Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990 TAG: 9004280128
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The purchaser was involved in direct-mail sales and had products of his own to add to the items available to the 800 Buy-Pass members.
In February, the Moores transferred their company stock into the MAD Inc. name and on March 1, they signed a promissory note with MAD Inc., owned by John Meteney, Albert Adams and Dwight Dean. The three men are involved in several Smith Mountain Lake ventures. Meteney and Dean own Real-Vest, which uses direct-mail gift offers to encourage people to visit and look at lake lots.
Suzanne Moore said she checked out Meteney with the Better Business Bureau "and he had a better report than we did."
The sales agreement called for MAD to negotiate a new lease on the Buy-Pass office in Century Business Center and for Suzanne Moore to remain with the business for six months to train a sales staff. After her contract ended, the Moores and their two children planned to move to Birmingham, Ala., to live near family.
The MAD partners began operating Universal Vacation Adventures in the Buy-Pass offices. They used the Buy-Pass membership list to find prospective customers for memberships in Universal Travel Network and for time-shares aboard Smith Mountain Lake houseboats.
Dean and Meteney are partners in Beacon Light Marina Yacht Club, a time-share business that in February filed for reorganization under federal bankruptcy law.
Buy-Pass members were offered a $50 savings bond for coming to hear a 45-minute presentation about the travel club and boat time-shares.
The Moores said some of their members bought time-shares; 50 people filled out forms to receive $50 savings bonds.
Weeks after agreeing to buy the company, the new owners failed to meet an April 10 deadline for the first installment on a $49,000 promissory note. The Moores had their attorney, Richard E.B. Foster, send Meteney a letter requesting full payment. They took down the Universal Vacation Adventures sign and reinstalled DCI Buy-Pass as the company name.
The Moores also started getting phone calls from unhappy people asking when they would get their gift bonds or wondering whether their time-share purchases were safe.
The calls increased when this newspaper published several stories Sunday about lake land sales involving Meteney and Dean and a story on the Beacon Light Marina bankruptcy, which said Meteney was trying to sell the marina to get the money needed to keep the time-share operation afloat.
After the payment was missed, MAD's Universal Vacation Adventures continued to send out mailers, including some to non-members, asking people to come hear the presentation and receive a gift bond.
This reporter got an invitation mailed April 17 and made an appointment April 24 to hear the sales information.
The night of April 23, a Universal Vacation representative called to cancel the appointment, saying that a water main had broken during renovation at the Century Business Center offices.
"We're deep in something over here, but it isn't water," Suzanne Moore said when she heard about the cancellation call. "I wondered how they were going to get out of that."
Moore said another caller also said his Saturday appointment had been canceled because of a broken water main.
Richard Greenberg, attorney for MAD, said he got a copy of the request for full payment of the note, but that he had had no further contact with his clients on the Buy-Pass business.
Meteney confirmed that the full $49,000 payment had been asked for, but said he had no comment on Buy-Pass because he has been "too busy" to think about it.
Mike and Suzanne Moore said that while MAD Inc. had control of the business, buying-club membership sales decreased and so did the company's accounts receivable. The Moores said they will begin selling new memberships to bolster the business.
"The buying club is not in jeopardy," Mike Moore said. He said that income may not meet expenses, which include $2,600 per month in rent, but that he and his wife have enough money in savings to make up any difference.
The Moores worked for a wholesale buying club in Georgia before coming to Roanoke to open DCI. "We didn't like the way the one in Georgia operated," Mike Moore said.
DCI offers 18-month memberships at $899 and buyers can get in for $99 down, the Moores said. Members have access to products at discount prices, including furniture, jewelry, guns, carpeting and appliances. The Moores' sales presentation projects that a person can recapture the initial investment with purchases of $2,500.
DCI charges a 5 percent to 8 percent handling fee on each purchase. After 18 months, members can renew for annual fees of up to $40.
by CNB