Uyarı: Bu yazının Türkçe versiyonuna ulaşmak için buraya tıklayınız.
Warning: Originally this article was written in the Turkish language first if you want to read the Turkish one, please click here. This English one has been translated with Google Translate. Then I edited most of the mistakes by hand but I think I couldn’t do it all. So possibly there will be simple grammar and wording mistakes. I will fix them all later days/weeks. You can contact me with the comment section of this post. You can click page title and scroll down or click here to see the comment section directly.
The main purpose of this article is to warn those who have a relationship with Eva.guru(Eva Commerce, Hub-Eva, Epheal Yazılım) and to express my thoughts about Hai Hidir Mag(its co-founder). You can provide service, receive service, use its product, be it its staff or contractor. My experience may be of interest to you, so I wanted to share this on this site.
Summary: As a result of the service I gave to Eva Guru, Eva did not give me the wages I deserve. Although I showed a lot of evidence, arguments, and cause and effect that I deserved the fee, they closed the subject without a proper answer. I demanded the wages I deserved from them several times and explained the subject at length, although it was obvious that I deserved it. But they neither answered properly nor paid. Since it is an international service and it would be extremely troublesome to reach them legally, I had to choose this way. I am complaining about this company that is unfair to my rights. If you are one of the groups I mentioned above, review your relationship, I want you to be careful. It is my biggest aim that you do have your rights fulfilled.
This is the summary of my experience I will tell. Let me explain step by step in detail for you who have the time.
General information
Eva.guru is a startup founded in America, but the majority of the team of Eva Guru is from Turkey. Although the official institutions in Turkey Izmir, Turkey seems roofing contractor company in California. One of the company’s CEO and co-founders is a person named Hai Hidir Mag.
My relationship with Eva took place between Hai Hidir Mag and his commanding team. But since Hai Hidir Mag is the decision-maker, I am excused that the people on his team obeyed what he said.
Hai Hidir Mag decides to get a service in the field of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), one of the digital marketing channels, and here the relationship begins with a working agreement with me.
The fee for my SEO service has been agreed to be paid the week after the month the service is provided. In other words, I first provide the service and then get the payment from Eva. Although this situation leaves the agency or specialist in a slightly risky situation, normally it is not important since the problems in this document are not common among solid companies. But we must ask is Eva or Hai Hidir Mag solid?
Sometimes even if you have around 10 personnel, even if you look like a corporate, startup, even if you have seen the United States, you cannot stop the cunning and bully merchant in you and you can cause victimization in this content.
Beginning of the Relationship and the First Month
The company was given an offer under the name of SEO service and it was decided that 18 hours of effort per month would be given in return for this offer, and the service started in October 2019. Effort hours, wages, the content of the service, etc. I should emphasize that the process has been entered into by agreeing on the issues. Eva.guru and her team have trusted me and the service I will provide. We set out with the assumption that I will give the expected amount of effort and quality.
I started SEO service and completed the first month with 20 hours of effort. While the majority of the effort should normally be given by my team, I have personally devoted more time to give better momentum to the work and completed the first month.
In the first month, we have completed a month in which most of the content and technical improvements that I conveyed that they should be done by Eva were not made and slight delays began.
Warnings have been made from the end of the first month to the middle of the third month that these delays are damaging to SEO and that these tasks should be done as soon as possible.
So how was the quality/content of the first month as a service? Was it high quality? I do not share the work done here one by one, but each of the 20-hour efforts consists of high quality, devoted work lined up like pearls, we closed the first month with the necessary meetings on the communication side, weekly and monthly reports completed regularly.
After my monthly report, when I asked both Hai Hidir Mag and the senior official in his team if they were satisfied, they said they were satisfied and that there was no problem. Fact 1
Second Month
In the second month, the list of technical and content improvements to be made by the Eva team was both too long and extremely delayed by them, and seeing this, I warned them many times. We do not do SEO in this way, it cannot be called a proper SEO as long. I was warning this heavily and eventually, Eva’s team set out by doing 3-5 of them if there were 20 overdue items in the second month.
