Dollar Store Services DRSS, Discount Retail Store Services, Party Store Developers, Mailbox Center Developers EX-EMPLOYEES TELL ALL Las Vegas Nevada

Initially, you are told "Funding" and "Loans."  It is only after they believe they have sold you on this opportunity, that the actual "Funding" is revealed as credit cards, HOWEVER, even after being told credit cards, you are told 4-5 credit cards, not 8+ credit cards.

We were unsure about moving forward after finding out credit cards would be used.  After, several telephone conversations we decided to move forward, anyway and proceed with "Funding Approval" as they call it.   

Now, let us move on to the comments from the owner on the original post.

Representatives DO tell you how much you will make per sq. ft., per year, make comparisons to other stores yes, they NAME stores and, they also tell you, the credit cards WILL be paid off before interest kicks in.  You can refer to your "Literature and what your sales staff is INSTRUCTED to give" all you want, these are things that are said to us, when your people are trying to seal the deal.

The original poster did not claim the "Minimum Payments" would be $6,000-8,000, he/she simply stated the payment REQUIRED to pay the balances off before interest kicks in would be $6,000-8,000.  Do the math, this is not a lie as you claim!

We also asked about a bank loan after being told about the credit cards.  We were told "Credit Cards are your only option.  You should be happy, this eliminates the need for a bank."  How was that OUR decision?

We started looking at spaces, when we were waiting for the final credit card approvals to come through and, we were yelled at for seeking out a location.  We were told "You can't look for a location!  WE look for the location!  WE find the best location for you!"  Now, since, you want to keep referring to "Your Literature", YOUR LITERATURE states YOU, AS STORE OWNER approve the location.......the look and feel of a large franchise, while leaving you in total control of your business......soooo, why were we yelled at for seeking a location?  

Being yelled at for trying to take part in our own store really took the excitement out of opening a store.  

This was going to be OUR business and, we should have been able to participate in any and every aspect we chose to!  Seeking a location was part of the excitement and, when we couldn't even do that, the excitement was gone and, the fear from the debt we were about to accumulate set in.  

The final approvals actually turned out to be denials so, between being yelling at and only receiving enough in credit cards to open the store, we chose not to move forward.  Being yelled at by your staff screwed you out of our money and kept it on our cards!  BRAVO to you and your sales staff for that one!

Let me clarify the funding received for those still having questions on this one.   We received enough in credit cards for store opening and nothing more---We had no money to buy food or pay our own bills!  How were WE supposed to survive?  Consider this when making your decision on whether to move forward.  

Making the decision not to move forward is when it really got fun!  Mention a refund and everyone in the company calls you trying to talk you into moving forward.  The person you were dealing with is no longer with the company so, this wasn't documented and that wasn't documented.  Then, someone else will tell you the person you were dealing with had a death in the family and has been out of the office for that.  She didn't document this or that so, we can't verify.   No one has been monitoring her emails so, that's why no one has gotten back with you.  Excuse after excuse.

Once, they know you are not going to move forward your calls and emails are ignored.  It was only after contacting the BBB that I finally started receiving phone calls.  They will not email you.  They don't want you to have written proof of anything, so, it will be phone calls that you receive, at this point.  

During these phone calls, they will tell you, you will receive a refund but, in their responses to the BBB they fight giving a refund.  And, amazingly, once they are responding to the BBB, they suddenly have the emails that they didn't have two weeks ago.  Ultimately, after fighting and refusing to give up, we did end up getting a refund.

The sales person we were dealing with called us in October 2015 and asked if were still looking to open a store and offered us a discount.  Ummmmmm, I DON'T THINK SO!

And, I wouldn't be so smug about the "Lack of Complaints."  Many people just don't want to bother with it, others are ashamed that they allowed this to happen and, many more don't realize these websites exist!  The complaints that you do find all pretty much have the same complaints......GOOGLE AND BING, PEOPLE---DO YOUR RESEARCH!

Being a client of DRSS, I will most certainly call you out on A few of your rebuttals towards your ex employees.

