Complaint Review: Ace Security Laminates

You know, I have been an ACE Dealer for a long time. I started with ACE way back 1999 when they were called ACE Clear Defense Inc.
 
I have seen Mr. Kater and Mr. Fabian grow the company. I also know that some people are not meant to do business. I am also surprised that dealers that fail never take responsibility for themselves. How is it ACEs fault that you did not pay your bills? So you were shut down, too bad, get a f**king life.
 
I just came back from Canada. I visited with ACE and got a chance to meet Mr. Fabian again. I think the whole re-organization of ACE is good. Michael is a great guy and the whole team is very dedicated. Nick Proulx is a very smart plastics engineer, and he knows his stuff. I admit that my ACE business has its ups and downs. But I had more ups than downs. I have made good money and I have even tried other films and laminates. The only one that works for me and has never left me on the hook is ACE.
 
I think it is funny when I look at other websites that carry ACE videos, or ACE testing but complain that ACE is no good. Or fake ACE companies that use the ACE name, testing and videos but sell Lumar, or 3M, Bekaert, or Solar Guard. If ACE is so bad, then why continue to use the name, videos and test reports? All you guys who do so are cheats. The real RIP-OFF is all of you who are sore losers. 

The real RIP-OFF is this guy who says he was the ACE dealer in Montana; ACE never had a dealer in Montana. This guy is a fake and a sore loser. 

So do you think any company would 'Give' someone the rights to represent them exclusively is the State without some kind of compensation or guaranty. Nothing in life is free! Look, if you don't like the terms, then fine go do something else. Sure 3M, Lumar Bekaert will sell you film, but they will sell it to the 12 other people in the same city and you all compete with each other, now how bright is that? 

ACE is the best and I am making money with them and I want to set the record straight!
 
I am an ACE Dealer and proud to be part of the ACE Team.
 
And I am NOT afraid to put my name to this letter.
Randy Brandsmere 
California

If you really want to know about someone, really check out their credentials. I know for a fact that Peter Fabian has nothing more than a grade 8 education and has never even graduated high school. He certainly does not have a Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, etc, and he has never even set foot in a college or university, let alone trying to claim he has a Masters. How can people not check out credentials of someone.

Just someone who did their research!

Hi well guys you are right Ace is a ripoff check here:http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=f36164fb-597d-4baa-adc8-023c0b73e78a&k=8119

In fact he does not make the film at all it is made 3rd party from a country in the middle east...slaps his brand name on it and calls it his own.

Mr.Fabian is the brain child behind this whole scam...he was trading on the stock exchange for a bit, till they pulled him after too many irregularities.

Not a fun person to work for he uses high presure tactics to get his sales.

So sorry you where a victim of this scam!

For anyone who has the entrepreneurial spirit, like I did, and is looking for the right opportunity, do NOT do business with ACE Security Laminates. After 9/11, my partner and I decided to find a product and company that dealt in the security issue facing the USA. We searched the internet for opportunities, and at Entrepreneur.com we found a chance to buy into ACE. After making contact, we found the individuals who owned Arizona and made plans to buy the southern part of Arizona. We were excited and followed thru with all the requests made upon us by ACE. Being a sub-dealer meant we had to pay for everything to the master dealer since they coughed up more money to buy the whole state.

This should have been our 1st clue that something was WRONG! They sold their sub-dealerships for drastically different pricing (something they wouldn't tell us in the beginning but we found out after becoming a sub-dealer). Then came the marketing tools or should I say copies of manuals our master dealers had that were older than the new ones. As time went on, we found more and more discrepancies in these manuals.

When we questioned ACE corporate about this, their most common reply was "The new ones are being made now and should be out soon!" Well, its been well over 1 year, and everyone that still works for them are still waiting... and corporate ACE keeps telling the same old story.
We went through all the steps involved to get listed with City, State and Government agencies for those elusive contracts we were promised. After 6-7 months, we found out that ACE is also listed with every agency, and you can't bid against them. Their pricing structure is so low as to undercut what YOU could bid and make money let alone survive.

Then...
Their customer support is so bad you really don't get any. Phone calls and emails go unnoticed or their reply's when they do come back are so ambiguous as to not have any value at all. We found out that once they have your money, you are basically on your own except if you want to purchase product.

They do NOT have national advertising (like we were promised), training on installing their product consisted of using their easiest product (not the one's customers would eventually order) on a couple of little windows (not like the ones you find in homes), and taking their tests to show you mastered their course was in reality, the teacher making sure you had the right answer (if it was wrong) by looking in your books before handing in the test for grading.

This means anyone who can read could have passed this test and we wouldn't have had to pay $2000 for the pleasure of paying to get trained on their product AFTER paying for our territory.
This is my last example of how ACE treats you AFTER taking your money. My partner and I got called by a couple who owned a upscale home in Tucson, that was on National news, HGTV, and countless print media, for being one of the 1st homes that produced more electricity than it used (solar panels - excess energy was feed back in to the grid and they would get paid for this surplus). WOW - this was going to be one great lead for us that would eventually lead into possibly 50+ more homes in this area wanting our product. After measuring, and ordering tinted security laminate, we installed it on ALL their windows. When we were finished (250+ sq. ft. of glass), we were proud of what we had accomplished. The very next day, we got called on back because they reported that the tint (at nighttime) was making them sick. WHAT???

So, we should up at dusk to find out what they were talking about. It turns out they had low energy fluorescent light throughout their home (they spent an extra $10,000 for this). When we walked in, sure enough, every window had a psychedelic look to them, all wavy and colorful.

We saw what they meant... and they wanted it removed immediately. We made plans to do it the next day and left. This is where it gets good - we called our master dealer that had never heard of this, so he made an emergency call to ACE in Canada to find out what the heck was going on. When we were finally told of their decision, it turns out their tint is made with little bits of metal flake that under fluorescent light waves, would produce this effect, and they didn't think it was such a big deal. They even suggested we tell the customer's to change their lighting back to incandescent lighting. We couldn't believe it, not only NO support, but misinformation to the N-th degree.

When we asked them what they were going to do, since we had to remove all of it back to the condition before the install, our master dealer had to argue with them for about a week in order to get then to agree to send us replacement laminate (to cover the install) but we had to eat the 20 hours of our own labor, gas, time, frustration, etc. already put out on this. SO, at $40 per hour on the 12 hours to install (not including the removal time), 3 days of our time from start to finish, we just got burned by our own ACE corporate.

There is more I could tell you all about the business practices this company has, such as dummy test bullets to try and pass governmental certifications to what they promise you (Protected Territories), its all a bunch of lies from a Canadian company that has had these problems from day ONE. Of course, you don't know all this until you have made the monetary investment. I couldn't find any of this information beforehand, so here I am letting you know before YOU make the wrong decision and buy into ACE's big promises but no substance.

My partner and I (H-R Block just did our taxes) and we only lost $74,000. In fact, because of the lack of support, my partner had to file bankruptcy. From what we have found out since, we are really lucky, because most of the other dealers have paid a lot more money than we did, and when they fold-up, they will have lost so much more than we did. The kicker is ACE is just waiting for you to close your doors, and then they re-sell your territory and make money on it again. Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me and to others who didn't buy into ACE.

My advice is to stay away unless you need a really big write off on next year taxes!