[Adam P]

has anyone on here had the unfortunate luck of being in an area where fantastic services are trying to take over?

unfortunately i have.  I'm based in surrey, they originally from london, however they are aggressively pushing out country wide and i'm sure many on this site will soon start to feel the pain of having them nearby.

One of the biggest issues with them is that they are extremely sneaky to their customers as they pretend to be many many many different company names. customers will go to google, find a few companies to get quotes from, likely find this same company 3 times trading under 3 different names, and then book with them.

for instance just a tiny few of their sites (they literally have hundreds)

http://guildford-cleaning.co.uk/
http://cleanersguildford.com/
http://cleanerswoking.com/
http://www.ovencleanteam.co.uk/oven-cleaning-surrey/guildford-gu1/#
http://www.housekeeperlondon.co.uk/cleaners-waltham-forest/
http://www.maggiesovenservices.co.uk/
http://www.ovencleaningsouthwark.co.uk/
http://www.fantasticovencleaners.co.uk/westminster-oven-cleaning/
http://www.highgatecleaners.co.uk/
http://www.shoreditchcleaners.co.uk/

these are just a few of their websites, each new "name" and new design will have many websites copied from it, with just the town name changed so that it's like

pretend name one 1:
cleanerswoking, cleaners guildford, cleaners farnham, cleaners twickenham,

then
pretend name 2:
top cleaners of woking, top cleaners of guildford, top cleaners of twickeham,

and it's not just cleaning, you can see their donig this for all their services, for instance

http://www.gardenerswoking.co.uk/
http://www.gardeningoxford.co.uk/

http://www.gardenersegham.co.uk/
http://www.gardenersisleworth.co.uk/


and then to top it off their sales tactics are sneaky. looking on the http://cleanerswoking.com/ website. the price displayed for an end of tenancy clean, they say includes a FREE oven clean. then carpet cleaning is stupidly low. customers come to me saying they've been quoted £135 for a package deal of a whole property plus carpets and the oven is free. we quote £200+. This company get the job, turn up on the day and increase it to what it should be.

speaking to them by phone or their chat they are told to hide the fact it's the same company. i've asked for company number and they wont give it. asked for address they wont give it.

the trouble is customers are falling for their dirty tricks and it's very hard to compete against them. doing a search our customers would do on google, they can appear easily 5 times with the adwords in their too and that's for 5 different company names.

anyone aware of what we as a group of honest businesses can do about this? they are aggresively advertising to get all the work, and spreading quickly too. a quick google and you'll find they are in manchester and many more places

http://cleanersmanchester.org/gardening/

you only have to copy one generic line from their website to see how many of each design they have

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Treat+Your+Garden+to+Work+from+Proficient+Outstanding+Gardeners+in&oq=Treat+Your+Garden+to+Work+from+Proficient+Outstanding+Gardeners+in&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Ian Harper]

Adam P

Not your problem, but you can benefit from them!

you need to switch to consumers advice marketing. free guides, free recorded messages, put it on all your marketing. write articles about bait and switch send them to all publications and websites in your area. dont point fingers just give advice. keep pushing this agenda as long as they are around. because when they get caught then the eyes will be everyone in the same services in that area. dont do anything underhanded like fake calls, reporting them as I said its not your problem.

Good luck and keep positive

[davep]

Always on the sadwords

[Adam P]

it very much is our problem.

[Adam P]

[Adam P]

at the very least if anyone has a moment, perhaps do a google see if they are in your area and doing the same thing, report them to adwords at the link below. if enough of us do this then we may start to see google realising the mistake and removing them completely.

key things to look out for to know if it's all the same company. 24/7 support. online chat, and online quote form. these are fool proof ways to know it's them, but good indications it's the same company. e.g. look at http://www.maggiesovenservices.co.uk/ you'll see the book online 10% off link. you'll see the 24/7 support (like maggie will be sat at the phone 24/7), and you'll see the online chat at the bottom right.

link to report:
https://support.google.com/adwords/troubleshooter/4578507

[davep]

Report for what?  Surley is the custy that needs to do that.

[Adam P]

1) google don't allow one company to advertise twice on adwords under 2 different company names

2) google don't want the results on the natural listings to be the same company pretending to be different ones. they want variety so that their customers have a fair choice.  this is harder to report, but things like repeated content, false advertising etc is against their guidelines.

[CleanerCarpets]

Adam, don't get too obsessed with it - any company like this will soon fail in its plans, just keep doing a good job and you'll keep getting return customers and the others that follow.

