Crowd PR contated my marketing team during our live kickstarter campaign, the very first day we launched. I politely told them that we were not interested and that they needed to take me off of their list. A decision I regret to this day. I received no response but continued to receive unsolocited sales emails from this firm each and every single day our campaign was running.
I realize that since we had raised a large amount of funds we would draw attention - but I was not prepared for what came next. Day in and day out, we received no less than one email from people named "Marie Stapleton" and "Andrew Stone". I was apalled and digusted that these sales folks would stoop so low as to do something like cold outreach. If they were so good, we would have heard of them already - they were clearly trying to steal our money! They have not been covered by the New York Times, so how good could they even be?
After several emails of demanding I be taken off of their contact list, I finally received a respponse that I would not be taken off and that I should consider their service. I am considering legal actions, since continuing to email someone despice repeated requests to stop is a cut and clear violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. This is a flagrant violation of the law, and it cannot go unpunished. I will persue this matter and press charges to the fullest extent of the law, and I fully intend to repay them for their inconvienence one hundred fold!
We had a healthy campaign with over $200,000 raised. Our facebook ads were performing quite well, so we decided to take a call with Crowd PR in hopes to kick up our total raise a bit. Boy were we wrong. I made a simple request: guarantee me you can get us featured by The New York Times. I wasn't asking for much, considering our prodigious raise and funding amount. Their response? We dont' guarantee particular publications, we don't have control over journalists.
That right there is a dead give away of illegitimacy. If you can't guarantee any of the biggest media outlets, then what's the point? Their service is not even worth a grain of salt as far as I am concerned. My project can easily get coverage in NYT, CNN, or Washington Post. Those liberal media outlets post so much fake news, that what's the big deal in any of them covering a crowdfunidng project? They cover startups in Silicon Valley all the time. Crowd PR could not guarantee any of this, therefore they are a fradulent firm.
To top it all off, their facebook page doesn't allow reviews either. Likely to keep anyone from posting their crowd.pr review. I know from past experience that if a marketing agency can't offer a guarantee, a notorized written assurance of weath, then they are not a real agency. It is the absolute best way to see who is a performer and who is a low energy provider of services.
When asked why they are not capable of guaranteeing the biggest media outlets, their response was very snide and crude - they told me that they do not have mind control over journalists, and that editors have "free will". Very cute response, but I know full well there are ways to force people to do what you want no matter what. I'll steer clear of Crowd PR, thanks.
We almost hired Crowd PR but then we found they have another website titled: crowd.pr review. Really dodged the bullet here and am thankful we did not hire them. What did we find? Read on for more information.
We know they are the same kickstarter marketing agency because they both have crowd in their name. It wasn't easy to unearth this truth, but after careful study and consideration - comparing the names side by side, we were able to discern that yes they are the same agency.
What kind of marketing agency has two websites? A scam agency, that's who would do it. I was considering using them for performance based marketing by paying zero upfront fees (planned to persuade them to do this) but now I wouldn't even work with them if they paid me. Yes, you heard that right - my experience with Crowd PR was so bad based on our initial interview that I wouldn't even work with them if they paid me. Meaning, they sent money over to me.
Beware. Beware any kickstaerter marketing service that charges an upfront fee of any kind, and is not open to working for zero fees in exchange for a good reference.
We were interested in hiring Crowd PR for our public relations needs. Our campaign was shaping up to be a big one, and we were keen to get featured by more media outlets, blogs, and journalists. Our point of contant was Elliot Stein, who claims to be a publicist at the firm. More like pro-salesman if you ask me. Regardless, we were stunned when we leared that they are not acctually a 100% commission based service!
Beware everyone. Crowd PR makes it seem like you are getting a totally free service, but in the end they end up asking for money. Such deceptive practices, we were lead to believe that the first several days were free and then we had the option to keep using their service at our own leisure. What kind of marketing agency does not offer a free trial?
We are posting this just in case somone is considering hiring this kickstarter marketing agency. They are no good and not worth their salt. We are glad to have avoided their service, as soon as we say there was not really a free trial we ran away as fast as we could.
