Meola News

[BOSS]

OK, I would hope none of the FC community are filling Meola, and if you are thats your business, but read the following.

I just got off the phone with a florist that contacted Floristdetective.com regarding Meola and with the fact that this florist has not been getting paid recently and wondered if we knew anything.

Orders are continuing to be faxed into this particular shop, however when said florist calls his calls are either not answered, or when they are he is transfered to Meola's VM which replies "mail box full". Also, the direct extension to accounts payable is no longer functioning.

Also, word on the street is, that Meola's lawyers in the Missouri Class Action Suit against him, were granted permission by the court to quit. **MY** guess would be that they complained they were not getting paid as well, generally courts do not allow counsel to quit for little reasons.

Just an FYI and a heads up, to anyone that may be filling for this scum bag. And please FC Community, don;t jump on this as a lets bash Meola again thing, but if you have solid info to add, please do so.

BOSS

 

[lori042499]

Thanks for the heads up!! Just to make sure what is his shop name. I do fill for some companies and want to make sure he is not one. Thanks

 

[CHR]

Preferred Florists Network aka Flowers With Gifted Elegance of Randolph NJ.

 

[Eric S]

Gave them the boot a long time ago.

What a shame that some florist might get screwed.

All the more reason to stop filling!

 

[sfox]

I

I only fill his orders if they are profitable or so the saying goes.

 

[BOSS]

I only fill his orders if they are profitable or so the saying goes.

sfox are you getting paid? Word I'm getting is that the payments stopped a couple weeks ago, and that the AP department is no longer available to florists...

 

[master J]

mark, I think sfox is kidding, right sfox??

 

[TOTO]

Re: P.T. Barnum

I only fill his orders if they are profitable or so the saying goes.

Ah YES sfox, isn't that always the excuse the enablers give when they are involved in their HATE/LOVE relationships with the MIDDLEMEN SKIMMERS and OGs?

I like P.T. Barnum's old saying of: "A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE!"

That must also imply that when ONE FLORIST DIES due to SKIMMER'S DISEASE, another FLORIST is willing to take their place, EY? "] :soapbox:

 

[goldfish]

OK, I would hope none of the FC community are filling Meola, and if you are thats your business, but read the following.

I just got off the phone with a florist that contacted Floristdetective.com regarding Meola and with the fact that this florist has not been getting paid recently and wondered if we knew anything.

Orders are continuing to be faxed into this particular shop, however when said florist calls his calls are either not answered, or when they are he is transfered to Meola's VM which replies "mail box full". Also, the direct extension to accounts payable is no longer functioning.

Also, word on the street is, that Meola's lawyers in the Missouri Class Action Suit against him, were granted permission by the court to quit. **MY** guess would be that they complained they were not getting paid as well, generally courts do not allow counsel to quit for little reasons.

Just an FYI and a heads up, to anyone that may be filling for this scum bag. And please FC Community, don;t jump on this as a lets bash Meola again thing, but if you have solid info to add, please do so.

BOSS

I do. As a matter of fact, I am going to the Morristown NJ court house to face him or his lawyer next Wednesday. I will let you know what happens.

We used to be filling for PFN. My excuse for that is that the previous owner of our shop was a PFN member and, when we bought this store from her, the membership came with it.

It took more than a year for me to learn what this PFN was all about. I was originally assuming that PFN was just one of those mini wire-services.

To make a very long story short, we eventually realized that PFN is not really a wire-service company, but just an order-sending company for another NJ company owned by the same owner (Tom Meola). And we also found out that this company, ‘Flowers with Gifted Elegance’, was using a name “Huntington Florist” in our town (Huntington, NY) to gather orders from unsuspecting customers. ‘Flowers with Gifted Elegance’ was using PFN to fax the gathered order back to us.

Anyway, once we found this out, we immediately cancelled the PFN membership. That was lasy November. And then PFN stopped paying us.

They owed us $700 and a change for various orders covering a two-month period; it’s not a whole lot, but that’s the money we are going after in the small-claim court. Fortunately for us, Morristown, NJ, is about 1.5-hr driving from us, so I can still afford to go there to collect $700. I wouldn't be able to do it economimcally if I were in California.

We also found out that “Huntington Florist” wasn’t registered under PFN or any of Meola’s companies. It's a completely bogus name. Even though in NY, it is not illeagl for a out-of-state company to use local sounding business name, but that name must be registered. With this info in hand, we requested Verizon/Yahoo/Google to change the listing of "Huntington Florist" to the correct name "Flowers with Gifted Elegance" in Randolph NJ. They actually didn’t respond, but Verizon did change the listing as requested. The listing in Yahoo/Google mysteriously disappeard in about a month.

