2 years ago a small web development company named VKI studios hired me to do the SEO for their client canadaygroup.com in Orange county. We did the link building as well as some onpage SEO for the site and got it to the top of the search engines for "Orange County Real Estate" and many other terms.

VKI has sinse gone on to use this ranking example to sign many other realtors (Which I suppose is their perogative as it is their client, but of course they dont mention the fact that it was us that got their client there) - now if they want to learn how to do it, and offer SEO to their clients that's fine. But this company has been engaging in some very unethical practices over the last year.

Example 1 - soliciting other web development companies clients (Like ours) and stating that we are not optimizing their website correctly (Of course saying they will do it right) - Even if this were true (which we all know its not) - this is completely unethical - if you are going to solicit a client you should do so by citing your strengths and abilities, not putting down other companies. What was the most hilarious was when this was first reported - it was by our las vegas client who is top 3 in google for "las vegas real estate" - they were trying to sell them by saying "our client is top 20 in google, we could do this for you to! I mean did they even look? Our client outranks theirs considerably lol - anyways that is my first problem with them, thier pushy salespeople are appearantly not very polite - these people really need a lesson in how to conduct business.

This has happened (Badmouthing of REW and attempted client poaching a few times sinse) - Finally I got fed up and called the company owner. He said (Oh im sorry, it must be my sales people, I will talk to them they shouldnt be doing that) - after talking at length with him, I decided to leave it alone even though it is the managments responsibility to train their staff, and are accountable for their actions.

Some time goes by, and AGAIN I get a complaint from an existing client about VKI's staff slandering other dev companies (Ours and others) - so needless to say, at this point I am seriously pissed off.

Then I get a call from a prospect who says they are considering using ours / VKI's services - Pardon me! This prospect said that VKI claimed to be in partnership with us, and that they had access to all of our technologies / techniques etc. This is not true, not even close! I would never parnter with a company like this.

So I start looking around their website, and what do I find?

Listen to this:

I have NEVER signed any kind of marketing deal wiht VKI and they are trying to use my name and reputation to sell their services. I wrote them the other day demanding they take it off their website or they would be hearing from my lawyers. As of Friday, they have not. I mean a prospect saying that, I would certainly take with a grain of salt, but when they blatantly post it on thier website, there is no doubt in my mind that it is true.

So what is my next move?
What would you do?

I hate getting into these kinds of battles and wish people would just offer decent services and sell based on the merits of those services instead resorting to slander and taking credit for others work.

Maybe im just venting (And yes I titled this thread the way I did on purpose) but I am understandably fed up with VKI Studios and thier lies.

__________________
Don't miss out on the 12 days of Christmas promo