fell for LeapFish too. I think the tool itself is great but I don’t see any effort on their part to promote it effectively. They just took the money and ran. Oh, and my keyword that they told me was so hot has gotten 29 impressions in the last 60 days. Stay away.
Leapfish called Thursday 2/4/10. I have to admit the sales rep was good! Very high pressure, but he was quick with answers to my questions. My practice is not to buy from a cold call and do my research. Thank God I found your blog. I will not be purchasing from Leapfish! I can’t wait to talk to the sales rep when he calls again, if he calls again
Wow. This LeapFish is getting steamrolled from what I have been reading. They might need to rethink their modal.
Watch out they are bad I am glad I found this site.
I wish I had found this site before I purchased a keyword for a few thousand dollars. Back in middle of 09. High pressure sales which I fell for. Needless to say, I called the following morning after to cancel and they flat out told me I could not cancel I owned the keyword and would have to sell it. NO REFUNDS! I immediately called my CC company and told them and we then put in a dispute for the charge. After many harassing calls from Leapfish I finally got a supervisor that told me they would credit my account only after I called the Credit Card company and had them reverse the charge back. (Of course I made sure he sent me an email regarding this). I then informed him per the CC I was not to do that, they would have to initiate the refund. Well of course they did not. I cannot tell you how many harassing calls from them even after I spoke to another person and forwarded him the email from the supervisor, His response to me was the person who sent me the email did not have the authority to credit me. NO REFUNDS PERIOD! I now in turn get a call about 1 month ago from a collection company telling me I owe Leapfish all this money. BEWARE!!!!
I got a call also and decided not to move forward because of the financial situation I’m currently in. Yes, the sales rep did try to push me a little to move forward but I told him I just couldn’t do it. He was not too pushy at all once I explained my situation, but for everyone here complaining about pushy sales rep or being pressured into buying, don’t you realize the only thing connecting you to the rep is a phone!? If you don’t want to do something then hang up and stop complaining about being pressured to do something and then say it’s a scam once you realized what you’ve done. No one held a gun to your head telling you to do something so stop feeling bad for yourselves and learn to do your full research before committing to anything.