GerlachMarketing Jennifer Gerlach Promised extensive PR and launch party planning but lied contantly and made up fake emails. Stole money in the end. Chicago, Illinois
My business partner and I met Jennifer Gerlach of GerlachMarketing in mid August 2011 because she was referred to us by someone we met at a networking event. We were looking to re-launch our web site and we were told she would do PR for us. We sat down with her for a meeting and she promised she would get us publicity and plan our launch party. She offered "unlimited" PR for 3 months for $1500.00. We paid it and have now come to regret it.
Jennifer planned our launch party for us but the venue changed 3 hours before it started. She had all kinds of excuses as to why this occurred. She told us the other venue could not accept our guest list because it was too big. She even said the original venue had flooded and was closed to the public. Both of these things were not true. In paying for the new venue, she assured us that we would be given a 75% discount off of the bill of $3500.00.
In the weeks following the event, she continued to assure us we would get the refund. She said she was in discussions from one of the employees of the venue. She even sent us an invoice showing the credit for 75% of the $3500.00 bill. However - when we contacted the person working at the venue, this person said she had never met or spoken to Jennifer Gerlach. This meant that all of the emails Jennifer had forwarded to us that were from this person were fake and 100% made up. The invoice she sent showing the refund was fake as well. She made it up.
We also uncovered other fake emails that Jennifer had made up from other people from the press. Just like the other person who filed a complaint on this site said - Jennifer also told us that her father had a brain tumor and was close to death. She used this to make us feel bad about questioning her on anything.
Basically every word out of her mouth was a lie. When we went to dispute charges on paypal, paypal rejected our claim because they said they only cover the sale of physical goods. This women is a con artist and is preying on people in the organized networking circuit in Chicago. Beware. She is very dangerous.