ComplaintsforHibu Inc

• Initial Complaint

  07/22/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Company was hired to redo website, company changed structure off website without my permission. Company has promised to double my leads, while lead generation has performed poorer since hiring company. **************** rep AND call center are combative and unhelpful. Company has hidden clauses that extend my contract beyond a timeframe previously discussed. I tried to terminate contract, company tells me repeatedly that they cannot/will not take requests to cancel my contract until 15 days prior to their arbitrary cancellation date. Numerous attempts to solve problems with quality of service, clear communication of said services, and attempts to notify of discontinuation of service have gone unaddressed and/or blame me for not reading the companys webpage outlining terms and conditions. I simply want to stop my service NOW. I do not want to pay for another month, as this companys service has caused undo financial hardship on my business. If it is not legally possible (which I doubt) I want them to acknowledge that I will no longer be billed after the contract period (which they deceptively moved)

  

  Business response

  07/25/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issue. Our records show the client had requested to cancel, however they are still within the terms of their 6 month contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made on 9/30/24. We understand our client has additional concerns. We have been unable to reach our client for specific details on his concerns but have provided them with a direct number and email. We will address all our clients concerns when he is available. If you can relay this information to them as well, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  07/15/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Hibu brreached contract. Refusal to cancel account.

  

  Business response

  07/19/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issue. Our records show the client had requested to cancel; however, they are still within the terms of their 6-month contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made for their Smart Online Presence package after the 09/01/24 invoice, and for their Social product after the 10/01/24 invoice.  Our client stated that Hibu had breached the contract, however, when we partnered with the client, they were provided a Statement of Work that stated they would receive a minimum of 40 website clicks per month.  Over the last three months,our client exceeded those expectations with 28.4 K ad views, 233 ad clicks, 743 website visits, and 66 website engagements.  

• Initial Complaint

  07/01/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Hibu was to increase leads and create a new website for me. Their salesperson is misleading and overstated their products. Since starting with their services we have lost calls and sales. Their service page to my site claims to have driven responses that have not created any sales to this point. We cannot afford to keep doing business with a company that doesn't care about my businesses success. I was told I could cancel within a time frame and that turned out to be a lie according to the representative I spoke with today. Everything feels like a scam. Nothing is genuinely productive in creating sales.

  

  Business response

  07/09/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issues. Our records show the client had requested to cancel; however, they are still within the terms of their 6-month contract and cannot cancel. We understand that our client is also concerned over the return on their investment. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work that stated the Social product would receive 40-80 clicks per month and even though that product has only been active 24 days, Hibu has already met the expectations with 67 clicks. The SOW also stated the Display would receive 9,000 to 20,000 impressions per month and 70 to 90 clicks per month. Hibu has met expectations with 20,000 impressions, and 121 clicks for the month. Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made in January 2025.

• Initial Complaint

  06/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Ampro Builders llc was initially contacted by a hibu representative promising to develop sales leads and to repair our on-line presence. They were to repair Google listings as well as performing Facebook and other digital advertising. We were surprised by Hibu quickly making a new inferior Website for Ampro. Hibu's on line schedule of charges amounts to a few hundred dollars per month. I was told how bad Yellow book was when I asked as well as other lead providers. Seems Yellow Book is their predecessor. The rep from hibu promised to personally manage the account. We never were given a clear idea of the work being done nor the cost. We have had no campaign or add information from hibu. We have been charged thousands of dollars and we have received nothing but spam in return. In the time we have engaged with hibu we have received two actual leads. The hibu rep, Rachel Barnes, quit in April and we have had no representation since from hibu as promised. Not even a returned phone call from her sales manager. hibu is actually a reseller of clicks charging a prices which allow the Company to pocket a substantial portion of the budget. hibu has not performed as promised. They are a slick fraudulent operation. We at Ampro Builders can not afford to pay them. We have given hibu notice several times in writing that we were cancelling. Hibu is a less than honest Company and the worst investment of money I have ever encountered. It is amazing how the Company can remain a BBB A+ Company with the amount of outstanding complaints! Sincerely, Robert ******* Ampro Builders llc

