Putting Your Business Reputation on the Line

Whether you realize it or not, your business can succeed or be ruined by social media. All it takes is one person to post a negative commnt or review about the way you do business and it can spread like wildfire.

Most people, however, choose to remain silent about their bad business experiences because it might be viewed as unethical or tacky or fear that people will not want to associate with you because you might also put them on BLAST at some point.

But here's the deal. MORE BUSINESS NEED TO BE EXPOSED FOR BAD BUSINESS PRACTICES. It is unfair for a potential customer or client to have to find out for themselves how bad a company is. This is especially important when conducting business online since the only information we may have about them is what they tell us on a website.

"Hey, let me tell you how you can make $1,000 of extra income a month like I'm doing" Sound familiar?

The problem is some of us tend to let people who don't give us the best customer service off the hook by vowing never to purchase or work with them again.

I'm not doing that. Here's my story about V and E Home Solutions out of Waldorf, MD.

V and E Home Solutions is a Property Management Company. My husband hired them to act as property manager for a home he owns in Upper Marlboro. Their job was to collect the tenant's rent and deposit it into my husband's business bank account, after taking out their fee.

For nearly two year things ran relatively smoothly but then the stink hit the fan last week. Along with a letter notifying us of a change of address, they sent a check from their own account to cover the tenant's rent for two months. We thought it was strange since they normally just make the deposit into this account and send us the deposit slip. A few days after depositing the check, my husband received a notice from the bank indicating the $3312 check had bounced and they tacked on $76 in NSF fees.

Next, my husband called the company several times to try to resolve the matter. He either got a voice mail or the answering service saying they would take a message.

We decided to drive to Maryland to meet with them in person. Since it was obvious they weren't going to respond to my husband's number, I decided to call from my own cell number and guess what? I got a real person and I talked to her. I told her we were on our way to the office and wanted to make sure someone was there so we could resolve this issue.

Four hours later, we arrived at the address given and, can you imagine our surprise when we discovered the new address they claimed they moved to was a UPS store?

We then called back. No answer.

We then drove to their old location and discovered their name was still listed as having an office there. We knocked but got no response.

It was obvious they were avoiding us. I made one more call and left a message advising them if we did not hear from them within 24 hours, the next person they would hear from was our attorney.

As we were driving back to North Carolina, I decided to try calling them again on another cell phone number they hadn't seen before--and guess what? Someone picked up the phone! She claimed she hadn't received any of the previous dozen messages but would be sure to give this message to her boss: Vadie Reese.

Has she called yet? As my mama used to say, "She probably will when hell freezes over!"