It is not nice to know that the dealings of Global Resources has gone on after all of the letters I have written to the BBB and the Attorney Generals of both Pennsylvania and of Florida...
Well to make all of you others feel good (or at least not alone) here is what I have gone theough... There is much more but here was the beginning... I'm not normally a dummy but I was sure taken by what really sounded like a legit and profitable business... And would have been if the company was reputable...
If anyone wants more info please contact me directly grizzlygrey/yahoo put GRI in the headder so I know it is not junk.
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October 29
Global Resources, Inc.
12550 Biscayne Blvd Suite # 704
N. Miami, FL 33181
Attn: Mr. Stewart Pope, President
Dear Mr. Pope,
I have been trying to get a start on this program since mid- August. I received a packet from Global Resources, Inc. (GRI) on about August 16th reminding me that I had an appointment to speak with a Peter Solo on August 19th.
Peter Solo:
When I asked for Peter, I was told that he had to go into the hospital and that his boss Charles Provenzano, would be handling my account personally.
Charles Provenzano:
I had a nice conversation with Charles; I asked a lot of questions and was given many of the answers. Such as:
A. The type of phones
1. Nokia 5160
B. The locations
1. There were already 14 locations in Montgomery County that were pre-approved.
2. Grocery stores
3.7-11 stores
4. Other convenience stores/gas stations
C. How do I get locations and what input do I have?
1. Located and signed-up by GRI with my approval for each site
D. The expected selling rate
1.3 phones a day each store
2. Renewal minutes conservatively: $20 each phone
E. Expected income per McGinnis @ $225K over 2 years
1. $10 per phone X 3 stores X 3 phones X 365 days $32,850.00
2. Min $20 renewals per month each phone @10% each
a. 270 phones 1st mo. X 20 X 10% X 12 mos.
B. 270 phones 2nd mo. X 20 X 10% X 11 mos.
C. 270 phones 3rd mo. X 20 X 10% X 10 mos.
D. ON OUT FOR A YEAR: 270 X 20 X 10% X 78 $42,120.00
e. Total First year of $ 74,970.00 and this is conservative, I'm told, without adding additional stations and this increases exponentially each year.
F. $149,940.00 the second year and so on and so on
I got some sketchy answers about the organization and I couldn't get exact workings of the program but for the most part there was enough to keep my interest. I was going to think it over. Aside from the normal, " do it now and I'll do this..." scenario, things went relatively smooth. However, when I asked who was the person in charge, Charles said I was talking to the top guy (him) and the only one higher was Mr. Pope.
John McGinnis:
The next time I called, I was directed to John McGinnis with the explanation that Charles was not well and "had to go to the hospital"... I should have hung up then but didn't... I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
I went over the items that Charles and I talked about and got some clarifications. John and I agree on a few" Special Provisions" and I made out the contract. I faxed the agreement with the "Special Provisions" to John but he did not receive them. (?) Before I sent it in I had to read each "Special Provision" verbatim for John to approve. One of the "Special Provisions" had to be approved by another gentleman about the shipping charges for additional phone orders being included for orders of 96 or more. It was approved.
In order to meet the deadline to obtain the special provisions, I overnighted the package to arrive on Sept 3rd.
I had to call John a number of times to find out if he received the Federal Express package. I did explain to John that I wanted to move quickly and plan to have another 5 locations by year-end if everything worked out on the first 3.
Side note here... I initially wanted to go with 10 locations to start but in order to get me to think less about the amount of money I was putting out, I was talked into starting with 3 and increasing at a later time... It appears I made the right decision.]
I continued calling John to find out when I could get started and kept getting put off (some of it was due to a hurricane and I understood a delay of day or so). More time passed and I wanted to go to the 14 locations that were pre-approved but still got the run-around. I got stories that they did not want me to talk to the merchants until after there was an agreement in place with them... And other excuses (I thought them real at the time).
In the mean time while all of this was going on, I got a call from Rick Balber (?) (SEE BELOW).
Frank Guagliardo:
I was then passed on to the "Location Department" who would take over from John. I have not been able to talk to John since.
Frank's a great guy from the old neighborhood, NY City, who struck me as helpful and knowing his profession. He talked a good story about the business and I was going right along... I would be contacted as soon as locations were established. After a few days, I wanted some of the locations to at least "Drive buy" and just go in for a soda or such. This was to see if the location was acceptable to me as I was told I had the final say.
Frank was going to download the locations and get them to me. When I finally got the locations to look at, I got 5 and visited them all. I got back to frank that I was satisfied with 2 of them and that I found 3 others that I liked as well or better. Frank then said that I would be taken care of and he was going to assign me to his best locator, Leo.
