Creative Marketing Incentive Group Inc

Creative Marketing Incentives Group, IncJanuary 21, 70th St.San Diego CA 921151-800-619-6101Revdex.com of San Diego & Imperial CountiesAttention: *** **Complaint ID#: ***To whom it may concern:Creative Marketing Incentives Group is an incentive marketing company and we help
businessespromote themselves and boost their advertising efforts with the distribution of our certificateincentives.CMIG offers its members a host of travel certificates, as well as dining; electronic; and gas andgrocery certificatesOne of the certificates that CMIG offers in its host of certificates is a "NightBahamas Cruise." The cruise line that fulfills this cruise trip is *** *** ***CMIG hasoffered this particular certificate to its members for the better part of six years.On 10/16/2014, the member contacted CMIG via telephone and reactivated his existingmembership with CMIGThe member then completed and signed a "Customer Service Agreement"on 10/16/2014, which states the member is agreeing to a monthly debit of$per month to theircredit card and will continue being billed until the member submits a "Support Ticket" to canceltheir account (Appendix A).On November 13, 2014, CMIG received news from *** *** *** that their cruise ship hadsuffered damages during one of its voyages and had to "dry-dock" the ship until the damage couldbe completely ascertained.Upon being alerted of this, CMIG made steps to advise our members that the "Night Bahamas"certificate was unavailable for an indefinite period of timeCMIG immediately posted an update inthe CMIG "Latest Updates" section of the back office to alert membersThis "Updates" section isviewable 24/7, and members can view it at any time (Appendix B)As you will from Appendix B,CMIG advises that," any Bahama cruise certificates that have already been redeemed and arecurrently in a "ready to be booked" status we will still attempt to book them in a cruise to theBahamas with another cruise line." (For any Bahama cruise certificates that were not in a 'ready tobe booked" status, CMIG refunded any fees and taxes received to the traveler and advised them ofthe circumstances.) CMIG also restricted any non-redeemed certificates from being redeemed andalso included a brief message explaining the circumstances and included an apology to potentialtravelers (Appendix C).The Night Bahamas Cruise certificate was immediately removed from CMIG'S "Our Incentives"page (Appendix D) and from the list of certificates available for use in the members' back officearea.CMIG also went through a list of CMIG members who had recently created a "Night Bahamas"certificate and contacted those members via telephoneIf CMIG could not contact the member viaphone number provided in their account, CMIG then sent the member an e-mail, advising them ofthe sudden change.On January 7, 2015, CMIG received an official email from *** *** ***, advising that*** *** *** was ceasing operations for good (Appendix E), and would no longer be ableto fulfill any cruise offers with CMIGAs you will also see, *** *** *** promised tohonor any current bookings made with *** *** *** by alternately placing the travelerwith *** *** *** ***.On January 7, 2015, the member who filed this Revdex.com complaint contacted CMIG and inquired aboutthe Night Bahamas cruiseThe member asked "why is the certificate no longer available?" CMIGadvised the member that the lone *** cruise ship had suffered damages and that not onlyhad the Night Bahamas cruise offer had been put on hold until further notice, but CMIG had justreceived official notice from *** that the cruise offer had been cancelled for goodThemember became upset, asking why he had "not been made aware of this?" CMIG told the memberthat not only had we contacted each member by either telephone or email, but we had also posted anotice in the "Latest Updates" section in the member's back office.The member stated that he had been heavily promoting the Night Bahamas cruise in hismarketing and advertising, and was upset because he no longer had access to that travel certificate.CMIG apologized for the inconvenience and told the member that unfortunately, since the*** *** *** has only one cruise ship, the situation was not in our control in any way.The member became increasingly irate, demanding that CMIG provide another cruise offerCMIGpatiently advised the member that although *** was no longer honoring future requests fortheir cruise, CMIG and *** would place any of travelers in the "ready to be booked" statusin another cruise lineCMIG stated again that the situation was not in our control, and that we and*** were doing our best to accommodate existing travelers who were in the "ready to bebooked" statusThe member would not abide by this and continued to demand we offer anothercruise certificate.At this point, CMIG attempted to direct the member to use another of CMIG'S travel certificatesThemember stated that he was relying primarily on the Night Bahamas and that the other certificateswould not work for his client baseThe member angrily stated he had spent "a thousand dollars