Neoset Canada review: Non-payment of salary 43

hwp... sorry, i don't want it to sound bad, but you seem to know a lot about the company's business to be just an installer there

just surprise us, are you greg "i'm-getting-outta-here" pappas, or eleanor "i-give-you-my-word" reynolds?

As another former emplyee (installer from 2002 to 2003), I'd say this is a tragedy all round. The worst part of this is that the product is excellent, but the supply/service side had always been compromised by the difficulty of getting pieces from Greece, and organizing the company financials. Wierd as it may sound, the 'death knell' came in the fall of o 2001 with the 9/11 terrorist attack! All European banks got really paranoid about dealing with any company that had trans-Atlantic dealings, and Neoset was gaut in a major vice. In Jan '02 we all took a major pay cut (25%) just to keep the company afloat. In the spring of '03, when they abolished the automatic payroll deposit ($80/month was apparently too costly!) and the benefit package, I saw the light and got out.

I'm truly sorry for all concerned - employees, customers, creditors alike. Believe me, when it was well run, it was a great place top work, and I'm proud of the job we all did.

Why am I not surprised?

Eleanor & Greg: Aren't you tired of playing over and over the same old tricks on your frustrated customers?

Phone numbers that are disconnected, a head office that is closed down for good, a directive travelling overseas, a warehouse that is empty, and e-mail addresses that doesn't work.

Stop the lies, and face the people with responsibility!
If you were there for us when we gave you our money, why can't you be also to tell us the truth?

gregpappas@rogers.blackberry.net - ADDRESS IS UNKNOWN! Anybody else... How do we contact them? I am missing a piece for a wall unit! HELP!

I went to the head office today its closed.. they are out of business. GONE!

This is becoming more interesting by the minute. the web of lies that Neoset threaded has no shame at all.

Now a "cusotmer service rep" appears all of a sudden to defend the company.

Isn't it strange that this CSR doesn't use caps at all, or has no sense of grammar?

Is it me, or a real CSR would never use a phrase like "you should try to work things out otherwise move on"?

Who are you really?, why are you so afraid to give us your real identity?

My recommendation to all of us, deceived by Greg Pappas and Eleanor Reynolds, is not to trust this user, as it looks like a phony account, same as "gregory pappas", and probably "TRUE CUSTOMER"

If you have time to read this board and post here, dear "csr", then be kind enough to take 5 precious minutes of your time and answer our e-mails... there's still lots of us waiting for answers from Neoset.

i am responding to the many notices i am and have been helping many customers and staff solve issues at the company.
what you are doing is wrong. if you have a greivance with the company deal with it in the right manner. if you are a customer visit the warehouse and present your problems we have been solving many problems. what you are saying here is wrong its lies. ... and does not help the company solve the real problems. i just posted a while ago and now reading many of your words i think you need to visit either your unemployement office or the labour board or contact the warehouse or head office for your product if you are a customer.

i am a cusotmer service rep for neoset and i can assure you that it was impossible for you to speak with eleanor reynolds and that she did not go to europe as you and some body else has indicated. she has not been working for neoset for many months now. she like others was an employee like myself.

if you have any questions about your order you need to speak with greg pappas the owner he is working hard on helping people. there is a sign on the headoffice that you can read yourself it states open saturdays gregpappas@rogers.blackberry.net if you need to contact him. The words expressed here are untrue and if there are mad ex employees you should try to work things out otherwise move on.

It's great to finally find a forum to air my troubles with Neoset.

I was hired by Neoset a number of years ago, with the promise of being one of their first salespeople at the Jarvis and King store. I was also told that the average salesperson made $35, 000 per year. Based on that, I accepted the job, and worked at one of their other locations until the new store opened.

I was then shunted from location to location, and told I would finally be stationed at the Mississauga store. When I was told, I was shocked, based on the assurances I was given, and when I questioned the decision, the person said to me "DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?" I decided to just go along.

I worked very hard for my customers, and gave them thoughtful and cost-effective designs. I would make my commission, but at least half the time, the commission was taken away, because the customer was so unhappy they cancelled the order.

We, as salespeople, were given an inventory, which to my amazement, was done MANUALLY. I did my designs based on this inventory availability, only to find out after the fact that the product was NOT available. Customers would start to complain, and we did everything as salespeople in our power to assure the customer. We were basically told just to "stall" the customer and give them false reassurances. Then, when product finally did arrive, the installation crews often damaged pieces, and pieces were missing. We received no support from management.

The average salesperson made $20, 000 - $25, 000 per year, and that was after busting our ###, and taking all the "heat." I finally got fed up and quit.

I found Neoset to be a pathetically run company. The Director of Marketing at the time spent her time going from store to store delivering paper towels and toilet paper! I would have assumed that she would have had bigger "fish to fry" with all the problems. We went without toilet paper, yet she drove around in an extremely expensive vehicle.

