Brad Callen Customer Service Sucks!

August 30, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Guru Focus, internet marketing

Brad Callen Sucks

Brad Callen without doubt produces some excellent products and clearly understands SEO and Keywords very well. I invested in his Keyword Elite 1.0 a couple of years ago and it has been great. I still use it quite regularly as a major keyword tool.
The only problem I have with Brad Callen is that whilst his products are great, his customer focus and support really SUCKS!
Let me explain that by saying that I have experienced two counts of lousy customer service and lame responses from Brad Callen’s people where problems and complaints were dropped at the point where my requests conflicted with Brad Callen’s policies (namely,.. I win,- you lose!). Ticketed response issues were just ignored and left hanging when it was realized that my issues of discontent would require actions that they were not prepared to make,- actions that would have required Brad Callen and his team to bend a little and to consider the customer’s issues as having more merit than nuisance value. For all the money that Brad makes it wouldn’t hurt him to reinvest a little of that back into keeping his customers happy and satisfied. Perhaps one way of making such an investment would be to employ more capable and customer focused staff that give real attentive service rather than offering trite and self preserving company policy jargon that purely serves (or so they think) Brad Callen Inc.

The issues:
The most recent issue revolves around the new release of Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite2.0 which is truly an excellent product that can perform some amazing tasks that just blows many competitors right out of the water. This is the way I felt about K.E. 1.0 as well. The problem is though, that whereas other marketers of similarly excellent products will provide free lifetime upgrades on the original version, Brad Callen insists on a fee of $97 to upgrade from Keyword Elite 1.0 to keyword Elite 2.0. He (actually, his staff,.. but I assume under his complete authority and approval) insists that KE2.0 is not an upgrade of KE1.0 and that it “doesn’t merge” and therefore represents a completely new stand alone product. To that I say “Brad Callen,..you are full of S.H.I.T.”. Of course KE2.0 is an upgrade (granted it is a major upgrade) because it essentially performs the same job as KE1.0 and has simply had some features added to make it compatible with keyword control and marketing in 2009 rather than that of 2007 (a massive time span in the Internet perspective). And of course it doesn’t “merge”,.. I don’t know of any upgrade that does “merge”,..that’s why we call them “upgrades”,.. because they replace the previous version,.. that’s like saying WordPress 2.8.4 won’t merge with 2.6.3! Clearly, Mr. Callen and his team think that customers such as me are complete idiots. Having said that, I expect that with due respect to other purchasers of the original KE1.0 that many have probably by now paid the upgrade fee of $97 because they realized they needed it’s functions to stay competitive. Most people don’t have the time or inclination to complain and insist on fair play as I have and so they relent to coughing up the money.

This is a disgusting and dirty practice Brad Callen,.. and you should be ashamed of applying such nefarious and narcissistic policies just to increase profits.
I could hardly believe the gall of Brad Callen’s customer service manager (Charles Livingston) when he proudly announced that KE1.0 customers “will receive a very large discount, via this coupon code at launch”,.. yeah,.. a hundred bucks off $197 which equates to getting slugged for $97,.. something that your average village idiot wouldn’t notice.

I noticed that the “ticket” that I opened with Brad Callen Inc. (AKA Bryxen Softaware) was declared “closed” immediately after the not-so-brilliant customer service rep Charles Livingston had provided only one reply which was just full of company rhetoric and self serving BS. So I then re-opened the ticket and left another message that clearly indicated my disgust and pointed out their lack of integrity and opportunist attitude. Of course, I got zero response and the ticket was again declared closed! This reminded of the previous time in November 2008 I made an inquiry via Brad Callen Inc. (AKA Byxen,.. rhymes with “thick-skin”) and encountered Nancy Fahey. At that time I was complaining about a forced-continuity issue regarding SEO Mindset Club, and the fact that my “FREE” copy of SEO-Elite was deactivated when I ceased to agree to ongoing monthly charges for the SEO-Mindset membership. I also was locked out of the remainder (3 weeks of it) of my SEO-Mindset membership that had been paid for by the $29.95 that I’d been charged and was refused a credit. The brilliant Nancy, told me that the $29.95 charge was justifiable because I had received the benefit of the “course” (that being the free book “SEO Mindset” that I paid $16.95 to have delivered,.. plus the first 30 days “free” trial membership to SEO-Elite membership club). When I argued the point with Nancy that “Free” means FREE, and that I should at least have my 3 weeks of SEO-membership (that I’d paid for) reinstated,..I was completely and bluntly ignored despite sending two more polite follow up requests.

I just let that one slip by and thought I’d put it down to experience and just console myself with the fact that the free “SEO Mindset” book (plus $16.95 deliver costs) was quite brilliant and I learned quite a few worthwhile things from it.
But when this latest issue with the KE.1.0/2.0 smoke & mirrors routine occurred, I decided to do something about it by writing this blog post at least as an expression of my extreme dissapointent in Brad’s apparent lack of forsesight and valued customer focus.

I doubt that my efforts to have my complaints heard and noticed will make too much difference to Brad Callen Inc and “Thick-Skin” software, but if it at least raises some awareness and just slightly annoys Brad Callen as much as his company policies and actions (or lack thereof) have annoyed me then I will feel justified.

In conclusion let me confirm that your products and your ingenuity are quite brilliant Brad Callen,.. it’s just your customer focus and belligerent attitude that TOTALLY SUCKS!