Piedmont Direct Mail was asked to perform a direct mail campaign to promote a large grand opening with a VERY well known and popular celebrity. They were given well over a month to prepare and send the mailing. The mailing was ready the monday before the event which was on a saturday.
At their suggestion we held off the mailing an additional day for best impact (according to Piedmont Direct Mail). The mailing was sent tuesday and arrived 2-3 days AFTER the event. This caused hundreds of people to not show up to the event that would have come had they received the notice, lots of complaints from fans of this celebrity who received the notice late, lost revenue from the reduced traffic to the grand opening, and of course our business' image has suffered.
Piedmont Direct Mail had collected the costs for postage ahead of time. After I told them the mailings arrived late I suggested they send out a mailing for free to at least try to mitigate some of the damage and costs from they're error. They balked at my suggestion, claimed they can not be responsible for the post office's delivery times (though they told me many times to expect nearly overnight delivery and were the ones who suggested delaying the mailing) and offered a mere 20% discount on "some" of the remaining costs.
I told them the mailing should have been ready on time, even if it had been sent the monday it was ready and they had not waited until tuesday it still would have arrived late. Again they claimed no responsibility and demanded payment. After I refused to pay the remainder until they offered some reconciliation they filed a small claims action that is still pending.
Bottom line - DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH PIEDMONT DIRECT MAIL. There are mailing services in our area with better services, better rates, who STAND BEHIND THEIR WORK. Mary McIver, owner of Piedmont Direct Mail, is horribly unethical, and does not even attempt to do what is in the best interests of her clients. I have talked to many business owners who have had horror stories of their own. I just hope this news reaches other area businesses and saves someone before they blow their money on a scam artist.
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