Long post - beware
For budding blogshop owners out there listen up!!! Please take this seriously as I am writing based on my experience and from what I hear/know from other blogshop owners.
If anyone of you out there is thinking of renting a rack space with TheBlogShop - STOP - honestly! I'm not joking. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THEBLOGSHOP! The management crew and their way of managing the business will force you to vomit blood!
I signed up with them November 2010 - at that time, things were going very smoothly and I was happy with their service. As their popularity soared, their attitude and service went the other way, BIG TIME! It got even worse when the best employee they had left the company to start a shop of the same concept on her own.
Imagine this - I took up a space in Far East Plaza and ITE Chua Chu Kang. We are promised sales report at the end of every month and cheques are available for collection from 15th of the following month.
I signed up for 2 spaces in ITE because of fake promises made by Clarence (I totally have no idea who the hell he is but I guess he's the Master - owner's son). A young chap in his young twenties who drives an SLK new with an ugly plastic girlfriend with a bitchy attitude. ITE was supposed to start in March but it never did. We were not updated with the progress but money paid.
** Oh btw, TheBlogShop takes only full payment upfront for the number of months you want to rent plus 2 months security deposit ie if you are renting for 6 months, you have to fork out 8 months rent up-front.
Text messages sent but no replies. Phone calls always unanswered. Finally we receive an email saying ITE will finally start its operation by end April and told all vendors to start stocking up. We did but no sales. ITE still did not open. It wasn't until 9th June that ITE finally began its operation but SALES SUCKS!
Since it started operation in June, I have only received 1 sales report from ITE. I have been liasing with Clarence since Lili's departure from the company. I have been chasing for the report since early July but did not receive it until first week of August. That one done BUT I'm still missing ITE's sales payment!
Then came the big bang - my FEP sales payment bounced! A cheque of SGD600+ bounced! I contacted Clarence on 25th August to report this case. He only came back to me on 31 August 2011 asking for the amount and then quiet (I sent him a reminder SMS everyday). The next time I heard from him was 2nd Sept and he asked for my account number so that he may credit the amount directly. Nothing until today. How convenient.
Clarence ALWAYS makes excuses and empty promises. Never once was seomthing acted on promptly. What sort of businessman is this? And they say they are a big company with many offices overseas? I bet they are on their way into bankruptcy because I have spoken to many tenants of Far East Plaza and they have nothing but complains - chqs bounced, payments asked to be stopped, not chqs etc. All to do with money. It makes one wonder is this company in some financial problem?
Then I threatened to go to Tribunal Court. I want my goods from ITE back, I want my bounced chq to be reinstated, I want my sales reports for ITE and I want my sales payments for ITE (since JUNE!!!!). Again, I have to go after Clarence for all of these for weeks and finally he gave me a schedule to follow - in the end, disappointment. NONE was kept.
Tell me what do you understand from this sentence:
Your deposit chq will be ready on Monday. ITE chq will be with deposit chq.
My interpretation:
I can collect all the mentioned chqs on Monday from Far East Plaza.
Of course when I called Far East, none of those chqs he mentioned was there for collection. What do you expect me to do? Call Clarence right? After 10 calls, he still refused to pick up my calls. So I text him a super nasty SMS - he replied.
Clarence's interpretation:
I said the they'll be arranged today - most likely in the evening. Your goods + chqs delivered tonight as I had mentioned in the previous smses that they are ready today.
Hi Clarence, I know you said they are ready today so why is it I cannot collect them today? They are ready for you or me? Don't play with words and be more professional.
I have contacted a lawyer to see if there is anything to be done in such instances. Let's see what they come back with.
So girls/boys, please, I beg you, to save yourselves from heartache, stay away from TheBlogShop. Really. You can also help us vendors by stop frequenting their shop - stop buying at their shop!
For budding blogshop owners out there listen up!!! Please take this seriously as I am writing based on my experience and from what I hear/know from other blogshop owners.
If anyone of you out there is thinking of renting a rack space with TheBlogShop - STOP - honestly! I'm not joking. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THEBLOGSHOP! The management crew and their way of managing the business will force you to vomit blood!
I signed up with them November 2010 - at that time, things were going very smoothly and I was happy with their service. As their popularity soared, their attitude and service went the other way, BIG TIME! It got even worse when the best employee they had left the company to start a shop of the same concept on her own.
Imagine this - I took up a space in Far East Plaza and ITE Chua Chu Kang. We are promised sales report at the end of every month and cheques are available for collection from 15th of the following month.
