If you are looking for more book sales, hiring a company to get you more social media followers or manage your social media accounts are a couple of ways to do it. Social media is very effective and spreading the word. However, you need to research any company you plan to hire thoroughly BEFORE you hire them. Social Cruise (if they're still in existence) is not a company you want to do business with.
I am sad to say that I have, but it wasn’t because of any Internet search related to what they do or crossing their path on social media. Instead, their emails started showing up in my inbox and not my business email inbox. They started showing up in the email address I use for social media. In fact, until I started getting their emails, I had no idea they existed, and today, I still wish I didn’t know they existed.
Unscrupulously Collecting Emails
I’m not a huge fan of email lists as you all probably know. However, I know that some people wish to receive email updates about websites and other things they are interested in, like their favorite authors. For that reason, I have an email signup on this website. What I don’t do is go out and collect email addresses, and signing up for an account on staceycarroll.org doesn’t automatically result in getting email updates. Though, I could input that feature in the future. I don’t do it right now. What I refuse to do is gather email addresses randomly. I believe this is what Social Cruise did. Scoured social media for email addresses then added them to an email list. This tactic is highly frowned upon. As is buying email lists. In fact, if you can buy an email list, you are guaranteed that list is trash.
There’s no Unsubscribe in their emails, and if there were, I doubt I’d click on it. What I did do was tell them directly to remove me from the list. They did not. They also use many different email addresses and several different versions of their website address to get around spam filters and site blocks. It took me many weeks to get all of their emails to appear in my spam folder, and they appear there. They still, many weeks later, haven’t removed me. I got an email 5 hours ago and 9 hours ago. I was found them cause I was looking for something else that may have gone to spam. This type of business practice doesn’t fill me with confidence, and keep in mind. I never signed up with them. I have never visited their website prior to getting those emails, and when I did, it was simply to see if they had an unsubscribe somewhere on the site. They do not.
What do they supposedly do? Get more Instagram followers. I don’t know if they’ve heard but Instagram is a PITA. It’s the only social media website I know of that hates its users, and it pretty much hates any 3rd party software that connects to it, including autoschedulers. I should know. They block me about every 3rd day, and I know authors that have been blocked for liking and commenting too much. So much for engagement.
So What Else Did I Find Out About Social Cruise After Getting Pissed Tonight?
They are bad bad news. Far worse than I really imagined. As many reviewers have stated, they’re real close to being fraud, and I would suspect if these stories are true, they are fraud.
This is from CyberCashWorldWide. The first post is from a guy who calls himself Steven:
“They continued to charge me and never responded to requests for cancellation. They are a horrible company with a terrible lack of customer service. The chat they offer on their website never acknowledges anything other than to say they will refer the matter to accounting. Stay away from this company. They do nothing but steal from their customers refusing to stop billing the client’s card long after the cancellation request. A CLASS ACTION Lawsuit should be initiated.
I am also going to setup a complains site about them and post the reviews to everywhere on line. Social Cruise is a horrible thieving company that never delivers on what it promises. Read their terms and conditions, the last 4 paragraphs are basically; we screw the client and we decide if and when we ever give a refund even when they double charge!”
There are 10 or 15 of these posts that say that the trial period is not honored. They don’t refund any money, and they keep charging you after you request to cancel the account. If you sign up with Social Cruise, you’ll be fighting the charges via your CC or your bank card.
On Quora:
You have to scroll a little bit, but eventually, you’ll see:
“IT’S A SCAM! After seeing zero new followers or even interactions in 14 days I asked the supportperson to cancel my subscription. After a very long chat where she tried her best at getting me to upgrade instead of cancelling, I was told that they’d cancel as agreed.
6 days later they still hadn’t cancelled and instead I was charged for the subscription.
I wrote them right away and after some initial confussion on whether I had a subscription, I was told that NOW it was cancelled and that she’d make sure I was given a refund.
Can you guys guess what happened 7 days later?? That’s right, I was charged once again and to no big surprise, the support are no longer answering”
There are several more on Quora that sound a lot like the above post.
Signal Arnaques also lists SocialCruise as a potential scam, and there are several negative reviews regarding individuals credit cards being charged long after they requested their accounts canceled and closed.
I would not touch SocialCruise with a 10 foot pole, and if you’ve been contacted by them, please send their emails to spam and forget they exist. If you've had dealings with this company, please comment. Some of the stuff I read indicated that Social Cruise also harasses review websites that don't post glowing reviews of their services.
