Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend your reputation — such as it is…
By: Greg Swann,
Phoenix Real Estate,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Wednesday, May 21st, 2008, 10:38 am MST
Category: Blogging, Disintermediation, Egoism in Action, Real Estate, Technology
[I'm kicking this back up to the top. At the time I wrote this, I thought it might be enough to make the jackasses at ePerks.com come to their senses. Apparently not. If you are a real estate weblogger, and if you don't want some sleazoid attorney pulling these stunts on you, you need to set your shoulder beside Vlad Zablotskyy's and fight for your right to free speech. Let the world know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable. --GSS]
Sleazeball lead vendor ePerks.com (corporate motto: “We don’t totally suck because we can’t get anything right!”) has found a great new way to respond to criticism: Censorship.
Real estate weblogger Vlad Zablotskyy exposed ePerks to what by BloodhoundBlog standards amounts to very mild scrutiny. His posts elicited a number of horror stories from Realtors who had been misused in their dealings with ePerks.
So far nothing surprising. Lead vendors suck. They persist by virtue of creating an artificial marketing chokepoint, interposing themselves between consumers and the vendors who can satisfy their needs:
In the Web 1.0 world, lead vendors snapped up domains and fought hard for dominance on organic and pay-per-click keywords relating to real estate sales, mortgage origination and refinancing. By these means, they harvested contact information from interested parties, which they were then able to sell to Realtors and lenders, often for enormous fees. The lead vendors created an artificial chokepoint by marketing, then charged practitioners a premium to gain access to the consumers trapped at that chokepoint.
It is hardly shocking that most of the victims of lead vendors come to hate the scum who run these scams.
In the long run none of this matters. The Web 2.0 world disintermediates all man-made chokepoints. ePerks.com is one with the dinosaurs — and sic semper tyrannosauris!
But wait. There’s more. Instead of ignoring criticism on what is (sorry, Vlad) a low-traffic weblog, instead of asking itself “What would David Gibbons do?”, instead of engaging the enraged while retooling the chokepoint like Homegain.com’s Louis Cammarosano, ePerks.com chose to do the stupidest thing any corporation or government can do in the Web 2.0 world: It sent a threatening letter to a weblogger.
Witness: One Ronald J. Cook, an attorney for Willoughby, Stuart & Bening in San Jose, penned this deathless prose:
You are hereby instructed to terminate your ongoing efforts to unfairly disparage and slander ePERKS.com through the dissemination of false and/or manufactured information. Any resistence to our demands will be met with swift and decisive action.
Doesn’t that sound like the leader of the alien invasion in a bad sci-fi movie? “Attention, Earthlings! Resistance is futile!”
We need to take a moment to reflect and compose a comprehensive response to Mr. Cook and ePerks.com. Are we ready?
You idiots!
Cook goes on to say, “[Y]our only goal is to cast ePERKS in a negative light for personal gain.” No, Ron, that’s what you’re doing — and a damn fine job, too!
There’s more, but who cares? BloodhoundBlog gets these letters from time to time, and they’re all the same. Some dipshit corporation — in preference to delivering on its promises, honestly addressing grievances, and maintaining its reputation in the free marketplace of ideas — hires a jackass attorney to write a threatening letter that is in fact void of all threats.
Attention ePerks.com: Vlad Zablotskyy is free to criticize you — as am I — and you cannot do a damned thing about it. We are blessed in this country by a Constitution and a legal tradition that empowers the individual against the threats of the powerful. This is a wonderful thing, and it protects you as much as it does us. Hiring a legalizing thug like Mr. Cook to do violence to the idea of free speech is an act of treason to your own rights — you idiots!
In any case, I am setting my shoulder beside Vlad’s. If you want to come for him, come for me, too. I will be happy to report every detail of everything you do — to a national audience of real estate professionals numbering in the tens of thousands. I detest lead vendors, and I will be beyond delighted to help you shred what remains of your shoddy reputation — you idiots!
I’m sure you will not be human enough to send Mr. Zablotskyy a letter of apology for having issued your empty threat. It doesn’t matter. Google has a long memory, and any future clients who think to investigate ePerks.com before risking their money on your sleazy leads will stumble across this post in no time.
Nice going — you idiots!
Support Vlad Zablotskyy’s Defense Fund
Defend your own right to free speech!
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112 Comments so far
Greg,
Nothing to be sorry about. I know that I get no traffic… I am not a dreamer. But that is precisely what surprises me. What tens of thousands of dollars can they accuse me of???
Search the Google for “ePerks Sponsored Reviews” and you will see how they got their rankings. The strange thing is that they have never attempted to be reviewed by a real estate blogger. And the review on my blog misfired because even though I have no traffic, most of the traffic that I do have are my former colleagues and friends in real estate.
Thanks for the link and support.
> Thanks for the link and support.
My life, my fortune, my sacred honor. I prize my freedoms because I am exactly the kind of loudmouth who gets jailed or killed in places where speech is not free. I’m delighted to help defend your rights — but in part that’s because I’m defending my own rights.
Greg,
Whoa! Thanks for standing up for ALL OF OUR rights! The Bloodhound is already unchained, so “git ‘em”.
As some one who grew up under Communists in former Soviet Union I can truly appreciate the freedom. Thank you.
I tried it for one of my agents. It’s a ripoff.
> Thanks for standing up for ALL OF OUR rights!
Brave men died so that I can bellow from my soapbox. If freedom of expression ever goes down in the United States, I want for it to go down fighting.
> As some one who grew up under Communists in former Soviet Union I can truly appreciate the freedom.
I looked at your other weblog via Google. I believe you.
In the next few dozen months we’re going to find out, by way of China, if the Internet is the final triumph of free speech. Imagine billions of human minds unchained…
> I tried it for one of my agents. It’s a ripoff.
Excellent. This is the kind of comment that ePerks.com is objecting to.
