Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:First, it was not Tate that refunded the charge.  I was told by Tate "we don't know what that is, there is nothing I can do" and then ignored.  It was the credit card company that refunded the money, not Tate.  I have the e-mails to prove this.Second, I was aware this was the first printing of the hard cover books.  I was told in July when I ordered them to allow "a couple extra weeks" for printing above the 4-5 weeks.  When I contacted in September, I was promised the order was expedited and the books were due to ship on September 16th and shipment should take 2-3 days.  That means, they should have arrived on September 19-20th.  I am fine with the shipment taking longer, but I was constantly told a different date or completely ignored, so I came to the natural conclusion they would never arrive, especially when I began being ignored.  I do have the e-mails to prove this as well.The books did finally arrive yesterday, and look great, so this part of the response I do accept.  However, my original receipt and amount agreed to pay was $162, but the receipt enclosed with the books show I owe $202.  This is not the amount I agreed to and paid.  I also have these receipts as well. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

A representative of our Customer Service team spoke with this individual at approximately 4:45 PM CDT on Thursday August 25, 2016 shortly before this complaint was received.  We are unsure why Ms. [redacted] alleges she had no contact from us regarding the order, when that is clearly not the...

case.Per the conversation between our representative and Ms. [redacted], the product was originally shipped July 23.  Unfortunately, for some reason the product was not delivered and are working with our partners to determine what happened.  We decided yesterday that the best course of action was to replace the product for Ms. [redacted], and have placed and subsequently expedited the order so that it will arrive in approximately 3-5 business days.  Ms. [redacted] was notified of this during her conversation with our customer service team, and was sent an email receipt/confirmation of the replacement order.  A copy of the receipt/confirmation for the replacement order is attached to this response.We again offer Ms. [redacted] our sincerest apologies for the delivery issues regarding her order, and hope she enjoys the book when the replacement arrives next week.  Should Ms. [redacted] have any questions regarding her order, she is encouraged to contact our customer service team directly for the most up-to-date information.

https://pt.tatepublishing.net/detailsmods/orderDetails.php?job=[redacted]iframe=...⇄ has SHIPPED and is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. This is the first time the hardcover of this project has been ordered, and hardcover files had to be created by design and submitted. The fraudulent charge was not fraudulent, it was entered in error and refunded.  The bank disputed the charge between the time we entered a refund and when it posted.  This was a mere clerical error and [redacted] resolved this as soon as we were made aware.

We are currently having our Accounting department researching to see what checks have been cashed and what have not.  Request was made by the author in August to re-issue the checks which has been done. If they have not been cashed after a reasonable amount of time we will stop payment and...

re-issue again.  We have verified from this form the addresses is the same as what we have in our system. To address the issue with the book trailer airing on a cable network. Tate Publishing uses a vendor for cable network commercials the vendor has changed their reporting and is now unable to provide detailed reporting to Tate Publishing.The contract was terminated as of 8-5-16 for non activity since 2012 author signed the documents and her book removed from distribution. We have fulfilled our contract and followed our company guidelines and now consider this matter closed.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/12/30) */
We have reviewed all details and there were no royalties to report for Q3 2015. The information provided to Ms. [redacted] is correct, and it is the same information that was provided to her long ago in our Online Marketing Guide. When there are no...