I signed up for 2 spaces in ITE because of fake promises made by Clarence (I totally have no idea who the hell he is but I guess he's the Master - owner's son). A young chap in his young twenties who drives an SLK new with an ugly plastic girlfriend with a bitchy attitude. ITE was supposed to start in March but it never did. We were not updated with the progress but money paid.
** Oh btw, TheBlogShop takes only full payment upfront for the number of months you want to rent plus 2 months security deposit ie if you are renting for 6 months, you have to fork out 8 months rent up-front.
Text messages sent but no replies. Phone calls always unanswered. Finally we receive an email saying ITE will finally start its operation by end April and told all vendors to start stocking up. We did but no sales. ITE still did not open. It wasn't until 9th June that ITE finally began its operation but SALES SUCKS!
Since it started operation in June, I have only received 1 sales report from ITE. I have been liasing with Clarence since Lili's departure from the company. I have been chasing for the report since early July but did not receive it until first week of August. That one done BUT I'm still missing ITE's sales payment!
Then came the big bang - my FEP sales payment bounced! A cheque of SGD600+ bounced! I contacted Clarence on 25th August to report this case. He only came back to me on 31 August 2011 asking for the amount and then quiet (I sent him a reminder SMS everyday). The next time I heard from him was 2nd Sept and he asked for my account number so that he may credit the amount directly. Nothing until today. How convenient.
Clarence ALWAYS makes excuses and empty promises. Never once was seomthing acted on promptly. What sort of businessman is this? And they say they are a big company with many offices overseas? I bet they are on their way into bankruptcy because I have spoken to many tenants of Far East Plaza and they have nothing but complains - chqs bounced, payments asked to be stopped, not chqs etc. All to do with money. It makes one wonder is this company in some financial problem?
Then I threatened to go to Tribunal Court. I want my goods from ITE back, I want my bounced chq to be reinstated, I want my sales reports for ITE and I want my sales payments for ITE (since JUNE!!!!). Again, I have to go after Clarence for all of these for weeks and finally he gave me a schedule to follow - in the end, disappointment. NONE was kept.
Tell me what do you understand from this sentence:
Your deposit chq will be ready on Monday. ITE chq will be with deposit chq.
My interpretation:
I can collect all the mentioned chqs on Monday from Far East Plaza.
Of course when I called Far East, none of those chqs he mentioned was there for collection. What do you expect me to do? Call Clarence right? After 10 calls, he still refused to pick up my calls. So I text him a super nasty SMS - he replied.
Clarence's interpretation:
I said the they'll be arranged today - most likely in the evening. Your goods + chqs delivered tonight as I had mentioned in the previous smses that they are ready today.
Hi Clarence, I know you said they are ready today so why is it I cannot collect them today? They are ready for you or me? Don't play with words and be more professional.
I have contacted a lawyer to see if there is anything to be done in such instances. Let's see what they come back with.
So girls/boys, please, I beg you, to save yourselves from heartache, stay away from TheBlogShop. Really. You can also help us vendors by stop frequenting their shop - stop buying at their shop!
21 comments:
Hi there, I encountered the same problem with them as well. Mine was from the Haji outlet and cheque also bounced. Oh dear, I have not received my security deposit. End of 3 months time frame this month end. Have you received your security deposit?
Hi there,
Yes I have received my security deposit after 3 months. That too I was chasing him every other day. Just be careful - not sure if you know but they closed the Far East outlet giving only 24 hours notice to the vendors.
They still owe me ITE sales (June - Aug) and rental refund of Far East and that too has been dragging since August. He avoided me for weeks till I had no choice but to make a police report against him.
All the best to you and suggest you pull out as soon as possible.
OMG. I guess I have to make a police report as well.
Guess what? C texted me this: "We're in a court case cos one of our directors had illegally withdrawn our company funds, and we're trying to retrieve the funds right now. Please give me a while to update you."
I'll probably seek legal advice asap.
He finally gave me back all that was owed to me after I told him I made a report. Still it took him 1 or 2 weeks (can't remember now) to get back to me.
I strongly suggest that you seek legal advice and make a report against him and TBS specifically in the interim just to cover yourself although the police did come back to me saying that this will be a civil action, not a criminal one. I guess because at that time, I was the only one who has made a report and the amount wasn't large. Only a few Ks. Now that more people have done that, it will prolly turn out differently. After I have made mine, I know of another 3 vendors who have done the same.
