From The Andes review for AdScale AI Ads Meta/Google Ads

Updated Shopify Review AdScale solicited the removal of my original negative review in exchange for free service. This is what happened next. I originally posted a 1-star review of AdScale documenting poor performance and unresponsive support. Frank, one of the owners, contacted me, offered a 100% discount for two months and two months of account management, and asked me to remove the review. I complied in good faith. He confirmed in writing: "Thank you for removing the review already." That email is dated April 16, 2026, and it is documented. This was not an isolated request. Another Shopify merchant posted a review on this same listing in December 2024 documenting the identical offer -- two months of free service in exchange for removing a negative review. That makes this a pattern of conduct by AdScale, not a one-time mistake. After I removed the review, the problems continued and worsened. The account manager assigned to my store, Nicole, built campaigns that were broken from the start. Carousel ads linked to my homepage instead of individual product pages, costing conversions on every click. Meta placements were set to Facebook only, excluding Instagram entirely -- inexcusable for a visual product line. Lookalike audiences were targeted against a customer base of fewer than 400 purchasers, far too thin to generate meaningful signal. The campaign structure consisted of three campaigns, one ad set each, with no more than two ads per campaign -- structurally incompatible with what Meta's Andromeda and Lattice delivery systems require to optimize. The creative contained distorted product images, which is unacceptable for a brand built on the quality and presentation of handcrafted goods. I requested the ads be stopped on a Friday. AdScale did not respond. The budget continued burning through the weekend. I stopped the campaigns myself on Monday. Total spend reached $1,107. Total returned value: $205. Four orders. I then sent Frank a detailed email documenting every error and requested a different account manager. His response was four lines suggesting I pause the ads (which were already paused) and schedule a weekend call. He addressed none of the specific issues raised. When I notified him I was discontinuing the relationship, his reply was: "Why are you taking things in the wrong way?" That is the AdScale playbook: solicit review removal with promises of resolution, fail to deliver, blame the merchant when problems are documented, and rely on the suppressed reviews to maintain a misleading public rating. The 4.7 average rating on this listing is engineered. Negative reviews are removed through incentive offers. Positive reviews cluster around early onboarding impressions before performance can be evaluated. The G2 profile has been unmanaged for over a year. Trustpilot reviewers document an 11-day support gap, €2,800 in lost spend with one attributed sale despite promised 4x ROAS guarantees, refund refusals using Israeli headquarters to sidestep EU consumer law, and predatory billing practices including charges for a full year of unused service with no refund. I have reported this incident to Shopify Partner Support as a violation of the Partner Program Agreement, which explicitly prohibits incentivizing merchants to add, edit, or remove reviews. Frank's April 16 email is documented evidence. This review is reinstated and will remain in place. Other merchants deserve to see the full record before they install this app. Avoid AdScale.