I am about to be sick. This was my first business venture, and it appears I've been taken for everything I put into it, roughly $30,000.00, which I could hardly afford to lose.
The reps at Royal Gourmet were extremely helpful and easy to get in touch with at first, when they were telling me the wonders of their distributing routes. I finally made the decision to invest in a 40 location route (costing me about $23K for the displays/coffee, and another $7K to Evans consulting for finding the locations) and the problems began almost immediately. I wrote Royal Gourmet a check in late August, and did not receive any displays or product until 9/17 when i got my displays. The displays, however, were incomplete, missing several bases and half of the poles I needed to set them up. Also a number of displays arrived in damaged condition, with broken plastic & chipped pieces that I would not want to put in ANY store for display. After several calls with Gordon Byron regarding the missing poles, I was assured they had been shipped. That conversation took place over a month ago now, and I still have not received the poles, and can no longer get in touch with Gordon.
My coffee arrived about a week after my displays, and I set to work on my route. The company boasts average sales of 4 bags a day at each location. Over a month after my initial round of installations, I have stores that have not sold one bag yet. At least 50% of the "prime" locations I was given (sold) were side of the road gas stations. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I don't know many people who buy gourmet coffee by the bag in gas stations. Most of my displays are just collecting dust right now, and even my BEST selling stores so far average about 6 bags a week. That is less than one bag a day, and only at 2 locations. The rest are much worse than that.
Now I find myself in a new bind because I have 20 locations secured, but as of yet not installed, because I still have no poles to mount the displays on. I have no idea what to tell my customers, or how long I should expect them to wait for me. I also feel that if I continue selling my product, that I would be acting in bad faith, since when it runs out, I would just be pulling my displays from stores and stopping all business with them. Should I tell them this ahead of time? What reactions should I expect? Or is it OK for me to just abruptly stop when I run out of product?
I have one meeting remaining with my locator, who works for Evans Consulting. I still owe them for 6 locations. I am trying to find legal advice as to whether I should pay them for the remaining locations or not. If they are involved in this scam, then I certainly don't want to give them another dime. However, if they are clear and acting in good faith, then I realize I must honor my end of our contract, or risk Evans consulting taking action against me. I did find it interesting that my locator seemed very taken aback when I delayed my meeting with him this afternoon. He told me this had to be done by tomorrow morning as he had another job to start out of town. This is after the same man made me wait over a month to even START finding me locations. I calmly told him that this is the first time I have delayed our meetings & that I have been very patient with him, at which point he backed off a bit, but still seemed on edge that we weren't meeting this afternoon as planned.
I do not know if Evans Consulting is involved in this scam at all, and if they are not, I have no wish to damage their name or reputation. I only wish I knew before I give them several hundred dollars more tomorrow morning.in what seems like an act of good faith, Evans said they would get me the contact info to the roasting company that Royal used.in that case it would be possible to bypass Royal completely, which seems necessary now that they no longer exist. If Evans makes good on this, then I would find it hard to believe that he or his company is involved in the scam with Royal Gourmet Coffee.
If you have had any similar experience with any of the above named, please reply and share your experience. I am very interested in a class action suit, while it will cost a lot more time and money, hopefully the rip-off artists at Royal will get what they deserve.
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