Webmail and Interface IT are a bunch of scammers

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Posted on 13 July 2009 Marketing

I think we all pretty much know that Webmail and the holding company Interface IT are genuine spammers much the same as Ananzi and Braby’s. I got this email from a reader that got scammed by Webmail to send out 100 000 emails that would generate a 30% – 40% response rate. This “direct mail” package costs her R30 000. Read the email below and please let me know what you think!

Hi,

I have a small company and was approached by Webmail’s Sales Director (Gregg van Notten) who sold me on a Direct Mail package. 100,000 of my target market (who have ‘signed’ up for such things – NOT!!) and I would have a 30-40% response rate. I stressed that I wouldn’t spam anybody and he assured me that there was no spamming. I was told to gear up for a massive response and ordered over R200k worth of product to gear up for this overwhelming campaign.

I couldn’t get the Sales Director to respond to my calls and finally go thoroughly hostile when one of the ‘Campaign Managers’ finally contacted me. I told them I wasn’t paying the remaining fee as their service was pathetic and their demographics amateur and irrelevant. They threatened to take me to court.

They then sent out the first 50,000 emails. Well 2203 opened the mails and I got a whopping 69 responses. This is when I went truly ballistic. I told them that if somebody “signs” up for emails they generally open them and that if 4.6% open them then it’s because they’re being spammed. I also targeted LSM 8+ and not be utterly ignorant, I’m fairly sure a lovely lady in a very (VERY!!!) rural town in the bundu of the Transkei cannot qualify. I then had a conversation with the Campaign Manager who was getting seriously aggravated with me and I told her to escalate my problem to somebody senior. She said she would and emailed this assurance to me. Well that was Tuesday last week.

I have now sent a truly snotty email informing them that I have contacted the Direct Marketing Association and will report them to the DTI. They’ll pick up this gem tomorrow.

This campaign has cost me a small fortune and the response has been pathetic beyond words. Their website states that they guarantee results and I’m going to hold them to this.

At Interface we aim to push the boundaries of conventional online and now mobile business and one of the first marketing companies in S.A. by offering our advertisers GUARANTEES. We have tailored some great cost effective packages that will bring guaranteed traffic to our advertisers websites. We are able to make these guarantees due to the relationship we have established with the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as Webmail ” South Africa’s leading FREE email service”.

Secondly, they state in their privacy statement that they do not sell their clients details and that they will communicate with the advertiser. This is false. All the people who responded to my mail have had their details displayed for my spamming pleasure. Email and phone number. They have lied to their clients and this has to be a breach of contract.
Junk Mail

We know that junk mail is invasive and annoying. We strive to protect you from Spam in the following ways:

  • We will never sell your address
  • We will constantly monitor and protect your inbox from unwanted mail.
  • Should advertisers wish to communicate directly, we will do so on their behalf once we are certain that your interest profile matches the deal and that it offers true value.

To protect yourself, we suggest that you give out your address with care, particularly to other websites

This company is unethical and borders on fraudulent and I refuse to leave it. I want my money back and I want some sort of investigation.

Hello? We are able to make these guarantees due to the relationship we have established with the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN. This sentence right here is a huge red flag – total and utter rubbish.

stats

Check out the stats from the first half of the campaign (50 000 emails) – I love how their “rate” percentage is based on the clicks sent from the amount of emails that were opened, instead of quoting the “rate” as a percentage of the total amount of emails sent. If they quoted it properly you would have an open rate of 5.1% and an actual click through rate of 0.8%. Pure spammy goodness.

In these times, with small businesses really struggling, they will fall for scams like this that “guarantee” results and I’m hoping that some of you that are reading this, stay far, far away from Webmail, Interface I.T. and all their associated companies.

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  • http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za Donn Edwards

    @Ricky: I have been taken to court because of comments on my blog, and it isn’t much fun. BUT you can win, without ever appearing in court.

    1) WAIT for them to file the court papers. They won’t, but that’s the first step. As soon as that happens, then its on the public record and the press have something they can quote without being sued.

    2) Send a copy of the court papers to Noseweek, along with your email and other proof. Remember the onus is on Webmail to prove that they are entitled to the money. When Noseweek starts asking them and their lawyers for comment, they are screwed and will probably drop the case.

    3) Consult a lawyer if you have to, but it is much better to do it yourself, *IF* you have the time and can stand the stress.

    Lawsuits are like playing chess by postcard. There are exciting moments an a LOT of waiting while nothing happens. That’s the tough part.

  • karen kruger

    I’m with Jason. Also the damn justice (ahem – another topic?) system grinds so slowly that hiring a lawyer becomes incredibly expensive. This is EXACTLY what Webmail counts on. Also, the new consumer protection act has come into force and Webmail is in breach of this legislation that they’ll end up being a case study for future law students! I swear I will show up if you end up in court and will happily be a corroborating victim and testify.