  

  Business response

  06/27/2024

  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with our client regarding their concerns. Our client’s concerns were lack of communication by Sales and the return on his investment.  We show that Sales was in constant contact with the client. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work that stated the Search campaign would have a Click-thru-Rate greater than 1% and Cost-Per-Click of around $34.98. We exceeded the CTR with 3.96% and the CPC was only $9.95. The client’s ranking went up from 999 to 31 in only four months. The Social campaign met expectations with over 70K impressions per month. Our records show the client had requested to cancel; however, they are still within the terms of their 6 month contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made on 9/19/24. 

• Initial Complaint

  06/12/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  ** have been using hibu for a little over a year. The first few months with our *************** was amazing we got everything promised to us. But he quit and we had no rep. ** called bc our services were no longer working, we were not getting any marketing calls. ** kept getting all scam calls and were left with lets change your tracking number we did. Nothing changed and then we had a case open with the new rep ********* who didnt pause our services which charged us tons of money per month and we didnt want that. They fixed that. Now we have a new rep and still no calls for months. Theyre charging us $3500 for months we havent had any type of calls weve had scams and they expect us to pay when we have had such horrible customer service and horrible service period. ** try to work things out and fix everything and we offered to pay $600 plus tax but they are sending out collection to the hibu attorneys and they are telling us dont worry about the collection itll get handled or postponing it to make it last longer. ** are still waiting for them to try and work this out but they are not doing anything really to work with us. They tried to offer half after they declined it the first time I offered half payment. ** do not feel comfortable paying half with all the trouble they have caused us. They have been incredibly rude in customer service and the 3 bosses we are working with are not working with us. ** are currently dealing with **** , *** , and ******. ** were forced on a contract as well which we didnt authorize and fought to get taken off It which they finally took us off of. ** never signed a contract or verbally authorized a contract. There is so much more I can add but not enough space.

  

  Business response

  06/13/2024

  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with our client regarding their concerns. Our clients concern was that they received no calls, however, calls were not promised.  When we partnered with the client, they were provided a copy of the contract and a Statement of Work that stated over the life of the Local Ranking campaign, they would see more leads due to better visibility on the search engines for the selected keywords. They were also advised that optimization takes time. The client was present at the consultation where information was gathered as well as provided about the product. The clients program was live less than 2 months before it was canceled. We understand our client was also concerned over a previous issue where their products were not paused. The client was previously compensated for the issue when it was brought to our attention.  An offer was presented to the client which is still valid if they choose to accept it.

• Initial Complaint

  06/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Contractual Issues: Attempts to resolve issues through upper management were unproductive, and my cancellation request was denied despite the evident lack of tangible results. The terms were not fully presented in the contract; I was never given the rundown of the contract and the signature on the contract is not mine nor anyone had authorization to sign for me. When talking to the sales rep and asking them to tell me when I made this authorization or if the terms and conditions were disclosed to me all I get back is we had verbal agreement which is not true. Sales rep was misleading and never disclosed the terms with me. Talking to their customer representatives and displaying my concerns their answer is that it is my word against the sales rep. I asked the sales rep to show me where I gave him authorization or where he explained to me or showed me the actual contract, he says it was over a discussion and cannot provide me with that information. Failed Adjustments: Efforts to amend the campaign after the few initial complaints were ineffective. I was promised that the changes would lead to better results and as the months went by it was doing worst. Their expectation results that they are also showing me are not the same as the ones that show on my navigation dashboard. After promising clients leads with the expectation that these will result in sales, it seems they spend limited funds on marketing so that their own dashboard shows misleading statistics that are not reflected in leads or sales generated solely for the purpose of combating complaints.

