JDriver

Another SEO company using referrer spam. I put up with enough nonsense from Semalt, so don't you start messing up my stats.

They offered me £55 for my near-perfect condition A40, and so I sent it off. Eventually they got back to me saying the screen had deep scratches and that there was screen burn. I disputed this and asked for photos of the damage. They didn't send photos, but increased their offer to £25. I declined and asked for it back.

They did send it back, and it arrived undamaged as I'd sent it. Went to another well-known company, they took it, and paid what they promised without quibble.

I suspect Handtec offer a little more than others initially just to get people to send in their phones, and knock the offer down in hope that people can't be bothered having it sent back.

So after spending around 12k on a new kitchen and after paying a huge chunk upfront, we've had a call from Wickes stating that their installers will not now be fitting the kitchen because it's apparently too difficult.

We've been really left high and dry, and will likely be out of pocket.

I ordered from Wickes and received communication from CitySprint that my package would be delivered between 10am and 3pm the other day.

The delivery has been "in transit" since the morning it was supposed to arrive.

My work is being held up, and so I'm out of pocket.

I had to return an item to Amazon, so I dropped it off at one of their drop-off locations. It's almost been two weeks and they still have the package. I dropped it off on the 28th January, and got confirmation that they collected it on the 29th. It's now the 9th February.

They are very difficult to contact. I did eventually find a number (0330 808 5456) but it was very well hidden, tucked away in a maze of FAQs. The bot Holly on their site was completely useless and wouldn't even accept my tracking number. The staff were also unable to help me, just telling me to wait longer.

Once more, Semalt begin trashing the analytics of one of my clients'
NEW websites by repeatedly hitting it with fake referrals form their bots.

These URLs lead you to Semalt.com, and although Semalt claim that their bots are harmless, it's not true. These fake referrals skew your analytics data, and can cause actual damage to your page ranking by increasing your bounce rate etc.

Also, Semalt's five star reviews on trustpilot cannot be trusted. Trustpilot have posted a warning stating that they've detected lots of fake reviews by publishing a warning at the top of Semalt's Trustpilot page (Dated 26-09-2018).

Don't trust a 5-Star rating for Semalt.

EDIT: So you claim that all the negative reviews are false?

Also, how exactly is it my failure if everytime I block one of your spam referral domains you start sending fake referral traffic from another?

Do you dispute that the URL's I give above are showing up in peoples' analytic data, and that they redirect to your website?

EDIT 5th Oct 2018: It's hilarious that you just shout 'Demagogy' rather than try to answer my questions.

Do you claim that all the negative reviews are false?

Are you not using multiple domains to try and get around any blocks people might put in place?

Do you dispute that the URL's I give above are showing up in peoples' analytic data, and that they redirect to your website?

EDIT: 1st February 2021. Semalt have flagged all my reviews again so I have to remove the URLs they were using.

I have absolutely no confidence in trustpilot as the site is plagued with fake profiles writing fake reviews. I reported one company profile for a proliferation of fake reviews, and although they said they'd look into it, no action was taken.

I looked a little deeper and found that many of these fake profiles either have just one 5-star review, or have written a number of reviews 5-star reviews for the same few companies. By following the trail you can see a pattern of fake reviews throughout the site.

Semalt have been widely accused of using black hat and unscrupulous SEO techniques in order to drive traffic to their site. In doing so, they have caused all sorts of problems for site owners by skewing analytics data etc. A number of my own sites, and the sites of my clients have been affected.

A quick Google search will reveal a huge number of articles related to their bad practices.

Semalt are now currently undertaking a very aggressive reputation management campaign to threaten those who have written negative articles regarding Semalt. Myself included. I have received two threatening emails demanding that I delete an article I wrote that was based upon experience and fact.

EDIT: Semalt tried to get my review deleted and I'm highly suspicious of the quick influx of 5 star reviews they have received on trustpilot.

Be warned; the black hat SEO techniques they use to give your site a higher ranking may work in the very short term (1 - 2 months), but after that, Google and the other search engines will pick up on the devious behaviour and you'll disappear from search results, AND your page raking will be permanently affected.

