Hall of Shame

Background Over a period of time we all run into businesses that don’t play by the normally accepted rules, and it would be good if all small business people had some warning of who to avoid. Here I’m listing my own experiences. You decide if you want to risk using them in your business or personal life. I’ve learned the hard way that, when in doubt, check with the Better Business Bureau and with an internet search engine BEFORE you order from a new business. Shameful Businesses (or what not to do if you want to succeed) As you can see, I have a business website and it needs to be hosted and the domain name needs to be registered periodically. I received a very official looking bill from Domain Renewal Group in October of 2009 which offered rates for domain renewal which were slightly better than my past experience. I sent my $95 to them for a 5 year renewal. They did not renew the domain name, would not communicate with me, and did not return the $95. So I renewed through my original domain registration provider. Recently I wrote to them again that I wanted my money back because they provided no service for the $95 and I suggested that I would advertise what they had done. This time they sent my original $95 back. You decide if you want to do business with them. I won’t. I used to have a Samsung color laser printer and it was a wonderful unit, albeit one which was obsolescent when I bought it. The only place where I could buy refill toner cartridges was from a mail order firm, J & J International, Inc, in New Jersey. Most of the time they performed admirably in promptly filling my orders. However, once I accidentally ordered a slightly different black toner cartridge, one which was externally identical with the desired cartridge and it had a model number nearly identical with the correct number. When I replaced the empty cartridge with the new unit, it fit perfectly but didn’t function correctly. Some detective work identified that the cartridge was the wrong unit. When I called J & J International, Inc about this I was informed that if the cartridge was not in its original sealed plastic envelope, they would not accept it back. I told them that the new cartridge hadn’t been used at all, that it was full and asked why they couldn’t just reseal the cartridge in a new envelope and resell it. I was told that it wasn’t their policy, so I was stuck with a brand new $120 cartridge which I couldn’t use, but which they could have easily resold. Having been a good customer of theirs for a couple of years, having bought many hundreds of dollars worth of cartridges from them, I expected better treatment. You decide if you want to expose yourself to them. Personally, I’m very happy that I now own an HP color laser printer and that I can buy refill cartridges at my local Staples superstore instead of from a distant mail order firm. Over two years ago we engaged Tautex to act as our business agent to bring our new medical device to the right marketing firm to put together a partnership to commercialize that product.  Tautex promised to do this and claimed that they were experts in doing exactly this. However, they have consistently refused to use project management to control the project. Doing so would have highlighted how much time and money will be needed to successfully complete the project. As a result of not doing this, we are now 29 months into what is likely to be a never-ending project and one which will fail because our competition will beat us to the market. An accurate project plan would highlight how long it would take and this would highlight time as a VERY important aspect of the project. Without this focus, Tautex has been working at a very slow pace while the rest of the world charges ahead to get to the marketplace first. Insist on references from their customers if you consider using them. And put a supplier performance contract in place with them so that everyone knows what has to be done and by when. Make sure that you always check your credit card statements because there are crooked companies that have figured out how to get your credit card number and bill you. One example of such a company is PrivacyMatters 123. They found my credit card number and started charging my VISA™ card on the 21^st of every month and this persisted for 19 months. The amount was $24.95 which is fairly nominal among my charges. The listing on the credit card statement had an 800 number so it looked legitimate, and I believe that the company name was chosen because it evokes the response “yes it does” rather than what the heck is this charge. Very clever crooks! So beware.