However, they were still 6 weeks behind almost all targets given in the middle of the first month.
What is interesting this month is that Hai Hidir Mag’s own team is delaying dozens of basic SEO tasks, while he doesn’t know clearly how SEO works. He asks “when the rankings and traffic rise occur? When will we reach 200,000 hits per month like Sellerapp? What is our 1-year SEO plan? Let’s see the results and talk like that. Did our work bear fruit? What should we do for 200,000 traffic at the end of a year?” He said some phrases such as at different times of the month.
When an SEO specialist encounters such a situation, it is his duty to inform the customer and correct him if he has false expectations. I did not have a 1-year SEO plan in my plan, but I made a 1-year SEO plan. I did it and delivered it when Sellerapp was not in my plan to do competitor analysis. I showed them that it took Sellerapp 2-3 years to reach the figures you mentioned. You want me to reach 200.000 traffic in 1 year for a site that has no SEO power. Let’s talk about this at the meeting and I said what is SEO, how is the rise achieved, how these delays affect the success of my service.
The worse thing is that while the service fee is stated, I made lightly expressions such as how 200.000 is my target, which I suddenly did not accept when there was no annual traffic target of 200.000 and invited them to ameeting several times a month. Because I didn’t say that and they didn’t mention anything before the agreement. This is all written in emails. Fact 2
In fact, I wanted to ask if you are satisfied with my service or not, in our (Turkish) words “for an employer who shows a stick” (which means he gently threats me). I said, “If you use such expressions and you are not satisfied with my service, it is best to put it on the table in detail, and let’s talk about everything right and wrong.” My purpose in these statements was to express your unwarranted expectations and if you are not satisfied with my service, express them clearly. Then a decision would be made, of course. Either the middle ground was found or the service was terminated.
However, Hai Hidir Mag passed me on this important issue, which I opened three times, either he did not arrange a meeting or we will talk about this in the meeting he arranged, he had to go out for the company business. But at this time he was sending me private e-mails: “Don’t worry, you (my name) you work, it’s okay” suggestions. Fact 3
Let’s get back to the main point, while the Eva team progressed with significant delays in the second month, I took an initiative. I did not give the 3-5 hours of my monthly effort in the second month because the Eva team was much late in terms of SEO. I said that I will transfer these 3-5 hours to the 3rd month, as the work I will do will not affect Eva and because he is an employer showing sticks(gently threats 🙂 ). Because even though the Eva team had done 5 of the 20 items, I thought it was and my way was cleared. Now that I will do inefficient work, I give this time while the Eva team catches up with me, and Eva.guru will get the most benefit. I reported this transparently in my monthly report up to the minute.
However, while these delays seem to be closing, we saw that they did not close well and the difference was still very clear. Over and over again, I and Eva’s team (except Hai Hidir Mag) repeated this in our meetings. The list of items they had to do was increasing, but the number of items made was maybe 1-2. Even the site’s blog opened in the middle of my 2nd month. It took the first week of my 3rd month for the first 2 articles to be entered on the site. What was told to me was to enter 2-3 posts a week since the middle of the first month. We were completing the 3rd month by finding just one of these delayed SEO items and many other important items like this.
Content and technical improvements expected from the 1st month and 2nd month:
- The blog should be opened in the middle of the first month but has opened in the 7th week.
- While 15 content should be entered into the blog but 1 content has been published.
- None of the 10 or so technical improvements submitted for the blog have been made.
- One or two of the 10 technical improvements submitted for the main site have been made.
- The list of content ideas created for the blog is suspended for 1 month.
- Not returning for 1 month to the report in which the sub-details of the selected blog topics are prepared.
- Some other in-site content and technical improvements (For example The noindex tag that was forgotten at the opening of the blog, unfortunately, it took a few days to make my request to remove the “do not allow indexing my site” tick in the WordPress panel)
Break Point
After the initiative I took, towards the end of the second month, in the first days of the third month, I made the following offer to the Eva team and Hai Hidir Mag two or three times. My proposal was very simple and there were two options.
