Scam going around

[ShedQueen77]

I thought this was a unique situation and that no one else was being contacted by this company. However, someone posted on the Carnival board about the same thing going around. I figured since we're all cruising brides that it wouldn't hurt for a heads up over here as well! :)

 

I got a call from an RPI Inc Monday night, even though I'm on the National DNC list. I was in class at the time, my fiance took a message. He told me they called about my wedding dress. I had no idea why a store 3 hours away from me (of which I had no knowledge) would be calling about the dress I ordered from my local salon who ordered it directly from the manufacturer, so I looked the number up on whitepages.com.

 

Googled the name and address of the company and it was listed as a "bridal boutique" for dresses, tuxes, etc... I went to their listed website and it was for Royal Prestige cookware. Note the website listed below their name isn't the category they put themselves in! They sure aren't any sort of bridalwear boutique like they claim to be. That is unless I'm going to wear a pan on my head on my wedding day. Or maybe I could use a pot to smack some unruly guests around! :D j/k

 

Sounds like this company is just a bunch of scam artists who like to prey on brides and grooms to be!

 

Here's my "proof" about their bad advertising practices:

 

http://yp.yahoo.com/yp/Des_Moines_IA/Retail_Shopping_Apparel_Formal_Wear_and_Tuxedos/94147184.html (Under Tuxedos and Formal Wear)

 

http://local.yahoo.com/results?stx=Rpi+Inc&csz=Des+Moines,+IA&fr=ush3-yp (Local results with their cookware website listed under 'bridal boutiques')

 

Here's the kicker: Apparently this company is offering "free cruises" with purchases of this really expensive crap. Here's the link to the Carnival post.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=10407277&posted=1#post10407277

 

And that's exactly what this product is...crap!!

 

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/royal_prestige.html

 

 

The lesson? PLEASE be careful. NOTHING is for free. Don't fall for a scam in an attempt to save some money!

[Xiabelle]

If you've gone to any bridal show, they'll drive you insane. They always wanted to offer me vacations.

 

Evidently the vacations are legit... you just have to go listen to their hard-sell advertisements. And there are limitations of the vacation, of course.

 

I got a lot of phone calls from them after the last show in town... which I didn't go to. Yeah, sure, I recently went... I got married in March.

 

They're also Celebrity China.

[briseis23]

Yeah, I got duped by such a company called Bridal Preview International. I know for a fact that David's Bridal is selling my contact info, which has been good and bad. However, I went to one of these previews for Carico cookware because I was actually looking for some. I think we bought a 12 piece set for $1600. I actually saw the cookware a few years ago and always wanted it, so it was an easy sell. We paid in full. However, after reading up on the company I decided that I didn't feel it was such a good deal. I also found a similar set at Williams-Sonoma with more pieces for less money. The way I see it, if the cookware is THAT damn good it would be sold at specialty stores like Williams-Sonoma.

 

So be warned... they specifically target young couples. Here is the message board that made me change my mind: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/carico.html

 

In all fairness, a lot of these complaints are from people who didn't full understand the finance policies of the company. They have "programs" where you don't get the cookware right away. They also didn't understand their right to cancel within 3 days (which we did, thank God). After that period, you are screwed!

 

A lot of these people also seemed to not understand how to properly use the cookware, complaining about burns and food sticking to the pans. I have to blame that largely on user-error and not the company.

 

My issue was with customer service and the price we paid. If I am given a lifetime guarantee I want to know they will keep their word on that. Also, like I said, we found a more reliable source at a much better price.

 

We went back the next day to tell the sales guy we wanted to cancel. We were actually purchasing his demo set for $200 less than a new set and were supposed to pick it up that night. He was disappointed we wanted to cancel and said he didn't have cancellations forms but "not to worry" and called the accountant with us there. He also said he wasn't sure they would cancel because all sales are usually considered final, and I indicated that by law he had to accept our cancellation. Sorry, I wasn't born yesterday, so we made sure we covered our @$$es by putting our request in writing.

 

So we sent a certified letter to them which was very straightforward in explaining how they violated the law in not properly informing us of our right to cancel, among other things, and demanded a refund within no more than 10 days. They did not begin issuing our refund until after they received that letter. So do NOT believe them when they say it will be taken care of. PUT IT IN WRITING! We received a letter saying a refund would be issued and a phone call today saying that a check was in mail. Why they didn't put it back on our credit card I don't know, but they are only 5 hours away so I better not have anymore problems with them!

 

I don't know how this company is still in business. They are so shady! Know your rights: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/buy01.shtm

 

I hope everyone reads this in case they come across this company under whatever name they are deciding to use this week.

[ShedQueen77]

I know for a fact that David's Bridal is selling my contact info

 

I wonder if that's how they got my name and phone number. I'm not using David's Bridal, but I have registered at their site. I don't remember if I gave that information or not. :o I will be HOT if my bridal salon sold my information. They're not a big chain, just a few stores in some cities around us. I am going to ask my consultant when I go there tomorrow to complain about not having my dress and veil after 8 MONTHS OF WAITING. That's another story though! :mad: I don't think any of my other vendors had my phone number. Most of my wedding stuff (favors, etc...) was purchased from eBay.

 

I would have thought that the National DNC list would have protected me from this crap. Oh well.

[TygerPawz]

Not defending anything, but Names, addresses and phone numbers are OK to give to third-parties for marketing purposes. Normally companies will run lists they recieve through DNC lists, they can be imposed large fines if they don't!

