Thanks for the heads up, I'm a big believer in doing stuff yourself because of all these scams around.
Any way, it is worth pointing out that when a service guarantees a high PR link, they are probably talking about a Blog comment, rather than a prominent link in the primary content of a major site.
Its funny how the only people saying the original poster is in the wrong are accounts registered this month with a couple of posts each... You should do a chargeback. I have no experience of that merchant so I don't know if they have your credit card number or not. Probably best to tell the bank you lost that card and they will send you one with a new number.
I registered well before this month, and I have to agree that this is a severe overreaction. You got piss-farted around and your link dropped on a nofollow site (if it was stipulated that it would not be nofollow, then you do have a legitimate gripe), and then linked from a site that was not of the guaranteed PR. Being annoyed from this, I can definitely understand. You have no legitimate issue here beyond that. You bought a PR5 link. You got a PR5 link. What's the problem? All the more reason to do your own link building, or hire proper SEO services.
A lesson learnt here is never use credit card when dealing with someone without much credits. Use paypal or something which may give you some sort of protection against scams. I got scammed once, and got my money back through paypal.
Well the fact that he's been charged $60 for it would certainly imply that it was going to be something better than a lame blog comment. Also the seller doesn't even own what he's selling, its not his to sell. Can he prevent the blog owner either deleting the comments, making them nofollow, or closing his blog altogether? No, he can't. This is a scam and deserves a chargeback.
So.. because of the price of something, you should be an ignorant consumer and start making assumptions... Please. http://gizmodo.com/5034701/confirmed-eight-morons-bought-the-999-i-am-rich-iphone-application Go defend their stupidity. There is no implication simply by the price. Read around the website. If the website does not say anything about where the link will be placed (i.e. if it just says "the link will be from a PR5 page" and that particular page has 400 other links, you really did get what you paid for, didn't you?) If the comment is deleted or removed, I would certainly have a problem with it as well. That isn't stipulated anywhere here (comment still remains intact - therefore so does the link). An unethical business? Sure. All the more reason to do your research and hire a proper SEO company for your link building, or do it yourself. I agree that the website may have been a bit misleading, but you got exactly what was stipulated before you paid for it. Why would you blindly pay for such a service anyway, without asking any questions?
No I wouldn't, but I spent 4 figures a week on links, every single week. I've seen absolutely every link scam there is, and then some. Been caught out once or twice in the early days but like to think I won't fall for it now. Whatever you say about them placing a pr5 link so its a valid transaction, it doesn't change the fact that it was not their pr5 link to sell. They have no future control over it. If someone does a lame link sale like this to me I'm charging it back without a second thought. Not like they sold you something proper and you are ripping them off by taking the money back. Its extremely unethical to leave out the facts about what he was selling, and he pretty much lies on the site by comparing it in price to a real link, its not the same type of link so the price comparison is completely invalid. Read his sales pitch, he not only leaves facts out, he's deliberately deceptive. And from another point of view, if you owned the pr5 blog, would you be happy with some random scammer profiting from it? You're the one doing all the hard work, writing all the content, having the expense of building the links etc. If anyone should profit from the page it should be the owner, not some little scumbag scammer.
Thanks for sharing your bad experience. I saw the site is nice and well structured. Make visitors easy to to trust and buy the product. Lucky i find this thread before i find that page.
Buying links can be trouble. If Google finds out you are buying links you will get penalized. How do they find out? Your competition can rat you out. Google actually has a nark form so anybody can rat on their competition. Is it difficult to find out if your competition is buying their links? Not at all. All you have to do is a site or link search on Google or Yahoo! You just look through your competitions back-links. If they are getting back-links from sites that sell back-links you got them red handed. This is enough proof for Google to spank 'em.
thanks for the warning, you shouldn't trust anyone who is selling links because there are so many scammers out there.
Well the argument could be made you weren't playing fair in the first place if you were buying links As Frank Farley said in 1850 'All's fair in love and war and seo,'