ormore" in advertising costs to market the Night Bahamas Cruise and that CMIG should be heldresponsible for finding another cruise.CMIG clearly states on our corporate website that "All marketing, promotional and advertisingmaterial must be provided to CMIG, Incand approved in writing by CMIG, Inc." (Appendix F, Page3)CMIG does this for a myriad of reasons; one of them being since all of our certificates arefulfilled directly with the individual cruise lines, hotels and resorts, the terms and conditions aresubject to change at any timeWe state on the Night Bahamas Cruise certificate (as well as all ofour other certificates) that "The terms of this offer are subject to change without notice." Becausethe terms of our certificates are subject to change, we require our members to provide us with theirmarketing/advertising materials beforehand so we can properly review them to avoid potentialissues such as this.If the member had abided by the terms and conditions he initially agreed upon when becoming amember, and had contacted CMIG prior to creating advertising materials for the Night BahamasCruise, CMIG would have advised him once again that the *** cruise ship had suffereddamages and for the member to NOT promote the Night Bahamas Cruise in his advertisingThemember did not contact CMIG at any time to divulge or discuss his advertising materialsIt isunfortunate that the member created advertising materials and was unable to promote the NightBahamas offer the way he initially intended; however, it is not CMIG'S fault the member invested inadvertising materials without first consulting CMIG; especially since CMIG'S terms and conditionsrequire members to do so.At this point, the member became verbally abusive and began cursing at the CMIG staff member.The staff member attempted to calm the member down, but the abusive language became morehostile, and so the staff member terminated the callThe member immediately called back, angrythat his call had been terminated, and then continued to curse and make physical threats againstthe staff memberCMIG advised the member that if he was willing to discuss the issue calmly, CMIGwould be happy to discuss alternatives with himHe continued to verbally harass the staff memberand use profanityThe member demanded to speak to managementCMIG advised the member tosubmit a Support Ticket through his back office and CMIG would escalate the issue to uppermanagementThe member did this later that same evening, 1/7/In the Support Ticket, themember requested a refund for the months of October, November and December, totaling $297(Appendix G).On 1/8/2015, CMIG spoke to the member and advised him upper management was reviewing hisSupport Ticket and his request for a refundHe was advised that he would receive a guaranteedresponse within three-business daysCMIG reviews Support Tickets and although we oftenrespond sooner than three days, we guarantee a verbal or written response within three businessdays.Although CMIG informed the member on 1/8/that management was reviewing his accountand he was guaranteed a response within three business days, the member proceeded the very nextday, 1/9/2015, to go to the Revdex.com website and file a complaint.The member makes many statements in his Revdex.com complaint; however, CMIG would like to onlyaddress the most relevant.In his Revdex.com complaint, the member states," After speaking to *** he lied and told me the ship thecertificate uses had problems is is [sic] docked indefinitely." Let it be made clear nobody lied to themember about the status of the *** *** ***CMIG had already advised CMIG membersthat the cruise had been dry-docked on 11/13/CMIG also advised the member we had justreceived documentation from *** that the Bahamas cruise was cancelled for good As youwill see from the documentation provided directly from *** *** *** (Refer again toAppendix D), they were ceasing operations for goodDespite reiterating this fact to the membermultiple times, the member continued to accuse CMIG of lying.The member states in his Revdex.com complaint that," Today I try to login to check my ticket and myaccount is blocked." After speaking with the member and being cursed at and threatened, CMlGdecided it was best to block the member's access to his back office to avoid any potential issues; infact, after the members continued verbal abuse and physical threats, we decided it was best to endthe business relationship all togetherCMlG disabled the monthly billing to the member's account toprevent the member from being billed againCMlG also deactivated the account, which restrictedaccess to that accountThe member was irrationally upset over this, but the question is why wouldCMIG continue to allow a member who curses, makes physical threats and promises to smearCMIG'S reputation, continued access to our services? No business would do such a thing.Also, let it be known that when CMIG responds to a member's Support Ticket, an email is sentdirectly to the email account listed in the member's accountThe member would have received adirect email from CMIG, advising them on CMIG'S response