You guys are too late and this has affected my SEO success too much. While you expect very high success from me, let’s not count the 3rd month as a service month. You catch up with me, let our works come in the same direction, speed and quantity. Complete about 20 items that need to be done but haven’t done in 2 months. I will not charge this month for you and let me just do the minimum work for your team and complete the month. What I mean here was to give my effort from the second month and bring myself to the same level as Eva. Or we can say the Eva team brings itself to the same level as me.
The motivation for me to do this: My client Eva is a stick-showing and SEO-ignorant client. He is telling me to fly and run, and his team is delaying tons of tasks. This kind of way made sense to me and came to their advantage so that this customer would not be too bully on me, and I would not be as if I was victimizing him.
The second option of my offer was to count this month as a normal month, but later in the month, I will be very far ahead as SEO works and this will not create a productive situation for anyone. I’m doing SEO in the black hole or space. The Eva team wobbles and gets the job done, and it will be a lot of work behind me.
Let’s repeat two simple options; Either I’ll give my missing 3-5 hours and you catch up with me. Let’s run a meaningful SEO campaign. Show me fewer sticks, ask questions, or question me less. Let 1-month pass and I will continue my service with full effort.
Or let me work full effort, make up the missing effort of the last month and I will be very ahead of you and you will be pleased with this absurd situation? By continuing my service from front to back, I will have completed my 3rd month and switched to the 4th month.
After these issues, the wonder is the following:
Even though the second month had a missing effort, how was the effort? Was it good quality? Obviously, the SEO service they should have received was given in extremely high quality, again devotedly. Once I was not behind them. Requests for development that should be made have been widely transmitted. They have been warned many times in e-mail, WhatsApp messages and Zoom calls that you are delaying SEO. But while I was claiming and thinking that I was serving like this, nobody stated that they were not satisfied with my service, even if it was a small one.
Even the authorized person of the team stated to my face several times that he was satisfied with my service. Fact 4
So What Happened in the 3rd Month?
This month, unfortunately, a bad situation, maybe you guessed it happened. They did not answer my proposal with one of two options. They answered worse. Hai Hidir Mag said, “You work, we act according to the results, at the end of the month.” Here is the classic Turkish merchant/tradesman.
I said, you probably got it wrong. The number of SEO tasks that your team has delayed has been extremely high. You want results from me, we do not hold meetings, and you pull a proposal for your well-being into an uncertain environment. This is not the case.
Come on, Hai Hidir Mag is fatherly again! “You work (my name) do not worry, there is no problem,” he suggested. 🙂
I said that I did not accept this situation and that I should get an answer. Even though you pointed out that you will not give me money in this uncertain environment, we have entered our third month by saying that it is not very suitable to work.
So what happened in the following days/weeks? It has been 23 days until there is a change in this regard. Experiences outside of this topic; The Eva team wants to hold a meeting with me, I am asked to brief the personnel who have recently joined the company about technical developments, I am asked to do all of my routine SEO tasks, report them and hold 3 meetings during this period. So the Eva team was taking my service as if it wasn’t an abnormal month. Fact 5
I also look at the time we give as a team; We have covered the shortfall of last month’s effort. We have halved the effort of the 3rd month and we are shifting towards the whole day by day. So step by step it started to be like a normal service month and even happened.
I have repeatedly asked Hai Hidir Mag and the official who received my service, would you answer this question? However, no answer was given. The first week of the month was not answered. There was no answer until halfway through. Looking at the face of the Eva team official, I asked if the service for the whole month will be paid or free, but this answer did not come in any way. I have clearly expressed my concerns on this matter. But you know what I was thinking? I was thinking that a corporate firm, though not big, was not going to act like the bad SMEs in my freelance business 5 years ago.
And we passed half of the month and reached the 23rd. My effort was like a normal service month, dozens of small or large tasks, 3 meetings, video reports, road maps, feedback were received from me and the answer came from the Eva official as we entered the last week of the 30-day month:
“We pause (end) our work (My name). Let’s count this month free of charge, as last month’s shortcoming, as you have proposed”(what?).” Thank you for your work. If you need to end your work immediately, you can. “(How kind and generous!)
