DataSphere is a scam! I signed a 12 month contract with them and during the four months that I stayed with them they did not deliver on their part of the contract. When I initially singed up with them I did complain at how I got burned with Yelp and the Sales person told me that they are "better then Yelp" and that they can get me at least 30 new customers every month! When I signed the contract, the contract specified that I will be getting at least 30 Actions per month (which the sales person assured me translates to 30 new customers). However, during the 4 month course I got 4 contacts that were not even relevant to my business - 4 as in someone called but hung-up, and 3 people that liked my Facebook ad! During the 4 months I also had someone view the video they created 6 times! They also said that they will have my advertising on Parents.com, Parenting.com and Familycircle.com but they only put an ad in Parenting.com once during the 4 months I was with them. They advertised my business on Facebook and GoogleAdwords only - which by the way I am able to do so too for a fraction of the price that they were charging me. I went back to Groupon for my business and at the same time I signed-up for Groupon I saw a significant increase in DataSphere's so called "Actions" and "Impressions" for my business. They were basically trying to count basic Google address searches for my business as something that they influenced. In addition, they tried to claim YouTube video views of my business as theirs too which really is from Groupon influence as new customers were Googling my business and they came across their advertising. Also, for each month they show Month-to-Date Actions/Incentives and they try to trick you that these are for that one specific month but are not as they clearly state (once your roll over the chart tracker) that these are cumulative. Every time I reached out to them to see what is going on they told me that I am not seeing much Actions because I keep on updating coupons (updating as in running July 4th special then running a Labor Day special along an ongoing Armed Forces special that I have throughout the whole year) and that I should leave the coupons alone! - so Advertising 101 how can this be true!? I do not have any proof on this but I can speculate that they went aggressively after new customers and over promised on what they can deliver so that they can be sold to Sinclair Broadcasting by fluffing-up their sales. These guys are a scam stay away! I threw away money by staying with them for a few months and I was able to get out of my contract without losing any additional money-- aside from what I already paid for the months I foolishly stayed with them -- they had me locked in for 12 months and I could cancel at any time if I paid 40% if the remaining contract value at the time of cancellation. They refused to refund me even though they did not meet their part of the contract.

I wish I wasn't so gullible! They sold me a lie for $2400 of my hard-earned self-employment money! Datasphere is an entirely dishonest company, do not ever deal with them. They completely misrepresented themselves as being from a local news station saying that they had a single advertising spot open for a small business like us. They aren't from the station at all, and they don't sell single spots! They rushed me through a very high-pressure sales pitch and got me signed up for an awful 12 month plan before I even knew the name of the company.

Besides the things they merely implied to be true that weren't, they actually lied about stuff too. Mostly the fact that they stated several times that they were looking to fill one single spot for a pet care company in our area like us and that we had to act fast in order to secure it. Well, not a week after signing their terrible contract when our add started showing up, it was in a rotation with at least 3 other pet care companies in the same town. And the advertisement that I was paying for was buried on a page that not a single customer of mine would be able to see. I myself had a very hard time finding it. If I can't even see my own ad and neither can my close friends, how will potential customers?! They also promised a very fancy sounding "custom website" made by their "creative team" but in reality the draft that they sent us is clearly a copy and pasted boilerplate that still managed to somehow be full of typos. And the "professional video" is just a slideshow of pictures with a script behind it. I never got to work with a creative team at all. Everything is cookie-cutter and plain. None of this is what I thought I was paying for. $200 a month is a lot to lose when I only have one employee (myself) and can barely keep in business.

Even former employees have said "you have to trick people into buying it" and "The whole product is a scam."

This company makes it's money from high pressure and intentionally misleading sales pitches to small business owner's who don't know better yet. They lock you into a year long scam that you can't get out of without paying $880 out of your own pocket. Please avoid this toxic company at all costs.

After calling and speaking with them about my distrust and calling them out on their lies, they did eventually let me out of the contract. They were calm and nice about it, and let me out without forcing me to pay the buyout amount.

I was contacted and told they'd get me a banner ad on KFox News, Local Saver and Facebook and would create a video ad for me. It sounded like a good idea for tax season, but I've been burned in the past. So I had my attorney check out the contract, talked to others, had witnesses on my phone conversations so that all their promises were documented.

First, they NEVER contacted me after they had my name on the preverbial 'dotted line' and my money. I waited and waited and finally contacted them only to be told that my ad was already "LIVE"! WHAT!? I didn't approve anything! When I went out to LOOK at my 'AD'. There was my business name, a horrid canned image of some out-of-focus men standing around a conference table (We are all women in my practice) and a phone number. Not where I was located or - and this is the really IMPORTANT point - NOT ONE WORD ABOUT WHAT SERVICES OR PRODUCTS I PROVIDE!

When I complained, they informed me that I was supposed to 'approve' their test ads - but I never got contacted about them so how could I do that. It took 10 weeks for them to get anything out there that was acceptable, let alone semi-professional.

And lets talk about my video - After the disaster with the banner ad, I was taking no chances. I, personally, downloaded and paid for every image, wrote the script, and then created a power-point of EXACTLY how I wanted it to look and sound. I sent it all to them with a very specific instructions and a demand that, whoever the voice actor was they needed to be a native speaker of Spanish. What I got was exactly what I told them I DIDN'T want.

Can these people even READ?! What kind of marketing firm is this?!

IF - and it's a BIG IF - they are actually displaying my ad as they keep claiming (allegedly it's been 'displayed' 107,510 times with 597 alleged actions) I should have had at least ONE phone call in the past 6 months. But nope! Not even a phone call, let alone a client. I'm paying near $200 a month for them to destroy my professional reputation with their amateurish ads and unparalleled incompetence.

I did get 1/2 off the bill for TWO months, but that doesn't even start to cover the financial losses I'm suffering.

To slightly shorten this saga of more than 6 months of advertising nightmare, my tax season advertising budget resulted in NOTHING. Actually, less than nothing since we didn't even get our usual number of new returns.

I'm still having to deal with them as they are getting monthly payments and I am still getting NOTHING of value in return.

I've been in business 30 years and I know which ads make money and which don't. This one doesn't.

UPDATE 05/05/17 - THANK YOU Site Jabber! YOU got their attention and they agreed to stop advertising my business and cancelled my account without penalty. No refund, but at least the nightmare is over.

It's nice to know that, when all else fails, Site Jabber comes through.