Complaint Review: The Personality Factory/My Tunes

Let me state right now we are not a competitor of My Tunes/The Personality Factory. We are a distributor that has had an association with My Tunes for just over a year. We are among many distributors that put a substantial amount of money and time into trying to make this business successful and it is not nor will it be as long as Das and Kingsley are running the business.

Das and Kingsley will defend their business to any discontented distributor by saying the following phrases, other distributors are doing well, it's you, it's how you run your business you should sell up and give someone else an opportunity, we simply gave you an opportunity what you do with it is up to you, instead of spending your time complaining, how about spending the time getting out there selling. Many distributors are not doing the expected or advertised amount that My Tunes give you as part of the promotional package. This is not from lack of enthusiasm, money or hard work.

These phrases have made distributors feel incompetent and unsuccessful (which I'm sure was the intended purpose). This is certainly not the way to motivate your sales team. I would doubt Das and Kingsley have any clue about management of a business and it's people. They have offered business advice but the advice given is get out there and sell. Given they market the business to stay-at-home mum/dads it defeats the purpose of buying a home based business. This is a children's product business. Their un-professionalism and inability to relate to this demographic astounds me. For distributors out there, don't feel incompetent, consider the following:

1)You cannot make money when you are paying excess costs for supplies.

2)The promotional information they give you is inaccurate and full of either inaccurate or false impressions or information.

3)You are promoting the name My Tunes who are in the marketplace retailing the product they are both wholesalers and retailers. This means you are creating business for their retail outlet because you are forbidden from re-branding the product and the most prominent name a customer will remember is My Tunes. My Tunes are your biggest competitor. Despite how much advertising and marketing you do for your business, the bottom line is their name is the most prominent and you cannot re-brand. This would be fine if they just stuck to what they should be doing supplying product and supporting their sales team in a professional management style.

4)They do not have the rights permanently to sell the product. This means at any time the supplier can discontinue lines of product that you have paid excessive license fees to sell. This has happened with their recent decision.

5)Any response given by Das and Kingsley is aimed to make you feel sympathy for them and convince you they are the victims. Das and Kingsley seem to be making assumptions that you are not intelligent enough to realize what they are doing right in front of your face. I would question who was unethical in this matter given My Tunes also joined in the slander in written and verbal correspondence.

6)Das and Kingsley made business decisions that greatly impact your business without warning and without consultation. Therefore any business plans or projected growth plans are not stable especially when they cannot guarantee supply. Along with other badly timed pre-Christmas decisions distributors were left to scramble to make sales with less products and confusion at the My Tunes office. Many did not reach their Christmas sales targets the biggest selling time for the sales force.

You are responsible for your business, I agree. However when you base your business on inaccurate or incorrect information, then have two business owners that are incompetent at running the company, you are tied into a lot of conditions that make marketing and promoting your business impossible (information you don't find out until after signing the contracts) you can not be blamed if your business is not making money.

Furthermore Das and Kingsley do only one thing well sell you the initial business and take the money and forget about you (including not giving you e-mail updates or correct information about products). They are taking on new franchisees and distributors constantly, which floods the market with the unique products leaving your position in the market vulnerable.

Let us also be clear here, Das and Kingsley are not pioneers. They are importers that supply goods to people in Australia goods that have been available in Australia for many years and available through different suppliers, past and present. I am sure they would like to think they are more than that but they are not. They have not been clever in their ideas, they have not created great products, they have merely sourced items as any business does, increased prices to ensure their own profit, added excessive set-up costs and created a sales network of hopeful business owners.

Das and Kingsley have claimed they are the only company in the world have the support of international companies such as Disney. I am sure that the Disney corporation would be interested in hearing this fabrication. The only Disney product they sell is through Identity Direct who has the license to advertise and sell Disney product, My Tunes do not and neither do you. Let me reiterate this point, My Tunes do not deal with the Disney corporation at all! They deal with an established Australian supplier of Disney product.

I am sure at this point if Das bothers to reply to this report (he is notorious for not replying to your e-mails), he will have some well-worded explanation as to why I and other distributors are not making money all of which will not be their fault.

Let me offer this advice call other distributors and franchisees to confirm the facts. Forget about the accusation that the competitor is slandering their name talk to the people who have given their house deposit, kids education fund, family holiday money, life savings to Kingsley and Das and have lost all their money and their valuable time trying to flog a dead horse. Remember Das and Kingsley make their money selling you overpriced distributor packages, then made money selling overpriced franchisees and from the retail sales you create by promotion of their name.

For any distributors who may be reading this, you are not alone. I would like to share more facts with you however the un-professionalism of Das and Kingsley experienced in verbal and written communication makes their behaviour unpredictable and impactful on our business. We unfortunately still need to be supplied by them until their suppliers realize what they are about, clearly one of them has.

My Tunes/Personality Factory may be a company that is part of a feel good industry but nobody is feeling good except them while they have your hard earned cash.

One of many very unhappy distributors.

Anon
In Australia
Australia