Monday, April 6, 2009

Wise Rep, Dawno says "Caveat Venditor"

Before I get into the info related to the post title - here are some blogs you should visit soon to see their Artbeads product designs/reviews - they (Artbeads and the bloggers I mention below) are NOT the focus of the caveats above - these folk are upright, serious artists! (I got my Artbead baubles today - squee! & will have my report/review soon). But, on to the fun stuff:

This Artist's Journey picked the Sunset painted canvas pendant, put it on a simply decorated (great idea on how to use crimp covers instead of knots or actual crimps) black cord to focus attention on the pendant.

Sha-sha Handcrafted picked a bronze quote pendant and paired it with chain and Swarovski pearls and crystals for a lovely necklace.

Margot Potter, The Impatient Crafter's intern Avalon Potter made a gorgeous necklace using a different painted canvas pendant, and called it "The Siren Song"

Lisa at A Bead A Day features a jet Swarovski rivoli (and a 'big 'un' too) in her Deco style choker

Feathered Fibers - enameled copper charm (with turtle) and canvas pendant - a stunning two-fer!

Hammi Jammi Jewelry
- another canvas pendant necklace - different 'painting' and fun, shimmery necklace to showcase it.

See me, the above bloggers & more, on the Artbeads blogroll, too!

Ok, so what's the title of my post about, anyway? I got this in my email today:


RE: Can we sell your jewelry through our stores?

From: David Thibos

Do you wholesale? I'm interested in selling your jewelry through our network of stores. They'd be a great fit.

We work with buyers from thousands of jewelry stores, specialty shops, department stores, large chains, mail-order catalog companies and Internet shopping sites. We need a larger variety of jewelry they can choose from, hence my email to you.

If you're interested in selling your pieces to more stores visit us at http://www..com We guarantee sales.

Sincerely,
David Thibos
Director of Merchandising
WiseRep.com
Caveat Venditor - Let the Seller (that's us, btw, not Wise Rep) Beware.

At first I got just a little bit excited, but only for about a nanosecond, because I remembered all the literary scams I'd read about on Absolute Write Forum's Bewares and Background Checks and also on the Writer Beware! blog. There are so many predatory people out there using the internet to separate the unwary from their hard earned dollars - and in tough times, stuff like this may start appealing even more to folk who need to bring in a few extra dollars to stay above water.

The email, the promises...all looked familiar. Had many of the "markers" that those publishing schemes had.

Now, I'd have Googled the site anyway. I always check things out to see if they're legit and what the buzz around the net is - and that was quite informative. This outfit has been sending out emails for a couple of years now. There's an up-front fee involved as well as a monthly cost. It began to look a lot like some author representation schemes, as well as 'display site' schemes I've read about - they take your $$ and if they do anything at all for you, it certainly isn't effective nor worth the money you pay them.

In my reading I came across a very interesting thread on the Bead&Button forum site - starts off with a 'testimonial' - "How My Jewelry Saved My Home" but keep reading, there's some great comments later that get to the heart of the matter - Wise Rep probably has a number of folk who troll sites, blogs and forums to post stuff like this to try and get people to believe in them. Problem is, they come off sounding too good to be true - and you know how that saying goes...

Anyway, Wise Rep has also posted a poorly written press release on PRWeb (where anyone can post anything and call it a press release), I'd guess they send employees around the web to defend the "business" and use that PR link as proof...but nobody who has an actual verifiable way to contact them on any blog or forum (lots of anonymous posters or posters with empty profiles) ever posts any supporting documentation that WiseRep has really done anything to get a product into "Target, Macy's, Barns & Noble, and Petsmart". Best post of the thread is the second to last, by Christina - she did her homework!

Dave of Dave's Cupboard posted about them the other day, too - he dug a bit deeper and did a WhoIs registration check - turns out whoever owns WiseRep is hiding behind a proxy domain company. Seems to me, as with those unverifiable blog and forum commenters, if you can't find legitimate street addresses, or incorporation information or even contact telephone numbers for a company, so calls and emails go to real, accountable, people, you should steer clear of that internet "business" - they don't want to be found, or talked to, or accountable.

