On April 24, Cimbrian contracted with Target Point Media (TPM), Coral Springs, FL, to purchase an email list for 18,800 businesses with at least 2 contacts per business for Pennsylvania businesses. The contacts were to be C level contacts, being the IT Director or CIO and either CEO or Marketing Director. See a copy of the Purchase Order below:
Target Point Media
3561 NW 126th Avenue
Coral Springs, FL 33065
Ph: 954 510-7283
Fax: 954 510-7285 INSERTION ORDER
Io #: 8944r
date: april 21
To:
Cimbrian
Lancaster, PA 17603 Re Email List Purchase
DESCRIPTION AMOUNT
18,800 Record E-Mail with a minimum two contacts per record, List Purchase Campaign: at $. 20 each
Target: Firms with over 50 employee's in PA Excluding Retail and IT
Deployment Dates: COD (data delivery to be within 10 days of payment processing via FTP)
Fields of Collection: Company Name, Email, Phone and minimum of two C level Contacts being the IT Director or CIO and either CEO or Marketing Director
Terms: Prepay
TOTAL $3,760.00
Rep: PA
Please make checks payable to:
Target Point Media
3561 NW 126th Avenue
Coral Springs, FL 33065
FedEx: 357 305 802
DHL: 798 408 226
Bank Wiring Instructions:
Bank Atlantic
8701 SW 137th Avenue
Miami, FL 33183
Routing: 267083763
Account: 0063387631
By my signature below, I agree to the terms and conditions located at: http://www.targetpointmedia.com/termsandconditions.htm
Please sign here:% date:%
PRINT NAME HERE:% TITLE:%
Thank you for your business!
(End of Purchase Order)
TPM required prepayment, which was electronically wired on April 24. The email list was to be delivered within 10 days of payment.
May 5 A first email list was delivered by TPM to Cimbrian with the following problems:
-This list contained only 21,043 records instead of the 37,600 records ordered.
-The list contained multiple duplicates.indeed, after removing duplicate records, there were only 13,778 unique records.
-The total number of companies included in the list was 8,764, not the 18,800 which Cimbrian contracted and paid for.
-Contact types not within the scope of the order were included among these records such as:
o Assistant General Counsel
o Business Systems Analyst
o Chief Diversity Officer
o And others
-Cimbrian informed TPM that the list was not acceptable and must be corrected.
Representatives of Cimbrian had numerous telephone conversations with TPM representative, Peter Anderson. Mr. Anderson stated that the problems with the original list would be corrected. It took about 10 more days to receive another list from TPM.
May 14 - 20 days after payment was made, Cimbrian received a second list of addresses from TPM with the following issues:
-Cimbrian was told by Mr. Anderson that TPM was only able to send of the list at this time.
-Accordingly, the second list should have contained 18,800. However, it contained only 8,082 records.
-Of the 8,082 records received, only 4,490 were from PA or NJ (these states were okay). The remainder were from all over the U.S., which was not acceptable to Cimbrian and violated the terms of the contract.
May 15 Cimbrian sent an email to TPM recapping the above issues and asking for the remainder of the records by the end of the day or a refund. See this email below:
Hello Pete,
Below is a recap of the history and issues that we have had with the purchase of the email list from Target Point Media.
-April 24
o Invoice received from TPM in the amount of $3,760.
TPM to provide Cimbrian with email addresses for two contacts per company for 18,800 businesses in PA for a total of 37,700 email addresses. One contact to be CIT/CTO/IT Director. Other contact to be CEO/CFO/Marketing Director/Sales Director. List to be provided within 10 days of payment.
O Payment sent to TPM by wire transfer on this date.
- May 5
o Email list received from TPM. There were the following issues with this list:
? This list contained 21,043 individual records.
? Due to duplicates within the list, there were only 13,778 unique records in this list and not the 37,700 paid for.
? The total number of companies in this list was 8,764 and not the 18,800 paid for.
? Included among the records in this list were many contact types that did not might my requirements such as:
Assistant General Counsel
Business Systems Analyst
Chief Diversity Officer
And other
-May 14 20 days after payment was made
o Partial list is received. I was told this was half of the list, which should be a total of 18,800 records. This list contains 8,082 records.
O Out of the 8,082 records received, only 4,490 are from PA/NJ.
O 3,592 records are from states other than PA/NJ.
Pete, I was told that this list would be right, and it definitely is not right. I believe that we have one of two options at this time. I am not willing to continue waiting for the total number of records promised. We have to resolve this issue and come to a conclusion now.
- Option 1 You provide me with the remaining records by the end of the day today, or before. You commit to providing a refund for the number of records that are not delivered per our agreement. I personally think you should consider discounting the amount we pay for the records we receive. The refund should be made by bank transfer to Cimbrian on Monday, May 18, just as we paid you by bank transfer.
- Option 2 You refund the entire payment amount, and we do not use your list.
I would appreciate a response from you as soon as possible today.
(End of email)
May 19 Cimbrian received a third list from TPM. This list was meant to complement the list received on May 14. The third list contained 12,151 records for a total of 20,233 records. Of these 20,233 records received:
- 2,340 were duplicates
- 5,901 were unusable due to being an incorrect company contact type
This list was to be used for two types of email blasts. One was to go to CIO/IT Directors. The other was to go to CEO/Marketing Directors. We took the names that we had for the non-IT list and sent out an email blast to 6,863 names. 2,764, or 40%, of these emails bounced back. I had been informed numerous times on the phone by Peter Anderson that one of the reasons it took so long to get the lists together is that every email address was verified as being good before it would be sent to Cimbrian.
