In February of I bought into a business opportunity offered by Greeting Cards of America, hereinafter referred to as GCA. I purchased 11 greeting card displays and 10000 cards for $10,350.00, paid nearly $800.00 in shipping and $1,500.00 to American Eagle Placement, hereinafter referred to as AEP. I believe GCA was very fraudulent and misleading with both their salesman's claims and printed literature.
On August 22, I made a request to Greeting Cards of America for a refund of my total purchase price of $10,350.00 due to dissatisfaction with the tactics they used to lure me to invest in their company. Upon receipt of this refund, all cards and stands in my possession would be returned to GCA.
Once GCA received my check for $10,350.00 all enthusiasm that they previously displayed was gone. They were absolutely no help in advising on how to start this business. I was told by GCA Customer Service Representative numerous times that a brochure would be sent advising me of how to establish this business. As stated in their literature they offer an extensive business plan to get you started.
This information was never received. I continually inquired about this and was finally told that this is not available. I was led to believe that this information would be included when I received my cards and stands. I could go on for pages listing all the misrepresentations that GCA forwarded me prior to my investment but now after re-reading their literature thoroughly it has come to my attention that GCA is a professional scam artist.
The GCA literature I received stated that I would have guaranteed high traffic locations such as chain super markets, pharmacies, card shops, etc. GCA's salesman and American Eagle Placement's representative, the recommended locating company of GCA, prior to my purchase of this investment opportunity, also guaranteed this.
GCA's literature and their salesman stated that they would do the demographic research and provide a mixture of best selling cards in my area from top manufacturers in the country. The cards I received were a randomly selected mixture of cards from Paradise Greetings and Card Songs of America, which are manufactured in China.
I have been advised that the Atty. General of Florida has shut down Card Songs of America and have lawsuits against them. I received musical cards and pop-up cards and never received the regular cards as stated in their literature and again was told after the fact that they are not available. I am very dissatisfied with the quality of the cards. Many of the pop-up cards are bent, dirty, have misspelled words and have ink smudges on them. The content of many cards read like poor translation and the message was lost. As anyone would know this type of merchandise will not sell. I have had to discard many of the musical cards because once they are opened they will not turn off. I feel that I have received a very poor product.
Also, we were advised that we could order specialty cards but GCA did not even have Father's Day cards available to order. How can a greeting card company not have cards available for a major holiday?
I received 10000 cards that literally did not allow me to rotate the stock as suggested by GCA on a monthly basis to keep the display with a fresh look as my cards were all the same. I do have a mixture of the same cards for each display, but if one were to sellout I would have to replace it with the same card.
GCA advertised that the product would be displayed effectively. I received many complaints about the wobbly stands which were received with my order.
GCA's advertisements and salesman estimated an average sales figure to be 8 to 10 cards per day. This was an extremely over estimated average for a daily sales figure. I understand no one can guarantee exact sales figures as their salesman did, but I figured if I could get one-fourth of GCA's average claim this would be a worthwhile investment. More than a couple of my locations had no sales for months. At this point I am averaging. 12 (point one two) cards per day per location. Due to lack of sales, I was asked by several retailers to remove the displays and I am now forced to relocate my displays on my own after paying a professional locator (AEP) $1,500.00 to locate my displays at the recommendation of GCA.
I understand that no one can guarantee sales figures but I believe a statement saying you can triple your investment in the first year, was one of the most misleading statement in their literature. Anyone could see after getting his or her locations that this would never happen. If I was selling a quality product that was displayed effectively in high traffic locations as GCA's literature stated, the minimal sales of 2-3 cards per day might have been obtained which would have allowed me to make my money back in the first year.
GCA's literature stated skilled marketing technicians would locate my card stands if I requested. GCA recommended I use AEP. AEP and GCA salesman informed me that AEP does thorough demographic research on each individual market and their locators are provided with this information. This was a lie. I witnessed the locator working from the yellow pages and making phone calls to find me locations. I questioned the locator why I wasn't able to place my displays in the high traffic chain super markets, pharmacies, etc. As promised. He stated they are under corporate contracts with their own suppliers. That was another lie stated in GCA's literature.
I was told by the locator I could only locate in privately owned mom and pop stores that have very little traffic. The representative from American Eagle Placement, the locating company GCA recommended, had no skills whatsoever in locating greeting card stands and AEP's staff was very unprofessional and if GCA recommended them I was again misled, as location is a very important part of this business.
What settlement would I consider fair? I want my $10,350.00 back and I would agree to return the cards and stands at my cost. If GCA claims that their product is so great, they should have no problem reselling it to another potential investor. GCA after receipt of my dissatisfaction letter have notified me that the purchase is non-refundable and they would agree to do nothing to accommodate their lies, deceitfulness and misleading tactics to help me to recover any of my loss.
As you can see this investment opportunity has been a nightmare from the start. There is no chance that this investment opportunity will remotely be profitable or at the very least return my investment. Basically I have lost my investment of $13,000.00. GCA should be prohibited from being able to circulate this information, which they provide to innocent people trying to invest their money. GCA is a deceitful and fraudulent company that only survives on the misfortune of misled people.
Tom
Cape Coral, Florida
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