A few months ago, we bought a plugin licence from OIO Publisher which has Simon Emery as its executive. OIO Publisher was a WordPress plugin that promised, among other things a marketplace for publishers and advertisers.
Some members of our team had discouraged us from buying OIO Publisher licence in the first place. They said this because the OIO Publisher team has the nasty habit of not answering customer emails.
But the team decided to buy the licence anyway because we wanted to access the vaunted OIO Publisher advertisers Marketplace. Vaunted by who? Vaunted by a top SEO expert whom we will not mention here.
What was the bargain? OIO Publisher promised (among other things) to give us access to its marketplace of advertisers.
After buying the plugin licence we never saw any such marketplace. It was then we remembered a bad review someone had written about OIO Publisher before our purchase.
In the review, the person complained about the OIO Publisher team’s habit of not replying customer distress messages.
The person advised OIO Publisher to consider closing its plugin and stop collecting money from unsuspecting clients if it has abandoned the plugin.
Fast-forward to early this month, we went to the OIO Publisher website and we just got a message that the plugin has been discontinued. Just like that. No offer to refund monies of those who recently purchased the ‘service’.
To Simon Emery and the OIO Publisher team. You have betrayed the trust of online customers in your products.
A business paid you for something. You pocketed the money but never delivered. You probably knew you’d close your business in a few months but unethically kept collecting payments for services you never intended to render.
People, strongly consider this before you do any new business with the former OIO Publisher team. If they don’t answer your emails, consider it a Big Red sign.
Lesson To Publishers: Always seriously consider your gut feelings/hunch before making a purchase decision on the internet. Don’t depend just on ‘expert’ opinion. That opinion might once have been relevant, but companies and people do change.
Hmnnnn
It is well