hulger.org

Phorm, Springfield, USA – A Warning to Designers

This is a warning to all designers or companies to think twice before working with Trent Schaible of Phorm in Springfield, USA. Phorm Fit Living or PhormFitLiving is their site. It’s a nice site, just a shame they don’t seem to want to pay for what they sell.

Having placed an order in December 2005 he has yet to pay and has in the past two years ignored our calls and e-mails, lied to us and avoided paying his debts by every means possible.

A Brief History:
- October 2005 – places an order worth $350. This is paid for promptly
- December 2005 – places new order for $1,547.50,
- January to March 2006 – payment does not arrive. Trent ignores all calls and e-mails
- April 2006 – Finally get hold of Trent. He tells us that his store is seriously struggling and about to go under. Asks for a little more time. We agree to talk again in two months
- May 2006 – At the ICFF show in New York, despite talking to, and placing orders with, several companies in the area surrounding the Hulger stand, Trent fails to introduce himself to us.
- June 2006 – Trent says store still in trouble but agrees to pay debt off in monthly instalments of $350. We never receive anything.
- July to September 2006 – Trent ignores all calls and e-mails
- October 2006 – Contact Trent who says that business is now better and we are one of only two invoices left to pay. However, he still has some stock of phones which he would like to return
- November 2006 – We make arrangements to collect the leftover stock. However, this never takes place.
- February 2007 – We contact Trent again who claims he sent stock back but cannot tell us when, how much was sent back or any other details.
- March to October 2007 – Trent is as difficult as ever to contact. When we do reach him he makes further promises to pay by instalment, but has never done so.

As a result of Phorm’s refusal to pay we have set up this web page to warn other designers and companies not to deal with this store.

Trent knows that as the debt is not big enough to make it worth getting lawyers involved, it is difficult for us to do anything, especially as we are in another country.

We are hoping that he may change his mind and finally pay his debts, in which case we will take this page down.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 12:27 pm and is filed under BLACKLIST. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.