Oh No!! Should I Call Home Office and Report This?

[jenniferlynne]

Ok, kind of a long story, but here goes.

My friend that I have known for more than 20 years had a PC show in February. Her cousin Lisa booked off me for March. Lisa's Mother placed an order at the first show and didn't pay. Said she would pay later, but ended up canceling the order. Well, Lisa reschedules her party for May. She has the party at her Mother's house. I get there and the only people there are her Mother (of course) her grandmother and her brother's pregnant girlfriend. I go ahead and do my whole show (which was a free show that she had won in a drawing by the way. I provided all the food). Her mother is the only one that places an order, and once again, doesn't pay me for it. Lisa tells me that she will work on getting some orders. Well, a week or so goes by and I call her house. She answers the phone and when I ask for Lisa she says she's not there and wants to know if she can take a message!!! Now I know this is her! I recognize her voice! I asked my friend if anyone else lived with her and her husband and she said no (they also don't have any kids). She then proceeds to tell me that Lisa is a liar and lies about everything. Wish I had known this before the show!!! Finally, a few weeks go by and she calls me with several orders. She gives them to me over the phone and we set up a date to meet at my house so I can get the money. The day comes and goes and she doesn't show up. She emails me the next day and says she had to work until 8 pm (I hear later from someone that the place she works isn't even open that late). We set up a time to meet the next day. She still doesn't show up. I email her a very nice email about letting me know when is a good time to get together. Another one of her family members has a party (she doesn't come to it) and they give me orders for both parties because they also know Lisa is taking up orders. They give me the money. So far, this is the first money I have received from her show. I wait and wait and still don't hear from her. I send her emails and get no reply. In the meantime, another family member has a party. By this time, the ones that gave me orders for her party are ticked at her and want to cancel. I give all of them their money back. When Lisa gets word that they canceled their orders, she emails me and tells me she is just going to cancel her party. Fine. At this point I really don't care. Since then I haven't heard a word from anyone. Then today, I get a call from a man that works with Lisa. He tells me that he had placed an order with her and paid her and would like for me to send him his check back. I tell him that she never gave me any of the money at all that she had collected. He didn't sound very happy at all and said she told him I had it. I have no idea if he belives me or her. I'm just worried that he will call Home Office to report me, and I didn't do anything!!! My friend's family all believe me. They say they know how she is. Plus, they have all had parties for me and I have never done anything like that to them. I would never do that to anyone. Should I do anything or should I go ahead and tell HO incase someone tries to call in about me?

 

[ChefBeckyD]

I would definitely call HO, and make sure you speak to a supervisor - give them all of the details (her name etc...) so they get a heads up and you are in the clear!

 

[lacychef]

I'm sorry that happened to you. I don't know why some people are so flaky?...

 

[BethCooks4U]

EMAIL home office with this so it is in writing and if you have it, share the name of the man who asked for his money back. PC will do what they can to take care of him.

 

[jenniferlynne]

Ok. I will do that. He said the check was never cashed so he's not out any money, he just wants it back. I don't blame him, I would too. I'm just hoping everyone paid her with a check. If any did get cashed they can be traced.

 

[PampMomof3]

Oh my goodness Jennifer! I'm so sorry! I would call HO but let please let us know how it turns out!!

GOod Luck!

 

[jaye]

Everyone is giving good advice... I have an idea that you can do, too.As a way to prove to the man that you don't have the money, ask him to call his bank and cancel payment on the check. Offer to reimburse him the cost of the canceled check payment (depending on the bank could be about $30).
He may not even take you up on it, because if you had the check, why would you offer to pay to have it canceled? Next, never do business with this chick again. Good luck!

 

[BethCooks4U]

Everyone is giving good advice... I have an idea that you can do, too.

As a way to prove to the man that you don't have the money, ask him to call his bank and cancel payment on the check. Offer to reimburse him the cost of the canceled check payment (depending on the bank could be about $30).
He may not even take you up on it, because if you had the check, why would you offer to pay to have it canceled?

Next, never do business with this chick again.

Good luck!

I personally would not do this. It is not your fault that this happened.

It wouldn't hurt for you to send a letter appologizing and telling him that you have contacted Pampered Chef about it. Tell him that you and your company strive to have happy customers. You could offer to submit his order for him if he still wants the products. I would also give him a 10% discount on that order and/or pay for shipping to his home.

 

[pamperedgirl3]

I personally would not do this. It is not your fault that this happened.