When the product is available and put together properly, I'll admit, it was a good product, which is why I stayed. But there is no true leadership, management does not back its' employees, and they basically lie to their staff and customers.

Ellen Roseman

Vicki Low ordered a computer desk from Neoset Canada last August.

Jenya Zukershtein ordered a desk and shelves from Neoset last June.

Both were told to expect delivery within six to eight weeks.

Months later, they had received neither their products nor their money back.

"I'm at my wit's end, " said Low, who paid in full ($573). "The head office has stopped returning my calls and the store on Jarvis St. has been unhelpful and unapologetic."

Zukershtein is still waiting for the refund and four months' interest on her $593 deposit that she was promised last December.

Neoset Canada has five company-owned stores in Toronto, which import modular furniture from Greece.

The Better Business Bureau gives the company an F rating (unsatisfactory), reflecting the number of complaints filed and lack of response to the complaints.

Owner Greg Pappas responded quickly to our intervention on behalf of the two customers.

He said Neoset's problems started a year ago, when Greek workers held rotating strikes to protest government plans to privatize container handling operations at two major ports.

This resulted in a backlog of containers headed overseas.

"We didn't receive any containers for 14 to 16 weeks and fell significantly behind, " Pappas said.

"We tried to communicate with customers, but the staff was not prepared to deal with it. This was my fault. There was no training plan."

As the strikes continued, Neoset started getting containers with orders only half complete.

"We kept falling farther behind, " Pappas said. "We fulfilled orders for customers who screamed the loudest."

Neoset has 170 stores in Greece, but sold its Toronto stores to Pappas two years ago.

The parent company started to care a bit less with the divesting of Canadian operations, he said. There was no need to ship across the ocean for its other stores.

"We didn't foresee the strikes or danger of having one supplier in a country that's going through some unrest.

"It was bad risk management on our part."

Yesterday, Pappas said he would process Zukershtein's refund within 24 hours.

He said Low could have her choice of getting a refund or her long-awaited desk – which had arrived in Canada, after all.

"It was not prioritized and was sitting in a pile of orders, " he admitted.

People can live with delays if told what's wrong and offered refunds. But if they're ignored, they contact newspapers and write nasty comments online.

we were just doing our jobs all of the employees just did what we were told. its the owner pappas that told us what to say anddo. from heather and arthur and linda and eleanor all employees of who you have discussed here just did what they were told to. its the owner that kows what the situation is not the employees. we did our level best.

I CERTAINLY WONT VISIT THIS SITE AGAIN HAVE YOU SEEN ALL OF THE OTHER ISSUES AND THINGS PEOPLE ARE DISCUSSING...
TAKE A LOOK AT THE SIDE BAR OF THE HOME PAGE TO SEE HOW REAL THIS ALL IS...(STUPID))):)

I WAS GOING TO PUBLISH MY COMPLAINT HERE BUT AFTER VIEWING OTHER COMPLAINTS I CAN SEE THIS IS NOT FOR ME. IM SORRY FOR ALL OF YOU IT SEEMS YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO. I THOUGHT THIS WAS A TRUE COMPLAINTS FORUM OBVIOUSLY NOT.

they are all a sack of lies.. i called the store spoke with a fellow by the name of arthur gitten who promised to get back to me in august of last year.. yeh ok... see what happens. NOTHING>>>>then i called the head office and spoke with heather thompson.. scheduling... yeh whatever... again promised to call and yeh nothing... for months and months only me calling and zero response.. its like i have nothing better to do.. thank goodness for credit cards... eh... they are covering me due to non delivery.. but i say its the staff from store level right to head office who screwed us all... they were the ones who were non responsive.. who took our money... and were our contacts... it the sale person who promised to call and follow up.. thats who i gave my MONEY to... who did you give yours too?!

Shame on them... Eleanor Reynolds is nothing but a sack of lies
"We'll get back to you in two weeks"... yeah, right!
Is it true that she left the country to go to Europe in order to "get more furniture options for us"?

SUGGESTION FROM A RIPPED OFF CUSTOMER WHO GOT HER MONEY BACK: CONTACT NEOSET GREECE:
Miss Fratzoglou dimitraf@neoset.gr
Athens office number +[protected]
Google other NEOSET Greece phone numbers and e-mails and BOMBARD THEM TOO!

E-mail first to establish a record of your efforts, followed by a quick phone call to the head office in Athens (mention each call by you in a subsequent e-mail, including date, time and what number phone call and e-mail each is, again, to establish proof of your every effort).

BOMBARD Neoset Greece in Athens, of which Neoset Canada is/was a franchise. I think that is what finally compelled Reynolds and Pappas to return my money to me.
Neoeset Greece may tell you it is not their responsibility, but I DID get my money back, only after calling & e-mailing the Greek office a few times.

