The other stories that you see on Shop America Network all seem to have the exact same story. That is because they are true! These people are decieving, lying, cheating slugs. I have spent many successful years in sales and am telling you this in case you think it can't happen to you. If you hear from any of the following people run, and scream RAPE at the top of your lungs!: Bob Copp, Dianne Mercer, Mona Andersen, and Larry Dillinger.
Several Months ago my partner and I were approached via e-mail from Bob Kopp stating that they would like to test market our product for an infomercial. The cost of the commercial is $13,900, and they say they invest tens of thousands of dollars on airing their commercials. They take a percentage of sales dollars (around 20%) and you never have to pay another dime. To the best of my knowledge the commercial that was shot could be done for several hundred dollars, and I have no physical proof that they ever aired!
Everything about this company seems to be extremely professional until your check clears. Once the check cleared you are instructed to go to DRTV (the actual company that does the commercial) and have it produced. However, DRTV actually did nothing wrong and were accomodating to our needs, yet they should be ashamed for working with SAN (if they still do) and I would not associate myself with anyone who does business with these people.
Once the commercial was scheduled for the "test market" you are given an insertion schedule. The stations that our commercial was aired on are ultra low power BROADCAST stations. Not at all what you are lead to believe. You would have to be within several miles of these stations with rabbit ears to recieve any of the commercials if they actually aired. They were all aired on Tiger Eye stations, whom they say they have no affiliation with but their physical office address is the same!?!?
After the shooting of the commercial I still had not caught on to the scam. I started to get a really bad feeling after the first week since we were not even recieving the daily order reports. Not even blank ones. Finally after about a month of working with Larry Dillinger every day, he was able to send me a blank excel spreadsheet to my e-mail address.
(Ya, he is a real technological whiz!) Little did he know that I had called in 2 orders on my own credit cards the first week we aired. The first one I used a fake card and address, and I was amazed that they had the capability of actually being able to tell it was a fake credit card number(this is after 20 minutes on the phone with the order taker who had no idea what he was doing, and could have been working from the Florida State Prison from his professionalism). The second order I placed was legitimate.
I told Larry that the order that I had placed did not come through on the order report. It took about 10 days for him to be able to produce the order that had the FAKE credit card number which the order taker said would not go through. I never even recieved the actual legitimate order!
I have little faith that the commercials were ever aired, and if they were, I am positive they do not have the capacity of actually proccessing an order to a manufacturer! These people had me so nervous that I even cancelled the card that I placed the order with.
On top of the initial check, I probably have hundreds of dollars in phone calls since these people do not have a phone voicemail system, and can give you the runaround like I have never dreamed of. If there is anyone who has any desire to discuss this with me I would love to hear from you!
Once again! Run, don't walk! If you hear from any of these people
Brad/Scott
Forest Park/Indianapolis, Illinois
U.S.A.
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