BT Web Clicks
Today I received a phone call from one of my clients who said that they had a BT engineer with them. OK. I thought, what’s going on here…
They then proceeded to ask me “what do we rank for on google?”, my response was “your company name, unless you request otherwise”.
They then went on to mentioned that “the man from BT” can get us listed “at the top” of the search engine for “our keywords”.
Naturally I reply to this with a sigh, but how they can they go around making such statements? It’s so unethical to make these kind of claims.
After reading their marketing bumph, I found out what they meant by “at the top”. What they are offering is the ability to list as the “sponsored links” in search engines, which appear “at the top”.
They requested my email address to send me “further details” through, below is the marketing email I was sent. I couldn’t wait to pull it apart.
This isn’t at all a review of the BT Web Clicks service, in fact i’ve not used it, it’s simply an analysis of their marketing blurb.
BT webclicks is a new service that guarantees as many or as little hits on your website based on your particular need.
Example. Anybody searching search engines such as google yahoo and msn for the specific type of business they need will be presented with a choice of various differenet company’s. What we guarantee is not just a priority sponsored listing. We absolutely guarantee that we will the will actually click on to your website searching for whatever your key words say about you. Ie car hire chaueffeur driven
WRONG: You can’t guarantee anything you have no control over. You have no control over our websites or any of the search engines. No matter whether you think you do or not, even if you are using deep packet inspection for targeted advertising, which is against your privacy policy and thus against the law.
If we don’t achieve the level of clicks you want we will give you your money back for the percentage we don’t achieve. Furthermore we are that confident of our product that we will allow customers to trial the 960 package for 3 months and can terminate the agreement if they are not happy at the end of this period.
EXPENSIVE: According to the BT Web Clicks Prices, you’re charging between £1 and £15 per month per click. So, 100 clicks in a month could cost you £1,500. Why would I do that when I get get 100 clicks a month for free using organic methods?
BT Web Clicks – Search Engine Marketing for Small Businesses Running a small business is hard work, fortunately your Internet Advertising doesn’t have to be Do you run a small business in your spare time or know someone who does? If so, BT is launching a new service which could help you save time and money.
WASTE: of time and money more like. Small businesses are vulnerable, but they’re right, running a business doesn’t get any easier, just like huge corporations are going to continue to try and trick you trick you into buying something you don’t need. If your business is important, spend the time and money doing it yourself, rather than paying BT to do it.
Internet Advertising is the fastest growing advertising media in the UK, fuelled by the tremendous growth in the use of the Internet. But small and medium sized businesses are missing out on much of this usage because advertising on search engines is complicated and time consuming.
NOT ALWAYS BEST: Just because it’s the fastest doesn’t always mean it’s the best, this is because it’s very competitive, and just about everyone has some involvement these days. This is why Google have now started using other forms of media including TV, audio and print. Whatever gets results.
BT Web Clicks is a new Internet Advertising product that helps small and medium businesses by taking away the pain of advertising on search engines, leaving them to concentrate on their business. It offers customers a fixed amount of leads to their website for a fixed monthly fee. It is backed by a guarantee1 that offers them money back for undelivered clicks.
PAINKILLER: Yes, using BT Web Clicks is much like using a pain killer, it block the pain, but they don’t actually give you a solution, and just like pain killers, they wear off after a while, unless you keep paying for them. Instead invest in a consultant who can act on your behalf.
Setting up a search marketing campaign on the major UK search engines can take up to 30 hours, however, customers placing orders for BT Web Clicks will have our expert team identify the keywords relevant to their business, create the advertising text, and place and manage the adverts on the major search engines including Google, Yahoo and at least 12 other search engines.
HOW LONG?: Last time I checked, planning and setting up a search engine marketing campaign should take about 30 minutes, not 30 hours. If choosing relevant keywords, creating advertising text and signing up to Google Adwords takes 30 hours, you must be stupid.
BT Web Clicks
Get more customers to visit your business website!# Sponsored links on multiple search engines
# Experts choosing optimised keywords
# Fixed prices to suit your budget
FREE: None of this actually costs money, just your time. How much is your time actually worth? If it’s worth more than BT are charging for this service, I recommend you hire someone else to read through this for you.
BT Web Clicks is a search marketing service for your website or online shop. This service creates your business’ very own sponsored links on both major and local search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, in order to drive relevant leads through to your site through carefully chosen keywords.
FREE AGAIN: Creating your very own sponsored links is a FREE service offered by search engines. You only have to pay for them to appear on search engines for the keywords you choose.
Who will benefit from BT Web Clicks?
Your website is the first step in getting your business online, but how are people looking for your type of products and services going to find you if they don’t know you exist?
MARKETING: There’s lots of ways people can find out you exist. You shouldn’t rely on paid online marketing exclusively, there’s plenty of free methods and other medias to explore.
What is BT Web Clicks?
Many people start researching through search engines for both local and national suppliers – so whether you’re a local business such as a florist, takeaway restaurant, or hairdresser looking for local customers, or a specialist mail order company selling nationally BT Web Clicks can help.
WHAT?: People do what? I don’t think they do, they use yellow pages for local information. Don’t let them trick you.
What do I get?
# Keyword generation – our team of experts analyse search engines and choose the keywords that are going to generate you relevant leads to your site.
# Advertising text – we use professional online copywriters to create a text ad for your website to attract customers.
# No admin – our automated systems connect directly with the search engines to bid on keywords and upload your sponsored links.
# Fixed budget – you choose the budget so you know exactly what you will spend each month, all backed by a guarantee.
# Leads direct to your door – when a customer clicks your sponsored link they go straight through to your website and not through any other online directory.
# A monthly report with number of click through to your website – you can monitor your traffic and increase package if necessary
GUARANTEED PIECE OF CRAP: Here’s how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box ’cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside. But they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.
What does this mean for my business?
Getting visitors to your website is the first step in getting a paying customer so promoting your site in the right place is vitally important. Search marketing is a proven way of generating leads directly from both major and local search engines, however getting it right and running a search marketing campaign to generate quality leads can be both time consuming and costly.
With BT Web Clicks you get the opportunity to use expertly chosen keywords and professionally written advertising copy that are all relevant to your business. This helps ensure that the visitors that come to your website using a sponsored link are looking for the products or services that your business supplies, and more likely to become your customer.
THE REAL EXPERT: They aren’t the real expect, YOU ARE, yes, that’s right, the real expert is YOU! After all, it’s your business, you know your customers better than anyone else, right?
If you need anymore information don’t hesitate to call Yours sincereley, Mark Clark Sales Executive: Cheshire and North Wales BT Directories
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 07918717465
THANKS: Thanks Mark, you’ve been most helpful. I enjoyed writing about this. Now watch as I rank on the first page of google for “BT Web Clicks”.
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Joseph said,
May 31, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
I think you’ll find this is harsh denigration and sour grapes directly from a person who charges for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) How much do you charge? My business recently signed up to BT Web Clicks, I have a letting company and passed my internet marketing over to BT, I really don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of this. I know BT Web Clicks saved me alot of money on a certain consultant i used to use. And its delivering more enquires than the guy who used to be my “consultant”
Steve said,
July 2, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Beware all you search engine optimisation specialists being paid big fat salaries for sitting on your lazy asses all day. Bt Webclicks works harder than you, delivers better results than you and costs less than you… dear oh dear, do I detect panic in your text? The bottom is about to fall out of your little world… The fact you a had time on your hands to write such a long rant is a clear indication of how hard you work for your clients…not very!
hm2k said,
July 4, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
I think you guys missed the point. *grin*
Steve said,
July 8, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Not at all,
The fundamental flaw in your attack… You don’t tell us how you would go about delivering the exact same results for your clients and what you would charge for the service, and what would you offer them as a guarantee. Alright, so you managed to get on page one, but what does this mean to me… not a lot unless you can tell me how many clicks have successfully generated on this page as a result, and how long it took to generate them.
You have also retyped the marketing blurb rather than cut and paste, so you have, and I assume, by error, missed out some of the original text.
Incidently, the Geneva software platform that BT webclicks uses to generate the clicks to customers websites has just been voted the No1 internet product of 2008 in the USA by the AeA, and is now also the number one way in America in which customers search for the details of businesses from which they intent to buy. Now… the worlds biggest internet users can’t be all that wrong!
hm2k said,
July 8, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
That’s because I don’t sell SEO as a product or service, but as consultancy, there are no guarantees.
The text you see is the text I received by email, if i’ve missed it out its because it wasn’t sent to me correctly. The more text the better really.
