David Schraub of Varsity Stitch Shop, located in New Jersey, approached our company with the idea of building an online shop where he can take in sales. We explained to him in excruciating detail multiple times the services we offer including the prices like we do with all customers. We also have an almost 20-page detailed contract that we require our customers to sign. David refused to pay for any of the advanced services (marketing) which we explained is what he was describing he wanted multiple times as what he paid for was a managing the shop which does not include marketing to the extent of seeking exponential growth. We also spent over an hour advising David on numerous things including the fact that he should go with a platform like Amazon or eBay as they support customizable items. He opted to go with shops on Meta (Instagram/Facebook) which we believe it was purely because they have the lowest fees.
Still, David signed the contract & balked at the idea of paying a small $10 monthly hosting fee for the custom orders page THAT WE CREATED FOR HIS COMPANY…even though he claims he runs a “successful” business that brings in $20k/month. If you even remotely think about it, if he has several employees (he does) that means he’s not turning that much of a profit if at all considering all of his operating expenses. Throughout our experience dealing with David Schraub, owner of Varsity Stitch Shop, it became clear he knew almost nothing about business. Our talks revealed he didn’t know how overhead works nor how to properly calculate percentages (we literally had to tell him that you don’t add percentages then show him how to calculate the fees.)
David comes across as extremely lazy. When we asked for the deliverables he was responsible for providing in the contract…he was slow, seemingly didn’t want to do any work & failed to deliver on most even though we explained to him multiple times what the contract entailed. Even when talking to him before signing the contract he refused to take “small orders” even if it meant his business netting an extra $30k/month from companies like Inkfrog or through the shop he contracted us to create. He never sent over promotion material like photos, he only gave us the names of three products to sell online from his business, he never even confirmed how much money he wanted to budget towards advertising nor if he could even get orders out in a reasonable amount of time since e-commerce platforms have strict fulfillment requirements which are usually between 3-7 days. David even told us to remove the listings for general embroidery (non-specific products.) This kneecapped us from the beginning & it was almost clear his intentions were not sincere. It is assumed he saw us as “encroaching on his business” so he purposely sabotaged the relationship which is crazy because HE HIRED US TO CREATE & ADMINISTRATE HIS ONLINE STORE WHICH WAS AN EXTENSION OF HIS BUSINESS!!! Even in the contract we have our customers sign, it says that we don’t own anything & both parties have respective rights to their own properties! Furthermore he then proceeded to make social media posts pushing competing hats similar to the ones he tasked us with selling, but a slightly different style which is insane. David seemed to be intent on destroying the business he literally just paid someone to create for him.
In the initial couple of weeks, we did the following despite Varsity Stitch Shop not upholding their end of the contract which caused major delays:
Created a custom order webpage
Created social media accounts
Properly setup Varsity Stitch Shop’s existing social media accounts for business (they didn’t even have unique names setup so that people can easily find them)
Created a catalog of items which consisted of 165 polo variants, and over 63 hat variants. Each of these variants are configured individually which took a tremendous amount of time
We created 18 unique male polo graphics, 2 different version changes & 2 variants for a total of 72 unique graphics
We created 16 unique female polo graphics, 2 different version changes & 2 variants for a total of 64 unique graphics
We created 50 unique hat graphics
We created 8 AD versions which included turning Varsity Stitch Shop’s amateur promotional material into a professionally done work
Logo rework to make it clearer & an alternate version made for dark backgrounds
Creation of section for Varsity Stitch shop on Nizel Corporation’s website
Created & verified Meta (Facebook & Instagram) ADs account
Created & verified Meta (Facebook & Instagram) e-commerce account
Created Facebook Pixel (VSS never configured the pixel on their website)
Created size charts for items
Created shipping profiles
Added backlinks to their website from Nizel Co. website
All of this work took a considerable amount of time to accomplish (at least 100+ hours.) Throughout the duration of the contract, we also explored other shop alternatives like Google Merchant, creating a catalog for that platform as well which we ultimately did not use. This also took a huge amount of time.
