My experience with Monarch Media Group has been very similar to most of the postings listed here. I spoke with someone from Monarch Media Group a couple of months ago; they claimed to be verifying information for our organization for the listing. I get calls and emails like this all the time, so having someone verify our information (address, phone number, etc.) is nothing out of the ordinary for me. I don't remember the person on the phone asking for any sort of payment or payment verification at the time of the original phone call.
About a month later, I received an invoice in the mail from Monarch Media Group for $469.00 for membership and a listing fee. I passed the invoice on to my manager, who questioned the invoice, saying it wasn't anything we had ordered. I put the invoice aside and didn't think about it again until I received another about two months later. I ignored this one as well, and soon after got a call from a Melody who worked there, saying we needed to talk in regards to an unpaid invoice. I talked with someone who said we haven't sent payment for the CD we received in the mail. At this point, I was a little confused, I'd never received a CD in the mail, and we certainly never agreed to payment for this invoice since the membership was something we'd never ordered.
A couple of months later, in July, I kept getting repeat phone calls from a woman with Monarch Media Group, requesting payment for the invoice we'd received once. I asked if they had confirmation of an order, knowing that I had never given confirmation, and she said there was no written order confirmation, but they did have a recording of me confirming the listing/membership order. I listened to the recording and like previous reports, the sales woman was asking for information verification. There was no mention of a previous call; she merely says I'm calling to verify your information. And in fact, there is no recording of the initial sales call, as previous reports have also noted. The call seems fishy to me as well, and I agree with previous reports in that they might have edited the call, because they ask if I have authority to approve this purchase. I don't have authority to do so and wouldn't have told them yes as I seem to do in the call, nor do I ever remember saying we want to order this service.
I got another phone call from the woman with Monarch Media Group, she left a message about payment again, so I forwarded the information on to my boss, who then took charge of the situation. She told them we had never ordered this listing, that clearly the call they've recorded is not a sales call, merely a call to verify information. The representative from Monarch Media Group said we did order this and she has the shipping information to verify that we did indeed receive a CD from them. My boss politely said we would cover the cost of shipping, but that we wouldn't be paying for anything more than that since we didn't order this service, and that if they had any more calls to make to our company, they should be directed to her and her alone. We haven't heard from them since.
It's interesting that they tout themselves as a business listing, but have zero presence on the web. Unless you know their web address (411business.Us), you can't find them through a general Google search. The only listings that appear are in the Rip Off report. There are listings for a Monarch Media & Entertainment Group, but no more for this company. The last time I looked at their actual website, it was a barely functioning, very basic website. Having looked again more recently, I can tell they've updated the site, so that now it looks like a more legitimate business offering. However, don't be fooled. They're scamming people into spending money on phony listings and using deceptive business practices to do so. Rest assured, we will be reporting the company to the Better Business Bureau.
Kelly
New York, New York
U.S.A.
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