Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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Just wanted to share my experience with Paul Joiner at PLJ Promotions. First off, we hired Paul in August and just recently fired him. He had been telling us since Thanksgiving that we had money coming from a potential sponsor. One of my current sponsors contacted the party Paul claimed to be interested in working with us. We find out that they had zero interest since the first phone call. Paul would keep us paying his monthly fee by telling us we had something coming when he knew from the beginning that nothing would happen. This went on until the day we fired him. He told me he had talked to the potential sponsor last week when I knew it was back in late November. There was also a time when he debited my account for a smaller amount of money and when I brought that up to him he said he would credit it back. Never happend. There may be people out there that he has helped in the past, but I just wanted to share my experience with him. If you plan on doing any business with him, I would talk to some of his other people that he is currently "helping" and see if they have gotten anything from him. Chances are pretty good that they will be pretty close to my experience. I hope this saves others from being scammed the way I was.

Chris Shirek

It's good that you fired him and warned others but did you file charges against him to recoup the money he stole from you for failure to provide services you paid for and filed a complaint with the States Attorney General for the same??

I haven't filed any charges yet. I have intentions of doing so just waiting a bit to see how things pan out.

Didn't we already discuss this guy when he started posting on here again about 2-3 months ago? 

I Remember seeing stuff about Project X Marketing, don't remember anyhting about Joiner, but i may have missed it, seems like all these guys are out to scam people!

We had never got anything he promised similar results. He promised free product from several different sources never received anything. He told me on several occasions he had a new sponsor lined up nothing ever materialized.He also over billed us on several occassions & never gave anything back. 

Keith McIntyre 

Keith Sr
MCINTYRE MOTORSPORTS

There have been some pretty strong words about project x over on the Midsouth racing forum as well.

There is no replacement for cubic displacement 

In most cases the only dumb question is the one not asked so here goes...."Does this guy ever show up at a race track??

 
I LEARNED ESP FROM MY MOM

"PUT YOUR SWEATER ON: DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW WHEN 
YOU'RE COLD?"

Right when this guy started posting on the board I sent him a message to get more infromation.  We e-mailed back and forth a little and scheduled time for a phone call.  It took over a week to finally talk as he always said he had other business.  I passed it off since it was the middle of the season and had so much other stuff going on as well.  When we finally got to talk, you could tell  the guy was definitely a salesman with the words he used and his personality.  When it was all said and done, he actually said he did  feel it was in the best interest to partner together because he was partnered with another team locally and didn't want there to be a conflict of interest.  I didn't think anything of it then, but now looking back at it, rethinking our convo, he kept saying how intelligent I was and how I understood how the racing business worked.  I kind of think now that maybe he knew he couldn't swindle me like others.

On a different yet related note, there is another guy based in Central PA who has been touting around saying he can get sponsors for teams.  His rates are reasonable, but he claims he can get sponsorship from a regional yet large company, even though the companies website that they do not accept sponsorship requests for racing.  

It kind of shows something that he hasn't even gotten on here to defend himself. I know he knows about this site because I have seen him write up quick snippits. Unless he knows he's in the wrong, wouldn't you think you would try to save face a little? Just my two cents.

Also to answer some questions. We had hired him the week before our last race in North Dakota. So he actually never seen me race when he was working with us. He had said he went to Eldora one night when I believe the All Stars were there. That very well could have been another one of his many lies. No-one knows for sure anymore. Also I did file a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General. Takes 24 hours and they will get back to me. So we shall see.

It's too bad that these couple companies, PLJ Promotions and Project X, have ruined the reputation of the actual good guys out there that do go out and find sponsors for us racers to do what we love week in and week out. I know it'll be very hard for me to trust anyone to do this for me again. It will definitely not be under the same terms that's for sure. That's all I got. I'll let it be now. If anything good comes from this, refund or whatnot, I will let you all know.

Another one that I am wondering about is Marketing At Full Speed.  I have signed up for their emails via the website and have not received one yet.  I asked questions through their form on the website and did not receive a reply.  I have not put out any money in a while for marketing / sponsorship help because the last guy fell through after he made half the portfolios I paid for.

