I just got off the phone with the furniture store that was running this promotion and said that they are not dealing with claimyourgroceries.com anymore and they are looking for a new company to take over to fullfill the obligations. Has anyone called customer service in the last few days? All I get is an automated answer and to direct my questions to the website which I have done but they go unanswered. I have filed a complaint with the BBB. We'll see what happens.

I think it's a bad situation for us all, see this link:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/corporate/article1013129.ece

I think these guys will declare BK and we won't see a dime from them. I agree for those of you that bought Ashley furniture that you need to go after THEM. I know they will say that they are "just as much a victim in this as you are", but that's not entirely true. They may have believed that this program was legit, but they succeeded in getting your business, so they made money off of it, and it's THEIR responsibility if they are going to do a promotion that they are dealing with legitimate promoters. Don't settle for anything less than the FULL FACE VALUE of the certificates you are owed. I got my vouchers from an alarm company that is afiliated with ADT, so now I am speaking with that affiliate, and may eventually go to ADT, but it's written in my CONTRACT that I am supposed to get "$500 in free gas and $500 in free groceries" and nowhere in the contract does it say that it has to come from ClaimYourGas.com etc. so I think I at least have that legal resource.

By the way, since I live in the Phoenix area, I took a drive over to the Incentive International offices, and while their doors were open, there was NOBODY in the building. I walked around for a few minutes and gathered business cards of the President, Senior VP, etc. but they all have the same 480-786-5478 number. I don't think that number is going to do me much good now!

More juicy info:

Justin Elenburg's home number: 480-621-8447
I won't stoop so low as to give you his home address, but you can easily find it by searching for his name on switchboard or yellow pages.

Here's his stupid mug on his facebook page, so you know what the scumbag looks like:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Elenburg/773793153

Here's his damn wedding video, no doubt paid for by us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVkvfC2Knc0

Feel free to send him a youtube message, that may be the one way to get in touch with this SOB

Thanks for the article jellybeangirl!

Actually, the complete link straight to the article (at least as of right now) is:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/862AD984458CA8CE862575E0008187C6?OpenDocument

I admit I was skeptical of this thing from the get-go, for the exact reason quoted in the article:

"Initially, the promotion sounded too good to be true, said Phillips (owner of Ashley). After all, how could his $60,000 be converted into as much as $30 million in grocery gift cards? Even if only a small number of qualifying consumers bothered to mail their receipts every month — a condition for participation — the promotion didn't seem sustainable"

Supposedly BBZ had some kind of arrangement on the "back end" where some marketing firm(s) would buy the receipts to get information from shopping patterns, and maybe they will also have your name on the receipt if you paid by credit card? It seems like this back end arrangement fell through, and they didn't get as much "breakage" as they may have expected, meaning more people actually bothered to send in their receipts than they thought. They probably have stats that say what % of the certificates are normally cashed in, and base the price they sell them for based on that. Clearly once they had their money, they really had no incentive to process the claims quickly. In most business models, if you are swamped by customer demand, you hire more people, but in THIS business model, hiring more people to speed up a process that's making them lose money would make them lose even MORE money.

I can't jump on board with all the Ashley people since I didn't get into this promotion from Ashley, and my situation is even more complicated. I bought an ADT alarm system, but you normally don't buy from ADT directly. They usually have smaller local companies that act like brokers to sell you ADT alarms. Unfortunately, it appears that broker that sold me the alarm went out of business, and even more interesting than that, when I called the number that I had for the broker (Crimebusters LLC), I got a recording that said the company name was something like "Americas best coupons" and when I googled them, it seemed like it was yet ANOTHER one of those "claim your gas" type companies! So multiple businesses are all in bed with each other on this thing!

In my case, as I sadi above, I had it written into the contract that I am to receive these vouchers, and I think that under the law, Crimebusters was acting as an AGENT for ADT, and therefore I'm hoping ADT is ultimately responsible. But so far, I think I may be one lone voice in the Crimebusters/ADT situation, so they may not be acting quickly like Ashley is, since they received hundreds of complaints.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/06/22/daily33.html

here is the link for the Better Business article about BBZ Resource Mgmt

catcherjat7 said:Just make sure when you go to the business that sold you your certificate that you emphasize that it was a main reason you bought from them to begin with. Hopefully you are dealing with a reasonable company that values it's customers' experience.You'll also want to make sure you stay calm, yet firm, when talking to the retailer. You are more likely to get an easy resolution by refraining from shouting, getting emotional, or threatening the retailer.

