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Sunday, April 30, 2006

My Adventures with Clever Kingdom

I feel a need to post about this, because Clever Kingdom is the #2 search term by which people find my blog, behind Green Toddler Poop, LOL! I want people to have an idea of what happened at my party, and what has happened since. I am sure Melissa will find my by google, and if she does, if she will just fufill her promises to me, I promise I will take this down, and write some nice things ;)

I had a party in September, but my trouble with the company actually started back before that, when I contact them to have the party. I emailed them, and waited, and waited, and waited, no return email for a couple of months!! So I finally gave up on that avenue, and found my own consultant, closest to me was still 300+ miles away.

I am a former direct sales girl myself, having worked for a few places, so I knew how to do catalog/online parties, and I offered to do that for the consultant I found. We set it all up, and I did my party. I used some things that the consultant never heard of before to bring in traffic to the online party, and she passed everything on to Melissa the owner to look over for possible training purposes.

My party came out to not quite $300. And we closed it at the end of September. We didn't receive our items until December 24th for most, mine was December 27th! My consultant contacted Melissa, who as an apology offered everyone at my party a $15 credit on their next order. Explaining that the move from CA to VA (?) is what caused the delay. She also offered me anything I wanted from the catalog personalized how ever I like. Silly me, I took her up on the offer, plus ordered a few more pieces with the new designs that had just come out. Plus my mom and my friend ordered again as well. This was in January.

My consultant fell off the planet, she stopped returning emails or calls. Lucky for me she failed to take my payment. I still have her catalogs and samples that she sent. I refuse to return them with out the postage or my order, which ever comes first, LOL. So I emailed Melissa directly in February. She confirmed that she had extended the offers and that because of my great ideas and online party she had actually waived the balance on my, my mom's and tiffiny's orders. So in essence, she was giving me them for free. They were in process she said, would ship at the end of Feb.

Well, tomorrow is May. I am not holding my breath. I have e-mailed Melissa several times, only to be ignored. I imagine if those clothes were to show up, they probably wouldn't fit my kids anyways, by now. Also, from my party there were many mistakes with peoples orders, and I know at least two of them are still trying to deal with returns/refunds. I don't know the exact details, but I know that there are quite a few from my party that are not pleased.

As far as I can tell, Melissa talks a good talk, but when it comes down to it, she doesn't deliver, on promises or product. Which is sad, because the clothes are beautiful, I LOVE the ones I have, and would have become a consultant myself, if it weren't for my poor experience.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Had to comment..... unfortunately, you are one of MANY unsuspecting women all over the country who have had terrible experiences with Clever Kingdom. I too was waiting for orders placed in early December 2005. I signed on as a new consultant and had nearly $900 in sales at my one and only party. As of May 1, no clothes and 5 of my customers still need refunds (the other 7 just recently got refunds!)

I honestly don't know how she stays in business... I guess signing up new consultants who don't know what's going on. I have contacted the BBB, the Attorney General of NH (she's in Epsom, NH), the US Postal Service and the FTC. The BBB has already closed my complaint as unresolved, so I'm hoping to get some help from one of the other 4 organizations. I do hope that some kind of law enforcement will take notice and get involved! The list of "victims" is getting bigger and bigger!

I do hope that you will report her to any of the above mentioned groups to try and get your money back! But please know that I personally have contact with nearly 40 former consultants and customers that were treated the EXACT SAME WAY you have been treated (big promises, "clever" talk, lying, no responses). And we are all very intelligent, honest people!!

My best, Jodie

Anonymous said...

Hello! Yep, you got it I was a former consultant and now run a clever kingdom survivor forum...we used to have a ck! survivor yahoo group (actually I still have it, we just don't post on it)...You see Melissa disguised herself as a consultant and was caught spying and worse! I was the ninth consultant and was with the company for a little over a year. During that time I only had a few parties (those took place in the beinning before I wised up). I have so much to say but more importantly invite you to check out our forum. It's private so I'd need you to follow the directions and go from there...I don't feel comfortable posting the link here (in case the ever clever Melissa reads this)...so email if you're interested at pamsclever@yahoo.com or cksurvivorgroup@aim.com xo Pam

Anonymous said...

Sorry...I didn't mean to be anon...my name is Pam Sorbello

Anonymous said...

Your consultant is probably out money and walked away just wanting to be done. I'm not saying she did the right thing but it's very likely she was really burned and just needed to walk away.

I hope you get what you should get...but it's not likely.

I too was a former consultant. My box of samples with torn out tags and holes sit here...I couldn't see without catalogs so I guess I got lucky.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this! I too was an ex-consultant, and "best friend" of Melissa. BTW, the friendship came AFTER the consultant status... she and I "had so much in common" and I was wooed by her charm and "cleverness".
Anyway, it is very important that these stories are out there. Not just from former consultants, but customers, etc. The position Melissa puts the consultants in is atrocious and mind-boggling. Why doesn't she get out there and have home parties? Also, the clothing can be ordered for a fraction of the price at www.dharmatrading.com. It is white, but hey, by the time you figure out how to dye, you are probably still saving 4 weeks! You can buy some of the same illustrations at clipart.com, too!

Anonymous said...

Hi Beckie,

Go visit MaaMaw at www.friendsinbusiness.com. She runs a scambuster site and is doing all she can to help. You will find many other stories similar to your own.

Gail said...

I too am an ex-consultant and thank youf or your post. THe more honesty out there on the web, the less people who are likely to be screwed in the future!

Anonymous said...

I had such a different and much better experience with Clever Kingdom. I hope that you get your items. I just LOVE the clothing and my kids get so many compliments!

Have you gotten your items, yet?

I was a consultant with another start-up MLM and man, were there were bumps! But it did clear up, as I am sure it will for Clever Kingdom too!

Anonymous said...

I am not sure how old this post is, but I would like to tell you about my experiences with Clever Kingdom. I was hoping to become a Clever Kingdom representative about a year ago and I ordered and paid for the large sample kit. I never received the kit or my money back. I attempted to contact Melissa for several months and finally filed a complaint with the BBB. No Luck and I am just out of several hundred dollars. Oh, well. I guess it is just money, but it is money that I did not have. What a waste!!!