Thank you for coming to my post. It is a long and complex story, but I’ll summarize to the best of my ability as to why I am here writing this. And I wasn’t sure if I should put this in the Rent category or the Scam category but I flipped a coin and so here we are.
There is a much longer back story but essentially to keep it short and concise I am a 32 year old male. I was born and raised in Virginia, but tragedy struck at 19 and I lost a best friend in a motorcycle accident. At 20 years old I left everything I knew behind to come live with a buddy on the west coast in San Diego to start a new life, starting out with basically nothing, except a dream to build a life on my own terms, a strong work ethic, and a desire to never go back to my small home town where there is no opportunity.
From 2011 to 2019 I built my way up earning a living working 2 jobs: retail at minimum wage, and working in restaurants which yielded tips leading up to Covid, but I’ve not had much of a life because working all the time to keep rent paid in an expensive city leaves little time to actually go back to building a career. To keep it short, because this could get lengthy, during that time period I survived breaking my femur snowboarding, a car wreck where someone hydroplaned into me on my way back from the mountains ( on a different trip), a serious heartbreak of a toxic relationship, and an outright full blown alcoholic roommate.
In 2018-2019 I began really learning about investing via audiobooks and podcasts and YouTube before it is as mainstream as it is now. At that time I was somewhat of a “normie”. I was working in a bar as a bar back and had been for 4 or so years, and I realized that I was not going to be given the opportunity to become a bartender because honestly I didn’t know how to play the social game within the workplace. I didn’t know how to befriend the management in order to get moved up. Others were getting moved up that had way less seniority than me. I was just there to work and to work hard and so I became a great bar-back that was hard to replace. This capped my earning potential. I had been saving my tips for years and I around that time in 2019 I had quit drinking and found myself wondering why I was still working around alcohol. Then Covid happened.
I took my tips that I had been saving for years and did as Warren Buffet’s famous quote said “be greedy when others are fearful…..” and I went and bought Bitcoin literally at the bottom of the Covid crash. I figured there was no bigger fearful time in my lifetime than this and I was already used to living a frugal life that shutdowns didnt scare me so I had the greenlight to invest. I got into learning about trading and I also started a podcast (Main Reason Im Here Today) called Surfs Up Podcast (its on YouTube) where I interviewed other entrepreneur types and just cool people I found interesting around my community that were inspiring. Surfs Up motto is “To Inspire the Everyday Man With the Everyday Man”
~~~Fast Forward~~~
I made money in crypto and lost money in crypto but in the end I came out net positive. I decided trading wasn’t really for me or my calling and started to look for another venture. The podcast was my calling and I wanted to continue it but doing it all on my own with the prep time to learn about the guest, the production with all the gear, the editing, and the distribution and social media aspect all on me took up a ton of my time. It was a lot more than I realized and honestly I loved doing it, but facts are I wouldn’t be seeing any kind of income from the effort till many episodes down the road. Also, I did not want the money factor to pollute the passion I had for the project so I decided I needed to compartmentalize the two and I did not want to trade anymore (bear market was in and I realized I’m more of an investor type not a trader type).
I took what I had made in the crypto 2021 bull run and decided on an amazon automation service to build a cashflow source so I could have the time to give the podcast all of my time and attention so I could bring the most value to viewers. I wanted to give back because in the last 6 years of my life the bedrock of my personal development was podcasts, audiobooks, and YouTube. I wanted to build a platform to share with others in my own community and on the internet what I had learned and also to hear perspectives from guests I had on the show about their journey through entrepreneurship.
My plan as of June 2022 was to drive Uber for 6-12 months while the amazon automation team scaled the business and then I could really dig in on the podcast and drive Uber less. This plan did not come to fruition because either the amazon automation people were a complex long term scam or they are just very bad at what they said they were going to do and super underdelivered. I have tried for 19+ months now to work with them and they have neglected communications a ton during that time span. They have gotten my amazon account suspended 3 times even though they had claimed upon signing the agreement they were the “expert” and knew what they were doing. I have tried getting the CEO on the phone multiple times but he proxy’s himself from me with “account managers.” The account managers agree with me that he should give me a refund because they did not fulfill the contract but the CEO just throws the contract in my face (via email, still cannot get him on the phone) saying they don’t do refunds even though they never delivered on the other half of the contract where they were supposed to set up a Walmart store as well. Prior to signing I was told they used US based wholesale suppliers, but after they had my money when they actually “got to work” they just tried drop shipping in a manner that directly violated amazons terms of service. I feel like they pull investors in then they break policies on the clients stores so the client gets suspended and they get to keep the initial service fee with a bogus contract.
I cannot disclose the name of the amazon automation service because the contract says stuff about defamation. This brings us to the meat of the situation. I took everything I made in crypto and put it into this drop shipping model and now have nothing. I actually have less than nothing because I took out a business Credit card under the amazon automation teams directive for purchasing inventory where they went and broke their sales pitch and sourced from China resulting in a possible counterfeit product that resulted in the most recent suspension (where they are holding 7k of my money and I don’t think I’m getting it back because of the counterfeit goods policy). According to the contract I have no say as to what is listed and the team has autonomy of the listings and I am just to manage the capital. So, they are at fault for losing my money but will not admit fault. Well the account manager, as stated above, does agree it is their fault but his boss the CEO will not sign off on a refund and is the real problem.
All this time I also drive Uber 40+ hours a week and Uber has slashed earnings in 2023. I’m barely making rent and I haven’t released a podcast in over 2 years now. Venturing out on my entrepreneurial path has left me with 3 years of no recent work history so getting a job in the restaurant industry is hard to break back in to (or really anywhere). I have been applying for 6 months but I do understand it is the offseason here and no one is hiring till spring/summer.
Now a few years into this rollercoaster ride and disaster situation I’m in has left me working all the time for very little pay (thanks Uber for screwing over drivers to keep shareholders happy). My health has taken a hit from all the stress and after 2 years of no nicotine I picked up nicotine again and I’m not proud of it. No alcohol though and I am super proud of that (I pretty much despise alcohol).
HERE is WHERE YOU the READER comes in.
I cannot afford a proper lawyer and I’ve researched and not found any lawyer that will take the case pro-bono as complex as it is and because it is a business dispute (even though its really just me vs a big private scam company that probably has a team of lawyers). over the course of the 19 months of this business venture I have tracked and recorded many of the wrong doings this scammy amazon automation company has done to me. I have spoken to a friend that is a law school graduate that says I have a strong case but he isn’t practicing and couldn’t take it on because he is in the depths of his own entrepreneurial career. I’ve also had the top of class Law student at a nearby university say the same thing but he is not barred yet and doesn’t have the experience.
What I’m asking for is 10k-30k+ to do these things:
- Keep roof over my head, pay off debt, and buy time to execute number 2 below
- Get a paid lawyer to take these guys down. They are bullying their clients with predatory contracts and shady business practices. Again I cannot disclose the name but if you were to pull up their name on the Better Business Bureau there are others that they are also doing this to. I have more than enough proof to take them down I just need the time and safe roof over my head in order to focus and do it. If I take them down then you aren’t just helping me but you are also helping other people not get screwed so your dollar goes way further than just helping me.
- Get back to having some semblance of a life.
- Get back to the podcast and actually injecting value into the world!
Thanks for reading and Blessings upon you!
Kindest Regards,
~C
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