This is the official source of information regarding client reviews of the public relations agency known as Crowd PR. They only work with crowdfunding projects. The industry itself is rife with scams, frauds, and deceptive practices. We sorted through 10 offers before finally deciding to contract Crowd PR for a media relations campaign to promote our project. I was hopeful, but in the end I was let down by them and their team. We spent a total of $2,000 on their retainer and all we say in return was a meager $50,000 return on investment -- a far cry from the $700,000 we expected in full, and were lead to believe we would receive as a result of their work. They only produced 7 articles of media coverage, and I was assured time and time again that their work would be big and have an impact. Utter lies apparantley.
A Real Kickstarter Marketing Agency?
I think not. Based on my readings alone, I see time and time again they have failed to completely satisfy a client. They position themselves as a top tier firm, but from the looks of it - we see no one raising over a million on their public relations outreach. If they can't do that then frakly there is no point it working witrh them at all. We as kickstarter project creators have large appetites, we want nothing less than astronomic results, and if an agency fails to provide that level of success, then that are just another one of the scams that you read about on here. After speaking with my counsel I have been told we have a strong case against them, and we will be moving forward with it within the month. I am full aware that a lawsuite will cost more than what I paid them, but I want it to act as a deterrent against them continuing this uncouth behavior and ideally I would prefer that it put them out of business. We will be upping the ante and making this a class action lawsuite as well.
We recently finished our Kickstarter campaign so this Crowd.PR Review is a bit late. First of all, let me say that my team is made up of experienced entrepreneurs with deep experience working in the tech industry. Our speciality isn't necessarily in PR but when it comes to launching and running successful businesses we know what we're doing.
After launching our campaign on Kickstarter within hours we were hit up via email by Crowd PR. Now, normally we are really good about vetting people we hire on the outside but when you're crowdfunding everything is at warp speed and time is precious so we liked what we saw and heard so decided to give them a shot. They swore that our project had everything it took to go viral so we took this as a good sign. This turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes we made during this campaign. After wiring over the $3000 retainer they requested we started getting a bad feeling in the pit of our throats. Communication immediately started sputtering to a halt and whenever we asked for an update were merely told that they were working on it and they should have good news sooner than later.
Well let's just say that day never came. We kept sending emails and calling (all went to voicemail with no return call) and eventually we had to question what they were doing at all. When we asked for proof that they had done anything well they eventually turned on us completely. They never did anything. Once they had our money that was the end of it. The team we had hired on good faith to help us were now blaming us and our product, saying it was terrible and not their fault and that we were the ones who were incompetent for even creating something like this. Wow, just wow. In my entire professional career I had never been attacked in this way. The only media pickups we had were the result of work that WE DID in house. I honestly don't believe a word that these guys said and after they had our money didn't do a single thing.
Crowd Pr is a scam plain and simple. We were foolish enough to send their money via bank transfer and now come to find out that they aren't even a registered business in the state of California. After researching more I found a ton of other people who have been scammed before us. The whole thing just reeks of a crime scam ring. Everything about them is a fraud, from people on their team (found out they don't exist) to previous clients and their consant changing their business name when caught. The main guy is apparently some kid named Kyle Staebell and he's the one behind this whole scam operation. Dig a bit deeper online and it's all out there. The whole thing is pathetic. They've done a good job trying to hide this all, but hopefully if someone reads this they'll be spared the same fate as us.
Crowd PR emailed us shortly after launching our campaign that we should consider working with them. The amount of communication bordered on spam and harassment but we agreed to talk to them just to get them off our backs. In retrospect there were several warning signings we should've seen, not the least is that they refused to accept a credit card or PayPal and would only accept bank wire transfers. Any legitimate company doing business online will accept credit cards but against our better judgement, fell for the sales pitch.
1. Didn't deliver on any services.
2. Ignored phone calls and emails.
3. When questioned, starting calling us morons and our product a piece of junk.
When asked for a refund, they blew us off and threatened to cease communication with us any further if we continued to contact them. I really wish we had done our research on this company. After a quick search it's clear these guys have a long paper trail of scams going by various company names and individuals going from GlenRoss PR to their previous website crowdpr.co and going by the names of Kyle Staebell and William Henry. At this point I'm not even sure if any of these individual names are real or legit. Even their office isn't a real location and it looks like they constantly change the registration of their puerto rican domain (.pr) to hide their true location. This was honestly the worst experience with any company we have ever dealt with. At this point I think we are screwed but if anyone has any leads, please contact me directly. It looks like we're not the only ones. Thank you.