to his Support TicketThe member didnot need to have access to his account to read CMlG'S response to his Support Ticket.CMIG refunded the member's monthly fees for the months of October-December, totaling $Wehave sent the member an email, advising him that the refund was completed and the credit will beappearing on his card within 4-business daysWe have provided copies of the receipts, AppendixH, which show the three refunds of $apiece, totaling $These are the three months themember used our services when reactivating his account in October, 2014.CMIG apologizes to the member once again for the inconvenience caused by *** *** ***discontinuing their servicesCMIG empathizes in that aspect; however, CMlG had absolutely nocontrol over *** *** *** discontinuing their cruiseCMIG is not responsible for theaccident suffered by *** *** ***, any more than the member isIf the member hadreviewed the "Latest Updates" in his back office, he would have seen the *** *** ***was temporarily docked until further notice.Let it also be stated again that if the member had abided by the initial terms and conditions he hadagreed upon when becoming a member and submitted his marketing/advertising materials toCMIG for review, CMIG could have saved the member much time, money and frustration.Sincerely,*** *** *** ***Creative Marketing Incentives Group, Inc

Revdex.com of San Diego Re: Complaint #[redacted]   To whom it may concern:      Creative Marketing Incentives Group (CMIG) is an online marketing company that offers unlimited incentives to members for the low monthly fee of $99.  When a person enrolls as a member, they receive unlimited access to our vacation; dining and electronic incentives.  Our service is simply month-to-month, and a member may cancel at any time.       Below are the terms and conditions the new member must agree to before signing up as a member (taken from the “Terms and Conditions” page from CMIG’S website): You must provide a valid billing method. CMI will immediately charge your account $198. CMI will continue to debit your account automatically every 30 days for $99. This process will remain in full force until CMI receives a cancellation notice through the online support ticket system, conveniently located in your password protected control panel area. We must receive the cancellation notice a minimum of 3 business days (not counting holidays or weekends) prior to your next billing date in order to avoid being billed for the following month. Business days are Monday through Friday only, and do not include holidays or weekends. [redacted]            As stated in the Terms and Conditions above for automatic billing, CMIG requests the Support Ticket be sent THREE business days before the billing date (not counting holidays or weekends). We request this in order to ensure the request to cancel is received on time and that our billing department may properly disable billing.  This Support Ticket system is available in the member’s back office and can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.      The member’s monthly debit date was the 7th of each month.  The member was made aware of this when initially signing up with our sales agent that the debit would occur on the same date each month, until the member decided to cancel.        Provided in this letter is a copy of a signed “Customer Service Agreement,” which reiterates the Terms and Conditions for cancelling a CMIG membership (Please refer to Appendix A).      Unfortunately, the member submitted their request to cancel a little over three hours before their billing date.  The request to cancel was submitted on 7/6/2016, at 8:43 pm; just a little more than three hours before the billing date of 7/7/2016. The policy is three days, not three hours.  It’s a little unrealistic for a customer to submit a request to cancel long after a formal business day has ended, and expect a company to accommodate them ( Please see Appendix B for a copy of the member’s Support Ticket requesting to cancel).      The member states in their complaint that,” And they were not going to refund the $99.00 back to our business account.”  This is not the case.  What the member was actually told was that their request for a refund would be forwarded to the billing department for review.  Although the member didn’t properly submit a Support Ticket in sufficient enough time, CMIG was still willing to review the issue and determine if they could refund the member after all. The member was advised of this, and this was when the member began making legal threats.       The member was advised once again that although they didn’t submit their request to cancel within the proper time frame, CMIG was willing to consider a refund; however, the agent speaking to the member was not authorized to make that decision themselves.  The request had to be forwarded to the necessary party first.  The member threatened legal action again.       The member also states in their complaint that,” When I told them that I had sent them an email a few days before because he did not receive the email. I ask he check the spam folder however he disagreed to.”      