CinemaWerx
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Nov 17, 2005, 10:22 AM
Post #2 of 2
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Re: [tmccaffrey6] Tapeworm distribution difficulties
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This is what our exeperience has been with Tapeworm Video Distributors. This is being posted in hopes that it will
help someone in making a decision when selecting a video distribution company for their video product. Other's
experiences may be or have been different.
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Our experience with Tapeworm Video Distributors has not been good. We have not had a single purchase order paid on
time from them. We constantly had to contact them asking where our payment is. We would hear things like "your check
is in the mail today", "Which PO's are these for again?", "you didn't receive the check? I sent it!" and numerous
other excuses. One PO was past due by 6 months then we finally threatened sending them to a collection agency. After
that we were paid, on that PO.
Early on when we would call or email, we would get new people answering the phones. We would always get excuses from
them like, "I was in for surgery", "I was out on vacation", "we have been busy", "we're doing the best we can to
please everyone". Not completely unusual excuses but they happened everytime we would call for months on end.
We started to notice some of our titles in some major online stores such as BestBuy.com, Sam Goody.com etc. We were
really excited about this. We placed an order for our own title(s) just to see if it was really true. We also had fans
of our DVDs place orders online. We eventually (about a month later) received a backorder notice from BestBuy letting
us know they did not have an expected arrive date. We thought that was a bit odd since we were sitting on nearly 1,000
of this particular title. We called Tapeworm and asked them what they thought of the situation. We were told that it
was normal for larger companies to list titles online and not actually have them in stock (which is true). BUt, when
there were atleast 10 orders for a title on a site like bestbuy.com you would think they would place an order to
fulfill these outstanding backorders. Tapeworm told us that they would probably see an order soon from BestBuy's
supplier (a larger distributor). So we wait for another couple of weeks to see how this process works and we don't
hear anything about an order. So, we decide to contact the larger distributor who Tapeworm sells to and see if our
title is in their system. We find out that it is and that they have been waiting to receive product from Tapeworm for
about 1 month. We told them that we would get right on this and make sure they received their copies. We called
Tapeworm to talk about this and they had no record or this order in their system whatsoever. So we told Tapweworm what
the order was for and they asked us for that amount of DVD titles and the order was fulfilled but is was a month and a
half later.
With most distribution companies you need to send out screener copies of your titles so that their clients can view
your title and see if they are interested. We found one of our titles listed online in a store and it showed a
quantity of 4 in-stock. We thought this was a bit odd since we hadn't sold any of this title to Tapeworm to sell, we
had only send screeners. So we ordered 2 titles knowing that each company should only have 1 screener per store. Well,
we received the two titles that we ordered. We also found a few other online stores that had more than 1 in stock.
These were our screeners being sold online and we weren't seeing any money from it. We contacted Tapweorm and they
assured us that no store would be doing this. We told them that we had already ordered two of them and that the stores
were doing this. We also forwared our online receipts from our orders to prove that we had ordered. We asked Tapeworm
why these stores had more than one screener copy. We never received a straight answer on this. The screeners should
have gone out individually to as many stores as there were screeners available. We later found out from Tapeworm that
some who "doesn't work here anymore" sold your screeners on accident.
One time the president of the company was so mad at us for actually telling people about our experience with them
(online messageboards) that she hung up on us in the middle of a call. Ofcourse it was a call where we were trying to
get paid on several outstanding Purchase orders. We sent a reminder for payment about a PO on the deadline date and
immediately received a fax requesting a return authorization for 80 out of 85 copies of a title they purchased 90 days
earlier. Interesting that they would return 80 out of 85 copies as soon we request payment and they find our online
message board postings about experience with them.
Most recently after hounding them for over a month for 4 overdue POs, we finally received a check for only two of
them. You may wonder how this happened when during that month of "hounding" we sent: 3 faxes, 2 emails and a handful
of phone calls giving each time all four POs numbers. When asking why we were only paid for two of the four POs we
we're met with hostility by the president saying, "well I was under the impression your we're all paid up".
A week later we sent an email message to Melinda, Tapeworm's accounting person asking about the final payment. Here is
her response on October 26th, 2005:
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"Yes, I received the the two po's that are due for payment and a they are on the next check run, which will be
processed tomorrow. I will see what I can do about expediting it for you.
Sincerely,
Melinda"
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A week later we sent another message asking when we could expect to receive payment and received no response. A week
after that we called again inquiring about this outstanding payment. We talked to someone who told us that Melinda was
out for back surgery for a couple of months. We called back later in the day to talk to Connie Figgins the president
about this issue. When we asked Connie why we haven't received the last payment when Melinda said we would Connie told
us "I don’t have to explain my self to you" then hung up on us again.
We have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in their area reguarding the non-payment issue. There were
also a couple of other complaints listed by others. We are waiting to see the outcome of this, but either way we are
not pleased with their service or lack there of.
Bottom line, If a company can't pay their bills on-time don't complain about it to the customer and treat them like
the bad guy, It's not their problem. If you treat your customers in a decent business manner then quite possibly they
would be happy with your service and have good things to say about your company.
TO THOSE LOOKING FOR A VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR:
Research for yourself, ask around. ask for recommendations about distributors. Obviously if someone were to ask us if
they should signup with Tapweworm Video Distributors, I would definately tell them I would NOT recommend their
services based on our experience with them.
Cinema Werx
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