Comments on: Dotcom Chrome

By: stupid

stupid — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:38:44 +0000

This company are definately targeting my profession and I was stupidly sucked into it last year (as were other professionals that I know). I cancelled in December and all was well and I thought I got out of it pretty lightly, because it only took me three months to attempt cancelling … THEN …. three days ago there was suddenly a charge on my CC for $728 … I couldn’t believe it. I spoke with a Jean Franco from Chrome last night and will ring every single day and continue sending emails. May I suggest that if everyone bands together and rings the Greater Manchestor Police as well, then they may be able to do something about it as well. I am so very upset and feel very very stupid.

By: Your best bet!

Your best bet! — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:56:41 +0000

Hello,
They are at it again. If you are reading this & have been scammed by dotcom chrome, please contact your local newspaper or larger & ask them to run a story. Clearly nobody is going to help protect more Australians from being scammed by them, other than by those of us who have fallen for it spreading the word.
I just wish I’d found SO many blogs like this BEFORE giving them credit card details!

By: Allen

Allen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:54:24 +0000

I took out a subscription in April this year. After the first month’s trial, I contacted them to cancel the contract. Unfortunately, I was persuaded t carry on with the campaign. On 13 May, I e-mailed the UK office to find out how to cancel my contract. I was told to send a letter to BT Tower, Level 32, 1 Market Street, Sydney. I sent off the letter of cancellation and also e-mailed, through their contact page, the Sydney operation. I did not get a reply. The next thing I know is that they have taken the next instalment from my credit card - $267.50. I contacted the UK again to see if they could help in cancelling the contract. I was told that their database showed that the contract was still in operation and ‘did I send the letter by registered post’. I resent the letter, registered this time, e-mailed Sydney and the UK plus attached original letter of cancellation to the UK address. I still got no reply but seeing as how no payment for June came out of my account, I thought the contract had been cancelled. Yesterday, 12 July 2 x $267.50 were charged to my credit card. I tried to get to their websites but now they show ‘Under Construction’ on them all. I have contacted my bank to try to recover the money. I have also e-mailed the UK but have not had a response yet.
I should have been suspicious when, you are able to initiate an online contract over the phone, but to cancel it, you have to write a letter. I notice in their welcome pack that Sydney is the only one that does not have a contact number.

By: dan

dan — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:04:59 +0000

So Ben,

You were called by a company selling you a service monthly? You then proceeded to their website which continued to tell you that they were offering you a subscription service via paypal and this makes them a scam? Explain to me how exactly that works, im intruiged, you sign up on this companies website via a paypal subscribe button that says $260 per month and the company tried to scam you?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:16:41 +0000

Thanks to the owners of conman.com.au, I owe you guys a drink. I was approached by dot com chrome about 30 minutes ago and yes, their offer seemed to be too good to be true. Although I was just about to sign up, two things struck me, the sales person had a gmail account, how does that work. Even the smallest of call centers would have a proper email account. And the pay pal terms said $260 AUD for each month… I thought, wait a minute, each month? Then I googled dot com chrome and landed here. As soon as I told him I will make some calls in the morning, the sales guy lost all his interest and arrogance took over.

I am one of the lucky few that have been able to avoid the scam, but if you are considering it, or if the sales people are on the phone as you read, DO NOT SIGN UP.

They do not have a business registered in Australia. They do not have a .com.au website, as a fact it is dotcomchrome.com.au is still available if you wish to buy it

Good luck with your online promotions campaign and be aware of the fraud… my personal advice, go to a company in your town or area, have a look at the people in the flesh, see if they have a proper office then make an informed decision.

Remember, google can give you a lot of FREE publicity if you are willing to do some research and try it yourself.

By: Rowena

Rowena — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:55:04 +0000

Wow, this is very interesting reading. I was just putting together a dossier of complaints about Dotcom Chrome so I have some ammunition to send to the ACC, ASIC, WA Scamwatch, and found this site. I was looking for contact details of the Sydney office, of which I’m yet to find.
We also were sucked in last November and our story is very similar to the ones related here by our fellow victims. We are now at the stage of being harassed by Dotcom Chrome for being in ‘arrears’, even though we have canceled, verbally and by email starting from the first month when they did not deliver anything that was promised. I’m copying all the comments I can find to send to the relevant departments so that, hopefully, they will be stopped or at least listed as a scam.
Advice is, don’t touch them with a barge pole. They’re thieves. If you have given your credit card details, report it to the bank and get it cancelled immediately. Our bank has reimbursed us as we showed them plenty of evidence of their dishonest dealings.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:20:52 +0000

