MarulaLab review for flareAI: SEO Apps & Sales
May 9, 2023
My experience with Flair began promisingly four months ago. The impact wasn't monumental, yet the functionality was discernible, providing an initially satisfactory user experience. However, the trajectory took a negative turn from there, leading to concerns worth sharing. Flair requested an in-app star rating, to which I readily gave five stars, given the initial efficacy of the product. However, a few days later, a surprise awaited me in my inbox. A Flair representative emailed me, offering a month's free usage in exchange for a 5-star review on the Shopify app store. They even went as far as to provide a review draft which stated, "FlareAI has amplified our store's Google presence from 40 to 551 products, leading to a noticeable increase in organic sales and traffic." Now, to clarify a glaring discrepancy: my store's inventory consists of a mere six products, a far cry from the 551 figure quoted in the drafted review. This discrepancy indicates that other reviews on this page using the same script may be founded on falsehoods, significantly undermining the credibility of their testimonies. But it doesn't stop there. The offer of a "free month" triggered a realization that Flair had been charging me without my explicit awareness. Yes, I had approved a Shopify page, but it was presented as a requirement for the one-time fee they also mentioned. Subsequently, I discovered that they had been subtly billing me between $15 to $29 monthly, a fact I was oblivious to until now. Digging deeper, I discovered a somewhat concealed detail: Flair charges based on "sales attributable to FlairAI." In simpler terms, they levy a 1% fee per order if the customer navigates to the store via Google or other search engines, which happens to be a majority of the time. This model of operation is murky at best and poses serious questions about their business ethics. Regardless of how they respond to this review, the inconsistencies in their communication and dubious charging practices speak volumes. Their responses are often templated and involve grossly inflated figures. I strongly urge potential users to consider these factors before engaging with this application.
This is Jessica from the flareAI team. Appreciate you taking the time and effort to feedback, we are listening to customers’ feedback whether it is good or where we fall short. Here are my point-by-point responses: 1. Store URLs Yes, your store contains 16 products. But where flareAI helps you grow your organic presence is by optimizing for currency-language URLs. As you notice, you are offering your product pages with various currency-language options. flareAI submits your store's products, pages, blogs, and collections, including all currency-language URLs. So in total, it is 705 URLs. Out of these 705 URLs, when you added flareAI, only 40 URLs were found. As on May 10, 2023 flareAI has helped your store to get 569 URLs found on Google. 2. Your initial 5-star review on flareAI Dashboard: flareAI recommendation engine automatically sends a written 5-star review request to those who clicked on a 5-star rating on the flareAI dashboard. As a store owner, you know how important reviews are. It's common for users to give 1-star ratings, obtaining 5-star reviews can be more challenging but immensely valuable to our app's success. Plus! We are thankful to those who spend their valuable time sharing their experience with flareAI. It is similar to you as a Shopify merchant offering coupons and discounts to your customers :-) 3. Billing Approval Page We have mentioned in detail your store's billing components in the App approval page while you added flareAI. It is possible you have missed reading it. We replied to your email regarding the billing query on April 22, 2023. Appreciate your time and feedback, hope this clarifies Jessica