sales, there is no statement sent. We report on sales paid, we cannot report on pending sales as we do not have that information. We obtain information not by calling Amazon customer service but by receiving their payment information, as all publishers do.
No publisher can report on sales until reports and payments are received from that vendor.
Below is information from the Online Marketing Guide that was sent to Ms. [redacted] in June of 2011:
How can I track my sales?
If you keep your statements and keep a careful account of the books you've sold personally, you will know your sales total at any time. When we get sales through our website or through retail, we will report them on a quarterly royalty statement (emailed) and mail the check to you. Remember, however, when there are no royalties for your book in a given quarter, you will not receive a statement that quarter.
While it is perfectly understandable that you will want to know how your book is doing in retail in real time, the retail book industry is simply not set up to provide this kind of information. Retailers and distributors are invoiced for books they order. They generally have 90-120 days to pay the invoice. Even if they pay on time, several months can go by before your account is credited for the sale. If that credit hits at the beginning of a quarter, it could be another 3 months before you get paid for those books sold. If there are returns equal to or greater than this amount or your account was negative before the quarter began, you may not receive a check for that quarter.
In addition, it is a violation of the contract Ms. [redacted] signed to contact Amazon directly, as the contract specifically states that authors are not to contact wholesalers and distributors. Speaking with a call center representative at Amazon is not an accurate measurement of any actual sales volume, and we only have the ability to report on sales based on payments to us.
Our staff has responded appropriately to Ms. [redacted], and there were no sales to report for QX XXXX. If Ms. [redacted] has further questions, she is welcome to contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX or by email at [redacted]@tatepublishing.net.
[redacted]
Vice President
Tate Publishing and Enterprises
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 10, 2016/01/05) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Thank you. This was the thorough explanation I needed. This is the first time since the book has been published that I did not get anything from the publisher. As you can imagine, its a little disconcerting to see sales on Amazon.com Author Central page and yet have no sales reported by my publisher. Hopefully, payment will be made by Amazon.com to Tate and this issue will be resolved in the 4th quarter.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/06) */
We have been in contact with this author including at least three emails and two phone calls from Monday, May 4, through today, Wednesday, May 6, and we are working diligently to make sure the author's questions and concerns are resolved.

We have tried to call [redacted] in regards to her payment issue, and have been working with her since the 6th of January to resolve her concerns. The problem is with the card processor or bank which the card has been issued, and not with anything Tate can change directly. I have explained to the...

author, and contacted her many times to find if the funds were showing on her account. [redacted], has not responded yet, but we are waiting to hear back from her and resolve her concerns in full.

Royalty checks are sent at the end of each quarter, and we allow one month for arrival once mailed. We have recently seen an increase in the time it takes the U.S. mail to deliver to some locations, and if the check has not arrived, once we are past 30 days we will simply void and re-issue a new...

check. We mail over 8,000 checks each quarter, so it is not uncommon to see some take longer or some that go missing. If that is the case, we are always glad to send another check.Please keep in mind that if no statement was received for a particular quarter by email (would have been received on April 30/May 1 for Q1 2016), that indicates that there were no sales to report, and no check is due. In my review, I see no sales direct to our site noted for Q1.Mr. Richardson states in his complaint that we have not responded to him, but I see responses to Mr. Richardson regarding this question on May 12 from our Executive Director of [redacted]eting, Mr. [redacted].[redacted](May 12 16 12:27 pm)Answered the author's royalties questions. Going elsewhere with the question does not change the answer, nor does it mean we have done something wrong. If there were no sales, there is no statement and no check for Q1.Sincerely,[redacted]Vice PresidentTate Publishing

Tate's records do not reflect current sale of NEW books last sale date recorded was 11/18/2013.  The accounting department is putting together a detailed Book to Date Report. In addition they will be verifying royalty check(s) from prior sales have been cashed.  To address the sales on...

Ebay the author may not be aware of this but most of those are used books in which Tate has no control over those sales.  If someone did purchase a book NEW after 11/18/13 then we would need very detailed and specific information to investigate.  The report findings will be emailed to the author directly.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/11) */
We have abided by the terms of the contract and management has had conversations with the client to help resolve her questions, the two most recent taking place April 27 and May 5. We are ready and willing to complete the project; however, the...

client requested to cancel her book contract with us on May 6, which she is free to do.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Tate has been promising to deliver an acceptable product for over a year. I had to pay an outside company to properly edit and format my book. The only thing that Tate did was collect my money and refused to give me a refund for mistakes that they admitted to. Their excuse was that every book has mistakes and I should just live with them. Would you continue to trust a company that makes remarks as such? I have several emails which prove negligence on their part; including an email where one of their Projects Managers accused me of "fault-finding" when I asked them to fix their mistakes. Do real "Christian" companies behave in this manner?
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/14) */
We have abided by the terms of the contract and management has had conversations with the client to help resolve her questions, the two most recent taking place April 27 and May 5. We are ready and willing to complete the project; however, the client requested to cancel her book contract with us on May 6, which she is free to do.

