I made a terrible mistake in hiring a company called Hibu to create a social media campaign for my company. They misrepresented their expertise and expected results in order to induce me to sign on for a six-month contract costing thousands of dollars, which I did. Contrary to their representations, however, they apparently did not have the expertise they claimed and produced negligible results compared to what they had promised.
I have a small company in the franchising industry that depends on obtaining leads of individuals who may be interested in purchasing franchises. I contacted HIBU because it claimed to have extensive expertise in creating effective social media campaigns (i.e., Facebook, Google, etc.), including for my type of company. During the sales process, I provided extensive information about my industry, procedures and objectives, as well as specific information about the types of companies from which I purchase leads, how much those leads cost, and the quality of those leads. The Hibu representative assured me that if I retained their company, I would receive a larger number of higher quality leads than I was currently receiving, and at a cost of less than I was paying, which was approximately $25/lead.
After I retained the company, I received a curious request from a Hibu representative. He asked me to provide Google “keywords” so that they could design an effective social media campaign. I found this request to be concerning because I have no social media experience, including how keywords are used and created. Instead, I had retained Hibu precisely due to its claimed expertise in this area. Now they were asking for me to come up with what appeared to be one of most fundamental elements of such a campaign.
Nonetheless, and without experience or knowledge in this area, I did my best to provide keywords to Hibu. In retrospect, I am now aware that a complete understanding of the best keywords to use is one of the minimal requirements of a competent social media company. At the time, however, I was hoping for the best. I was in for a bitter disappointment. Over a 6-month period, Hibu’s efforts generated a multitude of hang-ups, robocalls and marketing calls, each of which they would claim to be a “lead.” Only three arguably legitimate leads came through during that period – at a cost between $3000 and $4000 per lead. That’s a huge difference from the $25 (or less) per quality lead that Hibu promised.
Needless to say, as Hibu’s lack of expertise and results became more apparent, and then alarming, I demanded that they stop all “work” on my company’s behalf and provide a refund for all sums paid. Hibu did not cease its activities as requested or provide the requested refund. To the contrary, they apparently continued whatever media “campaign” they had put into effect, and insisted that my company would be on the hook for the entire 6 months of the contract.
One would think the above circumstances – false claims of expertise followed by dismal results – would be bad enough. Not only did Hibu not respond reasonably or responsibly to legitimate concerns expressed by a customer, however, it now embarked upon a course of retaliatory conduct. An additional but comparatively tiny portion of the services purchased from Hibu was the design and hosting of a website for my company. These services, in contract to Hibu’s other obligations, were at least competent, resulting in my continuing to pay separately for the website even after the dispute over their social media work had arisen.
As the dispute over Hibu’s poor social media performance and refusal to provide a refund continued, however, Hibu seized on the website’s existence to extract an unfair advantage. They threatened to take my company’s website, for which they were now being paid separately on a monthly basis, off-line. Hibu clearly knew such an act would cripple, and likely decimate, my business. They had no hesitation in making this threat, however, to obtain undeserved leverage.
Hibu’s threat to take my website off-line, not surprisingly, forced me to expend precious company marketing dollars to retain a new, independent web developer and hosting company so that I would no longer be at Hibu’s mercy. When, after the new website went online and I informed Hibu that its services would no longer be needed in that regard, they raised the stakes further. They now claimed to have bound me to a completely separate, wholly invented 12-month paid contract to maintain the now defunct Hibu-designed website – a contract which they had not previously bothered to disclose, share or negotiate.
Taking the time to relate the above events has been neither a pleasant nor profitable use of my time. As a longstanding and responsible member of the business marketplace, however, I believe strongly in creating a fair and level playing field. Such a responsibility requires shining a light on unscrupulous players. I’m accordingly hoping that this review will help other, similarly-situated consumers from making the mistake of working with this incompetent and unethical company.
I lost money as a result of this company. They limited me to 10 pages which were basic shells of a website. All the detail that was in my previous website was lost. Not only did I not gain a single referral as a result of their new "updated" website, I actually lost the prior level of business that I had. Not only were they not helpful, they actuallly told me that they could not do what I wanted them to do which was update the site with before and afters that could easily be found by someone looking for the service.
They took screen shots of my instagram videos and attached theses meaningless images as an unorganized gallery. It is unfortunate that they do contracts to tie someone in to a monthly fee when they have zero intention of actually fulfulling the "we martket to people actually searching for what you do, and put your company info in front of them" When they make you a crappy website, they point to them having made the crappy website and then say they are billing you for that shell of a website design.
In sum they do nothing for you but bill your account. This is a zero integrity company. Would I hire them again? no They do not try to fix it when it is not right, this goes for any problem you have with them.
