ONLY THE FACTS: I am an interior designer in Atlanta. I have 27 years experience in the my industry but since I relocated here in Sept. 2015, I am as of yet, fairly unknown. I talked to other designers and they said the best thing I could do would be to hire a PR firm. I did some research and found the website of Eberly & Collard PR. I signed a contract with them on August 25th, 2017 for $12,000.00 and they were to deliver verbatim from the contract "One press release/article, a written bio, mission statement and brand narrative messaging". I was clear with them that I needed results to happen, in September and October before demand falls off during the holidays.
I paid them $10,000.00 on Aug. 31, 2017. They did not send me a questionnaire for the article until September 8th. On Sept 14th, I sent my responses to their questionnaire. It wasn't until Sept 26th that they completed the 598 word article. It finally got submitted to one, online outlet, PRNEWSWIRE on Sept. 27th. I personally believe their agreement was very misleading. It said verbatim "A press release will be submitted to a network of over 30,000 journalists, 3,000 National Newspapers, 3,000 TV Stations, 3,000 radio stations and 6,000 News/Web Databases." I took this to mean they would distribute the article to a network of their own cultivation, a network that they developed over their careers, I was wrong. While the article did get placed on various websites via PRNEWWIRE, it generated no business for me. Their contract did not promise that I would get any business from their efforts but it didn't even generate a phone call or any traffic to my website. Because I got no new business from my $12,000 investment in their services, I was left in a tail spin.
Tues Oct 3: They demanded the remaining $2000 of the contract total. Mind you, they only delivered the article the prior Wednesday. It was due according to their agreement on Oct 1 (a Sunday). I respond that the first $10,000 has produced no web traffic no phone calls and no income. They threaten legal action if payment is not made immediately.
"You are now past due on your remaining balance of $2,000. By your defaulting on the owed balance, you are preventing us from staffing and servicing the branding narratives that were earmarked for October. Should you like to remit the past due balance in full by tomorrow, October 4, 2017, 5:00 PM EDT, we will be glad (and enabled) to proceed with the branding narrative portion of the contract. In closing, the unpaid balance of $2,000 was never an optional payment. Moreover, it was and is a requirement on your part as allocated for in the signed agreement. (not 2 parts). It is our hope you will remit the past due payment and thus collaborate with us in a professional manner, so we can together work on the branding narratives amicably. If you otherwise choose to handle this matter negatively in any way, or disregard the above information, we will have no choice but to turn this matter over to our counsel." (2 days after due)
October 4th, I paid them the balance on the contract, having only received the 598 word article submitted to one online source. In the end, it would be the only thing they ever did for $12,000.
Oct 5th they sent a questionnaire for a narrative of my company.
Since the $12,000 I spent with E&C generated no inquiries, no business, nothing, I was in a real bad spot. And I had bigger problems now than answering their second questionnaire. I asked them if we could come back to it when I could address it and their response was on:
Oct 13: "We will complete the narratives after we receive your finished questionnaire. Of note, since it is past the timing of the project, we will have to work it back into our schedule after we receive your answers to the questions we provided. This may mean it will take a bit longer than if we had had the information in hand when the project was still active. But, yes, we will provide the branding narratives as described in our plan." I took them at their word.
April 22: I send the response to their second questionnaire.
April 23: I follow up on having send the questionnaire.
May 18: As I received no response whatsoever in nearly a month, I filed a small claims case. They make no attempt to resolve the matter before the court date.
July 23rd we meet at the courthouse. They said I didn't give them enough time to respond to my April 22 email (laughable) and they say they would still be willing do deliver the remaining items from the agreement, just like they said on Oct 13th.
Since I felt that their agreement was misleading, I had sued for a total refund. The judge sided with Eberly & Collard because their agreement said the project contract was for Sept 1 through October 31. So despite their promises to deliver the remaining items later, I never got them and they got $12,000.00 for one 598 word, one page document. Upon further inquiry, they just ignore me. read more