We are providing what is in the contract to Ms. [redacted]. Our contract makes her book available to all stores, but there is no guarantee that any stores will order the book for their shelves. There is nothing in the contract guaranteeing shelf space. We do not decide what books stores order. Stores...

order books that are in demand, so we work with authors to generate demand in a variety of [redacted]ets. We state this detail regarding bookstores very clearly in the [redacted]eting materials we send to every single author: Marketing FAQ’s What is my release date? The release date does NOT mean that your books will appear on the shelves in all major bookstores on that date.So what does it mean?The release date is set to make sure of three important things:1) Distributors have made your book available to stores.2) The internet systems and websites (Amazon.com, etc.) have access to your book.3) Tate marketing will begin our efforts on your release date by sending press releases and contacting bookstores to request they host book signings for you. Regarding the NY Times ad, that is for the spring/summer ad for 2016, and Ms. [redacted] is scheduled for that ad. It should be running in June or July. [redacted]Vice PresidentTate Publishing

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

The author was advised on June 1, 2016 she would have to provide us with a written addendum stating she would be refunded any monies when the contract clearly says after the sale of 2500 books.  The author responding by saying don't you have my contract & the wording.  Clearly there...

was a misunderstanding all any of her book sales would count towards the 2500.  Also contractually Tate provided all the services;http://[redacted].tateauthor.com/https://www.facebook.com/[redacted]htt...⇄ As with any new author, the success of their book in today's market is largely dependent on the effort the author puts in to marketing not only the book, but themselves as the author.  We cannot put an author in front of their target audience, if they are unwilling to work with us to do so, If Mrs. [redacted] is willing to work with us on the marketing of the book per her contract, we are happy to assist with the resources and events. Today's economy is very much demand driven, and simply put there is no demand for Mrs. [redacted]'s book, but if she can help generate demand by events and signings. As it was explained to Mrs. [redacted] during the original contract negotiations, in her contract, and on several occasions since, marketing is a partnership.  A partnership only works with both parties put forth effort to achieve a common goal. We have done all we can to promote Mrs. [redacted]'s work itself, but without cooperation from Mrs. [redacted] to help promote her book ther is only so much we can do since we are not the author.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/06/10) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@hotmail.com
The $299 that Ms. [redacted] stated she paid was for the production of a video book trailer. The author did not pay for television...

