Seed Capital, Discount Retail Store Services (DRSS) Complaints
Discount Retail Store Services or DRSS, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, markets itself as a turnkey solution for individuals who want to open a dollar store. Also known as Dollar Store Services, the company promotes that it can provide 100% financing to qualified applicants. We’ve received complaints that DRSS misled numerous clients into signing up with Seed Capital under the guise that they’ll receive conventional financing and lines of credit.
In actuality, Seed Capital simply signs them up for tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-interest credit cards. The end result, they allege, is severe damage to personal credit scores and spiraling debt leading to bankruptcy.
(UnhappyFranchisee.Com) Dollar Store Services, also known as DRSS Discount Retail Store Services, is one of many companies we’ve heard of that allegedly gains the trust of its clients, then works with Seed Capital to turn the would-be business owner’s sterling credit history into a payday for DRSS and Seed Capital, and financial devastation for the trusting client.
Have you had experience with Seed Capital and/or DRSS Discount Retail Store Services?
Would you recommend either company to a close friend or relative? Please share your opinion below.
Navy Veteran Claims He Lost Everything Due to Seed Capital and DRSS
Commenter I Hate Scammers shared this story this past summer:
I am a 12 year United States Navy veteran, and I had the dream of owning a business…
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Discount Retail Store Services (DRSS) definitely ruined that positive perspective of entrepreneurship for me and many others. I started working with DRSS when I was a contractor in Afghanistan in 2013 and was totally preyed on because of my credit score “760”. They make money off good hard working citizens who reached a point of their lives where they have money in the bank and possess excellent credit.
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You have to have at least a FICO score of 730 to even do business with DRSS. I was misled and lied to in order to fulfill somebody’s financial greed. I was informed that they did everything in-house and had great relationships with different financial intuitions for me to get funding. They said to me “we work for you and we are on your side” , but actually they were destroying me from within .
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I was told that they would get me a business loan and even help establish my business credit. With their “in and out” mentality I was passed down to the finance department and then passed to Seed Capital. I was informed by “the professionals” that Seed Capital would be securing funding for me, but I had to pay Seed Capital $4,000 to start the process. I was misguided to believe I was getting a business loan and lines of business credit.
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After I started working with Seed Capital they started to apply for 10 different credit cards. So when I asked why so many, I was told it was for working capital. I thought that was very strange, but maybe it was good to have that on reserve. After being rushed to find a location to secure, I was still waiting to hear something about the actual business loan . There was no business loan, the credit cards were your loan. There was no business lines of credit, it was all personal credit.
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I had already signed a lease for the building and felt deliberately misled to continue. It felt tremendously irresponsible, and that was not a typical practice of a person with a 760 credit score. I asked DRSS what would this do to my credit and was told it would drop about 30 points. My credit score dropped to a 520. If I would have known about this I would have never agreed to this mismanaging of funds.
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When my store opened my credit was so exhausted I could not get any type of loan for working capital. There wasn’t any “REAL” support from DRSS. They put me so much in debt
before I even open there was no chance for true success. I struggled for 6 months and had to close my store for good. Later I had to file bankruptcy because of the tremendous hole I was thrown into.
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I lost everything I worked for my whole life in 6 months. There are 50 people all over the country who have done business with DRSS and we all share the same story. Meanwhile DRSS is laughing on their way to the bank.
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BEWARE!!!!
What do you think? Please give others the benefit of your experience and help them make more informed decisions by leaving a comment below.
ALSO READ:
DOLLAR STORE SERVICES DRSS Complaints
SEED CAPITAL Jim Saia Financing Complaints
FRANCHISE DISCUSSIONS by Company
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH SEED CAPITAL AND/OR DRSS DISCOUNT RETAIL STORE SERVICES? DO YOU THINK THEY ARE LEGIT… OR ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO PREY ON TRUSTING INDIVIDUALS?
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TAGS: Seed Capital, Seed Capital Complaints, Dollar Store Services, Discount Retail Store Services, DRSS, JWI Wholesale, Dollar Store Services complaints, DRSS complaints, JWI Wholesale complaints, Dollar Store franchise, open a dollar store, own a dollar store, Jim Saia, James Wichert, J.D. Gray, John LaFronz, unhappy franchisee
I have had the same terrible experience with DRSS and Seed Capital and I know for a FACT that they are working together. I would NEVER recommend them! They destroyed my life. I have written complaints to the FTC and the Attorney General in Texas and Nevada about these companies.
DRSS is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a company that sets up new retail stores using extremely deceptive unfair trade practices against the consumers. These new hopeful store owners lack the knowledge to open a business, so they, with confidence, great hope, and a massive amount of (false) encouragement by DRSS hire them to assist with opening their new store. The customers of DRSS are from all over the United States. All types of people. But one thing they all have in common is the desire to own their own businesses. The American Dream, right? Wrong!