Anyone else get this email? What do you think? Oh, and if anyone shows up to defend Wise Rep who doesn't have a verifiable profile and thinks they can just regurgitate that press release, well, I'm going to delete those comments, not going to give them any positive Google juice here.

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27 Comments:

Blogger Lisa Crone said...

Hello, thank you so much for the mention! Great article!

April 6, 2009 at 7:25 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

You're welcome!

April 6, 2009 at 7:53 PM  
Blogger Just A Tish said...

i get these all the time - more than not they get filtered into my junk/spam folder and are gone forever. i guess i have worked around the internet too much and am jaded. I don't trust much of anything.

if it is too good to be true - it prolly is

April 7, 2009 at 12:47 PM  
Blogger G.Dowell said...

Thanks for mentioning me (This Artist's Journey in your post.

Great post. It's always good to have a little detective spirit in us when we come across things like this. Thanks for the warning!

April 9, 2009 at 9:39 AM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

Gayle, you're so very welcome for the mention and it's my pleasure to pass along any info I come across that might help keep us from getting caught up in, at minimum, a bad deal and at worst, a complete scam.

April 9, 2009 at 6:52 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I found this comment by one of bloggers :) at http://tabihats.blogspot.com/2008/04/wiserepcom.html
I am sure this wud help all of us decide.

Anonymous said...
I signed up for their service a month ago and got no results. So I called them and demanded for my money back, and the guy on the phone told me he'll break my legs if I do a chargeback. So I wouldnt recommend this site at all.
September 22, 2008 12:07 PM

April 13, 2009 at 9:45 AM  
Blogger Lexi Butler - Lexi Butler Designs said...

Hi Dawno,
I am Lexi creator of Beaded Jewels http://www.beadedjewels.biz/ and I just had the same email in my spam folder fro wiserep. The first thing I do is look for scams. I don't get exided anymore about those emails. I fell on my face one too many times...lol. And some of them where pretty costly, but we learn right ???????
So I just wanted to tell you how I appreciate that post about wiserep.

I wish you great success in all your plans and endeveurs.
Lexi
Beaded Jewels
www.beadedjewels.biz

April 16, 2009 at 7:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Appreciate the shout out, too! My copper turtle iphone quilted bag gets lots of comments everywhere I go!

I will be watching to see what you come up with!

Happy Beading, Carla at Feathered Fibers blog

April 18, 2009 at 7:44 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

Hi and thanks for stopping by Carla. I love the beautiful quilts in your posts, too. My daughter asked me when she was here if it was hard to quilt. I'd love to have the time and patience but I have no idea how hard it is - that always varies from person to person, is what I told her. Suggested she find other quilters somehow and see if there are beginners classes, etc.

I'm hoping she'll take to it - I've always wanted a crazy quilt! :-)

April 18, 2009 at 7:56 PM  
Anonymous linda said...

I love it that within two minutes of getting a wiserep email (and thinking, this has gotta be a scam) I can google the name and get all this info. Thanks for writing about it! I love the internet.

April 27, 2009 at 10:56 AM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

You're welcome, Linda. I don't go an hour, I think, without checking something on Google. I don't know what I'd do without it!

April 27, 2009 at 11:04 AM  
Blogger plantablepapers.com said...

Than you so much for your posting on WiseRep! I own Plantable Papers and I got the same email and thought, as you did, hmmmm sounds interesting. Then I went to google and your post was the first to come up under Wise rep review. Now I know!

June 8, 2009 at 3:47 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

You are so welcome Plantable Papers! And what a lovely site you have with such a great product! May I mention you in my Sunday link round up on the 14th?

June 8, 2009 at 7:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks my company just got this scam letter for the second time and because of the information on your post, we wont even give this UNWISE REP a response.
You have helped a lot of people

July 6, 2009 at 1:20 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

My pleasure - I believe in the "pay it forward" ideal - lots of efforts by many people out there to educate me in some of the 'markers' and I'm glad to share what I've learned.

