- Report: #1025721
Complaint Review: Attack! Marketing - Internet Internet
Reported By:
PromoGirl12 -
Tacoma, Washington, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Attack! Marketing
2662 Lacy Street Los Angeles, CA 90031 Internet, Internet, United States of America
Phone:
323.454.4472
Web:
www.attackmarketing.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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Attack! Marketing Payments are 'lost in the mail' - 25% of income goes to replacing checks and are not able to provide bank receipt Internet
Attack took 12 weeks to issue payment for a completed Brand Ambassador position. Both checks were lost in the mail.
What is a concerning trend is the number of payment checks that are "Lost in the Mail."
Attack verified that two checks were sent out on 2/22/13. Two checks to two different locations with correct addresses do not arrive. We've verified both addresses are corret.
They suggested to ask neighbors (for my friend whos check was sent to his home) and for my to ask the post office (since I have a PO Box) if they have seen our checks. We did and there are no checks. Mind you, I am on crutches from a skiing accident and hobble to my PO Box daily to see that there is still no check. The national average for a first-class mail to arrive is 2 to 3 days. It has been two weeks
To get paid, the only other option was to have a check reissued. Attack deducts $35.00 from our payment for this. Our checks were respectively $90 and $180. Thus $70 in total bank fees for $280 payment. That's over 25% of total amount owed, just to get paid.
I asked Attack to provide proof that each of our $35 dollars was going to pay their bank fees and they responded:
Unfortunately we cannot comply with your request for a receipt from
the bank. Our bank charges our account once a month with all banking
fees lumped together. We do get a "stop payment verification letter"
from the bank but it takes a couple of weeks for it to come to us.
Your receipt will have to be the notation on the replacement check
where it will say total amount minus bank stop payment charge.
Additional documentation is in the contract you signed stating your
agreement to this if your check is lost and Attack has your address
correct.
According to bankrate.com, that average check stop fee is $18 to $32.
Most courts consider something mailed once it's deposited with the post office. But how can we Brand Ambassords be assured it's getting to the post office?
This report is submitted in hopes Attack! will correct this trend of lost checks. After a quick Google of Attack, lost checks appears to be a common occurence, higher than the 3 - 5% national average. In our case it was 100% for 2 checks. Odd that it would be the USPS, but to Attack's defense, possible. My suggestions would be:
1. Give the option to send the check trackable with Priority Mail, even at our expense. $5.00 is much less than $35 and us Brand Ambassadors can be assured you did deposit to the postal service.
2. Re-negotiate your stop payment fee with your bank. $35.00 far exceeds the national average.
3. Work with your bank to provide a receipt to the Brand Ambassador who is footing the bill.
If others have had this situation happen, I encourage you to post a report. No to tarnish a company's reputation, but to get them to change their ways and to protect you. Attack works with many Fortune 100 companies. Attack's slow and lost payments can leave a bad image of their clients that we ultimately represent.
What is a concerning trend is the number of payment checks that are "Lost in the Mail."
Attack verified that two checks were sent out on 2/22/13. Two checks to two different locations with correct addresses do not arrive. We've verified both addresses are corret.
They suggested to ask neighbors (for my friend whos check was sent to his home) and for my to ask the post office (since I have a PO Box) if they have seen our checks. We did and there are no checks. Mind you, I am on crutches from a skiing accident and hobble to my PO Box daily to see that there is still no check. The national average for a first-class mail to arrive is 2 to 3 days. It has been two weeks
To get paid, the only other option was to have a check reissued. Attack deducts $35.00 from our payment for this. Our checks were respectively $90 and $180. Thus $70 in total bank fees for $280 payment. That's over 25% of total amount owed, just to get paid.
I asked Attack to provide proof that each of our $35 dollars was going to pay their bank fees and they responded:
Unfortunately we cannot comply with your request for a receipt from
the bank. Our bank charges our account once a month with all banking
fees lumped together. We do get a "stop payment verification letter"
from the bank but it takes a couple of weeks for it to come to us.
Your receipt will have to be the notation on the replacement check
where it will say total amount minus bank stop payment charge.
Additional documentation is in the contract you signed stating your
agreement to this if your check is lost and Attack has your address
correct.
According to bankrate.com, that average check stop fee is $18 to $32.
Most courts consider something mailed once it's deposited with the post office. But how can we Brand Ambassords be assured it's getting to the post office?
This report is submitted in hopes Attack! will correct this trend of lost checks. After a quick Google of Attack, lost checks appears to be a common occurence, higher than the 3 - 5% national average. In our case it was 100% for 2 checks. Odd that it would be the USPS, but to Attack's defense, possible. My suggestions would be:
1. Give the option to send the check trackable with Priority Mail, even at our expense. $5.00 is much less than $35 and us Brand Ambassadors can be assured you did deposit to the postal service.
2. Re-negotiate your stop payment fee with your bank. $35.00 far exceeds the national average.
3. Work with your bank to provide a receipt to the Brand Ambassador who is footing the bill.
If others have had this situation happen, I encourage you to post a report. No to tarnish a company's reputation, but to get them to change their ways and to protect you. Attack works with many Fortune 100 companies. Attack's slow and lost payments can leave a bad image of their clients that we ultimately represent.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
PromoGirl12
Tacoma,Washington,
United States of America
Thank you for your response
#2Author of original report
Mon, March 11, 2013
Thank you for your quick response and for considering my suggestions.