After 32 years in business, I had advertised in the yellowbook for many years. During that time Yellowbook was sold to HIBU. On April 23, 2018, I signed the salesman's laptop under the name of my store, signing as President of the Corporation. I never received a paper copy of this contract unti after I was out of business on September 8, 2018.
My landlord sold the property I leased from him for 13 years and in August 2018, he gave me three weeks to vacate the property. It looks like my signature was superimposed on their paper contract and SURPRISE!, just above my signature it says (Read paragraph 15 of the terms and conditions) which is actually page 5 of 12 pages of a contact and that paragraph is titled Authority: Persons Obligated: Signer Obligated: basically saying that I am signing this as a personal debt.
When they started contacted me to say that I owed the balance of 2018 and all of 2019, I asked for a copy of the contract and this is what they sent me. I had never seen any paper copy of the contract until after I was out of business. Also the salesman had told me that if I went out of business for any reason ( a question that I asked because I had cancer in 2011), I would be released from any obligation to pay HIBU.
I have since spoken with him about this twice and he told me that he previously believed I would not have to pay HIBU if I was out of business and that this was a coporate debt and that he did not understand when I told him the contract made my personally responsible. He said he was just told to have the lap top signed and that was the end of it.
I have had an attorney trying to handle this matter for me with HIBU and now they are saying they have turned it over to an attorney and they are demanding $5,600.00 plus possible interest and fees if I don't pay them. Also, I have also paid my attorney over $1,000.00 in attorney fees and gotten nowhere, and then I decided to look them up on the internet and found this website and found that there are many other unsatisfied HIBU customers like me who are being harrassed for payment.
If there is anything that can be done, or there is a class action suit, I would like to be a part of it. I am afraid to take a chance for them to take it to court, because then I could have many thousands of dollars invested just paying my attorney and court fees, etc. PLEASE HELP ME!!!
In my effort to increase sales, I thought I would try HIBU to do banner ads. The contract was for 6 months. Watching my analytics carefully on 3 different platforms, my numbers regarding clicks never jived with HIBU. HIBU was always inflated. I don't believe the ads worked at all and I have no idea if they were even displayed. When my 6 months were over, I immediately told them I was canceling. HIBU has been making it difficult to stop. They keep trying to run my card to extract payment. The 6 months are over. I made 6 payments.
The campaign started 1/3/19 and should have ended 6/3/19. It is 6/25 today and HIBU wants to bill me today which would be for the campaign to continue into July (7th month). My 1st payment was made 12/18 prior to the start of the campaign. I made 6 payments and HIBU wants more. I never received one call from the "banner ads." I have run Google pay per clicks, Facebook ads for more than a decade. I am not new to this. I personally do not believe the ads ran but that's my opinion based on my experience. My strong recommendation is "NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH HIBU."
Big promises.....but they way under deliver! This company is all about quoting contract, but not holing their end. This morning I anylized their own reports and was able to prove to two of their agents that I am payin over $40.00 per phone call they are bringing in.....When I expressed my displeasure with what they were doing, they could only inform me that I was bound to them by contract! They sent a salesman in 5 months ago with a real good song and dance.....when push came to shove they are overpriced, half of their services you can do yourself at a fraction of the cost, and they refuse to address their own issue.
As a business owner I haire a company like this to be at the wheel and to know what works and what doesnt.....Instead they collect your money and expect you to call them out when their campaign isnt performing........Kind of backwards I think! The bottom line is they rooked me into a 6 month contract, I cannot decrease my budget, and they will not allow me to cancel. 2 customer service reps acknowledged this morning that my campaign was underperforming and that the situation wasnt right......isnt that a breach of contract on their part? Small Business BEWARE! This company is only out to make a buck.....and they do a s**+**y job on your website!
I encourage wveryone to not use HIBU for advertising. They have been dishonwst with me, lied about updating my website, published a screwed up website without my consent and charge me for services based on the promise they would fix the website. Hibu lies. They will tell you anything and do as little as possible and then they try to get you to fix their errors. Incompetence errors is what i am talkong about by Hibu because they dont care. Di yourself a favor and make your website and use someone elses advertising swevices.
Hibu inc internet services has not only screwed up my entire web page but they have charged me 105 dollars a month to keep a site open on a business that I have sold! I notified them of the sale and attempted to issue a stop payment multiple times but the same incompetent customer service line that screwed up my website has screwed up my billing cancellation. $600 later I decided to get the good people of my credit card involved to try and help me with these bullies. If you're looking to market your start up business please please please find another way to do so. They have done nothing well but take my money.