It wouldn't hurt for you to send a letter appologizing and telling him that you have contacted Pampered Chef about it. Tell him that you and your company strive to have happy customers. You could offer to submit his order for him if he still wants the products. I would also give him a 10% discount on that order and/or pay for shipping to his home.

I think this would be a good thing to do too. Good customer service could make the difference!

 

[SillyChef]

I personally would not do this. It is not your fault that this happened.

It wouldn't hurt for you to send a letter appologizing and telling him that you have contacted Pampered Chef about it. Tell him that you and your company strive to have happy customers. You could offer to submit his order for him if he still wants the products. I would also give him a 10% discount on that order and/or pay for shipping to his home.

This is EXACTLY what I would do. I mean just because your "friend" is a screw up, doesn't mean you have to lose a potential customer. Hope everything works out with you!!!

 

[AJPratt]

I had someone similar to this last March. I just gve up waiting on any orders. Then, I heard this host tool 3 months to get orders to everyone whn she had her last home show. I know someone she works with and she told people that if they want anything to just give me a call directly.

I feel your pain!

 

[scottcooks]

That PC has been around a while, some folks do take advantage of a consultant's generosity and good nature. Suggestions:

1) get strong. You are being tested!
2) get with the HO on this right away - they are being represented by you (and mis-represented by this flaky gal) so team up with them. Today!
3) get some face time with this flaky hostess and pay attention:
3a. if she blames everything on someone else, she is a total flake. sever all ties and get released from her as quickkly as possible.
3b. if she has a reasonable explanation why things happen, give her a short leash, and insist all her payments be by cash or money order.
3c. if she blames you, smile - take the high road - bless and release.
4) get with your immediate PC support folks - if that is a Director, and keep him/her in the loop. If the lady becomes an ultraWITCH, (likely because nothing wrong in her life is ever her fault), say you are turning all of this over to your director because you have clearly been unable to help her.

From my perspective, you can't make this easy for her. If she is going to be flaky, she is going to need to be flaky in front of another witness (your director). If she is going to be responsible and make these orders happen, "trust, but verify"... Good luck with this - I had a show explode because of a flaky hostess, had to buy her order so others could be shipped. Glad it was my show #81 not #1 of I would've thrown in the towel!
Be strong. Get your support closeby. Hold her accountable.

 

[jentapp]

There could have been another family member there who answered the phone that sounds like her (I always used to hear "oh, you sounded like your mother" when I was growing up, now I have a hard time some days telling my own kids apart....LOL).

I have 2 neighbors like that (well, I think one of them finally got thrown out of her house by her husband, but that's a looooong story...her best attribute was that she was a pathological liar, the rest goes downhill from there). 1 of them (the one still in her house) keeps coming over here asking for a catalog saying that she's going to buy something (never does). If she ever actually places an order, I'll insist on cash up front. I will NEVER do a show for her and will NEVER sign her up...I won't even tell her about the opportunity, even if she asks. And as far as I concerned, she can go right on thinking that I get paid in vegetable peelers (if that is what she thinks).

I even refer to them as my "crazy neighbor" and "other crazy neighbor." Thankfully I am already aware of both of their flaky behavior. I really feel badly for anyone who has to deal with anyone like them and it really sounds like you've found one (though I must admit that the one who got tossed out was always good for a funny story, just because her lies were all so unbelievable that you couldn't help but to laugh at her, especially knowing that she would go door to door telling the ENTIRE neighborhood the same lame lies...now that I think about it, it's possible that the cops finally caught her and she could be in jail...the other crazy neighbor is just stress-inducing). I hope all of those who may have placed orders all paid with a check, too, or they'll never see their money back.

 

[JoyfulChef]

That stinks!!!I don't know why people do that!!

 

[Susan M]

I've had this happen too

Ok, kind of a long story, but here goes.