Rich Balber:
I got a call from Rich, who was supposed to be a "Top" guy, because in my conversations with Frank, I stated how I wanted to expand at the earliest chance. Rich told me that he had had a huge order and that he could let me have additional locations for the great price of 3750 each, instead of the 4350 my additional locations would be. I told him that I needed to see how the first 3 went before I committed to more. It turns out that the first 3 were being such a hassle and not as was stated to me on so many occasions.
Leo:
Leo was going to call me and get things rolling. I finally talked to Leo a few days later and had to give him the locations also, he did not get them from Frank. To make a long story short (er), there were no Pre-approved sites and the sites that Frank gave me were not even available (Wawa, 7/11, and Sheets) I am told because they are corporate and GRI does not have contracts in place yet (... But they are in the progress and will be coming soon...). After Leo put me off a number of times because he was busy, and he wanted to treat me right. He finally tried to have me look at locations about 90 miles away on route 80 in Northern PA and over at the NJ border near Trenton, about 90 miles away in another direction. When I asked about the "pre-approved" locations where I live in Montgomery County, my sign up location, he said they were still working on them but he was going to get me some.
The next gyration was Leo sending me a list of towns in PA and I had to cull the ones closest to me... Some of them were as far away as Pittsburgh about 320 miles (I use to live there). Even after giving him the towns, he still came back with locations outside those towns. I was then sloughed off to Fran.
Fran:
She was bubbly and explained the whole process to me... Again... But she said she was different... If a location was not producing, she will pull it and place it elsewhere... Same procedure I heard from Leo and Frank and John. She stated she needed time to get the best locations for me and that I had to be patient. More and more talk with very little action.
After talking to her a few times, I pushed harder for locations, Fran actually went into Yahoo Search for stores in my area and FAXED me that search result. Frank had been informed of this and said it was a mistake... Yes, it was!
I still did NOT get locations and was sloughed off to Anthony. On Thursday of the previous week, Fran told me that Anthony would be working with me and that he was hard at it now and would give me a call on Monday or Tuesday of the next week (see Anthony below). However, after I told Anthony I wanted to talk to you and why... I got a call back from Fran saying that she was actually the locator for me and that Anthony was just helping (NOT what Anthony said!) because I was important... And she would call me back the next day with locations!
Needless to say, I did NOT get the call the next day (Wednesday).
On Thursday, I again tried to get to someone who could help me and the operator would not honor my requests as usual... I first asked for Fran to give her a courtesy call... I was told that she was not available. I then asked for Frank... He was not available. I then asked for McGinnis and he was not available... I then asked for Rich Balber and the operator kept me on hold for a while and came back to tell me to hold on that FRANK would be with me in a minute...
Frank got on, I told him how disgusted I was and I wanted to speak to whoever was in charge. Frank transferred me to Amber, who I was told, was the HEAD of Customer Service. (SEE Amber below)
Frank then sent me 3 locations to look at but they were 65 miles away in Lancaster (but getting closer).
BACK TO FRAN:
After another week, Fran found a location in Reading... Not in the list of towns that I sent back to Leo but within 40 miles (closer still and I agreed to look at them).
I went to the location and talked to the merchant for Fran and also called Fran from there for her to answer any additional questions from the merchant. Fran was not in yet so I left a message for her. Anthony called me back and spoke with the merchant... One of the questions that the merchant asked was about "flip" phones... I asked the merchant what the answer was and he said that he was told, "... They are in the works and should be out soon." I took the application and the voided check and faxed them to Fran as per her request for a credit check and to qualify the store. When I told Fran about the "flip" phones, she said that that was not true and Anthony should not have told the merchant that - she would handle it.
Fran later called back with another location on the other side of Reading and I went there also. Fran wanted me to bring a phone with me and the first thing that the merchant said was that the phone was an outdated model. It was not the phone I was told it would be and on the posters that were sent to me by GRI. The merchant wanted to talk to his partner and would get back to Fran the next day. He did and it turns out he has 4 stores so Fran signed him up for 2 of the stores and I do not know what she has planned for the other two. (Speculation: Possible to compete with me as GRI supplied stores) I have not even seen the second store for approval.
Actually, I have not approved the first 2 stores, there did not seem to be much business, off the beaten path, and in a residential area with limited prospective purchasers. I was told by Fran to trust her that these would be good locations and if not, she will just get me replacements... If the first 3 were such a hassle, how long will that take to get replacements?
After I told Fran and Munro (SEE BELOW) that I was writing to you, there was suddenly a big push to get me settled in. Fran has been Faxing agreements for me to sign and get back to her immediately even when I told her that I will not do anything until you get back to me.
Anthony:
Very nice gentleman who called me on Tuesday 10/12/04 and explained that he was now my locator and that he knows what I went through and that he was going to do right by me. He explained his method and that he would relocate as necessary... So on, and so forth... Just like the others... A planned script... But nicely done!
