WME (Web Marketing Experts) WME Group WME rip off, false reports, shoddy work when they bother to do any, SEO rip off Melbourne Victoria

Sadly, we have joined the growing number of people duped and ripped off by the promises made by WME - Web Marketing Experts on here and other review sites. We (my hubby actually) signed up for a 12 month contract (wish we'd read some of the reports on here beforehand, but hindsight is a wonderful thing). When we noticed that we were getting no emails, through our contact forms on the website, we investigated a bit and found that the forms were not even working. We were paying for them to do Google PPC (Adwords) at this time, so whether people had actually tried to contact us through the forms or not will never be known. This was only the start of our problems with WME. 

An invalid Google Analytics tracking code was entered into our website, and it was after I received a Traffic Report from them that I noticed that there was no way that we could have that amount of traffic (showing on their report), without any enquires, that I decided to log in and check on the traffic report from Google myself. The report that I generated showed a very different picture and when I queried this with WME they told me that I must've used different filters. I asked what filters they had used and was later told that it was only date filters. Upon checking again, I was using the exact same date filters. I then got a notification from my Google Analytics platform to say that the tracking code on our site was invalid. Where my business had already been verified with Google, prior to WME taking over, it was now saying that the site was not even verified. 

Milestones (according to our contract) were supposed to be 3 months, 6 months and then 12 months. They met the first milestone (which as we probably all know is when the payments start from) with a keyword that they had chosen. When the 2nd milestone was due and was not met, I queried this (I had already asked some time before if blogs, articles and such were being done and if so where could I see some samples of this only to be told that "whilst it is a basic part of our SEO strategy, our campaign did not require this"), later told by another woman that she was waiting on the guys getting back after a break and would send me some samples (still waiting, but I guess they can't send me anything if nothing has been done), and was told that the 2nd milestone was not due because it (progress) doesn't start until the optimization of the website was complete. The optimization of my website consisted of a few paragraphs of content that they decided to change (note: aside from these couple of paragraphs all of the other content had already been provided to them - I'd written it). It took them 17 days to upload the new content, following our acceptance of it. When I asked how they ever expected to meet the 12 month milestone (because it now fell outside of our 12 month contract) I was met with no reply. Unfortunately, they probably assume that we (just as many others probably already have) would extend the contract, but that certainly won't be happening. When I said that I use a particular SEO crawl tool to check on the website, the campaign manager suggested that I use another as she thought the one I was using was not as good as the one she recommended. Unfortunately for her, I signed up for a trial of the one she had suggested and lo and behold the report highlighted (as most important) all of the things I'd just asked her to do, only to be told that our campaign didn't need it. It was also interesting to note that of all the things that we'd asked them to fix (I am not that tech savvy and was unable to do them) when they first took over, still required doing when I ran the same report after we'd moved it away from them. In just 5 days (following the removal of WME) I have managed to lift the ranking of the site by 9 points already (and I'm no SEO genius). 

A few very badly written Directory listings had been done and because we (or more to the point I) had not been made aware that we would need to verify them, most of them ended up in our Spam folders and so effectively there were next to no listings done either. One, that I did come accross after googling our business to see what listings we did have was so badly written, using a term that we'd specifically asked not to be used and looked as if a non-english child (no offence meant to any non-english child there) had written it. Their response, "we didn't write that one". Given they were the only ones working on our website and campaign I guess the fairies must have written it, because anyone with half an inkling wouldn't do that to their own site. Not to mention that although I'd had blogs written and saw errors that I could have easily fixed, I would not touch the website while the contract was in place so that they could at no time come back and blame the ineffectiveness of the campaign on anything that I'd done. I have yet to check, but am pretty confident in saying, that those listings that I did find, that needed fixing and advised them of probably still require fixing. 

Every time we have tried to address any issues with WME we have been fobbed off, delayed or they have tried to baffle us with BS, not to mention the amount of different people that we ended up having to deal with. I posted a pretty scathing report of our experiences in a survey they had sent us, expecting that someone might address the issues raised, and funnily enough it was before the 2nd milestone was due (I had indicated in the survey that if the milestone was not met that we would be seeking to terminate the contract) and have yet to receive a call about it. I have also just posted a review on their website (and received a notification to say that someone would contact me, given I was not happy with the service provided (or not provided which is more the case) however I doubt that I will ever receive that call either. My husband (who is not very knowledgeable in computers, websites or SEO) signed up for this contract (wanting to get his website moving and being asked during the sales pitch (which is about the only thing they do do well) "how many people do you want working for you? 16? 17? Don't worry we've got this and you're going to be sitting back, managing all of your staff in no time".) and so, even after he requested that they contact me (I have a bit better of an idea of what should and shouldn't be going on) for anything to do with his campaign and offered to put it in writing so they could do so (told that that was not necessary) they reverted back to my hubby as the one with the contract and therefore they couldn't discuss it with me. I guess because I will call them on things whereas my husband can be baffled by their bs. 

Fortunately, I was quick enough to move the hosting (away from them) and change all logins etc before they even realised (not sure they even did prior to me telling them so, given we've since received another report that is supposedly about our website even though it is no longer even there with them) before they could do any further damage. 

We've received and paid a termination fee today, because we value our credit rating, but we will be letting as many people as we know (and getting them to too) what they can expect from WME in the hopes that not too many more, like us, end up burnt by WME. They still were suggesting that we re-consider and try to work with the same campaign manager even though we'd asked to be assigned a new one (in the hopes that someone there could do some work for us) some time earlier. While 3 people have read my email today (a new name has popped up), not one could respond until I emailed back and asked for at least one of them to confirm cancellation. I've been told now that they have processes and it should be done tomorrow. As with anything from WME I won't be holding my breath on that happening for at least another few days but will follow up daily until I do so. 

We did lodge a complaint with Consumer Protection, here in Western Australia, however because it it not something for domestic or residential use, they are unable to assist us. 

These guys are an absolute rip-off and unfortunately they seem to be able to get away with it at the moment. The sooner someone bites the bullet, and takes legal action or gets the media involved the better. We're in a different state, so fighting this legally will cost us more but we are considering taking the trip to Melbourne to do so (yet to be decided). 

Don't go near WME they are total scammers and will take your money and if you're lucky not do anything (if they do, you can probably expect the work to be dodgy.).