Complaint Review: Brandarama/Mpell Solutions LLC - Encinatas,California Nationwide

I have been waiting for my 100 Red Lobster gift card for about 2 years.  These companies change names every few months and blame each other for unfulfilled rewards.  It's sad so many people were not raised properly and rip people off so brazenly.  Their mothers should be ashamed of them.

From that rebuttal: "Mpell mails a check to the consumer when the certificate redemption instructions, created by our client, are met." OK, so do your job. But instead, what Mpell has done is to cost many of us money in order to meet those redemption instructions, and after we are approved by Mpell, 10 weeks later they refer us back to ARG for payment. So what EXACTLY is the point of Mpell? For customers of ARG, Mpell's job is to cost us money, time, energy, our personal information, and grief. But, as long as they are truly sorry and have the dearest of sympathy's, that makes all of that waste A-OK. Just as long as Mpell got paid by ARG, right Mpell? At least someone got their money. Hopefully, other companies see these reports and choose a different fulfillment company.

From that rebuttal: "Mpell mails a check to the consumer when the certificate redemption instructions, created by our client, are met." OK, so do your job. But instead, what Mpell has done is to cost many of us money in order to meet those redemption instructions, and after we are approved by Mpell, 10 weeks later they refer us back to ARG for payment. So what EXACTLY is the point of Mpell? For customers of ARG, Mpell's job is to cost us money, time, energy, our personal information, and grief. But, as long as they are truly sorry and have the dearest of sympathy's, that makes all of that waste A-OK. Just as long as Mpell got paid by ARG, right Mpell? At least someone got their money. Hopefully, other companies see these reports and choose a different fulfillment company.

From that rebuttal: "Mpell mails a check to the consumer when the certificate redemption instructions, created by our client, are met." OK, so do your job. But instead, what Mpell has done is to cost many of us money in order to meet those redemption instructions, and after we are approved by Mpell, 10 weeks later they refer us back to ARG for payment. So what EXACTLY is the point of Mpell? For customers of ARG, Mpell's job is to cost us money, time, energy, our personal information, and grief. But, as long as they are truly sorry and have the dearest of sympathy's, that makes all of that waste A-OK. Just as long as Mpell got paid by ARG, right Mpell? At least someone got their money. Hopefully, other companies see these reports and choose a different fulfillment company.

Brandarama is just ONE of them. I made a list of all of the rest which was declined for posting here but there are a LOT MORE! One of the sites I really liked the most has recently become an AFFILIATE SITE. AVOID THESE SITES. THEY RIG THEM SO YOU ENTER YOUR IDENTIFYING INFORMATION FIRST. ( I ALWAYS ENTER FAKE INFO JUST TO GET A LIST OF THE SCUMBAGS WHO ADVERTISE WITH THEM SO I CAN POST THEM ON RIP OFF REPORT ---YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY,"BIRDS OF A FEATHER...") THE REASON THAT THEY ASK YOU FOR YOUR INFO FIRST IS IN CASE YOU GET SMART AND REALIZE THAT THIS IS AN AFFILIATE SITE AND YOU WILL NEVER,EVER GET THE PRIZE THAT THEY ARE PROMISING YOU ) NOT ONLY ARE THESE YUPPIES, MOST OF THEM AFE FOREIGN-BORN YUPPIES, SOME OF WHICH ARE AFFILIATED WITH AL QUIDAH, THE RUSSIAN OR UKRAINIAN MAFIA, OR TRADITIONAL GYPSY RAGHEAD OLD SCHOOL CON AND RIP OFF ARTISTS ( These people originate in Northern India)...NIGERIANS GET THIS INFORMATION TOO IN THE SAME WAY, I DO NOT KNOW WHO RUNS WHAT SCAM AFFILIATE SITE BUT THEY MAKE MONEY NOT ONLY FROM THE CROOKED ADVERTISERS WHO SIGN UP BUT THEY ALSO MAKE MONEY FROM YOU IF YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO PUT YOUR REAL IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION ON THEIR PAGE. WHAT HAPPENS TO THIS PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT YOU ENTER? Well, if you are STUPID enough to enter your real Date of Birth, they can create new lines of credit in your name and find all kinds of information about you. If you are lucky, they won't steal your identity and set up new lines of credit in your name some of which will be used to buy drugs, weapons and all kinds of illegal stuff which will be traced back to YOU! Like that train bombing incident in Spain a few years back... Want to be considered GUILTY before you are PROVEN innocent, assuming that international law even cares? THIS IS THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION WHEN YOU GIVE PEOPLE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITHOUT KNOW WHO IS REALLY ASKING FOR IT! THE ULTIMATE STUPIDITY IS TO ORDER SOMETHING FROM THIS WEBSITE AND GIVE A CREDIT CARD NUMBER, YOU ARE GOING TO BE MAXED OUT AND YOUR CREDIT DESTROYED. AND THAT IS IF YOU ARE LUCKY AND IT IS NOT FORWARDED ON TO SOME TERRORIST ORGANIZATION! IF THEY ASK YOUR HOME ADDRESS AND YOU DON'T GIVE THEM A POST OFFICE BOX, YOU MAY RISK A HOME INVASION OR BURGLARY. IF YOU GIVE THEM YOUR HOME TELEPHONE NUMBER, TELEMARKETERS WILL MAKE YOUR WORLD HELL. IF YOU ARE ON A CELL PHONE AND YOU HAVE A PRE-PAID CELL PHONE WHERE YOU HAVE TO BUY MINUTES, ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION IMMEDIATELY GETS PUT UP FOR SALE MAINLY TO SPAMMERS WHO WILL CRAM YOUR E-MAIL FULL OF TRASH AND AFFILIATE SITES. ANYBODY CAN BUY IT THOUGH. IT CAN SORTED BY category AND SOLD THAT WAY> MANY FREEBIES SITES INADVERTENTLY WILL CIRCULATE AFFILIATE ADVERTISING SITE LINKS IN AMONG THE GENUINE FREEBIE OFFERS. YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. I DO. I ENJOY EXPOSING THESE PEOPLE ---ESPECIALLY THE PEOPLE WHO GIVE THESE SCAMMERS AN AIR OF LEGITIMACY BY ADVERTISING WITH THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. WHEN I LEARN WHO IS ADVERTISING THERE, I AUTOMATICALLY POST THEIR NAMES HERE. ID THEY ARE HANGING WITH CROOKS AND CRIMINALS, AND WHAT DOES THAT MAKE THEM? THESE SITES ARE APPARENTLY HOSTED ON SERVERS LOCATED OVERSEAS OUT OF THE JURISDICTION OF US LAW... NOW YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AND WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU RESPOND TO AFFILIATE SITES!

