Two years ago I used a service called Article Marketer to distribute articles I had written as a mass distribution service. Several months ago I received an email saying that the Article Marketer name was being retired and that I could use either a service called Content Crooner or another called Distribute Your Articles. I chose neither as I picked Article Marketer due to their potential distribution list and user interface.
Last week I received an email stating that I had been drafted for $199 out of my Paypal account for a year of Distribute Your Articles (not two years for $199 that I had received from Article Marketer). The name of the company drafting my account was ARTICLE MARKETER, not Distribute Your Articles. So I was lied to that the Article Marketer name was retired as it rose from the dead and charged my Paypal account!
I thought the solution would be easy so I made sure not recurring payments could ever again be taken from my Paypal account by Distribute Your Articles or Article Marketer (whoever they are these days) and then I contacted Distribute Your articles for a refund. Of course their policy allows NEW customers to refund within 30 days but to stick it to all of us from Article Marketer they will not refund Article Marketer customers. I received an email with my name spelled wrong (though it was right on the ticket submitted) from Nina Randall at Distribute Your Articles stating:
Hi Darryl,
It's pretty obvious by your tone that you are upset, so I'll explain why there is no reason to be angry with us.
You contracted Article Marketer to provide you with article distribution services, and you authorized PayPal to make recurring payments for those services. Your most recent payment was indeed authorized by you and made in accordance with the terms of your agreement with both AM and PayPal.
Last year, DYA was contracted by AM to provide distribution services to their customer base, including you, and we continue to happily honor all active contracts. The terms of the deal you made have not changed (in fact you have an even better deal now), and you continue to receive the services for which you have paid (and more!).
As always, you are free to cancel your recurring payments at any time. Once you cancel you won’t be charged again, but you are responsible for whatever charges have already been incurred for the current billing period.
Nina Randall
Customer Support
Distribute Your Articles
She attempted to keep her email professional but still derived pleasure out of knowing the company would not be giving me a choice as a consumer of which company on the market I would do business with. To say that they were contracted to provide services for Article Marketer is insane since Distribute Your Articles user interface looks like a bulletin board versus a professional service.
I learned a $199 mistake and will try the services for the year since I am stuck with it. Paypal favored for the company since I think they are keeping the company of Article Marketer open (for monetary gain) while they toss you to a subpar service.
Be extremely careful when dealing with scam companies like this. Your money is more important to them then offering a quality service and selling the value of what they offer.
I will try the service for the year (as I paid $199 nonrefundable dollars to them) and will see if I get the same thing that other compliant filers have received (badd quality service and substandard article directories).
If you see the Distribute Your Articles name arise and you are considering it, run!!
For two years I used Article Marketer and had some decent distribution and enjoyed the interface. After I was told they were splitting into two companies I was under the impression that the Article Marketer name was being retired (as well as the company). Come to find out a couple of days ago without notice, Article Marketer drafted money out of my bank account and assigned my account to Distribute Your Articles. I asked for a refund as they do not even have the name Article Marketer but money was drafted under that name (after it was announced they were not a service any longer) and instead of trying to rebuttle about how their service compares, Nina Randall from DYA had more pleasure denying my request and showing her power that DYA was keeping my money (whether their service was up to par or not). I have learned a $199 lesson and I am at the mercy of the company to see if they perform or not. I will use the service for the year and will be hading to another company after just based on Nina's response and the fact that no refund opportunity is given to past customers of article marketer. Nina from DYA even spelled my name wrong on her email response (not a real confidence builder since my name was spelled right in my ticket to them). Like another post mentions above, DYA has a stripped down interface and seems to be having trouble getting out of the gates. I will too test the distributions they send (if they can eventually get my latest article reviewed) and will let the world know my results. My largest concern was simply being charged for a service (article marketer) that does not exist. As a consumer we should always be given a choice of whether or not to have our bank autodrafted after a service retires its name or company.