I understand from Greek family that NEOSET Greece is big and well known in that country. PERHAPS A GROUP OF YOU CONTACTING A MAJOR GREEK NEWS OUTLET on your miserable Canadian experience would get you some action. Or just warning NEOSET Greece that you plan to.

NEOSET Canada is/was despicable, no sense of honour or shame, nevermind pride or professionalism. Embarrassing Pappas and Reynolds into a refund by contacting NEOSET Greece may help you. It worked for me.
Is there a Greek community newspaper in Toronto? What might it have to say? Honour and honesty mean nothing to Greg Pappas and Co., but exposing Pappas as he skulks off to new ventures is a service to the community.
Good luck and best wishes to you all, fellow victims of NEOSET.

Ok this is ridiculos...Its obvious Greg and Eleanor are trying to cover their tracks.

Gregs Comment coming from Greg?

How do u say BLUNDER!

But seriously all we want is our money?

Customers and Employees that are owed.$$

I believe most of us will never see a penny but at least NEOSET is finally closed!

Good luck to everyone!

Just for the record - the comment previous to this one named Adelina is not me. I did not submit the above comment! I am going to report this.

Deceived
He's not the only one it turns out that "freespirit" was previously "duped" and before that "lindyloo" and I found out that she's posting under many other different user names that are being investigated by this site. I stopped posting weeks ago once I found out how misleading and destructive people can be on this site without any accountability. I read these posts thinking they were real employees or customers but now I've discovered that most are the same person hiding behind fake user names.
As much as I'm dissapointed with Neoset, I'm more sickened by lindyloo/duped/freespirit and her unfounded and anonymous bashing of people. There should be laws against what she is doing. I'ts repulsive...

Does anyone else think it's weird that the name of the person who wrote the very pleased and happy cutomer report in response to 'freespirit' is named Gregory Pappas - the President of Neoset?

If your going to create fake customer reviews, at least try to cover your tracks. This is DISGUSTING.

Hey Freespirit!
Take care? Desperate and aggressive? Untrustworthy?
I was at their warehouse yesterday and met with Greg and he did everything he could to get me my product so I wouldnt lose my deposit. It wasnt exactly what I ordered but he found a solution that I'm very pleased with!
I've bought Neoset product over n over for six years now and I'd be very sad if I couldn't find their product anymore!

Ok and what are you doing about all the employees that are owed wages!?!

Now that the truth is revealed on years of lies and deceit!

Although there is more that had not even been told or exposed!

I'm glad that the stores are closed and that is what matters.

Because you can no longer harm people.

I hope that this is a lesson learned for the both of you Eleanor and Greg !

We can only hope that you keep to your word to those who have been wronged.

Good Afternoon everybody, this is Eleanor Reynolds from Neoset Canada.

The reason of us being silent is because Mr. Gregg Pappas and I were just trying to help everybody as fast as we can, and I am here today to announce that every single customer with an outstanding order has been contacted already. If you haven't received our call yet, just give us two more weeks to finish and do the last calls. I am happy to announce that 95% of the people who were contacted understood the situation and agreed that Neoset has been handling these issues with honesty, ethic and respect to our customers.

Please try not to be rude to us, because we only mean good, and we're trying really hard to make everybody happy. That is, and has been always, part of the Neoset core of values, from the sales floor employee to the highest management position; the most important thing is to satisfy our customers in a fast and efficient manner.

Have a great day everybody, and I give you my word that if you haven't been contacted, you will be in the next two weeks.

Eleanor Reynolds
Neoset Canada
Director of Sales & Marketing

My name is Greg Pappas and as President of Neoset Canada I would encourage you all to contact me directly by email with your individual concerns so that they may be resolved in whatever way possible. My email is gregpappas @neoset canada.com. Our stores are closed however we are working with each of our customers, staff and suppliers to try to find a resolution to their specific concerns and rectify each situation in an amicable manner. Many of our past customers have been in contact with me directly and we have found a workable solution to their concerns. I would encourage you all to do the same and seek a positive outcome!

to not happy...its your decision where and how you spend your money not anybody elses!

Please stop defending Eleanor Reynolds... the only thing she was good at, was getting people money to use it somewhere else other than making her customer happy.

I also am a customer who regrets dealing with Neoset. My first mistake was not reading the details of the contract which stipulated that payment in full would be charged to my Visa 2 days before delivery of my furniture! When the 2 pieces were delivered it was obvious that the design was faulty. When I went to the store to tell them that I would not pay the final half until the cupboards were satisfactory, the store manager had the audacity to laugh and tell me it was too late! I tried unsuccessfully for 18 months to contact the store (it is now Abode), to contact head office, and even to go through small claims court. When Neoset would not respond to the courts I knew that they felt that they were above the law.