So: Bring it on, you censorious thugs! We’ll teach how to rassle!
I should have known better, but he wanted to try it through my company. I have convinced him to cancel and I’ve written them to cancel it. It’s not that I’m against all lead companies, it’s just thay so many don’t deliver anything — empty promises.
We’ve done it, too — HouseValues.com. People our age could easily live to be 150 years old. I’ve joked with Cathy that, someday, decades from now, we could be eating oatmeal and dreaming about all the cheeseburgers we could have bought with the money we pissed away on HouseValues.com.
Here we go again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He82NBjJqf8
e perks rips off agents money! Great Google content, no?
I’m glad to see the bloodhound itchin’ to come off the porch. To the members of Bar, let me remind you, free expression is free expression. Opinions are opinions and are protected. It’s that first amendment thing. These guys all run programs to pick up when you’re talking about them, I see their machines hit me all the time, then I just wait for the letter. The Wine Dog doesn’t stay on the porch and I’m glad the Bloodhound will be right there with me chasing those guys up a tree.
What’s black and tan and looks good on an attorney?
A Doberman.
Thanks a lot for this post and taking a stand! We need to stick together in this unscrupulous world of ours. Infomation like this is invaluable. Let’s not let agents get ripped off any more. (or be bullied by “the man”)
> or be bullied by “the man”
One of my own practical lodestones, as a Realtor, is, “In what light could this be portrayed by a plaintiff’s attorney.” Even if you are acting from the best of motives, if an attorney could convincingly characterize your behavior as being corrupt, you shouldn’t do it.
I don’t believe ePerks.com is acting from anything even remotely like the best of motives, but, in the world of weblogs and search engines, every player in the marketplace has to behave in a way that can stand up to public scrutiny.
But: That’s a worthy goal for BloodhoundBlog, I think. Russell Shaw thinks we’re at this point already, but I’m yet to be convinced. But it would be beyond wonderful if every general counsel for every vendor in the real estate industry had a homily on the wall reading, “How would what we are doing hold up to scrutiny on BloodhoundBlog?” That’s a world without walls.
I think the entire issue with them is that the founders drew on their experience in automotive market and lead generating for that industry.
I still think that the model can work. But if you charge $200 a month for the service you better be ready for some scrutiny. Some agents were with them for several months without a single lead… I think you can do better than that with a PPC campaign or a solid press release.
Greg, once again thank you for your support.
> Greg, once again thank you for your support.
My pleasure, never doubt it. Please keep us in the loop.
I have never used ePerks.com so I didn’t know that ePerks.com might be a rip off. The only way I found out that ePerks.com might be a rip off was by stumbling across various blogs about the cease and desist letter from the lawyer to Vlad claiming that ePerks.com wasn’t a rip off.
The manufactured charges against Vlad leaves me to presume the ePerks.com is actually a rip off. Why else would they use such heavy handed tactics trying to prove that ePerks.com is not a rip off? I am not saying that ePerks.com is a rip off but after following the blog world I am coming to the belief that ePerks.com is actually a rip off.
Is there anybody out there who can tell us if ePerks.com is a rip off or do they provide the leads they promise?
@Greg Cremia
That is what I am hoping. At least now they getting attention for real estate agents. Come on, how many agents are reading Mashable? It will take a day or two for Bloodhhoud to rank on front page for searches related to ePerks then you will see what will happened.
I think one of the reason they got so upset with me was that my blog ranked #1 on Google for “eperks scam”…. Which by the way I regained that position thanks to Greg (Swann).
Also they are accusing me for not allowing “positive” comments. Mr. Cook probably did not bother to read that original thread. There are plenty of unchallenged positive comments. I challenged only a few that were posting two or three comments during one visit while using different names. They were lucky I did not ban them from my blog.
As a technologist in a large real estate brokerage, you can only imagine how many lead generation phone calls I have to answer or answer questions about (3 today alone). I am not against all of them. But they should be open to questions, concerns and criticism of their products.
BUT (and read this CLEARLY e-PERKS) WHEN you deliver bum goods and/or attempt to censor criticism, you are on the WRONG side of the equation. As Greg indicated Google has a long memory–
It is truly frustrating to see people attempting to silence others with a muzzle 8 years now after the Cluetrain…have you IDIOTS at E-Perks learned NOTHING?
Markets are conversations and Google is the clerk recorder who writes them down for history and who doesn’t take a coffee break.
Greg you are right-bring it on.
As long as the criticism (like “your product is not
worth the money I paid” or “it sucks”) is not outright lies or defamatory(like “Joe X Mary Y and Greg Z of C corp are all convicted embezzlers and child molestors”, if not true of course)
In the case of the former statement a follow up with the customer and perhaps even a thank you letter for candid feedback is warranted.
In the case of the latter statement a lawyer letter may be warranted.
The best thing a company can get is an honest assesment of its products and services.
From there they can work on improvement.
As such we at homegain are working on “retooling the chokepoint”.
You’ll see more tangible evidence in the coming weeks….
> The best thing a company can get is an honest assesment of its products and services.
Damn straight. Criticism is how you find out what you’re getting wrong. Invaluable market feedback.
> As such we at homegain are working on “retooling the chokepoint”.
> You’ll see more tangible evidence in the coming weeks….
You are a very smart man. Keep people talking and they’ll tell you what they’ll buy. I have to tip my hat to you.
Greg, thanks for the expose – I recently got a call from them and didn’t know anything about them. Not interested in that kind of service but you just saved me from having to listen to their “pitch”.
Best post in a while, Greg. You’re always fluid, but here…it MATTERS, you know? Only fault: too gentle.
I say we get a campaign going. Agents Sayin’ Screw E-perks. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a sidebar ribbon of any kind, and with the April 1st holiday coming…
I also thought lead vendors were uniformly douche bags, then I met Bill Rice. He changed my mind.
