Holiday Ink Ripoff lied conned and fraudulently took took our money Buford Georgia
I have to joined with the other distributors to let the world, the authorities and people out there know that Holiday Ink had conned and ripped us off of over $30,000.00.I read the report of all the distributors through out the country and realised that is the same thing they did to me and I want justice. In their introduction to me they said I would be the first in the Northeast. After putting up one of my racks, the owner of the location told me that he saw the same stuff in the same city and they told him they weren't selling. Holiday Ink did not tell me that I would have to pay for the racks, when they came I have to pay $89.92 each made out to Holiday Enterprises for ten racks to get them from UPS. We didn't get all the products all at once. We got them about three different times. Hundreds of them (HP's) were on backorder from the outset.
They used Mark Shepherd to come up with some cunning ways to sway you by telling you that they would be having a meeting to select the number One distributor for your area and if you are selected you would be the first in your area. He asked me how much money I have even though I already told him. I had just wanted to start with five racks which would cost according to their figure $15,950. He recommended that I did 10 racks costing $29,950 because they would set up website for me plus a lot more services to promote the business and make it prospective. Until now nothing of the sort. Now when I figure out the cost and selling prices of the products it's a ripoff.
I placed a special order for some products and they sent me the wrong stuff and even though I spoke to Patrick Church their VP of sales and faxed him my original order and the Invoice I got from them. He never responded, but several weeks after they had sent us six products which we know nothing about, without an invoice or any communique what they are for. What I experienced with their Customer Service is inefficiency and no communication, after they promised that their customer service will be there for me all the way. I got so frustrated that I cancelled my credit card account with them and decided not to try to get in touch with them again because it's useless.
The Location company that they recommended to us charged us another $3,000 to get locations for the products. Most of these locations haven't sold any as yet. In fact only 8 of these products had been sold from these locations since December last year. The ones which the customers want I don't have . Some of these location owners want the racks out because the stuff is not selling, even though we printed flyers and personally handed them out. I spoke to Patrick Church on this particular issue and he never offered as much as a little sympathy to say as much as 'just be a little patient'and give it a little time nor offered any suggestion. In fact I didn't hear from him until after my wife emailed them about the website and informed them that we want a refund before Nick Morrell wrote me a letter and I responded and informed them that I read the same complaints on the Internet from the other distributors on the same thing that they did to me and I am going to put my complaints on the Internet, before Shawna from the Customer Service and Patrick Church sent me an email Friday February 4,2005.
In one instance in my frustrations, last year I got in touch with their customer service department who couldn't answer any of my questions and referred me to my sales coordinator, who was Leslie Graves. I called Suzie Johnson who intern referred me back to the Customer Service Department,it was then I realized something was wrong because it was more than once that I experienced this from them.
I thank God for this Website because I was wondering if it's just me or there are other distributors who were conned and ripoff by this company but now I know. Keep up the good work and continue to expose the Evil-Doers that others won't fall victim to their evil and wickedness.
I want justice, I want back my money.
They just junk these stuff on us that's not selling I want justice and my money.
David
Bridgeport, Connecticut
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Reid
Aiea,Hawaii,
U.S.A.
Just Excuses From a Biased Shill.
#5Consumer Suggestion
Wed, March 02, 2005
Hey there Everyone,
I hope that this rebuttal finds you in good spirits and health.
Suzy is an employee of the company according to the categorization of her response. If the distributorship she's shoveling is legitimate, why is she an employee of the company as opposed to being a distributor herself?
Why should anyone believe, that she's as successful as she leads everyone to believe? What's the succcess to failure ratio of the distributors? Do new distributors get this information and full disclosure in writing? If no, why not?
Requiring all businesses to disclose the exact success to failure ratio of their program would literally save thousands of people each year from scams and frauds.
Full disclosure would also prevent fraudulent businesses from turning the blame of failure on to their victims, just as Suzy has attempted.
