Complaint Review: New Beginnings/ Mana Innovations/ Melanie Grabill - Phoenix Arizona

The owner of this company is intentionally aiding and abetting in her employee/lover avoiding his child support. Robert E. Shores Jr. has worked for the New Beginnings Dating Service in Phoenix since November 2001, however, he's paid his child support through court-ordered garnishment for less than half that time.



The owner/lover Melanie Grabill continues to tell the Arizona and Texas Child Support Divisions that he's been fired, so that they will terminate any expectation of payments, while he continues to work without having to pay his support. He did this around Christmas of 2001, and after THREE orders had been sent to the employer, and a final threat of a lawsuit, payments began in April 2002.

Throughout the year, however, payments started getting smaller and smaller, then became more sporadic, coming once or twice a month rather than their usual once a week. Then somewhere between Dec. 3rd (the last time I spoke to Robert) and Dec. 16th (the first time I called the company to talk with Robert about not receiving child support payments so close to Christmas again), he'd allegedly been "terminated". I notified the appropriate officials immediately, and they began their background searches for him. However, he never showed up on any state employment data base as being employed anywhere else.

Both Texas and Arizona attempted to reach Melanie. She constantly put off their calls, and when they were able to notify her by mail that he was still listed as working for "New Beginnings", she denied it. A couple of weeks later, he popped up as working for "Mana Innovations", however the address was the EXACT same as New Beginnings. She had denied Robert working for the company on the technicality that she decided to change the name of the company. Despite this new name, they still answer the phones with "It's a great day at New Beginnings" and their website has gone unchanged.

I called the office today, and Robert answered the phone. He was EXTREMELY angered that he had been caught, and hung up on me. I called back, and after Robert answered again, Melanie Grabill snatched the phone from him. When I told her who I was and why I was calling, she threatened me by saying that Robert wasn't allowed any personal calls and if I called there again, she'd press charges, then she hung up.

I don't understand. I called to speak to Robert, ABOUT A BUSINESS ISSUE (AKA why was his business was ignoring his court order?) he hung up on me, then she took his second call AWAY FROM HIM, and threatened me, and I'M the one who's going to have charges filed against me?? The fact that she's been cooking her accounting books to hide her employee's financial/employment status to get out of obeying a COURT ORDER I guess will go unnoticed by the police, while she lies about two 30 second phone calls being a harassment to her entire business!!!

The fact is, she benefits personally if her employee/lover gets to keep ALL of his paycheck. This is FRAUD. This is also a clear violation of the law, which is outlined on the back of the garnishment order she's received MANY times already, which states she may be held accountable for these actions by paying high penalty fees and even serving jail time.

She also has been calling herself the "owner" of this business for some time, however, she is listed as the 'vice-president' of the company on the website, and it appears that "Mana Innovations" is owned by Gilbert Vallejo, a man that has been complained about in this Dating Service category already. I don't know for sure what all this means, but something about that seems wrong as well.

The Texas Office of the Attorney General and Arizona Child Support Enforcement Division became aware of Robert's/Melanie's charade today. However, between the two states keeping track of their own records, complying with Interstate rules of engagement for enforcing child support orders, and waiting on court dockets to clear for appointments, it may be two to six months before "New Beginings" is served with papers to appear in court for this fraud. Anything could happen between now and then. Robert could "leave", Melanie could "sell the business", or they could be really bold and just change their accounting books to such a degree to where the ignoring of the court ordered garnishment will match some absurd story about business being too slow to actually garnish Robert's sales commissions.

I want everyone in Phoenix to be aware of these two, and their fraudulant activity. If they lie about this, what else do they lie about? They don't seem to care that their actions affect the quality of life of a 4-year-old child. Maybe they also don't care about grown adults paying large amounts of money for services or abiding by contracts they make clients sign either!! I can say from personal experience from working at a different dating service several years ago (that's how Robert and I met), and from watching and seeing all that has gone on since I left the industry, EVERYTHING that's been stated on all of these complaints towards dating services is 100% TRUE!! They are all connected, they all have the same scam, and they all mistreat clients! PLEASE stay away from all dating services...ESPECIALLY MELANIE GRABILL and ROBERT E. SHORES Jr.

Rene

Fort Worth, Texas
U.S.A.