Giving Party Plans A Get Bad Name

CuddleBee replied:

I would strongly encourage you to seek legal advice about doing this, as a business owner myself I would personally be shattered to think that could happen to me, but I would be very careful about naming people or even vaguely identifying people as you may end up in court explaining a defamation case. Might pay to see a solicitor about it first. On the other hand it would be very handy to all the other party planners that are trying to do the right thing.

RachelSaucy replied:

Hi Cheryl,

I'm so sorry to hear you had a dishonest person on your team :(

I can't believe someone would steal from another person let alone their own company.

I think you did the right thing informing the other party plan about this consultant.

However, I'd think long and hard about getting involved in publicly shaming someone - as much as I think that particular consultant did the wrong and should be punished (Stealing is just wrong and a crime) I think anyone getting involved with a public shaming campaign should research the legalities of it first - the last thing you want is someone turning your good deed of informing/warning others into a defamation claim!!  Not that I know anything about those type of things, it just seems every one is suing everyone these days! And I'd make sure you know your legal rights first before you pursue that avenue.

Good Luck with your business and I hope your customers realise that the majority of us in Party Plan are not like that consultant.

Kind Regards,

Rachel

AngelicaLyn replied:

Cheryl, I agree with the other girls about being wary about publicly naming someone, also you can get malicious people naming someone who has done nothing wrong or for making an honest mistake.

This the first i have heard about someone being totally dishonest with a company although i have heard of others that have misled their customers which is very bad indeed. It doesn't happen to often as far as i am aware so i would just put this one down to experience.

I can understand you are not only angry but very frustrated that this happened to you but as all were contacted and helped they will see that it was only the consultant that was a problem.

Unfortunately this can happen in any industry and with people that seem to be very honest but turn out otherwise.

Keep your chin up. You have done all the right things.

Lyn

Janine replied:

Hi,

It is never nice to hear about consultants doing the wrong thing by their company. It does put customers off party plan in general when such things happen. I found myself in a position with a PP company early last year where the owner would take orders for stock that she had no way of getting the stock in to supply. She took customers money and and then did not supply. I had my first 3 parties not completed for 6 months. Need to say that I resigned and so did alot of the other consultants even with customer orders outstanding. The company has since shut down but my customers and hostesses from from parties are very hesistant in dealing with me which in turn affects the party plan community in general as there was many of us who did the right thing but the owner did not. It has taken some time to join up to another company after doing alot of research.

There is always one or two bad eggs (so to speak) but in general most party plan consultants have the same aim and that is to make a living while juggling our families.

I would highly recommend that you look in the legal aspects before going public with shaming the consultant. I am sure that the other company will keep a close eye on the consultant too.

Cheers

Janine

cheryl replied:

Thanks for your imput ladies greatly appreciated. I have just spoken to lawers and they have given the same advise.  All i can do is sit back and wait for any more of her poor customers to phone head office and complain. This isnt the first time i have heard of this problem, like i mentioned in my first post Undercoverwaer are experiancing this problem too. I am just shocked at how some people can do this and hope we never experience the problem again. Thank you again for your input and hope you all have wonderful sales leading up to Christmas.

Janine replied:

HI Cheryl,

One other thing that maybe of some help is that you  could go to fair trading and see what regulations there are in force in regards to supply of goods not received. I know from my experience that customers can lodge complaints regarding such events dealing with a business maybe there is something similar for sole traders in place.

Cheers

Janine

partyplans replied:

We once left payment for an order well hidden in an obscure place in our back patio area so that a consultant could drop our order off.

The money went, but no products. The consultant called us that night and said the money was not there.

If she did not take it... we are dealing with crook who must be a legend at hide-n-seek (and was not interested in all the other more valuable stuff we had sitting around the house)

WARNING: leaving money out for a consultant is opening the door for them to rip you off if they are dodgy.

cheryl replied:

Hi Members, Just thought i would update you on the situation. Horny Little Devils is sure we have now found all customers that had parties with this consultant and have sorted out their orders and they are now happy. As for the consultant she will not answer my calls so we can not discuss the situation with her, we have no option but to put her in the hands of the Lawers. I did spek to the DSAA on this matter they gave me some valuable advise. They recommend that unless your customer is paying for their orders by credit card money shouldn't be exchanged untill the goods are received by the customers. So we will now advise customers on our order forms that cash is not excepted at the time of ordering only on delivery. This may eliminate the situation from happening again we hope. Isn't it funny how out of a unpleasent situation has come some very pleasing news for Horny Little Devils. Two of the hostess's who held parties with this consultant have decided to join our company as consultants in the new year. I look forward to inroducing them to rest of our team members. Thank you to all who posted a reply, its was really good to get the problem out of my head and read your thoughts on the situation.