I launched a crowdfunding campaign and was immediately spammed by a gentleman named "William" who promised me the world when it came to delivering PR and Media. The sales pitch was great and he also provided a lot of pressure how I needed his service. Our team agreed and sent over the $3000+ plus for his services and that's where it ended. He constantly dodged emails after that and they didn't do a single thing for our campaign. It was a hit and run scam of the greatest type.
I started researching crowd.pr after and found out they were a part of a giant scam ring that constantly changes their name after they get caught ripping off so many people. I was one of the unforutnate few but hopefully this review can help others to avoid crowdpr (and whatever they'll start caling themselves next.) Here's what I found online during my research:
Here are a few of the names they've gone by over the years: Crowd PR Guru, crowdpr.co, CrowdChirp, First Wave PR, Top Level PR, Milton's Boost System, and on and on and on they go.
The company says they've been in business since 2015 but only started their website in 2017 this year. They say they're in San Francisco which is another lie yet are actually based in Florida. The lies add up over and over and this is one company you need to avoid. Nothing they say is true. Hopefully someone reading this can avoid the same fate we did.
Here are some other threads around the internet showcasing their "talents" but if you do a Google Search for their other names the results are endless::
I recieved a call from Taylor Andrews, now going by Steven Andrews, at GlenRoss PR, which as since shut down and is Crowd PR or Crowdpr.co. He showed great interest in getting exposure for my project. He believed my product was unique, and would be able to get me featured with no problems in a high profile publication, and gives several examples of relevant news or gadget sources. He assured me that they were a legit shop and showed me several examples of success that they had seen in the past.
My Kickstarter had already started, and was trending behind, so I was inclined to accept help. The cost for their help with $3,000 which i paid and they claimed that they started reaching out to contacts to get a featured story, and kept saying that they were going to send me a list of people they were reaching out to but never delivered. They were not able to land me a large PR spot, which the contract was for.
I took them at their word that they were doing work on my behalf, and only requested that half of the $3,000 be returned, to which I got complete radio silence. It was like they never existed. Kyle phone stopped working, becuase apparently he uses PrePaid burner phones for when eventually everything goes sideways, as it seems he was planning the whole time.
Names are Kyle Stubbs or Kyle Staebell and Taylor Andrews or Steven Andrews both keep changing their names on LinkedIn to try to avoid the fallout from their previous interactions.
They are a couple of young kids, that are fraudulent scammers. You wont find ANY information of GlenRoss PR online, which has now been shut down and is call CrowdPR.co Theyll eventually shut this down after being exposed and start up another.
Names are Kyle Stubbs or Kyle Staebell and Taylor Andrews or Steven Andrews both keep changing their names on LinkedIn to try to avoid the fallout from their previous interactions. If you are in talks with them, AVOID! Scammers and fraudlent! Im out $3,000 with nothing to show! I am taking legal actions.
Crowd PR Co. Reviews
Crowd PR contated my marketing team during our live kickstarter campaign, the very first day we launched. I politely told them that we were not interested and that they needed to take me off of their list. A decision I regret to this day. I received no response but continued to receive unsolocited sales emails from this firm each and every single day our campaign was running.
I realize that since we had raised a large amount of funds we would draw attention - but I was not prepared for what came next. Day in and day out, we received no less than one email from people named "Marie Stapleton" and "Andrew Stone". I was apalled and digusted that these sales folks would stoop so low as to do something like cold outreach. If they were so good, we would have heard of them already - they were clearly trying to steal our money! They have not been covered by the New York Times, so how good could they even be?
After several emails of demanding I be taken off of their contact list, I finally received a respponse that I would not be taken off and that I should consider their service. I am considering legal actions, since continuing to email someone despice repeated requests to stop is a cut and clear violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. This is a flagrant violation of the law, and it cannot go unpunished. I will persue this matter and press charges to the fullest extent of the law, and I fully intend to repay them for their inconvienence one hundred fold!