And at this moment, communications from the Eva official and Hai Hidir Mag are interrupted. I demanded my rights from them, report the work reports and hours and minutes one by one. However, it is worthwhile, the only answer that can be called an answer is “We were not harmed by the work, but we were not satisfied either.” happened. I said “Well, when you were not satisfied, are you entitled to not compensate for the effort I have worked in the last month.”
No answer.
I list my meaningful arguments (listed below) and say you do not answer them. I am waiting for your reply.
No answer.
Then Hai Hidir Mag recommended that my country from Turkey, he advised me to run the process with the legal courts (In Turkey or States, how funny). Because he saw that we could not agree and asked us to end this way calmly and let our lawyers meet.
Our talks had already gotten out of hand at these moments. I was very angry and upset that they did not give me my wages and respond, as they put me in the place of their property, whether I worked or not.
I asked for my money several times while this issue was happening, for 1-2 weeks. However, I did not get any returns. Even Hai Hidir Mag said that “You got very angry and think again after calming down” he suggested. I got very angry and were not answered 5 of the 5 things I said. Hai Hidir Mag said in a conversation “(My name), we will pay the payment if you would have approached with a sentence such as with this style: “Hey Hai Hidir Mag friend what do we do about this due payment? Can you please pay this payment? This is not unfair.” “If you approach like this we would have made the transfer” You didn’t answer the main bullet points of my message and you want me to approach like this? Nonsense. After these sentences of him, I think you are like a cheap salesman and giving excuses for his behaviors. So typical in SMEs in our country. I was assuming I work with professionals but clearly, it didn’t go that way.
After 1-1.5 months after my last warning and request, I warned one more time that maybe his thoughts have changed. However, they buried the subject again, without answering.
The final point is that Eva.guru(Eva Commerce, Hub-Eva, Epheal Yazılım) did not pay a fee of $250 with a small emailing. I was exhausted, upset, and worn down by the days that passed calmly, and after I said my arguments, which I am sure were correct, without getting a single answer. Because behind the fact that the unquestionable facts are not answered in this way, I look for a bad intention, a business ethics disorder.
While your official should not dare to say “We are terminating the service” to me, saying “If you came to me in a calm language, we would have done it” is a huge BS. Because when you were conveying your decision to your official, you had already decided not to give me money, is that a lie? The official of yours did not say a single sentence to me about this month’s wage or work. He/she also wrote on Whatsapp, thanks to me, he/she did not even call me with a 2-minute phone call.
Anyway, as a result of not receiving my payment for nearly 2 months after many warnings, I have brought the issue here. And yes, I lost maybe another $ 250 while I was carrying this subject here. Maybe I gave my hours to use as a relief. But this was the only thing I could do against the bully, money lover employer, who was both bigoted and ignorant, was to get this topic on the web, and I did that too. I explained my purpose at the beginning of my article. Don’t make Eva or Hai Hidir Mag to be unfair to you. See what moves and attitudes your partner can make for $250.
I continue my SEO expert and agency life by trying to stay away from malicious individuals/companies that will screw me up or want to steal the money of my service.
Crucial Points After the Long Narrative of the Event and the Second Summary
1- My proposal as I entered the 3rd month was an offer considering their well-being. Rather than giving me unnecessary money, I was thinking of them enough to say let them catch up with me. I hope you calculate that by doing this I am harming my cash flow too. But I did it for their well-being.
2- While the scope of my proposal is about the 30-day period we are in, logically, the most logical number of days that the offer can be valid is the first week, how can they validate my proposal as if it was the first day of the month on the 23rd day of the month? Did I give them this right that I? NO. I didn’t say this offer can be answered in one month. You are talking BS. Fact 6
3- Although the contract that I sent them to them and Hai Hidir Mag did not sign and did not send me, “It is necessary to give a notice of 1 month in advance for the termination of service”, what commercial ethics is it in to finish the service both 23 days late and instantly? This is called outright bullying, law of the jungle, self-opinionated. I told them that you made me disgusted because you showed these attitudes. I am disgusted by you for giving services and life, I repeat from here.
