Bark

I've spent £100 so far on Bark.com for my videography business and my overall experience has been disappointingly poor. The leads are low quality and the majority of them that I purchased were uncontactable. Most of the leads in my niche are about 25 credits which roughly equates to £1.20 + VAT per credit. So they are not cheap. You call, leave messages, email and text and they don't respond to even say they're not interested. Which makes me question whether they're even genuinely interested leads. I'm also curious to understand Barks lead generation process as I wonder whether they are going for a quantity over quality approach. I even stupidly responded to an email from Bark that said someone specifically requested that I quote on a job and low and behold after spending £30 for the pleasure of contacting this "keen" lead they didn't respond. Their customer service team were relatively helpful when I complained but ultimately my money has gone down the drain and there's not much that can be done about it. The qualification process on these leads need to be addressed. It's been a costly and disappointing experience as I was really hoping that their leads could help me to grow my business. I don't mind paying a premium for quality leads but the leads from Bark.com are definitely not good quality or value for my advertising spend. I've attached a screenshot of a lead which they're offering for 18 credits (£21.60 + VAT) this is the type of brief you can expect when you advertise with them. Would you spend £21.60 + VAT on that? It might work for other businesses but If you're a Videographer or Photographer I'd avoid it like the plague!

Nothing but disonhonest people. False leads and nobody really cares about the people spending money on their fake leads. Rotten tomatoes.

I received an email from Bark offering me a free trial.
I accepted this.
I did not know they had my credit card details stored (this was from a previous transaction)
They did NOT inform me that I was now signed up to an on going service. Yes I agree, rather underhand tactics.
It was only by chance that I saw charges on my credit card. I then realised I had been the culprit of their Click Bait - something which is highly underhand. They hadn't sent me any invoices, receipts etc and when I checked the portal there was no mention of subscriptions and equally importantly, the ability to cancel them.

I was getting nowhere with the staff (and they do not have an escalation procedure - to escalate you have to write to their legal team in London - we are based in Australia). I think the fact that you can't even email the escalation team and in fact have to write speaks volumes.

I was very clear in my emails to the team - I stated that unless they escalated my valid complaint to a manager I would post honest reviews about their service to want other companies from falling into the trap I fell into (ie, clickbait).

The response again was to write to their offices in London (not email, a proper letter).

I therefore contacted a Director via LinkedIn thinking that he would care about how his staff were behaving and of course not wishing to believe that these dodgy dealings were systemic.

I then received the email below terminating my account as I had made multiple complaints against them. I will let you judge for yourselves if this is the type of company you think it's wise to work with.

Taegan (Bark.com)
Mar 19,2021, 11:36 GMT

Hi,

This email is to inform you that following multiple complaints, your Bark account has been terminated and you are now banned from using Bark.com.

You can find a copy of our full terms here: www.bark.com/terms/

For any legal queries, please write in to our legal department at the following address:

85 Great Portland Street,
London,
England,
W1W 7LT

Kind Regards,

Taegan
The Bark Team

Though they couldn't provide the service I needed, the communication was seamless and they followed up on every question

My first problem was using my one free lead for a client that was supposed to be interested in using my service and found out they wasn't. The name and phone number were correct, but this client told me me over the phone, that he was NOT looking for the kind of service my company provides. I was completely embarrassed for disturbing the poor man, and tried to contact bark about the error and attempt to get credit for my now used free lead that wasn't a lead at all. The "*******@Bark" link to contact support didn't work unless I copy pasted the link to my email browser and sent a letter. I received a response back from Liam, assuring me I've been provided with another free response, but later when i logged in to my profile, I never received the credit. I read where they screen these leads but that's a load of crap. I sent another email on the same issue, and again received the same answer back. However, my profile still showed the lead was spent and no way of getting it back. The next issue I had was when I decided to just go ahead and purchase the starter package with their 20% off promotion and not only was the price significantly higher than what the rep quoted me over the phone a week prior, but it wouldn't take my form of payment. I tried both cards and got the same error to each of them. My bank was denying payment. I knew immediately this was wrong and contacted my bank anyway. My account showed no record of anyone attempting to process the cards for payment. I then tried calling Bark's phone number on the website, and wouldn't you know it... no one answered. I certainly can take a hint. It's shouldn't be this difficult to obtain clients, unless they are not what they say they say they are. I've decided to take my business someplace else.