Complaint Review: Standford Who's Who

I will submit my emails that I sent to "Standford Who is Who" in a logical order starting from my first email which has been sent on June 03rd:

Sent: 3-Jun-09 3:27 PM
To: 'customerservice@stanfordwhoswho.com'
Subject: Bad taste after less than 24 hours of your first contact!!
Importance: High

Dear Elissa,
This is just a follow up email after our call conversation this morning. I would like to thank you for your effort and I am waiting to hear from your customer service staff asap.

As I said, I was thrilled yesterday after you interviewed me and the fact that I will be recognized by (who is who). I even called friend of mine yesterday to recommend him to apply. I also was thinking of sending an email to my old MBA classmates to tell them about your great recognition system.

I called you this morning (after less than 24 hours from our first contact) with big smile on my face and I gave you my personal visa card info in order to charge this card instead of my business visa card that I provided yesterday just because I don't want to attract the Revenue Canada Agency eye where I am the owner and the CEO of CLLC. I told you that the best way to do this is to refund the fee to my business card and then charge the personal card because I have one account with one credit limit for both accounts.

After 30 min or so, you called me and told me you could not charge the new/ personal card and you can not refund the amount. I said I know there might be as I told you no enough funds in my cards and the best way is to refund one and charge the other one because both cards are mine and it is from the same bank and it is (2 cards but one account which has one limit). You said sorry but sales are final and I can not get the refund and my shipment is in its way!!!

I was then shocked! I told you I am not happy because it seems to me now that (who's who) is not recognizing me but selling me something. I said I was SO happy yesterday but I am not now.

I called my bank to ask them if my limit is not enough so you can charge my other card and I was shocked once again when I learned that you billed me over 900 CAD dollar not $780 as you said. You didn't tell me it is 780 USD. I assumed it is CAD.

NOW: IT IS NOT ABOUT MONEY ANY MORE for me. It is about not appreciating your (PAID RECOGNITION). This is just money making machine therefore, I would like please to decline and get 100% refund. I assume this will be okay with you because you have nothing to lose where every thing happened just in the last 10 business hours and I don't believe that you start the process specially that I have not proofread my bio.

I did call my bank and I cancelled both cards just because I don't trust your organization!!

Looking forward to get my money back, otherwise I will take other legal actions with my bank and I will publish my story online to advice others it is PAID recognition not as you try to tell people "I am pleased to inform you that you and your business have been selected to be published for FREE in the 2009/2010 Edition of the Canadian Who's Who in Business!!"

I hope to hear from you soon,

After three days, somebody called me and said that they will offer me FREE membership for one year in order to satisfy me. I agreed and signed the follwing agreement:

June 8, 2009
My Name
Address
RE: Customer ID# 7121782
Dear Ms. "my name",
Pursuant to our phone conversation, Stanford Who's Who has agreed to waive your monthly dues and deferred payment of $199.00. You will be continuing as a Platinum Member. In turn, you will drop this dispute and agree to this settlement.
Please sign on the line provided and fax back to 646-839-2868, all adjustments will be made when we receive the signed copy back.
Thank You.

Sincerely Yours,

Stephen Thompson ____________________________________
My Name

I was looking forward to start fresh and receive my backage. However, I shocked when I recognized that their package doesn't include the products that they promised to deliver. I sent the follwing email:

Sent: 31-Jul-09 6:55 PM
To: 'customerservice@stanfordwhoswho.com'
Cc: 'customerservice@stanfordwhoswho.com'
Subject: FW: Bad taste after less than 24 hours of your first contact!!
Importance: High

Stephen,

I am writing to you regarding my below emails which followed by your phone call on July 08th. The information you provided me during that phone call dated on July 08th was shocking. I was totally angry and I decided to wait for some time to calm down and in order to find the time to discuss the issue with my lawyer and my bank account manager.

It is very obvious to me that my expectation has not been met yet. Your service, fees, and benefits are clear as mud.

