This was my experience with WestBow Press.
After working 6 years straight on my book and having it edited 3 times by different editors, I was ready to market. I called Westbow and was sucked in because they did a slick job of dangling Thomas Nelson and 35,000 bookstores in front of me. I was overanxious and really did not know what I was doing. I signed up for a $3000 package and put $1000 down on Friday. Monday morning I decided to back off and cancel the order until I knew better what I wanted to do. At the time I thought I would probably resume working with Westbow in the future.
I called nonstop all day Monday and hit a complete brick wall reaching anyone. I could not reach anyone in customer service. I reached the original salesman once, and he gave me a number, or I should say an extension number, for Jeff Murray, who is apparently head of the salesmen. No matter who you call, you have to leave a message. Then they apparently choose who they are going to call back. This went on for days. Finally I got a call back from Jeff Murray. He was very condescending and practically told me how stupid I was for not staying with the package. He finally gave me a name and address of who to send a signed request for refund to. I went to the trouble of printing a letter and mailing it by certified return receipt mail. Two weeks later I had heard nothing.
I found Thomas Nelson's number and called them. Their customer service put me through to Pete Nikolai. I am not sure who he is, but he is pretty high up with Thomas Nelson. He was very nice and assured me he would take care of it in a couple of days. It took two weeks, but I got an email from him personally telling me he had gotten word that my refund was on the way. I checked my Visa account and there it was, minus $200. I figure it was worth $200 for my education.
I found out these companies have a boiler room of salesmen that sign people up for their packages. They do not make money selling books for the author. They make their money creating covers, editing, formatting manuscripts, creating websites and printing books. Traditional printers just sit back and let the author take all the risk and pay the promotional expenses. If someone does accidentally sell a few books, the traditional publisher might offer them a teeny-weeny contract if they can buy it for nothing. Westbow Press. Boooooo.
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