Lonny Dunn - Social N Worldwide Inc Pro Network BuildSocial N Chicago Took money to promote but provided no service and refuses to refund payment Annandale Virginia

Social N Chicago was and probably still is running a "special" where they would promote your business to thousands of Twitter followers for "less than $1 a day".  I am the owner of a startup business and had just launched a crowdfunding campaign and decided to give the service a try since I had seen numerous tweets from the accounts Social N Chicago, Pro Network Build, and the personal account of Lonny Dunn who manages them all.

I went to the site linked in the tweets and provided the requested info to promote my business.  I also sent the $25 fee to the PayPal account specified in the instructions.  I expected to see tweets promoting my business and the fund raiser within a week, but never saw a single one.  Prior to signing up for the service, I had been in email communications with Lonny Dunn, so I replied to that email chain asking for an update as to when I would see promotional tweets.  I did not get a reply.

A few days after not receiving an email reply, I decided to send a Direct Message via Twitter to the Social N Chicago account to ask for an update.  I got no reply there either.  Meanwhile, I saw dozens of tweets daily from the various accounts that Lonny Dunn manages, none of them promoting my business.

Since I had gotten no reply via email or Twitter, I decided to open a dispute via PayPal to get back the $25 sent for the month of promotions.  The dispute remained open and unacknowledged by the seller (Social N Worldwide Inc) for 20 days, at which point payPal considered it closed for lack of activity.

Having gotten nowhere with my efforts, I moved on to more pressing matters until I looked at my PayPal account and saw that there were two more payments of $25 that had been sent to Social N Worldwide.  I had failed to recognize that the payment agreement had been set as automatically recurring, so I cancelled the last transfer and opened a new dispute on the second payment which had already been completed.

At this point, I replied again to Lonny Dunn directly via the same email chain and demanded a refund or I would be forced to take him to small claims court.  This time, I finally got the following reply:

Well, Chris, you had an open dialogue with me through this channel.  As soon as you jumped over to trying to get for 25 dollars apparantly we didn't see it. 

You could have simply eMailed me as a follow up.  

If you want to take the hard route, and wait for a refund, as opposed to seeing if your app has traction? That's on you.   

I have a mobile app guy here in DC who's gotten a thousand downloads a month from his Campaign, Chris.  It might not be a Kickstarter or IndieGoGo  result, but you would still have downloads, and still be able to test your prototype over a large audience. 

Frankly, I Never knew you paid at all till yesterday, and trying to resolve it for you the easier, faster route.  That account has largely been abandoned due to PayPal glitches and our own server pops.  Between both issues?  We've just about written it off, and that is the third reason we did not get any notice of transaction ~ we gave up looking for any.    

Not going to respond to the disputes with them, Chris.  Since it's just not worth my time.  It will likely take you three months to go through that process, the choice is yours. I am trying to help you get hits, but if you want to stand on principle, that is entirely up to you. 

Peace

I went back and forth via email reiterating to Lonny that I sent multiple messages through multiple venues to get an update prior to trying to get my money back.  I said that glitches in his/their PayPal account are no justification for me having to pay for services that were never rendered.  Lonny responded as follows:

We have three different accounts ~ that one is the glitchiest.

I hadn't even put two and two together as to managing your fundraise till you just managed it.   

Why didn't you follow up your payments with eMails?  We are not mind readers.   

Handle it anyway you deem fit. 

The back and forth continued and Lonny continued to refuse a refund and accepting no blame in the situation.  I continued to express my displeasure with him and the way he has chosen to do business, stopping short of using the full menu of colorful language that I would have used had we been speaking instead of typing, and he added this:

Misery is a choice, Chris.  So is happiness.  

We tried to help you resolve it sooner, you keep referring to disputes and Courts. 

Good luck with that approach

So as I prepare to go through all the hassle of small claims court, I want to make clear to as many people as possible that Lonny Dunn is less than trustworthy, to say the least.  The high and mighty, holier than thou attitude makes matters no better.  There are far better ways to promote your business than to put up with Lonny and his nonsense.