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  • Report:  #1482478

Complaint Review: Black Card Books

Black Card Books Gerry Roberts and Chris Dyson The Lied by agreeing to print my book with my previous format then wanted to charge $3000 above the $35,000 they already charged to print extra pages created by their own format. They did print the book nor fulfill most of their promise- and have kept all the money Stouffville Ontario

  • Reported By:
    Peter — dallas Texas United States
  • Submitted:
    Thu, July 25, 2019
  • Updated:
    Fri, July 26, 2019

They give a free seminar at which time I agreed to go with their program -if they formatted the book like my previous book which I showed them. I was very very clear that they had to agree to this! The apparently had no intentions of doing this and the main individual in charge was later fired. 

During the key part of preparing my book Gerry apparently decided to stop all production for over 2 months at  which time my manager was fired---so the special addendum to the contract was never sent to me---so apparently those 2 months were never promised back to me.  The whole operation is in the Philippines and so one has to wait often 60 hours or longer if you try to communicate at business time on friday. Finally in January when they started up I was told that I was now in the back of the Q and over 3 months later  they informed me that it would have to go with their format and would therefore have to pay another $3000 since my book was 80 pages longer than the contract allowed!! 

So, I sent it to be edited here in Dallas with the same format that I was orginally promised and it came back as almost the exact contract amount  of 119 pages.  Yes, their format added those 80 pages...since they also require blank pages for ads.  I told them that I did not want ads.  You are also advised to put your pic on the cover of the book - this is the ego game. 

The whole process has been a  ego gamemanship for Gerry who promises everyone a big payback as he baits them for more charges...when I went for their VIP meeting expecting special classes in marketing etc. all it was ---was Gerry teaching us how he bambozzled us into giving up all that money--Yes it was crazy he shared all the psychology and techniques to pull people in- he bragged how he by raising prices so high he would actually work to increase perceived value--even though as a vanity press it really did not exist. 

They do nothing to help you with the main cost of publishing (if you want to increase the length or size of book) and with marketing. Chris Dyson is not an educated agent or publiscist - he is just an author employed by Gerry.  And many of those who run those free seminars have been let go (probably because of guilty concience since many who want to sign up have little money). You think that they are going to help you but this special VIP meeting is just another ego driven ploy to get another $17,000 from those attending---amazingly half the group fell for it!!! 

They have now excluded me from the IAP writers program which prevents me from using their software and data accumulated.  They banned me from communication and meetings which I was guaranteed.....and they will not return any of the money even though Gerry has made millions (he bragged about his 50 million) and even though more than half of my contracted time was not used ---especially when you add the extra 2 months.  They still hold their seminars here in Dallas and elsewhere. Note that he feels immune since he is in Canada and has millions at his disposal...and he has control of the BBB in Canada. His contract that we sign does not even have a number.   Beware!

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