Although he said he knew what I have been going through, he did not know the particulars of the case... He said that he just got my file on Tuesday even though Fran told me that he was working on it the previous Thursday.
Anthony seemed sincere and asked me to give him until the next Tuesday 10/12/04. I asked him to have someone in "authority" for the whole company, I asked for YOU, to call me by Friday 10/15/04. Anthony said that he would see that you get the message. Anthony then sent me the paperwork for merchants that he put his name on as the locator. This was for the next week when he would have locations for me to recruit.
That's when Fran called back that afternoon saying that Anthony did not think that I liked him... Actually I really believed that he would do a good job and I told Fran that. Fran stated that he was not taking over my case but was just helping out... That is not what Anthony and I understood. I also told Fran that I wanted to talk to you. She said she would handle it!
Amber:
Frank transferred me to the "HEAD" of Customer Service, Amber. I asked her last name - Smith. I proceeded to fill Amber in but when I asked who her boss was, as with everyone else I asked she said she did not know, she was the head of the department. I proceeded to ask her about the chain of command and all I got was that it was unknown by her... She couldn't (wouldn't) tell me who she worked for or who anyone else worked for... I asked who Provenzano worked for, who McGinnis worked for, Frank, Balber, Fran, (she told me Frank for Fran)... She finally told me to hang on and then Jack Munro gets on. Jack told me that he was the Supervisor of Customer Service and Shipping.
Jack Munro:
Jack, like everyone else, was nice. However, I still had to go over everything. I asked him if I could be transferred to speak to you. He said that I should write to you and fax it to 1-800-595-7582 and he will make sure that you get it. Jack tried to explain away why no one knows who works for whom. I don't pretend to know all about running a company but I have been in management in the Nuclear Industry for 25 years and always knew who I and my bosses worked for up to the President of the company. I never heard that authority went by seniority, as I was told.
I also have a question that I cannot get answered. McGinnis would not even call me back.
I have a former colleague that services car dealerships and suggests that I stock them with phones and the means to renew minutes. My question is, since I was sold on the renewal of minutes to make me and GRI money, would it be in your best interest to provide the pin machines and access to recharging minutes for just the cost of the pin machines? I had checked with the manufacturer and was told they are less than $350 each when they were new not refurbished... Or would I have to buy more locations at the full price even though GRI will do very little to get these accounts?
I can get us multiple locations and have 5 that are already interested. I would like to place as many as I can over the next few months. I have dealers willing to give away the phones in order to get the recharge returns.
You are almost up to date.
ON 9/24/04, I received a package that had among other things, the original of my "contract" that I sent in on September 2... However, one of the special provisions was crossed out and initialed.
I sent a copy to Frank Guagliardo with a letter explaining that there was no contract between us because I do not approve the change made to the contract. I stated, and FAXED, that since there was not a binding contract between Global Resources and myself, my good faith check should not have been cashed, but returned to me for me to decide whether or not I want to accept the contract as altered and modified.
He was to get with you about what was agreed to. I also asked for him to have you call me and I would decide then if the contract was acceptable.
ANOTHER ISSUE:
I also am not in a position to begin full operation and it has been over the 45 days stated that I would be.
I received the equipment late and some of my equipment is not acceptable.
The phones that I was quoted as going to be received were the NOKIA 5160 series but what I received were Ericcson R300. All of the literature that you sent me states a NOKIA phone will be supplied. I talked to the people at JusTalk, where the phones came from, and they said that the Nokia is the better phone and that they have had some problems with the Ericcson phones.
Also there is a website, www.justalkprepaid.com that are selling the JusTalk Ericcson R300 Packaged phones for 39.95 and they come with a car charger and a leather case - both of which GRI's do not have. (When I told Fran that, she said, "Oh well, too late..." and I did not push it.) These Ericcson phones were built before the Sony connection and do not have the quality of the present day phones.
I was also NOT TOLD that the phones are REFURBISHED phones and I was expecting new equipment.
I would like to see this work because I see the need for the product, However, I have doubts about an organization that switches products, sends refurbished products, and will not cooperate when I ask to speak to management.
I have to assume that you are not aware of the problems that I have been going through with the company and that you will take the appropriate steps to correct the shortcomings of your staff. Everyone I talked to seem genuine... And likeable. However, I think that they just lack mid to upper lever leadership and management.
I have left out a lot and if you really want more of the same, I will be glad to comply.
Therefore, because of the previous and a lot that I left out, I ask that you return a minimum of my GOOD FAITH SUBMITTAL of $14,970.00 that GRI cashed and deposited without authorization or a valid contract or buyers order.
With best regards
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