[...] opportunity to say thank you to other and way more influential bloggers for noticing my story. Greg Swann, Marlow Harris, Jay Thompson, Pat Kitano, SEO Emperor – thank you everyone for your support and [...]
There was a blog on Active Rain about avoiding ePerks that has been taken down. I can only assume the author received a similar C&D letter.
Greg C
If the post merely said to avoid the company its a shame that the post was taken down. We should not be stifling criticism.
Free speech should be protected. What some people, however, don’t undertand is that free speech is not absolute.
The constitution does not protect ALL types of speech.
-eg. one can’t falsely shout fire in a crowded theater,
nor can one make defamatory and false statements with impunity.
However, comments from dissatisfied customers should not be squashed (unless they are accompanied by knowing and patently false and/or defamatory statements)
In the link below is an example of what Greg S. calls “engaging the enraged” rather than suing ‘em. ( I always love when some one invents a clever phrase to describe what appears to be a seemingly non descript event)
Indeed, I even used Greg’s terminology “chokepoint middleman” in the post!
http://blog.homegain.com/real-estate-2point0-homegain
I think Greg should trademark “engaging the enraged”.
That was fantastic. It is rare that I laugh for real when reading a post but you did such a good job that I am awe. You have a way with words that is truly special.
Also e-jerks had it coming and it was joy to see it given to them so well.
[...] to have such an alert. You can see how mistaken my thinking was. I am in particular worried about Greg Swann of BloodhoundBlog, Marlow Harris of 360digest, Lydia Player of North Dallas Homes, Jay Thompson of Agentgenius, Matt [...]
Lead generators are all junk. Do not waste money on leads. These lead generators simply want to become middle men, you can generate similar results by spending some time and money on building good solid lead generation real estate web site and simply competing for the clicks on google and yahoo. Housevalues, homegain.com, realestate.com and tons of others are simply wedging themselves in the way of the consumer and agent.
Agents just do it yourselves. They are all rip offs
Ok, I promised myself not to comment anymore about this company. But I just can not help myself. It turns out that anyone can access their traffic data:
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=sm8eperks&r=35
I had made some quick calculations. Last month there were about 17353 unique visitors, lets presume for a moment that all these visitors were quired through PPC at $1 a click. $17,535, right?
With 2700 agents at $129 per month for a Zip code they are cashing in at least $348,300.00.
Are you kidding me? No wonder they want to sue me. With 300 closings (according to Inman News) only every 9th agent had any success with these guys.
Tell me who is the winner here.
My above comment can no longer be validated because the public access to the statistics was turned off….
However http://www.quantcast.com/eperks.com/traffic has “estimated” traffic statistics and they are pretty much on target… although those graphics are not promising.
Greg, I hope you don’t mind me keeping this thread afloat. It means a lot to me.
I am also linking back to every blogger who supported me in this so that the first two pages of Google are not looking that promising for ePerks either.
Again. Thanks so much for your support
> Greg, I hope you don’t mind me keeping this thread afloat. It means a lot to me.
To the contrary. I think keeping this particular set of feet tot he fire will be better for all of us. My hat is off to you, Vlad.
I appreciate it.
Just on the topic of “low-trafficked blog”
I have put together a list of real estate blogs that I read and tried to ranked them… You are #3 on that list. Will be #2 soon. I can’t imagine any one can keep up with Curbed… 100+ posts in a week?
http://www.top100realestateblogs.com/
Anyway, I hope you would like to know that. My own blog “raked” at 66 so it is good to know that I ma only 63 blogs behind. But then again I have probably missed bunch of good blogs. If you have any suggestions of blogs to add let me know.
Just remember when you are running from a dog where you most likely to get bit.
> Just remember when you are running from a dog where you most likely to get bit.
I love it!
Greg,
There are some new developments to this story on my blog. I am not sure how you or other bloggers can help:
http://www.go-beyond-mls.com/i-am-being-sued-by-eperks/
These last few moth were pure horror for me and my family. I would not wish it onto my worst enemy.
[...] http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=2798 – Greg of Bloodhourdrealty.com- also had written a follow up after I published the infamous cease and desist letter. I may have asked Greg to take a look at my post but his article was voluntary, and I have no right to ask him to deleted it. [...]
> There are some new developments to this story on my blog.
I want to see what I can do to change the nature of the game. In the mean time, let’s kick this back up to the top to see if that will help.
Never have I signed up with these er, services. Never have, never will…
ePerks had the audacity to send me not one, not two, but three emails yesterday trying to solicit me to take referrals from them. Here is one of them, verbatim:
Hello,
My name is Casey McCaughin, and I am contacting you because I am currently looking to establish reliable connections with Brokers and Realtors across the United States in order to close transactions for our clients. We would like to find quality professionals that are open to paying us a 19% referral fee after closing a transaction with the clients we send.
This is not lead generation program. I will not send you lists or ask you to cold call customers or charge you per lead fees. Our clients come to you when they are prepared to buy or sell their home because they using our program to gain significant cash back incentive from us when they complete transactions with our referral contacts in their town.
If you would like a detailed description of how our system works in our HYPERLINK “http://www.eperks.com/signup” \nClick Here and use access code
CM19 to review our business model, pricing and guarantee. You can also click the “Get Started” button at any point to view available territories or give me a call to discuss your options and answer any questions that you have.
You can HYPERLINK “http://youtube.com/watch?v=MchASMPezWA” \nClick here and view our prime time TV commercial currently being seen on BBC America, CNN, Travel Channel, Fox News, Discovery Channel and more.
If you can’t talk today feel free to e-mail me to set up a good time for a phone appointment.
Kind Regards,
Casey McCaughin
Direct: 925-984-1781
Office: (925) 225 9800 x 303
Toll Free (800) 788 1798 x 303
Email: casey.mccaughin@eperks.com
Greg,
I appreciate that you re taking a stand for me- a blogger you have never met. It speaks tons about your character and integrity.