The CMIG service representative DID search the spam folder for the member’s email. None was found.       In the member’s Revdex.com complaint, they state,” I want a refund of all monies to this company. The sum of $198.00.”  To re-cap, the member signed up on June 7, 2016, under the “30 Day Risk Free Trial.”  When the member signed up, and completed a signed “Customer Service Agreement,” the member agreed to the following Terms and Conditions I understand that this program is on a month to month basis and that my authorization is to stay full force and effective until CMIG receives a Support Ticket of cancellation no later than within three (3) business days before CMIG’S debit date. Business days do not include weekends or holidays. The Support Ticket System is located in the member’s password protected Main Control Panel. This program comes with a 30 day money back customer satisfaction. If you use the program and receive at least one redemption of a certificate within 30 days of your initial sign up date, and if you are not fully satisfied for any reason within the first 30 days and you contact us within 30 days of your initial sign up date you will receive a full refund.        The member, unfortunately, failed to meet either of the two Terms and Conditions required under the “30 Day Risk Free Trial Refund” offer: 1) Member must have one (1) paid redemption within the first 30 days 2) Member must submit Support Ticket of cancellation no later than within three (3)             business days before CMIG’S debit date.        If the member had fulfilled these simple requirements, CMIG would have refunded the member’s fees, no questions asked.  Once again, the member explicitly agreed to these Terms and Conditions when signing up (Refer once again to Appendix A). CMIG is unable to refund any fees paid at this time.      If the member has any additional questions, they may contact us at our business number: [redacted]        Thank you for your consideration regarding this matter. Sincerely,   [redacted] CMIG President and CEO

Review: Joined in October 2014 after talking with [redacted] on the phone. Main reason for joining was access to there cruise certificate. Couple weeks after joining it was discontinued without any notice t myself. I spent $1000 in marketing expenses and booked over 60 sales appointments based around the cruise certificate. After speaking to [redacted] he lied and told me the ship the certificate uses had problems is is docked indefinitely. After speaking to two other companies using same ship and cert I have bee told otherwise. I was told to file a support ticket to cancel and request a refund for my 3 months of $99 I was charged. The next day I called to check to get no response other then they will get back to me on my ticket. Today I try to login to check my ticket and my account is blocked. I call speak to [redacted] who apparently is the only one who works there as he always answers. I believe him to be the owner and hiding behind this name [redacted]. I am told he has emailed the owner and he is reviewing my case and will get back to me in couple business days. Not sure what takes so long to review it apparently did not take him long to lock my account which until I get my refund is still paid for, for this month.

This company is very, very shady. One man company taking our money and not providing the service promised.Desired Settlement: I am requesting my $297 refunded back that they have taken from my account over the last 3 months.

Business

Response:

Creative Marketing Incentives Group, Inc. January 21, 20154903 70th St.San Diego CA 921151-800-619-6101Revdex.com of San Diego & Imperial CountiesAttention: [redacted]Complaint ID#: [redacted]To whom it may concern:Creative Marketing Incentives Group is an incentive marketing company and we help businessespromote themselves and boost their advertising efforts with the distribution of our certificateincentives.CMIG offers its members a host of travel certificates, as well as dining; electronic; and gas andgrocery certificates. One of the certificates that CMIG offers in its host of certificates is a "2 NightBahamas Cruise." The cruise line that fulfills this cruise trip is [redacted]. CMIG hasoffered this particular certificate to its members for the better part of six years.On 10/16/2014, the member contacted CMIG via telephone and reactivated his existingmembership with CMIG. The member then completed and signed a "Customer Service Agreement"on 10/16/2014, which states the member is agreeing to a monthly debit of$99 per month to theircredit card and will continue being billed until the member submits a "Support Ticket" to canceltheir account (Appendix A).On November 13, 2014, CMIG received news from [redacted] that their cruise ship hadsuffered damages during one of its voyages and had to "dry-dock" the ship until the damage couldbe completely ascertained.Upon being alerted of this, CMIG made steps to advise our members that the "2 Night Bahamas"certificate was unavailable for an indefinite