Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:13/12/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ************* sites have a prompt that ask you to log into ******, and when browsing, I set up an account with this (because why not) and continued browsing without posting anything or otherwise interacting with the site other than viewing. Around 40 minutes later, I was banned for supposed "spam" despite posting literally nothing. Even after calling and emailing them, I have not received any response at all in over a week.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 23/12/2022

  Hello,
  
  To allow us to investigate this matter, please provide us with the below information by email at **************@*************.com:
  

  (a) Username
  (b) The forum you were registered to
  (c) Email used to register to forum
  
  If you have any technical issues going forward, you can reach us at **************@*************.com.
  
  Regards,
  
  Policy Support, VerticalScope

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/12/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Unfortunately this company has no function to delete your online account without emailing them. I have made three attempts to close and delete my account. All have gone ignored with no response and my account is still on their forum with my content. At this time I am making my request to DELETE my account and all my content. Let this be a warning to all that are looking for a forum, this company now owns most of them, collects your data and then seems to ignore your request to delete YOUR information. I did reach out to the Admins on the forum, all telling me I had to reach out to corporate they have no control over account deletion.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/12/2022

  Hello,
   
  If you have a registered account on the forum, we can assist with deleting your account. Please provide us with your username for the forum so that we can proceed.
   
  Please note that posts and/or threads will not be deleted. As per our Terms of Use, which may be found at https:/********************************, VerticalScope has a perpetual license for any information posted on the forum. However, we can anonymize any of your posts that contain personally identifying information if you provide us with links to such posts.  

  Regards,
  
  Policy Support, VerticalScope

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/12/2022

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  These request have already been submitted numerous times with the company giving zero response. 

  Why would a company make a "contributor" ask multiple times to delete account, and get zero response. Only to now waste my time filing a BBB claim. 

  Your websites are now plagued with paying ********. Your Admins have posted warnings over the last 2 weeks on ******** paying for premium memberships only to **** your members. Your platforms are a mess and you have ZERO in place to protect your users. As this shows with no "delete my account" button, lack of moderation and clearly ignoring the safety of your users. 

  Since I do hold knowledge in this field I will again make the request before moving forward outside the BBB.... At this time I am requesting Vertical Scope pseudonymize the account on ****** Forum  on this date December 8 2022. 

  You have been supplied with my user email on the account. If you truly own the web domain this information would be sufficient for deletion. 

  Odd how a company want MORE information when someone is asking for them to remove their information?

  I have also included a copy of your "terms" and my complaint to the Florida Attorney Generals office. 

  
  **** ****

  

  Business Response

  Date: 19/12/2022

  Hello,
  
  The email address you provided for this complaint is not in our database and does not show any associated account on ******forums.com. This may be because (a) a previous request to anonymize your account based on this email address has already been actioned by our team; or (b) your forum account is associated with a different email address. You have not included any other username in your complaint. If you believe you still have an identifiable account on ************.com, please provide us with the username, and we would be happy to pseudonymize any related identifiable information. You can reach us at **************@*************.com for further assistance.
  
  Regards,
  
  Policy Support, VerticalScope

• Initial Complaint

  Date:28/11/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 3/14/2022 we purchased a Annual Advertising Vendor agreement with Vertical Scope for one of their online forums. In Previous months we were making quarterly payments but due to increase in costs for advertising we were offered an annual agreement whereby we would pay up-front for a full year of advertising vendor posting rights. On 8/3/2022 we had our account and advertising login banned and our only notification was an automated email from the forum of the account banning. Immediately on 8/3/2022 I contacted Vertical Scope Support via email about this banning and informed them that this was a breach of contract and they should explain and issue a refund based on a breach of agreement. On 8/8/2022 I finally received a response from Vertical Scope informing me that they banned my account because my website where the advertising pointed to was down and that I had not been posting on the forum. I replied that none of that mattered and that how i choose to use or not utilize the advertising I've paid in advance for was my business an that they had no right to ban my account with no form of contact. Vertical Scope made no attempt whatsoever before banning to contact my business with forms of contact that the had on file. No email made to my business email account on file, and no phone call or messages to my phone contact on file. On 8/8/2022 I replied letting Veritical Scope representative Nadia know that I expected a full refund for their breach of contract, they declined and only offered a potential partial refund. I am writing to inform the BBB that this business is operating outside of business ethics *** ** ********** ***** by taking advance payments for services and then making decisions without contractual support to decline services and keep the payments for services no rendered. **** ** ******  I expect a $1164.15 refund for the loss.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 06/12/2022

  Dear **** ****,
  
  In May 2022, your business website had an update noting the following:
  
  "Due to health problems, this business division has now closed, the website will no longer take sales. As of this writing is is not known when and whether this will be able to resume. Due to the health problems and a hostile business climate in general, it has been requested by the business owner that this website be disabled as there isn't a reasonable way to delegate the processes to others." *********** ******** *** **********
  
  Consequently, the decision was made to deactivate your member status. Both the Community Management and Customer Success team made attempts to contact you, and there was no response. 
  
