This is a warning to entrepreneurs looking for business opportunities. I recently entered a business opportunity agreement with Austin based retailer, SRV, doing business under the names "Calendar Club", "Go The Gamestore", and "Christmas Corner". The business opportunity is supposed to work where SRV consigns merchandise over to an operator in order that the operator would sell the merchandise in a mall kiosk and receive a percentage of the sales. I thought this would be a dream opportunity to "run my own store", as the Calendar Club website said.
It turned into a complete nightmare. I set up a kiosk and operated it for 4 weeks starting in November. Because the business is based on the holidays, it doesn't really start to make any money until early December. December 2nd, when the kiosk started to make some real money, two SRV representatives showed up with a termination notice. The notice said that SRV was terminating the agreement because of "an infringement of good will and reputation". No specific details or explanation were given. The two SRV representatives took over the kiosk and continued selling merchandise.
Then they called mall security officers and requested that I be put out of the building. SRV essentially stole my work without offering me even a dime. Not only was I put out of work but also my four employees. The little money I made in the first 4 weeks didn't even cover my expenses for setting up and running the kiosk.
Since then, SRV's vice president promised in writing to repay me for all of my setup and operating costs. However, now it seems that he's trying to renege on his promise.
What SRV did is the most despicable thing I've ever encountered of any company.
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