I entered into business with Holiday Enterprises, Inc.
In July of after learning of the distributorship
on-line. After speaking several times with Andrew Deveau in their Florida sales department and receiving more information through the mail, I arranged for a meeting with the company President, Mr. Nick Morrell at his corporate office in Buford, Georgia.
Initially I was very impressed with the operation and one day after the meeting entered into business with Mr. Morrell. The distributorship involved selling the Disc Magic Protection System. The System is supposedly designed to protect Compact Disc, DVD's, Computer Media Disc, and Video games from scratches and damage with the
application of a clear plastic cover, which remains in
place during play and use of the disc. Their
marketing plan involved selling three products; a
"Label Side Cover", "Playing Side Cover" and "Disc
Repair Solution", in which five retail locations would
be secured in the area of my choice (Memphis,
Tennessee) for the price of $9,995. The price also included five display stands and enough product to start operations. Soon after I entered into business with Holiday and in anticipation of consumer demand, because of Holiday's claims, I purchased extra product to keep in inventory at a cost of $694 and also purchased 5 extra counter display racks at a total cost of $350.
All of the product and displays that I purchased have been entirely useless. (It is important to note that these expenses are only those directly associated with starting the distributorship and do not include all of the miscellaneous expenses I have incurred; business licensing, shipping charges, equipment, supplies, etc.) Slowly but surely, as the days and weeks passed after our meeting and Holiday Enterprises had been paid in full, certain "red flags" went up. There are far to many instances to mention in which Holiday was inconsistent and unhelpful. The following is a summary of complaints to illustrate Holiday's unethical business practices:
1. Product not received in the time promised and
advertised in sales literature. This delayed my business being started for weeks.
2. The first shipment from Holiday included product that
was old and damaged. Arranging for it's return took
days and the replacement product took weeks to arrive,
with a NEW design of the product that had more
problems than the original OLD design.
3. Display signage not correct or nonexistent. When
I called to complain and to arrange for new signage,
office staff was rude and unhelpful.in fact any time
I called I was constantly put on hold and treated with
the most inconsistent customer service I have ever
experienced.
4. Shipping of display racks were constantly delayed
with no explanation.
5. Television advertising never occurred with no
explanation and this was a major "selling" point
during Mr. Morrell's sales presentation.
6. The promised Website, another important "selling"
point in Mr. Morrell's presentation, was never
created. Holiday's technical department responsible
for creating the website never came through on design
of the site, in fact I never saw an example of what
the website would look like. Technical Department was slow to respond to questions and rarely returned phone calls and e-mails. I was given several dates on website completion and weeks passed while I never saw a website and Holiday never contacted me with an explanation.
7. Holiday constantly failed to properly coordinate
the set up of this distributorship and failed to
communicate important details in an appropriate and
efficient manner.
8. Original merchandise shipped was not complete and
although this was corrected, no inventory sheets,
billing, or itemization was provided in any shipment.
I was verbally told what my cost per unit would be,
but no documentation of this information was ever
provided.
When I did speak with Mr. Morrell about the poor performance of the Disc Magic System he responded with a letter on October 13 with a marketing plan in which extra product would be supplied at no cost. I declined this offer becasue I already have approximately 700 units of product in stock that would not sell. My own marketing plan had already been put into effect with a reduced price on all merchandise to encourage consumer interest, which had ZERO response. Samples were also given out intitially to gain consumer interest with every single customer describing similar problems.By this time it was simply to late to correct any problems, consumer interest was non-existent.
All of the individuals who tried samples complained that the product was difficult to use, overpriced, and didn't perform as it was represented. With sales performance extremely low I could not justify anymore time and expense into this business. Despite my diligence and hard work setting up this distributorship, it has been entirely shut down due to all store locations requesting that the product be removed from there store sites. All of the store owners I dealt with were very dissatisfied with the product performance and lost all interest in the Disc Magic System. Due to the problems with the product, I was unable to secure new locations. This was all documented and provided to Mr. Morrell via certified mail. Written complaints from customers who sampled the product were also documented for Mr. Morrell, in which customers indicated their problems with the product.
The one thing Holiday never failed to do was charge
me for the extra product and displays that I initially
purchased. They did this in a most timely and
efficient manner. If they would apply this same speed
and efficiency to the rest of their business by properly servicing their distributors and market products that can actually be sold, a very successful business could be realized.
As a result of this business arrangement with Holiday,
I have experienced extreme financial distress. The
above details only HIGHLIGHT the problems that I had
with Holiday Enterprises. There are simply to many
problems to list in full detail. I also contacted Mr.
Morrell by certified mail in October (he personally signed for the letter and the attached documentation) in an attempt to have my investment for the product and
racks refunded. I gave Mr. Morrell 10 days to respond
to my first letter with no response. I mailed a 2nd
certified letter, signed for by Holiday office staff, giving Mr. Morrell a reasonable 7 days to contact me with no response. Both of my attempts to work this out with Mr. Morrell failed. Apparently I will be stuck with this worthless product which will have to be stored indefinitely.
With no response from either letter it is obvious that Holiday Enterprises is not interested in dealing with unsatisfied distributors. They are only interested in "selling" you on the initial distributorship package. If they truly had quality products for sale then they would work harder to satisfy all distributors so they could concentrate on selling large volumes of merchandise, which is obviously not there motivation. Their actual motivation is obvious by my experience and the other experiences on this site. I worked diligently at this business, with countless hours and trips to store locations to get the public interested in this product, with no success. No amount of work will be rewarded when your involved with this company! I am also being fair in only requesting my direct investment in to the distributorship be refunded.
I would warn anyone not to become involved with this company. I LOST $11,040 WITH THIS SO CALLED OPPORTUNITY! Do not let this happen to you! Also be warned that Holiday Enterprises operates under the business name of Holiday Ink Half Price, Inc. And Holiday Ink. Under these two names the company markets Ink Cartridge Distributorships using the same strategies.
I encourage anyone to contact me if you have had similar experiences with Holiday. Please also contact the Atlanta Division of the Better Business Bureau and the National Business Opportunity Bureau to file a formal complaint. If enough people complain these organizations will have no choice but to pull Holiday Enterprises membership status. Hopefully we can join our efforts and stop this company from taking advantage of other hardworking people around the country!
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