I'm sorry Mpell Rep, but your rebuttal and analogies just don't cut it... I too am a victim, yes, by choice. I chose to participate in several of ARG's promotions and have been waiting patiently ever since. The difference is, is that I went into this knowing full well what to expect from ARG, i.e., lack of crediting for offers done, often "lost" or misplaced confirmation forms and needing to wait 6 months for delivery of confirmed gifts. It was fairly simple to find that information online with about five minutes of research. When a year went by and then 18 months and now nearing TWO years that I have been waiting for delivery of one particular gift of the five owed me, I gave up. Once again, I invested five minutes of time investigating, and it looked like ARG was going down the tubes, saw rumors of bankruptcy filings, etc... Then a magical thing happened...I received several letters from Mpell! It seems this company had PARTNERED with ARG's various DBA's to get those long overdue gifts out the door!! Each letter contained a rebate form stating that all I had to do was purchase something myself for the value of each particular gift owed to me and Mpell would send me a check in reimbursement. Well it sure SOUNDED good...I mean at last I would finally be done with ARG and their never-ending run around, but cautious-already-been-burned-by-ARG me was off to investigate this Mpell Solutions. I called the company, I asked numerous questions, I emailed, I investigated and found the glowing BBB report. I had NO reason to worry...CERTAINLY this company would not have PARTNERED with ARG if they had even a hint that this fiasco would ensue. So I spent thousands of dollars buying items to cover my rebate forms, sent in all of the required copies of receipts and forms, etc...even called Mpell to verify receipt and processing of my forms and was assured that everything was A-OK and I should receive a rebate check or checks within the next 8 - 10 weeks, but the rep I spoke with said their usual turn-around time was more in the 2 - 4 week range. Every letter, every email received from ARG all indicated that their PARTNER, Mpell, would be handling customer service for gift fulfillment at this point. Do you honestly expect the hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of people who received these rebate forms from your company to believe that you got involved with a company like ARG without having one iota of an idea of what you could expect? That Mpell Solutions made promises to thousands of people, risked your BBB A-rating without one clue of the potential issues? That you sent these rebate forms, KNOWING full and well how much money was potentially at stake and yet just simply believed ARG would magically pay you? That you "accepted this type of business" without an ounce of due diligence on your part? I'm guessing your "mistake in hindsight" was not that you accepted this type of business, but that you couldn't be bothered to do FIVE MINUTES of research that would have told you this was a no-win proposition, or, at the very minimum, DEMANDED you collect payment from ARG PRIOR to sending the first rebate forms out the door. Do you honestly expect us all to believe that you simply accepted this job from ARG with a big old smile on your face and nothing but trust in your heart that a company that is noted all over the internet as being scammers, rip-off artists, looking for financial backers, was months and months behind on payment to creditors, etc... was just a simple mistake? Puhleeeze... Are you responsible for what ARG does or doesn't do...no, but you most assuredly had a certain amount of responsibility to investigate and check out the business you chose to "partner" with and ascertain that you could deliver on YOUR OWN company's promises before YOU put YOUR company's reputation at risk. Trying to pass the buck with your cut and paste sympathy and little analogies will never excuse YOUR responsibility in this matter.