  In August 2022, you responded with a demand for a full refund and denial of ever being out of business. You were then offered a partial refund covering the period between August 2022 and the end of your membership term. You were then asked to confirm which vendor status you preferred (a standard procedure in processing refunds), and we received no response from you until November 25th, 2022. 
  
  Despite this, we can now confirm that your refund (covering the period between August 2022 and the end of your contract term) has been processed. ****** *** *** ******** ****** ************. 

  Regards,

  Policy Support, VerticalScope

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/12/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  "Both the Community Management and Customer Success team made attempts to contact you, and there was no response."

  This statement above is false. Vertical Scope made no attempt to contact us through any means that they had access to. No email, no phone call, no voice mail for a customer account in which they had this information. Being the online account was in a "banned" status that means that no login could occur. So, if any messages were sent via the internal private messaging system on the forum, they could not be retrieved. As of this writing no proof of this correspondence has ever occurred. While a partial refund has been issued the Vertical Scope team, I view this is unsatisfactory considering the breach of agreement without any reasonable business notification. Vertical Scope also would not reinstate the account as a free account which was originally offered in writing because "Due to community violations related to business practices, the ban in the community will remain in place." When asked about what community violations, as in a policy, no reply was given. So, even if correspondence existed in the private messaging system I have no way to see that because the general login account is blocked. The decision to continue to block to be a general poster seems petty and unfounded.
  

  Sincerely,
  
  **** ****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/11/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  A couple months ago I tried to join the colorado/canyon forum and I was banned immediately. I never got to post anything and never got to complete the registration. Today 10-28-22 I again tried to register and it said my email was already in use, so again I have not been able to register on a site I have been reading for over 2 years. I have emailed the company or site several times with no response. I have emailed and asked just to talk to someone to ask why I was banned and I get no response at all. I feel I have unfairly been banned from a forum that I feel I can contribute to

  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/11/2022

  Hello,

  We're sorry to hear about this and would be happy to remedy the situation. Please send over the belpow information so that we may facilitate your forum registration:

  Email you registered with:

  Name of forum you registered to:

  Username you registered with: 

  One we have this info, we can go ahead and help further. 

  Regards

  Policy Support, VerticalScope

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/11/2022

  
  Complaint: ********

  here is the info you requested 

  email: *********@******.com

  forum: ************.com

  user name: ***********
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/11/2022

  Hello ****,

  It appears this account was banned in error. Consequently the ban has been lifted. We apologize for this issue and will speak to the involved parties.

  
  Regards,
  Policy Support, VerticalScope

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/11/2022

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:29/09/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My **** complaint was ignored and instead I was banned. I recently joined *************** forum run by *************. I opened a couple of threads where I got great advice from members. I then received two **** emails (the worst kind). Hating **** as I do, I employ a **** protection email service so I give a different email address to each company I give 'my' email to. This catches out any who sell/abuse my email address as the TO address they use tells me who it came FROM. Naturally being unhappy about the spam, I opened a thread to ask for this to be investigated. The defensive stuff ensued, even though my complaint was 100% polite and professional, but the moderator somewhat reluctantly and curtly asked the admin to investigate and report back to me, as other members showed an interest too. 2.5 months later I had heard nothing so I posted again asking for an update. I was ********, called the worst names, ridiculed and ******** (including by PM). Moderators took no action while this went on, but eventually they locked the thread. They then suggested my reasons for being at the forum were setting off 'alarm bells'. Curious, why?! My threads were totally on topic and in line with normal posts on the forum, except this one of course which showed my email address given to them had been abused/sold/hacked. The investigation was as much in their interests as mine, since the ***** penalties for abuse of personal data are severe in the UK. But no, instead of an investigation or feedback, I got this: "Your account has been banned for the following reason: Not here for the right reasons and troublemaking." So now, since any discussion has been prevented, I will do as I should have in the first place and I will be reporting the breach to ICO.org.uk, trading standards, and hopefully here in case someone at ************* cares to apologise for this ********** treatment, not to mention the insecure handling (at BEST) of my personal data.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 29/09/2022

  Hello,

  First and foremost, we'd like to apologise for both the delay and the treatment you've endured on the forum. That behaviour is not something we encourage and we certainly should have investigated your complaint sooner. To handle this matter more urgently and more personally, allow us to investigate this matter with fresh eyes. 