DRSS, being predatory, uses the credit worthiness of hard-working people who have excellent credit scores. During the beginning process, I inquired about a business plan to obtain a small business loan (SBA) and was made to believe by DRSS that a business plan was being created and we were working towards my business loan. When the time came to actually fund my store, I was referred to Seed Capital. DRSS and Seed Capital use consumer’s credit, as their main funding source. Seed Capital charges the consumer $3995 – $6000 and applies online for the credit cards, in the consumer’s name. The consumer receives between 8-20 credit cards; however, many of the credit cards received are in the consumers name and not the business name. The credit cards obtained have promotional rates that become 20%+ after the introductory period making the payments unaffordable. Seed Capital assures you not to worry because you will have the cards paid off well before the intro rates expire. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Many consumers I have spoken too experienced the exact same ordeal. I have a contact list of over 40+ names of individuals scorned by DRSS and Seed Capital and it continues to grow.
The store package prices range from $59,900 – $692,900. DRSS offers various store concepts; dollar stores, boutiques, yogurt shops, to appeal to a broader spectrum of trusting, hopeful people. With DRSS’s poorly drafted contract, they fail to inform the consumer that there will be other funding requirements outside of actual working capital.
Money for licensing & certifications, improvements needed in leasing space, additional supplies, utilities, rent, dumpsters, power pole installation, none of which the “cost” for such items are disclosed in the initial application process. Not to mention, making payments on the 8-20 credit cards issued to you by DRSS/Seed Capital every month has started and your store hasn’t even opened. Those funds can range up to $25,000.
As the process continues, goal amount is reached, and all documents have been signed the cards obtained by Seed Capital are then liquidated. The purchase price of your store is immediately taken off the top by DRSS in the form of a cashier’s check. IF there is anything left, it can be used to operate the store. What they fail to explain is that your store will not make enough money to support itself and the remaining money (if any) will be gone within the first month of operation. The owner now has no money and a very bad credit score; hence additional cards will not be approved.
In addition, please realize the very personal sacrifice of new store owners who use DRSS/Seed Capital. They proudly start off with the hard earned credit scores of 700+! After conducting business with DRSS, their credit scores drop to as low as 500 within months of opening their new business. What becomes glaringly obvious, after just a month or two is you’ve been set up to fail. Now, with no ability to get credit, and no actual money (other than in the accounts of DRSS and Seed Capital) – well, you’re business has hit a dead end before it really even gets up and running! Sadly, the only thing left to do is file bankruptcy with many of us even losing our homes. This is exactly what has happened to many, many “store owners”. All of these people are very willing to work hard to get a shot at the American Dream. They (we) all share the same, very sad, story.
Let us not omit the mental anguish this process leads to for the customer/store owner. On so many levels it is extremely stressful and very disheartening, even defeating. How do you pay rent, utilities AND buy more inventory with no money left? How can you keep your newly opened doors open? How can you keep your own customers happy with the VERY poor inventory supplied with the store package (which, in many cases, is supplied by JWI Wholesale – the owner of DRSS)? How do you continue to make payments on all the credit cards you’ve been indebted with? After speaking with another store owner from DRSS, I decided that we both request an itemized statement from DRSS of what was spent on our fixtures alone for our stores. Our stores were very similar. We both purchased the exact 1000sf store package and our clothing concepts were the same. We were just a few months apart as far as an opening date. Surprisingly, upon receiving our itemized statements from DRSS we noticed that there was almost a $30,000 difference in price. I believe that to be considered as excessive pricing/spending or it could possibly be that after the build out of your store you’re left with an excessive amount of fixtures & shelving walls that you have no use for and DRSS refuses to take back.
Being unwittingly defrauded by DRSS, these consumers share at least a degree of culpability in their losses. But when there is an actual TEAM of people reassuring you that this is a great opportunity, well, it is easy to believe.
Part of DRSS reeling in the prospective store owners is to assure them that retail experience is not necessary because they offer a three day training course. This of course is at the cost of the consumer; airfare, hotel accommodations, auto rental and meals. The training is nothing short of a joke. The “training cash registers”, for example, did not work. There is no mention of taxes, overhead, or really any of the many important realities of owning a business!
DRSS states it is North America’s largest retail store developer of turnkey stores. However, what they fail to mention is the majority of these stores opened by DRSS fail due to poor development and outright lies.
Discount Retail Store Services practices are fraudulent, deceptive, unethical and immoral. The impact after DRSS has been nothing short of a nightmare. I am an African American single mother. I returned safely from Iraq in July, 2013 to begin my American dream, at least I thought, I ended up being terrorized by my own people. My store “Angelic Couture, LLC” opened January 11, 2014 and closed June 30, 2015. Prior to DRSS, I held a US Secret Security Clearance for many years in my employment field of Aviation. Solely because of my experience with DRSS and having to file for bankruptcy, I’m now unable to secure a job utilizing my secret clearance to try to rebuild my life. These people are scammers and their practices are unethical and immoral. They need to be stopped!