It doesn’t matter what platform they use, it’s the way in which they try and sell it that is the issue, thus why I provide their marketing blurb, and not details of the product.
junior1138 said,
July 12, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
You have leveled some serious and unfounded criticisms. I will try to answer them sensibly.
Guaranteed Service. Any service or product can be guaranteed. BT guarantee to deliver a set level of referral. Failure to deliver results in a pro-rata refund. I believe this meets the current popular definition of guarantee.
Expensive. Define expensive. I am typing this on a G4 PowerBook from Apple. It cost 1200 quid, three times what an of it’s time PC based laptop wold have cost. The machine is now approaching it’s sixth year of use. The bulk of businesses qualify for the £1/click with the higher cost packages reserved for higher margin generating companies.
Waste. Small businesses are vulnerable, I agree. What makes better sense, a drop of 500 leaflets that might reach 1% of your customer base, of a marketing plan where you only reach customers that are looking for you.
Not Always best: You answer this by saying 99% of the population is on the web. Erg, you reach 99% of the population. I fail to see the objection.
Painkiller: I fail to see how this is different from the service you offer. Your solution is ongoing as is the BT solution.
How Long: Most Plasterers and Horse Riding Equipment suppliers are, in my admittedly limited experience, tend not to be skilled in the fine art of creating source code. You might be able to knock up keywords inside an episode of Doctor Who, but the average plumber isn’t as skilled in HTML as you or I.
Free: yes, it does only cost time, assuming you have the requisite skills. BT offer the service if you don’t.
Free again:”You only have to pay for them to appear on search engines for the keywords you choose.” So, not free then.
Marketing: Webclicks can be used as a standalone product, or in conjunction with any other plan. It depends entirely on the product or service that is on offer.
What: Perhaps you should join BT as part of the market research team. I spite of being a lone ranger web designer, you seem to know more about UK buyer research than a major conglomerate telco of many decades does, in spite of them having scores of staff who do only this.
GUARANTEED PIECE OF CRAP: in lieu of any sensible debate, you resort to playground stile abuse. Ofcom will tell you that the warranty is of legitimate value. BT are regulated by something called compliance that prevents them from saying a great many things. Perhaps you could draw upon it’s wisdom.
THE REAL EXPERT Customer can produce websites on their own, but that won’t suit you either as they will be at best amateurish and at worst, well, I guess you get the picture.
It is my belief that you see WebClicks as a clear and present danger to your business. I also believe that you will have been charging exorbitant prices for your service and are now feeling threatened by a simpler and more cost effective customer solution. Correct me if I am wrong.
hm2k said,
July 14, 2008 @ 9:30 am
Thanks for your kind words, but you totally missed the point. Web Clicks is no threat, if it was, I’d be attacking the platform they use instead wouldn’t I?
I’m just not happy in which they try are trying to trick my clients.
Steve said,
July 19, 2008 @ 8:20 am
To hm2k,
Is BT tricking your clients or simply luring them away with an offer of a much better service? You can’t attack the platform because a world leading authority in web marketing tools (the AeA) has declared it is the number one way in which Americans now find a businesses from which they wish to buy. If you were the concerned and decent consultant you perceive yourself to be you would be recommending BTwebclicks and BTwebclicks Plus to your clients as a cost effective way of generating contacts to their businesses. If you really have a serious problem with the way that BT has marketed Webclicks simply raise a complaint with Ofcom, better still, why don’t you speak to one of many many many many many many many many many BTwebclicks subscribers out there and see if they think they have been tricked or if they are more than happy with the results they’re getting, where else after all, can you buy a customer for your business from just £1?
As a SEO consultant you should have no problem identifying a Btwebclicks subscriber… they’re the ones that appear in a prominent position on the results page!!!!!
Now… who’s trying to trick who here? And no… I’m not missing the point!
Neil said,
August 12, 2008 @ 10:07 am
I signed up to Bt Web Clicks back in March of this year and todate have had ZERO correspondance from BT. I have tried emailing their address but it bounces back! I have searched around forums and others to have had this same proble. I have tried their Live Chat system on the BT website but to no avail. I have spent much time on the phone via the 0800 800 152 number being passed from pillar to post but no one seems to know what to do. As I type I am currently on hold (26mins and 7secs!) for the VAS team?
What I would love to know from the Pro comments above (and I am not against this product – I just haven’t had it!) are you BT Web click customers or BT sales people? If you are sales people then I understand your need to defend, if you are customers then I would love to know how this is working for you and if you have had any problems conatcting them or if indeed you have a contact number. I note the mobile number above in the email but feel its a little early in my problem solving to call this one yet (albeit I am in the Chester and North Wales area!)
29 mins and 4 secs now but my call is important to them
Neil
Steve said,
September 9, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
Neil, Did you sign up online or did a sales rep came to you? If the latter, he or she would should have left their contact details, My rep has been great, which is a bit unusual I know! There were a few teething problems at the start (I also started my clicks in March) such as no monthly reports and a bit of a lack of communication from BT directly, but after a few phone calls to the rep that sold me the clicks everything has been running smoothly, I have also since doubled my package of clicks as it works so well for me.
If you can’t find the reps name and number it should be on the order form at the top, failing that, try the email or phone number below, I think they have a dedicated number for webclicks customers now but I don’t have it…sorry.
or 0800 833 400 without choosing from the automated options.
Hope that helps
Valerie said,
October 6, 2008 @ 3:11 am
I stumbled on your site from the Open Cart forum. Great site and a wonderful post! Just last week I had a client ask me if her new site was search engine optimized. She wanted to know if I could get them to the top of the Google search results. Um…no. My SEO services? Top notch. They consist of adding some META tags – keywords, description – and a robots file. That’s IT. On a good day, I may even submit the site URL to a few engines. I don’t offer SEO as a service and have never recommended a SEO service to anyone – probably never will. It actually tickled me because the client is a local CHURCH.
I coded my first web page in 1996. I remember going to sites by IP! I say that to say I’m a veteran and I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff make money online over the years. I think for the most part, SEO is a bunch of hooey. There are some great pay per click services and I’m sure it makes sense for larger companies but IMHO, and I agree with you – depending on the business/organization, most are better off spending money on strong local marketing and advertising campaigns.
James Kelly said,
October 22, 2008 @ 4:31 pm
BT Webclicks is mis sold. We had a sales agent come and see us, I explained That I used to sell website advertising so I know a little of what I was talking about. I explained my company would be interested if we could track the results independently via google analytics at it tracks where the sources of the clicks to the website are from. at present compared to what bt have told me I have recieved 250ish few clicks to my website. They also tell me that I can get the information from yahoo apparently 99.3% of the clicks they state I have received have come via yahoo. I email yahoo and they state they only way that that could be tracked if I set up yahoo analytics and embedded the relevent code into my website. They also state that they can set it for people who only search from within a 50 mile radius of our business postcode I didnt think this was possible? last but not least I changed the keywords I wanted and they rejected them as they were too specific? surely as its my business I should know which key words and phrases I want as long as they are specific to my business I should be allowed them.
timax said,
October 30, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
I’m just about to cancel my BT webclicks as when I type my own shop name into google it doesn’t come up on any page… at all. That’s how good BT web clicks is. If someone can explain why I should not cancel when my own shop name which is unique world wide can not bring up my BT webclicks website, I might consider staying with them. I’m get a better response from free listings.
Emma said,
November 2, 2008 @ 10:52 pm
I have just set up in Business a small Business, It feels like every Tom ,Scoot and BT click wants to jump on the band wagon and sell you something top of the list! Fortunately I have been saved from subscribing to any of this nonsense! When you’re a small Business and Money is tight you need supporting not ripping off! The costs of these services are at best funny and at worst day light robbery! Money for old rope!
Neil said,
November 5, 2008 @ 9:15 am
A long one this! After my initial post on August 12th I did manage to speak to my Rep but I am still not ’signed up’
I have now ‘blogged’ my events. Sorry for the length but it is cut and pasted below. Hope it helps someone somewhere!
The Paste :
Just for fun, here is a diary of events with BT! I have replaced actual names with an initial to save the blushes of those involved!
12th March 2008
I took a phone call today from a ‘J’ to introduce BT Web Clicks and arrange an appointment with me for next week.
18th March
Met with ‘J’ and agreed to sign up for BT Web Clicks on a ‘3 month trial’ at £1 per click.
17th April
‘J’ called back in to apologise and said that one of the papers signed in March had been completed wrong and could I just resign!
12th August
I phoned ‘J’ to say that I had heard nothing from BT with regard to my account but certainly noticed that no ‘new’ traffic was being directed to my site. He replied that he was actually going to call me the very next day as it happened (what are the chances!) because he had noticed that himself and blamed the fact that they couldn’t extract the key words from my site.