You will always get this and other local companies who talk others down to try and win business - just reflects on them and will back fire. Just concentrate on your business and let them sort of clowns carry on.

[Mike Gwilliam]

     

Using the Google Network to gain an unfair traffic advantage over other participants in the auction:

 Examples: Affiliates that advertise on AdWords against the applicable affiliate programme rules, promoting the same or similar content from multiple accounts on the same or similar queries.

https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6020954?hl=en-GB

[Hilton]

You would all like to monopolise the top spots on google search , don't pretend otherwise.

[Dan Wileman]

Fantastic services turnover about £20m a year, they won't be going anywhere so adapt. I am smack bang in the middle of these guys main area - south west London. 3 jobs this week from agents calling us in to rectify tenant booked jobs from fantastic. I think they are great! You seem to have a few EOT queries, can call me tomorrow if you want to go over anything

[Ian Harper]

I think you find that its the adword uses that are googles customers not the searchers.

Dan Wileman smart guy great word "adapt" have you read

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapt-Success-Always-Starts-Failure/dp/0349121516?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

Tim's stuff is great he talks in every day words about economics

One interesting thing is this is market forces at work it proves that the market is worth the effort.  why go to all this effort if the rewards are not there? your very lucky to live in an area that has a market this big. many in other parts of the UK would love in be in this situation.

The price is interesting as one reason to monopolise is getting control over the market price. if as you say something underhand is going on then they will have problems, but if not then why have they not got control over price in your area it should be much higher and that can be good news for you. just look at how apple have set the bar high on price and everyone else just comes in under and still makes more. than if it was a rush to the bottom. is a phone really worth that much? no thats why apple makes so much money, and so does everyone else in the market.

[Mike Halliday]

I'd be well pee'd off if this was happening in my area and I relied on google for the bulk of my work.

But a company that big will have a dedicated web marketing team working full time, there is no way a one man band can compete.

I hate Google... I asked my web designer if he could stop my website showing on Google searches for general search phrases to stop the crap people calling (which makes the bulk of my Google enquiries) unless they searched my name or very relevant search term I don't want my website to show.

With Adwords You are handing over the success of your business to a company who doesn't give a poope about you

[cohen]

Im also trying to rank a site..but there us ine guy with 4sites!!!!all on page 1...He has 4similair sounding company names,along with local ghost telephone numbers.This is totally misleading to people searching for this service.The sites are
www.thecarpetcleaner.co.uk
www.ecosteamclean.co.uk
www.carpetcleanliverpool.co.uk
NOW THATS GREADY

[jasonl]

Im also trying to rank a site..but there us ine guy with 4sites!!!!all on page 1...He has 4similair sounding company names,along with local ghost telephone numbers.This is totally misleading to people searching for this service.The sites are
www.thecarpetcleaner.co.uk
www.ecosteamclean.co.uk
www.carpetcleanliverpool.co.uk
NOW THATS GREADY

The carpetcleaner.co.uk is paul pearce

ecosteam clean is a dead link

carpet clean liverpool is a crappy template

[Adam P]

Im also trying to rank a site..but there us ine guy with 4sites!!!!all on page 1

good first post on this forum. 10/10. Would read again

[cohen]

Sorry big fingers small keys 

The sites that take up 4 spaces for Liverpool are -

www.theliverpoolcarpetcleaner.co.uk
www.eco-steamclean.co.uk
www.carpetcleanliverpool.co.uk
www.ecocarpetcleaningliverpool.co.uk

Is this not greedy?

[Adam P]

yep it is indeed, however at the very least, customers will know they are through to the same company 4 times over. the sites logo, name etc don't for the most part try to hide who they are, so when a customer goes to google and searches to get 2/3 quotes, they will hopefully realise they are through to the same company, especially as i imagine they won't have a team of people answering the phones but perhaps just 1 so if they do call up again through their second website the will know and go find the next companies.

this is different to fantastic services, as they are purposefully lying to customers to hide who they are, so that customers are tricked into getting a few quotes with them over and over without ever realising.

[elliott cleaning]

Adam P

I'm based in north Surrey. These people have no effect on my business whatsoever. As already mentioned by a previous poster, don't get obsessed by what your completion is doing.  If you are relying on the future of your business by what your Internet site(s) bring you - go into a different business.  If you are worried about the cut price that some of these operations are advertising, you are pitching to the wrong market.
You're lucky your based where you are. There is more money than sense in London and the south east.
I haven't advertised in many years - never bothered with a website - have found no need to. But I do talk to alot of people. 90% of this business is not just selling that you are a first class carpet cleaner - but much more importantly selling yourself - you can't do that on a website.