Bark.com and ConvrtX

I first found ConvrtX when I searched for a software development on the website Bark.com. I was presumably given as a lead to ConvrtX, and I did end up hiring them. The majority of ConvrtX clients I have spoken to have advised that they found ConvrtX through Bark.com. I first notified Bark.com about ConvrtX back in July 2022. Below is screenshots of the emails I sent.

As you can see, I gave a lot of information and links to show the Bark.com team the extent of what I'd been through. At this time, I was unaware if other clients had had a similar experience, but wanted to do what I could to warn Bark.com as I believed they would investigate this. I didn't even expect for the account to be shut down necessarily, but I thought at the very least the sudden surge in 'positive reviews' would be looked at and dealt with accordingly. I was asked for further information, which I did provide. You can see below what I advised.

I even went as far to remind Bark.com that I did not hold them responsible for what had happened to me, but that I hoped that my notifying of this would result in an appropriate investigation with appropriate action taken. So what action was taken?

None. All of those positive reviews remained, and you can see many of them in our original blog post about ConvrtX reviews on Bark here. At this time, I tried to resolve things with ConvrtX. I've now been told that they never wanted to resolve anything with me truthfully. Someone who was close to Josh at this time reached out to me recently to tell me that Josh said that he wanted to fuck with me and that he won't back down against me. Well I can assure you, that he did. Months were wasted, I was provided absolute nonsense, and the products they delivered me were unusable. I'm getting a bit sidetracked, so back to Bark.com. I have had numerous phone calls with customer service at Bark over the past year. Some are recorded with the consent of employees. I have chosen not to link these since I have reported Bark to the Insolvency Service, and there are police departments involved also. However, some customer service level agents seem very confused and surprised that ConvrtX were allowed to have what appeared to be multiple positive reviews posted at the same time with similar wording. They also did express frustration at negative reviews remaining hidden - some agents even reposted them for me, only for ConvrtX to be allowed to remove them almost immediately. Some other agents were quite condescending to me. I could never understand what was going on until previous ConvrtX employees started contacting me with some disturbing allegations. Some of the allegations included Josh Adler/ConvrtX having a strong relationship with Bark.com over many years solely due to the money he paid them, and also that in recent times Josh was owing Bark a sizeable sum of money and that this could potentially be swaying Bark's stance on investigating the ConvrtX seller account. Please note; these were not allegations made by me, but allegations that were voiced TO me. I also cannot attest to the accuracy of such allegations, but simply wish to put forward the information I have been told. Things started to go very wrong once again in January 2023. Without going too much into detail, it became clear to me that I was not getting what I paid for from ConvrtX and that all Josh cared about was getting false positive reviews out of me with the promise that he'd fix things later. This is when I decided I needed to find out if other people had fallen victim to Josh Adler/ConvrtX. I reached out to a small number of ConvrtX clients that I found online; this is how I found Steven Marshall, who also was scammed. His story can be read here. I was very vocal about my ordeal. It was even printed in an international newspaper, which can be read here. With my story now showing on Google search results (though not anymore thanks to some alleged false DMCA reports which you can read all about here), victims started reaching out to me direct. To date, I have spoken to over 30 people who have either hired ConvrtX or worked for them. Most have similar stories, none that I am aware of have a fully finished app with all the features that was agreed. One has actually successfully got their money back via a chargeback through their bank! Thrilled for them, but the majority of us have been unsuccessful due to the length of time since the transactions. Going back to February 2023, I began notifying sites such as TrustPilot and Glassdoor that I believed ConvrtX was abusing their review system. It took some time, but they finally took action. Both have banners on the ConvrtX page warning potential clients of attempts to artificially inflate reviews. But what about Bark? Well, I tried to leave negative reviews again. They were removed, as were all other negative reviews. But what appeared to be more false positive reviews appeared. You can read all about that again here. I was at my wits end, so I attempted to email management at Bark under the guidance of Steven Marshall. You can see the email I sent below.

I was hopeful when sending this that I would start being taken seriously as this was a senior member of staff I had messaged. Unfortunately, I did not get a very satisfactory response.

