Complaint Review: Flybiz.com

The short story is, stay away from this company.  It is owned and operated by Kenny Thompson.  I had him do a campaign of 10,000 door hangers for a pest control company in a fairly wealthy area of Los Angeles (Beverlywood & Century City area).  It has been 3 weeks and I have only received four phone calls.  Also, the website's traffic has remained the same as before the door hanger campaign.

The long version of the story is the following.  I firmly believe Kenny nor his supposed "crew" never delivered anywhere close to what I paid for (I paid for 10K).  I recently started a pest control company in Los Angeles, along with another person (he and I formed a General Partnership).  Wanting to jumpstart sales, I Googled, "Los Angeles door hanger delivery" and found Kenny Thompson's website (http://www.flyrbiz.com and http://www.thompsonsadvertising.com, both domains link to the same content). 

I called Mr. Thompson and he gave me the rundown on how his service works. My main concern was that the door hangers would actually get delivered by his crew.  I have heard horror stories of other businesses paying for a door hanger delivery campaign only to find out that the door hangers were thrown in the trash.  Kenny kept emphasizing to me that he's been in business since 1989 and he always delivers the number of door hangers which the customer paid to have delivered.

On the phone, he said that for $895 he could deliver 10,000 door hangers.  And, if I wanted him to print them, it would be an additional $605.00 (I would just need to provide him with print ready artwork).  So for $1500 he would have one of my pest control company door hangers put on the door of 10,000 houses.  He did indicate that he could only hit the 10K number so long as the area being targeted was such that the houses were accessible, not spread apart much, and that the area is relatively flat (i.e., no hills).  He told me he uses a crew of around 12 men and that 10,000 "normal" size houses encompasses about 4 square miles.

Next, I arranged for Kenny to meet me at my apartment in L.A. on 1/28/12  He arrived at the scheduled time (about 2PM), we sat down, and discussed the areas I was interested in targeting; I told him I hadn't yet decided exactly which area I wanted but it would either be: 1) "Santa Monica... centered around Wilshire Blvd and 26th" or, 2) "the Beverlywood-Century City section of L.A. south of Pico Blvd... east of La Cienega or Robertson Blvd."  He told me both those areas are flat, the homes are close together, and thus his crew would be able to deliver to approximately 10,000 houses in either of those areas, each house with a door hanger. 

We tentatively chose the delivery date as Feb. 7, 2013 although I said that could change and I'd let him know.  I also told him I'd do more research and email him a map showing the exact area I wanted the door hangers delivered to.  He then wrote up Service Agreement, signed it, and I paid him $1679.45 with two checks, each made payable to "Kenny Thompson."  The first check was for $1554.45 which was: 10K delivery, 10K printing, + tax for printing.  As our meeting neared the end, I mentioned that I also wanted the bottom portion of the door hangers perforated (for a coupon).  He said that would be an extra $125.00, so I wrote him an additional check (that's where the $1679.45 figure comes from).

As Feb. 7th approached, I said I'd need more time and would have to choose a later date.  He said, "that's good actually because his crew would be on vacation that week anyway."  So we decided on Monday Feb. 18th as the delivery date.  I did a lot of research and used Google maps to create an image of the exact area I wanted the door hangers delivered to.  It was approximately 4 square miles which is what he had indicated to me as being 10,000 houses (approximately).  The area I mapped out is: Santa Monica Blvd to the north, Sepulveda Blvd on the west, the 10 freeway on the south, Robertson Blvd on the east up to Pico Blvd and then over to Century Park West Bl (excluding the Hillcrest Country Club) going back up to Santa Monica Bl and then west to Sepulveda Blvd. 

A few days before the 18th, I reconfirmed with him, telling him that my business partner and I would want to be meet the crew and the crew's supervisor on the morning of the 18th.  At that point, Mr. Thompson said, "its fine if you want to check up on things, but don't let my workers see you because they might become scared."  I thought that was strange, but I had already paid and he had cashed my two checks already so not much I could do at that point.  Incidentally, earlier Mr. Thompson had sent me about 50 samples of the door hangers he had printed.  The quality was good and so at that point, I ordered an additional 2,000 which my business partner and I would later use to deliver by ourselves.

