26 Apr 09 Cold calls from advertising agencies

Since my poor experience recently (see posts about coolessential, I decided that it would be a good idea to make myself (and anyone else who might be interested) a check list of ways to avoid being scammed.

First of all – remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That was what I forgot.

My second experience with an advertising agency calling me was much better than the first – it was a company who are authorised by google.co.uk to manage sponsored advertising links on the google search engine. When they called at first, they mentioned their own web site and then proved to me that they had the correct authorisation from google to carry out the work on my behalf. They provided phone numbers and email addresses – but, most of all, they sent paper contracts and had physical return addresses for that.

So, here’s a quick list of things to look out for when someone phones you:-

1. Ask for contact details.
2. Do not agree to anything straight away.
3. Ask for proof that the company is authorised to carry out the work.
4. Do not pay for the work on first contact.
5. Ask for a proper invoice to be sent to you, even if you subsequently pay by credit card over the phone.
6. If the company is in the UK, check that the invoice has a VAT number if they have added a VAT amount on to your bill.
7. Check on the search engines – search for “the company name + problems” (obviously replace the company name with the real company name) That should reveal any disgruntled clients.
8. Ask for references – ask for a phone number from two existing clients.

That way, you will be doing much more than I did – and, while it might not save your bacon (… er, hard earned cash) – it might save you from some of the grief I have experienced over the coolessential issue.