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Review 4/16/2010
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This is to report that in spite of multiple pleas and promises, Digital Retail Networks, LLC (DRN), a registered New Mexico corporation[1], has refused to reimburse my company $879.04 paid to them in September 2009 for services undelivered and undeliverable.
At 11:30 a.m. September 1, 2009, I met Carlos Hernandez, representing DRN at my Electric Cars of Albuquerque, LLC office. He had solicited me by phone for the appointment several days earlier.
Carlos Hernandez sold me on a 90-day video advertising campaign, using enhanced 15 inch flatscreen television monitors, mounted at the checkout lanes of two Sunflower Market stores (Academy & San Mateo and Lomas & San Mateo). Carlos Hernandez represented that he had a very good relationship with Sunflower management. He also promised a tutorial session with my salesperson and I about how best to handle customers drawn to my business by the Sunflower Market advertising. He told me the upgraded flatscreen TV’s would be installed the upcoming weekend (i.e., September 5th & 6th), replacing smaller screens already present in the checkout lanes of these stores. I have written documentation of the whole offer on official DRN stationary.
I wrote Carlos a check for $1758.09 (my company check #1045, dated 9-2-2009) to pay for the advertising campaign, which he picked up at my office on September 3rd, 2009. The check was cashed promptly, and the money withdrawn from my business account on the same day.
On September 7th, Carlos and a team of two assistants showed up for an appointment to shoot videos of my product, a ZENN electric car, driving around Albuquerque. My wife Maria O’Brien, my two children, Neo Watson (8 years old) and Altynai Watson (10 years old), as well as my adult friend Melissa Franklin were filmed driving at several locations around Albuquerque, including the parking lot of the Lomas and San Mateo Sunflower Market. I also sent Carlos Hernandez photos of ZENN’s via e-mail and obtained video footage for use in the campaign directly from ZENN Motors of Canada. Everything seemed fine, except an early warning sign that none of my e-mails were acknowledged.
In the late afternoon of Tuesday September 15th, I went to the Sunflower Market at Lomas and San Mateo to check on the video screens at the checkout lines. The old small screens were still in place, running approximately 5 second adverts for various local businesses, but not mine. Small golden stickers were on the screen frames soliciting advertising opportunity on the screens and giving Carlos Hernandez’s cell phone number.
I talked to one of the store managers on duty and she said, much to my consternation, that as far as she knew, DRN had been given one month notice to permanently remove all their equipment from all Sunflower market locations. She had not heard about of any upgraded replacement screens Carlos had mentioned during our initial meeting. The manager also said that DRN was not returning their calls. I became suspicious at this point that I had been duped. I could not reach Carlos by phone, but left messages that I wanted to talk. These messages were not answered. I went to my credit Union (New Mexico Educator’s Federal Credit Union) to stop payment on check 1045, but it was too late – funds had already been transferred to DRN’s account and could not be retrieved.
On the morning of Wednesday, September 16th, I talked with the regional manager of Sunflower Markets, Mr. Dave Bicket, who told me without equivocation that they were getting all of DRN’s equipment out of all of their stores because of too many complaints received by Sunflower from DRN’s customers. Clearly, DRN had no ability to deliver the services for which I had paid them.
After numerous attempts, I finally reached Carlos Hernandez on his cell phone and made an appointment to meet to receive a reimbursement check at my ZENN office at 12:00 p.m., Thursday, September 17th. At 11:00 a.m. Carlos left me a voice mail canceling the appointment. I managed to reach him by phone again and we made another appointment to meet the next morning (September 18th) at the Starbucks at Lomas and Broadway. Again, Carlos did not show up; this time he did not even call.
I called DRN’s business phone and reached the company’s registered agent, Mario Hernandez, Carlos’ brother, and told him the above story. I told him in no uncertain terms that I wished to be reimbursed immediately. He represented that I should no longer deal with Carlos Hernandez, and that Carlos had not been authorized to represent DRN when he originally came to see me. He made no apologies and implied that he was not liable for his brother’s misprepresentations or errors.
I got my wife, an attorney, involved at that point and under written threat of immediate legal action, Carlos Hernandez delivered a check to her office on 9-25-09, repaying half of the funds owned to my company. I have a Xerox of the check, on which the memo area has written on it, “1/2 reimbursement.” The check was signed by Mario Hernandez and was from DRN’s account # 6142855 at New Mexico Bank and Trust (DRN check # 1014). Carlos refused my wife’s request to sign a paper promising to repay the other half and abruptly left the office.
In a subsequent phone contact, Mario Hernandez contradicted his previous instruction to not deal with Carlos. He now insisted that he had paid the first half of the reimbursement and Carlos would be liable for the remainder. In a subsequent phone conversation with Carlos, he requested that I be patient. I have been patient, but for months now neither Mario or Carlos Hernandez respond to my phone calls. I even left one message on their company phone offering to accept $200 less reimbursement in return for the videos they had taken. Certified letters from my wife (attorney) requesting full repayment have also been ignored.
Digital Retail Networks, LLC has stolen $879.04 from my company.
[1] Digital Retail Network’s SCC Number: 4191367
Registered Agent: Mario Hernandez
Mailing address: 4524 Homestead Trail NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120
Business phone: (505) 515-1198
Sincerely,
Paul J. Watson
Managing Member
Electric Cars of Albuquerque, LLC
505-681-3391
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