Normally I would have shyed away from this solicitation but I HAVE heard of the Smart Shoppers Club and as an independant businessman I know businesses need to try different avenues of advertising and such in order to increase their visibility and customer base..
The letter below was written as requested and pretty much sums up what has been going on...
April 14th.
To Dick Jeffrey,
I don't know why I keep being asked to write letters explaining my situatuion and WHY I am requesting a refund but I was instructed by Ralph Stepanian to write a letter directly to YOU so here it is...
Back in November I was called and solicited by John Lawrence to sign up to become one of your Smart shoppers club vendors... It sounded like a good program so I decided to give it a try and signed up on 11-14-05... I was told that there were already a few customers in my area waiting to be sent to me and I would see them hitting my door as soon as I signed up AND that I was guaranteed that I would see at least 5 new potential customers per month... Well I haven't seen 1 person using this service coming to me to do business and I have given this program what I feel is MORE than a fair chance to see if it worked and brought in any new business (5 months now) and I haven't seen a thing. I'm sure this program may be working out there on the west coast but it is not working here in the midwest... At least not in central Nebraska where my shop is located so I spoke with Ralph Stepanian and he fully agreed that if this program isn't workng for me that there really is no point in me continuing as a vendor and assured me that a FULL REFUND would be issued to me upon my written request which was submitted to your company back on Feb. 22nd 2006 and reads as follows...
"To whom it may concern... I would now like to exercise my rights as stated in our contractual agreement dated 11-14-05 and request a full refund of the $589.00 membership fee... It would be greatly appreciated if you could expedite my refund as soon as possible."
After getting the run around for several weeks I was sent an "authorization for refund " form to sign and send back... However the form states that there is a so-called "account setup fee" in the amount of $275.00 and I have been offered a net refund of $314.00 which I find COMPLETELY UNACCEPTIBLE!
The reason I find this unacceptible is due to the fact that I was told I would receive a FULL REFUND if the program didn't work for me... I even went so far as to ask if the refund would be pro-rated to the amount of time that would transpire between sign up and cancellation and I was told AGAIN that it would be a FULL REFUND... At no time was I told that there would be a non-refundable "set up fee" during my phone conversations with John Lawrence or Ralph Stepanian NOR is there anything stated in the contract that I signed about the alleged non-refundable $275.00 set up fee...
Further more I would like to point out that EVERY time I try calling your company I NEVER get an answer... No matter what day OR time of day I call I get the same recorded message that "all lines are busy"... I have called MANY times over the past few months to try and get this matter resolved quickly and peacefully and I find it very hard to believe that each and every time I have tried I have always called when all lines were busy (sometimes several times throughout a given day)... I ask you how can anyone run a business when no one ever answers the phone? I find it funny that when John Lawrence was working me to sign up he answered the phone each and every time I called back... Then... Once I sent back the contract and the money nobody answers and I have to leave SEVERAL messages and even get a bit angry before anyone gets back to me... in fact I have not spoken to John Lawrence ONCE since your company has received my money... Ralph Stepanian is the only one I have talked to since signing up... Ralph has been nice and at first he had put my mind at ease that things would be resolved... But nice only goes so far...
Further more... When John was trying to get me to sign up and I told him of my concerns over this and HE offered to allow me to post date the check for 30 days to see if I had any new contacts after the contract took effect and if I didn't see any action I would have the opportunity to stop payment on the check and cancell my contract so I DID post date the check but the check was cashed AS SOON AS YOUR COMPANY RECEIVED IT!
I was suspicious about this whole thing from the start but John assured me if the program didn't work for me that I would receive a FULL REFUND... I have requested a refund IN WRITING as per instructed by Ralph Stepanian and the only thing I have gotten in return is this "offer" for a lesser refund and that is extremely WRONG on so many levels and I am now beginning to wonder if my previous suspicions about your company were warranted...
I have tried to be patient and be nice about all this but my patience has run out... I am a small business owner and bust my butt to keep things going and $589.00 is a lot of money to me but I was willing to try your program to see if it would increase my business flow but it hasn't and had it not been for the "money back guarantee" I never would have tried your program in the first place...
I am tired of getting the run around on this issue and I DEMAND A FULL REFUND IMMEDIATELY... This is NOT arbitrary NOR is the amount of the refund up for negotiation... I will not settle for a partial refund...$589.00 is the amount I will accept... I have consulted my attorney regarding this matter and he is in full agreement with the fact that I am entitled to ALL my money back since I was not made aware of your alleged and completely outrageous $275.00 "set up fee" neither verbally NOR in the written contract... I have not taken any legal action as of yet but if you do not address this issue and remit my $589.00 refund A.S.A.P. I will be forced to persue legal action and it will end up costing you MORE in the long run as I will also be seeking restitution for legal fees and time lost dealing with this situation to boot and in addition I will also contact the Federal Trade Commission... The California Department of Consumer Affairs... Usacomplaints.com and many other avenues available to report fraudulant activity and/or poor business practices... I do not want to go that route but if this matter is not resolved in a timely fashion you will leave me no other choice...
I strongly advise you respond to this matter immediately and I pray we can resolve this matter quickly and peacefully and I would appreciate it if you would CALL me as soon as you get this letter... My phone number is listed below..
Thank you in advance.
So... You can see that I have been trying to get these people to work with me for MONTHS to no avail... (I started out being very nice)... Dick Jeffrey is supposedly one of the supervisors there but REFUSES to talk to me and always has this other guy talk to me... What a COWARD! I have been offered 2 different refund amounts and the last one was like 439.00 if I remember correctly. They are still trying to keep at least 150.00 as a "setup fee"... Set up for WHAT? I contacted the Better Business Bureau in their area and I was informed this SO-CALLED "company" has had many complaints against them but the BBB will not give me any information about who has complained and I think that is just WRONG... What the hell good does the BBB do if they will not help the consumer in a situation like this?
I will be watching this post for responses and I would love to hear from others who have had run ins with this worthless "company"... If you have had problems like me. Lets get in touch.
If Pacific Yellow Pages. Aka: Smart Network Services. Aka: Smart Shoppers Club and especially DICK Jeffrey think if they ignore me I will eventually give up... They are dead WRONG! I have only just begun!
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