air time; that was included at no cost with the production of the video and provided by Tate Publishing. Upon review, the television ads provided at Tate Publishing's cost did air. We did end our relationship with DISH network because it took a long time for our ads to air, and we were not being provided with detailed commercial air reports. I offered Ms. [redacted] additional online application ads with 100,000 impressions to resolve the matter, and she indicated she had requested contract termination, so the offer was withdrawn. I have asked Ms. [redacted] to specify an exact day and time she wants to schedule a phone call with me, and I never get a specific response. Since Ms. [redacted] has requested contract termination, we'll be granting termination and returning her files. Royalty reports are issued quarterly, but only if there are royalties due to an author and sales to report. It typically takes 2-3 quarters after a book's release date until we are paid for book orders, and the royalties are paid to an author.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 9, 2015/06/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
[redacted] is completely misinformed. The $299 that I paid for the commercial/trailer for TV was promised to me that it was inclusive of being aired on TV, and that this commercial/trailer I was supposed to be able to keep for life, which Tate Publishing has made it impossible for me to do, because they refuse to edit it to take out Tate Publishing stamp.
This proves that Tate Publishing is NOT consistent with their representatives. One representative promised me something in writing and over the phone explained explicitly what I could expect before agreeing to payment, and a year and half later, another representative does a bait and switch and says, the opposite.
[redacted] offered me 100,000 app impressions in its place, which was quickly taken away from me after I agreed to it, when [redacted] found out after 3 weeks, that I had terminated my contract. Why he didn't know that I terminated back in May? Is only par the for course, because no one ever gets any communication straight within this company, I have been consistently told and promised one thing, and then lied to and given the opposite on multiple occassions.
Being that Tate Publishing is refusing to edit this commercial so that I may in fact use it for the rest of my life, which I cannot, then it's blatantly clear that Tate's Publishing's only choice in resolving this matter, is returning my money by refunding me the $299 because this commercial never aired and Tate did not fulfill what was promised to me in writing and over the phone by 2 of Tate's other representatives.
Here is the email which details what I was promised, which I agreed to and sent payment to Tate, based on these very words, which is what was promised to me by [redacted] in writing January 10, 2014 and then again by [redacted] in May of 2014 by phone promising me that my commercial was to be aired in the Fall on Dish Network, which never happened..
Nowhere does this agreement state, what [redacted] is saying, who was not representing my book at the time of I was offered this commercial deal. Nowhere does it say, I was paying only for a trailer, and not for air time, in fact, this email promises just the opposite. Nowhere does it say, that the $299 covered only the trailer. In fact it says, that for $299, >>"Our multimedia department will create your trailer, and after it airs you'll get a full report with details of when it aired and how many people were tuned in. We make sure it airs enough times to be viewed by at least 100,000 people- great exposure for you and your book!>>>
From: [redacted] mailto:[redacted]@tatepublishing.net
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 8:30 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Book Trailers for Authors
Good morning,
Sometimes I don't get the chance to talk to authors about all the different promotional options we have available for you here at Tate, so I thought I'd send a brief note and mention one of the more exciting ones:
We have 15 second TV commercials available to you to advertise your book nationwide on Direct TV. These ads air on networks such as The History Channel, Lifetime, Tru TV, A&E, and several more. We'll run your ad on networks where viewers are most likely to be interested in it: Kids' books will go on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel, and so on. Our multimedia department will create your trailer, and after it airs you'll get a full report with details of when it aired and how many people were tuned in. We make sure it airs enough times to be viewed by at least 100,000 people- great exposure for you and your book! We'll also post it to YouTube so you can share it with your friends and fans on social media.
If you're interested in having your book on nationwide TV, let me know. It only costs $299 for our team to create and air your ad, so call or email me today to get started.
Here is a link so that you can check out some samples of trailers our team has created: http://multimedia.tateauthor.com/trailers/trailer-examples/
Thanks!

[redacted]
Marketing Representative
Office Hours: 9 am - 5 pm (CST) M-F
[redacted] Toll Free
[redacted] Direct
[redacted] Fax
Tate Publishing & Enterprises
[redacted]
[redacted] XXXXX
I have asked Ms. [redacted] to specify an exact day and time she wants to schedule a phone call with me, and I never get a specific response.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...⇄ /> From: [redacted] mailto:[redacted]@tatepublishing.net
Sent: Thursday, May 21, XXXX X:XX PM
To: [redacted]@earthlink.net
Subject: schedule a phone call
Importance: High
Hi [redacted],
I have notified [redacted] that you would like to speak with him. What time will you be available for a phone call? Since [redacted]'s in Central Time and you're in Mountain
Time, he suggested an afternoon schedule.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Author Service Representative

We do apologize to Ms. [redacted] for the delay, and we are contacting her directly. The printer had some equipment problems that caused the delay with printing, and we are more than glad to help and compensate Ms. [redacted]. She may choose from either a free book trailer or free website, and we will...

