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Advertising Gone Bad!!

Fire_Side_Pizza

New member
I have a situation and I would love some input on this situation.

We’ve been is business about a year, and trying all the different marketing techniques have all been trial and error. One of the ways that we tried was coupons in the blue envelopes and coupons in its competitor m$ failer. I’m sure you can figure out who they are, i don’t want to use real names.

I had problems with both places, I’m easygoing, i just expect people to their jobs as well. the blue ones, just ran the same coupons 4 months in a row when they were suppose to change after 2. Regardless, I didn’t get many coupons off that anyways.

The m$ failer had messed up a print where i was suppose to have a coupon, buy 1 pizza, get the other half off, instead, he did buy one get one. So, I was told I had a credit, buy a region, get a region for free. I only do one time prints to see how they work. So I took advantage of it, got my proof back, it looked great sent it back. Coupons come out, one of the coupons is not what i proofed. Second, we were tight, I threw it on a credit card to get some miles back and instead of a $300 charge on my credit card, I now have a $1725 charge in 3 seperate charges. The owner of m$ failer says that the credit card company he uses made a mistake. In my own records it showed 3 seperate charges from the owner’s accouunt, I don’t believe there was a mistake. So, he apologizes and tells me that he’ll send me a check when the credit card company reimburses him, in a weeks or so. I agree and get a check a week later for $1125. I immediately call to find out why it’s short and he says he’s waiting on a credit from the head office for the extra month and misprint on the coupons.

So, after waiting a couple weeks, I email the owner again. I’m never very happy when someone steals this amount of money from me, and even more when they make up excuses not to give it back. he sent me thes emails yesterday:

“I sent you a check for over $1,000 and I have also submitted a request for credit from corp. for printing error. What more do you want from me?”

my response, mind you, I’m alot frusterated after dealing with it for a month:
the break down…$1725 charged on my account
$1125 paid back…
$300 paid for august…which ok
$300 paid for September which i did not authorize

how hard is this to figure out? you owe me $300. plus a credit.

why are you being disrespectful to me when i did nothing wrong, the mistake was on your end. once i’m paid back, you will never hear from me again, it’s that simple.

and now his final response:
Maybe you don’t understand. I was not planning on running your ad in September without your final approval on your proof. You didn’t run your ad consecutively which forfeited your free zone. All that is forthcoming is your print credit which will be in the mail to you as soon as I receive it from corporate.

and now mine:
maybe you don’t understand…there was no discussions on any of this stuff. i had made it clear i only wanted 1 month, buy one region get one region and that was what you told me.

you NEVER discussed the fact that i forfeited anything. the free zone was from another screw up. September was never discussed, and everytime we have this conversation, you seem to pull something out as a reason not to pay for your screw ups.

you told me on the phone a couple of weeks ago you would send me a check for the rest, now where is it?

Like I said, I am at my wits end, I’m not a big place and I can’t afford to lose $300 every time I turn around. I expect people to follow through on what they say. Any advice would be greatly appreciated…thanks
 
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Fire Side Pizza:
I’m sure you can figure out who they are, i don’t want to use real names.
Actually I would like real names so I know who not to go through. That would be greatly appreciated.
 
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I agree, dispute the charges with the credit card company. He thinks he has you by the balls because he is holding your money. Shift positions and see how he begins to act.
 
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Whether or not he comes through on his end, file a disputed charge action with your credit card company NOW. Your rights to dispute end at 60 days from the invoice date of the disputed charge, so do not wait. When the CC company says the the charges are legit, demand documentation!

Also, get geared up to file a complaint in small claims court as well as with better business bureau and the like. The more pressure you can bring to bear, the better your position. You may even mention your membership on this forum and the thousands of people who are reading about your story. It won’t mean too much, but it will give him information.
 
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dispute them with your credit card company,
they should charge back to that printing company the disputed charges,

sounds like you may own him some money when/if they go through,
then he will be wanting to see you, better position…
if it is a creditable company he is working for, he may not be there much longer,
Otis
 
Did you cash that check yet? If so, I’d be careful with filing the CC dispute.

He should have never sent you a check in the first place. All he had to do was process a refund to your credit card. And you should not have accepted a check as the method of refund either - you should have filed a dispute with the CC company in the first place.

