ValueClick Story Continues
September 7, 2007 by Pablo Palatnik
I have gotten a lot of feedback about the story I ran on the Search Engine Journal, “Valueclick Ad Network Serving Bogus and Incentivized Leads.†Two media sources have contacted me which I will post their articles if they are written.
A story came out today on MediaPost and quotes, “ADDING FUEL TO THE CONTROVERSY attached to the business of lead generation, another shareholder class action suit has been filed against ValueClick Media.
The latest complaint was filed Thursday by law firm Schiffrin Barroway Topaz & Kessler, LLP in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of all purchasers of securities of ValueClick. It alleges that the company’s lead-generation practices violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.”
Some comments from the story yesterday:
-“Unfortunately valueclick has engaged in many unfair business tactics. Doubly unfortunate is their ownership of commission junction, which is a quality service.â€
-“ Pablo, I’m really sorry to hear about your experience. I think it confirms what a lot of folks are saying about those guys right now. I believe this started to come to light when Jordan Rohan (stock analyst at RBC Capital Markets) wrote a scathing report on them a few months back. You can find that at http://www.internetoutsider.com/files/rohan_vclk_070426.pdf It is pretty damning.â€
-“ Looks like you got a raw deal. This is an insane story. I’m surprised no one else is covering it. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this!!!â€
-“ This should be in the business category. this article was very well written and very informative. I would be pissed if that was how a marketing company was driving traffic to my site.â€
-“ I can’t believe they wouldn’t refund your money after you showed them the lead feedback. Thanks for the warning about Value Click, talk about oxymoron.â€
-”Your first mistake is to pay everything upfront. You lose all of your leverage for settlement when disputing lead quality. Plus your contract should have outlined several unacceptable practices. This puts more on them to deliver quality leads once they realize you won’t pay for garbage.”
To Be Continued…….