We had a healthy campaign with over $200,000 raised. Our facebook ads were performing quite well, so we decided to take a call with Crowd PR in hopes to kick up our total raise a bit. Boy were we wrong. I made a simple request: guarantee me you can get us featured by The New York Times. I wasn't asking for much, considering our prodigious raise and funding amount. Their response? We dont' guarantee particular publications, we don't have control over journalists.
That right there is a dead give away of illegitimacy. If you can't guarantee any of the biggest media outlets, then what's the point? Their service is not even worth a grain of salt as far as I am concerned. My project can easily get coverage in NYT, CNN, or Washington Post. Those liberal media outlets post so much fake news, that what's the big deal in any of them covering a crowdfunidng project? They cover startups in Silicon Valley all the time. Crowd PR could not guarantee any of this, therefore they are a fradulent firm.
To top it all off, their facebook page doesn't allow reviews either. Likely to keep anyone from posting their crowd.pr review. I know from past experience that if a marketing agency can't offer a guarantee, a notorized written assurance of weath, then they are not a real agency. It is the absolute best way to see who is a performer and who is a low energy provider of services.
When asked why they are not capable of guaranteeing the biggest media outlets, their response was very snide and crude - they told me that they do not have mind control over journalists, and that editors have "free will". Very cute response, but I know full well there are ways to force people to do what you want no matter what. I'll steer clear of Crowd PR, thanks.
We almost hired Crowd PR but then we found they have another website titled: crowd.pr review. Really dodged the bullet here and am thankful we did not hire them. What did we find? Read on for more information.
We know they are the same kickstarter marketing agency because they both have crowd in their name. It wasn't easy to unearth this truth, but after careful study and consideration - comparing the names side by side, we were able to discern that yes they are the same agency.
What kind of marketing agency has two websites? A scam agency, that's who would do it. I was considering using them for performance based marketing by paying zero upfront fees (planned to persuade them to do this) but now I wouldn't even work with them if they paid me. Yes, you heard that right - my experience with Crowd PR was so bad based on our initial interview that I wouldn't even work with them if they paid me. Meaning, they sent money over to me.
Beware. Beware any kickstaerter marketing service that charges an upfront fee of any kind, and is not open to working for zero fees in exchange for a good reference.
We were interested in hiring Crowd PR for our public relations needs. Our campaign was shaping up to be a big one, and we were keen to get featured by more media outlets, blogs, and journalists. Our point of contant was Elliot Stein, who claims to be a publicist at the firm. More like pro-salesman if you ask me. Regardless, we were stunned when we leared that they are not acctually a 100% commission based service!
Beware everyone. Crowd PR makes it seem like you are getting a totally free service, but in the end they end up asking for money. Such deceptive practices, we were lead to believe that the first several days were free and then we had the option to keep using their service at our own leisure. What kind of marketing agency does not offer a free trial?
We are posting this just in case somone is considering hiring this kickstarter marketing agency. They are no good and not worth their salt. We are glad to have avoided their service, as soon as we say there was not really a free trial we ran away as fast as we could.
Our Review of Crowd.PR
This is the official source of information regarding client reviews of the public relations agency known as Crowd PR. They only work with crowdfunding projects. The industry itself is rife with scams, frauds, and deceptive practices. We sorted through 10 offers before finally deciding to contract Crowd PR for a media relations campaign to promote our project. I was hopeful, but in the end I was let down by them and their team. We spent a total of $2,000 on their retainer and all we say in return was a meager $50,000 return on investment -- a far cry from the $700,000 we expected in full, and were lead to believe we would receive as a result of their work. They only produced 7 articles of media coverage, and I was assured time and time again that their work would be big and have an impact. Utter lies apparantley.
A Real Kickstarter Marketing Agency?
I think not. Based on my readings alone, I see time and time again they have failed to completely satisfy a client. They position themselves as a top tier firm, but from the looks of it - we see no one raising over a million on their public relations outreach. If they can't do that then frakly there is no point it working witrh them at all. We as kickstarter project creators have large appetites, we want nothing less than astronomic results, and if an agency fails to provide that level of success, then that are just another one of the scams that you read about on here. After speaking with my counsel I have been told we have a strong case against them, and we will be moving forward with it within the month. I am full aware that a lawsuite will cost more than what I paid them, but I want it to act as a deterrent against them continuing this uncouth behavior and ideally I would prefer that it put them out of business. We will be upping the ante and making this a class action lawsuite as well.