My friend that I have known for more than 20 years had a PC show in February. Her cousin Lisa booked off me for March. Lisa's Mother placed an order at the first show and didn't pay. Said she would pay later, but ended up canceling the order. Well, Lisa reschedules her party for May. She has the party at her Mother's house. I get there and the only people there are her Mother (of course) her grandmother and her brother's pregnant girlfriend. I go ahead and do my whole show (which was a free show that she had won in a drawing by the way. I provided all the food). Her mother is the only one that places an order, and once again, doesn't pay me for it. Lisa tells me that she will work on getting some orders. Well, a week or so goes by and I call her house. She answers the phone and when I ask for Lisa she says she's not there and wants to know if she can take a message!!! Now I know this is her! I recognize her voice! I asked my friend if anyone else lived with her and her husband and she said no (they also don't have any kids). She then proceeds to tell me that Lisa is a liar and lies about everything. Wish I had known this before the show!!! Finally, a few weeks go by and she calls me with several orders. She gives them to me over the phone and we set up a date to meet at my house so I can get the money. The day comes and goes and she doesn't show up. She emails me the next day and says she had to work until 8 pm (I hear later from someone that the place she works isn't even open that late). We set up a time to meet the next day. She still doesn't show up. I email her a very nice email about letting me know when is a good time to get together. Another one of her family members has a party (she doesn't come to it) and they give me orders for both parties because they also know Lisa is taking up orders. They give me the money. So far, this is the first money I have received from her show. I wait and wait and still don't hear from her. I send her emails and get no reply. In the meantime, another family member has a party. By this time, the ones that gave me orders for her party are ticked at her and want to cancel. I give all of them their money back. When Lisa gets word that they canceled their orders, she emails me and tells me she is just going to cancel her party. Fine. At this point I really don't care. Since then I haven't heard a word from anyone. Then today, I get a call from a man that works with Lisa. He tells me that he had placed an order with her and paid her and would like for me to send him his check back. I tell him that she never gave me any of the money at all that she had collected. He didn't sound very happy at all and said she told him I had it. I have no idea if he belives me or her. I'm just worried that he will call Home Office to report me, and I didn't do anything!!! My friend's family all believe me. They say they know how she is. Plus, they have all had parties for me and I have never done anything like that to them. I would never do that to anyone. Should I do anything or should I go ahead and tell HO incase someone tries to call in about me?

I had a host do pretty much the same thing and she had the nerve to call HO and tell them that I submitted her show without her permission. I had all the orders for her show and collected the money - however she would not call me back after I had called her at least 25 times to close out her show - I left messages at her home on the answering machine and with her family members, called her work number and left several messages on her machine, called her own mother, her work people who had ordered and her best friend - they even talked to her and she gave them excuses that she knows she needs to call me but has been really busy. I called HO and told them what was going on and they told me that it was OK to submit her show - I did and gave all the FREE items to 2 girls who helped me deliver all the items to the guests who ordered. Wouldn't you know that this host called me up the same day everything was delivered to everybody and told me that she had another order to give me yet and wanted to know how I got her mother's payment. I told her it was too late to get the order from her and her mother gave me her check the night of the show. I informed her how many times I tried to contact her and that her friends and family were trying to get her to call me - which by the way - this show was held in June and wasn't even submitted until early September - HO called me about this and I re-explained everything to them and they sent her a cookbook to stop her from complaining. But as you can see - every once in a while - you will get a crackpot - but I remember this girl and wouldn't do another show for her if she was the last host in the world. I used to work with this girl and she was a true nut case then. I should have learned from that experience of working with her how crazy she was.

The moral of the story is - call HO and let them know what is going on with her in case she does call the HO staff. I am sure that this man will not have a problem with the uncashed check since you don't even have it - if she takes the check to the bank and cashed it - it will have her writing on it. SO just rest easy and it will all work out - apparently everyone is getting her number and won't deal with her anymore either.

I had another host who didn't pay me for the balance of the orders and I called the guests and told them that I was waiting for the host to close out before I could send in the show - it had been 2 months on this one - they were horrified to find out that she hadn't given me any money or closed out because they paid her in cash. I called her sister who helped me get the money from the host and then had all the guests come to the sister's house to pick up their items as I was not comfortable with sending them to her house - I felt that people would not get their items. They were very appreciative of my efforts to help them get their products.

 

[Chef Diane]

Im sorry this has happened to you. Something very similar happened to me a month after I started with PC. Get with HO and let them take care of it. This will also give them a heads up, I didn't know anything was going on until HO called me. Take a deep breath and relax, everything is going to be OK

 

[Sk8Mom209]

I had something like this happen to me also. I called and emailed the host, her relatives, etc. numerous times to get the hosts payment. When I started getting calls from guests daily, I went ahead and submitted the show, removing the hosts order. Almost immediately, I was receiving irate calls from the host, stating how unprofessional I was, how she was going to report me etc. My response was an email with all prior emails scanned and attached and a record of the dates and times I had called her trying to arrange to pickup her payment.

I never heard from her after that email. I had two shows book off her show, her sister-in-law and her son and his girlfriend. The sister-in-law's show was great, never heard from the son.

I hope your problem worked out.