In January, Mpell sent ARG customers certificates saying we were qualified and approved for our gifts (some of which we had been waiting for since October 2007, after an initial 4-6 week delivery promise). All we had to do was buy the gift or a gift of the same value, send in the receipt, and we would be reimbursed within 8-10 weeks. This was not an optional program; if we did not participate, we forfeited the original gift from ARG and we only had 30 days to comply. My certificates were approved by Mpell, the 8-10 week time window has passed and now all correspondence, questions or phone calls are being referred back to ARG who claim not only not to know how much money I am owed, but also have no timetable for reimbursements, only generic "we are experiencing huge delays" emails. If I had known the ball was going to be back in ARG's court to pay us, I would have never spent the money up front on the gifts. Mpell's response a few posts up refers to having a "limited role" in all of this. How is sending customers certificates saying we are approved, telling us to go spend hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars in order to get our reimbursements, and then spelling out a specific timetable for fulfillment "limited"? Sending out letters instructing us to spend our own money on gifts in order to reimbursed and then not living up to the terms stated seems wrong and putting the blame back on ARG isn't acceptable. I can't help but feel baited into this because the 8-10 week window for reimbursement seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel after a year+ wait, but now the tunnel seems to be even longer than before given the complete lack of specific information in response to any questions now. ARG seems to have used Mpell to weed out people who either didn't want to front the money or couldn't do it within 30 days. Yet, the people who did participate in good faith seems like we may have been left out to dry. If we were getting straight answers from either ARG or Mpell on this, we wouldn't have to resort to posting these kinds of testimonials. Mpell's response in this thread claims that in retrospect they wish they had not entered into this kind of business with ARG; well, in retrospect I wish I had not gotten into this kind of business with Mpell!

In January, Mpell sent ARG customers certificates saying we were qualified and approved for our gifts (some of which we had been waiting for since October 2007, after an initial 4-6 week delivery promise). All we had to do was buy the gift or a gift of the same value, send in the receipt, and we would be reimbursed within 8-10 weeks. This was not an optional program; if we did not participate, we forfeited the original gift from ARG and we only had 30 days to comply. My certificates were approved by Mpell, the 8-10 week time window has passed and now all correspondence, questions or phone calls are being referred back to ARG who claim not only not to know how much money I am owed, but also have no timetable for reimbursements, only generic "we are experiencing huge delays" emails. If I had known the ball was going to be back in ARG's court to pay us, I would have never spent the money up front on the gifts. Mpell's response a few posts up refers to having a "limited role" in all of this. How is sending customers certificates saying we are approved, telling us to go spend hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars in order to get our reimbursements, and then spelling out a specific timetable for fulfillment "limited"? Sending out letters instructing us to spend our own money on gifts in order to reimbursed and then not living up to the terms stated seems wrong and putting the blame back on ARG isn't acceptable. I can't help but feel baited into this because the 8-10 week window for reimbursement seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel after a year+ wait, but now the tunnel seems to be even longer than before given the complete lack of specific information in response to any questions now. ARG seems to have used Mpell to weed out people who either didn't want to front the money or couldn't do it within 30 days. Yet, the people who did participate in good faith seems like we may have been left out to dry. If we were getting straight answers from either ARG or Mpell on this, we wouldn't have to resort to posting these kinds of testimonials. Mpell's response in this thread claims that in retrospect they wish they had not entered into this kind of business with ARG; well, in retrospect I wish I had not gotten into this kind of business with Mpell!

In January, Mpell sent ARG customers certificates saying we were qualified and approved for our gifts (some of which we had been waiting for since October 2007, after an initial 4-6 week delivery promise). All we had to do was buy the gift or a gift of the same value, send in the receipt, and we would be reimbursed within 8-10 weeks. This was not an optional program; if we did not participate, we forfeited the original gift from ARG and we only had 30 days to comply. My certificates were approved by Mpell, the 8-10 week time window has passed and now all correspondence, questions or phone calls are being referred back to ARG who claim not only not to know how much money I am owed, but also have no timetable for reimbursements, only generic "we are experiencing huge delays" emails. If I had known the ball was going to be back in ARG's court to pay us, I would have never spent the money up front on the gifts. Mpell's response a few posts up refers to having a "limited role" in all of this. How is sending customers certificates saying we are approved, telling us to go spend hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars in order to get our reimbursements, and then spelling out a specific timetable for fulfillment "limited"? Sending out letters instructing us to spend our own money on gifts in order to reimbursed and then not living up to the terms stated seems wrong and putting the blame back on ARG isn't acceptable. I can't help but feel baited into this because the 8-10 week window for reimbursement seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel after a year+ wait, but now the tunnel seems to be even longer than before given the complete lack of specific information in response to any questions now. ARG seems to have used Mpell to weed out people who either didn't want to front the money or couldn't do it within 30 days. Yet, the people who did participate in good faith seems like we may have been left out to dry. If we were getting straight answers from either ARG or Mpell on this, we wouldn't have to resort to posting these kinds of testimonials. Mpell's response in this thread claims that in retrospect they wish they had not entered into this kind of business with ARG; well, in retrospect I wish I had not gotten into this kind of business with Mpell!

