toplevelpr.com toplevelpr toplevelpr, bad service, costly experience Santa Monica Internet

I hired toplevelpr to help me with my kickstarter campaign. They have a nice video and gave me a great explenation. When asking about other companies, they told me that they have the longest history and great personal contacts with journalists. They would surely be able to get me coverage, using their public relations techniques. 

At the end of the conversation, I was told to hurry, as there where only 3 spots left. So... I bought the $495 package from their website. I still regret it until this day. They delivered the writen pitches and told me that they'll be running tests with them, to keep the best running pitch. All good, I thought. 

I got zero engagement, and altough I did got some 'publications' from them, non of it was relevant and non of it generated any visibility, let it be alone funding. When asking about this, and their success rate, I got a long answer with no relevant information. I contacted two of the blogs myself, only to find out that thet get paid between $3 and $12 to post my article. When I checked the number of unique visitors/month, I got to under 2000 ... 

So I again contacted toplevelpr.com and asked for my money back. With the claims take make on their website, I would have at least expected to have 1 journalists reacting. Not even writing, but at least saying "thank you". Blog posts which you can buy for a couple of dollars on freelancing sites is something I can myself as well. It's not worth paying $495 for.

"Hands-On PR Outreach
 News & Social Media Targeting
 Expert Influencer Marketing
 Boost Exposure & Funding To New Limits!"

and

RANKED THE #1 PR FIRM FOR CROWDFUNDERS BY CF FORUMS

With over 3,000 projects funded, We are very proud to say that we’re the top PR agency for crowdfunders ready to get 
more coverage!

The response when asking for my money back? After a few days of silence, and 2 more message from my side, they told me that they never refund. That's it. I lost $495 and got nothing in return !!

After reading the review above, I did some research as well. It is correct that they only bought their domain in februari 2016, as the person above stated. But even more:

The picture from their "team": fake: http://kia-buzz.com/racing-kia-cee’d-–-another-quality-performance/ . They stole it from a website, it's the Kia public Relations team in Slovakia... 

I tried to contact some of their "references". Not easy as they are all made up... out of the 2 campaigns I found, one campaign owener who told me that I'm the 5th person sending him and inquiry, but they NEVER worked with toplevelpr. 

Everyone, be aware! Toplevelpr.com sells nice stories, but non of them are real. They are friendly and great in taking your money, but will never, ever deliver anything but crap. 

I already reported then to the better business bureau.