Compass Integrated Media Group

My first encounter with this company was several years ago. I was approached by a local telemarketer with a sales pitch to advertise my business. I was promised the moon and the stars, but what was delivered wasn’t even space debris.
After many consultations with my personal sales pitcher, I thought I had given him enough information to have his «incredibly talented» layout staff construct an ad for me. I had even given him graphics and previous advertising that I had created as well as explicit instructions. I told him NOT to use the graphic I gave him, but to have his artist use it as a basis to get ideas from. I was told their artists were fantastic and that I would be impressed with the results…
The first proof they sent me was nothing more than my graphic and some misspelled words in poor grammar over it. It was the worst thing I had ever seen. I could re-​create such a thing without any thought inside a minute — to prove this to myself, I did just that on my computer — I re-​created their shitty proof in seconds using MS Wordpad. I was angry, but they already had my money — hundreds of dollars — and weren’t really willing to change anything… they also played very dumb acting as though they didn’t understand what was wrong with the ad. Because they dragged their feet on getting this proof to me, there was supposedly not enough time to change it either.
The ad eventually went out as-​is to my dismay and disappointment. Not a single call generated from this. I suppose nobody saw it. Have you ever heard of Compass Directory? No? Me neither… that’s the problem. Nobody uses it or gives a shit about it. HUGE WASTE OF MONEY!
Years later, I had long since closed the book on this one and kissed the money goodbye. I got a call from Compass again. It had been awhile and it even took me awhile to remember the experience, but their familiarity with my personal information kept me on the line. The sales girl was pretty nice and listened to my sardonic recounting of the prior events with a very sympathetic ear. It felt nice to vent…
Then came the sales pitch. She told me everything was different now and the directory is bigger and better than before and they now have a fantastic new staff of artists and layout people who know what they are doing. I told her ‘no’ several times, but she was persistent and said she wanted to «make it right.» After much discussion, she told me the owner said to give me a discount. Yeah… they were still going to charge me money. I kept saying «NO,» but would listen to her pitch. I even confided some of my own tales of woe from my personal life.
The ad they promised me was a tiny 12^th of a page ad and I was told she would put her best people on it to make sure I was happy. The ad supposedly would normally cost around 800 dollars, but they were gracious enough to give it to me for under 200, so I reluctantly said «ok.» I mean, if the proof looked good and the directory was still around after all this time, maybe it would be money well spent after all. Plus, she was insanely and obsessively persistent with me — calling me every single day of the week… often twice or three times per day just to get me to agree.
I was reluctant the whole way and not really cooperative with her attempts to get a signature and a check out of me — but you know the bill arrived before the proof. I was very cooperative with her though when describing my business and what I want my ad to look like. She couldn’t even get the name of my business right. She would constantly say the word «it» instead of «I.T.» and I would constantly have to correct her… even several times during the same conversation. This person didn’t even understand my product and this is who was going to describe it to the art department?
Needless to say, when they finally sent me a proof (took them several weeks to create), it was complete shit. Not only was it something I could’ve done with my eyes closed, it was just a stock photo of some dorky corporate dude on the phone with some meaningless words over it… nothing like what was discussed. I saw it and wrote back saying basically that I was very disappointed to see that nothing had changed with the company, and that I was not interested in continuing with this. They immediately wrote back telling me they decided it wasn’t going to work out and that they were pulling my file. So not only did they lie and suck at what they do, they took my rejection of them and childishly turned it around to sound like they were rejecting me? Insulting.
If you’re trying to earn someone’s business — someone who has been previously burned by your company — you make it fucking free. FREE. Especially when the product you are selling sucks. I mean, sure — under 200 bucks to advertise is a good deal… but if the ad sucks and nobody’s going to see it anyway, it’s worthless.
Stay far away…