Complaint Review: Archway Publishing

This business entity acts as a carnival shell game. They operate and advertise themselves as being the "self-publishing" side of the large traditional publishing house Simon and Schuster. They are not. Operating and branding as the business shell "Archway Publishing", they then outsource their services to "Author Solutions", whis is a known "vanity press" famous for scamming elderly housewives who write poetry out of their retirement savings.

Author Solutions has been sued in class actions suits and settled hundreds of others out-of-court. They have been under investigation numerous times by various states' attorney generals for fraudulent activities. Author Solutions, to evade their reputation and criminal history, uses a number of aliases and localized business imprints such as "The Orange Cover". The Orange Cover is the business that victimized me.

All of these business layers have recently embarked on a new scam, which goes like this: Thinking you are dealing with a legitimate publisher (Simon and Schuster), you contact them. You are asked to submit your manuscript or proposal (it turns out, solely for them tor present an impression of legitimacy to support the scam). They discard your submission upon receipt without reading it (they will later charge you $400.00 to actually read it, as you'll see momentarily).

You'll immediately get an e-mail you've been accepted into their program but cannot proceed without a signed agreement - this is the e-mail I got:

"Frederic,

"Congratulations and welcome to Archway Publishing! We are very excited to offer you the full support and guidance of our industry-leading professionals to bring your book to its maximum potential.

"Within one to three business days, you will receive an email with a link to a document outlining the terms and conditions of the Archway Publishing agreement. Instructions for signing and returning the document will be included within the email.

"Please monitor your e-mail account for this important message. We cannot begin work, or assign your production team on the project until this agreement is signed by you and returned to us. Once I receive the signed agreement it will take me about a week to organize your team. From there, we will reach out to discuss submission instructions.

"We look forward to working with you!

"Best,

"Aimee Reff

PUBLISHING CONSULTANT

Archway Publishing FROM SIMON & SCHUSTER :

1663 Liberty Drive Bloomington, IN 47403

P: 888.242.5904 ext: 5616 F: 812.349.0784 areff@

archwaypublishing.com

"This email is an advertisement.

"To be removed from my email list, please click here or, alternatively, send an email to unsubscribe@archwaypublishing.com with the subject UNSUBSCRIBE."

Within 24 hours, you will received a phone call from a professional telemarketer hustling you for $2,100.00 for "expenses" related to the "agreement". She will hustle you for an immediate payment by credit card, which she takes from you by phone.

If you cannot pay all of it, she'll set up all kinds of crerative ways for you to make payments, but always with the stipulation that you must make SOME kind of a payment immediately today for the "agreement" to go forward, and that first payment must always be in excess of $400.00. Once you've made the payment, then you are told that an agent will now read your submission and "evaulate it", which is required to go forward, but the fee for doing that is a non-refundable $400.00.

That is, a "reading fee" will be taken out of the monies you were just bilked, and you can never get that money back. If after reading the material, it is deemed unacceptable by Simon and Schuster )or Archway, or Author Solutions, or The Orange Cover, or whoever this is you are now dealing with), your "agreeement" will be unilaterally cancelled by them, and your deposit will be refunded to you less the $400.00 "reading fee".

If they elect to go ahead, however, you are on the hook for the full $2,100.000, irrespective whehter your book is ever published. After I was hustled for a $700.00 down payment and credit card, I had my first chance to review the agreement and realized I'd been scammed. I called the BBB here in San Diego and spoke to the San Diego County District Attorney's office.

Following their advice, I submitted to them copies of the agreement and immediately the following morning sent Archway an e-mail requesting termniantion of the agreement and a full refund. They responded back that I was entitled to a refuned. They then had another telemarker call me, which went to voicemail and was recorded. I then sent a followup demand for full refund, to whcih they have not responded.

This is the full e-mail chain (in reverse order, latest first) of my correspondence with them subsequent to that first e-mail exchange and telemarketer hustle:

--------------------------------------------------

Aimee,

I wanted to keep a verbose and accurate written record of all of our transactions, should it have evidentiary value at some point. In my conversations with the BBB and especially the District Attorney, they deemed the documents you sent me as being fraudulent. That would, in particular, apply to that portion where you get the victims to sign a blind-faith agreement knowing nothing of their writing skills or book content, and then deduct a $400.00 “reading fee” from their already-paid deposit if their book isn’t you to your standards. You seemed to have them shaking their heads at your audacity.

In any case, I agreed to keep meticulous records (I will post these to an Internet blog and my LinkedIn account so that others can learn from my experience with you). After having terminated my relationship and demanding a full refund pursuant to my conversations with you, I received a phone message on my cellphone from yet another business name (“The Orange Cover”). The transcript as recorded by Google Voice:

“Hello, this is a message for Frederick sir. My name is Pam. Axelson. I'm calling from Archway publishing. I had received a message regarding a request to refund your publishing package. And so I'm reaching out to work with you to do that. My direct number is 882-425-5904 extension 5487. If you could give me a call, I'll be happy to help you out. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day.”

The number “882-425-5904” does not exist. However, Google trapped the Caller ID number as (812) 671-9754. I called that number, using extension 5487, and voicemails identified the message box owner as Pam Axelson. I left a voice-mail, to which no one has yet responded 24 hours later.

But in truth, no phone conversation is necessary. I have terminated our relationship under California with 24 hours of my 72-hour right of rescission, and you owe me a full refund in the amount of $716.34. There is no gray area here, and nothing to discuss. The circumstances are clear, the record is clear, and the law is clear.