13th August
‘J’ called in quickly before his pending holiday and asked me to re-sign some paperwork and that this time things would get moving! At this time he failed to mention that actually the 3 month trial was now no longer an option or that I should actually be in a different ‘tier’ paying £2 per click. All of which I found out later.
4th September
I received a phone call from a ‘V’ who makes an appointment to see me with regard to my Phone book entry next week.
15th September
Met with ‘V’ as agreed but her starting point of the meeting was to introduce to me Web clicks! When I informed her that ‘J’ had already beaten her to it, but as my THIRD meeting with him was over a month ago and that, as I still hadn’t heard anything from BT I suggested that maybe things were still not in place. It was then at this meeting that ‘V’ kindly informed me that the rate had not only gone up but with it the 3 month trial had been removed!
Upon further investigation at this meeting we actually discovered from my old paperwork, that on the last meeting with ‘J’ he had conveniently ‘slipped in’ Carpenters and Joiners on my category listing which apparently would get around the small matter that I was sold £1 per click!
It was agreed with ‘V’ that if I was indeed to trust BT again and to carry on signing up with BT Web clicks then the very least ‘they’ could do was cancel anything to do with my first order & extend my 3 month trial because after all I was now being asked to pay double the cost!
With that ‘V’ dictated an email to be sent from me to her immediate line Manager ‘S’ and also a copy to web clicks to cancel my ‘first order’. I received an almost immediate reply from ‘S’ (who was aware of the email coming because a phone call had taken place between him and ‘V’ for advice) which kindly said:
Neil
Please accept my apologies for this situation occurring. We have a dedicated account manager to look after your Business and I am unsure as to why’ ‘J’ would have contacted you in the first place. I have raised this issue with his manager. I understand that ‘V’ is coming to see you again on Friday. ‘V’ will confirm that we will offer the three month minimum cancellation contract as previously discussed. Should you place the order I will personally ensure that this managed through and put in place within the agreed timescales. Once again please accept my apologies for this situation occurring and should you have any further issues my contact details are below.
Regards
‘S’
Head of *****, BT Phonebook
Great, I think at least I now have 2 people (‘S’ and ‘V’) who understand my situation and they will personally get things sorted!
The situation with Web clicks itself was a little different. During this meeting with ‘V’ she also phoned up web clicks to advise them of my situation and to discuss the ‘progress’ of my initial order – you know the one from March. Well they informed ‘V’ that the account was actually due to go live that day!! What are the chances! They advised that of course the email should be sent with out delay. No reply came from Web clicks about this at all. Time ran out on the day and we never managed to get the ‘new’ order form (Version 4!) completed so we arranged another meeting for Friday of this same week.
17th September
I received an email today from BT Webclicks with the subject boldly declaring: Activation of your BT Web Clicks order – on Internet Search Engines, with the email basically saying “Thanks for your order…..here are your keywords…..”
I thought at last someone really is making sure this gets done, that is some quick service!
As I had a query with one or two of the key words, I phoned through to the department in question only to find that this was actually nothing to do with my ‘new’ order but was still to do with my initial order!! The lady informed me that actually it was too late to cancel my first order as it had now gone live!! So the phone call on Monday, the email on Monday and the last 6 months delay meant nothing! I pleaded with her some more and assured her that although the ‘new’ form didn’t get signed on Monday it WILL get signed on Friday (along with yet more phone book advertising!) she agreed that she would indeed cancel the order.
19th September
Finally I signed (for the 4th time) my Bt Web clicks order form in my correct category (£2 per click and not the £1 previously sold) and left for the day with assurances from ‘V’ that this would be dealt with straight away!
3rd October
Still no word from BT, which bearing in mind during the ‘sales pitch’ I was advised that I should get a call/email within a week with my keywords and also bearing in mind my lovely email from ‘S’ assuring me he would “personally see it through” I felt obliged to email ‘S’ and ask him for a progress update……No reply!
10th October
Can you believe that today I actually received a telephone call from (we will call this one ‘M’ who called himself the Marketing Specialist for Webclicks (in particular for conservatories). He wanted to talk to me about web clicks. My initial reaction was that he was the one sorting the ‘new’ account out and that finally it was on track. Imagine my surprise when I found out he was simply trying to ‘sell me’ the idea of web clicks again. I remained calm and advised him that I think that BT should spend as much time and money sorting out how to administer Web clicks as they do trying to sell it.
Now, as I still hadn’t had a reply from ‘S’ for my last email 10 days ago, I felt it necessary to email him again. Let’s just say it is no surprise for you to hear that I am still awaiting his reply!
24th October
Today I received a report via email entitled: An Update on Your BT Web Clicks Programme, advising me of how many clicks my keywords have produced. All keywords said Nil? My first reaction was that doesn’t seem very good. My second reaction was, hang on a minute, just which campaign does this relate to as obviously I haven’t had my ‘new’ keywords emailed or any form of confirmation. I emailed the sender to ask.
31st October
I received a call today in response to my email question to inform me that the report is actually in relation to the results for the first order!! I explained the ‘summarised’ version of events to him and he informed me that he would look into it and get straight back!!……
4th November TODAY!
You couldn’t make it up! I am now 252 days (I make that 36 weeks) since my first contact about web clicks and I honestly do not know what I have and who is really interested in helping me sort it out! I have many phone calls a week with regard to SEO and first page placing from other firms and to tell you the truth I beginning to think the whole thing is all
Steve 2 said,
November 5, 2008 @ 11:07 am
MMM Neil looks familiar, I have not been chasing them yet but did sign up months ago, I cant even find the relavant search page to find web click clients, I must be stupid!!! well if the thing doesnt work surley BT will handing back a load of money. No calls or clicks for us yet, a little frustrating especially in the current climate the extra business would be welcome.
Contempt said,
November 11, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
So let me get this straight. They’re selling it under the brand of search engine optimization when indeed it’s Pay Per Click. “To the top of google” is a term related to SEO. I don’t know about you all, but would you buy a computer from best buy when they tell you a laptop is a “cd player with a screen”? A company that doesn’t even know their own industry terms running a multi-thousand campaign per month, sheesh.
So let’s get this straight. I could spend $5K/month getting placed top 3 from a reputable SEO/SEM company for 3 terms that will bring me roughly 3,000-5,000 targetted visitors PER DAY looking for my term; or I could pay BT 90,000/month for the exact same service (assuming $1 per “click” from them).
I’ll stick with the proven method. PS – If anyone here wants to look into BT I’m more than willing to join HM2K – take a crap in a box and sell it to you for xx,xxx/month. I’ll even put a pretty bow on it.
Stupid companies like this devalue the industry.
Someone in the know said,
November 21, 2008 @ 7:13 am
First of all, If you consider how many businesses are now reaping the rewards of a weblicks campaign and how many have posted here…the results really do speak for themselves.
It is not the “inexperienced” BT that format each campaign but a partner company with world leading technology and experience, their technology is in the least 5 years ahead of that in the UK so it makes sense, as poster Steve mentions.
Yes, sometimes there are breakdowns in communication in every business, every day. Some are worse than others, some you will let go by, but because BT is BT your expectations are exceptionally high, and quite rightly so, however, with millions of customers across the globe for many different innovative products there are always going to be a few teething problems when a new product is launched… patience!
I am one of the people out there that genuinely care about my customers, in fact one called a few weeks ago to say they had not heard from BT in 3 months yet money was being taken from his account for his webclicks…turns out he had given us an email address that he hardly ever uses, he quickly found his welcome email and 3 monthly reports… you should also check your junk/spam folder.
From the first post by HM2K, BT Webclicks has now been upgraded to Webclicks Plus… it’s more than sponsored links and SEO, it’s a completely new product to the marketplace which still comes with a money back guarantee, now how many companies out there will give you your money back if your advertising doesn’t work?
BT Webclicks Plus is very soon set to become the UK’s (just as in the USA) leading online marketing tool. Yes… that’s what we should call it, “an online marketing tool”.
wow weee said,
November 21, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
BT will get you contacts from any number of search engines by purchasing sponsored links and building an ad on your behalf. They do not gaurentee positioning as they do not need to, most business will pay £1 for a webhit if they percieve this as good value. Many customers are taking BT up on the offer some choose not to but either way they choose. It does what it says on the tin and BT send an acurate report each month, if you were to purchase 12000 clicks p.a at £1 per click and BT only deliverd 6000 clicks guess what you get 6k back.
You should not be critical of a BT rep delivering a BT product.
James Kelly said,
November 26, 2008 @ 11:55 am
This is the problem BT say it is not pay per click and they cannot independently validate there results and they use clicks that are too vague so it delievers hits to your website but when you check google analytics for example the person has left straight away as the content was not relevent.