period of time. CMIG immediately posted an update inthe CMIG "Latest Updates" section of the back office to alert members. This "Updates" section isviewable 24/7, and members can view it at any time (Appendix B). As you will from Appendix B,CMIG advises that," any Bahama cruise certificates that have already been redeemed and arecurrently in a "ready to be booked" status we will still attempt to book them in a cruise to theBahamas with another cruise line." (For any Bahama cruise certificates that were not in a 'ready tobe booked" status, CMIG refunded any fees and taxes received to the traveler and advised them ofthe circumstances.) CMIG also restricted any non-redeemed certificates from being redeemed andalso included a brief message explaining the circumstances and included an apology to potentialtravelers (Appendix C).The 2 Night Bahamas Cruise certificate was immediately removed from CMIG'S "Our Incentives"page (Appendix D) and from the list of certificates available for use in the members' back officearea.CMIG also went through a list of CMIG members who had recently created a "2 Night Bahamas"certificate and contacted those members via telephone. If CMIG could not contact the member viaphone number provided in their account, CMIG then sent the member an e-mail, advising them ofthe sudden change.On January 7, 2015, CMIG received an official email from [redacted], advising that[redacted] was ceasing operations for good (Appendix E), and would no longer be ableto fulfill any cruise offers with CMIG. As you will also see, [redacted] promised tohonor any current bookings made with [redacted] by alternately placing the travelerwith [redacted].On January 7, 2015, the member who filed this Revdex.com complaint contacted CMIG and inquired aboutthe 2 Night Bahamas cruise. The member asked "why is the certificate no longer available?" CMIGadvised the member that the lone [redacted] cruise ship had suffered damages and that not onlyhad the 2 Night Bahamas cruise offer had been put on hold until further notice, but CMIG had justreceived official notice from [redacted] that the cruise offer had been cancelled for good. Themember became upset, asking why he had "not been made aware of this?" CMIG told the memberthat not only had we contacted each member by either telephone or email, but we had also posted anotice in the "Latest Updates" section in the member's back office.The member stated that he had been heavily promoting the 2 Night Bahamas cruise in hismarketing and advertising, and was upset because he no longer had access to that travel certificate.CMIG apologized for the inconvenience and told the member that unfortunately, since the[redacted] has only one cruise ship, the situation was not in our control in any way.The member became increasingly irate, demanding that CMIG provide another cruise offer. CMIGpatiently advised the member that although [redacted] was no longer honoring future requests fortheir cruise, CMIG and [redacted] would place any of travelers in the "ready to be booked" statusin another cruise line. CMIG stated again that the situation was not in our control, and that we and[redacted] were doing our best to accommodate existing travelers who were in the "ready to bebooked" status. The member would not abide by this and continued to demand we offer anothercruise certificate.At this point, CMIG attempted to direct the member to use another of CMIG'S travel certificates. Themember stated that he was relying primarily on the 2 Night Bahamas and that the other certificateswould not work for his client base. The member angrily stated he had spent "a thousand dollars ormore" in advertising costs to market the 2 Night Bahamas Cruise and that CMIG should be heldresponsible for finding another cruise.CMIG clearly states on our corporate website that "All marketing, promotional and advertisingmaterial must be provided to CMIG, Inc. and approved in writing by CMIG, Inc." (Appendix F, Page3). CMIG does this for a myriad of reasons; one of them being since all of our certificates arefulfilled directly with the individual cruise lines, hotels and resorts, the terms and conditions aresubject to change at any time. We state on the 2 Night Bahamas Cruise certificate (as well as all ofour other certificates) that "The terms of this offer are subject to change without notice." Becausethe terms of our certificates are subject to change, we require our members to provide us with theirmarketing/advertising materials beforehand so we can properly review them to avoid potentialissues such as this.If the member had abided by the terms and conditions he initially agreed upon when becoming amember, and had contacted CMIG prior to creating advertising materials for the 2 Night BahamasCruise, CMIG would have advised him once again that the [redacted] cruise ship had suffereddamages and for the member to NOT promote the 2 Night Bahamas Cruise in his advertising. Themember did not contact CMIG at any time to divulge or discuss his advertising materials. It isunfortunate that the member created advertising materials and was