We bought into their citation in November 2017. I was willing to be patient and give the time it took for momentum to build, but I spent 9 months enduring unprofessional behavior, inadequate results, frustrating back and forth and my having to chase down simple requests, and a severe lack of experience.
The first account manager they assigned to me either left or was fired, after I sent, what I thought to be, a candid email exposing the long overdue need to get the attention I deserved as a paying customer.
"I'm contacting you because I'm frustrated with my account manager. Firstly, I don't want this to reflect negatively on her employment at Xurli. However, I'm sure you can appreciate that, as a paying customer, I expect a certain level of customer service that I'm just not getting. I don't feel taken care. of. Additionally, there have been other requests that I have made in the past that have gone unanswered for weeks on end, only to get an answer when I follow up multiple times, just as in the example in this email chain. I have been in her role as account manager, so I know the multi-tasking and high-clientele juggling that can be involved in her position, which can lead to smaller, less-high-priority tasks to be forgotten. But when this has happened multiple times over the 5 months that we've been assigned to her, it leads me to become increasingly frustrated and warrants a conversation. I'm not asking to change account managers. But I do need the courtesy of being heard and answered in a timely manner. This is basic customer service that has, unfortunately, fallen flat."
The subsequent response to this, which continued to require me to call / email to get an answer, was that our account manager no longer worked there and I would hear from my new account manager. It took over a week for me to find out who that was so I could continue corresponding with and obtaining the information I needed.
I was also sold on the Smartsite, which I bought into. BIG MISTAKE! I was told that our current site was missing a lot of the backend coding that was needed for Google to detect our site as a legitimate business and that their Smartsite platform would bring us up to code. I, again, paid them a large sum of money to rebuild our site on their servers. Their capabilities were highly limited. My "new" site looked like it was built back in the 1990's. After the first two months of our new site being live, I asked to be sent an analysis of click-through and drop-off rates, bounces, etc. I couldn't believe my ears when I was told that they don't currently have the technology to provide this data. Are you kidding me???!! I hired someone outside of this company to do an SEO analysis and the data showed that this "Smartsite" wasn't set up properly and had no Google tracking codes. This was the final straw.
When I called to cancel the service, the woman who picked up the phone said that my account manager was on vacation and she would handle my cancelation when she returned. I wasn't going to wait. But she insisted that my account manager was the only person who had the authority to cancel my account. I said I wasn't going to allow another day to pass without being shown the courtesy of basic customer care that had evaded me for the past 9 months! I was asked to write an email to my account manager, stating the reasons why I wanted to cancel my account. Here's what I wrote:
"I am writing to request a complete cancellation of ALL services provided to us by Xurli effective IMMEDIATELY.
I have consistently been frustrated and disappointed at the lack of professionalism and expertise bestowed upon me by your company.
Here are just a small list of reasons why we no longer want to do business with your company:
I have yet to receive an automated report from BOTH cities that we are paying to run, and my constant frustration for a simple report to make it to my inbox each month has come to a head. We bought into your citation program in November 2017. I shouldn't have to keep chasing you down for this.
Lack of response and basic customer service from our last account manager who sometimes went WEEKS without responding to emails and messages.
I have still never received an item that I paid for at the end of May.
And to top it all off, I recently hired someone to run an SEO analytics report on the so called 'SMARTsite'. The results of that report show NO Google analytics tracking codes, proving that the website was NOT set up to the specs I was guaranteed when sold on the service.....".
I was told it would take 72 hours for someone to get back to me with a confirmation of my canceled account. I took ONE WEEK for this to happen - but only after I emailed to ask why I hadn't heard from anyone. I just hope that this review is seen by someone at or near the top. I am clearly not the only person to experience these issues, which look to have been going on for years now. read more