REFERENCE - FINANCING - COMPLAINTS - I was a reference for your company for a few months. I was also discovering things about your company. I felt that it was in my best interest to share this information with your references. I advised them not to finance with lines of credit. DRSS told me when I financed that I would receive a loan. They NEVER stated that it would be 9 credit cards. I believed that & as these credit cards began coming my way, I still believed that there would be a loan & that the cards would be used torwards working capital & utilized upon my discretion. With a credit score of 765 that would tell you that I was a responsible individual & not a negligent individual by maxing out 9 credit cards. I even asked about a business plan. I was told not to worry DRSS was taking care of my business plan. Why didn't you just say that I wouldn't need one because I would end up with 9 credit cards & that would be my financing? Because you KNOW that you would have lost my business. EXACTLY CORRECT! That's DECEPTION! I shared that information with your references. I also told them how my credit score dropped from 765 to 500. One day, I was contacted by Christina Olmos who no longer works for you and her exact words were "can you please stop telling the potential clients about the credit card thing because your scaring them away." Wow! Is all I could think of. As long as I was souping your company up it was gravy. however, telling the truth was scaring them away. Why didn't y'all tell me the truth? In response to Christina, I asked to be removed from the reference list if I couldn't be honest. Had you viewed my financial condition properly, you would have seen that my credit was outstanding, my bills were paid on time, I did not have much debt & YOU SHOULD HAVE APPLIED FOR A BANK LOAN AS YOU PROMISED ME! DRSS never communicated types of loan(s) as you put it. I even asked for a SBA loan & was told that the loan trough the bank that you go through would be much quicker. YOU SHOULD HAVE STATED THAT THEY WERE CREDIT CARDS! Complaints - Great record? Stop the madness! It cost roughly $2000 to have negative complaints removed And know of at least 20 of your clients that's VERY pissed with DRSS, yes, I have a list so let's not be so confident with your company's so called excellent track record. Why not take ALL the videos down of your store closures & see how that minimizes the look for your company. DRSS, why not inform your potential clients about your clauses in your contracts as well? Let them know that once they sign the contract and find out what your really about, they have signed away their rights to take legal action against you for your deception and fraud you put them through.

Those employees accusations "are the TRUTH!" I actually commend them for speaking up and being honest about DRSS and even placing themselves line of fire.

James,

Your lining your pockets with all our hard earn money and don't give a sh*t about families loosing their homes and claiming bankruptcy so of course your going to write this rebuttal because you don't want the gravy train to end.

Listen anyone reading this I have all my documentation from the over priced build out to the merchandised purchased by DRSS that had a lot of .80 to .85 items to the low end junk that dollar tree doesn't sell and sits on your selves.

Please don't listen to James (THE OWNER) he needs you to believe him because he enjoys crushing people' lives while he itakes those $60,000, $90,000, $100,000 what ever big cashiers checks he gets and laughs to the bank, goes home, kicks back and looks at his bank account and laughs again.

Guess what your days are numbered and the JOKE WILL BE ON YOU!!!!!!

my name is Martcia Calvillo and my e-mail is samps10@yahoo.com and I have a growing list of Dollar Store owners so please e-mail and join us.

If you are a Mailbox, teen store or party store please joins us too. I am sure you had a similar experience

We need to get our lives back to where they were before handing all our money over to DRSS and celebrate after taking the BIG BULLY down.

REMEMBER I HAVE DOCYMENTATION THAT SUPPORTS WHAT I AM SAYING AND DRSS DOESN'T

RESPONSE TO RIP OFF REPORT OF PAUL AND DOUG DATED JULY 3, 2015

This is the company’s response to the posting filed by Paul and Doug, former sales representatives who were terminated due to dishonesty.  A law suit against them is being prepared to combat the false, libelous, slanderous and other allegations made against the company and by extension the 80 hard working employees who focus every single day to make the dreams of our clients a reality. 

The following response is in order of the posting.  #1 - “lied to clients” is found in the last sentence of paragraph one of the posting.  #2 – 20-25% discount on product is found in the 2^nd sentence of paragraph two, and so forth…