They sell it on delievering relevent clicks which is what they dont do.
Dave said,
January 12, 2009 @ 1:46 pm
I agree that it is mis-sold, and the opening spiel is clearly a little tongue in cheek!! They do claim they can do everything, whereas you could do it all for less.
IME google adwords (which is all they are selling you) can be done by yourself as easily, or by someone else for around one third of what BT are offering.
Not a great deal.
I’m currently trying to leave it. Been in for three months, they have not hit the levels I was told, generally not happy. But hey, I can cancel. If only they’d tell me how…. also note to junior1138…. your post made me think. They have guarenteed me a minimum of 80 clicks per month. If they only get 72, I only get 10% of my money back!! Just a thought….
Also, the biggest misselling issue for me is that their advertising is over a wider area than I can generate business. I assume people will only come to my clinic (in my case) if they have to travel less than 30 minutes. 40 tops. Therefore on Google, I draw in an area which I think is reasonable. For BTwebclicks, their minimum area of advertising is 50 miles. This in terms of time takes to to about a 90 minute drive away (at an extreme – although not unreasonable). Therefore they are advertisting to areas which are not productive. And some clicks come from those areas. And they don’t call. As James says – they don’t deliver relevant clicks (well enough)…
Generally not impressed. I do generally like BT, but for me clicks don’t lead to business in a meaningful ratio – I’m looking at 3-5% if I’m lucky (a relatively weak way of winning business – my problem, not theirs); customer service is a struggle; poor value for money in terms of what they offer compared to competitors; and they essentially fudge the figures by generating clicks which are guarenteed (for me) not to turn into business…
Darren White said,
February 17, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
I agree that it is mis-sold. The sales rep stated.
” We are experts in this field and will generate better quality customers to your website so you can expect a real increase in sales volumes – how many orders can you comfortably handle”
Switching to BT saw a fall in sales volumes as the key words were so vague resulting in bounce rates of 95%
I asked for the most tenuous ones to be removed – guess what, they immediately replaced them with another set of tenuous ones. And this is supposedly generated by experts to drive “prime leads”.
Professional online copywriters designed an ad – “”Order …………… components now” Did a professional copywriter really have to be employed to string this sentence together.
We were offered a 3 month trial period after the sales rep realised we would not sign up for a 12K contract. Guess what, BT had no knowledge of this The sales Rep left BT soon after. His sales Manager came in to deal with our concerns and was shocked that we had actually heard of the 3 month period and the other claims the sales Rep made. He was to discuss it with his senior managers and report back a week later. 5 months on and no, nothing has been resolved.
So billing my company at £1000 per month delivering very poor potential customers.
I am a big fan of BT but certainly on this occasion they have fallen very short and all because of one very poor sales rep.
june howley said,
February 18, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
re – BT Webclicks – Can anyone tell me if they had to pay anything for the set-up? I was interested in the BT Customer Street campaign originally and signed up for it paying £299.00 to set it up. However, owing to some confustion on the seller’s part and little communication to rectify this I agreed (somewhat foolishly) to transfer to web clicks. Without going into too much detail, I’m finding the customer service very bad, the website they’ve ‘designed’ is awful and could actually harm my business, and so far in three weeks, not a click to my name. I’m supposed to be paying £40 per month as well. I can’t find any pricing on any of their sites re set-up so if anyone can tell me if they had to pay a set-up fee similar to mine (or not) I would be very grateful.
Brian said,
February 25, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Just signed up for bt webclicks for 40 contacts a month costing £480+vat the rep told me i would only get 40 contacts a month becouse if i got 60 then that would be in the next price bracket and bt would be giving me more than i paid for BUT bt terms and conditions state that the contacts are for the year not per month so i could get 480 contacts in the first month and none for the rest of the year.
Point 2 £480+vat will get me 40 contacts per month this i take it as it reads i will get 40 contacts per month for my £480+VAT
NOPE bt terms and conditions state i will be charged for each and every contact they bring to me so what is the £480+vat for????? (not the web design its shocking)
I am now in the process of canceling my contract
Brian said,
February 25, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
just another quick point if someone clicks through to my bt site it will count as a contact and if that same person continues and clicks on the call option set up by bt that will be classed as 2 contacts even in the same sitting, so insted of having 40 possable customers i could end up with only 20 but paying for 40
yellow pages are no better………………….Stay away from the Big Boys
Anthony said,
March 3, 2009 @ 10:29 am
I signed up with BT Webclicks in december. We are a self storage company with 4 facilities across the UK. The idea that for £800 per month we could get a guaranteed 4800 clicks over 12 months (400 per month) seemed liuke good business. At the time my Google CPC was about £3-£4. The fact that BT would cost me just £2 sounded like a great saving.
So, i signed up and they began setting up my account. Being a self storage company i predicted that the set up would be painless as we offer a fairly self explanatory service. But, no, BT managed to set up 3 campaigns that for 1 didn’t even use our best performing keywords and 2 get us clicks through avenues that are not relevant. They created a listing for selling boxes, which is only a small proportion of our sales, about 5% a month. Using the boxes category they managed to get me 900 clicks in the first 6 weeks before i became aware that they were incorrectly advertising the company. Needless to say I have altered this and in the month of February I got a rather insignificant 79 clicks. So i spent £800 on february for 79 clicks (£10 per click!).
Needless to say, their guarantee is ovevr the 12 month period so I’m going to have to wait until November before I can get my money back on this. If they maintain this 79 clicks per month they’ll be refunding me over £6000 in failed advertising.
I would agree with other comments here in that you are better off setting up and running your own Adwords account. That way you have control and can improve your positioning as and when you need to by increasing bids. Don’t listen to BT, they’re not going to provide you with the dedication you can provide yourself.
david roycroft said,
March 19, 2009 @ 10:20 am
btwebclicks!!!
joined up for this last November, I feel its a waste of money at £1.00 per click. This does not mean any one has contacted me.
Told by bt we are in a 12 month contract and cannot cancel.
I have told them they will be losing us as a cutomer.
Any advise
thanks
Mike Fordham said,
April 15, 2009 @ 11:58 am
Ignore BT’s sales people when they ask “How many contacts can you deal with in a month?”, all they are selling you are pay-per-click services, and rather half-arsed ones at that. We were severely mis-sold by the agent who came to see us. He painted a rosy picture of GENUINE CONTACTS, not anonymous web clicks, being made available to us. he also failed to point out that refunds for less than your monthly click allowance would be refunded at the end of month 12 of the contract.
BT’s handling of our account, a basic one for £100 per month, was a joke. Had we not flagged with them the fact that our advert appeared on page 5 of Google, not on page 1 AS PROMISED BY THE AGENT, it would have remained where it was.
We cancelled the direct debit and aborted the contract within the 14 day cool-off period. We should have realised after our dire experiences at the hands of BT Business Broadband that this organization are completely incapable of delivering sturdy business solutions other than basic landlines.
Don’t be afraid of cancelling outside the 14 days if BT isn’t delivering the results you want. The negative publicity generated from sueing a customer is not worth their while.
If you want pay-per-click, go to the experts. You may already have heard of them, they’re called Google.
JM said,
April 15, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
I have just cancelled my contract with BTwebclicks with no fuss and no apology.
I signed up in November after a two and half hour meeting with their Sales Rep – I told her this sounds too good to be true………she said….if you can’t trust BT then who can you…..I should have seen the writing on the wall then!!!!!
This service was completely mis-sold with guaranteed sales leads, sponsored listing on Google etc, etc but I got nothing, just a monthly bill.
I fail to understand why anyone is having a problem cancelling. I complained initially by phone, then confirmed this in an e mail and within a matter of days I received the following response;
CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION
Dear Mr Moulton
I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel the webclicks plus service.
Our compliance team have analysed your email and your issues and have found in favour of yourself over the sales rep – Clare Haines.
I can confirm I have arranged for your webclicks campaign to be cancelled and for any further payments to be stopped. I have also raised credits on your account for billing to refund 4 payments of £**** plus any VAT. If you have any questions regarding the credits please contact billing team directly on 0800 838 738 op1 and they will be happy to help.
Regards
Jacqueline
Jacqueline Brook
New Media Support
BT Directories
I’m still feeling very miffed about this but do not know where to go with it. Keep your suggestions clean & don’t let BT get away with it.