I had a sleepless night (one of many) so please forgive me if I do not make much sense.
Last night I asked on my blog that agents and brokers would forward to me the solicitation e-mails they have received from ePerks. The person who posted about me on Yahoo! Answers and had threatened me on my blog when I told his I would ban him if he did not stop accusing me of fabricating comments, was visiting form the following range of IP Addresses (76.206.0.160 – 76.206.0.167).
Some of the e-mails ePerks have sent out, like the one posted by The Harriman Team, did originate on 76.206.0.160 . Mr. Berhouzi denied again and again that his company has anything to do with that range of IP Addresses.
I have forwarded the copies to my attorney and am waiting for a call from him. And then I maybe able to take a nap.
Again, thank you for taking a stand for an “insignificant” blogger.
> thank you for taking a stand for an “insignificant” blogger.
It’s my honor, but there is nothing insignificant about you or your situation. I hope I am able to bring more to this fight.
New to blog – here’s my long story short: I paid my (nearly $500 a month) service fees for a full eight months (embarrassed blush), did not rcv any qualified leads, reported my dissatisfaction to co. regularly, finally went thru the lengthy ePERKS process to request the guaranteed refund, was approved for a refund, and wha la – (rolling my eyes) I rcv’d a handsome Refund Certificate stating my refund had been approved (oh joy) and I would rcv my credit 12/15/2008 (an 8 month waiting period!!!) and oh by the way the certificate states it can not be copied or disclosed to any 3rd party or individual (nice). I will file formal complaints w, BBB, DRE, Local, State and National REALTOR Associations etc. Fingers crossed, but not holding my breath, I rcv a refund! Anyone else w/ this experience ?????
This nonsense and intimidation on the part of e-perks and their legal hounds (no offense) might amount to barratry if they are stupid enough to pursue this in the courts.
I’ll be sure to join others in issuing viral warnings at company meetings about e-perks and their tactics.
[...] I had not read these posts by Vlad at Go Beyond MLS and Greg at Bloodhound Blog on an action being taken against Vlad. The result is that an vendor did not like the post by [...]
Vlad,
Get ahold of Robert Cox at the Media Bloggers Association. They have the mechanism in place to help you fight this. I met Robert at BlogNashville back in 2004, great guy and this is what the association lives for, to help us.
http://www.mediabloggers.org/
Hope this helps,
Tom (also emailed)
Thanks Tom,
I will do that. I beginning to thing ePerks threat was nothing but another buff. I was handing them a golden opportunity to move past this, even at the cost of loosing my reputation. They blew it.
http://www.shaftingrealtors.com/
> http://www.shaftingrealtors.com/
Oh, bless you! That’s beautiful!
> http://www.shaftingrealtors.com/
I almost fell off my chair.
Nice transformation.
Here is something interesting:
http://monterey.craigslist.org/sls/652791412.html
- Strong work ethic with a “whatever it takes” attitude
Greg you swing a big stick here, but this is something that I believe needs to be spread far and wide.
Today being Memorial Day we honor our fallen soldiers and what they stood for.
Freedom Of Speech is one of the Freedoms we enjoy and fight for.
I posted a Blog at Active Rain about this for Vlad and I think if as many of us that can would click the little red flag above the comment and check “Feature”, we could get this on page 1 today for some additional exposure and I do link to this post as well.
http://activerain.com/blogsview/524339/ePerks-Sues-Blogger-To
> this is something that I believe needs to be spread far and wide
I agree completely.
> if as many of us that can would click the little red flag above the comment and check “Feature”, we could get this on page 1 today for some additional exposure
Done. Thanks for doing this. And: Be sure to let us know if you catch any flak from these idiots.
eperks traffic can be viewed here: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/www.eperks.com/?metric=uv
At the bottom of the compete.com page you can view their 5 top searched keywords. I found these to be extremely revealing:
1. eperks
2. gad petel
3. teenage std
4. leapfish.com
5. lone star circle santa rosa real estate
I am especially curious about #3 and its relevence to real estate search.
LMAO, they are a dying sleazy company.
Keep up the great work Greg and Vlad, sounds like eperks does not know how to treat people like adults or to manage their online reputation. Perhaps somebody from Homegain could give them a call and help them straiten out their behavior over at eperks
Greg;
In reading BHB I sometimes think that opinions and rhetoric take precedence over calm discourse, but I think that your position here is absolutely on the money.
Congratulations on Honoring Those who served by taking a stand that they all would approve of.You do yourself and all of us proud.
They called me about 3 times(on 3 different lines) the other day and followed up with an email. Thankfully they’d contacted me some time ago to discuss their ’scam’ so I was prepared with my canned response to ALL lead generators “I am not interested. I am on the DNC List so please do not ever call me again. Thank you”.
My little exposure to Vlad, has shown him to an individual willing to help real estate agents where he can and this situation with Mr. Behrouzi is rather unfair.
Greg as you pointed we have just honored our veterans that have fought for our freedoms, one of which is the freedom of speech.
I further think it is crazy for someone to ask another person to remove posts on someone else’s blog. If it is that important for the posts to be removed – let Mr. Behrouzi contact the bloggers himself. Or at a minimum post a rebuttal to the post or maybe even just let it go.
Mr. Behrouzi has probably put more his business on more people’s radar than Vlad could have achieved.
Mr. Behrouzi may have only served to shoot himself in the foot.