In effect, the company has exchange your charge for cash - which is against the agreement.
 
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See, that’s what I was thinking too, it should have just been a charge back…no checks needed. Since they were 3 seperate charges, I think he was hoping I wouldn’t find out until I got my statement, I check my cards regularly.

Really, the dispute right now is over $300. Oh, and the fact this guy shouldn’t be in business. He’s a franchisee of this company. And the sad thing is, except for this time around for some reason, the coupons worked for us. we had alot of good response.

I’m not sure I can say the name on here so if anyone wants it, just let me know. And I want to be clear, it’s not the whole company, just this franchisee.
 
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Here’s an update, just to let you know. I filed a complaint with the BBB. I put in a dispute with the creditcard company, and if all this doesn’t work, via my attorneys advice, next small claims court.

The last time I went to small claims, the case I was involved in went to the tv show “Judge Joe Brown”. Maybe we’ll try it agin.

Just be careful with your advertising, because even though you do everything right, it can still end up wrong.
 
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My bet is that the BBB and the CC company will get this sorted out. Small claims for $300 is not worth doing if you value your time at all. Contacting your State Attorney General is another possible course of action in case you are not the only one having issues with these guys.

Since they are a franchise, contacting the franchisor is an EXCELLENT thing to do and something you should do right away.
 
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I’ve tried to call the corporation 3 times. I always get sent to a voicemail, go figure. This time, I had a little more leverage.

I’ll keep trying until I get a real person.

Jim
 
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fireside,

the guy is a scam artist and don’t delay any longer in contacting your credit card company.
I had a similar experience when purchasing artwork from a dealer and the SOB charged by card over 8k and then played some ridiculous song & dance for 2 weeks. I then called the CC company and had my money back within 30 days.
Don’t wait till the guy shuts down and runs off with your money! Good luck.
 
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Hey Y-yo

Thanks for the advice, i contacted my creditcard company, the bbb and the corporate office. The corporate attorney told me we need to work it out amongst us…go figure.

We’ll see how it plays out.

Jim
 
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The corporate attorney said that there was nothing they could do. It was in our best interest to sit down and reslove this problem. The person I am having the dispute with had told the attorney that i was getting a $75 credit last Friday, which I have not seen.

The credit card company told me that nobody issues checks for a refund, which we already knew. I have a temporary credit on my card. We’ll see how this plays out.

The guy still won’t return any emails I send him, I think he’s a little nervous.

Jim
 
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Final Update!!

And I quote:

“There are you happy now?. Please don’t ever look for me to do anything for you you. You have to live with yourself everyday with the decision you made to get the money back that wasn’t yours. Roby’s and Little Caesars will work with me the appropriate way and treat me with respect and actually care about the work I do for them.”

This was after he found out I got my $300 back from the credit card company. I still have the BBB complaint going. And I’m still looking for the explanation of why he overcharged my credit card on purpose. What people don’t realize is that you cannot charge a card more than what’s agreed upon to suit your needs at the time.

Everyone beware of your advertisers. Even when you see the proof, they can change it without your knowledge. Money Mailer is the one I was having all the problems with. There’s some great reps out there, just my particular one didn’t do his job correctly. And I have the proof to show it.

Thanks for listening to my rants about this…
 
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Glad you got your dough back mate. Still sounds like he needs a good, swift kick in the arse!
 
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Fire Side Pizza:
Final Update!!

And I quote:

“There are you happy now?. Please don’t ever look for me to do anything for you you. You have to live with yourself everyday with the decision you made to get the money back that wasn’t yours. Roby’s and Little Caesars will work with me the appropriate way and treat me with respect and actually care about the work I do for them.”

This was after he found out I got my $300 back from the credit card company. I still have the BBB complaint going. And I’m still looking for the explanation of why he overcharged my credit card on purpose. What people don’t realize is that you cannot charge a card more than what’s agreed upon to suit your needs at the time.

Everyone beware of your advertisers. Even when you see the proof, they can change it without your knowledge. Money Mailer is the one I was having all the problems with. There’s some great reps out there, just my particular one didn’t do his job correctly. And I have the proof to show it.

Thanks for listening to my rants about this…
Wow, I thought for sure this scammer was VALPAK.
 
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