We recently finished our Kickstarter campaign so this Crowd.PR Review is a bit late. First of all, let me say that my team is made up of experienced entrepreneurs with deep experience working in the tech industry. Our speciality isn't necessarily in PR but when it comes to launching and running successful businesses we know what we're doing.
After launching our campaign on Kickstarter within hours we were hit up via email by Crowd PR. Now, normally we are really good about vetting people we hire on the outside but when you're crowdfunding everything is at warp speed and time is precious so we liked what we saw and heard so decided to give them a shot. They swore that our project had everything it took to go viral so we took this as a good sign. This turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes we made during this campaign. After wiring over the $3000 retainer they requested we started getting a bad feeling in the pit of our throats. Communication immediately started sputtering to a halt and whenever we asked for an update were merely told that they were working on it and they should have good news sooner than later.
Well let's just say that day never came. We kept sending emails and calling (all went to voicemail with no return call) and eventually we had to question what they were doing at all. When we asked for proof that they had done anything well they eventually turned on us completely. They never did anything. Once they had our money that was the end of it. The team we had hired on good faith to help us were now blaming us and our product, saying it was terrible and not their fault and that we were the ones who were incompetent for even creating something like this. Wow, just wow. In my entire professional career I had never been attacked in this way. The only media pickups we had were the result of work that WE DID in house. I honestly don't believe a word that these guys said and after they had our money didn't do a single thing.
Crowd Pr is a scam plain and simple. We were foolish enough to send their money via bank transfer and now come to find out that they aren't even a registered business in the state of California. After researching more I found a ton of other people who have been scammed before us. The whole thing just reeks of a crime scam ring. Everything about them is a fraud, from people on their team (found out they don't exist) to previous clients and their consant changing their business name when caught. The main guy is apparently some kid named Kyle Staebell and he's the one behind this whole scam operation. Dig a bit deeper online and it's all out there. The whole thing is pathetic. They've done a good job trying to hide this all, but hopefully if someone reads this they'll be spared the same fate as us.
Crowd PR emailed us shortly after launching our campaign that we should consider working with them. The amount of communication bordered on spam and harassment but we agreed to talk to them just to get them off our backs. In retrospect there were several warning signings we should've seen, not the least is that they refused to accept a credit card or PayPal and would only accept bank wire transfers. Any legitimate company doing business online will accept credit cards but against our better judgement, fell for the sales pitch.
1. Didn't deliver on any services.
2. Ignored phone calls and emails.
3. When questioned, starting calling us morons and our product a piece of junk.
When asked for a refund, they blew us off and threatened to cease communication with us any further if we continued to contact them. I really wish we had done our research on this company. After a quick search it's clear these guys have a long paper trail of scams going by various company names and individuals going from GlenRoss PR to their previous website crowdpr.co and going by the names of Kyle Staebell and William Henry. At this point I'm not even sure if any of these individual names are real or legit. Even their office isn't a real location and it looks like they constantly change the registration of their puerto rican domain (.pr) to hide their true location. This was honestly the worst experience with any company we have ever dealt with. At this point I think we are screwed but if anyone has any leads, please contact me directly. It looks like we're not the only ones. Thank you.
1. I engaged Crowd PR for a publicity campaign and paid by bank deposit.
2. Crowd PR did not provide any publicity or proof that work was done
3. Crowd PR tried to take credit for work that was done not by them- work that was published before they were contracted.
4. Crowd PR promised a refund, then reneged
5. Crowd PR did not provide any deliverables stated in the contract
They don't answer the phone and take a long time to return emails. All empty promises! Stay away!