Your information in the last phone call shocked me because:

I was excepting to receive similar quality certificate to the one you have in your website (see the attached file: "who's who certificate.jpg). I was shocked to receive commercial poor printed, poor paper and not sealed certificate (see the attached file "001.jpg"). I actually shredded it off (see "002.jpg").
I thought the plaque and the glass tribute are included in the $900 CAD that I paid. During our last phone conversation, you told me that the amount I paid worth the package I received and the benefits I am getting because in addition to the discount from several organizations and the travel voucher, I will be part of your book and the website as one of selected leaders in their businesses who has been recognized by Who's Who! BUT, I am not convinced because:
Plaque & Tribute: Susan listed in the first phone call number of benefits and then convinced me to upgrade my membership to the Platinum class which includes more benefits such as plaque and glass tribute. You blamed me in your last phone call that I am trying to make this up by listing some benefits from your website. Of course, I had to check your website and copy the benefits items that I had been told it will be part of my deal. I think you should blame your company being not clear in your website: (1- which class gets what benefit, 2- not having the price list on the website, 3- your members selecting process.) In my opinion, you are manipulating and abusing my needs to be recognized. I am now not surprised that Susan during my first phone call refused to refund me the fees after less than 24 hours of the purchase because the package was in progress. Now, I found the package doesn't include the plaque or any real benefit could explain the work progress that you had done for me in the first 8 working hours of our business relation. I discovered that the package includes ONLY some marketing materials that worth nothing and a poor quality certificate with a receipt and copy of the poor profile that I said to Susan much more information than what is there. Now I understand, she was not even concentrating of what I am saying, she was thinking how she can close the deal and get my money.
Discount benefit: your discount benefit is not important to me at all. I don't need to be introduced to another group discount/ point & reward system. There is 100s of them in the market.
Black book and web: Regarding updating my profile in your website, I should let you know that I was shocked when I saw my profile (see attached file "who's who package and marketing info which cost its client $900!!.pdf". It is very poor profile and it actually tells me that your provided information in our previous conversation regarding your member selecting process was not accurate. That says a lot about your poor selecting process and the fact that your sales team are saying something to convince clients to pay the fees and then it seems that your main business is selling them something different. Your sales person seems to be focusing how to get my payment instead of write what I told her exactly to impress me with a reasonable profile to start with. I don't see such profile meet your company way of selecting your members.Here is copy of your website: "At Stanford Who's Who we have created an environment for our members to grow, network, and cultivate strategies for future success. Our members are hand selected from across the globe and invitation is granted only to those individuals who have demonstrated leadership and achievement in their occupation, industry, or profession. Through multiple mediums such as The Stanford Who's Who Black Book, and Stanford Who's Who Profiles Magazine, Stanford Who's Who has created a forum for career professionals to uncover new opportunities, and gain exposure within their industry. With a wealth of resources, and opportunities to offer, Stanford Who's Who is quickly becoming the worlds largest and most acclaimed networking organization."
Travel Voucher. I am hoping to get one thing out of this miss situation. So let me know how can I use it for my travel this year from (Halifax, Canada to Seoul, Korea) in Nov 2009.

My experience since the beginning is a night-mare and even though you sorted out the fees confusion in the past, I am totally shocked regarding the benefits I am not getting. In order to work this out you can double check the recorded conversation with your sales person and do one of the following options:

* If I did agree without fully understanding the Platinum membership benefits then I will make a decision to cancel my membership, delete my bio from your website and database but I need to use the travel voucher in my upcoming trip to Seoul on Nov 06th, 2009.

* If your sales person made a mistake and she said that I will be getting benefits i.e.: (Plaque, good quality Certificate, & Tribute), then I would like to receive the missed items, resend a quality certificate similar to the one shown in your website. In this case I also don't want to extend my membership with you and therefore I will not pay any membership fees in the future.

The reason of the cancelation/ not extending my membership in both cases is because I don't feel proud of being a member in such organization. I would like to document my case in order to raise my voice (in case I am not satisfied) to the media, my lawyer and my bank so please respond by writing instead of calling me.

Thanks,

I received the follwing email:
From: Stephen Thompson [mailto:sthompson@stanfordwhoswho.com]
Sent: 10-Aug-09 10:30 AM
Subject: ?

I'm sorry, I didn't understand your question exactly? What did you mean by asking for our organization feedback regarding your email? I will be happy to answer, I just don't know what you mean.

Thank you
Stephen

Stephen Thompson

Member Services Supervisor

00 111 (631) 650-2140 Ext:2311

sthompson@stanfordwhoswho.com

www.stanfordwhoswho.com

Then I sent this email:

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 10:13 AM
To: 'Stephen Thompson'
Subject: RE: ?

Thank you for confirming receiving my email below includes all the attached files. I was not asking a question, I am sharing with you my frustration of dealing with your organization.

My complain is basically includes three parts:

1- Are you going to deliver the items that your sales person promised to deliver (certificate, plaque, tribute)?

2- How can I use your travel voucher for my business trip to Berlin or Korea in Nov 2009?

3- I would like you to cancel my membership.

Thanks

I received this email from him:

From: Stephen Thompson [mailto:sthompson@stanfordwhoswho.com]
Sent: 10-Aug-09 11:43 AM
Subject: RE: ?

