If you ever come across the opportunity to invest with Greeting Cards of America to start your own business - Don't!
I found an advertisement for Greeting Cards of America as a banner ad on a website that I respected. After doing considerable research, I felt reasonably sure this opportunity was legitimate and I decided to invest in their starter level package. That was a bad decision.
Greeting Cards of America sells the opportunity to go into business for yourself as a greeting cards seller. They sell greeting cards and display stands and offer "professional" marketing support to investors to start their own business. The marketing support is done by their outside contractor, American Eagle Placements, an equally corrupt outfit. American Eagle Placements' job is to get your greeting cards and display stands set up in local retail stores to sell on consignment.
I invested about $12,000 in this "opportunity" and through first three months had made back about $138 on this investment. As soon as my Greeting Cards of America received my check the friendly customer service stopped. It took 5 weeks to get my inventory. When I did, many of the cards arrived in poor condition.
Then began the nightmare of working with American Eagle Placements. A key reason I pursued this opportunity was the use of a professional location company. American Eagle Placements management is dishonest and their locators are unprofessional and lack integrity. I was told that they do thorough demographic research on each individual market and their representatives are provided with this information to secure the best locations for your greeting card displays. That was a lie. All they provided was a couple of guys driving into town with the yellow pages as a guide. One of their representatives was so unprofessional, that he even purchased beer while on the job and proceeded to represent me to prospective clients with alcohol on his breath. I fired him and his partner and was assigned an only slightly more competent team. This is but one example of the lack of professionalism I experienced with American Eagle.
When I complained to Greeting Cards of America about my experiences with American Eagle, I was given no assistance, only lip service and a do-it-yourself locating guide. If I had known I was to be faced with selecting locations on my own I would not have invested.
Furthermore, the cards are made in China and many read like poor translations and the message is lost. A large percentage of the Pop-up style cards received have ink smudges on the backs from the bar-code labels, which makes them appear dirty and thus un-sellable. Also I have had to scrap some of the musical cards because once opened, the music will not stop.
Additionally, I was told after my initial purchase that I could not order individual titles of musical cards. You have to take whatever is shipped to me including cards that do not sell. The fact that I was not able to order Father's Day cards was another disappointment. How can a greeting card company not have cards available for a major holiday?
I have been able to locate other dissatisfied GCA distributors, so I know my case is not unique. These people feel likewise that they were defrauded.
I have requested a complete refund and was my request denied. I have subsequently filed complaints on Greeting Cards of America with the BBB as well as the Florida and Michigan State Attorney General Offices.
To summarize, Greeting Cards of America uses:
1. Deceptive advertising of sales and income projections
* Company advertises: "No matter how you do the numbers, it's a money maker. That is not true.
*Minimum sales projections claim 6 sales per day per location my actual average is under 0.2.
*Minimum annual income projections claim $27,000 with 10 locations my actual target is under $1,000.
*Company insinuates large chain supermarkets are a realistic sales channel actually they are virtually inaccessible to small distributors.
2. Poor support/Unethical practices
*Recommended use of corrupt, dishonest contractor American Eagle Placements for marketing placement - offered no assistance with problem resolution.
*Musical cards can not be ordered by specific titles. Must take whatever the company ships, even titles that do not sell.informed of this after investing.
*Lack of product availability during key holiday periods.
3. Poor quality products
*Pop-up greeting cards have ink smudges on them and appear dirty.
*Musical cards malfunction and music will not shut off.
*Many cards read like they were translated from another language and part of the message is unclear or lost.
Bottom line is this company should be avoided at all costs. They will take your money and run.
Mark
Kalamazoo, Michigan
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