Archive for December 27th, 2011
Buyers Beware
Posted by urenough | Filed under Blog
With the economy in the state that is has been for the last 3 or 4 years, the number of ingenuous people has increased alarmingly. Some vocations that in the past would have been seen as void of the kind of people that prey upon the trusting, now join the others as a source of scams.
Let me share with you my very recent experience with one such individual…and the lessons to be learned:
As you know, I am branded as America’s Accountability Coach. The values that I teach, I live. In today’s global business world, your reputation is well-known in the matter of seconds. It doesn’t matter if its good or bad. The internet, cell phones, Skype, and texting have the ability to mold percetions instantaneously.
Recently, I was contacted by a woman from Ocala, FL. She offered to have one of her clients speak at my latest UR ENOUGH Wealth Summit in Boston. I re-arranged my agenda to fit her client in. I guess that I should have known shortly after the event that this relationship was not based upon integrity. Athough the speaker’s topic was very relevant and intriguing, I could not seem to get them to fulfill their contract. They merely leveraged my event to gain access to my people, and did nothing to enhance attendance by marketing to their prospect and customer list…even though I was assured that it would happen.
After the event, I was met with a variety of conflicts that the customers experienced with the speaker’s office. Even though I alerted their agent, (the woman who contacted me), nothing of substance was done.
Nevertheless, at the time I did not hold it against her. She began wooing me with ideas of how she could help me spread my message across North America. I was initially impressed that she was so enthusiastic. While she was conducting her sales close with me, she told me that she had 3 major events that I would be a prefect fit for. She even went so far as to tell me the time slot she would have me speak at one of the events. If my wife and I had not pressed the matter, we might have booked travel for an event that was a complete bust. She was a co-host of the event, yet continually told us that she couldn’t get real attendance numbers.
Meanwhile, she was supposedly working on 2 other events, 1 in Vegas and 1 in Ft Lauderdale. The amazing thing was…once I had decided to work with her, she practically fell off the face of the planet. She had received her retainer and not delivered A SINGLE THING itemized on the contract that she wrote.
When it became clear that she had no intention to fulfill the contract in any form, I notified her that she had broken the agreement and needed to refund my retainer.
She responded that she would do so immediately…and did nothing. I sent emails, texts, and FB messages…still no satisfaction. Then after weeks of her refusing to respond and correct her failure she sent me an arbitrary email asking for foregiveness and an extension of 60 days in order to fulfill a very basic contact term. By this time, I had already started proceedings against her with Paypal. She never responded to them, and I was awarded the decision. However, she had already drained her Paypal account, they were not able to retrieve my funds.
When I informed her that I was prepared to take further action, she insisted that she would be sending me the tracking info of my refund that day…of course that never happened nor did I get my money back.
Finally, I gave her until the end of last week to respond and remediate this issue. Of course, she did not reply and did not send my refund. With that being said, I have taken further action which includes this post as a manner of sharing this experience to save others from falling into a similar trap.
So, the moral of this story is this: DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE AND MAKE GOOD BUSINESS DECISIONS. Its very simple. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
So anyone who is in the public eye and is looking for someone to help get you the exposure you are striving for, use caution and care when choosing. The one that I EMPHATICALLY suggest you stay away from is:
Dash Business Solutions (at least that is what she calls it…nothing in Google on it)
Her name is Kellie Clarke, aka Kellie Brown
I am sure that she may have some clients that swear by her…but keep in mind that referrals are often spoon fed to close the sale.
You may even have her as your agent and are happy. If so, good luck and I wish you lots of success. But if you are not working with her, then I strongly suggest that you look elsewhere. If you would like the name of someone that I have placed my trust with, feel free to send an email and I be glad to send them your way.
Here’s to a prosperous and scam-free New Year!
Ray