In January, Mpell sent ARG customers certificates saying we were qualified and approved for our gifts (some of which we had been waiting for since October 2007, after an initial 4-6 week delivery promise). All we had to do was buy the gift or a gift of the same value, send in the receipt, and we would be reimbursed within 8-10 weeks. This was not an optional program; if we did not participate, we forfeited the original gift from ARG and we only had 30 days to comply. My certificates were approved by Mpell, the 8-10 week time window has passed and now all correspondence, questions or phone calls are being referred back to ARG who claim not only not to know how much money I am owed, but also have no timetable for reimbursements, only generic "we are experiencing huge delays" emails. If I had known the ball was going to be back in ARG's court to pay us, I would have never spent the money up front on the gifts. Mpell's response a few posts up refers to having a "limited role" in all of this. How is sending customers certificates saying we are approved, telling us to go spend hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars in order to get our reimbursements, and then spelling out a specific timetable for fulfillment "limited"? Sending out letters instructing us to spend our own money on gifts in order to reimbursed and then not living up to the terms stated seems wrong and putting the blame back on ARG isn't acceptable. I can't help but feel baited into this because the 8-10 week window for reimbursement seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel after a year+ wait, but now the tunnel seems to be even longer than before given the complete lack of specific information in response to any questions now. ARG seems to have used Mpell to weed out people who either didn't want to front the money or couldn't do it within 30 days. Yet, the people who did participate in good faith seems like we may have been left out to dry. If we were getting straight answers from either ARG or Mpell on this, we wouldn't have to resort to posting these kinds of testimonials. Mpell's response in this thread claims that in retrospect they wish they had not entered into this kind of business with ARG; well, in retrospect I wish I had not gotten into this kind of business with Mpell!

Don't fall for the BBB rating they have, as this problem is TOO new to be recognised by the Better Business Bureau. MPell has effectively, Stopped answering their Phones, no matter what time you call. Email's to all the Email address's you can find are forwarded to Brandarama A.K.A. Active Response Group(the parent Company). They have essentially abandoned the people that Completed the Secondary requirements of Brandarama A.K.A. Active Response Group, which have been waiting for nearly a year and a half for the "Free" gifts they were successfully qualified for at that time (Which MPell was NOT a part of). But MPell has gotten themselves Involved and wether they like it or not THEY need to take responsibilty in the fact that they accepted Brandarama's business, and required us "Previously Qualified Users" to purchase the full value of our "Free" gifts in merchandise and that we would be "Reimbursed" for these purchases, which was NEVER part of the Terms Of Service in the first place. So, sorry Mpell, YOU need To step up and Take care of your Customers, and put some Pressure on Brandarama A.K.A. Active Response Group to take care of business. Do the right thing before your Honest Reputation with the BBB and The rest of the World is Tarnished for Good. Thanks For listening.

For these types of deals there are requirements you have to complete... you cannot simply just keep clicking through the offers and get something for free. These sites team up with sponsers and have a # of offers from those sponsers you must complete in order to receive the prize. These sponsers include monthly memberships to movie clubs, weight loss products, and purchases and unless you complete the requirements, you are not entitled to the prize....

Mpell Solutions is a BBB accredited company with an A rating. We are a fulfillment company which simply means we ship products for our customers. In every case, our clients are responsible for all advertising and offer eligibility, we are not, and we have no control over their actions. Our clients, Brandarama in this case, pay us a fee to ship products to their consumers according to their instructions. Mpell mails a check to the consumer when the certificate redemption instructions, created by our client, are met. The offer is financed by the company who made that offer, not us, and they only finance redemptions that meet the criteria they established. We are in no way responsible for any of the issues described in this complaint. In fact, we take offense at even being mentioned. It is akin to blaming UPS if you are unsatisfied with a product purchased at Amazon. Or thinking the Post Office should cut a check for a cell phone rebate that was declined by your carrier. We truly understand and sympathize with the complaints being posted. In hindsight, our mistake was accepting this type of business. We respectfully ask that you don't shoot the messenger, we're doing our best in the limited role that we have.