July 6, 2009 at 2:31 PM  
Anonymous Jen at Caterpillars Soy Candles said...

Hi, I own Caterpillars Soy Candles and I got the exact same email, verbatim. Thanks for writing this post. I found it after a quick google search about WiseRep..

July 8, 2009 at 3:39 PM  
Anonymous Funiture Polish said...

Thanks for this post. I got an email from Wise Rep, asking for gift baskets. The only thing was, I don't sell gift baskets, I sell basked conditioner. I figured it was spam but I wanted to check it out to make sure, because I do a decent ecommerce business.

July 9, 2009 at 2:36 PM  
Blogger DearBigBrother said...

Hi Dawno,

Regarding WiseRep and the Bead & Button forum post. I am the "Christina who did her homework" you mention in you post. I did all that research last Dec and Jan and I still hear of people getting the same email from WiseRep, and to date I have only found 2 or 3 people who actually used WiseRep, and who got NO results and who could NOT get the promised refund. So as for me, my hard earned dollars are still in my pocket and not with WiseRep.

I would use them if they were legit. You would think they would want to prove to me they were legit to get my money, and to get me to place good posts about them on the web. 8 months later I am now more convinced than ever WiseRep is a scam. My suggestion to people getting the WiseRep email is run, don’t waist your time with them.

Thanks for the mention in your post. Anyone who wants to check me out can find me at:
Lee Shore Gallery, www.leeshoregallery.com or
Creations by Christina, www.creationsbychristina.net or my email address is: creationsbychristina@tampabay.rr.com

Christina Lee

July 9, 2009 at 9:32 PM  
Anonymous EnJDesign said...

Hello,
I own a silver jewelry company and was checking my email when I noticed the wiserep 'junk'. Googled it and came here. Good to know we're all watching out for each other. Wish I had done that before the many times I ran excited, to the nearest too good to be true scam. How do they continue scamming without any repurcussions?

Thanks Christina for all the original finger work...:O)

Neelam

Silver and Gemstone Jewelry
www.enjdesign.com

August 13, 2009 at 10:56 AM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

Christina - first of all, I am so sorry I didn't respond and thank you again for all your research. It is much appreciated! Even now, 4 months later, people are still coming to this post - it's important that information be shared and people be on guard.

Neelam - thank you for your comment and visit. I also wonder how stuff like this can continue!

August 13, 2009 at 4:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have never used Wise Rep. However, it seems that there is a connection between HerOrbit.com and Wise Rep. We would also recommend avoiding HerOrbit.com as they do not pay their bills after shipping product to a customer.

September 23, 2009 at 2:27 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I am so happy I read this post after Googling Wise Rep. I know I'm adding to this post months later but for a reason:

I received an email "wanting to sell my jewelry" today and I know not to get excited anymore. This is where the email took me:

http://www.intostores.com/sellers.php

It looks just like Wise Rep!!!!!!!

Does anyone know anything about these people? I'm very leery, although I just Googled it and got some not so bad reviews so far, but I just don't trust anything......

December 8, 2009 at 12:17 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

Nancy, I got the same email and posted about it here.

December 8, 2009 at 1:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks so much for the comments on IntoStores. I have an art of a different sort,a gourmet cookie company with hand shaped cookies that look like fruits and veggies and thought of checking out IntoStores this time around. I guess because I haven't been bombarded with emails from Intostores I thought it could be a legit option. We're small and don't have money to burn...so thank you for this enlightened post! Mari Vosswinkel, VosswinkelCookies.com

January 25, 2010 at 3:33 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

You're welcome Mari - I'm glad I've posted about both WiseRep and IntoStores - months later people still leave comments, so it's clear that this is a valuable post to put out some cautions about these "services" before people invest!

January 25, 2010 at 3:42 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

IntoStores and Wiserep are BOTH scams. I was burned once, but not twice! Thanks for having this thread up. I hope someone else can avoid having to pay these scam artists.
Katie

May 21, 2010 at 12:18 PM  
Blogger ohdawno said...

You're welcome, Katie, thanks for dropping by!

May 21, 2010 at 1:51 PM  

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