Anna Sofia and Olivier “Oliver” Goumas (picture: Facebook)
That cold weather during the Snowsports Industries America trade show, Olivier came across Greg Gantzer, a outside recreations and travel marketer whom has SkiSite.com and styles sites for the industry. Gantzer states they soon finalized an agreement to create 123Mountain’s site. By belated might, but, Olivier became testy once the web web site, along with its inventory that is massive of items, wasn’t yet complete. In a contact, Olivier published that when Gantzer took until June 6 to finish, he’d be compensated only 75 per cent of their estimate to do the job. “After June 6, you might be a tale,” he included.
“I think we might be having troubles with your discussion because of countries and language,” Gantzer wrote back a contact he showed to outdoors. “I’d really prefer to discuss this that we realize. to you from the phone so”
Rather, Olivier changed the password on their host, effortlessly using control of Gantzer’s build up to that particular date. “Your are fired,” Olivier had written inside the slapdash English. Gantzer sued within the Summit County, Ohio, court, alleging breach of agreement, unjust enrichment, and fraudulence, among other costs. Olivier supplied a hodgepodge of defenses, countering that Gantzer had triggered damages “in more than $500,000.” In January 2014, a judge decided in Gantzer’s benefit and awarded him $16,564. Gantzer has yet to see some of the cash.
“My hope of gathering out of this guy is near to zero,” he states now. “Our hope is take action to ensure they can not any longer tear individuals down.”
In late 2012, the Goumases launched an additional store that is 123Mountain the Village at Copper Mountain Resort. In a write-up posted when you look at the neighborhood paper Summit regular, Sofia Goumas declared, “We start at where REI ends.” She explained they would give attention to high-end brands, including European gear, and therefore customers could expect individualized service. “You’re gonna get certainly one of us at risk, and we’re planning to make an effort to allow you to in whatever way that individuals can.”
Olivier presumably countered negative feedback by publishing reviews that are positive of their shops under both their genuine title as well as the handle “Mountainblack,” in accordance with one employee that is former. Bing and Twitter reviews seem to be swamped by lots of good ranks from bots—fictitious pages that share a sequence that is identical of and reviews.
Locals in Lakewood and Copper Mountain remember Sofia investing her days chain-smoking cigarettes while Olivier fueled up with glass after find latin brides https://hotlatinwomen.net/ cup espresso. Based on employees that are former the couple occasionally made their shops membership-only and created new guidelines to exclude consumer visits, preferring to spotlight online clients.
Workers weren’t satisfied with the Goumases either.
Daniel Fluharty started working during the Lakewood store not very long after it started in belated 2011 and had been in charge of shipping and packaging requests and answering customers online. He quickly became concerned with the amount of consumer complaints. 1 day, a customer that is irate up during the shop with legal counsel and stated that the coat he covered had never ever shipped. Fluharty ended up being disrupted sufficient by the event which he quit after four months. Their last paycheck, he states, was docked $350 for the ski pass as a bonus that he believed Olivier had given to him.
In 2014, another worker, Bogdan Peleszynski, won a standard judgment from the few him $1,082.79 once they neglected to spend for their final fourteen days of work. (Goumas denied the claim in e-mails and court filings, arguing that the check had been lost within the mail, and wanted to deliver Peleszynski a new check minus a $50 termination charge.)
However, the Goumases had incorporated into the Summit County ski community. Their two daughters joined up with Team Summit, a nonprofit youth ski program that 123Mountain sponsored with $10,000 yearly re re re payments. The organization logo design showed up on group jackets and also the group internet site, nevertheless the relationship soured in 2014, in accordance with present and previous workers of Team Summit. Following the 2014–15 jackets had been printed, Goumas did not spend their sponsorship cash or their daughters’ enrollment fees.
Rather, Goumas delivered Team Summit a hefty bill for failing woefully to market 123Mountain weekly on Twitter, Twitter, and YouTube—as stipulated in an agreement Goumas had penned and Team Summit’s administrator manager had finalized. Both events dropped their claims against one another in belated 2014. Team Summit’s bylaws permitted it to revoke subscriptions with or without cause and, in January 2015, the board that is executive to kick the Goumases’ daughters from the group.
Throughout the previous 12 months, 123Mountain’s fortune appears to have go out.
In very early 2015, Copper Mountain started eviction procedures resistant to the store due to customer complaints and belated lease repayments but dropped the lawsuit following the few consented to end their rent, based on Gavin Malia, development supervisor for Resort Ventures western, Copper Mountain’s home administration company. The few will be sued for over a thousand dollars allegedly owed into the Copper hill Resort Association for dues that supported trash pickup, recycling, and fire solution. The couple’s brand brand new outpost in downtown Frisco, which exposed in June, had been shuttered throughout the 2016 Martin Luther King, Jr., week-end, one of many biggest purchase weekends of the season. An indicator from the entry way detailing the shop hours checks out: “Opening hour may differ if we are skiing or otherwise not. General rule significantly less than 3″ no modifications. 4″-5″ at the very least a full hour wait. 6″ and above until feet have exhausted.”
Their Frisco landlord, Larry Feldman, states they will haven’t paid their $4,500 month-to-month rent for December or January. The Goumases, he claims, argued these people were withholding it due to difficulties with the carpet and lighting. Also before they stop having to pay, Feldman claims they kept moving him bad checks, and then he intends to evict them. “I’ve thought about securing up their product,” he claims. The Lakewood that is original shop sometime before xmas, relating to locals, and also the Goumases place their $500,000 home up for rent on January 15.
If there’s a lesson that customers can study on the 123Mountain saga, it is so it’s always worth double-checking the qualifications of unfamiliar companies online before handing over a credit card quantity. Instead of relying solely using one review web web web site, such as Yelp, perform a search that is general customer complaints which may cause you to a troubling comment thread in forums. Credit card protections would be the tool consumers that are strongest have actually whenever things get south, so don’t be lured into giving checks or Bitcoin payments to out-of-state businesses. Attempting to recoup a couple of hundred dollars through the system that is legal not likely to reach your goals and scarcely well well worth the full time. Shops can invariably conceal behind the terms and conditions, and consumer security agencies can take years to construct an incident strong adequate to nail perhaps the many egregious scammers. Today, 123Mountain’s items are nevertheless listed on Bing Buying, gives the shop three-and-a-half stars. And there’s little stopping them from appearing once more somewhere else by having a new title and a clean slate.
In terms of Sara Benson, she wound up purchasing her tent from REI. Leigh Attwood cancelled their purchase with 123Mountain, disputed the $123.60 cost on their card to Visa, and reported to Moose Knuckles concerning the coat fiasco. The business told him which they had been alert to the complaints and offered him the coat at 50 % down. It found its way to very early January, and Attwood really really loves it. “I spared $450 into the end,” he says.