Obviously Peter Jones is one of the idiots at Dotcom. There is nothing in the contract stating that cancellation must be by letter. Furthermore, you don’t get the contract until after you have agreed to pay. The remark about cancelling a tenancy is another example of how these idiots work. If I sent an email to my landlord advising him of my desire to quit the tenancy that would be perfectly reasonable and acceptable on both parties. Now apply that to a company that presents itself as being at the forefront of the IT age. Dotcom Chrome are great at presenting these spurious and ridiculous arguments coupled with insults just to scare people into not following our rights. And the threats of legal action are, frankly, laughable. If you show a Court that you sent a cancellation notice in whatever form to a reasonable address (compliance@dotcomchrome.co.uk) and even better, be in a position to show that it was received, then Dotcom would be laughed out of Court. My advice: send them a cancellation in the way most convenient to you. Keep copies. If possible get a receipt of delivery. Check your credit card very carefully and if money is taken after the 30 day notice period expires, dispute it with your bank. Then wait for all the threats and abuse from dotcom. I would suggest you remind them (copy attached) that you cancelled and only if you want to bait them bother getting into any detailed argument. If you’ve done that then all they can do is huff and puff and hope you capitulate. They have no legal standing, and they know it if only they’d wake up to reality. You might have to cancel you credit card to permanently stop them stealing your money though. By the way, my bank had no problem in recognising the email cancellation as evidence that the agreement was cancelled and refunded all my money.

By: Tim Ellis

Tim Ellis — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:55:00 +0000

Peter Jones. Your argument that we, as customers, MUST cancel our contracts as per the terms of the dotcom chrome contract is very clear.

I’d like to ask you if the other side is equally valid. If dotcom chrome do NOT fulfil the terms of their contract, then are they in breach of their contract and must return ALL monies paid to the unhappy customer?

Now I know the basic “loophole” dotcom chrome operates under is the terminology of how frequently the customer’s ads will appear on page 1 of Google.

The salesman says to the customer in the initial call that the customer will receive ads “24/7 every day for a month”.

The contract says ads will appear “every day for a month”, but when they don’t dotcom chrome argues the contract could be interpreted as “once a day, every day for a month”.

Technically that is correct, but it is NOT what the salesman promised the customer.

Dotcom chrome is well aware of this. They even say on their FAQ page:

Q. Will I always be on Google’s front page?
A. While no company including Google can guarantee that your site will appear on Google’s’ front page 24/7, we do guarantee that your listing will be listed every day. If any of our representatives have offered 24/7 exposure within the sponsored listings please help us to combat miss selling by informing either our customer service team or shift manager

If they were serious about combating “miss selling” then, when a customer complained they were misled, they would offer to cancel the contract or give a refund.

But they don’t. They will deny their salesman ever said such a thing as Jamie MacDougall said to me in an email:

“I believe our salesman told you every day for one month, did you take this to mean 24/7? If so perhaps you should have queried it at the time because it could mean once per day for one month.”

So Peter, should dotcom chrome offer to cancel the contract and refund the money if the customer is misled in this way?

By: peter Jones

peter Jones — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:28:34 +0000

If you are told to send a letter to cancel a contract then guess what: YOU SEND A LETTER. Seems pretty simple to me! Why send an email or make a call if you were told to send a letter? and it is perfectly legal to instruct a letter you dunce! try cancellign your tenancy agreement with an email! not going ot happen. Now instead of wasting your time with silly legal advice on forums do as you are told to cancel a contract. Seems to me if you want an end to the contract then you do as your told? unless of course you like the confrontation? Gives you somethign to do with your time? BORING!

By: Not Happy Jan

Not Happy Jan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:50:42 +0000

It’s no use calling the “Sydney Branch Office” it’s only a virtual office, they take a message and route it through to the UK. We cancelled our credit card and when they called up threatening us with debt collection and legal we asked for a statement of the amount we were supposed to owe them, which they say they can’t produce. I have threatened to counter sue them for fraud.
Note:
They will not give you any invoice or statement for their services
They will not provide a receipt for amounts paid to them
They will not accept any payment other than by credit card
They say they cannot accept cancellation by email

These people are scam artists; when they last called we asked them for their Australian business and registration numbers and they said they were exempt although we argued that they must be registered if they are carrying out business with Australians. When they last threatened us I told them that the ATO would be very interested in hearing from me.