For all of you that purchased furniture from Ashley to get your grochery coupons, you need to contact them so they put your name on a list because they are in the process of getting another company to take over.

Hi, I purchased my vouchers from Notre Dame Cathedral Latin Baseball Program in Chardon, OH. Of course, being a catholic high school and doing it to support the kids baseball team, I did not want to contact the school. They are as innocent as me regarding this scam company from AZ. I filed a complaint with the BBB in AZ and hopefully that will help me get the gift cards that are due to me. They owe me March, April, May and June for gas and groceries, which is a total of $200.00 in gift cards. I am enrolled in this program until Feb.2010. So hopefully they will get their act together. The AZ company does NOT respond to my emails, their phone number is just a recording and I can not find any other phone numbers to contact them. Hopefully the BBB will get them to act. According to other posts, that was the extra push this company needed to send out their gift cards. If any one has any further ideas, I would welcome them. Plus, I would like to pass on the information to all the other people in Chardon, OH that supported the STATE Champion Baseball Team with this program to help with their travel to their Florida Games. Thanks

Here's the email I got from BBZ. It's a bunch of lies. They claim they relied on this Pouls guy, but yet they didn't enter into this agreement with him until late March. They weren't sending vouchers before then, so blaming this one guy from bailing out is a ridiculous excuse. It's Troy Warren and Justin Elenburg scamming us once again:

BBZ Resource Management, Inc. announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in order to preserve the value of its business for its creditors. BBZ also announced that immediately prior to its Chapter 11 filing, it entered into a new strategic relationship in order to preserve and maximize the value of its data mining business for the benefit of its creditors, business partners and other stakeholders.

BBZ's historical business involved both the sale of rebate certificates and the accumulation and use of consumer data. Recent events surrounding BBZ's rebate certificate business necessitated BBZ's Chapter 11 filing. Early in 2009, BBZ entered into a 15-year contract with Kidz Idz, Inc. to purchase $345 million of rebate certificates from BBZ. Kidz Idz' performance under this contract was personally guaranteed by Michael Pouls, the owner of Kidz Idz. Relying upon that contract, BBZ entered into a long-term lease for a new fulfillment facility and hired new employees to deal with the exploding demand for the rebate certificates that BBZ sold. Rather than honor that contract, however, Kidz Idz and Mr. Pouls not only breached their obligations but also undertook what BBZ believes to be concerted campaign to co-opt the rebate certificate business and destroy BBZ. This effort culminated with the Pouls Parties filing a lawsuit on Thursday, June 25, 2009 falsely asserting that BBZ's business is a fraudulent "Ponzi" scheme. Ironically, that same day BBZ was working with outside counsel to prepare its own lawsuit against the Pouls Parties asserting their breaches of contract and other wrongful conduct.

The damage to BBZs rebate certificate business from the Pouls Parties' conduct made it imperative that BBZ act to protect its consumer data mining business for the benefit of its creditors, business partners and other stakeholders. Accordingly, BBZ has entered into a contract with an industry leader to take that business forward in exchange for BBZ receiving a share of the business's revenues. This new relationship will form the foundation of BBZ's anticipated Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.

In the meantime, BBZ has suspended sales, activations, and redemption of rebate certificates, as well as gift card distribution. Consumers awaiting gift cards or holding certificates are encouraged not to contact the businesses or brokers that sold or gave away the certificates, as suspension of this program is beyond their control. BBZ is committed to honoring its obligations and will be working diligently with its outside professionals in the Chapter 11 process to maximize the return to its creditors.

Ok we all need to file small claims against the seller of the items we bought who promoted this venture/deal or they need to take back thier product. By them making this offer at the point of sale they garenteed the offer as a publishing it with thier advertizing. Small print be damed they paid for an add under thier business entity and represented it. They can sue the seller of the certificates for whatever they are out.

P.S. Be sure to mention in your letter that you did NOT agree to have your personal information sold for marketing purposes, either - and BBZ admits that they are a data marketing company. I've been getting TONS of spam the past few months.