That's the story. Next week, I should be able to tell you more.

 

[goldfish]

Here's new verizon listing after we complained.

New "Huntington Florist" listing in yellowpage.

Note that their business name is now "Floweres (sic) with gifted elegance".
Also note the phone number listed is no longer local (local area code is 631).
They still list the bogus local address (which doesn't even exist). It looks like Verizon did listen. I think we effectively killed them.

 

[CHR]

We also found out that “Huntington Florist” wasn’t registered under PFN or any of Meola’s companies. It's a completely bogus name.

I think the bogus names and local numbers are registered to another Meola shell company call 'Lower Forty Gardens, Inc'. Have you seen the affidavit Meola gave (PDF doc) in Karen Pierce's Missouri class action suit?

Even though in NY, it is not illeagl for a out-of-state company to use local sounding business name, but that name must be registered. With this info in hand, we requested Verizon/Yahoo/Google to change the listing of "Huntington Florist" to the correct name "Flowers with Gifted Elegance" in Randolph NJ. They actually didn’t respond, but Verizon did change the listing as requested. The listing in Yahoo/Google mysteriously disappeard in about a month.

Kenji, that's terrific! Do you know if your request affected listings beyond Huntington?

Do you have a sample letter that other florists can use to request Verizon change other local listings? Perhaps the florists in Massachusetts could also use it to get Best Floral's similar scheme out of their local directories, too.

Best wishes on your small claims court case. Please keep us posted.

 

[goldfish]

I think the bogus names and local numbers are registered to another Meola shell company call 'Lower Forty Gardens, Inc'. Have you seen the affidavit Meola gave (PDF doc) in Karen Pierce's Missouri class action suit?

No, I haven't seen it. I will read it over the weekend.

The business name "Huntington Florist" is not registered by anyone in our county. I'm sure of this. The last time when this name was registered in our county was 1955 by someone else (no longer effective).

So legally, Meola or any non-Huntington business could have taken this name and register with the county. State of NY still allows this. But the fact is that he didn't register the name. He was using an unregistered business name.

Kenji, that's terrific! Do you know if your request affected listings beyond Huntington?

No I don't. The problem is that except "Huntington Florist", I don't know which florist name in NY represents a real florist and which is a bogus one.

Do you have a sample letter that other florists can use to request Verizon change other local listings? Perhaps the florists in Massachusetts could also use it to get Best Floral's similar scheme out of their local directories, too.

I don't have the copy right now, but I can tell you how to convince the telephone company. It's easy, but you must follow certain steps.

First, let's understand how he operates. Meola is using a legal service called "remote call-forwarding" by Verizon. In this service, anyone (even you!) can purchase our local number (631-xxx-xxxx), and the call will be automatically forwarded to the number you designate. This latter number is called "terminating number".

OK, here's the key finding. Verizon has one VERY important rule about call-forwarding. It says:

Listing Information
The listed address must be the address of the terminating number (CFN). Business listings may request the street address omitted. The community must be spelled in full and the proper state abbreviation must appear.

Each RCF group is entitled to one alphabetical White page and one Yellow page listing in the directory that serves the associated RCF office. Non-published service may be provided.

The "terminating number" is the number to which the call will be forwarded. Meola broke this rule, by making up a bogus address "157 E Main St, Huntington, NY" which doesn't even exist. That's what I told Verizon.

So even if your state doesn't yet have a law banning Meola's practice, like NY, you still have a good chance stopping him.

1) Call your telephone company and obtain a copy of "Remote Call-Forwarding" rules. Find out the rules about "business listing."

2) Also, you need to find out if the fake florist name is registered in your county by Meola or any of his companies. You can do this over the Internet. Print out the results.

3) If the name is not registered by him, you can tell the telephone company, in writing, that it's a phantom name and should not be used as a business name in the telephone directory. Attach the print-out above.

4) If any bogus business address is listed by the fake florist, you can also argue that the address is not correct. The correct address should be the one associated with the "terminating number."

5) I also attached several articles about Meola's "Flowers with Gifted Elegance" which I downloaded over the Internet.

That should do it. Basically, you don't argue the ethics or legality of his practice, which your telephone company doesn't care. It won't work if your state doesn't have the required law. You simply argue that his listing is INCORRECT. They will "correct" it if you give them enough evidence.