I've already spoken to you regarding this, and mentioned I was more than happy to send you a complimentary glass tribute, but you do have to allow 4-8 weeks for that to arrive. I did receive your artwork you sent and frankly I have no comment on your pictures. There is no proffessionalism in shredding our certificate we sent you and taking a picture of it shredded to send us. You did this after I spoke to you on the phone already a few weeks earlier and told you on the phone we would be sending a complimentary glass plaque to compensate for your not being happy with the certificate. Why then after I offered that to you would you email us that picture 2 weeks later????!!!

I am hoping this will be the last time I am hearing about this. I am sending you a complementary glass tribute. I don't have to, it's not included with your membership, but I am trying to do the right thing.

The airline voucher details should be linked from our site when you log in. There should have been instructions for use on the voucher. As far as #3 concern, that's not possible, we already went over that.

Any thing other than what we went over here please feel free to contact me or custserv@stanfordwhoswho.com

So... I thought I might send him this email:

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 12:02 PM
To: 'Stephen Thompson'
Subject: RE: ?

Well. I think you are missing the point. I don't want your complimentary tribute. I want to receive my rights that your sales person promised me to receive as part of my deal. It is my decision to cancel my membership not yours.

Thanks any way for the service!!!

I received this email from them:


From: Stephen Thompson [mailto:sthompson@stanfordwhoswho.com]
Sent: 10-Aug-09 1:28 PM
Subject: RE: ?

I suppose I am missing the point. You sent us a picture of a ripped up certificate after I already acknowledged you were not happy with it. As a result of that conversation I told you I would issue you a complimentary plaque which was generous. So you are correct I am missing that point of why you emailed me that picture! It was downright disrespectful! Not professional to say the least.

I suppose I am also missing the point about the tribute I authorized to issue you complimentary, which we don't typically do. I guess I don't understand how you could email me wanting the plaque several times and then when I agree to send one then turn around and say you don't want it when I authorized it to be sent complimentary! You know as well as I do that your account director did not at any point in your initial conversation mention they are included, only the certificate. They never even mentioned them once! The words tribute and plaque never even came up one time in your conversation! I reviewed the records and the additional items you have been speaking of prior were not mentioned to you at any point! It is your decision and truth is we already took care of it in our system so you have nothing to worry about further. I don't wish to continue with this conversation any further if it is going to be related to the same issues you are bringing about. I am happy to help you with anything else, but being that I am missing your point there no need to continue discussing it. If it's anything else I can address let me know and I will gladly help.

So, I decided to send this email:

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:42 PM
To: 'Stephen Thompson'
Subject: RE: ?

I'd like to put an end to this emailing back & forth so I can move on from this extremely frustrating situation. I always give people the benefit of the doubt and enjoy making new relationships with fantastic companies. When I first heard about your organization, I was excited to work with you on this exciting opportunity. However, I soon found out, just after my first interaction with your company that things were going downhill fast. I am very angry about how I have been treated by your company and I will be sure to spread the word in order to warn other potential "newbies" who might fall into the same trap that I did (e.g., via youtube, other media, etc.). I hope that bad karma finds it way back to you.

Regarding your two points below, I will take the time to address both of them (even though you did not read my emails or listen carefully during our phone conversations and address my points):

1. Regarding shredding the certificate - I was simply indicating to you how extremely unhappy & unpleased I was with the difference between the quality of the certificate that you present on your website & what you actually delivered to me

2. Regarding the complimentary tribute - I don't WANT anything complimentary (and this goes back to ALL of the communication that we've had in the past - I SIMPLY WANT TO HAVE MY RIGHTS and not be forced to do something I don't want to do.

Finally, you mentioned that you actually LISTENED to the conversation between me & your sales rep - I would love to hear that conversation so I can be at least a little bit less angry if I already was given my rights.

And then he sent this email:
I left you a message and got cut off on your machine..i was leaving too long of a message. My apologies, I just wanted to speak to you. You can try me here and I'll see what more I can do for you.

My last email upto this time is here:

I don't think there is any need to talk about anything. I don't want to be a member of your organization in ANY WAY (i.e., I do not want my bio/information/photo to appear in any of your published material (website, promotional materials, etc.) and should I find out that you do I will be sure to contact my lawyer. I want nothing to do with your organization. I don't want any of the gifts (e.g., trophy, plaque, etc.). If there is ANY use for the money that I spent then go ahead & use that against the travel voucher and I would be ok to do that & at least be able to receive some travel out of this mess.

Aly
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada