I couldn’t believe my eyes when Invoice # 204556 plopped on my desk today from NZ Business Online telling me that I’d listed my company details on nzbol.co.nz. A whois search shows that the domain was only registered on the 7th September 2009 so perhaps they could explain to me why I had listed a company service that haven’t offered for a number of years now?
Oh, that would be because we never listed and this is a scam. Shallendra, when you read this, you can reply with the information on when and how we listed ourselves so that you were able to issue that invoice. Given that we wouldn’t do that, I doubt you can justify that invoice.
Fair Go ran article which claims that Shallendra Singh has invoiced thousands of other businesses. Read it and watch the clip at Don’t pay that invoice!
Fair Go’s article says:
Show me the evidence
I asked Shallandra Singh to provide evidence of the relationship that’s being “renewed”.He said his telemarketers call thousands of businesses, offering a free listing on the website.
Six months or a year later they send out the offer to renew the listing. I asked him for evidence of that prior relationship – a voice recording of the sales call.
The major flaw in that argument – the same argument every other time – is that he hasn’t been running this one for more than 2 months so how can any of the listings be up for renewal?
If you get an invoice from NZBOL.CO.NZ – DON’T PAY!
Oh, and it’s good to see that people are paying attention – check this search on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#search?q=nzbol
There seems to be an 0900 83538 number scam .Your phone number is rung and you are charged $20 for the call.Your account will show the call has been made from BNI.I did a lookup on bni.co.nz and rang that number (817 1185) was told the 0900 number had nothing to do with them and the person was going to look further into it.i had reason to do another lookup on the domain info and got an “access denied” error.Sounds like something is fishy
These NBO ‘operators’ have been trying to snag money from my business for some time — under FALSE PRETENCES in my honest opinion.
Earlier this year they tried by telephone: “We’re calling to give you the chance to renew your listing.” (I told them to take a hike.)
Now they’ve tried again, by post in the latest wave of net-casting: See the invoice they sent me (and hundreds of other business, apparently) here: http://www.empowereducation.com/graphics/NBOL%22invoice%22.jpg
Let me very clear: I have NEVER done business with these people (I can thank Sarah K/5nz.com and others for alerting me to this kind of scam).
The “Renewal” invoice they sent my business is, in my view, a dodgy, sleazy trick designed to fool a business’s ‘Accounts Payable’ into paying an invoice.
But the fact is this invoice is a bill my business is not liable for because I NEVER contracted them for any “service”. I did not agree to ‘subscribe’ or ‘list’ my business with “NZ Business Online Limited, NZ’s leading Business Directory”. Show me otherwise.
To claim this is a “renewal” is, in my view, false and misleading conduct in the course of business.
That these ‘operators’ are still in business is a testimony to the power of brazenness.
NBOL looks to be running a dodgy pro forma invoice scam.
I hope they get shut down soon and for good.
Their contact details are info@nzbol.co.nz and 09 929 3299
Maybe it pays to ‘advertise!’
I received a letter from NBOL today with a “credit note” printed on the back —
informing me that “due to a system error in our accounts department, an invoice was sent you (sic) your company which should not have (sic).”
“Please do not pay the amount in the invoice.” (No risk of that, I can assure you.) “We have cancelled this invoice already in our system so please disregard the invoice you have received from us and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused you.”
‘If you still have any further queries regarding this matter please feel free to contact us on 09 929 3299 or email … and we would be happy to assist you further.”
For the record. – P
Did anyone else get one of these?
.-= PeterA´s last blog ..Wow, BRILLIANT writing! =-.
Our cancellation has come through too.
We’ll be sending through a request to close our “account” too as debacle means we have acknowledged we have an account with NZBOL and that by some means we have become advertisers on their site. Therefore in a years time they will be able to legitimately invoice us and chase us for payment.
So, if you’ve just ripped up your invoices and cancellation notices then you need to dive into your waste paper baskets and start taping the pieces together and send in your account closure requests.
The Herald on Sunday ran an article about NZBOL called Spam leaves bitter taste.
I find it astounding that if less than a thousand invoices were sent out that I personally know so many of the recipients and that we actually got one. What are the chances? Surely far more than that were sent out!
An apology currently graces the front of the NZBOL website and they have pulled the entire site! Check Google’s view of the NZBOL and see how many of those pages are actually live.
Irrational behaviour if they have actually got paying advertisers on board or are trying to run a legitimate business. Then again when the going got tough Shallandra Singh pulled the plug on NZBO and Searcha too.
.-= admin´s last blog ..NZBOL.co.nz: a text book pro forma scam =-.
Just so you all know my Business NZBOL was started on the 14th of October 2015
Now I’m really confused!
Back in August ’15 I had a chap called Murray concerned that his directory shared the same name as one of the Singh brother’s enterprises. (see https://5nz.com/nzbo-new-zealand-business-online/167/comment-page-1/#comment-50735)
Now I’ve got Alex who has set up a weebly site doing the same thing and Murray’s site has morphed into “Running Club” but still seems to be a business directory.
A quick search on Google for more info about Alex turns up this gem: http://rwrnz.blogspot.co.nz/
And the family business appears to be a brewery, I was impressed by the size of the operation until tineye told me the photo is used by many: http://savagebreweries.weebly.com/
I wonder what is going on to get two directories turning up within months of each other?
Most directory owners acknowledge that the days of backlinks driving Google rankings are over and, therefore, the days of using every minor directory to build those backlinks are over too. Do Murray and Alex think they can beat the existing directories with new sites and zero advertising spend?
this site from 2009 was closed down and had nothing to do with the new company called new zealand business online that was started in 2014 so I suggest that because this is such old news, you should remove it before you get a law suit against you from the new company as it is a legit business that is after the facts and this page is in slander of the new company that had no connection to what you have been talking about!
I have also noticed you are slandering the co founder of the company and connecting up websites to his name and slandering this therefore as the company legal adviser we will see you in court as you have clearly made a big mistake in your judgment of somebody that you do not know sarahkadmin and it looks to me that you are in fact a stirring up crap kind of person who will have your day in court you can get your legal team to contact me on 06 2811753 so we can set your court date!
One more thing to know, Kyle Chatman (http://rwrnz.blogspot.co.nz/) is the owner of the site that you have connected to my client Alex Savage so for the rest of the readers including yourself and legal representative you will have some truth to your wrong as well as what you have done is against the law in New Zealand and under the human rights act of New Zealand we will be taking this to court unless it is removed completely from the internet and we have filed for a block to be placed on NZ scams (https://5nz.com/)