Eperks: I have had horrible experience with e-perks. I have been trying to cancel my account since April 4th. I have written documentation of every interaction I have had with the company. They refuse to cancel my account , and are continually doing unauthorized charges. I have Isabele and Chris Hoffman, to people who work there send me a follow up email documenting that they will indeed credit my account but they never do. I have been talking to both of them for several months. I have emailed Ben, the CEO of the company, I have left unreturned voicemails to the so called “accounting department” and customer service department. No return calls. I don’t know what to do
Eperks: I have had horrible experience with e-perks. I have been trying to cancel my account since April 4th. I have written documentation of every interaction I have had with the company. They refuse to cancel my account , and are continually doing unauthorized charges. I have Isabele and Chris Hoffman, to people who work there send me a follow up email documenting that they will indeed credit my account but they never do. I have been talking to both of them for several months. I have emailed Ben, the CEO of the company, I have left unreturned voicemails to the so called “accounting department” and customer service department. No return calls. I don’t know what to do…and oh yea—never received one lead from them which is why I am trying to cancel….what the deal and what should I do to get my money back?
[...] sympathy and support of the real estate community, including heavy weight real estate bloggers like Greg Swann and even spawning [...]
Hmmm… I totally missed this party until reading Andy Beard’s post today. So, they sued a blogger after asking for editorial advertising becasue they didn’t like the comments or follow up. Hmm… just goes to show you what you get when you do not have a stringent enough agreement in place for such content recruitment. I worked with plenty of companies that use editorial content for engagement and this never happened (even with other companies that had reputation problems). Sounds to me like they had a very bad legal department or none at all.
Any updates on this? Wondering if eperks actually went ahead and sued Vlad? or have they finally figured out that it is not going to work.
@JTB Summit,
No, I have not been served the summons, so I am beginning to suspect it was just a threat.
There was also coverage by borkerscience.com and andybeard.eu in connection to my situation. I am not holding my breath but I would guess that after Greg pushed the issue here and bot Trace Richardson and Andy Beard had written in connection to my story, they may reconsider to pursue the lawsuit after me.
However, I am not taking things for grated and am preparing to a face off. I can be certain of what they will or will not do.
[...] who wrote about my situation in the recent weeks and months: Trace Richardson, Andy Beard and Greg Swann just to name a [...]
[...] his new web site, BrokerScience.com, Trace Richardson is on a tear. Trace got his teeth into the story of ePerks.com’s attempts to silence real estate weblogger Vlad Zablotskyy with a cease and desist letter. Starting with an analysis of how ePerks has managed to achieve an [...]
Vlad, I am glad to hear that so far so good. Greg thank you, this helps all of us.
[...] Behrouzi also claims that Zablotskyy has exposed him to “hatred, contempt, ridicule and disdain.” The petition itself is a bad joke, but it is beyond all doubt that that Behrouzi has exposed himself to “hatred, contempt, ridicule and disdain” by the months o…. [...]
[...] Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend you… [...]
I just got a call from e-perks and was thinking about joining. However after reading these comments it sounds like a scam. Did anyone have success with them recently?
[...] More from Greg. [...]
Never heard of e-perks but I am not found of any lead generation company. Realtors need to put these people out of business by hanging up and leaving their credit cards in their pocket. Get your own leads folks and stop paying for something that you can get on your own.
The You-Tube video was disgusting. Certainly speaks volumes for them.
Can’t imagine anyone taking on this case. Free speech I believe, is still one of our American rights.
[...] Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend you… [...]
I am so disgusted with this. The posts over on broker science where you can listen to Ben of ePerks make threats are priceless and prove one thing: the guy is JERK and seems to have very little decorum. The fact that as big as he supposedly is he cannot be tempered by attorneys only tells me he needs a reality check. Iam not one for mincing words so here goes:
ePerks, get together- focus on rehabbing your image not attacking a blogger. Also, if you want to clear the air on the Yahoo Answewrs thing- get a third party forensic computer expert to harvest various employee IPs. Hell, I will pay for it.
http://agentgenius.com/?p=2168
Is anyone suing eperks? I’ve read rumbles about a class action suit? Where do I sign on? Based on what I’ve read, there is good evidence of fraud and would think crimminal charges could be pursued. But I’m an agent, not a lawyer, and not sure how one goes about suing a company.
We could start a class action lawsuit against them. I believe that to have standing we would each need to sign up for eperks service and then litigate on having been defrauded.
>Is anyone suing eperks?
> We could start a class action lawsuit against them.
In what way would that be justice? Self-defense is perfectly moral, as is our acting together to defend Vlad’s freedom to speak as he chooses. Retribution and vengeance are not justice. They are new crimes rationalized by anger. If anyone reading this wants to act for justice, make a donation. If you want to hurt people, count me out.
Using the court system to recoup money from a company that entered into agreements with agents under false pretense is not an act of justice?
>In what way would that be justice?
Justice is righting a wrong through the judicial system! Taking someone to court to right a wrong is in no way, shape, or form “new crimes.”
>If you want to hurt people count me out.
Manipulating and posting a logo to read eJerks, using terms like “sleazball” and “idiot,” and other disparaging remarks are acts of anger designed to hurt.
By definition “censorship” is the government’s attempt to quell the freedom of expression of the populous. That is not the situation you have here.
> Using the court system to recoup money from a company that entered into agreements with agents under false pretense is not an act of justice?
The people discussing this class action suit are not aggrieved parties, they are simply trolling for a pretext to inflict injury on ePerks.
> Manipulating and posting a logo to read eJerks, using terms like “sleazball” and “idiot,” and other disparaging remarks are acts of anger designed to hurt.
It’s called satire. Invented by the Greeks, perfected by the Romans, affectedly misunderstood by hobby-horsemen everywhere.
We have had a bad history of legalizing sock-puppets from Verizon IP addresses. If you should choose to respond, please use your true name and specify your web site/weblog.
> If you should choose to respond, please use your true name and specify your web site/weblog.