Sorry but I don't trust him anymore. How can a director have access to all funds in the account? Usually in such cases, they will require more than 1 signature to even touch the funds in the account. Who is he trying to kid? They are not a sole proprietor company so surely the director will need another director's signature to withdraw any funds from the account. Minimum 2 signatures. I mean if I'm in such a "big" (he claims they are big) international company, I will make sure I have more than 1 signatures required to touch company funds.
I also suggest you ask him for how long more because it seems that he is able to pay to certain vendors and drag others. My friend managed to get hers coz she's a BIG customer to him while others didn't manage to get anything. So he's totally lying. My friend actually didn't know I knew about TBS so she signed up with Haji after he approached her. She's a well known blogshop owner in SG. For a table in Haji which he offered me $850 before, she's payng $4k plus for it. Speak about being a goldmine!
Hi guys, can u guys list all police report number here so that i can make a reference when i lodge a police report against him. Thanks
Here's mine: A/20111029/2096
Hi Ann
can we check if you know the ITE store is still in operation? we are in the same situation as you as we had rented a clothing rack from them and totally cannot contact clarence at all and am not sure what is happening right now.
If you know anything that is happening to TBS @ ITE campus can you let me know here or email me at sales@fairebelle.com so that I can lodge a police report too.
Thank you so much in advance!
Regards
Faire Belle
Hi Dear!
You are lucky to get the security deposit back. Not so good on my side. It
is promised that the security deposit will be returned on 5 December 2011.
But till now, I have yet to get it back! To date is already 4 January 2012! 1 more day to a month! Clarence claim that like what anonymaus say that "cos one of our directors had illegally withdrawn our company funds" therefore they are not able to pay! It sounds totally BS to me!
After me persistently chasing he said that he will pay me back in
installments which he promise that the first payment will be deposited into my bank on 29 December 2011. However, on 31 January 2011 the money is not even deposited! Therefore I asked him again and he said he did a cheque deposit (which at first he promised to deposit CASH into my account!! Just in case if some are wondering why not cheque deposit, it's simply because he do give BOUNCED cheques.) I was totally pissed and asked him on 3 January 2011 why isn't the cheque been credited and he claimed that he will ask the bank. So I patiently waited till today and asked him again. He actually claimed that because there is insufficient funds!! Its totally outrageuos!
I find it hard to trust his words and thus call the bank today to check whether is there any cheque deposited during that period and there was none! What a liar! He tried to persuade me that he will be able to pay me in full amount in 2 weeks time. Ya, on top of that, he actually went MIA from 9 December 2011 to 24 December 2011 avoiding all the messages I have sent. How can this guy be so irresponsible?!
I doubt I can ever believe him! My patience is really running out. I'm
gonna make a report. I would like to seek legal advise too. Can anyone guide me through? Or tell me what have you done? Please advise and I'm really glad to have found this page! :) Thanks!
I could be contacted at chewyourcandy@hotmail.com.
Other than that I will be looking out at this space too. :)
XOXO,
Chewyourcandy
Hey Chewyourcandy,
I can so totally understand how you feel. I was chasing for my payments, sales reports and even stocks for 3 whole months before I decided to take matters into my own hands. Clarence actually went missing on me for the longest period - something like 1 week or so before I made a police report. I had no other avenues which I could use except for that.
Since there are so many of you out there now, and maybe you know more, get together and make the report together. Piece meals will not get the attention of the police - they told me mine was considered a civil case because the amount involved is just too small and I was fighting the case alone. I made my report online so that I didn't have to go to the station. But I suggest you guys to agree on the location of the station - you will be asked to select so that all your repors will be forwarded to the same station.
Seek legal advice as well on your rights in case the police will still consider this civil. Claims Tribunal and CASE will not accept such cases too so the only way is to seek legal advice if that happens.
And I suggest you to do this FAST like TODAY. Why? Because ALL the blogshop's operations in Singapore has ceased operation and been taken over. Clarence has no money to pay up - he is just trying to delay until the day he deregister and dissolve the existence of the blogshop. By then it will be too late - there is nothing you can do anymore because the blogshop no longer exists and since it is a PTE LTD, it is its own person. You can look at it as a person and the person whom you are trying to take against has died. In your report, make sure you state clearly that you are making the report against the blogshop AND Clarence Chew and why.
Honestly, do it quickly. He has still some loose ends to tie up that's why The Blogshop still exists in ACCRA. Once that is completed, he will dissolve that company and trust me, my very closes courses are telling me that it is not that far away already. And if he tells you that he is waiting overseas fund, he can fly kite coz his overseas operations are also in jeopardy. Once you have made the report, let him know you have made a report against the company and him as a person. The moment I told him, he replied me after MIA for very long. And within 1 or 2 weeks, I got everything back.