Maybe the fact that I feel that JustHost used to be good is because I had never really needed to use their support. When I did need it, I had a diabolical experience, not to mention being told a number of times that 'we don't provide support for that', when my site started to go down intermittently they were rather unhelpful. They went through a couple of possible causes but when they didn't rectify the situation, JustHost started to ignore me. Site was down and I couldn't get hold of them. I tried live chat and after waiting nearly an hour, I was told that the problem must be at my end (despite me trying to access my website from different devices AND different networks.) They just don't want to know.

It was a little while ago that I was unfortunate enough to use Streamline.net. Their hosting is dire (frequent downtime, extremely slow.)

My main complaint is from when I tried to move away from them to another host. I moved my site and domains to another company and cancelled my Streamline account, however, that didn't stop them from taking a couple of extra payments. Money which I've never managed to get back from them.

They were rude and agressive.

I've only used them twice, but I already know that I'm going to be a long-term customer. The quality of products and range is great. There was a very minor mix-up with one of my orders but it was rectified immediately by their friendly and courteous staff. Highly recommended.

The quality of the photos I've had printed have been quite good, not amazing though. Any problems I've had with colours not printing correctly, or poor quality images (which hasn't happened often) has been dealt with incredibly quickly and professionally.

I purchased an A-Frame display board from TecTake via Amazon. The item was damaged on receipt and the overall quality was poor. Yes, the item was cheap, but as the backing boards were just thin mounting board and as the item was so large (A1), the board is extremely flimsy.

They refused to give me a refund and would only send replacement parts for the damaged sections. The new parts were in a worse condition than the original item (they were bent out of shape.)

I'm stuck with an item that is slowly falling apart as it's not strong enough to be used outside.

When my photos arrived I was really disappointed with the quality; the colours have not printed correctly and the images are blurred. I've checked my original photos and they're fine, and I've had them printed elsewhere and they came out perfectly.

As I had a deadline to meet I had them reprinted by another company with the intention of getting a refund from foto.com, but foto.com are difficult to deal with. They demanded photos of the photos (which is fair enough), but there has been lots of going back and forth. They didn't want to give a refund and said they would reprint them. I stressed that I'd already had to use another company and just wanted a refund.

Foto.com have started ignoring me, and I'm still out of pocket.

EDIT: Today I received unwanted replacements. These are still of an unsatisfactory quality, and besides, the deadline I had has passed, hence why I had to go to another company. Contacting foto.com yet again to try and get a refund.

EDIT: Foto.com still being difficult. Their customer service is infuriating; it's slow and unhelpful. Their 'No quibble guarantee' is a joke. They keep demanding "screenshots" and are being incredibly argumentative.

UPDATE: They have finally said I can have a refund, but only if I destroy the prints they sent and send them proof! Prints destroyed and I was still kept waiting. Did eventually get my refund but the ordeal means I won't deal with them again.

My neighbour found a Yodel card, addressed to myself at the foot of the communal stairway. Going by the time written on the card, I was in at the time and had the driver bothered to climb the one flight of stairs they would have found I was in. (By the way, the item is only a blender, so it's not as though it's a large, heavy item that would be difficult to carry upstairs.)

The driver must have gained access to the building in order to leave the card, something which they later denied when I contacted them using the telephone number provided. (I ended up texting as they didn't answer their phone and would only respond to texts. Fortunately this means I have proof of the outright lie I was told), they stated that the card had been left the day before (the 19th August) outside the building. However, the date on the card was the 20th, and the online tracking showed delivery was indeed attempted on the 20th, not the 19th.

The driver then asked if I was still in so they could redeliver, I said "yes" but they never bothered to show up.

Their claim that they could not gain entry to the building is also a lie. The card was left on one of the lower steps - only possible if you manage to get in. One neighbour found it on the step, and any other neighbour would have brought it up to my flat as we're all on good terms and often take in parcels for one another.