Mr.Lane Hall-Witt. I read your post and you make some excellent points. However keep in mind that TSIG is a public company and the person they are paying is involved in activities that have Federal Criminal implications. A number of dealers intend to pursue this to the limits of the law.
The document below is just one example of attempts that have been made to peacefully rectify this situation. Promises by Mr. Piercy were made to work out the solution but that was only to prevent current dealers from messing with the TSIG deal. Once that came through everything was ignored and there has been no action from the other end. There are already two court judgements in California that I know of against Mr. Piercy. What does that tell you. If this is such an upstanding company why aren't they trying to settle these issues.
PS: The 1.5 million customer base you speak of was mostly created by dealers. As a matter of fact we have a good argument that we own it.
memorandum
Date: 3/20/98
To: Darrell Piercy
CC:
From: Jim Fortson
RE: Return of Funds
Darrell:
It is unfortunate that I have to write this letter. However CCI's failure to honor and perform per the terms of our sales agreement forces me to do so.
1. CCI has failed to deliver the goods paid for on the original price of the sales territory despite repeated calls and letters to your staff. CCI has failed to deliver 4,000 20 unit cards and 8,000 promo cards that were part of the original purchase price.
2. CCI has failed to fulfill customer orders in a timely and reasonable fashion. I have documented customer complaints that have placed orders as far back as a year and have not received their product. In addition, calls to your customer service center continue to go unanswered.
3. Despite the lack of fulfillment, CCI has been cashing these customers checks and charging their credit cards. Legally, I am advised that this may constitute consumer fraud and customers have threatened to take the issue to the States Attorney Generals. It is certainly nothing I can be connected with.
4. This lack of performance on CCI's part has resulted in my inability to do any additional business and has cost me business. Both legally and ethically I cannot sell music cards to people when I am not confident the orders will be fulfilled. In addition, because of poor fulfillment by CCI, potential fundraising customers and sales reps who have used the promo card will not do business with me.
5. Repeated letters/faxes and calls to both you and your staff over time about various problems with back-ordered supplies and money's owed to me have gone unanswered.
6. In July of last year you lost your toll free phone number that was on the back of the card. This rendered the card useless to all those who had purchased a card with the old number. Despite being told that owners were being notified, no individual I know that owned a card ever received notification of a phone number change.
7. I am aware of a number of other distributors around the country that have experienced similar serious problems with CCI.
Darrell, I take exception to your comments about not going out and selling the program. I have documented paperwork that shows the trade shows, sales presentations, and solicitation letters I have sent out and will be happy to provide the contact names to a new buyer. Attached are some of the letters that have been sent to CCI requesting resolution of some of the situations discussed above.
For obvious reasons, my patience has run out given my problems dealing with CCI under our agreement. I feel that CCI has materially breached obligations that it made to me under the agreement which has resulted in my inability to develop the business, and has resulted in losses both financially and personally to my reputation. As I'm sure that you are aware, I not only spent the original purchase price of $15,000 but spent additional sums trying to develop this business without the support CCI promised to deliver.
Pursuing any legal channels suggested by the problems noted above is unnecessary if we both work in a cooperative spirit toward resolving this matter. Obviously, I need to be made whole from the failure of CCI to deliver as promised. If you feel we cannot resolve this problem amicably, I or my attorney may have no choice but to contact CCI's new owners for help in resolving some or all of these problems. Consequently, I attach per your request a list and valuation (based on original CCI pricing) of the inventory I now have, together with a remaining value of the Busness in my "Exclusive" territory. In addition to current inventory, there are 34 retail account names where product has been placed, the Tampa Bay Online WebSpins program and numerous sales contacts I can provide a purchaser.
In order to work toward a speedy resolution of this matter, I ask that you present an offer to pay back my original business purchase price plus any outstanding inventory in writing to me no later than March 31, 1998. With sufficient downpayment, I would entertain a short term payment schedule with a written purchase offer. Your cooperation on this matter will be appreciated and feel free to call me with any questions.
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