Hibu, Inc. Reviews
I made a terrible mistake in hiring a company called Hibu to create a social media campaign for my company. They misrepresented their expertise and expected results in order to induce me to sign on for a six-month contract costing thousands of dollars, which I did. Contrary to their representations, however, they apparently did not have the expertise they claimed and produced negligible results compared to what they had promised.
I have a small company in the franchising industry that depends on obtaining leads of individuals who may be interested in purchasing franchises. I contacted HIBU because it claimed to have extensive expertise in creating effective social media campaigns (i.e., Facebook, Google, etc.), including for my type of company. During the sales process, I provided extensive information about my industry, procedures and objectives, as well as specific information about the types of companies from which I purchase leads, how much those leads cost, and the quality of those leads. The Hibu representative assured me that if I retained their company, I would receive a larger number of higher quality leads than I was currently receiving, and at a cost of less than I was paying, which was approximately $25/lead.
After I retained the company, I received a curious request from a Hibu representative. He asked me to provide Google “keywords” so that they could design an effective social media campaign. I found this request to be concerning because I have no social media experience, including how keywords are used and created. Instead, I had retained Hibu precisely due to its claimed expertise in this area. Now they were asking for me to come up with what appeared to be one of most fundamental elements of such a campaign.
Nonetheless, and without experience or knowledge in this area, I did my best to provide keywords to Hibu. In retrospect, I am now aware that a complete understanding of the best keywords to use is one of the minimal requirements of a competent social media company. At the time, however, I was hoping for the best. I was in for a bitter disappointment. Over a 6-month period, Hibu’s efforts generated a multitude of hang-ups, robocalls and marketing calls, each of which they would claim to be a “lead.” Only three arguably legitimate leads came through during that period – at a cost between $3000 and $4000 per lead. That’s a huge difference from the $25 (or less) per quality lead that Hibu promised.
Needless to say, as Hibu’s lack of expertise and results became more apparent, and then alarming, I demanded that they stop all “work” on my company’s behalf and provide a refund for all sums paid. Hibu did not cease its activities as requested or provide the requested refund. To the contrary, they apparently continued whatever media “campaign” they had put into effect, and insisted that my company would be on the hook for the entire 6 months of the contract.
One would think the above circumstances – false claims of expertise followed by dismal results – would be bad enough. Not only did Hibu not respond reasonably or responsibly to legitimate concerns expressed by a customer, however, it now embarked upon a course of retaliatory conduct. An additional but comparatively tiny portion of the services purchased from Hibu was the design and hosting of a website for my company. These services, in contract to Hibu’s other obligations, were at least competent, resulting in my continuing to pay separately for the website even after the dispute over their social media work had arisen.
As the dispute over Hibu’s poor social media performance and refusal to provide a refund continued, however, Hibu seized on the website’s existence to extract an unfair advantage. They threatened to take my company’s website, for which they were now being paid separately on a monthly basis, off-line. Hibu clearly knew such an act would cripple, and likely decimate, my business. They had no hesitation in making this threat, however, to obtain undeserved leverage.
Hibu’s threat to take my website off-line, not surprisingly, forced me to expend precious company marketing dollars to retain a new, independent web developer and hosting company so that I would no longer be at Hibu’s mercy. When, after the new website went online and I informed Hibu that its services would no longer be needed in that regard, they raised the stakes further. They now claimed to have bound me to a completely separate, wholly invented 12-month paid contract to maintain the now defunct Hibu-designed website – a contract which they had not previously bothered to disclose, share or negotiate.
Taking the time to relate the above events has been neither a pleasant nor profitable use of my time. As a longstanding and responsible member of the business marketplace, however, I believe strongly in creating a fair and level playing field. Such a responsibility requires shining a light on unscrupulous players. I’m accordingly hoping that this review will help other, similarly-situated consumers from making the mistake of working with this incompetent and unethical company.
I lost money as a result of this company. They limited me to 10 pages which were basic shells of a website. All the detail that was in my previous website was lost. Not only did I not gain a single referral as a result of their new "updated" website, I actually lost the prior level of business that I had. Not only were they not helpful, they actuallly told me that they could not do what I wanted them to do which was update the site with before and afters that could easily be found by someone looking for the service.
They took screen shots of my instagram videos and attached theses meaningless images as an unorganized gallery. It is unfortunate that they do contracts to tie someone in to a monthly fee when they have zero intention of actually fulfulling the "we martket to people actually searching for what you do, and put your company info in front of them" When they make you a crappy website, they point to them having made the crappy website and then say they are billing you for that shell of a website design.
In sum they do nothing for you but bill your account. This is a zero integrity company. Would I hire them again? no They do not try to fix it when it is not right, this goes for any problem you have with them.