A company's success rate is never a true indication of it's distributors success rate, for a company's success does not reflect it's turnover rate.
Suzi uses big corporations as examples of successful businesses, but fails to consider the turnover rates of these huge corporations. Succesful distributorships, like big corporations, have enormous turn over rates.
That is why when a company fails to furnish proof (fully disclose)pertinent material facts about the company, one may rest assured they have very shady reasons for doing so. Scam.
Suzy is definitely a shill for the company. Employees of companies have no reason to address and defend their employers. We already know that this company is a scam.
1. An employee, not the employer, came forward with more UNPROVEN CLAIMS, as to why she believes what she's peddling is a legitimate distributorship.
2. Why is Suzi an employee and not a distributor?
3. No successful person would ever waste much time searching the Internet for complaints regarding their company, which they could not resolve.
Distributorships are a huge waste of time! If a company is reputable and is marketing a decent product or service, they would not seek distributors and would reap all the profits for themselves. Disclosure people!
Until next time, take care Everyone cause I care, Aloha from Hawaii and God Bless.
Sindi
WEST JORDAN,Utah,
U.S.A.
Successful Susie????
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, March 02, 2005
I know of six distributors in my area, all of whom are no longer doing business with Holiday due to lack of sales and support.
I still have over 20 locations but no longer buy from Holiday. I don't know how you can be successful with such low profit margins. Especially on the HP's.
I can get high quality HP 45's for $5.00, HP 78's for 10.00, HP 15's for 5.75. My HP 56's are 13.00, my HP 57's are 13.50. Does Holiday pass on the savings to you? I'm not a competitor, I'm an ex-distributor that would be out of business if I didn't find a better avenue to buy my product.
I am still in the ink business. I've worked very hard. But, if I only had a few locations, I would be dieing. Most of our locations do an average of $200.00 a month in Sales. That's it!!!
I save money by buying my toners other places as well. It is so nice to have options on where you want to buy your product and lose the middle man (Holiday).
So if you really are successful and growing, that's great. Just imagine what your profit would be if you could really make a profit by cutting out the middle man and not having a zillion cartridges on back order at a time!
Neil
Dallasd,Texas,
U.S.A.
Re: The rebuttal you received
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, February 28, 2005
Suzy, from Huntsville, Alabama was the person I was told to contact to confirm the validity of this "distributorship".. Like shooting fish in a barrel she said.. No problems at all with the company, and she had to service her displays more and more frequently due to the tremendous volume she was doing. She's probably an employee of the company.
Suzy
Huntsville,Alabama,
U.S.A.
Rebuttal from one who sees successful distributors every day.....
#5UPDATE Employee
Wed, February 09, 2005
Dear David:
It has been brought to our attention that you have filed a complaint on line with the bad business bureau website.
I would like to share with you some information that was provided to us by an independent site that assists successful entrepreneurs that are willing to promote themselves and their businesses to be productive in their efforts:
Reasons New Franchisees or Business Opportunity Purchasers Fail
He or She:
1. Believes owning a business is easy. Companies, like Holiday Ink, Inc. provide training
and support, but business owner's must manage their new businesses. This can mean
hard work.
2. Does not enjoy the business. Discovering too late that owning your own business does
not fit his/her personality type and preferences.
3. Does not follow the business plan. Business owner's invest in a business opportunity
to learn the business. It is important to adhere to the high standards of quality which
makes the business opportunity stand out, and which customers expect to get from
every other distributor in the business opportunity system.
4. Does not enjoy interacting with people. Often success depends on the business
owner's ability to get along with customers, employees, other business owners, and of
course the business opportunity company you purchased from.
5. Could not really afford the business. Until the new business made a profit, he/she did
not have enough money to run the business and to cover living expenses.
6. Did not have family support. Owning a business should be a family decision since their
will be intense demands on your time.