James Kelly said,
April 21, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
Well I went back forth with Bt over the relevence of the keywords etc and to put it bluntly they are useless. In the words of the customer service rep that I got on the phone the words we use are done to deliever the appropriate number of clicks to your website my bounce rate went up to 96%!!! from 55%. I have now after reading the more recent threads cancelled the Direct debit and emailed them just so. As a not the rep who sold the product to me has left again we were promised we could cancel after three months if we felt it wasnt relevant. I just wish I had cancelled sooner..
A Previous BT "Customer" said,
June 16, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
Well well, very interesting reading.
I assume that “Steve” WORKS for BT? Hmm, no surprise if that’s that case.
Let me tell you about the £11k I spent with “BT” (who still insist on sales tactics based around those two household letters “B & T”)
Remember when you were “BT Yellow Pages” Bt Reps??? That’s how you wormed your way into prospect accounts by using YOUR name alongside a much stronger brand name to “get in” until Yell GRoup took you to task about it and much revenue was exchanged!
Anyway I digress… After the 11k spend and yes “ALL THE GUARANTEES” the BT rep could offer me I waited from the response.
I contacted BT “web clicks service” three months later to enquire about my click rates and website views because we had achieved ZERO yes, ZERO, ZIP, NOTHING, NOWT from this 11k investment. (We hire skips and plant by the way so a busy business sector for ANY search engine) We had dedicated e mails and telephone numbers set up throughout the website so were in a position to record data and monitor.
Now, you try getting ho;d of anyone from BT when things get sticky or you have a query! Not a chance! The “stats” they sent over were absolute rubbish in terms of web click through rates and individual views on my website.
So how anyone can endeavour to defend such a ridiculous waste of money is quite frankly beyond a joke.
The internet is now replacing the gap left wide open by failing print media publications notable BT Phone Book, Thomsons and Yellow Pages in certain classifications and everyone and his dog now thinks they’re “Guru’s of the web” when in fact only a handful of companies who do their research, prove the market and invest in their own abilities actually KNOW HOW TO GENERATE LEADS FOR YOU! So, beware because this BT thing is latching onto what seems like a good idea and 11k later was the worst investment I ever undertook. The guy above is right, you CANNOT Guarantee something you have no contol over!! How about if people stopped using the internet to find a skip hire company… WHO could guarantee me that would not happen? Anyone?
Like all things in the new media world – be careful and forget CLICKS” just you take note of how many people cross your palm with money as a result of any investment in media.
Rant over. Thank you.
Chris said,
July 9, 2009 @ 8:24 pm
It’s one of the hardest things in the world to sound authentic in forums or in blog comments when you’re being paid to promote someone but pretend otherwise. I’m afraid the people posting above on behalf of BT haven’t quite got that “ordinary user” tone right, have they?
Adwords Professional said,
July 15, 2009 @ 11:32 am
Anyone thinking this platform is worth doing is stupid and anyone who is trying to tell you otherwise is working for them.
Save your money and open an google adword account yourself or have an accredited adwords professional do it for you, either way you’ll be getting a better return on investment than you will with these idiots.
JB Matt said,
July 22, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
Regarding:
I have just cancelled my contract with BTwebclicks with no fuss and no apology.
I signed up in November after a two and half hour meeting with their Sales Rep – I told her this sounds too good to be true………she said….if you can’t trust BT then who can you…..I should have seen the writing on the wall then!!!!!
This service was completely mis-sold with guaranteed sales leads, sponsored listing on Google etc, etc but I got nothing, just a monthly bill.
I fail to understand why anyone is having a problem cancelling. I complained initially by phone, then confirmed this in an e mail and within a matter of days I received the following response;
CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION
Dear Mr Moulton
I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel the webclicks plus service.
Our compliance team have analysed your email and your issues and have found in favour of yourself over the sales rep – Clare Haines.
I can confirm I have arranged for your webclicks campaign to be cancelled and for any further payments to be stopped. I have also raised credits on your account for billing to refund 4 payments of £**** plus any VAT. If you have any questions regarding the credits please contact billing team directly on 0800 838 738 op1 and they will be happy to help.
Regards
Jacqueline
Jacqueline Brook
New Media Support
BT Directories
I’m still feeling very miffed about this but do not know where to go with it. Keep your suggestions clean & don’t let BT get away with it.
———————————————–
So basically you didnt achieve anything from the service.
to be honest I have read most of the rants on here and find them rather amusing.
So buisness is slow at the moment and yes B.T aren’t perfect, but unlike all of the other services they put there moneywhere there mouth is, when was the last time you printed off 500 buisness fliers and dave down the local printers said to you “tell you what, if you get no buisness from those… ill give you a refund” or when you were in the yellowpages when did they turn around and say “you know what… for everytime someone else gets a call instead of you we wont charge you this month?
… quite frankly it doesnt happen, its very easy to stand there and say something doesnt work, but to be honest when was the last time you called curry’s to tell them that your television that just cost you a grand was great?!?!? or when you put a shower in at home when was the last time you went down to B&Q to say you know what guys, it works everytime I love it.
The facts acctually speak for themselves, the service that B.T webclicks (that is the name of the service, not anything similar as that is no doubt a fraudster) owns on a good percentage of the time regarding local buisness about 40% of the first page of google, not only that but the directories as well, for example BT Exchanges “which is brand new by the way” also hitting Yahoo, MSN, Smile local, UfindUs… and still if it fails offering a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!!!.
on top of all of that, monthly reports indicating where (if any in somecases) your contacts are coming from, how many you have had, the Digital whisper system which tells you right away where the call has been hit from.
With all the SEO at your disposal you still cant hit the same sort of figures as B.T, even on alot of cases if you type the physical name of a company you cannot guarantee that it will show up anywhere within the top few pages of Google or the other search engines or directories…
Scenario:
Your fishing in Eastbourne you know none of the local buisnesses…
whist casting your line breaks, you didnt have a spare… so you get out your Blackberry and in google search “fishing tackle shops in Eastbourne”
Top search is “Tonys Tackle”
Now look down the page…
B.T webclicks – Smile – Ufindus – smile Local
thats 3 solid hitters on there… Now without having a sponsered link B.T webclicks has 3 firm links on the first page of google, so even by going in blind the service is there…
Yes tonys is at the top, but that doesnt mean to say that everysingle person is going to tonys… the odds are they might look but he is paying for a click too, now look at things logically, if you dont use that company… and you chose further down the list because he doesnt have what your looking for… the odds are stacked quite high that you will hit one of the B.T webclicks sites… plus you get the website, plus you get the callback service.
What do you want…BLOOD?
oh and in regards to B.T latching on to other services in our item names…
B.T owned 99% of the other services out there anyway… Yellowpages… Formerly BT… Yell.com…Formerly BT owned… Customerstreet…BT OWNED…
Next time you want to rant and rave about how bad something is… read all the facts because seriously, it might not be or you but on the single turn of a page, the story hasa happy ending.
Regards
JB Matt
Client used BT Clicks said,
July 24, 2009 @ 3:52 pm
A client of mine signed up to BTClicks without my knowledge and started running into problems after two months. They asked me to help, so acting on his behalf, we installed a very good traffic analysis tool on the site and also used other 3party trackers. We analysed traffic for 3 months and compared it to the traffic reports BT were sending out monthly. The client has a small specialist site which was receiving on average 75 visitors per month, BT claimed they were sending on average 300 per month, yet those figures weren’t shown on any of our stats we had been collecting, which I found to be strange.
Secondly, the keywords they were using were not always specific to the clients site and service and none of their keywords were showing up on any of our stats, by now the alarm bells were ringing, so I get in touch asking how we can track the ad, not letting them know we already are, and they send me a link within a couple of hours, to a control panel with username and password (shouldn’t this have been sent out when BTClicks was first activated for my client?), so I login to the account, and much to my surprise the statistics were completely different. from the ones my client was receiving from BTClicks in their monthly e-mail reports?!?!? So now we have two lots of statistics provided by BT (Control Panel stats & Monthly e-mail stats) which have a high number of click thrus per month on a variety of keywords, none of which are showing up on our own stats provided by his webhost and other 3rd parties.
Thirdly, they say you are listed on the top 3 SE, so I done a search on the 3 mentioned for what they claimed was the highest keyword, as my client offers a very specialised service, competition is small, I checked through all the first 25 search result pages in all 3 S.E.s and not once was his advert displayed, in fact after page 3 of the search results, no more adverts were displayed or sponsored links due to the niche market my client serves.
So, again I contacted BT, this time asking for screenshots of the advert displaying in the 3 S.E.s and this was my reply (which I received a week later):
Dear XXXXXXXX,
Thank you for your enquiry.
Our Media & Performance team reviewed this campaign, and found that it is paused due to over delivery. They have had to scale back in order to bring performance back down to a level performance range. Once our system has hit its approved pace, this campaign will go live again on Google, MSN, Yahoo and BT Exchanges and begin to receive clicks again.