  If you're happy to move forward, could you please send us what your username was on the forum? From there, we'll be sure to investigate immediately. Once again, our sincerest apologies for how this matter was handled and we do hope we can help provide a remedy. 

  Regards,

  Policy Support, *************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 30/09/2022

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I clicked to accept it initially. But that appeared to be closing the complaint saying I was "happy with resolution". Clearly this isn't a resolution offer, just a request for my username, so the only way I can respond with that information is to click reject. That's the reason I had to click reject.

  My username at ***************.com forum was *************

  Sincerely,
  
  **** *****

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/10/2022

  Hello,

  We've gone ahead and restored your account on the forum. Now, as your original complaint mentioned, you've been recieving a worrying amount of **** shortly after joining the forum and opening a few threads. As this is the first instance of this sort of complaint that we've seen, could you please let us know what sort of **** you got and from what email address? This may help us specify the cause of this **** and how we can remedy this.

  For efficiency, you may continue this case by sending your reponse to **************@*************.com as any emails sent to *****@*************.com would need to be forwarded to Policy Support. 

  Regards,

  Policy Support, *************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 13/10/2022

  I received an email saying my ban has been lifted. No apology, no nothing.
  
  The forum has gone downhill. The admin (***** is a ************ ******, and huge numbers of people have been banned on there which has obviously annoyed many members who often post about the forum “not being as it was” years ago.
  
  Search yourself for “banned” and you will see how many threads people have commented on about the forum being such a horrible place now with people being banned because they are not ‘in the club’, the club **** runs like an authoritarian ******.
  
  His message to me JUST before banning me was a good example of his ********* *** ***************** (*** ** ******* **** ** ************ *** ***********). It read:
  
  “Hi, Plenty of experience at running this site for a long long time, and with the full backing of a hundreds of millions of dollars owner. The thread was locked to stop it being hijacked, the forum owners in Canada/USA are looking into it. ****”
  
  (That’s a veiled threat, i.e.: “we are bigger than you’. What possible relevance could WEALTH have to do with my polite report of spam?) He’s an ******** ****, and has destroyed the forum. You may wish to look up how many bans have been carried out. ********* was a username I saw regularly, a prolific poster with a huge amount of experience and knowledge, he helped me and many others a huge amount. I actually didn’t much like him, but I see he is now another one who shows up as ‘Banned’ in the many threads he took part in.
  It’s a club, if you’re not ‘in the gang’ then you better tow the line or you get ‘disappeared’. Meanwhile the regular ‘clique’ members can ****** ******* ****** *********** ******* *****, basically do whatever they want, the rules DO NOT apply to them. *** **** *** ******** ********* **** ********** **** ** ******* **** ******** ** ** ******** *** *** ** **** **** **** *** ****. I am sure that will be nothing, but at least I made the point. I have run very large forums myself, and it doesn’t take long to learn you can’t take sides, you have to be professional and impartial, and ensure rules are enforced equally and fairly. **** ** ******* ********* ** ***** ** ****** **** **** ** **** * **** ***** ** ***** ******** *** ******** ** ********** *** ****** ***** **** **** **** * *** ***** ****** *** *** *** ** ** ****** ***** **** **** ** ********** ** *** ***** *** ** *** ***** *** ******** ** *** ************ * ******* ****** *** ***** ** ************** *** ************ 
  
  As if it needs saying, he can stick my ‘un-ban’ where the sun don’t shine. The forum is a disgrace, he is a disgrace, and if you continue letting him run it like an ‘old boy’s network’, you will deserve the continued bad reputation the forum has achieved over recent years.
  
  So, to your message, if **** hadn’t deleted the thread (TO HIDE THIS ISSUE FROM OTHER MEMBERS), I could just refer you to that as I gave him all the info, and HE SAID he had passed it on to ‘Canada’ to be looked into by the ‘owners’ (those scary big billionaires).
  
  I can’t attach screenshots for some reason, so I will have to paste text..
  