And you’re promoting free speech on blogs? Is conditional speech free speech? My name is Pike and I’m an agent in Burlington Vermont. http://www.startinghome.com and several other sites.
sock-puppets, hobby-horses, name calling–I see a pattern here. Satire generally has a degree of irony to it. The eJerks logo is satirical and funny. “Sleazebag” is juvenile, not satirical. But I’d have to say that trying to position blogs in the first position for google search term “eperks” in order to ruin the reputation of a company is an attempt to inflict injury. That’s not satire.
>The people discussing this class action suit are not aggrieved parties, they are simply trolling for a pretext to inflict injury on ePerks.
I wasn’t clear. I’m not suggesting a class-action suit based on Vlad’s experience. I’m suggesting a class action suit against ePerks for misrepresenting their product to agents. From my review of blogs like this, there are dozens of agents who have been mislead–that’s a pretext? I am currently an aggrieved party as I currently have an acct at ePerks. I’m not looking for a pretext to inflict injury, I’m looking to right a wrong against probably hundreds of agents. As a real estate blog, I’d think this the perfect place to discuss this issue. If this is now simply a forum to discuss the nuances of free speech, let us know that.
Libel, slander, defamation shouldn’t be tolorated and has despicable as it is, eperks demand is not censorhship. Vlad should be able to take all legal means necessary to take whoever posted the pedophilia post to court for defamation and I don’t think anyone would say that he was stifling free speech. So too, however wrong they are, and they are wrong, eperks has the right to seek remedy against libel if that’s what they feel Vlad’s blog is. This is not censorship, its a civil matter. Censorship is a goverment action.
Saying all that, I think that whoever posted the pedophelia slur against Vlad is a despicable human being and I would hope that Vlad not just defend himself, but also sue for libel. I don’t think anyone would feel that doing so wasn’t just. Agents going after eperks is also just.
Vlad, I hope you can find the guy who posted the slur. My most recent email from eperks came from: Received: from gwsin03.mbox.net [165.212.64.15] by cmsmail06.cms.usa.net via mtad (C8.MAIN.3.44J)
with ESMTP id 321mFPqjS1152M06; Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:35:44 -0000
Return-Path:
X-USANET-Received: from gwsin03.mbox.net [127.0.0.1] by gwsin03.mbox.net via mtad (C8.MAIN.3.44O)
with ESMTP id 286mFPqjQ4480Ms3; Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:35:42 -0000
X-USANET-Received: from esmail02.eservices.usa.net [165.212.64.9] by gwsin03.mbox.net via mtad (C8.MAIN.3.44O)
with ESMTP id 217mFPqjp2880Ms3; Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:35:41 -0000
X-USANET-Routed: 3 gwsin-vs R:localhost:1825
X-USANET-Routed: 2 gwsin-bmrelay Q:bmrelay
X-USANET-Routed: 100 IN-RELAY R:cmsbackend.postoffice.net:525
Received: from smtpauth12.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net [64.202.165.35] by esmail02.eservices.usa.net via smtad (C8.MAIN.3.44O)
with ESMTP id XID248mFPqjp5761Xma; Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:35:41 -0000
X-USANET-Source: 64.202.165.35 IN kevin.morris@eperks.com smtpauth12.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net
X-USANET-MsgId: XID248mFPqjp5761Xma
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by smtpauth12.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (64.202.165.35) with ESMTP; 16 Jun 2008 16:35:38 -0000
From: “Kevin Morris”
To: “‘Pike Porter’”
References:
In-Reply-To:
Subject: RE: ePERKS ACCOUNT INFORMATION
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:35:35 -0700
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_001C_01C8CF94.54DE8DC0″
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0
Thread-Index: AcjO8fOikqRaD7eSR+iqC2W2E4FeVgA2kSaQ
Content-Language: en-us
[...] Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend you… [...]
If VLAD wants to end this just send the attorneys this link. – Look at the areas I boxed in Red.
http://www.interiorliving.com/eperks.jpg
For those who need an explanation.
http://www.robotstxt.org/faq/prevent.html
How do I prevent robots scanning my site?
The quick way to prevent robots visiting your site is put these two lines into the /robots.txt file on your server
I would estimate they did this around October/November and didnt change it.
Now ejerks go fire your webmaster and stop the stupid lawsuit its your webmasters fault not anyone elses.
Mitchell
InteriorLiving.Com
Here are two “RipOff” reports filed against the E-Jerks, I mean E-Perks
Angela in Nevada
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/335/RipOff0335320.htm
Dean in Maryland
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/336/RipOff0336456.htm
Absolutely brilliant review, and I just love the way you have linked to eperks with er…. keywords they might not have chosen. I wish I had thought of that when I wrote about this saga…. I guess learning happens all the time, and it may not be too late to hit the edit button….
I have referenced your post when I wrote about it.
Thank you for standing for our rights, and I am with you, with all th eblazing power of my largely unknown blog
Vidyut
[...] Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend you… by Greg Swann along with some other posts, all equally “defending” the right to free speech. [...]
So any new news on the eperks crazy law suit? Have not heard a thing on this in a while now.
ePerks is a FRAUD! ZERO leads and refuses to honor money back guarantee I have in writing….so I got my credit card co to charge back all charges and now they want to send me to a collections agency?
Agreed and Ditto – while I am still working w/ my credit card company (the cc co credited only 1 month thus far) ePERKS sent a collections notice to me too! They owe me $4000.00 and THEY sent ME a collections notice???? WOW.
Not only do I have the stamdard ePERKS written guarantee, before subscribing to the service I secured a written commitment from Ben Bitter and the Ops Manager/VP Kevin Morris stating I’d receive my refund with-in ONE month – no one said anything about a ‘refund certificate’ and having to wait 8 months for the refund (if they haven’t filed Bankruptcy by then!). I’ve spent most of the day preparing to file complaints with the BBB, California Realtors Association & Department of Real Estate. Holy Mackerel!!!