1.  “Lied to clients…” – FALSE – the company has never instructed any employee to lie.  All the information in our brochures and websites is 100% factual and this is the same information the sales staff is directed to present to interested parties.   We take great pride in our ethics. The accusation is a LIE.
2. “20-25% discount on products…” ( is a lie) – FALSE- The company does verify the discounts our store owners receive.  Each supplier has a list price for every product they offer and we compare that price to the cost our store owners pay to verify that on a store wide average the discount level ranges from 20%-25%. The discounts on individual products might be more than this range or less but when averaging all products we put in the store this range is true and saves our store owners tens of thousands of dollars each and every year because of our vast purchasing power as the largest developer of independently owned retail stores in North America with almost 4,000 stores opened in the past 20 years.  The accusation made is a LIE.
3. “About half of the products sit on the shelves…” – FALSE – the products that we put into our stores on the initial order are almost identical to the products that Dollar Tree sells.  Dollar Tree is the largest corporate dollar store company in the world and if these products did not sell for them they would not offer them.  Compare our products from our website to what Dollar Tree offers in their stores and you will easily see that the accusation made is a LIE.    
4. “Items that do sell cost 85 cents each, plus freight…” – FALSE – For the initial order we place dollar store in partnership with the client to get their store open there typically isn’t ONE single product that costs 85 cents or more, unless requested by the client.  This is easily verified through the invoices we possess.  Their accusation is a pure LIE.
5. “Buying cheaper than Dollar Tree…” –FALSE - in our brochure it states “a store owner can save 20-25% on the cost of merchandise offered in our network”.   We never compare our cost to what Dollar Tree pays for product.  In our brochure and website we do not even mention Dollar
   Tree so their accusation is again a pure LIE.
6. “Cheaper than Party City…” – FALSE - same answer as #5, we never have compared our cost to what Party City pays for merchandise so this accusation also is a LIE.
7. “Use only new stores as reference because they are excited…” – TRUE –and also so the prospective new store owner can validate the work the company is PRESENTLY doing for their clients.  Older store owners are also routinely used for reference calls.  Their inference that providing new store owners as a reference is false.
8. “425 stores opened at the time…” – FALSE – How could 2 salesmen who worked here 3 years or less have any idea how many stores we opened in 1994, 1997 or 2002 or any other year to determine whether or not these store owners are still in business?  Because there is no way for them to know this information their accusation is a LIE.
9. “Store location should generate $185 per square foot…” – FALSE –Nowhere in any of our literature does it mention this number.  We never state a blanket sales per square foot number because every store location is unique; the sales potential per square foot depends on many different variables including traffic that comes into the center, whether it is anchored or not, how far away the competition is, population within 1 and 3 miles, traffic counts at the main intersection to mention a few.  Every single store site has different sales per square foot potential.  Their accusation is a LIE. 
10. “Can’t survive on a markup of 15%-20%...” - In #4 above they state the only product that sells cost 85 cents plus freight.  If freight runs 5 cents an item then the gross profit margin would be 10%, this statement now says it is 15%-20%.  Even their own logic is inconsistent, made up and a lie.
11. “If you use their suggested financing…” – FALSE –We review the client’s financial condition and communicate the type of loan(s) they can probably qualify for.  Our client’s use equity lines of credit, pay cash, borrow against a retirement account, use hard asset lending, credit cards and many other options.  The decision about how to fund the store, like every decision in our program is made by the client.  Their accusation is a LIE.
12. “Or just read the complaints listed on rip off report…” – TRUE - Rip off report is the best testament my company has.  Think about it, opening over 3,500 stores and only having 16  postings listed.  It’s unbelievable that any company could have such a great record and it’s a testament that we do exactly what our brochure and website state we do.  Thank you for your validation.
13. “Your payment is $6-$8,000 per month…” – FALSE – the average monthly payment is 1 ½ - 2 % of the outstanding balance so in their example of a $100,000 loan the monthly payment  would be at the most $2,000 not the $6,000-$8,000 they state so  again their accusation is a complete LIE.
14. “$185 per foot and average gross profit margin is 25%...” – FALSE – already addressed in #9 and #2.          
15. “Should generate $46,000 in profit…” – FALSE – I think they went “ profit” when they should have said gross profit margin.  The whole premise in this paragraph is flawed.  In personally being involved in buying merchandise for 1,000 stores and working merchandise suppliers for 22 years nobody knows the value of merchandise and the cost that should be paid better than myself, nobody, and I can tell you we have the ability to buy beautiful merchandise at an average cost of 52-54 cents per item.  Look at the pictures on our website, do you see junk?  Of course not.  Listen to testimonials of store owners, do they talk down the merchandise we provide, not one time in fact store owners go on and on about how great our merchandise is.
16. “Many clients have told me they could get a better location at 50% less…” – WOW – In real estate our in-house staff of seasoned licensed Real Estate professionals generally negotiate 30% off the asking rents, along with securing months of free rent and other concessions.  To think that a client who probably has never negotiated a single commercial lease is going to get another 50% off is simply insane.  This is most stupid accusation in this entire complaint.  Clearly, nothing more than a fabricated LIE.  Also, clients routinely notify us of sites they find in their community and we welcome this.  Their accusation intimates we force clients to accept a store location we identify which is a complete LIE.  100% of the time the client selects their store location.
17. “The owner does try to find a viable site…” – TRUE –  
18. “Shopping centers have banned…” – FALSE – I have no knowledge of being banned from any shopping center.  Because my company opens over 200 stores EACH year shopping center owners and brokers call us almost daily with sites they have available that they want our clients to take. 
19. “They pay their stores to be a reference…” – TRUE – Everybody’s time is worth something and we are happy to compensate store owners who take time out of their busy day to take reference calls.  We will compensate you also when we open your store!
20. “Rip off report is a scam website…”- ?? – the problem with rip off report is that anybody can post anything at anytime without substantiating any claims, like what happened in this case, nothing more than a bunch of unfounded claims made by two disgruntled former terminated employees.
21. “Maybe even more than 95%...” -FALSE – if 95% of the stores went out of business that would mean that only 160 stores remain open, but earlier in the complaint they allege 425 stores are open so again ALL their numbers are fabrications and have no basis in fact.  The accusation is a complete LIE.            

We look forward to discuss this posting and our answers, please contact John LaFronz, General Manager of Dollar Store Services at ext. 134.

James Wichert

Owner                 
 

I just wanted to say I can confirm everything in this report as I am a recent store owner.  Within my first month of business I discovered product not moving,  a lot of it, pricing that was incredibly off as it related to the cost of goods and my average cost was over $.80 when I factored in freight and MANY margins were only at 10%-15% and I discovered several products that were priced below my cost when they came and setup the store. I can also attest to the credit card "scheme" they use.  You are setup to fail.  Those are strong words but it is my experience.  I would love to get every penny they scammed me for back.

thank you so much but I would love to talk to you i was a store owner that lost everything my number is 916-606-8700 thank you