unable to promote the 2 NightBahamas offer the way he initially intended; however, it is not CMIG'S fault the member invested inadvertising materials without first consulting CMIG; especially since CMIG'S terms and conditionsrequire members to do so.At this point, the member became verbally abusive and began cursing at the CMIG staff member.The staff member attempted to calm the member down, but the abusive language became morehostile, and so the staff member terminated the call. The member immediately called back, angrythat his call had been terminated, and then continued to curse and make physical threats againstthe staff member. CMIG advised the member that if he was willing to discuss the issue calmly, CMIGwould be happy to discuss alternatives with him. He continued to verbally harass the staff memberand use profanity. The member demanded to speak to management. CMIG advised the member tosubmit a Support Ticket through his back office and CMIG would escalate the issue to uppermanagement. The member did this later that same evening, 1/7/2015. In the Support Ticket, themember requested a refund for the months of October, November and December, totaling $297(Appendix G).On 1/8/2015, CMIG spoke to the member and advised him upper management was reviewing hisSupport Ticket and his request for a refund. He was advised that he would receive a guaranteedresponse within three-business days. CMIG reviews Support Tickets and although we oftenrespond sooner than three days, we guarantee a verbal or written response within three businessdays.Although CMIG informed the member on 1/8/2015 that management was reviewing his accountand he was guaranteed a response within three business days, the member proceeded the very nextday, 1/9/2015, to go to the Revdex.com website and file a complaint.The member makes many false statements in his Revdex.com complaint; however, CMIG would like to onlyaddress the most relevant.In his Revdex.com complaint, the member states," After speaking to [redacted] he lied and told me the ship thecertificate uses had problems is is [sic] docked indefinitely." Let it be made clear nobody lied to themember about the status of the [redacted]. CMIG had already advised CMIG membersthat the cruise had been dry-docked on 11/13/2014. CMIG also advised the member we had justreceived documentation from [redacted] that the Bahamas cruise was cancelled for good As youwill see from the documentation provided directly from [redacted] (Refer again toAppendix D), they were ceasing operations for good. Despite reiterating this fact to the membermultiple times, the member continued to accuse CMIG of lying.The member states in his Revdex.com complaint that," Today I try to login to check my ticket and myaccount is blocked." After speaking with the member and being cursed at and threatened, CMlGdecided it was best to block the member's access to his back office to avoid any potential issues; infact, after the members continued verbal abuse and physical threats, we decided it was best to endthe business relationship all together. CMlG disabled the monthly billing to the member's account toprevent the member from being billed again. CMlG also deactivated the account, which restrictedaccess to that account. The member was irrationally upset over this, but the question is why wouldCMIG continue to allow a member who curses, makes physical threats and promises to smearCMIG'S reputation, continued access to our services? No business would do such a thing.Also, let it be known that when CMIG responds to a member's Support Ticket, an email is sentdirectly to the email account listed in the member's account. The member would have received adirect email from CMIG, advising them on CMIG'S response to his Support Ticket. The member didnot need to have access to his account to read CMlG'S response to his Support Ticket.CMIG refunded the member's monthly fees for the months of October-December, totaling $297. Wehave sent the member an email, advising him that the refund was completed and the credit will beappearing on his card within 4-5 business days. We have provided copies of the receipts, AppendixH, which show the three refunds of $99 apiece, totaling $297. These are the three months themember used our services when reactivating his account in October, 2014.CMIG apologizes to the member once again for the inconvenience caused by [redacted]discontinuing their services. CMIG empathizes in that aspect; however, CMlG had absolutely nocontrol over [redacted] discontinuing their cruise. CMIG is not responsible for theaccident suffered by [redacted], any more than the member is. If the member hadreviewed the "Latest Updates" in his back office, he would have seen the [redacted]was temporarily docked until further notice.Let it also be stated again that if the member had abided by the initial terms and conditions he hadagreed upon when becoming a member and submitted his marketing/advertising materials toCMIG for review, CMIG could have saved the member much time, money and frustration.Sincerely,[redacted]Creative Marketing Incentives Group, Inc.