We were contacted by Valerie Hoffman of Garden Girl Products in March to manufacture a series of Bath and Body Kits for Garden Girl Products. These kits were to be manufactured for the sole purpose of being sold on the Television Station, The Home Shopping Network. Valerie Hoffman received samples of our products shortly after this to evaluate the quality and we were asked to bid on the job. She placed an order of 1,000 kits comprising of One Shower Gel, One Body Scrub and One Lotion per kit. We were informed that this would be the first order of many as Garden Girl would be selling these kits every two months on The Home Shopping Network and were to continue manufacturing for Garden Girl.
My company, Fantastibath is a manufacturer of private label, premium toiletries and personal care products for companies wanting their own brand of bath products.
Garden Girl, Valerie Hoffman signed a manufacturing contract, paid for the order with her personal Visa credit card. Fantastibath manufactured the 1,000 bath and body kits and shipped the order to The Home Shopping Network in August.
I was told by the Home Shopping Network that Valerie Hoffman appeared on the show but was immediately pulled off the air after Valerie claimed the essential oils in the bath kits helped with a large number of medical conditions.
The Home Shopping Network shipped the kits back to Garden Girl.
Our credit card processor contacted us in December when Garden Girl and Valerie Hoffman told their bank, Citibank to reverse the charge for this transaction. They (Garden Girl) told Citibank they had not received the products we made for them. They lied, we were provided delivery receipts from Home Shopping showing they had delivered and signed for the shipment. Garden Girl was also selling the Bath Kits on their web site, www.gardengirl.Us/kits.html.
This shocked me because I didn't know you could take back a payment months later. We had already been paid for the job and we have no control over how they are sold or even if they will be sold.
After proving they did receive the products, they said the products were not what they had ordered. We had worked on this order for six months getting everything exactly right because The Home Shopping Network has very strict policies on packaging and the look of the kits. Our products are high quality and they passed all of the requirements. Valerie was closely involved with the fragrance, color, ingredients used and even the color. She was sent samples on four occasions to approve of the products. Valerie knew what she was getting and had even provided the labels to be applied to the bottles.
Garden Girl tried to rip us off by not paying for the products we made for them. She screwed up and wasn't able to sell the bath kits as originally planned on the Home Shopping Network so she thought she wouldn't pay us for making them.
It was a huge hassle trying to get the money owed to us by Valerie Hoffman, Garden Girl and Sunrise Herb Farm. We finally had to go to court and have an arbitration judge hear our case.
We won the lawsuit and Garden Girl was forced to pay for the Bath Kits they ordered from Fantastibath.
WARNING!!! Do not accept any credit card payments you can't afford to lose. The credit card companies will automatically reverse the payment no matter what the situation, the amount or the time passed. Remember this happened to us, months after we had already been paid for the order. Over $6,000. No matter what size of company you have, NO ONE can afford to loose $6,000!!! In America you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, not with the credit companies. You are automatically at fault and guilty and have to prove your case.
My advice to all vendors, ONLY accept credit cards for smaller retail purchases. ALWAYS ask in advance for payment via company check and wait till it clears before shipping anything!
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH GARDEN GIRL, SUNRISE HERB FARMS, or Valerie Hoffman. They are crooks and will rip you off at the first chance they get. I read the other complaints about them on this service. I wish I had known in advance about all the problems because we wouldn't have done anything for them. We did not know the other company even existed, Sunrise Herb Farm. We ONLY knew about Garden Girl.
Thanks for reading our story and check out our web site for quality Bath and Body Products. Www.fantastibath.com. We are honest and have an unconditional guarantee on everything we make.
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