  

  Business response

  06/07/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issues. Our records show the client had requested to cancel; however, they are still within the terms of their 6-Month contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made in December 2024 for the Search and Display campaigns. We understand that our client is also concerned about the return on their investment. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work that stated that they would receive 35,000 to 60,000 impressions for the Display monthly. We have exceeded expectations with over 60,000 impressions for April and May. The campaign started on March 18th and was not for the full month. The Statement of Work also stated that the Search was to maintain a consistent click through rate of 1% monthly, we exceeded that with 1.80%.  We also understand that another concern our client has, is that they did not receive the terms of the contract, the contract and Statement of work was sent to the client on 4/11/24 to the client’s email at [email protected].

  Customer response

  06/10/2024

   
  Complaint: 21786614
  
  I am rejecting this response because the terms of service were never shown to me and the the ones I recieved are already signed without my authorization. *** was never shown to me and the rep didn't mentioned any of the statements that were in it. I have never agread to those terms and I have never authorized them to sign for me. Even the pause that they have put on I never agreed to it. Provide me with anything that show that I have agread to this at all. As I mentioned before Hibu has no authorization to use my Businnes Name or the business number for anything. Also cost per click on the adds does not display as in the *** plus the display adds have a lower number of clicks as posted on the ***. Again I have not authorized anyone for those changes and the *** was not signed by me nor di the rep ******** all of that to me in person. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Albi Muka

  Complaint: 21786614 I am rejecting this response because the terms of service were never shown to me and the the ones I recieved are already signed without my authorization. *** was never shown to me and the rep didn't mentioned any of the statements that were in it. I have never agread to those terms and I have never authorized them to sign for me. Even the pause that they have put on I never agreed to it. Provide me with anything that show that I have agread to this at all. As I mentioned before Hibu has no authorization to use my Businnes Name or the business number for anything. Also cost per click on the adds does not display as in the *** plus the display adds have a lower number of clicks as posted on the ***. Again I have not authorized anyone for those changes and the *** was not signed by me nor di the rep ******** all of that to me in person.  Sincerely, Albi Muka Design HTML           Display Original/Unredacted Text   Complaint: 21786614 I am rejecting this response because the terms of service were never shown to me and the the ones I recieved are already signed without my authorization. SOW was never shown to me and the rep didn't mentioned any of the statements that were in it. I have never agread to those terms and I have never authorized them to sign for me. Even the pause that they have put on I never agreed to it. Provide me with anything that show that I have agread to this at all. As I mentioned before Hibu has no authorization to use my Businnes Name or the business number for anything. Also cost per click on the adds does not display as in the SOW plus the display adds have a lower number of clicks as posted on the SOW. Again I have not authorized anyone for those changes and the SOW was not signed by me nor di the rep disclose all of that to me in person.  Sincerely, Alb

  

  Business response

  06/10/2024

  Our position remains unchanged. Client was sent a copy of the contract and Statement of Work with the terms and conditions. 

• Initial Complaint

  05/28/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have asked to remove my information from your website but they deliberately ignore or decline removal of private records. Remove it immediately from your website. **********************************************

  

  Business response

  05/30/2024

  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with the consumer regarding their concerns. The consumers concern was that their request to remove their address from People Search on Yellowbook.com was not addressed.  People Search on Yellowbook.com was provided by a third party,BeenVerified. Requests to remove personal information must be made directly to BeenVerified. We have been unable to reach the consumerbut emailed instructions to them for removal of the information. We also provided them with a direct number and email, should they have further questions or concerns. If you can relay this information to them as well, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  05/15/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We were contacted by Hibu to do our Marketing and signed up in June 2023. We signed up, had them take over our advertising and make a "better" website. Our performance has trended downward from the time we hired them. We have complained to them multiple times, Oct 2023, December 2023, February 2024, March 2024, and April 2024. We have entire crews sitting home with no work and have never had this issue before hiring Hibu. Our organic ranking and searches have dropped as we steadily increased our budget with them. They do not count quality leads correctly and charge you for the same customer multiple times with no chance to dispute. When you try to complain they simply send their own data over defending themselves and rarely offer corrections that could be made to help. 11 months in we should have seen a significant increase in customers and a lower cost per lead and we have gotten worse with each month. I have lost over a lot of money using their services and an exponential amount in opportunity cost.

