The Apache Group The Tribe Company sales rep scam. took an advance against commission and never heard from again Rancho Santa Margarita, California

Hello,

I am the President of Manufafcturers-Representatives.com and I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with this sales rep.  Unfortunately, we were not informed of this issue and only happened to find this complaint posted online or we would have tried to help resolve this matter.

Our service connects Manufacturers with Independent Sales Reps from virtually all industries.  We maintain a high level of integrity for all of our Manufacturing and Rep clients and we do actually turn down clients every day that we feel do not fit or represent our service well.  If any of our clients ever feel there is suspicious activity by any company or sales rep, we always highly encourage them to notify us right away with any details so that we can investigate the matter and try to help resolve the issue quickly.

A manufacturer client of ours notified us of an issue with a sales rep named Michael Steinberg of Road Warriors in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  While reviewing that issue, we became aware of this complaint that was posted online.  We immediately investigated the issue further and found that the same sales rep had also contacted this wedding gown company based in Montreal.

We attempted to contact this sales rep and we received no response from them.  This rep had only used our service for a short time and we had not received any previous complaints.  However, after reviewing these two instances and having received no response from the rep, we have permanently inactivated the reps account with our service.

We are aware that the rep has used two names, Michael Steinberg and Susan Goldstein, and uses the address: 31441 Santa Margarita Pkwy, Suite A-124, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688.

When working with independent sales reps, we always recommend having a signed Rep Agreement or Contract in place prior to paying any Retainer Fees or sending any valuable Product Samples.  By having a signed rep agreement in place, you will be protecting yourself legally someone does not provide a service you paid for.

Here are 2 basic Red-Flags that should prompt you to investigate someone further prior to committing to work with them:

1)  Any individual who asks you to overnight or rush any Retainer Fees or Payments to them prior to having a signed Rep Agreement in place.

2)  Any individual using a Rented Mailbox for an address.  After searching Google for the above reps address, we found that it is a rented mailbox at an AIM Mail Center: http://www.aimmailcenters.com/store.html?storeid=3

I hope this reply helps others in the future.