After 32 years in business, I had advertised in the yellowbook for many years. During that time Yellowbook was sold to HIBU. On April 23, 2018, I signed the salesman's laptop under the name of my store, signing as President of the Corporation. I never received a paper copy of this contract unti after I was out of business on September 8, 2018.
My landlord sold the property I leased from him for 13 years and in August 2018, he gave me three weeks to vacate the property. It looks like my signature was superimposed on their paper contract and SURPRISE!, just above my signature it says (Read paragraph 15 of the terms and conditions) which is actually page 5 of 12 pages of a contact and that paragraph is titled Authority: Persons Obligated: Signer Obligated: basically saying that I am signing this as a personal debt.
When they started contacted me to say that I owed the balance of 2018 and all of 2019, I asked for a copy of the contract and this is what they sent me. I had never seen any paper copy of the contract until after I was out of business. Also the salesman had told me that if I went out of business for any reason ( a question that I asked because I had cancer in 2011), I would be released from any obligation to pay HIBU.
I have since spoken with him about this twice and he told me that he previously believed I would not have to pay HIBU if I was out of business and that this was a coporate debt and that he did not understand when I told him the contract made my personally responsible. He said he was just told to have the lap top signed and that was the end of it.
I have had an attorney trying to handle this matter for me with HIBU and now they are saying they have turned it over to an attorney and they are demanding $5,600.00 plus possible interest and fees if I don't pay them. Also, I have also paid my attorney over $1,000.00 in attorney fees and gotten nowhere, and then I decided to look them up on the internet and found this website and found that there are many other unsatisfied HIBU customers like me who are being harrassed for payment.
If there is anything that can be done, or there is a class action suit, I would like to be a part of it. I am afraid to take a chance for them to take it to court, because then I could have many thousands of dollars invested just paying my attorney and court fees, etc. PLEASE HELP ME!!!
In my effort to increase sales, I thought I would try HIBU to do banner ads. The contract was for 6 months. Watching my analytics carefully on 3 different platforms, my numbers regarding clicks never jived with HIBU. HIBU was always inflated. I don't believe the ads worked at all and I have no idea if they were even displayed. When my 6 months were over, I immediately told them I was canceling. HIBU has been making it difficult to stop. They keep trying to run my card to extract payment. The 6 months are over. I made 6 payments.
The campaign started 1/3/19 and should have ended 6/3/19. It is 6/25 today and HIBU wants to bill me today which would be for the campaign to continue into July (7th month). My 1st payment was made 12/18 prior to the start of the campaign. I made 6 payments and HIBU wants more. I never received one call from the "banner ads." I have run Google pay per clicks, Facebook ads for more than a decade. I am not new to this. I personally do not believe the ads ran but that's my opinion based on my experience. My strong recommendation is "NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH HIBU."
Big promises.....but they way under deliver! This company is all about quoting contract, but not holing their end. This morning I anylized their own reports and was able to prove to two of their agents that I am payin over $40.00 per phone call they are bringing in.....When I expressed my displeasure with what they were doing, they could only inform me that I was bound to them by contract! They sent a salesman in 5 months ago with a real good song and dance.....when push came to shove they are overpriced, half of their services you can do yourself at a fraction of the cost, and they refuse to address their own issue.
As a business owner I haire a company like this to be at the wheel and to know what works and what doesnt.....Instead they collect your money and expect you to call them out when their campaign isnt performing........Kind of backwards I think! The bottom line is they rooked me into a 6 month contract, I cannot decrease my budget, and they will not allow me to cancel. 2 customer service reps acknowledged this morning that my campaign was underperforming and that the situation wasnt right......isnt that a breach of contract on their part? Small Business BEWARE! This company is only out to make a buck.....and they do a s**+**y job on your website!
I encourage wveryone to not use HIBU for advertising. They have been dishonwst with me, lied about updating my website, published a screwed up website without my consent and charge me for services based on the promise they would fix the website. Hibu lies. They will tell you anything and do as little as possible and then they try to get you to fix their errors. Incompetence errors is what i am talkong about by Hibu because they dont care. Di yourself a favor and make your website and use someone elses advertising swevices.
Hibu inc internet services has not only screwed up my entire web page but they have charged me 105 dollars a month to keep a site open on a business that I have sold! I notified them of the sale and attempted to issue a stop payment multiple times but the same incompetent customer service line that screwed up my website has screwed up my billing cancellation. $600 later I decided to get the good people of my credit card involved to try and help me with these bullies. If you're looking to market your start up business please please please find another way to do so. They have done nothing well but take my money.