Business ProfileforDigital Visibility Concepts

I hired Digital Visibility Concepts to run a Facebook advertising campaign for my movie, His Stretch of Texas Ground. It was going to be month to month, and I could drop out at any time. I told them at the start that if it didn't pay for itself right away that I would not continue it. It ran about 2 weeks, but it wasn't doing well. It was not producing results. But then, Facebook shut it down for violating their advertising policies. They didn't say what rule was broken. I asked DVC to contact Facebook to find out what was going on, but they couldn't. They have no ability to contact Facebook. They told me that htey did at the beginning, but that was a lie. So, the campaign ran for no more than 2 weeks and probably less than that before it was shut down, even though I had paid them for a whole month. I also paid them a large sum as creative fee to create the ad. So, I was out all that money. But then, get this: even though the ad was defunct- dead in the water- they charged me $299 for the next month. Even though it was all over, and nothing was going on, they went ahead and charged me again. I have filed a dispute with my bank that issued my credit card, and they are investigating it now. I think it's likely they will reverse the charge. Nevertheless, the idea that that DVC would do this is abominable. I discourage anyone from hiring them.

We're sorry to hear that our services did not meet with Mr. Cinque's approval, and we are in the process of issuing a refund. Having said that, we don't feel that this account of the situation is entirely accurate. Specifically, Mr. Cinque claims that he was told he could drop out at any time. In reality, our policy is to require a 12-day written notice of such termination and Mr. Cinque did not provide that.

In addition, he claims that he told us from the beginning that he would drop us if the ad didn't pay for itself right away. This is not a realistic expectation, and in fact, he made no such statement until Oct 18, one month after the first billing date. At this point, we told him that we wouldn't know how the ads were doing until the end of the month.

The ad ran from Oct 22 to Nov 1 (10 days), at which point his account was disabled because of unusual activity. Of course, it is unrealistic to expect an ad to pay for itself in just 10 days.

It is true that Facebook shut the ad down for violating its advertising policies. The first time this happened, no clear reason was given by Facebook. The second time, Facebook indicated that the client's ads violated its Misleading Claims policy.

It is not true that we are unable to contact Facebook. Unfortunately, their service was simply slow in this instance.

It is true that we charged Mr. Cinque for a second month, due to the Monthly Program Automatic Renewal which he had signed up for. We had already done the work for the second month. Facebook rejected the ads for reasons that had nothing to do with us, and we were simply hoping to be compensated for our time.

We don't consider Mr. Cinque's claims to be legitimate, but we are offering him a refund to resolve this issue.

- DVC

First, the "send us a letter" requirement to terminate is just a fine print thing. They could have established it with me definitively, but they didn't. More than once, I informed my advisor that I may not renew after a month, and she just said that would be fine, and made no mention of the hurdle in place. And it is a ridiculous thing because in this time of Covid, mail travels slowly and unreliably. Why should it be necessary to do that? Again, it's just a hurdle they have in place for their own advantage and to take advantage. It is not a better business practice. Just thnk: if it's necessary to give them 12 days written notice, it means that you would have to mail the letter, what, 20 days before, with mail service what it is, and that means I'd have to send it 10 days into the first month. Again, it is a ridiculous and manipulative requirement.

And I really did inform them- from the beginning- that the ad had to pay for itself, or else I would not continue. I was talking to them on hte phone, and many times I said it. The letter I sent on October 18 was sent mostly because of the lousy service in which my advisor was non-responsive for days at a time.

I found the exact letter I sent to Mae Whiteney on October 18, and this is it:

In the subject line, it said, "Do not automatically renew my service"

Then, in the body, it said:

If I see great results, I'll tell you to renew it, but if I don't, then we'll be through. I am disheartened by the quality of the work and the lousy customer service.

She did not respond to that

Regarding the refund, to this day no refund ever came through from DVC. It was my bank that reversed the charge- not DVC.

And they are not being truthful even now about being able to call Facebook. Facebook posted to on my account about the Misleading Claims. But, if they had talked to Facebook on the phone, they would have found out what claim we made that was misleadiing. In other words, they would have gotten the particulars. But, they can't cite any particulars. All they know is what was stated on the message board of the page. They didn't talk to anybody.

So no, I do not want to alter my rating. And even the quality of the work was lousy. In their video, they had this campy thing: "Does Sheriff Joe have what it takes? Will Arlettsville ever be safe again?" That's campy. It's a promotion fit for children, and adults do not like being treated like children.

So, I don't wish to alter my rating. Please leave it at 1. And thank you for your assistance.



So, we'll see what happens, but unless I tell you otherwise, do not bill me again. Thank you.
Ralph Cinque