This is a great post and stand for freedom of speech. I am wondering too what is going on from Vlad’s perspective. This is interesting.
http://123socialmedia.com/2008/08/04/corporate-social-media-reputation-eperks-or-ejerks/
Not only did I not get a single lead but I have tried for 3 months to cancel and they keep billing me, threatening my credit and even though Isabella agreed to stop billing me and I am still getting billed and still fighting this rediculous billing and threats. If you are thinking about doing this DON’T!!! RUN, RUN AWAY FAST. MY NEXT CALL IS TO MY ATTORNEY
I was told that if I signed up 2 exclusive zip codes and did not close a sale in 6 months they would issue a full refund. Instead, the rep is gone and I am told that it was a promo they had last Christmas. If that is the case, then how did I know about their promo? They lie, cheat and steal, and bully people to try to collect when a dispute is filed. I filed with my credit card company and they are sending me to collections? Beware of the ejerks! They are full of garbage, they need to be taken out of business. I will not be bullied. I filed reports to the AG office in CA, their local BBB, and the FTC. I also filed with the AG in my state of WA and will keep filing complaints. They will not get away with their fraudulent activities and need to be stopped.
This company eperks is a ripoff. They told me if I did not take the two zipcodes in my area that another realtor in my office would. I was on my way out the door and gave her my credit card number and told her if I did not want to do this that I was going to cancel the next day. I proceeded to call the woman they said was going to take the zipcodes if I was not and she said that she was never going to go with this company. I called my American Express people and told them I wanted the charge taken off my bill and they did an investigation and removed the $379 from my bill. EPerks has since sent me to a collection agency and are going to use this against my credit rating. They suck and they even put a bio of me that they took from my real estate website without my permission.
BE AWARE, BE VERY AWARE!!!!!
I just got the collections letter too, are you paying it? I have not yet as they are liars and mislead all of us. Please see the BBB in CA to find that eperks has 38 compliants, and I filed a complaint with them as well as the AG in CA, the real estate commission of CA, and the FTC. The more complaints they recieve the better. I even file with my state AG.
If anyone out there has gotten their collections letter please share with us what happened next and how and if it was resolved.
Thanks
Yes, got the collections letter –
After paying in excess of $6000. over 8 months, when I registered a complaint w/ my credit card they credited only 1 month of eJERKS fees and Wha La – the collections notice followed. When I called ePerks I was told the 1 months creidit would stop my refund which (while I cancelled in March and was given a guarantee I’d have my refund w/in 30 days) is scheduled for Dec 16 2008. I am not sure what to expect. My fear is they have been using the time (while not paying the guaranteed refunds) to make a case for Bankruptcy.
I welcome any help in getting my refund.
PS – They never took any further action (collections) that I am aware of and it has not effected my credit.
I am so sorry that happened. I was told by the CA AG office if they get enough complaints they go after eperks and get your money back. Make sure to file all of the complaints you can. Did they have a payment plan? This is ridiculous! I was also told that if you dispute your credit bureau they also look into it, if enough people do it. There is power in numbers nd the more people who step up the better for ll of us. They always talk about refunds, but I have not seen or heard of anyone actually getting it from eperks. I will keep you informed.
Thank you. As of this morning, my formal complaints with the BBB and AG have been filed. Next step – Small Claims Court…
Hi,
I am so glad you are taking the next steps. Make sure to file with both your AG and the CA AG office. The CA AG will probably have the most complaints. I also filed a complaint with the Dept of Real estate enforcements in CA- send it to the Oakland office.
Here are the links-
1. BBB of CA- http://goldengate.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=99&bbb=1116&firm=189963
This is a report on their unsatisfactory rating. Please file a complaint here as well.
2. FTC- Federal Trade Commission- https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
3. CA Attorney General- http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL
4. CA Dept of Real Estate- http://www.dre.ca.gov/cons_complaint.html
On this site send it to the Oakland address.
I hope that this helps.
Thanks
the classic way of shooting yourself in the foot. as time passes vlad gets more and more attention, and eperks gets famous for this. All publicity is good publicity? not necessarily (thank god). keep on kepin’ on vlad.
Ps. you should recommen people to socially bookmark this post and any others that ensue. The powers in numbers and everything..
Ps. (sorry no way to edit and ad to my previosu post above, hence the “new name”) you should recommend people to socially bookmark this post and any others that ensue. The powers in numbers and everything..
Good to push this to the top again. Looks like alot of people never heard of ePerks before all this negative publicity. Its important to stand up for our constitutional rights and expose these types of situations. They picked on the little guy (no offense intended Vlad) and have shot themselves in the foot.
As agents continue to try and get the refunds promised them and have their credit ruined by this unscrupulous company the owner and CEO, Ben Behrouzi is taking your money and starting a new company “Leapfish”.
Ben ruined not only his name but also Brabus Ventures Corp and eperks, so now he is starting over. His new business is run under the name dotnextinc.com, but don’t think he has changed his business ethics any (or lack of) because he still uses the same techniques from what I can see. He still has shills commenting for him and praising his new venture, just exactly the way he started eperks. He even goes so far as to say he didn’t know they were doing it after they were caught red handed, LMAO.
Read all about it over at the much respected TechCrunch.com and be sure to read all the comments, including from Behrouzi himself; http://tinyurl.com/5a6mrl
PS: Real Estate Agents, when Leapfish calls you wanting you to advertise with them, just remember who the owner is. I think I will have one word for them before they hear the dial tone; VLAD.