[I2BZ2W8]

I got call on my cell phone stating I had one a cruise/vacation. I never entered any sweepstakes so I know DAvid's Bridal gave up my info!

[briseis23]

Yeah, someone told me David's Bridal sold them my info. Can you believe that I got another phone call today saying I won a free vacation and they wanted to invite me to a presentation? Unbelievable. We JUST got our refund from the company. The check was handwritten. I just hope it doesn't bounce!

 

I think I actually gave David's Bridal permission to give out my contact info. Some of the information has been useful. I look at all of the photographers to get ideas of what I want our photographers to do. :) But it can be pretty annoying.

[diego7979]

Were were called by Royal Prestege and Celebrity. Celebrity does not offer any cruies to come in and listen to their presentations. Infact, Celebrity is a very quality company.

I was a little suspicions of this since I know that there are people out there who do “scams” so I decided to look into it before I jumped to any conclusions. So I looked up Celebrity China in the Better Business Bureau and found that they are an accredited business since 1983 and in A+ standing. They have been in business since 1955. I also looked up Vita Craft (to cookware they market) discovered that they also are an accredited business with the BBB and have been since 1945 with an A+ standing also. Vita Craft opened their doors in 1939 and they too are out of the Kansas City area (Shawnee, KS). This made me feel much more comfortable knowing that they were backed by a reliable company and not just hear say.

[MrSnarkyPants]

Were were called by Royal Prestege and Celebrity. Celebrity does not offer any cruies to come in and listen to their presentations. Infact, Celebrity is a very quality company.

I was a little suspicions of this since I know that there are people out there who do “scams” so I decided to look into it before I jumped to any conclusions. So I looked up Celebrity China in the Better Business Bureau and found that they are an accredited business since 1983 and in A+ standing. They have been in business since 1955. I also looked up Vita Craft (to cookware they market) discovered that they also are an accredited business with the BBB and have been since 1945 with an A+ standing also. Vita Craft opened their doors in 1939 and they too are out of the Kansas City area (Shawnee, KS). This made me feel much more comfortable knowing that they were backed by a reliable company and not just hear say.

 

Funny, this guy is all over the internet telling you that it's not a scam because they have an A+ standing with the BBB. Depending upon which site you find him on, he may tell you that he owns the cookware and what good quality it is (and he would know because he claims to have gone to culinary school).

 

Here's the secret to that rating (which is now sitting at an A-):

 

Today, the BBB website shows 14 complaints against Celebrity China in the past 12 months. 10 of those are "resolved". 4 of them were administratively closed. As long as the company agrees to resolve things with the person who complained, the BBB closes the file and doesn't ding their rating. If the complainant doesn't respond, then the BBB closes the file adminstratively and doesn't ding the company. It's only if the company doesn't respond to the complaints that the rating takes a hit.

 

What bugs me the most about them is the telemarketing. They buy a booth at the bridal fair, and with that booth comes all the names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of everyone who attended. They then call those people and tell them that they won a drawing that they never entered. They're just calling everyone who bought a ticket to the show. You don't see Caphalon selling its pots and pans that way. If their stuff is so great, then why is it the only way you can buy it is to go to the traveling road show? [Answer: you can't comparison shop if you can't buy it anywhere else.]

 

So, is it a scam? Well, technically no. You go to the high pressure timeshare style sales pitch at a hotel and you get your gifts. Yes, you get a couple of champagne flutes, and yes you get a voucher for a hotel stay with a lot of fine print attached. If you buy the cookware, you will get that, too. You might even like what you buy, although if you look at all the people complaining about this company, you might not.

 

But if you wanted to buy quality cookware, you could get equal or better quality in a department store, Bed Bath & Beyond, or online at a place like Amazon.com for less money. If you go, there's 90 minutes of your life that you won't get back, and if you buy something, you're paying for all the free gifts of the other people who went to the presentation, picked up their gifts, and left. So you're going to pay too much.

 

Some people like paying too much. I'm not one of those people.

[MrSnarkyPants]

I think I actually gave David's Bridal permission to give out my contact info. Some of the information has been useful. I look at all of the photographers to get ideas of what I want our photographers to do. :) But it can be pretty annoying.

 

The moment you walk into David's Bridal to shop, you filled out a registration form and got a packet of stuff from vendors. The fine print on that form gives them permission to sell your info to those vendors.

 

When I ran a DJ business, I paid several hundred dollars a month for the right to be the official DJ of that location. That gave me the right to have my flier in the packet and the right to get a list of brides who came to the store every two weeks. There is a checkbox to opt-out of releasing contact information. If you had checked that in my store, the line on the Excel spreadsheet would have your name followed by "information withheld" so I can say firsthand that David's Bridal does respect the opt-out. You just have to remember to read the fine print and check the box.

[yardstick]

Check out my vita craft blog about my experiences with celebrity china and the pans themselves.

http://vitacraftscam.blogspot.com/2011/01/vita-craft-scam-celebrity-china.html

[Artemis908]

reported yardstick and diego...

 

I also get calls from people about prizes or wedding related stuff. I think it's a mix between David's Bridal and The Knot. I usually just don't pick up for phone numbers I don't know and the calls have died down a bit.

[acireta]

Irritating company. I was a "big winner" last week. 5percent of attendees, my foot. They got really mad that I didn't show up to their presentation last weekend LOL I've had my own place for years, I don't have room for anymore crap!