  

  Business response

  05/22/2024

  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with our client regarding their concerns. After reviewing the issues the client reported, we found all their concerns to be in order. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work that stated they would receive ****** to ****** impressions and ******* clicks for the Display. So far, we have exceeded this with ******* impressions and 401 clicks. The *** stated the Social was to receive ****** to ****** impressions and we exceeded that with ******* impressions. Finally, the *** stated the Search was to maintain a consistent click thru rate of 1% and we exceeded that with 5.55%. We have emailed our client with a direct number and email, should they have further questions or concerns. Our client was thankful for the information.
  

  Customer response

  07/02/2024

   We have multiple issues with this company. My last complaint was disregarded, and we cancelled our service effective 6/21/24. They chose to keep our money and are continuing to run ads without permission through 7/7/24 continuing to further hurt my business. We explained to them that we were canceling and transferring to another marketing agency. The ads from the new agency are running and Hibu's are acting against them. Their contract states " ? 21. Your Cancellation and Refund/Credit Rights Cancellation by You (a) You may cancel any or all of the Services by telephoning us at ************ at any time Monday through Friday (except national holidays) between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Central time and Saturday (except national holidays) between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Central Time. Unless you are still within your Minimum Term, cancellation will take effect as soon as possible after we receive your request to cancel. For some Services (but not all) we may offer you a pro-rated refund or credit where cancellation takes effect part way through a Service Month. The Service Terms include details of the refunds and credits that we offer. You agree that we have the right to decide: (i) the amount of any pro-rated refund or credit; and (ii) whether this amount is given as a refund or credit against your account. If you are within your Minimum Term, you may cancel the Services at the end of the Minimum Term." My business with them was completed on 6/21. Everything should have been cancelled at that time and any remaining funds in my advertising account refunded. They refuse to even pause the ads they are running and if nothing is resolved here I will move forward with my attorney.

  

  Business response

  07/08/2024

  Our position has not changed. 

• Initial Complaint

  05/13/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This is only a truncated version of our litany of issues with this company, the rest will be attached in the complaint itself. We use Hibu for two separate businesses, and have at no time received any kind of delivery on their variety of promises. In fact, ever since ads went live for our construction website, Google suspended our business profile without appeal, and Hibu has failed (and given us the run-around) to fix the issue for three-weeks on-going (almost a month now). The majority of our calls, if we get any, are spam, and Hibu takes credit for leads that are not even generated by their ads (i.e.: anyone coming to our existing site, existing social profiles, etc.), which heavily skews results in their favor. We presume this is so when clients complain about poor results, they can claim they did some work and therefore not accept blame when it is due. Contacting anyone at this company is a nightmare. Calls remain unreturned with our account manager, who prefers emails that answer questions we never asked while ignoring the issues we do bring up. When calls are picked up, the account manager will gas us up all "I'm going to bat for you," but we have issues, such as the Google Business suspension, that are killing business and there have been only platitudes offered instead of solutions. We have an in-house SEO expert who has verified, as well, that the SEO practices implemented by Hibu are, at best, lacking, and negligent-to-non-existent at worst. Either image alt-text is missing or describes the photo incorrectly, no one checking with us to confirm it. Stock photos are used throughout the website and marketed when we requested otherwise and provided plenty of options. Website content was overwritten when Hibu's site was created, and now we have a dozen pages that all say the same thing with no real information or authority (when we previously had specifically curated content). We want our contracts cancelled ASAP. Further explanation attached.