Six months later while managing the social media accounts we noticed David messaging a competitor/scammer. That scam AD was for shop creation, management & promotion for $6,000. This brings to question why David couldn’t just pay us if he was entertaining that advertisement? We had also noticed that David boosted a post for about $100 back in August 2022 while we managed the account (the boost went down the drain as he knows almost nothing about marketing.) He had also made a job posting & boosted that the week before which also went nowhere as he only received 3 or 4 applicants. When we later sent David, owner of Varsity Stitch Shop, an invoice for a mere $50 for overdue hosting fees, he immediately said he wanted to cancel the 36-month contract due to “unmet expectations.” I called him, talked to him & called him out on his nonsense especially since we never offered “performance-based marketing” nor ever uttered those inflammatory words. We always told him he needed to invest in the business to see it grow even before he signed the contract…our contract even says as much. He agreed to pay the invoice in-order to start the termination process although we have a right to bill him for the entire amount & more for breach of contract. David seems to be super shady, saying one thing, but his actions showing different intentions. He seems to like to play dumb although from what we’ve come to realize, he doesn’t know much about business which is why he seems to struggle to maintain his current one. He seems to constantly lie & try to weasel his way out of things. One such lie during that call after he demanded cancellation was that he had been in business for only 5 years. If you look at Varsity Stitch Shop’s logo it clearly says “established in 2010.” He also mentioned that he started turning a profit on day one of opening his business…which we highly doubt.
This isn’t the first rodeo David has with not upholding his end of the bargain. We managed his social media accounts & therefore had access to his messages. Vendors frequently have to demand payment which he somehow “forgets” if they don’t constantly pressure him. He seems to almost always be late on payments to the wonderful people he works with which we all know how much that screws up people’s finances. The digitizer he works with is seemingly frustrated a good amount of the time when it comes to him paying. Varsity Stitch Shop also pretty much only uses things like Zelle for payment which is annoying when you’re paying hundreds of dollars a month for invoicing software that makes it easier for people to pay digitally so they DON’T have to use Zelle. There are other complaints from former affiliates that sent work in to him for which he never returned the items sent in even after multiple requests. His reason for doing so? The warehouse was closed due to COVID. This brings to question why David himself couldn’t just drive down there, find the items & ship them back himself? He seemingly still didn’t ship the items back even after re-opening since the affiliate’s follow-up message was left with no response.
This is the type of person you’re dealing with. A seemingly shady person that doesn’t honor his commitments. Varsity Stitch Shop has no problem screwing over the other businesses it collaborates with. We advise people to NOT work with them. This will most likely end up in court for breach of contract. Varsity Stitch Shop is stupidly willing to lose potentially thousands of dollars over a $10 web hosting fee.
Keep in mind it’s not like David was paying anything for store management. The contract was simple. He’d pay a small fee upfront for our work creating the shop then afterwards whatever sales the shop brings in, we’d take a commission. We would administrate the shop. Does that say anything about marketing? Does it say anything about creating AD campaigns? No. Which is why we repeatedly told him he needed to pay for the considerable amount of work that would go into that if he wanted those services. The manager of a McDonald’s isn’t designing the advertisements nor promoting the shop because that’s not their job. Their job is to make sure the shop is run well.
In the end, it seems like most people looking for performance-based marketing or for someone to build their business on commission while they do nothing, David Schraub, owner of Varsity Stitch Shop, expected to just sit back while someone else invests & does the backbreaking work of building a potentially multi-million-dollar business. Unfortunately for him, we were too savvy for that. It's also the reason why this space is filled with so many scammers since nobody in their right mind would agree to do such a thing (something which we told David verbatim several times.) While we didn’t get into all of the details. This is our overall experience. We have pictures, videos, emails, etc. to back up all of this. We publish this as one of our commitments is to protect consumers from bad actors.
Update 01-03-2022:
Almost a month later, after several reminders David Schraub of Varsity Stitch Shop has partially paid the invoice sent to him (most likely after discovering this article.) Of course, he ignored the late fees & additional month of fees that were added on to the invoice since so much time had passed. He has also requested that it be taken down because "he admits it was a misunderstanding on his end." We see no reason to as everything in the article is still factual even to the point where he literally just partially paid a late invoice after ignoring all of the reminders. We also spent a considerable amount of time working to correct any misunderstanding from the beginning so it's hard to believe there's still a "misunderstanding" after all of this time. David's "misunderstanding" excuse is most likely another attempt to gaslight in-order to get what he wants. As stated before his actual actions show his true intent.
We've instead chosen to amend the statement commenting on the invoice still being unpaid & published this update. We have also begun the early termination process for this contract in-order to put this behind us.
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