Plixi - Review and Alternative

Plixi is a scam

The 'Instagram Growth Software' company Plixi is nothing more than a scam. But don't just take it from me, consider their Trustpilot rating (claimed to be 4.9 out of 5 on the website, but is actually only 1.7 : https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/plixi.com) with 87% of reviews giving it the lowest 1* "Bad" rating.

Here's my review:

Plixi offer a “24hr trial” - although it’s not a true trial as you’re unable to do some of the more advanced options until you opt for a paid subscription.

On their pricing page they have 3 account levels: $29, $59 and $149.. of course these “Monthly” prices are not actually monthly, this is only the cost if you pay upfront for a year then average it out over 12 months. No the real cost per month is either $49, $99 or $249 (40% higher).

The $249 one is interesting - this is the “ExpertsTM” plan (not sure how they were able to Trademark the word “Experts” - perhaps if the Plixi sales team are reading this they’ll be kind enough to forward the Trademark reference number for validation?) Anyway, the “Experts” plan gives you “Fully-managed growth & content creation by your dedicated Instagram Expert.” … which is all well and good, except underneath all these options is another add-on, for only an extra $300 where you can let the Plixi team manage your Instagram growth…

Strangely, it doesn’t mention why you’d pay a total of $549 per month, for something that it says you can also have for $249?

So It’s unclear why you’d go for this option, especially if you’d already selected the cheaper “Experts” plan… I raised a question about this with pre-sales support… they replied “We are checking it now, thanks for letting us know.”… I followed up 5 days later - still no reply. Perhaps they are still checking?

Anyway, foolishly I plumped for the Pro plan, and then this is where things started going very wrong.

Features listed on their “Pro Plan” pricing page stated that account level also had the “AI-Powered Growth Engine”. However this was NOT actually included, and this was again, another false claim. The AI Growth Engine option was an extra $129 per month - but you only found that out once you’d paid for the subscription.

(If you’re keeping score, the $59 Pro Plan with the included AI Growth Engine is now actually $99 + $129 = $228 - oh, and that doesn’t include the Automation features that they promote, as that’s not working yet).

Ah yes, the ‘automation’ feature - this is a ‘killer feature’ for this type of software, and they make sure to promote it lots on their website. Indeed their main headline states “10x Faster Instagram Growth. Automatically.” What they fail to mention however, is that this feature was still in Beta, and not available yet.

Quote: “We apologize the automation feature is currently in beta and not accessible to everyone yet.” - my followup question about why they state it as a feature when you sign up remains unanswered.

I tried to contact support (this is the support team that apparently has teams in “LA & London” however they were never available until mid-afternoon UK time). One suspects the claim to have UK support team is yet another ‘embellishment’ . But even contacting the US support was challenging. For the two days I had an account, the support chat window button wasn’t working. Then when the chat support window did open, the only option was to search the Knowledgeable, rather than start a new request.

At this point you have to wonder why they bother having different account levels, if all the good extras have to be added on anyway. - It’s a bit like buying. BMW in the 1990’s when event the steering wheel was an optional extra you had to spec and pay for! If you were stupid enough to sign up to Plixi after reading this, you might as well go for the cheapest account level as you have to pay for the other features anyhow.

On the signup page I opted to pay an additional “$75” for ‘expire configuration help setting up the account. It was only after the money had been debited and I was able to login that it showed up as being an extra $75 each month - not just a one off. Quite why anyone would need help setting up and configuring your account each month was never really explained. Again this extra cost was not stated as a monthly charge before signup.

Avoid paying Plixi any money - they are nothing but Grifters.

Plixi smacks of an app that’s been launched way too early, with features and support severely lacking. What’s worse is that they don't appear to care and have zero inclination in fixing the numerous issues with the system, support and even the pre-signup info.

The app itself is simply not where a commercial release should be - especially one that is asking users to pay for. But it’s the levels of subterfuge, trickery, and downright fraudulent claims from the signup pages that users really need to be wary of.

I have since requested a full refund, only after having access for less than 48 hours. Of course Plixi Support are fobbing me off, trying to get me to delay, but I've since raised a dispute with my credit card company, so they'll have to refund as well as pay the chargeback fee.

Im also taking steps to have their Merchant account revoked due to fraud so that they can't take anyone else's money.