Lindyloo, thanks for putting things in perspective here. I'm really surprised by these comments from people defending Neoset and Eleanor Reynold or Greg Pappas. I'm one of the hundreds of customers in the GTA that was lied to and defrauded by Neoset, and there is no justifying how customers were treated. I'm sure the sales rep who sold me my furniture knew very well that there were delivery problems, but still said nothing, assured me 6-8 weeks delivery time, and took my deposit money. That's just unethical. I would never be able to do that to someone. But despite the fact that certain individual sales people have questionable morals, I would place the most blame on Eleanor Reynolds and Greg Pappas because they were responsible for running a business honestly, and if furniture couldn't be delivered, they should have closed shop and not continued to lie to customers and take their money.

I don't know who made the business decisions between those two, but I know that as the "sales and marketing director" and the "president" of the company they should have at least returned customer phone calls and e-mails and processed refunds for furniture not delivered. But they completely ignored everyone and continued to defraud customers by taking orders that couldn't be filled. Incredibly this scam was continued not for a month or two, but for at least over half a year. So to re-iterate the many comments floating around on the internet: Future employers: DO NOT hire Eleanor Reynolds or Greg Pappas. They are morally corrupt individuals and will run your business into the ground just like they did with NEOSET. Do you really want someone working for you company who is willing to defraud customers? Do you want to suffer the legal consequences of that? I wouldn't.

Past honoured employee - I understand that Neoset was a good company, treated you well, and had great product (I myself own it and have recommended it), but I do not agree with how customers were duped into buying product they were not going to receive and how people were employed when they were not financially able to pay their wages. That's why I said in my comment I would not buy anything from Neoset "at this time". If the company pulls through this (and I hope they do) then I still recommend the furniture and I would purchase it again.

people also need to understand is that if doing business was that easy than we all would be businessmen and women but its not it has its risk and challenges and not all business do well and have happy customer all the time there is not one business that we can give example off which has happy customer all the time and this site is the big proofed of that because on this site every one come to take there frustration off but we forget that by trashing someone or some business is not going to solve anything

If all Customer who are having problems getting there money back from visa or other credit cards you need to spend your time by calling them and not buy wasting time on the this web site because I'm sure this site is not going to help you get your money back

Also I don’t understand why people are saying bad stuff about neoset it’s not even a Canadian company they just sell there stuff to company in Canada they pulled out of Canada years ago. I still love there furniture it’s a lot better than other product available out in the market

Last but not least please
LOVE FOR ALL AND HARTRED FOR NON

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

I am a past employee. I worked with Neoset for close to five years. The company has been very fair and good to me and my family. I came to Canada to find opportunity 7 years ago, I am a qualified professional but my degree's are not honored here in Canada. I applied to Neoset as a sales/design consultant and was honored to accept a position in this company. I have been treated very fairly and worked hard and met all of the companies expectations. It is wrong to see past employees who worked for this company for a month or less comment as they do. I have shown Neoset on my resume as a past employer and I use Greg Pappas and Eleanor Reynolds as references because they are who I reported to for my tenure. I respect them and I am saddened by the words of expression from 'past or ex employees' who worked for this company for such a short period of time. (less than a month) Especially when they hide behind such comments and dont identify themselves. It hurts all past employees and you who ever you are are damaging the true loyal employees of Neoset. Please stop this inconsiderate behaviour.

take a minute to think about how would you feel if you guys where in there place and people trash you like this...somethink to think about

Actully guys i know everyone is mad but i think we should all cool down and think about this carefully because its easy to trash people. i know personnely that neoset is working with customers who cant get there money back from Visa or other card company to fill there order or offer them something else so i think you guys should stop trashing.

i need a job

yes they are cheats but i need a job anybody out there wishing ot hire a great sales person?

i always doubt when persons dont identify themselves... obviously i have nothing else to do but chat on useless chat forums like this one and trash people .. ...

but i did buy furniture there and dident get it but called credit card and got my refund..thanks karl

i also worked for this company and movedon because i found something better. its ok to work in retail but hey guys as designers we are better! good luck in your new job seek! check out workopolis and under designer section it works guys, also check out arido they sometimes post to.

Bad news everybody!

I tried to contact Neoset Head office, using the phone number shown on their webpage and I got the message: "We're sorry, the number dialed is not in service"

I hope Eleanor Reynolds (and Neoset in general) doesn't get away with this huge scam she pulled off.

There are currently 28 complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau of Canada against Neoset, and 20 of them were closed because Neoset never responded (what a surprise!).

BEWARE: Also, avoid at all costs buying in a place called ABODE... it's the same Neoset with a different name (as shown on the BBB webpage)

There must be something that can be done to bring these scammers to justice, and to make them pay back the money they stole.

I am also in a dispute for wages unpaid and I agree 100 percent do not buy from NEOSET! Eleanor and Greg Pappas are liars and cheats! I also think that they are having an affair!