Advertising Services, The Best Of Magazine, Steve Davis, The best of Santa Cruz, Don Malatesta Scam Services, Liars, Users, A**holes, Scammers in Santa Cruz! Chatsworth California

I too have been hit with the phone call from Steve Davis and he came to my fitness studio within an hour of our phone call. I've been in business for over 32 years and should have realized that what he was offering was too good to be true. 

Steve offered me an advertising package including 12 months of magazine ad with the ability to change the ad 4 times, graphic designer to design the ad, 4 short TV commercials, I would be the ONLY fitness studio in the magazine and he would be distributing them to 3 different local grocery stores that they have a contract with. He also agreed to drop off a large stack of the magazines at my place of business every two months. All starting on Dec 1st, 2016. All for $199 down and only $25 per week! 

I stupidly signed the 1 page contract with out reading it and wrote them a check for $199. Well, needless to say, only one of these actually happened. A few magazines did eventually show up and one of the local grocery stores, Whole Foods, without their consent around the 1st of January with out me approving the ad. The marketing rep for Whole Foods, Lily, said she has never talked to them, they have no such contract and knows nothing about them. 

Now there are two other fitness studios in the magazine, and my friend who is an acupuncturist paid additional for a half page plus a full page in their magazine and they are only putting a half page in. They drop a few magazines off every so often outside and down aways from the front door to Whole Foods. 

They have my $199 but after I made about 25 unreturned calls from them I canceled my checking account so they have no way to withdraw funds from my account which the small print says on the contract.

I just received a letter from their lawyer, Don Malatesta, stating that if he doesn’t receive a payment of $1348.02 immediately I will be responsible to pay coasts and necessary disbursements when they enter a court judgment against me.

There have been so many complaints against Advertising Services, I can not believe they found an attorney to represent them and bully us small time business owners! 

Don’t ever sign any type of contract with this company, and beware, they have many other company names also.

Has anyone else gone though what I am going through with this company?