Hi Angela,
I am currently experiencing the same thing. I opened my store April 19, 2016 and I’m currently trying to make a decision on closing or not due to lack of funds to keep the store open. My question to you is what did you end up doing with the inventory after closing?
We are joining forces to tell you everything about DRSS-Dollar Store Services in Las Vegas. Nine of us our DRSS ex-employees. One or two of us still works for the company. Six of us were fired and three of us quit working for this corrupt company. The complaints on Rip Off are mostly very accurate. Remember some of us were managers that were completely informed about what the company was doing. Some of us were fired or quit over 2 years ago and have waited to contribute to this report. We have read all the reports about this company and the reports are very accurate.
The latest report on Rip Off written by Phil from California is 100 % accurate. This guy had guts enough to leave his phone number on this report from a few months ago. Remember some of us were managers at this company for years. We can show you that the reports are a small part of the evil truth.
The owner has threatened most us with a law suit and some have been sent a certified letter with paperwork from his attorney to take us to court because we may have told the truth about DRSS and we had signed a 2 year non-compete clause. Most of us are past the two-year mark and can now telling the truth about this company. We do have to protect 1 or 2 current employees that cannot find work to move to in Las Vegas.
Please understand that when we started working for the company we had no idea of what has been going on about the lies that they are telling innocent prospect buyers. But this was no excuse for continuing working there after we knew the truth. Some of us did quit the company after we knew the truth but waited too long to quit. We are all guilty and ashamed for being part of this company.
PLEASE READ PHIL’S from CALIFORNIA report. He was 100 % accurate in his Rip Off complaint that you must read his report to get the facts about DRSS-DOLLAR STORE SERVICES and their PARTY STORE DEVELOPERS. We are not done telling all we know. WE WILL BE BACK-Also check this company on Ripoffreport.com
Before I started with Seed Capital I had a credit score of 812. Now it”s 600. This was supposed to give me money to self-finance flipping real estate. They applied for no-interest credit cards in my name. They used not only my income (under $6000/yr, I’m on disability), but the income for my brother (whom I lived with), to make a larger “household” income.
I receive several credit cards in my name, with no interest due until 2018. Next, I was instructed to take out cash advances on cards, $40,000, $20,000, $35,000, etc. Then I was instructed to use some of the cash advances to pay off some of the credit cards from which I had gotten cash advances. The amounts of the cash advances didn’t go far enough to pay off the cash advances from other credit cards.
I’ve been paying around $600.00 month on this credit card debt, and that’s only the minimum. I still have around $40,000 in debt, just from all this moving debt around on the cards. I never actually had any money to use!
I paid $3000 to have them allegedly give me money to work with, then $3000 ahead of time for the next round of financing. Stupid, yes? I’m both saddened and depressed by how stupid I was. The only explanation I can think of (though not an excuse), is that I had spent the past 20 years in pain & on sub-poverty disability after being assaulted at work.
During this time I was the sole caregiver as my mother died slowly from spreading cancer and my father, as he grew old, infirm, and resistant to limitations of life as a 95+ year old. When he died I was quickly mustered out of the house so it could be sold. I am pain this credit card debt with money I was going to use for needed dental work & to keep myself from poverty as I age. Unfortunately, health indicators show I take after my father’s side of the family and may live into my 90’s.
Thanks to my stupidity in working with Seed Capital, I can’t afford an old age.
There isn’t too much to say, I agree with everyone about Seed Capital and (DSSR) I’ve lost the whole business in about 4 months and currently going through bankruptcy. Is there anything we can do about these theives.
I started with DRSS at the end of 2014 and opened a business and now going through with closing, legal issues and bankruptcy. This has been devastating for myself, my spouse and even my children. Yes, we did not know all the stuff with a lease, the credit card financing and other things, but we trusted DRSS and Seed Capital to help us through this all. We put too much trust in them. In hindsight, we should have gotten our own Lawyer.
We really tried to keep our business afloat while not making anything. We tried Radio, Newspaper, flyers, door to door, mailers, people at the street with signs, loyalty program, facebook, and other social media avenues, etc, etc, etc. I am so saddened right now that it is really bad. We may loose our house, cars, any money we even have left because of this very bad decision and the legal stuff that we did not know at the time. DRSS did not negotiate our lease correctly, we signed to be legally obligated personally also for the lease. Thank GOD that they cannot touch our 401K. But again, we will probably loose everything else. I have to say, that I loved my store. This is a very sad day and an end to a great dream!