Anyone considering using Lancaster-based Backbone Solutions for their Search Engine Optimisation campaign, be warned!
We are a small internet retail business who were persauded to use Backbone Solutions, the trading name of Ashton Lord Limited, because of their ISO 9001:2000
Quality Management Accreditation from the The British Accreditation Bureau, their ‘Guaranteed refunds’ if they fail to achieve first page ranking on the five
‘guaranteed’ keywords within three months and their links with Lancaster University.
But, from the outset this firm have disappointed us in every respect and failed to achieve what they promised. They have spent more time wriggling out of their so called ‘Guaranteed Refunds’ than they have achieving what they were supposed to.
They refuse to tell us what they are doing for the money we have paid them on the grounds that they operate in a ‘cut-throat’ industry even though Google set the parameters which are made widely available in the industry and a client always has the right to know what they are paying for. We suspect the lack of transparency from Backbone has more to do with the fact that they have done next to nothing for the large fees they charge!
We have since had an indpendent audit of our site carried out to determine the supposed work done by Backbone and that has revealed a catalogue of more than 120 issues, 112 errors relating to a W3C Mark Up Validation Check alone.
In addition, Backbone’s office in China which sources reciprocal links - even though these are no longer favoured by Google - have sourced inappropriate links for our site which could easilly get us banned by Google.
The following letter to David Fenn, Chief Executive of the The British Accreditation Bureau sets out our complaint against Backbone.
Many small businesses cannot afford to waste large sums of money with no return on investment. If you are considering using Backbone Solutions, don’t! You would be better taking £5,000 and setting fire to it!
You have been warned!
p.s. We have given Backbone the chance to resolve this issue before going public and they have refused to do so ignoring our letters and emails.
David Fenn
Chief Executive
The British Accreditation Bureau
South Tower
Tubs Hill House
London Road
Sevenoaks
Kent
TN13 1BL
Ref: Backbone Solutions: ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Accreditation
Dear Mr Fenn
We are a small internet retail business started in November 2005 following redundancy.
From the outset, we sought guidance from our local enterprise company including the crucial area of Search Engine Optimisation without which, no internet-based business can succeed.
Unfortunately, the local enterprise company were of little or no help, leaving us to rely on accreditation awards by bodies such as yourselves, to source what we hoped would be a reliable and able SEO provider.
Largely as a result of the above accreditation to Lancaster-based Backbone Solutions, the trading name of Ashton-Lord Limited, we appointed them to carry out
our vital SEO work under a 12-month contract.
From the outset, this company disappointed us in virtually every aspect of our dealings with them. I have listed some of their failings below:
1 Underhand methods used to sign us up to a 12-month contract
2 Lack of transparency. A continued refusal to tell us exactly what work they were supposedly carrying out for the fees they were charging. They used the argument that theirs is a ‘cut-throat’ industry, so they could not tell us what we are paying for. This has been disputed by an independent auditor of our site who says that all SEO companies have a duty to tell their clients what they are doing for the money being paid to them and that there are no secrets in the industry - Google set the perameters to which everyone must adhere and make this information widely available
within the industry.
3 Failure to work closely with us - in fact a failure to work with us at all - as promised at the outset
4 Lack of any communication from them unless we initiate it
5 Failure to honour their contractual obligations or ‘guaranteed’ refunds due
6 Sourcing inappropriate links which could get us banned by Google
7 Failure to achieve the promised SEO results
8 Actions which has actually worsened our position in page rank terms, setting us back a good six months.
Perhaps a more damning indictment of Backbone Solutions however, came after we appointed an independent expert we became aware of as a result of a specialist IT course we attended, to assess the work of Backbone in relation to SEO.
They concluded that a W3C Mark Up Validation Check resulted in no fewer than 112 errors which means that some of the code on the page does not meet the required standard.
They also discovered issues surrounding keywords, lack of quality inbound links, poor URL Mod re-write, site map issues, poor indexing, missing URL codes, design
and site architecture issues, poorly scripted title tags, poorly scripted meta description tags, lack of keyword-rich content, poor search engine visibility
which is in their words ‘way below average.’ These are all issues that Backbone should have picked up.
We have spent several thousand pounds with Backbone, precious resources to a small business which needs to see results and a Return On Investment. Unfortunately,
as SEO is a relatively new science, there are many disreputable businesses out there seeking to exploit ignorance of SEO matters to get clients onto their books without being able to deliver what they promise, either through a lack of expertise or simply as part of a scam.
Accreditation such as yours is often all businesses like ours have to rely on in sourcing what we hope will be reputable SEO providers. Sadly, in this case, we have discovered to our cost that this accreditation is misleading and meaningless.
To quote from your statement online: “...your clients want to be sure they’re in safe hands.
“No matter what your marketing says about you, successful organisations recognise that their quality and its assurance is most credible when validated by a respected third party.”
We have made Backbone Solutions aware that we would be writing to you and to the University of Lancaster with whom they say they work closely, offering them two
weeks to respond to our concerns before hand. They have chosen not to communicate with us at all, not even to have the audacity to claim the remaining fees under the terms of their dubious contract which about says it all.
It is our honest assertion that Backbone have failed to live up to the standards which your accredition suggests and worse still, are using them simply as a means to hook clients who would otherwise avoid them as a disreputable business.
In conclusion, we would ask, therefore, that you review the accreditation awarded to Backbone Solutions as a matter of urgency with a view to publicly revoking that accredition to prevent others from being similarly misled. We would be happy to furnish you with more details of our experiences as part of your investigations into this matter.
Yours sincerely
Peter Jeal
The Peter Ingram Partnership
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