Main Street Hub

I was looking at opening my own marketing company, visited their website to check out the competition. They called me a month later and we’re pushy and wouldn’t listen. They acted like their way of marketing works for every business, which is NOT true. Then I looked on Unilocal, which is one of their marketing tools, all I found was one star reviews. Big red flag! Stay away. The day after talking to them, I started getting spam emails from all kinds of similar companies.

I had hired Main Street Hub (MSH) to do some online marketing for my company. Their main responsibility was to respond to online reviews or complaints. To be able to do this, I had to allow MSH to have access to my online accounts, including but not limited to Google, Unilocal,and Yahoo. They used the required passwords and access get listed as «Managers» of the accounts. Main Street Hub gained permission to become «Managers» on my account, they actually become listed as «Owners», something they said was necessary just for the length of the contract so they could «effectively represent my company’s online presence.» I trusted that they were professional enough to manage ethically. At the end of my contract I discontinued service with them as I did not see any growth and found the online marketing to be ineffective.
Recently, as I was attempted to leave a response to a Google review of my own company, I found that I did not have permission to leave the comment. When I ceased to renew my contract with MSF, having given appropriate notice, Main Street REMOVED ME from my own accounts. But the truly disturbing part of this, is that MSH waited eight months after the end of contract to do this underhanded deed. I no longer had right to access my Google page, no ability to leave responses to reviews. You can’t say it was an error, because right after I let them go, I was able to leave comments on my business reviews. THEY went in eight months AFTER that and removed me from my accounts. I contacted Google and with some verification was able to get on the page of Manager, but to get back as Owner of the account, have to wait a few weeks until a postcard is mailed to my business location. Google explained that this helps avoid fraud, as some unscrupulous hackers would claim companies that were not theirs online. I find what Main Street Hub has done as equally unscrupulous.
The review I needed to respond to was time sensitive, of which I was not able to accomplish due to MSH and their shady practices. I thought a company that was hired to promote your business was not meant to damage it. I did not let a wolf into the hen house, and then PAY them to cripple my ability to manage my online presence. I’ve owned this business since day one, starting in February 2000, incorporated in September 2001. They had no right to remove me from my own business pages, and to cause me to lose the ability to run my company correctly.

This company thrives on harassment. I’ve told their sales rep, Jason, no less than 10 times on different occasions that we aren’t interested in using their service. He refuses to take no for an answer and calls/​emails continuously. I’d say save your self the mental stress and don’t do business with these clowns, but unfortunately is not doing business with them hasn’t stopped the harassing calls. I’ll be pursing further action to prevent this company from contacting us again.

My experience with Main Street Hub is nothing but unsatisfactory. I am very open minded when it comes to advertising for my small business as I try many different avenues for promoting my business. So when Main Street Hub called me, I was pretty interested with what they had to offer.
I already had a small presence in Facebook, Twitter and Unilocal and they said that they could enhance it. In fairness to them, they did some improvements to my pages.
But they also told me that they have some proprietary software that would catch «tweets» of people needing the services that I provide for my business, and that they would engage these twitter users to come to my business resulting in added sales. That was their main selling point when they called me. So I signed up. After the first month, I never got a single customer from this process. Not even an inquiry or a phone call. I tried to opt out after the first month but apparently there is a three month contract that was never explained to me. So I gave it another two months since I was still optimistic about it. But lo and behold, after three full months, still the same. Not one single customer gained… Not even an inquiry or a phone call saying that they found my business thru Main Street Hub. Spent more than $ 1000 for three months to not get a single customer. Should’ve just used it for Unilocal or Google ads. Total waste of advertising money!

This firm does not take no for an answer. And it is impossible to get out of their 90 day commitment once they have your credit card. We were not happy with the service or the performance and they made severe mistakes on at least three occasions mis-​classifying our business, having an inappropriate conversation unrelated to our business through Twitter and finally directing our customers to links that did not exist.
They continually apologize for their mistakes but are unwilling to stand up and end the contract.

Maybe this one is out of business already… office not listed on their website now
Good… now if the others would close… we need less scam type of businesses Everything they offer you can get for free via Unilocal and Facebook. I’m worked previously in Internet marketing, so no stranger to these type of tactics. They call you typically since they can find you and can tell you are doing well… businesses that they can tell are spending money on marketing — who else better to target. So learn how to help market your business yourself… there are many free tools available… many that charge offer very little if any results… They always try to sign you up for at least 6 months to give your campaign a good enough time to see results… If you had a good campaign, you would know immediately and it wouldnt take 6 months… Never sign up for any advertising for longer than a month to prove any ROI.