Complaint Review: Mark5 Bob King

Mark5inc is a sneaky little scam. The contract is right online for you to peruse; but beware. Five minutes after they get your money, you are sent a training manual. Guess what it says; some of the highlights are listed here.

1. Exchanges are only 8 dozen per month and only if you purchase 8 dozen also.

2. Exchanges are only on "Impressions" groupings orders; these are limited to vague categories like "gold hoops" or "silver studs." If you try to be more specific than that. . .it isn't part of the contract, no exchanges at all, no display perks, and they are not $2/pair.

3. You are informed that most of your locations provided by the professional locator will not pan out so you better learn to locate for yourself right quick and many pages are dedicated to teaching you to become your own locator or SELL; (doesn't the site say "no selling"?)

4. Exchanges of un-sellable or damaged earrings are only with Bob King's approval.

5. Get in writing that you are the only distributor in your area, because that's what they told me and SURPRISE . . .the other distributor called me when he started bumping into the displays I had put out. He was just as annoyed or more so than I about his experience with Mark5inc and Bob King, he has been fighting with them for 2 years.

6. The site and come-on literature say that you don't have to cover shoplifted earrings, but when the locators can't find anyone to take your displays without YOU covering theft; Bob and the locator bully you into accepting those terms because otherwise you won't get any placements.

7. Watch out, those locators are slick folks, they will try to put the displays in places like one woman garage beauty shops with fewer than 25 customers a week. Since you will be lucky to sell more than 1% per month based on customers, this means you will sell 2 or less pairs of earrings in month. But try to tell the locator that you want him to raise his standards and do better (ie refuse the site) and he calls Bob to bully you some more.

8. You don't get to choose the earrings you will be displaying and if your inventory isn't suitable as mine wasn't (I got loads of heavy, clunky earrings, also christmas earrings in March (??), and of those I got eight dozen or more of each style; but the ones that were okay, . . .maybe 1/2 dozen or one dozen); remember you can't exchange but 8 dozen a month and then only if Bob says you can AND you buy 8 dozen. With initial inventory between 2100 and 4200 earrings (200-350 dozen) if your initial inventory isn't suitable to your area; you're screwed.

9. Don't sign up for the money back at the end of the year if you don't make your money back. The conditions end up being ridiculously impossible, the main impossibility is that you must have 21 sites within a short period of time which can be very difficult. So use a credit card, don't pay off the charge right away, and be prepared to file a dispute as eary as 60 days; though I've now been informed that disputes must be honored up to a year later. Keep track of every piece of paper from come-on literature through the training manual and don't do business with Bob King by phone; make all conversations by email or snail mail so what is said can be verified and print off and save copies in a file for future use as needed.

10. Lastly, take note that your initial signup is going to cost you essentially $50 for each display and $4 for each pair of earrings. So if you still want to do this, buy the smallest package. Then go online and search for jewelry displays, there are many available for only $10.40 and then you can "buy" the extra earrings from Bob King Mark5inc to fill the displays and this will also begin to set up your "buy 8 dozen to exchange 8 dozen" routine.

Well that's it for me tonight. I could go on longer but this is the gist of it. It is interesting to note that since I have contacted a few agencies and my credit card company regarding this situation; Bob King Mark5inc and his lawyer have been hounding me to sign a release of claim or complaint that would make it a breach of contract for me to inform you or the state and federal agencies that might try to shut him down. Ya'see I've come to find out that he does business with the same jewelry manufacturer that used to supply Elite Design till the FTC shut them down for this similar behaviour. Do a search on Elite Design earrings and you'll see. Also Mark5inc Bob King and Troy Whitworth are banned from the state of Washington due to failure to properly disclose information. They should be disclosing all that they do, plus legitimate financial records of other distributors and themselves.

Good luck, I hope I have helped you make a wiser decision than I did.

OH! One more thing, the BBB report specifically says something about the complaints against this company are consumers not investors; but think about it a sec. . .(I didn't catch this at the time) I thought it meant earring consumers versus Business Opportunity investors; except that Mark5inc does not have it's name attached to the jewelry only to the business opportunity. So his "consumers" ARE YOU.

Jill
Boise, Idaho
U.S.A.