  First **** email reads:
  
  ————
  
  Begin forwarded message:
  
  From: "******* ***** **************** ** *********** ******************************************************************
  Subject: Write me back
  Date: 12 July 2022 at 01:06:29 BST
  To: ***************@**************.com
  
  Good day,
  
  Greetings and Sorry for intruding into your privacy. I sent you this
  message before but you did not reply back.  Please read it again and
  
  I am a Cancer Patient and the disease have taken over my entire
  systembaccording to medical diagnosis and I want to donate my
  inheritance
  
  funds US$30 Million that my late husband left in a financial house
  before his death because recently the doctor told me that I might not
  
  survive the latest Surgery which I have been booked for and I don't
  know if I can survive Surgery.
  
  So I'm writing you if you can receive the Funds and handle the
  donations to Orphanage Homes on mybehalf with love and care ?
  
  Reply back if you can do that so I give you more details.
  
  Contact me on this email directly: (  ****************************  )
  
  Hoping to receive your reply soon.
  
  Regards,
  
  ******* ***** Good day,
  
  —————
  
  The long header from that message reads:
  
  "******* ***** '*************** ** **********"
  Write me back
  
  
  (I removed my personal email)
  
  ———————
  
  I now see that I got another **** email on July 19th, again to the email address which I have never given to anyone except YOUR company, that reads:
  
  From: "** ****** ********** ** *********** ********************************************************>
  Subject: HELLO.
  Date: 19 July 2022 at 15:38:53 BST
  To: ***************@**************.com
  
  ??????????? ? ?????????? ?????.
  
  ???? ??????????? ????? ???????? 2 600 000 ????????? ????????.
  ????????? ? ??????????? ???????? ????????? ?? ??????????? ????? ?????
  ( [email protected] ), ????? ????????? ???? ?????????? ????, ??????
  ???? ?????? ????????? ???????. ???? ?????? ???, ???? ??????. ???
  ???????? ????? ? ????? ????????.
  
  ? ?????????.
  ?-? ????? ?????
  
  
  
  —————————
  
  Then on September 23rd I got a FOURTH **** email which reads:
  
  From: "*** **** ******* ******** ************ ** *********** *****************************************************************>
  Subject: Honest friend
  Date: 23 September 2022 at 08:49:11 BST
  To: ***************@**************.com
  
  Dear Beneficiary
  
  You have been compensated with the sum of 4.4 Million dollars by the
  United Nations The payment will be Issue in the form of an ATM ****
  Card and send to you from the bank,
  
  To receive the ATM CARD We need
  your Address, Passport and your ***** *** Number please reply with the
  requested information.
  
  Thanks
  
  *** **** *******
  
  
  ————————
  
  
  I will leave that with you.
  
  I will delete this email account as soon as this complaint is dealt with, I have to keep it running for now to receive your replies.
  
  But how interesting that this process has PROVED and JUSTIFIED my use of this system to protect my personal email. Imagine, if you will, if I had done as **** wants, and used my proper personal email, a paid for premium email service. That address would now be on *******’s lists all around the world, as this one clearly has somehow made it onto those lists. Thankfully I CAN delete this email address and protect myself, so my process was entirely legitimised, and sadly the last forum on earth I would have expected, is the one which proved how necessary it is.
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 26/10/2022

  Hello, Mark.

  Thank you for getting back to us. We made sure your ban was lifted as we fealt it was unjustified and have been making sure to remind all of our moderators to remain civil in carrying out their duties. We are very sorry about the treatment you received and will endeavour to make sure that it isn't repeated.

  As for the **** that is now reaching your inbox, we can't say we know why this is happening as we haven't had any other reported instances. However, thank you for sending over those **** examples as we know specifically what to look out for now.

  Beyond this, we would advise you to look out for any further **** you recieve and let us know. Our team will continue to investigate this but, as of now, there's nothing to suggest that signing up for the forum was the cause of this influx of spam

  Regards,

  Policy Support, *************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/07/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Signed up for *************** in 2020. Have repeatedly reached out to them to cancel my membership, but have never heard back. Last month I decided to curse in one of the forums in an attempt to get banned. I did get banned, but was hit with another 20$ yearly fee today

  

  Business Response

  Date: 22/07/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/07/08) */ We are very sorry to hear about this. We have not found a record of your request based on your email address. So that we may process your refund and cancel your membership, please email us at **************@*************.com with the following information: 1. the email address associated with the account 2. the website of membership 3. ****** ID We look forward to resolving this issue for you once we receive the above requested information.