Bark.Com Lead Generation Scam

“Not only are bloggers suckers for the remarkable, so are the people who read blogs.” - Seth Godin

Introduction:

I want to warn you about the company I had dealings with called bark.com. Beware of this scam. They are out of the UK and they promote themselves as a lead generation company in all industries. They generate leads, by asking a few pertinent questions; then they have staff who scour the Internet for websites in a specific industry and will contact you offering their services. by telling you they have leads with guaranteed sales of your coaching services to secure new clients.

Here's the reality, you have a 1-5 chance in making the sale which they don't tell you up front. They tell you their service is free, but then you have to buy credits and use the credits to get leads. When you initially purchase credits they automatically have the system set up where when your credits get low they automatically charge you and add more credits to your account without your authorization or knowledge, unless you know to go into the system and turn it off.

When I first got the email from the company I signed up for free, but did some research to see if I could find some reviews before I bought credits. On their website that only have reviews of satisfied customers and no reviews from dissatisfied customers; and I couldn't find any bad reviews, so I decided to try them out and purchase some credits. To get the necessary information to contact the leads they will take 10 to 12 credits per lead. Before you know it, the initial credits you purchased are gone and you'll see a pop up telling you what they're charging you to add more credits, but it's easy to be unaware of what they're doing unless you're aware or of the automatic upsell.

When I finally went into the back office to check the number of credits did I realize that there was an automatic upsell and turned it off. I found that I made no sales and it had cost me over $300 for credits. I contacted the company about getting a refund. The response was that if you make no sales with the initial credit purchase, they will refund those credits but nothing else.

Only when I went to write a poor review of the company, did I find other bad reviews. There was a reviewer whom had continually purchased credits and made no sales, even after she kept lowering her fees in order to make a sale.

I'm writing a review about this company to warn you against using their services. If you're looking for clients to coach the best way to go about gaining those clients is to find groups that your clients belong to, join the group, then start building a relationship with the members of the group, because customers buy from people they know, like, and trust!

I want you to know about this company because I do not want you to be caught up in this scam and losing money because they tell you they can guarantee you that you can find new clients from their platform.

Another thing, many people who sign up through their program for life coaches are either just doing research or they're looking for their insurance to pay for the services. Insurance companies will only pay for someone who's licensed in a specific industry, not for life coaches just because they hold a certification in their industry. Another thing you may not be aware of, when dealing with an insurance company, it takes 90 days or 3 months to get paid.