And tell him, if he really does have the funds from overseas, he can pay you from his own pocket first then use that money to reimburse himself.
Good luck!
Ann =)
Nelanz.com
Oh and please please please remember to keep all your conversations with Clarence. I don't know why but I never deleted any correspondence with Clarence since day one. I guess I just had a hunch that something bad might happen one day. Even during the good times, I never deleted. So I have no problems showing anybody any proof if required.
Hi Ann!
Thanks so much for your help! This is really scary! Btw, I don't know much about other blogshops who are encountering this problem. Will it be alright if I just go down to the station alone to make report?
Yup. I have kept every conversation including sms and emails.
Also, for where should I get legal advise?
Btw, really thanks so much for your help!
Regards,
Chewyourcandy
Hi there,
I am also one of the people that rent their self and rack, I have reported the case to police as cheating today. If there is anyone still have not receive the $$. Please do contact me so that you can report the case together :)
my e-mail:
aliceyeung328@yahoo.com.hk
Regards,
Alice
Hey Chewyourcandy
Have you made your report? No problem to make your report alone. Just go ahead - they are actually nice and understanding :)
I think you might want to start with the Claims Tribunal and go on from there. Otherwise you can contact any lawyer's office for advice.
:)
Hi,
I feel sorry to learn that so many tenants have suffered due to the closure of TheBlogShop. I used to be a tenant of it when it first started its operation in Haji Lane (in 2009 I think) and had also suffered due to their dishonest business dealings and treatment of my stuff put there for sale. In fact, I discovered how badly my stuff were treated from their own staff??!!! I didn't confront them cos I had already paid all my rental and deposit and didn't want to kick up a big fuss. Thus, when my contract was completed, I was so glad to leave their shop.
In fact, end of last year, I was approached again by Clarence to consider the retail space at CCK. Then, I was really amazed how thick-skinned he was to ask me to invest my money in his business again. He must have thought I can be easily tricked. *fumes*
Anyway, I happened to read this article, http://www.soe.org.sg/files/interview2010.php?a=&c=&year=2010&i=492 which mentioned that his father is a high ranking doctor in Ministry of Health. (see question 2) So, I believe, he should have the financial resources/help to resolve all these debts he has incurred.
All the best to all tenants and may you get back all money owed quickly.
Hi,
I actually happen to know where Clarence lives. Do you think y'all would need the address?
Hi,
I have Clarence's home number. It will help with trying to get him - 62561901.
He also lives at 20 Dunearn Road, Dunearn Gardens, #05-05.
Hi,
I just had another realisation. Clarence Chew is not the only director to TheBlogShop. The other director is Jacqueline Koh (if there's no change to the directorship), the one who just appeared in Her World mag for her extensive plastic surgeries.
If it's indeed true that one of the directors misappropriated funds as claimed by TheBlogShop, then I really wonder who TheBlogShop is referring to???
Also, if Jacqueline Koh is the other director and with so much money for her surgeries, she should also have the financial resources to pay TheBlogShop's tenants??? So, perhaps chasing Clarence Chew alone is insufficient.
Jacqueline Koh obtained most of her money from a blog shop of her own, which Clarence had a hand in building. Once that took off, they embarked on theblogshop together.
Majority of Jacqueline's money to start up the initial blog shop was through a divorce settlement.
Based on the way that she has spent her money on extensive surgery and luxury items, it is possible that her funds have since dwindled, and that she may be as involved as Clarence himself. In cahoots, if you will.
I don't believe that Clarence alone is smart or brave enough to execute such a thing on his own, he must have been goaded on by someone.
Jacqueline's public persona is available for viewing at her blog: www.jacquelinekoh.com
What a shame! The higher the climb, the greater the fall, especially if the foundation of the business is already weak to begin with -copying the business model from Best of Blogshops though TheBlogShop insists that their business idea is original.
The funny thing is that Best of Blogshops also had the same ending ??? Didn't TheBlogShop see the same end coming and try to prevent it???!!! What were the owners thinking???
If you didn't already know Jac took a lot of money out of the tills of The BlogShop to support her surgery fetish. I know for a fact that they sometimes walk into the shop, take the money and off they go to Korea. Our money are on her face!!!!
Hi Everybody,
Anybody managed to get their money back? I have make a police report but the IO classify it as a civil Business Dispute.
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