This argument alone is not enough, do you think? Service cannot be finished instantly. If it will be over, a middle ground will be found. You will take 1 month to 2 weeks etc. and you terminate. Or no such things will happen, you finish normally. Fact 7.
However, if you do not think about my 15-hour effort when you want to finish it immediately, sorry, you are a malicious, harmful and bad person/owner/employer/co-founder. You are the sleaziest company owner I met. You have a bad work ethic and moral. The shrewd, bully merchant of you prevailed, and you followed what your ego said. Congratulations!
Anyway, even though this item is enough for me to be right, I write a few more items below.
4- Let’s say you deserve to finish it yourself. In our third month, a lot of reports/tasks were requested from me. Your team requested 3 meetings and detailed task reports/actions. Why don’t you ask “Do these effort has passed last month’s missing effort?” You didn’t ask it. Don’t tell me you should have a good approach. Your team took my effort a lot but you don’t mention it or ask it once. (Horsefeathers to you! ağır kaçıyor galiba anlamına baktım da onu baz alırsınız veya yuh sana kardeşim, YUH!)
I offered those options for your good, but you accept it in the most unacceptable and worst way for me. Also you answered me when in your best favor. Is this justice now?
5- Let’s say you deserved to finish it yourself, Hai Hidir Mag, while your team said that they were satisfied with my SEO service, why did you or your team not state that you were not satisfied even once in 2.5 months? I am sorry to tell you this information at the shadiest time for the trump card. You look like you mentioned this decision for getting a trump card at that questionable moment. Sorry but this behavior is so ……ly. ……ly. Let’s face it. This behavior should come from young, cunning, stingy, unethical company owners, not from you. I didn’t see that way I didn’t fear like this person. But you faced me with a similar situation like that person.
For 2 months, I said in your face, are you satisfied with my service? You did not answer.
Look, I said that SEO success is not like you thought, you didn’t sit down and listen to me once while I was asking at least 3 times. You said “don’t worry.”
The officer of your team probably told you something and you didn’t listen to him/her as well.
Then you were saying, “We were not harmed, but not satisfied from my service”. If you are not satisfied, you can stop the service at any time, even if the work was done that month, it is your right. Because you are not satisfied. If you are not satisfied, the cards are immediately redistributed and what you say is becoming right and true?
I would never have thought that a company owner/founder of 10-15 employees, a person whose age is over, would make such sleazy tricks. Although I said I want my $250 money, which I am entitled to, they closed the process with no response to my arguments. I don’t get it, how!
6- And while I don’t have to deliver a 1-year SEO plan to you in our short working process, what’s the job of taking this 1-year SEO plan and ending the work after a few weeks or a month? Excuse me, but clearly I see I was fooled by you. Probably you were saying “Our team is delaying SEO tasks anyway, let’s not give money to this SEO expert. We got the plan, we can do these inside later ” then I think I am removed from the game right?
$250 is about 20% of the minimum wage in the States. Also corresponds to the is 60% minimum wage in Turkey. While my contract is already a contract that allows termination whenever they want with 1 month notice, I am complaining about Eva Commerce, INC and Hai Hidir Mag, who took this money I deserve. I don’t think Mr. Hai Hidir Mag is a good boss, employer, and person either.
I think, in this capitalist system, you bully, show sticks, put meaningless pressure on the people who give service to you, and on your staff to getting more unpaid effort. You are one of the bad examples of capitalism, Mr. Hai Hidir Mag.
Instead of being a capitalist thief, I hope that you will pay the people’s rights in full, become a good employer, and not own their earned money by bullying professionals in the industry.
Footnote: There are emails, video explanations/reports, meeting documents, and detailed monthly reports to support each of my statements in this article. There are even other issues that might show my righteousness and Eva’s(Hai Hidir Mag’s) bad side. I will add them piece by piece in the coming days/weeks. I think this amount of sharing will be enough for now – 10/02/2021