Southern Hospitality Inc - Jacksonville, Florida

Edoardo C.

BUYER BEWARE!! .. caught on camera!

Southern Hospitality is a company that claims to promote your business mainly at a specific hotel by printing an ad or logo of your establishment to be placed on a binder and inside hotel rooms. In addition, they promise you every worker at the hotel will recommend your business since they are all trained to do so and they are all made aware your business is paying money for the advertisement.

We paid $300 for the deal, figuring the minimum we would need was $25 per month in referral added business in order to break even, which sounded like a steal. The problems began when month after month we would not get a single referral from the hotel. Our rep in the Coachella Valley was Sandy Stillman from the Orange County office in California. I talked to her on several occasions. Upon making her aware we had not received a single referral from the hotel she responded by saying it was up to us to work with the hotel. She said we needed to take coupons, promotional material and free samples for the staff at the hotel so they can send people over to our shop. She also said her work was limited to printing the binders for the rooms at the hotel and neither she nor Southern Hospitality had anything to do with the outcome, or whether the hotel was referring guests to our shop or not.

As upset as we were, we went into the hotel with a hidden camera. We asked the clerks working there what shop they recommend for the goods we sell. There were two employees, plus another at a close distance, they both excitedly recommended our main competitor. I asked several questions including if there was another shop alike. They then recommended another of my competitors which was a bit farther. When I asked if they had ever heard of my shop they said "no". I realized then the reason we were not getting any referrals was because the hotel workers had never even heard of our business.

On 7/20/12 I placed another call to Sandy Stillman. We discussed the deal over the phone and what was promised, and I mentioned the hotel was NOT recommending our business, but was going out of their way to recommend two of our competitors. At first she denied it saying that wasn't true. But then I mentioned we had gone in there with a hidden camera and we now had it on film. I offered her to view it if she wanted. She became irritated, interrupted me and yelling on the phone said “I don’t know why you’re calling anyway, you’re not gonna get your money back”. I let her know I never mentioned anything about getting our "money back". Unapologetic, rude and raising her voice on the phone she said she would get her manager to call me. I waited several weeks expecting a call or an email, but her boss never contacted us.

On 09/07/12 I decided to take it to higher management. I called Southern Hospitality headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. I spoke with someone named Sharon. She said she would look into it and call me back on Monday. I waited two weeks and no call.

I called back on 09/20/12. I mentioned to Sharon I had called and no one had called me back from Southern Hospitality. Sharon apologized, said she forwarded the message to manager Rick via in-box, who was now "out of town until Monday the 24th, and surely he'll be calling me back".

I received no call from Rick. I tried a couple more times to no avail.

I do not recommend doing business with this company, they will not deliver what they promise, they don't care, they treat you rudely and STEAL YOUR MONEY!

amber G.

Paul W.