Please let us know if you need anything further.
Yours sincerely
New Media Support
Gobbledegook bull, they could not show proof IMHO, this was almost 3 weeks ago and we’ve never heard anything back, needless to say my advice to the client was to cancel all contracts and payments.
My advice to anyone considering BTWebclicks is to avoid it completely, I am highly skilled in web development and recognise most dodgy sites online from scammers selling false services, etc. that everything about BTWebclicks just didn’t quite add up, from getting false stats, late access to control panel, and their write-up on the services they are offering, this seems a scam to target small to medium business owners to part with money. Most of their clients will probably be those in a trade (eg – plumbers, tradespeople, etc.) that will have little to none knowledge of the innerworkings of the internet and online marketing and are therefore blinded by some of the technical stuff but accept it at face value as it is backed by BT a very high profile company.
If you took the same service and offered it through an unkown company, for example TopWeb Results, etc. you probably wouldn’t buy the service so don’t get blinded by the fact that it is offered by a large multinational.
My advice to anyone considering BTwebclicks is do a google search on BTwebclicks, find out the positives and negatives, compare their pricing with other companies offering the same service, and make an informed decision, do not just accept what BT say. Secondly, many web design companies in your local area will be able to offer good advice and probably provide a better service than a faceless corporation, at least with a good small to medium local web development company, they will take the time to learn your brand and industry much better thus provide you with better targeted results for your site.
Voice Of Reason said,
July 28, 2009 @ 7:31 am
Rant rant rant… all these allegations of mis-selling, paying for something that doesn’t work and gripes over what you misunderstand the product to be.
There is a simple solution… write to Ofcom, if your complaint is “genuine” it will be investigated by one of the toughest regulators out there.
Incidentally, who is it that regulates independent SEO specialists?
Just in case you get a visit from one of the consultants from BT…
1, Webclicks does not guarantee positioning
2, Webclicks does not guarantee hits…it guarantees your money back if they don’t deliver the hits.
3, Why would you want your company name as a keyword?
4, 40 clicks per month? are you really going to notice a difference unless your conversion rate is high?
5, Don’t take it out on the rep/consultant, as with any one out there , there is always one or two that will bend the truth to get a sale under pressure, but most will be 100% truthful… compliance is huge in BT.
Barbara Woodward said,
July 28, 2009 @ 8:51 pm
We are a small car repair and tuning workshop for Mini cars. In November 2008 Bt rep came to unit and discussed us signing up to BT Webclicks. The owner wasn’t too sure about the claims that these webclicks would increase his customer base. We were to pay £276 per month, but the first month was to be a free trial period. The salesman also told us that if we did not make the monthly clicks through then the monthly bill would be reduce accordingly. In December 2008 we received an invoice for £276 (which menat no free trial for a month) during this period we had received 12 click throughs asking if we installed kitchen, whether we supplied bathrooms, did we repair wide screen televisions and finally were we Halfords.
We wrote to BT pointing out the problems, the salesman was contacted and made it obvious he did not believe what we said about the webclicks we had received. In the same letter we cancelled the contract. In February 2009 we received a letter from a debt collecting agency demanding paymnet of £317.40 for unpaid account with BT webclicks. We wrote and informed them we had cancelled the contract and were in dispute with BT. We received a letter from the debt collection agency every week of February.
In March 2009 we received letter from Midaslegalservices warning us of litigation action. We wrote to them informing them we had cancelled the contract and were in dispute with BT. In April 2009 we were contacted by the debt collection agency again telling us they would be willing to accept £10 per month as a payment towards the debt. Again we wrote to them informing them we had cancelled the contract because BT were in breach of their contract.
In Ju ne 2009 we received a letter from a different debt collection agency but this time they were demanding paymnet of £3174.00 being the amount owing to BT for webclicks (although it never mentions webclicks they use BT Directory, BT classified. We immediately wrote to this company explaining that we had cancelled the contract because BT had not provided the service they had signed us up for. They have ignored our letters we have written to them and we have now received a letter from their Litigation Department as a final warning that they want £3,174 and failure to pay this sum will result in Court action.
Why do BT never answer any letters. Why has the bill risen from £276.00 in December (when we were supposed to be having a free trial month, to £317.40 in February and £3,174 in June 2009 without any explanation, just bully tactics.
We have contacted Consumer Direct and they have told us we will have to prove BT are in breach of contract.
The debt collectors letters are all printed with just the amount being demanded added in.
I. A .M Tired. said,
July 31, 2009 @ 10:02 am
Oh God. Anyone got a better solution that actually does what BT claim to?
voice of reason said,
August 7, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
To I. A. M Tired
Good question. Plenty of people saying they can do better but no offers to do better… apparently!
To Barbara…
Just reading your post, was the increase from £317.40 to £3,174 not just a typo. Or is that you have been held to term in the very same way as you would with a contract for Sky, Vodafone, Orange, Tmobile, Virgin, Tesco, 3mobile if you refused to pay a bill… hello! The law states that even in dispute that you should continue to pay until the dispute is settled, not paying has actually placed “you” in breach of contract. I understand your frustration, but honestly, I’d make an offer to pay the amount in smaller installments to stall for time while you check out your legal position.
To Ranters
I am close to this product, I know it very well, I know it has flaws but I also know that it works when it’s managed properly which I have to say in most cases it is.
I know a car dealer that sells thousands of cars across the UK every week… low and behold, one customer has a bad experience, throws a hissy fit and decides to start a blog on the web and guess what, disgruntled customers came out of the woodwork to throw their two pence in, so what was just one, became twenty odd. Now lets get this in perspective… under 30 bloggers with complaints versus 460,000 happy customers. Mention the dealers name and what do you get… Ooooooh wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole, I heard the warranties aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Funny old world!
Adam said,
August 13, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
There seems to be a serious problems with BT reps misleading people about this product, my one certainly did!
The “lovely lady” from BT said that there product was completely unique and that they track the incoming calls generated my web clicks to my business.
The links are diverted to the BT business directory site and that a BT number diverts the call to us.
They could guarantee me 5 calls a day! My business partner and I laughed at this. But she was very insistent and that If we didn’t get 5 CALLS a day we would get a refund.
We thought we couldn’t loose. One month on our £200 direct debit comes out, no calls, no reports, no customers.
We called to find out the situation and are then told that all we get is five clicks on links a day, and that’s all they do. The key words they used are rubbish and 3 months on still bad results.
We have managed our own Google addword campaign since JUNE06 and google analytics since last year! If the BT rep told me what they were really offering I would have said “NO THANKS!”
The Rep denies everything she said and now I am battling with BT to cancel and get my money back. They continually delay the process and never get back to me.
They said if I cancel my debit they will send a private debt collection service round!
As for “Voice of reasons” comments: If BT tell you they can supply something and they cant they are in breach of contract and you shouldn’t have to pay them.
A contract states in writing what exactly the situation is but a sales rep can verbally mislead a customer regarding the product and this is VERY WRONG and this is what some BT reps are doing! BT is employing people who are saying anything to get a sale, that is a FACT. Stop supporting the big corps so much, even if only a small percentage of people are miss sold something those people should be refunded straight away.
BT, like many corporations would rather bully people into paying than do the right thing and accept that have misled them and offer a full refund.
Joe said,
August 18, 2009 @ 5:34 pm
Just don’t take it out on the customer support staff because a sales representative mis-led you!
Client used BT Clicks said,
August 26, 2009 @ 9:31 am
My previous post was accused of being a rant by “Voice of reason”, so let me get this straight , if I am unhappy with a service and voice my complaint in a structured and polite manner, this equals a rant?!? So therefore I should only say nicey nicey things about a service that in my opinion hasn’t been delivered (is this another rant now?), accusing my post as a rant just gives you license to dismiss the issues and is a very nice political trick (ignore the issue and rebuff the issue back on the client as their fault, nice). Now if I was to rant about the full BTWebClicks programme, it would last several pages, as such I am only sharing my experience and opinion.
Now to clarify a point – On average my client site now receives about 100 hundred visits per month (it is a small niche he serves), the traffic has been growing by about 10-20 visits extra a month and from what the stats show this is through organic growth. At no time has the site received the 300 clicks per month that BT Web Clicks are claiming, and when asking for proof the send a high powered worded reply stating the advert is over performing. Any time I have asked a specific technical question about the ad and service, I dont get a straight reply, instead they say the ad has been put on hold for one reason or other and will start again shortly (Note to BT WebClicks staff operating on this page – please stop defending BT WebClicks and concentrate on answering your clients issues and delivering the service you are promising).
