I fully agree with all aspects of the reports written here by everyone else who has been scammed by Gary Rike. I also received the useless account list which was lauded by my recruiter, J. Carroll Hood.
I, too, learned from stores I called on that the pricing of the jewelry was way out of line compared to pricing of similar or better jewelry that they retailed. The contract indeed did state that the purchase price of samples AND our travel to Dallas would all be reimbursed when we sold $25,000.00 of merchandise. I think Mr. Rike felt pretty comfortable in offering that carrot since it would be nearly impossible to ever sell $25,000.00 of that jewelry!
I was told that Final Touch desperately needed representation in this territory because a rep out of Texas had been trying to cover it for some time, but it was more than he could handle. They needed somebody that lived here and who could hire five subreps to blanket the two-state area. They said they had an account list of about 100 stores that would be given to me. It sounded like a dream, but I was very curious about where the nearest rep was to my territory, mainly because I wanted to know if someone was in the St. Louis area or if I should hire a subrep there. I asked both J. Carroll Hood and then Gary Rike exactly WHERE the nearest reps were to me. Neither of them could remember off-hand, and Gary said that it was illegal to give an exclusive territory to a rep. (I'm not sure that's a correct statement.) I then pressed him and asked him if he could assure me that he was not planning on hiring any other reps in MY territory. He did assure me that he would not hire anyone else as long as there were sales being made.
By the time I received my samples and my business cards were printed, I tried to book a booth at the KC Merchandise Mart Gift Show for late January. It was at that time that I found out about another Account Manager that was hired the first of December (I was hired December 28) in MY OWN TOWN!!! So I guess J. Carroll and Gary just forgot that they had hired someone else less than a month before??? Talk about liars! I immediately called Debbi in Dallas (VERY upset, I might add) and told her I had just found out there was another rep in my city. All she offered (and I'll NEVER forget this!) was "Oh, there is plenty of business out there for everybody". Thinking back on it now, Debbi's response indicates to me that she was accustomed to getting such calls from reps and that it was a normal occurrence. Then one of the hospitals in Wichita told me about three other Final Touch reps that were calling them for appointments! I have since found SIX reps in Kansas and Missouri that were hired and/or active within the period of two months before I was hired and two months after. Each of them was misled the same as all the rest of us. Each of them is disappointed and angry.
I filed a report with the Texas Attorney General and was issued a case number on May 15. I would urge each and every one of you to do the same if you have not already done so. This scam has to stop.
Bottom line... I would NEVER have spent my money to travel to Dallas in the first place if I had known about all the other reps.inTENTIONALLY keeping that information from me, in my opinion, constituted fraud and misrepresentation, and I, for one, would like to see Mr. Rike get his just desserts for that.
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