Given the amount of claims I had made and that I had evidence to back the majority of it up, it's safe to say that I was unimpressed.

Honestly, I was starting to feel exhausted and beyond frustrated at this point. No one at Bark was taking me seriously, and the allegations of ConvrtX being allowed to continue on Bark.com due to either having paid a lot of money in the past or being owing a big sum of money to Bark (or both) were circling around in my head. You can see that I made reference to that in the last email I sent above. With the allegations in mind and my frustration hitting its peak, I drafted another email and sent it to multiple management of Bark, including the CEO. In it, I outlined some of the allegations and asked for an answer.

The very same senior manager as before responded to me? Did he answer the questions I posed to him? See for yourself.

Lol. No comment then? Exactly what I expected.

So, I decided I needed to bring light to this. I had offered a lot of evidence, I had contacts of multiple scammed clients, but Bark.com just didn't seem to want to listen to me and instead allowed ConvrtX to continue to operate. So I posted about it here on the website. Imagine my surprise when I received the below email from the in house lawyer of Bark.

So apparently I made some defamatory statements. I wonder what they were, because this lawyer failed to provide a simple example? I like to think that I'm a reasonable person, of course I don't want to defame anyone. So I asked for examples.

Did they give me an example? Of course they didn't.

That's not very helpful to me is it? Accusing me of defamation but refusing to cite examples? I'm obviously not going to comply with such a ridiculous request.

My response was reasonable, wouldn't you agree? Well, Ms. In-House Lawyer certainly did not.

That did make me laugh, I have to admit. But as usual, I sent off a quick response.

Bark then had a very specific request which I thought was a bit weird...

Honestly, the names weren't that important to me. I made the decision to extend an offer of goodwill but make my overall stance very clear.

I didn't hear back from the In House Lawyer. I did wonder why it was so important I remove the employees name but it didn't really fuss me overall. I still wanted answers but I had to bide my time. There were more developments with the Police and with ConvrtX, but I won't get into it here since the Police are still investigating. I was also very interested to see that ConvrtX seller accounts disappeared on Bark sometime in May. I didn't know why when I first noticed. Well, I finally got some answers.

Awww how sweet. Bark actually emailed ConvrtX directly offering support because they hadn't responded to new leads. Support for me and other clients scammed by ConvrtX would have been nice, but hey ho.

Ahhhh, so THIS is why the seller accounts were disabled? Not because I was screwed out of £33,000 (i mentioned £28,000 previously but this didn't account for the initial business plan), and not because Steven Marshall lost $7,000. Not because of the over £500,000 I had been told had been lost at the hands of ConvrtX. But because poor Bark are owed almost $30,000 and haven't been paid.

Now, I am not staying that the money owed to Bark held any influence over their decision to not act on the information provided. That is something I don't know. But that email detailing the amount owed was sent on 24th May, and counting back the invoice dates, they appear to have been due around 6TH February and 7TH March. My email enquiring about whether or not monies were owed to Bark from ConvrtX was sent after the 6th of February. This could be a coincidence, but I find it interesting nonetheless since the senior manager refused to answer and directed me to legal.

I have further emails between Bark and ConvrtX, but am choosing not to publish at this time. As I said, there is an ongoing investigation...

I'm of course not sharing what that update was or any of the other correspondence. But just in case Bark or ConvrtX think I am bluffing, I certainly am not. I have also reported Bark to the Insolvency Service, and the In House Lawyer to the SRA to highlight my concerns surrounding her conduct.

You may also notice that I have omitted the names of the Bark employees. I will release these as soon as I have the go ahead from the Police.

And last but not least... the senior manager I spoke to and got nowhere with? Same guy emailing ConvrtX offering support and then messaging them about the unpaid invoices.

Good to know.

I am sure Bark are checking this website based on my traffic reports from the website which show me rough geographical locations of visitors. Please be aware, any email you send me, any legal threats, or anything of the sort will be forwarded immediately to the Police official who is dealing with this.

I am not scared. I am furious at what you have put me and others through.