I understand the PR game well. We pay for best effort and hope for something/anything to happen. What's not ok is to:
1. Not show any proof of effort as stated in contract and not answer the phone (ever)
2. Taking credit for other people's work
3. Calling the client's product "junk" when you can't deliver
I launched a crowdfunding campaign and was immediately spammed by a gentleman named "William" who promised me the world when it came to delivering PR and Media. The sales pitch was great and he also provided a lot of pressure how I needed his service. Our team agreed and sent over the $3000+ plus for his services and that's where it ended. He constantly dodged emails after that and they didn't do a single thing for our campaign. It was a hit and run scam of the greatest type.
I started researching crowd.pr after and found out they were a part of a giant scam ring that constantly changes their name after they get caught ripping off so many people. I was one of the unforutnate few but hopefully this review can help others to avoid crowdpr (and whatever they'll start caling themselves next.) Here's what I found online during my research:
Here are a few of the names they've gone by over the years: Crowd PR Guru, crowdpr.co, CrowdChirp, First Wave PR, Top Level PR, Milton's Boost System, and on and on and on they go.
The company says they've been in business since 2015 but only started their website in 2017 this year. They say they're in San Francisco which is another lie yet are actually based in Florida. The lies add up over and over and this is one company you need to avoid. Nothing they say is true. Hopefully someone reading this can avoid the same fate we did.
Domain: crowd.pr Created On: 2017-06-01 Expires On: 2018-06-01 Contact: Registrant Organization: Crowd PR LLC Name: Crowd PR Address: 1815 Purdy Avenue Address: City: Miami Beach State: Florida Zip: 33139 Country: United States Phone: 4157128099 Fax: E-mail: @crowd.pr Contact: Administrative Organization: Crowd PR LLC Name: Crowd PR Address: 1815 Purdy Avenue Address: City: Miami Beach State: Florida Zip: 33139 Country: United States Phone: 4157128099 Fax: E-mail: @crowd.pr Contact: Technical Organization: Crowd PR LLC Name: Crowd PR Address: 1815 Purdy Avenue Address: City: Miami Beach State: Florida Zip: 33139 Country: United States Phone: 4157128099 Fax: E-mail: @crowd.pr Contact: Billing Organization: Crowd PR LLC Name: Crowd PR Address: 1815 Purdy Avenue Address: City: Miami Beach State: Florida Zip: 33139 Country: United States Phone: 4157128099 Fax: E-mail: @crowd.pr DNS: freedns1.registrar-servers.com DNS: freedns2.registrar-servers.com DNS: freedns3.registrar-servers.com DNS: freedns4.registrar-servers.com DNS: freedns5.registrar-servers.com
Here are some other threads around the internet showcasing their "talents" but if you do a Google Search for their other names the results are endless::
I recieved a call from Taylor Andrews, now going by Steven Andrews, at GlenRoss PR, which as since shut down and is Crowd PR or Crowdpr.co. He showed great interest in getting exposure for my project. He believed my product was unique, and would be able to get me featured with no problems in a high profile publication, and gives several examples of relevant news or gadget sources. He assured me that they were a legit shop and showed me several examples of success that they had seen in the past.
My Kickstarter had already started, and was trending behind, so I was inclined to accept help. The cost for their help with $3,000 which i paid and they claimed that they started reaching out to contacts to get a featured story, and kept saying that they were going to send me a list of people they were reaching out to but never delivered. They were not able to land me a large PR spot, which the contract was for.
I took them at their word that they were doing work on my behalf, and only requested that half of the $3,000 be returned, to which I got complete radio silence. It was like they never existed. Kyle phone stopped working, becuase apparently he uses PrePaid burner phones for when eventually everything goes sideways, as it seems he was planning the whole time.
Names are Kyle Stubbs or Kyle Staebell and Taylor Andrews or Steven Andrews both keep changing their names on LinkedIn to try to avoid the fallout from their previous interactions.
They are a couple of young kids, that are fraudulent scammers. You wont find ANY information of GlenRoss PR online, which has now been shut down and is call CrowdPR.co Theyll eventually shut this down after being exposed and start up another.
Names are Kyle Stubbs or Kyle Staebell and Taylor Andrews or Steven Andrews both keep changing their names on LinkedIn to try to avoid the fallout from their previous interactions. If you are in talks with them, AVOID! Scammers and fraudlent! Im out $3,000 with nothing to show! I am taking legal actions.