Fortunately (and coincidentally), my friend's check arrived the day after I wrote this. It was postmarked for 2/22/13 by Pitney Bowes, yet arrived 3/9/13.
To Attack's defense, it may have taken the US Postal Office 22 days to deliver an envelope from San Fran to Seattle.
However, it being a Pitney Bowes mark, it IS possible to backdate a postmark by manipulating a Pitney Bowes that many businesses have. You can change the date and run the envelope through the meter and the requested postmark date will print on the envelope. The Post Office will not "backdate" a postmark for you.
If I could make one more suggestion - use a regular postage stamp so the Post Office can do the official postmark (and not Pitney Bowes).
Understandably, using regular stamps on bulk mail can be cumbersome. However, this would alleviate the grey area as to when Attack is actually depositing the Pitney Bowes mail to the US Postal Service.
I am happy to hear that all of my suggestions are being considered and maybe some of them implemented. I am also grateful to hear my friend's check arrived and he did not have to pay the $35 stop check fee.
Report Attachments
NJ
United States of AmericaAttack!'s Stop Payment Fees, Etc.
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Sat, March 09, 2013
Hello,
This popped up in my google alerts, so i figured I would respond. I'm the one who handles the stop payment requests for Attack! (i don't work there in the day to day, but am one of the owners, so i have access to the bank account, which is why I get asked to do them when they happen).
While I'm not sure I'd classify this as a "rip off", your frustration is valid and it makes sense you would post it here. That said, you seem like a reasonable person, so after reading your complaint I figured I would respond to provide some clarity, specifically that checks lost in the mail is not some sort of scam or fun game the company plays with the contractors it values and depends on to succeed in business. Lost checks and stop payments happen.
I honestly don't know how many checks are sent out per week at the company, but I do know that when i'm asked to do a stop payment, i hear lots of reasons given, including: the person moved, they went back to school from home, are going home for the holidays from school, broke up with boyfriend/girlfriend, it never showed up, etc. What I can also say is that on plenty of occasions, a stop payment has been placed on a check, it did show up somewhere and someone tried to cash it with another one on the way. In other cases when I go into to do a stop payment, the bank won't allow me because the check has already been cashed. That's obviously the reason we do a stop payment, so it's not cashed by the wrong person, or cashed twice by the right person.
The stop payment fee we are charged is $35, it is a pass-through cost, the company doesn't and wouldn't try to make money on what quite honestly is a bigger inconvenience than it might seem. Not as big of an inconvenience as not getting a check when we need it (we've all had it happen), I understand that. But, it creates extra work for the people in accounting, they have plenty to do already and when it happens have to take other measures to basically re-do the work they did to get the check out in the first place, often to a person who is frustrated. Naturally. I don't want you to feel sorry for the people in accounting, they know it's part of the job, but to think they sit around and enjoy, want or even hope for lost checks and stop payments is nowhere on their minds.
I did a quick google search for "attack! marketing lost check" not as part of this reply, mostly out of curiosity and maybe I searched incorrectly but I didn't find any data or information that would call it a regular occurrence and definitely not enough to be able to calculate a % based on the national average.
Regarding 2 of your suggestions (2 and 3), which I think are good:
2) I will ask our bank (Wells) about lowering the stop payment fees. All I can do is ask and see what happens. If they say yes I'll consider it awesome because frankly, i think $35 for a Stop Payment Fee from a bank is what this report should be, that's the real rip off.
3) There is no "receipt" that we're given when I place a stop payment (and the fee bundling they mentioned are correct) and I try not to check the box for "send us a letter" confirmation because I think it's a waste of paper when everything is online. That said, I am given a Stop Payment Reference number. I don't always have time to send it back, I figure if it's needed we can look it up. If you contact the accounting person you got your emails from and say "i got a response on a report I wrote and was told I could get the reference number for the stop payment", i'm happy to look it up and provide it to you.
In the future, to be more proactive, I will also make sure I'm always providing it, so that they can send it on. It's at least a reference of proof that one was placed.
I assure you, no one is ever told "we're placing a stop payment on the check before we send you another one", charged for it and then we let the check sit out in the world hoping it won't get cashed to try and gain $35. That's a really stupid business practice.
It sucks that your checks didn't arrive the first time. I know it can be frustrating and as I stated before, even with that frustration you've taken the time to write a report that is well thought out, not full of anger and offers pro-active ideas on how to fix it. It is why I'm taking the time to respond, frankly. Things do get lost in the mail, people move, etc and I can't change that.
What I can do is tell you:
1. The check is "lost in the mail" isn't a business strategy of the company and good luck to any company that tries to be successful that way.
2. Paying contractors as quickly as possible is one of the accounting department's top priorities.
3. I will take a more pro-active approach to us "proving" we actually did a stop payment.
4. I will ask our bank about lowering the stop payment fee with my word that if they allow it, the pass-through cost will be whatever the new cost is.
It may or may not satisfy your frustration or issue, but I hope it helps.
Thank you for your note.
