Bronte Media

A surreal episode erupted around local search startup MerchantCircle recently, involving an uproar that accused the firm of mass spam and deception and created a strange reaction that made some wonder if the attack was being staged and co-ordinated by someone else.

Well, the final conclusion is effectively in. Draw what you will from the response in the firm’s October newsletter, quoted below:

“We tried some experiments to make it even easier for new merchants to sign up for the service. While the overall experiment was successful, resulting in scores of new merchants getting introduced and signed up for MerchantCircle, there were some challenges in the way we executed. We sincerely apologize and are completely dedicated to addressing any and all of the problems that have arisen. Our goal is to keep merchants informed about new service offerings and new information on their listing pages.

As a token of appreciation we’d like to extend a special offer of two FREE months of our Basic package to all merchants who’ve joined our service since September. To take advantage of this offer, just drop us a note here.

Moving forward we’re seeing some creative ideas from merchants building their listings, and we would like to encourage everyone to continue connecting with customers and fellow business owners. And by all means, make use of all the tools we offer! Thanks again for connecting.

Best Regards,
Ben T. Smith IV
Chairman ”