5/8/08: Jon Garrett, Marketing Representative for Realty Designs, blows into town. Solicits advertising from my employer (a mortgage company) and presumably other area businesses in the housing industry (pest control, insurance companies, lawyers, home remodelors, etc.). Advertising to appear printed on a legal-sized pocket folder. Folder is, in my case, to be distributed to military personnel relocating in my area (Hampton Roads VA) until the supply is exhausted, at which time i have the right of first refusal to renew the ad.
Two of our mortgage loan officers took out ads, one for $995 the other for $400. The folders were to be delivered Dec 2008 to a local Keller Williams Realty office, which specializes in military relocations. It is now mid-March 2009 and no folders.
Realty Designs' 2 toll-free phone numbers were disconnected in Dec 2008. Their local number's (i was told it was Mark Coleman's cell phone) voicemail box is full, won't record a message and says to call back (all in French). A human hasn't answered the phone in my last several calls, going back to Dec 2008.
I'm told by the commercial artist that prepared the folder art for printing, that the art for the folder is ready for printing (has been for some time), and that Mark Coleman picked it up to take to a printer, one that hasn't been used before. The artist didn't know who the new printer was going to be.
The artist, who is in the Quebec area, says that Realty Designs owes him money too, and is no longer at the office where he used to pick up his checks (4190 Thimens Blvd., St-Laurent, QC H4R2B9). The office has an "available" sign on it. Google satellite photo shows this to be in what looks like a large industrial/commercial park area.
Jon Garrett's business card shows another address, 15400 Pierrefonds Blvd., PO Box 21305, Pierrefonds, QC Canada H9H 4J0. Google sat photo shows this to be a small building on a major highway, surrounded by residential homes. I'm guessing this address is a post office (due to the pobox #) and not a Realty Designs office. My artist contact said he'd drive by there to check it out and let me know. He also suggested I contact my state Atty. General's office, consumer complaint dept., which i intend to do.
A Google search of Realty Designs revealed another Realty Designs victim, a Realtor at a Coldwell Banker group in Dartmouth MA. Her story is very similar to mine. She had posted her complaint on www.realtown.com, a realtors blog. I just spoke to her on the phone, and she said she did finally get her folders 2 months ago, which would make them 1 year and 4 months late!
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