As you may (or may not) know, LiveUniverse is a company that provides the ability for website owners (ie; me) to put ads on their site, and make money from it. Rather than going out and trying to sell ads yourself, LiveUniverse sells them for you, and pays you when you put them on your site. Simple, right?
Not so simple.
In August of 2007, I was contacted by Rob Ellis, who was a “VP” at Peerflix Media. He promised that we’d make money with our website MovieSnobs, and all we had to do was put an ad on the site, and they’d pay us a monthly fee. Seems easy, right?
Well, we signed the deal, got our bonus check and things were perfect. Until LiveUniverse bought Peerflix Media in August of 2008. (“Publishers” were not notified ahead of time, we were just sent an email letting us know it happened. I got mine August 11th, 2008.)
Our account manager (if you can even call her that) assured us that our relationship would continue, and we’d be paid the same amount. She was unsure if there’d be a delay in payment for July or not, but would let me know.
I e-mailed her once every three weeks until November 3rd, when her e-mail no longer accepted incoming mail. (Along with any other @peerflix addresses.) I tried calling Rob Ellis, the “VP”. His phone number was disconnected.
I shut down the Peerflix ads on October 31st. I ran them in July, August, September, and October, and LiveUniverse owes me for those four months.
No one from Peerflix or LiveUniverse has responded to a single message I’ve sent about this. Another publisher had luck getting the moneys he was owed, by putting up an anti-LiveUniverse website. It seems the only way to get any attention, is to make net-waves. So, LiveUniverse, you twisted my arm. I’ll be sure to spread the word about what a horrible company you are to everyone I know.
If I had the money to start a class action suit against you guys, you bet your asses I would. But I’m Mr. Lowely Blog owner, and you’re Mr. Big Corporation. No doubt who’ll win that monetary battle. I assure you though, I’m not going to give up until I’m paid every cent I’m owed. And if you think you can bully me to stop telling people that your company sucks… good luck.
To sum up, if you’re a blog owner, stay away from LiveUniverse. They’ll inevitably screw you in the end. Just Google it, there’s hundreds (if not thousands) of us former Peerflix folks that got screwed out of money.
I ask one last time: Peerflix/LiveUniverse; pay me my God Damned money.