This is why I stopped taking submissions to my directories and just use the for my sites and contacts I have. So hard to remember to check up on them. Also had some idiot do a CC chargeback on a $1.5 submission. Almost forgot... infojungle.co.uk
Did someone say infojungle.co.uk? What's this about infojungle.co.uk? Anyways, good info to know. I'm pretty sure this is a bigger problem them most people realize. With so many directories being made for instant gratification (monetarily), scams/shady business like this will only become more widespread. On a lighter note, mystic your sites are still featured in our directory as they should be!
A month ago, I losed a whole db of more than 1k categories, so I had to rebuild them. Such things happens then and then. Especially when you are trusting things too much. Anyway, it's good to not all money in the same pocket. Thanks for sharing!
Unfortunately this is also part of doing business on the web. I, thankfully, haven't had the problem Chris is having as far as purchasing links that were never placed. But I have had a couple of idiots purchase links from me and then reverse payments without contacting me to let me know there concerns. Just plan on 98% of the people you do business with to be legit. Expect 2% to be the scammers and cheats.
There are always few elements which are bad not the every directory owner it like that. So we should be aware about this directory not about all paid directories
It sounds like he tried to contact them multiple times. I wonder if we can get the phone number from the whois record, and get someone from the UK to call the owner?
How difficult should it be to approve a listing, this looks like serious neglactance more than anything
This is the kind of thing that's liable to happen when a paid directory is run by one person, and that person falls ill. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but it's a possibility. So the lesson for responsible owners of paid directories is, make sure you have someone available to take over, in case you aren't able to.
I don't want to dispute mystikmedia who's clearly a respected member here - but is it possible the submissions weren't acceptable? Mystikmedia submitted like 40 submissions to my directory (not the one in question here). I declined over 30 of them. I refunded his money, but updated my terms of service as a result. If we went through the same submissions today, I'd have not refunded the money and not listed them (since I make it quite clear the money's not for listing but for review - I spent like 3 hours on that by the time it was done). In this case the few hours I spent reviewing I chalked up to a learning process. But in an established directory the same submissions may not have been acceptable - and not warranted a refund. That being said - I don't intend to slam mystik media as we got through the process without grief. And I did tweak my terms of service to clarify something I thought was self evident. Nor does the site in question appear to have a TOS. With all that in perspective, it's possible that the directory owner simply didn't approve the listings. And if that's the case, things here might be going a bit hard on them.
As a directory owner (www.freelinksdirectory.net) I respond to all directory entries with an email advising acceptance. Featured link buyers (Chris has been one) are also advised of the location of the featured link. To me, this is nothing more than good service and ethical business practice.