Jason May 31st, 2010 .

Rates Advertising Agency Albuquerque – Unethical and Dishonest companies in Albuquerque

UPDATED: RATES ADVERTISING is now operating as getfoundnm.com.

Ironically enough, they are using the intellectual property of Daynger, LLC . additionally they have copied content from a competitors site and have posted it on their new site.

This is hysterical… How can they call themselves an SEO company…. But use duplicate content… ???

Finding a good team to partner with can be difficult. Ive recently ended a year-long relationship with the R.A.T.E.S Advertising Agency in Albuquerque (Rates) for complete dishonesty and unethical behavior. Initially, the goal was to use them as a sales/marketing division of my company. We called this collaboration Socks Media.

Without getting too far into detail, RATES is a 2-man show. A man and his girlfriend who work out of their house. They buy lavish cars, suits, jewelry and go on expensive vacations. They only do this to give themselves an appearance of being bigger and better than they truly are. But the reality is, they have no problem taking advantage of their clients and partners… Burning all bridges along the way. Rates is an advertising company – Radio and Television Expert Solutions. But the services they provide are amateur at best and lack any sort of expertise or professionalism.

Donavan Lopez dlopez@ratesllc.com and Carolyn Bregman cbregman@ratesllc.com of Albuquerque, New Mexico have a reputation of snake oil sales tactics. They both think theyre much smarter than they truly are… and give into the temptations of greed. In reality, neither of them have any education. Heres a short list of the dishonest things they have done:

  1. Charged triple the cost of office supplies and business cards to their own partners – pocketing the difference.
  2. They billed and collected thousands of dollars from clients, then neglected to pay me for services rendered. When addressed, they allegedly made a mistake.
  3. They lied to clients constantly to get money out of them.
  4. After the separation, they continued to bill and collect for services they were not capable of rendering. They lied to clients, collected money not owed to them and then denied it.
  5. They tried to sell partners products and services as theyre own… Then lied about it.

I caught Donavan and Carolyn red-handed. I have audio files and email that incriminate RATES left and right. They acted surprised and confused… of course. Im currently in the process of recovering over $100k in stolen intellectual property and over $10,000 in outstanding cash owed.

Who says that??
Donavan Lopez (), Creative Director: The only thing wrong with a stolen idea is… not using it. – and hes the creative director.

Carolyn Bregman (), Consumer Marketing Strategist – I have no problem over-charging people. Ill find creative ways to justify charging more money for less stuff, then Ill hold em to it.

Intuition is key. And your wifes intuition – listen to it.

Popularity: 2% [?]

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comments

  1. I’m so sorry that you had this experience with a local ad agency. RATES is the exception, not the rule. Most of us advertising agency owners have ethics, integrity and operate from a platform of helping our customers to be successful – not from the Bregman principal of “overcharging people”. Unfortunately, you got in with a bad agency.


    Laura Smigielski Garcia
    June 28th, 2010

  2. Jason, on behalf of the honest and ethical agencies in Albuquerque, I hope this experience will not stop you from looking for a marketing partnership that will grow your business.


    Peter Spokus
    June 30th, 2010

  3. Thank God someone is finally exposing these pukes for what they have always been! These two are poison and need to be demolished! Carolyn would run over her own grandmother for a sell – I just want to thank you for getting this news out there! Made my whole day — I have sent to everyone I know & posted it on FB – this is a beautiful thing!!!!!


    used to work with these pukes!
    June 30th, 2010

  4. not quite sure what happened to my first post – which is why there’s a p.s. -


    peter
    July 1st, 2010

  5. Thanks for the comments. Greatly appreciated!

    I’m currently looking into the possibility of working with a new agency… any suggestions?


    Jason Mayfield
    July 7th, 2010

  6. I like your website..but after going through the article……it looks like you are spreading and using all resources at your disposal to tarnish the image……just because you lost a contract you should not smear the image….marketing is about skills and selling or do you feel that BULK of the revenue should go to your pocket where all the field work,etc etc are done by rates ….talk about ethics why your conscience was when you developed the sites……….sleeping ehh!!


    jack able
    August 11th, 2010

  7. It’s too bad that last comment didn’t make sense… Clearly “jack able” didn’t read the post before writing a comment filled with jibber jabber…. ehh!!!

    Or perhaps this comment was posted by the fools… Based on the grammar and the stupidity, it makes sense.


    Jason Mayfield
    August 11th, 2010

  8. Truth is ugly!!!!


    jack able
    August 12th, 2010

  9. I was a designer for Rates. One night, I saw my logo design on television – one that I had been working on for them that was “still in the works” – obviously not. I called Carolyn to ask why my artwork was already published/produced and she claimed another agency had done it but would look into it. Huh. She never EVER got back to me, nor did I receive payment for the design. This was over a year ago. Then, the other day while driving on San Mateo I noticed another one of my logo designs that was in the proofing process (over a year ago) that had been made into a sign without my knowledge. It’s been a sign now for a while – apparently (I looked the biz up on the internet). I’m disappointed, for sure, but glad not to be associated with Carolyn or Donovan anymore. They are snakes. And what Jason writes is absolutely true. Beware.


    Beth
    December 30th, 2010

  10. Clearly, they think that their grand illusions that they have any money is making them believe that they are successful. I have dealt with these two and they are the biggest joke i have ever seen. I remember asking either of them if they had any real AD Agency experience. They of course embellished and said that they did all of Gertrude Zachery’s Print campaigns. When i asked them if they used SAG talent she said “oh yes and we get them for cheap”. I knew right then that was a lie, I have been in the Advertising world for over 10 years. SAG (Screen Actors Guild) aka Talent Union. You can’t tell me that you can get SAG qualified talent cheap, Hello they belong to a Union and their Union will require that you use all Union Talent, Photographers, Make-up Artists, Hair Stylists.Etc…

    For those of you who don’t know SAG Photo Shoots are very expensive to do and in here in New Mexico about 40% of the Talent is either SAG eligible or qualified. Translation $$$. SAG Talent for just a stand in role in a print ad will get paid at least 230.00 per hour.

    Any Way, Jack able you are just a incompetent as they are….

    Anyone in who plans to do any major business in New Mexico should know that although we are a large State in regards to square miles, we are still small enough that everyone knows everyone….

    Hope you get your monies back Jason… Those to still owe me monies…


    FGT
    December 30th, 2010

follow me on twitter RSSSubscribe, Dude.