As long as your telephone company starts listing the correct business name ("Flowers with Gifted Elegance") and correct address (Randolph NJ) for the local number Meola bought, that would practically solve the problem.

Best wishes on your small claims court case. Please keep us posted.

I won. He didn't show up, as expected (he has no case). I got up 4:30 am and drove 2.5 hrs to get there (traffic!) and the proceeding lasted only 5 min.

 

[CHR]

I won.

You are a winner in so many ways. :bow_flowe Smart, tactical and thorough. You got something accomplished that few have.

I'm not sure the approach will work with every local phone company but we now know it works in New York and perhaps other Verizon areas.

I hope FCer's give your approach a shot, especially in areas where Best Floral and gang are growing.

Thanks for the update. Best wishes on collecting your win.

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

Nice job Goldfish! I'm forwarding this info to another shop that has been dramatically affected by Meola over the years. Hopefully the owner will take the time to contact the phone company. I know he had tried previously, but became frustrated at the dead ends he met with.

Again, excellent job!
tracy

 

[Bigted]

Good job goldfish. It will be interesting to see if you actually collect the $. Something I have recently learned is that winning the case is only half the battle.

Even if you don't get the money, winning sets a great precedent and leads the way for the rest of us.

 

[lori042499]

business registration question

I am wondering, where do you find if businesses are registered??? Is it online???

 

[Frank]

I won.

CONGRATULATIONS GOLDFISH!

 

[Connie]

Way to go, Goldfish!

 

[goldfish]

I am wondering, where do you find if businesses are registered??? Is it online???

First let me clarify a couple fo things...

Businesses have two kinds of names, legal and fictitious names. If your business is a corporation, LLC, LTD, the "fictitious name" (or sometimes called "Doing Business As" [DBA], "trade name") MUST be registered for your company to use that name. In our case, "KA Floral Inc" is the legal name and "Flowers insolita" is the DBA.

You must register fictitious name, or DBA, because DBA is NOT a legal entity and therefore cannot enter into any legal contracts. The registration allows your customers to know "who is behind" that fictitious name.

To answer your question...

Registration of DBAs must be done with either your county or state (usually "Secretary of the State"). Even if you register with the Secretary of State, the registration info will be passed to the counties where you run your business. As you might remember, you must pay (around $100) for each county you want to register in. The registration record is sometimes called "business certificate", although this term can mean other things.

Anyway, the first place to look for is the web site of your county. Here's the example of Suffolk county, NY, where we operate.

Try looking for "Flowers insolita", our DBA. You will find the file number, and alos our legal name, "KA Floral Inc."

Then try "Huntington Florist." You will find one imcomplete record filed in 52 years ago.

A word of caution: The database accessible online may or may not be complete. To be certain of your finding, you should formally request the record from your county. Tell them that there is a such and such "Florist" operating in your county and would like to know who is behind. There is a small charge for this ($5-$10).

In State of New Jersey where Meola's companies are located, there is an online service called "Business Gateway."

There, you can find all the public records of his companies. That's how I found out the real address of his "Preferred Florist Network Inc". I need the official address to successfully collect the money.

Anyway, there is a very good chance that Meola's fictitious florists are not registered. Yellowpages are not supposed to publish unregistered names.

What should we do, if the names are in fact registered?

In that case, you should point out that the number is for RCF (Remote Call Forwarding) and, by Verison's own rules, the listed address should be the one corresponding to the "terminating number" which is Randolph, NJ.

It should work.

Again the point is to focus on the technicality of the published info (incorrect listing), not legality or ethics of Meola's business.

 

[goldfish]

Good job goldfish. It will be interesting to see if you actually collect the $. Something I have recently learned is that winning the case is only half the battle.

That's right. I've learned the lesson some time ago, so this time, I think I'm well-prepared for collection. Most likely he will be ignoring the judgement, so practically the only way I can get the money is to use a procedure called "Bank Levy."

You probably know this procedure, but I will explain it for people unfamiliar with debt collection.

Once you get the money judgement and if the debtor still doesn't pay (usually within 30 days), you can ask a Court officer to freeze the money s/he owes in the debtor's bank account. Once the money is "levied upon" by the officer, you then file a Motion to transfer the fund. If the bank agrees with the motion, then the money is yours.

There's a small fee for this Service, $5 plus mileage between the Court and the bank. For the "Bank Levy" collection to work, you must know where his account is and the correct, legal address of the debtor's business on record. In other words, when you sue a business, you must make sure the business address matches with the one on county's record (Often, the legal business address and the shop address are different).