  

  Business response

  05/24/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issues regarding two accounts with us. Our records show the client had requested to cancel both of their accounts; however, they are still within the terms of their 6-month contracts. Due to when their products went live, our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made for one account for two products in September 2024 and three products in October 2024. The request for cancellation on the second account can be made for four products in September 2024 and for one product in October 2024. We understand our client is also concerned about the performance of the accounts. The client is meeting expectations of the products on both accounts. When we partnered with the client, they were provided with a Statement of Work that stated on average per month they would receive 15,000-25,000 Impressions or 90-125 Clicks, and 50-110 Website clicks. On one account we have exceeded that with 163K impressions, 737 ad clicks, and 1092 website visits.  The second account has exceeded expectations with 72 calls, 68.3K impressions, 1157 ad clicks, and 1449 website visits. An offer was presented to the client which is still valid if they choose to accept it. 

  Customer response

  05/24/2024

   Complaint: 21703730
  
  I am rejecting this response because: Many of the basic best practices we outlined have not been fixed. Our account manager gave us a week in which they would update the accounts with the outlined issues we stated. No follow up was offered from the account manager. Our business listing on Google is STILL suspended a month later, despite the clear correlation of suspension to Hibu's ads going live (so much for that supposed Google partnership our account manager spoke to us about?). There is still no way to independently verify results from their dashboard to actual third party analytics (see: Hibu only made us a new GA4, it never updated or fixed the on-site tags to the old one that had our legacy information on it; they now solely own this new Google account and are only providing access to view it Note also: neither of these offered new GA4 accounts even track results). 
  
  Given the amount of incorrect information on the sites, our analytics and ads set ups, the inability to appeal to Google for an account their ads got suspended, we feel HIbu remains in breach of contract/their statement of work, and we do not have the confidence that any of these issues can appropriately be fixed to the level we were told they were supposed to be working at well before we had to conduct our own audit. We will still be pursuing termination of both contracts due to these numerous breaches. Fixing a few alt-tags and replacing a couple photos is a start, I suppose, but ignores the much larger issue of negligence and incompetency across both accounts.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Kyle Miller

  

  Business response

  05/29/2024

  Our position stands as previously indicated.  An offer was presented to the client which is still valid if they choose to accept it.  The contract can not be canceled at this time.

• Initial Complaint

  05/08/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Our family has a paving business that hired Hibu, **** to design and publish a website with a powerful online presence across the ********************** Siri and ****** plus other products that promised to generate an online presence with an enhanced and affective website.This service included several listing of products and services to achieve the desired outcome for a six month contract of $625.00 per month.Our desired outcome was to generate phone calls and online inquiries for asphalt paving work. The website went online April 1st and as of May 7th, there has not been one single inquiry from the site. A search of our company name on ******** is unsuccessful. A search of paving contractors in the ****** area is also unsuccessful. If you specifically search: "******* Construction" you will find our website. Furthermore, Hibu has generated and uploaded fake AI testimonials to the website. We have complained and asked them to remove these, all to no avail.Our contract was not signed but telephone authorized, which is not binding according to Hibu's *********************** We did not receive an email confirmation order within 2 business days, as stated in the contract. We have spoken several times to sales representative ************************* and his manager **************. **** mentioned there is a taped telephone conversation regarding the initial conversation with my husband ************************* indicating he wanted the service, but **** has been unable to produce this recording at our request. It is highly suspect that my husband, a semi-retired computer illiterate senior citizen, fully understood the logistics of the website. He was requesting future job inquiries through website exposure...none of which has happened. I have stopped future monthly payments through an on-file credit card. The invoices from Hibu are confusing and never for the monthly amount under the contract. The Hibu ********************** is sending notices for non-payments.

  

  Business response

  05/15/2024

  We appreciate the chance to respond to our client's issue.Our records show the business requested to cancel however they are still within the terms of their 6 Months contract.  Our client has been notified that a request to cancel can be made on 10/02/24 for their Smart Site Pro and Reviews products.  Their Display product is currently on pause so the request to cancel date is unable to be determined at this time.  We understand there were also additional concerns, however,the person who filed the complaint is not the authorized signer on the contract.  The products and services are set up as requested by the owner and he did not request that the products be canceled.  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