create that for her.Regarding contacts to be made, we do serve a wide array of authors, so it is normal to have a few weeks pass from the time contacts are requested until they are finalized and the report is sent. Once the report is received, it is normal that we pass the leads and any correspondence on the author's behalf to the author. We encourage the author to follow up and then to pass their contacts back to their marketing consultant so the publicists can continue to follow up. It can take 3-5 rounds of contact from us and the author before we reach a desired result or even a clear response. We team with the author because many times the venues want to hear directly from the author and are making a decision about the author, not just the book.We will be glad to reach out to Ms. [redacted] personally to assist and clarify, and we will be happy to offer the free book trailer or website due to the printing delay.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: As you can see from these letters we never received this so called charge back.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/05) */
Tate Publishing has been in consistent contact with Ms. [redacted], including 20 calls or emails from Tate Representatives within the last 60 business days.
Ms. [redacted]'s book just transitioned from the production process into marketing, so we are...

at the early stages of that process. We view marketing as a marathon and not a sprint, and the marketing wheels have just begun to turn. Regarding production, we have made the adjustments she mentioned here upon her requests.
Our desire is to move forward in this partnership and produce a successful book for Ms. [redacted]. We are available and willing to resume the relationship and work toward a resolution of any issues.
Thank you for your time.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The Response from Tate Publishing is absolutely FALSE. I have records to prove I have not received 20 calls or emails within the last 60 days. The emails that are sent to me are promotional emails NOT those concerning my book.
The statement about making the correct adjustments is also false. In fact, I sent another email to the project manager TODAY 8/6/15 requesting the corrections be made AGAIN and still have not heard a response or received satisfactory work. I also mentioned not receiving items that I paid for in my agreement. In that email I again pointed out my lack of satisfaction with the communication and quality of work breakdown. Again I have not received any response from any Tate employee.
I am applaud at this company's lack of values, commitment and quality of work.
No employee of Tate Publishing has reached out to me regarding this matter. Especially since I have sent complaints directly to them before even contacting the Revdex.com. Therefore, I do not believe they are "available and willing to resume the relationship".
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/08/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
After received Mr. [redacted] request to speak I immediately responded with my phone number to speak this week. I have Not heard anything from mr [redacted] or a Tate representative.
Below is the email I sent:
Good Morning [redacted]

I do not have any questions regarding my production process. I am aware the production has wrapped up and I am in the marketing phase. If you are referring to the many concerns I have had with tate I would love to discuss those over the phone.

Please advise
Final Business Response /* (4000, 13, 2015/08/25) */
Spoke with MS. [redacted] on the phone today and she detailed her experience in our production processes. The central issue boiled down to communication response times. I explained that many things were going to on behind the scenes as indicated in the Ms. [redacted]'s file, but she did not know what was going on and was at times frustrated by the length of time it took to get response to her inquiries. We appreciate her feedback and will take into account as we move forward and aim to improve our customer service. The last item Ms. [redacted] is waiting on at this stage is the set up of a Facebook page for her book, a service we are providing. I am coordinating with the web design team and will be providing a status update to Ms. [redacted] this Thursday 8/27.

Tate has a company policy of working on one project per author at one time, it appears this was not explained  to Mr. [redacted]. I apologize for the confusion. We will finish the projects including the audio book however there are no refund and all sales are final. In regards to the book...

corrections. In regards to the corrections to the actual book if Mr. [redacted] signed the final Approval form before we made the corrections and he reviewed them again (which is part of the process) then yes the book with would have been sent to printing without the corrections and essentially we have the proper approval so therefore it is a post production correction, which will create a delay.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/01) */
This book has shipped and should be in hand any day. Some equipment problems with the printer caused the delay, but those are corrected and the book is on its way.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 9, 2015/05/05) */
(The consumer indicated...

he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I received the book that I ordered.