Mr. Thompson said that on the date of delivery, Feb. 18th, 2013, he would be texting me addresses which I could drive to and see the door hangers on each house (unless the resident had already taken the door hanger).  I got my first text at about 6:30AM, and each 30 - 60 minutes, I'd get additional texts with about 5 addresses each.

My business partner and I started to drive to the various streets Kenny texted us.  We had trouble finding some of the streets since they were misspelled and/or missing the type of street (e.g., "lane", "ave", "circle", etc).  As one example, he texted us: 2260 Parnell ... Parnell what???  This wasted time and caused us to search for streets that didn't exist or had multiple listings on my mapping iPhone app.  As the day progressed, we received about 8 separate texts, each with 4 - 5 addresses, many which were misspelled and/or missing the type of street (as I mentioned).  We would drive to a particular street and we did see door hangers on the doors of that street. 

But then we'd drive to the adjacent street and we'd occasionally see door hangers on the doors of those houses but most of the time we did not see any door hangers.  This was a constant pattern throughout the day.  In addition to going to the houses which Kenny was texting the addresses of, my business partner and I drove to random streets within the target map area I had earlier provided to Kenny.  Remember, this was the map which Kenny said he could definitely "deliver to all houses in that area."  He did say that its never perfect, and houses will be missed but for the most part, 80 - 90% of houses in target area I provided would have a door hanger put on the door.

Throughout the day of the Feb. 18th, my business partner and I would continue to choose random streets within the target map area and not find even a single door hanger on a single house in that area!  Street after street after street, this is what we discovered.  The streets he did text us... yes, we found door hangers on the houses on those streets but more often than not, the adjacent streets would not have door hangers.  About 2PM I asked him how long his crew would be working until.  He said, "2 - 2:30PM". 

So basically, at this point, we were at the end of his supposed crew's working day.   My business partner and I continued to drive to different streets only to find no door hangers.  So I called Kenny and told him there is no way I got what I paid for.  The only streets where I found door hangers were the streets he sent me to (via texts during the day).  Kenny then got very defensive and said something to the effect of, "hey... we busted our butts for you all day and we did a great job on your campaign, and, hey... not everything is perfect and sometimes my guys may miss a street here or there, but basically we did a great job for you!!!" 

I asked him why every street I went to that was within the delivery area (but a street he didn't text me), I found no door hangers.  He said, "hey... people opened their door and probably already took the door hanger."  I said, "there is no way that every person on a street with, say, 50 houses, took their door hanger off their door, within hours of it being put there."  He just kept getting defensive and repeating that, "we did a great job for you!"  At that point I told him I'd see what kind of response we received over the next few days, even weeks.  It has been 3 weeks since he "delivered" the door hangers.  Our business phones on the door hanger (and 800 and a 310 number) have received a total of four phone calls and no emails.  In fact, there was no difference in the traffic to my website after Feb. 18th.  Also odd, is the four calls we did get were from streets Kenny had texted us.  For example, we did get a call from a house on Parnell Ave (one of the streets Kenny texted us, though it was missing the "Ave" part which I determined with my iPhone mapping app).

Kenny also told me on the "delivery" day (Feb. 18th) that he had a crew of 10 men doing my delivery.  He claims they started at 6:30AM and ended at 2 - 2:30PM.  Let's do the math.  With a crew of 10, each person has to deliver 1,000 door hangers.  If each guy worked the full 8 hours, not taking a break for lunch, he'd have to deliver one door hanger every 30 seconds.  It's possible but given the fact that I repeatedly saw no door hangers on countless number of streets in the target area, I am fairly sure I did not get ever a fraction of what I paid for!

His website says his crew workers are tracked by GPS, but I never received any GPS data.

Lastly, earlier I mentioned that I had ordered an additional 2,000 flyers after I saw the samples he sent me (this was before the "delivery" date of Feb. 18, 2013).  He mailed me two boxes.  I have so far only received one box; it contained 363 door hangers (I counted them).  The second box weighed less than the box I received (according to the photo he texted me of the post office receipt) and so there is no way the 2nd box could contain the rest of the door hangers (1,637).  I still have not received that second box.  That cost me another $162 + $40 for shipping.