Obviously, there will be some clients that are happy with the service and if it works for them then good, however someone states that there is over 460,000 happy customers and the unhappy customers are in a minority, this may be the case, but lets see out that figure, how many have the technological know how on how to track the service they are being promised or are they just blindly accepting what BT tells them at face value. Also I would like to know how you have reached the 460,000 figure, I have searched extensively in Google and nowhere have I found anything that states BT WebClicks has a clientelle of 460,000, which leads me to believe that Voice of Reason is a BT WebClicks sales rep, which would also explain why according to “Voice of Reason” if you are unhappy you are just ranting and so any valid point raised should be dismissed (which is very reminiscent of the way technical support handles any queries) and only the positive reports should be listened to.
Now what I would say to anyone considering BT WebClicks is dont get bullied into signing up by a Sales Rep, take the information on board, get the sales rep to leave you all the contact information and links to where you can apply online. Use a search engine and do a search for BT Web Clicks. Open up several of the sites (especially the forums mentioning BT WebClciks) and you will find that there is more than the twenty people that are disgruntled at BT WebClicks, in fact you will find more and more people stating how unhappy they are with the service (positive posts about the service are actually in the minority) and some of the negative info comes from reputable knowledgeable organisations that have been involved in the technical development of the internet and online businesses. So to sum up, do your research first then make an informed choice, do not accept BT at face value on the word of the reps, and if you think the service is for you good luck, I’m sure it does work for some.
The Doctor said,
August 26, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
Lets get things straight I have been following this ridiculous blog over the past year and have the following findings
Some people have been mis-sold – and this is terrible and should never happen if it was me I would take great pleasure in taking the individual through BT’s process
Some people gambled on a guaranteed contacts campaign getting them better results than standard advertising – and this product does this it reverses the advertising cycle by putting you infront of the people who are looking for you when they want you
Some people won from this product – Ill explain later
Some people lost from this product – Ill explain later
Firstly this product covers the three main areas of the search engine top – middle and side it does not always put you there it puts you there enough times to get you the guaranteed contacts it also covers the directories of UFINDUS, Smile Local, More UK, BT Tradespace, BT Exchanges which are all independantly marketed on the search engines too.
Lets explain a little more about Sponsored listing/SEO campaigns – most importantly they dont work well if the web site they are sending the customer too are not fit for purpose!! So if your first page says “Jim has been in the business for 40 years and lives with his wife kids and two cats in Dorset” – dont expect too good a conversion rate of click to sale. However if your site has a reasonable retainer ie SALE THIS WEEK – 10% off your first order etc etc your click to sale can realistically be expected to be higher than previously mentioned
Just as importantly is your profit per sale margin – being ultra realistic this product can cost from £1 – £15 per contact that can be a web site visit based on the phrases that are marketed for you, An e-mail or text from the directories listing, A click on the map to see where you are (so they can walk through your door) or a telephone call from a marketed number (supplied by BT but delivered to your normal number) or a call from the call free facility.
An appoximate industry standard conversion rate for retail companies is 2% – so guess what based on a £1 per click campaign your profit needs to be £50 to pay for the service
However dependant on the specialism of your product and in turn with a good web site retainer and build and with the right key words this can rise up to a max of around 12% but realistically 8% so if your average profit margin was £50 on the £1 per contact campaign this would bring you back a profit of around £300 after paying for the product.
So lets get your brain in gear if someone comes into your cafe/shop/pub and says that any campaign will bring you a 30% conversion and it costs £100 for 100 potential customers and your average profit is £5 so you will make £50 per 100 after paying for the service show them the door and dont invite them back these are the people giving the industry a bad name.
In essence BT sales reps have targets but they should still sell to your needs and more importantly deliver on there expected results (within reason) of this service to your business.
My personal opinion is that if you do not have an average profit margin of £25 per sale on a £1 per contact campaign then this product is not for you (4% conversion pays for itself) with the potential of a repeat customer and word of mouth referal taking you into a positive ROI
This product should be aimed at high profit lower volume customers not low profit high volume as it is evident it clearly does not work to that market
IF YOUR IN ANY DOUBT DONT BUY IT
graham said,
September 5, 2009 @ 6:24 pm
2 years ago i signed up with bt web clicks, i was told that it was a whole new way of advertising and nothing on the market at that time could touch it, so i waited for the phone to ring, it rang alright, sales call after sales call, it was a total joke and a total waist of time and money, so i canceled it, then 4 weeks ago i had a call from bt web clicks asking could they come and see me to show me the NEW bt web clicks, i told them dont bother i have been there before and it was crap, but they said i think you will be happy with the new package, so i agreed to meet the rep, he came in and told me just how good the service is, i then told him BEEN HEAR BEFORE MATE and it was a joke, he then went on to tell me that in the past bt had made a lot of mistakes and the problems that they had in the past have been sorted, so i decided to give them the benifit of the doubt and give them another try, BiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiG MISTAKE, i have spent the last three nites just trying to find my advert ( which i was told would be at the top of page one on google) and i still havent found it, if i cant find my advert then can i exspect someone else to spend 6 hours trying to find it ( as i just have)I was told the advert went live 4 weeks ago, so where the bloody hell is it, no wonder the phone hasent rang, I actually came across this site ( if that is what you call this page) while trying to find my advert so i thought i would leave this message,
TO BE HONEST i am so p***ed of with myself for falling for the bt web clicks rubbish again, its just after 7 oclock on a sat evening and i have got far better things to do with my time than trying to find my advert that cost me a lot of money, SO YOU CAN BE SURE THAT THE FIRST THING ON MONDAY THE DIRECT DEBIT FOR THE MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO BT WEB CLICKS WILL BE CANCLED, and never again will i fall for there rubbish, NEITHER SHOULD YOU
paul said,
September 15, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
I too am a victim, Bt webclicks yeeeesiree, hook line and sinker. Eighty leads a month> Yes please. How many could you convert? Five? Ten? Sounds fabulous. Where do i sign Roy? Fact is i started in July, have had 289 clicks and guess what, no enquiries! Nada, zilch, zero. And by the way my website is absolutely fine ( to the bt apologist ).
Cancelled my DD but i await the grief and likely to need legal assistance. Incompetent bastards. They don’t care.
To sum up, my highest scoring keyword with 78 clicks is interior designer. Did i mention i
was a painter & decorator?
Digruntled, Edinburgh
Legal Eagle said,
September 22, 2009 @ 9:40 pm
I am amused, yet surprised that BT have allowed this blog to continue for so long given that most of it is based on personal opinion without being backed up with any real hard facts, one blogger even took it upon himself to include in total, an email from the customer services department. I’ve had emails from BT in the past and I am sure they all carry the standard warning that the email is intended for the addressee only and that none of the content should be copied, reproduced or published as doing so may lead to legal action being taken against you.
Then there’s the one that accuses BT of being dodgy scammers, and another that accuses BT of being incompetent b******s.
Here’s a thought… you have probably heard the saying “give them enough rope”… By the way, no I don’t work for BT, no I am not a BT Webclicks customer (before the accusations fly) but maybe I’ll give it a try… see what all the fuss is about and then report back here later.
paul said,
September 30, 2009 @ 7:30 am
Legal Eagle – as i stated BT claim i have had 289 web clicks but i have yet to receive an enquiry. Is that a hard enough fact for you? The rep also led me to believe my website would be on Google – misleading to say the least. But the main gripe that sole traders have with this product is the fact that it is sold as guaranteed, genuine leads. Now to the man in the street that would imply either enquiries by phone or email. And i was wrong about BT being incompetent. They know exactly what they’re doing – making a profit at the expense and distress of gullible traders like Graham and myself, who mistakenly believe that BT is a name we can trust.
Now, my advertising budget is spent, i have no business coming in, but BT demand that i honour my contract. I fear i will be out of business before long. And that amuses you?
Legal Eagle said,
October 2, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
Paul/Graham,
It is not your plight that I find amusing but the fact that BT have allowed this blog to continue, with so much power I would have assumed that BT would somehow have managed to have the blog removed or closed down.
I do however dislike the frivolous use of the word “victim”.
Strangely and coincidentally, a client called my office on Monday about how BT was holding him to term on his “internet campaign”. Pretty much the same story as many of those already here. I asked him to call into my office (for free may I add) as I was curious to see first hand some of the material that had been left for my client by the sales woman that had sold him the webclicks and any subsequent communication he had received from BT regarding his online advertising campaign.
Now in a nutshell, I understood exactly why he was annoyed, but he was ultimately responsible for monitoring and checking that his campaign was working, so the part where BT say “we take the hassle out of your online campaign” could be construed as misleading…at a push!