May 20 another email is sent to TPM complaining about the quality of the list.
May 21 Cimbrian receives a letter from Peter Anderson. This letter states that he will rectify the problems that we have had with the lists from TPM. He also includes a list of 100,000 business records in Pennsylvania with no email addresses. This list is of no value to Cimbrian and was not requested by Cimbrian. See Peter Anderson's letter below:
Dear Sir:
It is with the deepest regret that I am sending this communication. Based on the results of your use of the list you have been provided it is clear that an unacceptable portion of the information in your list is in error.
I will be working to rectify this issue.in the interim I have attached 100,000 records on businesses in Pennsylvania. These records include Company Name Contact Name Postal Information and phone number. These records do not include email or website information. The market value of these records is $10,000.00 at $. 10 each.
(End of letter)
May 22 Cimbrian sends an email to TPM requesting a refund. See this email below.
Peter,
I forwarded your list and the email below to my boss, who is the CEO of Cimbrian. He has said that this list of businesses is not of value to us for what we are wanting to do, and we will not be using it. Also, the delay in receiving the email lists that we have paid for has made us miss our deadlines that we had set for this project. We did send out an eblast to the Non IT portion of the two lists which you sent. This was a total of 6,863 names. Only 4,099 of these email addresses were good. At $. 10 per address this is $409.90.
My boss has said that since we have missed our project deadline, we are requesting a refund of the balance of the money paid to Target Point Media. This refund should be in the amount of $3,350.10. I personally think that you should refund the entire purchase amount, due to all of the aggravation that we have had to go through. Please confirm that a refund check will be written and put in the mail today.
(End of email)
Peter Anderson's response on May 22:
Due to the absence of the CFO today no decision can be made until Tuesday May 26th.
(End of response)
May 26 Cimbrian receives a list with records from New Jersey which we do not even look at since we have requested a refund. See our email response below.
Peter,
Please note that we are not interested in any additional records. We have gone past our original time frame for this project without getting the records for which we have paid. Per the email sent to you on Friday morning (see attached), Mr. Barrett is requesting a refund due to the inability of Target Point Media to fulfill our purchased request. Please confirm today that a refund check will be written.
Peter Anderson's response on May 26:
I will not be able to give you a decision today.
(End of response)
May 27 Cimbrian's email to TPM:
Peter,
We are still waiting for confirmation that a refund check will be written per our request. Please confirm before the end of the day that this will be done.
(End of email)
May 31 TPM denies Cimbrian's request for a refund:
Dear Sir:
On behalf of Target Point Media I must inform you that you request for a refund has been denied.
Target Point Media has provided an additional $10,000.00 worth of records to your initial purchase of $3,760.00.
The additional records along with the several different lists provided by Target Point Media should be viewed as full compensation for your purchase.
(End of response)
June 1 - In order to keep from having to take legal action, Cimbrian had a phone call with Peter Anderson and told him that we would delay legal action if Cimbrian received the remaining email addresses by the end of the day on June 4. Peter Anderson promised that this would be done.
June 5 Matter is turned over to Cimbrian's attorney.
June 18 Letter is sent to TPM from Cimbrian's attorney. See below.
Via Electronic, Regular and Certified Mail
Mr. Peter Anderson
Target Point Media
3561 NW 126th Avenue
Coral Springs, FL 33065
Re: Cimbrian Group, LLC
Dear Mr. Anderson:
This firm is counsel to Cimbrian Group, LLC ("Cimbrian").
It is our understanding that on April 21 Cimbrian contracted with Target Point Media ("Target Point") to purchase electronic mail addresses for 18,800 Pennsylvania businesses, that two addresses per business were to be provided (for a total of 37,600 addresses), one of which was to be an IT Director or CIO and the other of which was to be a CEO or Marketing Director, that Target Point required prepayment, which Cimrian provided on April 24 in the amount of $3,760.00, and that the electronic mail addresses were to be delivered within 10 days of payment. We further understand that Target Point has failed to satisfy its obligations pursuant to the contract.indeed, on May 5, Target point provided only 21,043 addresses for only 8,764 companies and included addresses for unrequested contact types such as assistant general counsel and chief diversity officers. Moreover, between May 5 and May 20 Target Point sent Cimbrian partial electronic mail address lists, which contained multiple duplicates and records from states outside of Pennsylvania. To date, Cimbrian has received only 4,099 electronic mail addresses that satisfied the terms of the contract and did not bounce back as undeliverable.
That Target Point has provided only 11% of the records it is contractually obligated to provide, after the passage of one month and 23 days from receipt of Cimbrian's payment, is wholly unacceptable. Accordingly, Cimbrian demands a full refund.
If a refund of $3,760.00 is not received by June 30, Cimbrian has authorized this firm to file compolaints with the Better Business Bureas, the Florida Attorney General and to initiate litigation to recover the funds.
I look forward to hearing from you prior to June 30th with details of Target Point's payment of the refund.
(End of Letter)
June 29 TPM sends email to attorney stating In response to your communication to Target Point Media on June 18th the facts you have stated are not in dispute. Your accounting of records received by Cimbrian are accurate. Target Point Media has provided an additional $10,000.00 worth of records to the initial purchase of $3,760.00. The additional records along with the several different lists provided by Target Point Media should be viewed as full compensation for the purchase.
TPM stated that they will not be giving Cimbrian a refund.
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