  • http://www.sabata.co.za Sabata Mereeotlhe

    These people phoned me too, and sad to say what a waste of time, from the moment I walked into the company in Centurion, I sensed some secrecy about the way things are done, being accompanied by my business partner he was eager to sign away immediately, but before he could say that much, I interuptted the flow by mentioning a 3 nonexistent partner is the one that is the major shareholder and that the 2 of us collectively could not take any stance on his sale. He seemed rather determined to get us to sign instead, I again insisted we are only going to go back to the office to inform the man incharge … what i suspected was in actual fact correct about this crowd … they called my partner again and again and again to get him to sign … whom after the meeting i explained why i rejected the sale and understood .. considering my 10 yrs experience in the internet industry and also with SEO …while talking to my partner i chose to sit quietly and act as though i dont know what he was talking about … and he got to relaxed and wrapped up in his lies and empty promises … and i was sitting there having a field day punching holes in the gag … as a reader/responder/commentator mentioned above they are too lazy to do simple research … or perhaps google is blocked on the domain … “If we catch anyone using Google you will be fired … ” LOL

    these guys are honestly a sad case study for what not to do

  • Levin

    This was very entertaining to read. I first dealt with these people back in 2000 when I was working for a Digital Markeitng company. They were chancers back then and I’m glad to see they are still scamming their way through life. The people that have Webmail accounts, this should be your first warning never to do business with them. Based on the irrelevant spam you get.

  • http://www.RegScheepers.com Reg Scheepers

    Jason and fellow commenters, I have also been taken for a ride by these guys. I’ll save the details of my story, but why don’t we all contact Cart Blanche. I see there are plenty of comments to this post, and there are certainly plenty of entries on HelloPeter.com.

    If Cart Blanche receives enough submissions from people they WILL investigate.

    What do you guys say? Not sure if this will accept links, but in case, here is Cart Blanche’s story submission page:
    http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/StorySubmission.aspx

  • http://www.liquiddigital.co.za LD

    We are a digital marketing company and have come across numerous businesses who have been locked into ridiculous contracts with Webmail / Interface IT. They seem to be intentionally misinforming clients to trick them into signing these contracts and then implementing totally ineffective marketing solutions at high expense. It seems their business model is not client continuity but rather just an objective to carry on duping as many businesses as they can to sustain their business. These sort of tactics are tarnishing the online marketing industry and creating a huge negative perception for companies that do offer solid ROI online marketing solutions. Something should be done.

  • http://webpolice2010.wordpress.com Web police

    Were you a victim of Webmail?

    We have formed a group called the Webpolice, aimed to help all those that have been victimized by Webmail.

    They have bullied stolen, spammed and upset far to many people,

    We are taking a class act against them.
    We need your support! We have lawyers (advocates) lined up! We need as many people as possible to log on to our website and to email us their story and details.

    Please help us to help you!

    Webmail is going down!
    http://webpolice2010.wordpress.com
    email: webpolice2010@gmail.com

  • http://www.RegScheepers.com Reg Scheepers

    My company, Brothers in Beat was approached by Webmail to advertise with them. They offered to send 30 000 emails to their list. At the meeting Webmail employee Gary Cahoon showed me an excel sheet of responses to a previous email campaign that they sent for a company in the same industry as mine (team building). This excel sheet had many responses, I would estimate around 100 responses. It was based on this that I enterted into an agreement with Webmail Int.

    I received TWO (2) responses.

    When I cancelled the agreement they let me know that I’m still liable for 75% of the total. They are basically asking me to pay them R25 000 for two responses to an email mailer sent to 30 000 people (This terrible response rate demonstrates that Webmail is selling a poor quality product, since the same material sent by Webmail was also sent by our regular email marketing company, Interactive Direct and receives a great response. So it’s not our marketing material that’s at fault here.)

    They are now threatening to list my company on the ITC. A quick Google search reveals that there are many, many people who are unhappy and feel cheated by Webmail.

    WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT USE WEBMAIL FOR EITHER THEIR FREE EMAIL SERVICE OR ESPECIALLY NOT FOR MARKETING. JUST DON’T, TRUST ME!

  • Patrizia Mariani

    Unfortunately everybody only gets to find these complaints online once they’ve signed the contract (all bushy-tailed and bright-eyed) and then very soon discovered that they’re dealing with an incompetent and dishonest company. Our only error is to believe what the sales people tell you and hand over our hard-earned money for a minimum of 6 months to unscrupulous people.

    The new Consumer Protection Act must surely provide some recourse against these people. Is anybody actually following up on their complaints or do they let it slide once the initial anger has passed?

  • Misrepresented By Webmail

    Yes,

    We also had a problem with misrepresentations where by the Sales Director signed off on an insertion order for CEOs and Owners of businesses and we received students and unemployed people looking for jobs.

    With further investigation at the time, which was around 2009 scheduled for monthly campaigns per month for roughly 100k rand. The first shot was a disasted and it was found out they can’t even breakdown the emails into the categories they were selling them on. They never provided us with the tracking staff, and botched the entire thing.
    The same outcome, they have been forcing payment by way of threatening court proceedings. It was pressure sales, lies, misrepresentations, and complete waste of time. I would never ever recommend Webmail. It was spam, it was untargetted, it wasn’t what we bought, and we never got what we wanted. This isn’t about venting, it trully is about sociopath management styles. I think this blog has brought up some important views, and within our rights, a consumer board should be developed around this. How about using the http://www.ripoffreport.com? It never comes down from there. Also, trully hold them to paying our money back, class action suit? Is there such a thing here. How many people who have been ripped off by these people can we pool together to go after them as one consumer body against their blatent lies and misrepresentations.

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