I do not intend to be conned by you again. Return my full refund immediately to: Frederic Scott Deaver

XXXX XxxxxxXxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, Xxxxt #XX

Xxxxxxxxx, CA XXXXXX

Regards, F. Scott Deaver

https://www.CertitudeDigital.com Chief Technology Officer/Founder/Inventor xxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com xxx.xxxxxxx (xxx-xxx-xxxx)

Certitude Digital has just been featured in Forbes: https://certitudedigital.com/public_docs/CertitudeInForbesArticle.pdf

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From: Aimee Reff <areff@archwaypublishing.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2019 11:21 AM To: Scott Deaver <scottdeaver@outlook.com>

Subject: RE: Congratulations

Scott,

Hello! I hope you are well! While I certainly understand that when making any purchase it is a good idea to research the firm you are planning on doing business with, we must also understand that we do have to consider the source of our information as well. The internet has a great wealth of information, but at the same time, there is not policing of what is placed on random blog sites and consumer reports.

Author Solutions was involved in ONE class action law suit several years ago that they won. They have an A rating with the BBB. Simon & Schuster did their research prior to partnering with Author Solutions. I can assure you they wouldn’t risk their reputation by partnering with a bad company.

You are entitled to a refund on your package. I will forward your email to our refund department and will have a specialist reach out to assist you, although I hope you’ll do some more research before making your final decision. I really hope that you’ll give Archway the chance to help you and I truly believe that you’ll enjoy the opportunity to work with Archway.

Sincerely,

Aimee Reff

PUBLISHING CONSULTANT

Archway Publishing FROM SIMON & SCHUSTER

1663 Liberty Drive Bloomington, IN 47403

P: 888.242.5904 ext: 5616 F: 812.349.0784

areff@archwaypublishing.com

This email is an advertisement. To be removed from my email list, please click here or, alternatively, send an email to unsubscribe@archwaypublishing.com with the subject UNSUBSCRIBE.

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From: Scott Deaver <scottdeaver@outlook.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2019 1:48 PM

To: Aimee Reff <areff@archwaypublishing.com>

Cc: Scott Deaver <scott.deaver@certitudedigital.com>; info@bbbcommunity.org

Subject: RE: Congratulations

Aimee:

I have just been made aware of several class actions lawsuits against your company, pending actions of various states attorney generals against your company and its practices, and of your association with a known vanity-press predator going by the name of AUTHOR SOLUTIONS INC.

In consulting with the California Attorney General and with the Better Business Bureau this morning and forwarding them the materials you sent me, they have advised me that under California law I have a three-day right of rescission regarding any agreement made with you. I am invoking that right now.

Be aware that copies of this e-mail and all other correspondence, past and future, have been and will be sent under separate cover to the California Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau to support my complaint against you. As a computer professional, I first became concerned that you wanted to charge my account immediately, yet wanted to delay servicves via snail-mail agreements and charging me $400.00 for a reading of my book.

I am told by those agencies that these both appear to be attempts to circumvent the law with regard to my right of rescission and that I should express that in this e-mail should this letter become the basis for further litigation. They will proceed with the investigation of those issues separately. In the meantime, refund to me immediately all monies charged me, and cancel forthwith all agreements entered into.

I will regard your failure to acknowledge receipt of this information or to respond in a timely and appropriate manner to be an admission of wrongdoing and a further effort to avoid accountability for same.

Regards,

F. Scott Deaver

https://www.CertitudeDigital.com Chief Technology Officer/Founder/Inventor xxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com xxx.xxxxxxx (xxx-xxx-xxxx)

Certitude Digital has just been featured in Forbes: https://certitudedigital.com/public_docs/CertitudeInForbesArticle.pdf

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This message originally read on 9/3/2019

Frederic Deaver
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx, XX xxxxx


Dear Frederic Deaver:

Thank you for contacting your BBB. Your complaint submitted on 8/30/2019 against Author Solutions, LLCwas assigned ID 13805624 and is now in process.

Now that I've filed, what's the next step?
We have accepted your complaint and have forwarded it to the business for their response.  We have asked the business to reply promptly, but some disputes may take longer than others to conclude.  Please be patient as we work to ensure your concerns are addressed.  The response from the business could take days, but many times it takes 2 to 3 weeks.

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It is important for both parties to maintain realistic expectations and respond in a professional, fair and courteous manner. Our goal is for you and the business to work towards an amicable solution. Our goal is to open the lines of communication and help resolve this dispute.  If you don't agree with their response you'll be given an opportunity to say so and state rebuttal facts.  

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BBB will make every effort to obtain a response from the business, but some businesses simply do not ever contact us. BBB is not an enforcement agency. We cannot compel a business to respond, or to take any course of action. However, failure to do so may result in a negative impact on their BBB rating, which may drive away future customers. The BBB may also refer you to other agencies that may be able to assist you.

Will other consumers know about my complaint?
In most cases the complaint will be posted on the businesses BBB Business Profile page, accessible to all consumers. Once the process is complete, the text of your complaint may be publicly posted on BBB's Web site (BBB reserves the right to not post in accordance with BBB policy). Please do not include any personally identifiable information when you tell us about your problem or in your desired outcome. By submitting your complaint, you are representing that it is a truthful account of your experience with the business. BBB may edit your complaint to protect privacy rights and to remove inappropriate language.

BBB is here to help businesses and consumers find solutions; our mission is to advance marketplace trust. This requires your cooperation and the cooperation of the business for the most satisfactory results.  If you have questions before you hear from us again, please contact me. Remember, it could be 2 to 3 weeks before we forward more information to you. 

Regards,

Sarina Way
sway@indybbb.org