I’m no web expert, but to me it was clear that the problem was his keywords… Some, if not most, were irrelevant to his business or at least the part of his business that he wanted to promote… He was a car dealer, but also had an MOT station and a car service centre, accident repair centre and body shop, all of which were mentioned on his website.
My client was told that the web team would go to his website and pick out selected keywords that were relevant to his business… and that’s what they did, the problem was that my client wanted to promote only the used car sales part of his business, so you would assume that the keywords would reflect this… but no they don’t! To mention a few… “MOT’s in X” “Car Body repairs in X” and “Car Hire in X” (he doesn’t hire cars but he does offer a courtesy car)! So the keyword was obviously not relevant. He was sent a list of around 16 keywords from the BT Webclicks team and was asked to identify any that he thought were not relevant, he didn’t reply and so he now has “Car Hire” as a keyword which means his listing is presented to people on search engines when they look for Car Hire, they visit his website and leave almost straight away because he does not hire cars. (I said this was in a nutshell… it’s a big nut).
I suggested that he contact BT again, but this time about his keywords rather than jumping up and down demanding to cancel his contract. I was interested to see what feedback they gave, and thought the new approach would be far more appealing to some poor soul in a call centre than my client’s usual all guns blazing approach, or maybe BT would say something that I could catch them with.
Today, my client called my office to say he had received an email from BT, it was an apology for the misuse of the keyword/s and an offer of crediting his campaign with the 146 clicks that had been to his website looking for car hire. Not an all singing with jazz hands or perfect end, but certainly a rectification when presented with the opportunity to do so.
I’ve been trying to think of a philosophical Jerry Springer type way of getting my point across but the best I can conjure is this:
Imagine that you bought the hen that laid golden eggs…
You have the hen for two weeks and for the first 11 days it lays a golden egg every day but on the 12th, 13th and 14th day it lays just an ordinary egg…
Do you shoot the hen because it only delivered part of the deal… so you never have a chance of a golden egg ever again?
or
Do you keep the hen and try to find a way to make it lay a golden egg every day?
paul said,
October 3, 2009 @ 10:29 am
Legal Eagle
I think you would do well to listen to your own words, “Give ‘em enough rope”. Your thinly disguised veil has slipped. Strange coincidences indeed!
Legal Eagle said,
October 8, 2009 @ 8:55 pm
@ Paul,
“Strangely and coincidentally” I knew your response would be exactly this. Your problem is your refusal to listen to reason and see avenues of solution. Read between the lines and you will see that I was trying to offer you advice, I cannot offer direct legal advice but I can use a third party scenario to highlight a procedure which you may wish to employ.
Now if you still think that I work for BT, go visit your solicitor, take this blog with you, and your contract from BT and see what he says… that’s if you want to pay someone to tell you the same thing in a more direct manner.
hm2k said,
October 14, 2009 @ 10:46 am
For the record. BT don’t have the power to take this blog offline.
Thanks for your comments.
Rich Webb said,
October 20, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Just had a visit from a BT Rep – went well. Typically no specifics, but pushed the guarantee a lot. When I asked for a 3 mth trial – was told that they no longer do it! So he upped and left. Reading this blog – I am glad I did not commit to anything. I found Google pay per click to be very poor on the quality of leads generated -sounds as if BT is even worse.
eva said,
November 25, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
BT has some cheek.
John Wheeler said,
December 6, 2009 @ 2:19 am
I would like to introduce myself as someone who knows first hand how the BT web clicks + campaign works for 2009. We have several contracts with this service and it works well for us which we refer to other businesses in the Southeast and to our BT rep.
BT Webclicks is based on the PPC click campaign process and is derived from Google Adwords in essence. The service combines many different elements of internet PPC.
BT Web Clicks is a new advertising proposition which offers small businesses advertisers media exposure via a range of sources to deliver a Guaranteed package of ‘contacts’ (clicks and calls). Customers choose a contacts package with a sales person for a 12 month term. For a fixed monthly fee, BT Web Clicks places priority listings on BT Exchanges and Google, Yahoo and Bing; and a few smaller search engines which BT now own which are: UFindUs, SmileUK and MoreUK to fulfil the customer’s contacts package.
Advertisers can track the performance of their contacts package via monthly analysis and a performance guarantee applies across the minimum contract term (12 months) with a credit or refund policy for contacts not delivered (money back guarantee.)
Our business was in Tier 3 on one package and T1 on another. This at first seems a bit confusing until you understand the logic behind what the tiers are and costs etc.
Tier 5 – Mortgage Companies, Accident Claim Experts etc
Tier 4 – Call Centres, Debt Collection, Casinos etc
Tier 3 – Kitchen Design and Installation, E-Commerce, Energy Saving Consultants
Tier 2 – Plumbers, Double Glazing Installation, Car Body Repairs, Computer Services
Tier 1 – Garage Doors, Golf Shops, Sign Makers, Vets, Water Sports
The main reason for the tier policy is to make it as cost effective as possible for both parties as BT give you unlimited keywords to run your campaign for the full 12 months.
Instead of paying for every word that you add to your campaign a fixed cost is put in place, so that you do not let it run your business which we did with Google Adwords.
The Tier policy allows for a straight forward cost and click process worked out as an average cost over the year. We think BT are taking a bit of a gamble on this service as we have 80+ keywords on each campaign we are running which cannot be cost effective for BT buying from Yahoo, Bing and Google.
I see on the other forums people ranting about paying £15.00 for a contact etc, well that may of been the old webclicks service, this is called BT Webclicks +. They have enhanced the solution now.. the system they use actually makes good business sense to us, as we know what we pay all year round and it does not fluctuate every day like other PPC campaigns.
Tier 5 – £10 a contact//click – Mortgage Companies, Insurance etc
Tier 4 – £5 a contact//click – Debt Collection, Call Centres etc
Tier 3 – £3 a contact//click – Kitchen Design and Installation etc
Tier 2 – £2 a contact//click – Computer Services, Car Repairs etc
Tier 1 – £1 a contact//click – Sign Makers, Painters etc
So from here you can see how it all works.
We have a Tier 3 package with Mobile Phone Shops for 1200 contacts for the year and the cost is £3600. We pay the whole lot on 12 months Direct Debit and our costs are spread evenly every month, BT manage the whole solution so we can run our business. They email us every month telling us how the campaign is working.
Our second business is in a Tier 1 campaign and we pay a 1200 contacts package, so 100 contacts a month in the Yacht industry sector. This is not a huge part of our business as the profit is not very high, unlike the Mobile phone shops.
Packages start from £1400 and go upto £72k – If you want to know more or you want a consultation you should contact our sales consultant to learn more.
Many thanks for reading, listening and allowing us to offer our opinions.
BigBalls.
david ashman said,
March 27, 2010 @ 5:38 pm
i was called by BT customer st in december 09. after a 90 minute phone call i agreed to pay a £353 setup fee and £82 per month for what i thought was SEO for my personal website. obviously what i got was something very different. i tried canceling the contract as soon as i realised but without success. i then sent a letter stating they were in breach of contract and gave them 14 days to rectify the situation. they were unwilling to do this so i made a claim against them in court.
their legal team have sent me a document outlining the defense against my claims. one point i raised was that there are many other people in the same position as myself who have been mis-sold a service by BT Customer St. their response was that they have no knowledge of this and i have no evidence to suggest so. i included links to several of the many webpages where people have complained about them, however this does not seem to be substantial enough. if anyone would be willing to briefly outline their complaint and send it to me i would be very grateful. maybe we can finally expose this company for how they have exploited many small businesses and get some justice.
please send your replies to
john said,
April 12, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
I too am in dispute with BT over our webclicks package, we were grossly oversold, i.e. guaranteed phone calls, much more business..
The truth of the matter is i might just as well throw the money out of the door every month! Now the matter has gone to an overselling dispute, i keep getting calls from customerstreet asking the same questions…do i think we were oversold, what did the rep promise etc etc. Im thinking they are just stringing it out, so eventually i will get bored and give up! That aint going to happen. Webclicks is the best way to waste hard earned cash every month, dont fall for the reps sales pitch!
Sue said,
June 22, 2010 @ 12:04 pm
I have just had someone ostensibly from BT trying to sell me BT Webclicks. We never buy from the phone, or from someone who just happens to have someone in the area who can come and give us a demo, so I asked them to send me all the information in writing by email. This he refused to do. If he was genuinely from BT I would have thought he would have done this no problem, so beware – phone salespeople sometimes aren’t all they seem to be!
hm2k said,
June 30, 2010 @ 9:20 am
@Sue
Wise words.