It shouldn’t be too hard to challenge the Behrouzi brothers, Behnam and Behzad, with their vast claims of expertise and experience. Maybe Behnam can post a list of his 25 profitable multimillion dollar companies. And maybe Behzad can elaborate on his “deep” experience as claimed here: http://www.dotnextinc.com/Management.aspx
A clip from my comment here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/794294/LeapFish-Questions-and-Comments follows…
You look like a smart guy. Heck, you look a lot smarter than me. So I’m sure that before you committed to purchase the _exact_ key phrase “Arizona Real Estate” from leapfish, you opened up leapfish.com and clicked on “About Leapfish” (http://leapfish.com/AboutUs.aspx) and clicked on “Management” and found that Leapfish is one of three companies owned by DotNext. Clicking on “Management” again, I’m sure you saw that DotNext’s CEO Behnam Behrouzi was formerly CTO and “mastermind” of technology at Reply.com, which (as you found out through various leapfish searches) he co-founded with his uncle. (And you wondered… who gave him the CTO title?) You then noticed that DotNext’s “Director of Product” Behzad Behrouzi, bearing a resemblance to Behnam, is in fact Behnam’s brother. Okay, you thought, well… that’s good, family-owned business. Work ethic. All that. Besides, Behzad has “deep product development and management experience” so, well, you’re in good hands. This is the guy who is “responsible for the strategic planning and development of all software, applications, and websites” for Leapfish and the other DotNext companies, so that’s good. He has “deep” experience. Searching on leapfish, you found Behzad was a student at SDSU in October 2005: http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/mcnair/pdf_docs/Issues/issue85.pdf, and you noticed “Hey, there he is, tallest guy in the picture. In October 2005.” But wait, you thought, Behzad has “been with DotNext since the inception of the company” which, as you read in Behnam’s bio, was “founded in 2006″. But wait, you thought, when did Behzad get his “deep” experience? Not to be undone, you searched some more, and found
Behzad’s website, including his bio
http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/
his cv
http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/cv.html
his research interests
http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/researchi
his research abstracts
http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/researcha
his research abstracts contd
http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/researcha2
and his contact info
http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/contact.html
and you observed “Oh! He did a school project!”
And then you went back to Behzad’s bio on DotNext and saw “most recently developing innovative products and applications in the technology space of neurosurgery. As head of product development and research for the thermodynamics arm of the department of neurosurgery at San Diego Children’s Hospital, Behrouzi lead the development of ground-breaking applications in safety, data analysis and efficacy of various new procedures” … and now, you were really impressed. Because between being at SDSU in October 2005 and the inception of DotNext in 2006, Behzad amassed so much experience that… well, heck, he never clearly named or identified any of the _actual_ products he developed, but heck, this isn’t neurosurgery, you thought, as you recited your Visa number on the phone…
LeapFish is good for make prosper the glorious nation of Kazakhstan!
We by the keyword on eBay – http://cgi.ebay.com/1-MONTH-LEAPFISH-KEY-WORD-LEASE-REALTOR_W0QQitemZ150308275358QQcategoryZ50333QQcmdZViewItem
We wait 20 years, we sell it- we make it a profitable.
I will buy for cash “Pamela Anderson” keyword to make more prosper for Borat.
My poor spouse was jerked by the eperkes
Apparently in response to my Nov 26 comment above, DotNext (a.k.a. Eperks, Brabus Ventures) “Director of Product” Behzad Behrouzi’s geocities website http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/ has been disabled/removed. Looks like post-October 2005 San Diego State University graduate Behzad didn’t really want us checking up on his “deep” experience. So far, Behzad’s Dotnext bio here http://www.dotnextinc.com/Management.aspx hasn’t changed, so let’s dig a little deeper:
As of today, it reads “As head of product development and research for the thermodynamics arm of the department of neurosurgery at San Diego Children’s Hospital, Behrouzi lead the development of ground-breaking applications in safety, data analysis and efficacy of various new procedures.” Breaking that down into its hierarchical components…
Level 1: San Diego Children’s Hospital: http://www.chsd.org/ EXISTENCE VERIFIED
Level 2: Dept. of Neurosurgery: http://www.chsd.org/body.cfm?id=2015 EXISTENCE VERIFIED
Now, the uncertainties start…
Level 3: Thermodynamics arm: ??? Does such an arm exist ??? Does a dept. of neurosurgery containing _two_ doctors really have a thermodynamics arm?
Level 4: “Head of Product Development and Research”: ??? Does such a position exist ???
What we are able to confirm here (http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/mcnair/pdf_docs/Issues/issue84.pdf) is that Behzad did a school project in which he was mentored by Dr. Michael Levy, as part of SDSU’s McNair Scholars program. The program as described here (http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/mcnair/requirements.html) has a low income (http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/incomelevels.html) requirement, as well as requiring that participants be “in pursuit of a Ph.D.”. Looks like Behzad abandoned his pursuit and joined Dotnext instead, as he is not listed among the McNair program’s successes here: http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/mcnair/successtories_july.html.
Though you can’t see Behzad’s geocities curriculum vita (http://www.geocities.com/behzadbehrouzi/cv.html)anymore, it stated experience as “Next Phase Media’s Vice President of Sales for all of Southern California, 2000-2003.” I guess that job didn’t pay very well.
We await further clarification of Behzad’s “deep product development and management” experience…
Big Surprise! December 15th 2008 has come and gone and that refund certificate ePerks issued promising a full refund (12/15/08) after terminating service and a nine month wait (this after 8 months of on time paid service fees) still is just that – a certificate.
No refund in sight.
After filing claims with the credit card company, the BBB, the Attorney General and the Department of Real Estate I am still out close to $4000.00. I am not done but I am discouraged.
Next? Small Claims Court.
Has anyone received their refund?
Has Big Ben filed Bankruptcy yet?
I am not surprised! I contacted the local media and encourage all of you to do the same. He will not pay you back and they will continue to rip others off and threaten the little guy. I would file a suit against them. I have searched an found nobody yet who has recieved a refund. Can you tell me what they promised you? I was told I would get a full refund and they changed their story. They had us all sign uo thinking they would be advertising on the web, Harmon Homes, and TV stations. I keep searching and I find no ads. I found a website that searches for hits and they ceased advertising last January 2008. So they conned us into buying a service which they are not providing.