Janine replied:

Hi Cheryl,

It is wonderful to hear that you have sorted out things with your customers as I know that they too would be very concerned. Good things come out of dad things happening as you have well proved by learning more on how to deal with the down sides of running a business and also that good prevails over evil (so to speak) so much that hostesses who have been dealt badly by their consultant  are willing to join you and team of great consultants.

May you, your family and all of your consutlants have a wonderful Christmas.

Cheers

Janine

www.cheekychopskidsclothes.com and Saucy Fish too!!

mindhealth replied:

I have had a few problems also and once again they are a pain, i had a customer order $95.00 worth of products, she than paid this with a cheque which later was bounced back, tried contacting her and went to her house, the house was than sold by a real estate company and contacted them, they were not known of the person and they said that they would pull down the sign, i never got that customer back and to keep the reputation of me and the company i worked for, i complained and paid the costs for myself. I also have had a few of my consultants and sponsors who had fake cheques and credit cards and this is why the company will only accept paypal and cash.

With the paypal, they try and send us fake email such as please send goods and payment will be given to you, they address these from paypal, but are all fake, such as the amount is in the account but to secure customer goods must be sent and than you will receive amount from paypal, be warned of these false and very fake emails.

Their are many more out their trying to give the system a bad name and i have expierenced some of the worst with consultants losing upto $3,000 in product costs, the company paid them all very generously, to keep their reputation strong.

We also had a rep that took $7,000 worth of products and later ran out from the state with $7,000 in orders and their were no such real customers, she lied about them all.

anadesigns replied:

Hi Cheryl,

Great to hear that you have sorted out things with these customers. It is great to see someone out there who was willing to try & make a difference in the party plan world to stop any dishonesty from happening WELL DONE

It is a real shame when consultants do the wrong thing (But I am glad to see there was something positive out there for your business by gaining new recruits - WELL DONE on that too!!

We wanted to do party plan for our business but we have avoided doing that side of things so far because there is such a bad name over here from Consultants from other party plan companies out there doing the wrong thing & it makes the good people who are just trying to make a living & run there business's professionally look bad

One day I hope that people who do the Party Plan side get the message that you wont gain anything by doing the wrong thing by customers or the companies they are representing as it will catch up with them at some point

So once again WELL DONE on trying to put a stop to this sorta nonsense  

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Cheers
MarineMC

Kelly replied:

These people make me so mad. No wonder people are at times skeptical when it comes to having party or becoming consultants. No wonder people ask 'whats your real job?' and look shocked when you tell them this is my real job.

It is my belief that Karma will bring these dishonest so and so's what they deserve!

cheryl replied:

One can only hope Kelly...

Any way our new rep is doing really well, she is a lovely lady and I have great faith in her. Our head office is in Melbourne so I have plans to make her a manager in Sydney over the next few months, I think she's got what it takes...I am happy to put as many people as she can handle in under her & help her make some good money...Now i was going to do the same for this other rep (the one who liked to ripp her customers and Horny Little Devils off) whom shall remain nameless...So all in all its a good thing that she showed her true colours early hey...I have learnt a very valuable lesson, one that i will never make again...A lesson that could only be learnt from experiance...

ExMember148 replied:

You just wonder how many times you can pick yourself up sometimes, don't you Cheryl.

Similar things here too.  And I am on the over generous side, so good to consultants, help is non-stop, but then you get bitten by some sly(? for want of a better word)person, so you just got to stop and go whoaaaaaaa, this is MY business, I have to put my business hat on again.  And keep our eyes open for next time!

cheryl replied:

 The problem is some people have no morals, they also are not bothered when you get your lawers on to them either. I have resolved the problem with future consultants running off with customers money from now on I hope. This was Horny Little Devils first bad experiance, not bad after 7 years in business I thought. Being a business owner you do get to try on many dif hats hey? I have my thinking cap on at the moment, busy designing our new catalogue. Its hard work but at the end of the day I love it, its my baby, well its more a like a horny little monster. I just love what I do, I am a very lucky person to have such great consultants in our team. I love watching them acheive great results and slowly changing them into dynamic business women, i think they love it too. At the end of the day I can relax and know my business is in good hands & being generous isn't a bad thing, it helps us say thankyou...