I am sure if you will honestly review the above reasons why failure occurs in running your own business you will find several that apply to you. Holiday Ink has provided everything that we said we would when offering you this business opportunity in the first place. If your inability to communicate your needs to the company is standing in your way then I do not see why venting on a superficial website for disgruntled negative minded people is going to cure your problem or make your business a success. I am not sure whether you have investigated your savior website, but this is the same website that allows 390 people to vent about adultery, 400+ complaints have been lodged against your government, and 350+ against a major well respected and definitely successful business Wal Mart - which by the way was founded in a rural area by a hard working entrepreneur, Sam Walton.
It seems to me that your time and effort would be better spent trying to learn your business and operate it more positively instead of simply trying to blame Holiday Ink, Inc. for your shortcomings as a business owner. You were given every opportunity, prior to purchase, to investigate this business and you obviously made the decision that this was the type of business you wanted to buy. As far as anyone encouraging you to do something you did not want to do, this is just totally unfounded. It doesn't take a tremendous amount of thought to understand that if you are the right person for this business that running ten displays as opposed to only five would double your exposure in your area and in turn increase sales and branding. But it is necessary to actively promote your locations and product. You obviously are the type person who would rather buy someone else's opinion instead of creating a positive market for your business.
The other things you choose to complain about are a matter of standard business procedures for our company. ALL distributors pay freight on the shipping of their display racks. These are simply the direct charges from UPS - Holiday Ink, Inc. does not profit from this at all. We already absorb the charges for shipping the cartridges and point of sales materials and you were informed of this when preparing your original purchase order. If you will review your copy, you will see in your own handwriting Display Freight On Buyer. As far as the shipping of the cartridges goes, all companies including the most common ones as Circuit City, etc. has backorders from time to time. It is not a stretch to understand that HP cartridges are the most popular and would be the type that would be affected by back order situations the most. It is a standard economic principle that the highest demand product would be more subject to shortage of supply. As far as your calls regarding customer service issues being reverted to the Customer Service Department by a Marketing Office, this too is a matter of standard business procedures for our company. It is impossible for the things you needed to be provided by a marketing office. They have limited abilities which apply only to the marketing of the distributorships. They cannot take or fill orders, assist in sales training, answer questions regarding shipments or any of the items you listed that you needed assistance with. We would be remiss in our customer support to allow these matters to be addressed by members of our Marketing Offices who are not knowledgeable in that area of our business.
If you had tried to address the company in a manner conducive to solving your issues and maintained your composure, as opposed to expressing your frustration by threatening the corporation as you stated yourself, then I am sure that your situation would have gone much smoother and every effort would have been made to assist you in becoming the successful business owner both you and Holiday Ink, Inc. would like to see you be.
It is necessary for you to understand you were made an offering of a business opportunity, you researched that opportunity and decided to purchase a business, now is the time you must be a business owner which mandates you have to manage your business, promote your products and be diligent in regards to operating a successful business to reap the profits you expect. Any business owner will tell you that you get out what you put in and it is time for you to go to work. We repeatedly tell all prospective distributors in our prospectus package that this is not a Get Rich Quick scheme. Successful businesses are achieved by diligence and hard work, good communication skills and strong detail oriented record keeping. If you are unable to achieve these ends then you learned a very expensive lesson, however if you can direct your aggressions in a positive manner and heed this business advice you will be able to run a successful business and reap the benefits in the form of monetary profits along with a sense of accomplishment second to none. It is amazing that out of 200+ productive distributors a handful of like minded uninspired distributors find it some form of salvation to band together on a ridiculous website and blame all their problems on the last people that want to see them fail - Holiday Ink, Inc. We are in the business to sell ink solution products and we utilize our distributorship system to do this - if it is not working for you then it is not working for us either. It is once again amazing that we are growing so rapidly. This must be because the lion's share of our distributors do follow our program and are reaping the benefit of their efforts. I suggest you get on this path as well.
Regards,