In my opinion the only way to guarantee someone is going to work for you on sponsorships is if they work on commission.

Marketing at Full Speed, I get their e-mails about 2-3 times a week.  I follow her on Facebook and she gives great insight on the do's and don'ts of racing sponsorship.

Make sure you check your spam folders and settings.

Sometimes it could be worth picking up the phone and talking directly instead of relying directly on a computer.

In reply to this post by JCW10 on Sponsorships and the Company in Central Pa., I am the President of The American Motorsports Marketing Group, and I wish to clarify what we do and how we do it.

First and foremost, our Company ONLY earns commission on the Sponsorships that we bring our Race Teams, 20% of the Sponsorship. The only fee is for a Membership into our Network of Race Teams. This fee is $200 Per Team for a 1 year period,(multiple Race Teams pay the same amount as a single Team). There are no other fees to the Race Teams.

However, we bring immediate value to the Race Team through our Product Sponsors that have aligned with us to offset the cost of Racing. We do not guarantee anyone Sponsor $$, just that we will work for them diligently and do the work they do not wish to do.. ie. Knocking on Doors to secure Sponsors. Our Product Sponsors range from Racing Oil, Racing Parts Distributors to Signage and Lettering Companies.

Our Goal, is to provide our Members with a way to cut the cost of Racing, and allow us to secure Sponsors for them. We believe in Racing and we also believe we have a unique approach to securing Sponsors.

Sometimes, in this world there are unscrupulous Companies, just like there are Race Teams that take Sponsors Money without holding up their end of the bargain. That is just a fact. We are not one of those, if at any time one of our Members is unhappy, we will gladly offer their Membership Fee back.

We are here to assist the Local and Regional Teams with Cost, Products and the Securing of Sponsors, nothing more, nothing less.

I hope this clarifies the nature of our Company and I hope to continue to assist those who need assistance, The Race Teams.

Yours truly,

Scott Still

President

The American Motorsports Marketing Group,llc

www.amotogroup.com

thanks for posting Scott and giving us your input. I have a question though. Who are some of your success stories? What companies have you been able to partner with race teams? As somebody who is marketing is services for others, I feel it would be beneficial for yourself and your potential clients especially in a world where less and less people are doing for others over themselves.

Hello JCW

Thank you for the note, I appreciate the opportunity to showcase our Company and the Services we offer to Race Teams. As you may or may not know, our Company is currently in 9 States with 10 Team Representatives in the local Markets. We have a goal of 25 Teams Representatives covering 19 States in 2014. They are assisting Race Teams in several different forms of Motorsports, from Drag Racers. Drag Bikes, Open Wheel, Karting, ATV to Motorcross. We feel that our approach to Securing Sponsorships is different, with the inclusion of Marketing Events in our Packages.

In answer to your question about "Success Stories" that we have, the first come directly from reducing Race Teams Cost at the Track. We have partnered with Amsoil Racing Lubricants to offer 25% off all purchases for our Network Members, we have also Parntered with Panchos Racing Products to offer 5% off, and with Panchos soon being able to offer online shopping, these discounts will benefit all of our  Race Teams in our Network. Amsoil is National and while Panchos has been traditionally Mid Atlantic, they will soon be able to offer products Nationally and beyond via their website. It is our desire to assist the Race Teams anyway we can, and if cutting costs helps, then we will do that.

When it comes to hard $$, we have secured 160K in Sponsorships for 2014, these funds come from all our Reps, not just Central Pa. These funds will be distributed upon the Sponsors deciding who/when they wish their funds to be released. We as a Company are very young, under 6 months old, but I am very excited to see the response from Race Teams and Companies we speak with. I unfortunatley cannot disclose names due to our Agreements with the Race Teams and the Sponsors, if you have viewed one of our Agreements, you will see this section, it is in our Sponsors Agreement as well.  

I hope this offers insight into the bigger picture, I know Racers want Funding, and we want to help Race Teams. It is not a quick nor easy process, if it were we would not be in Business. No one is forcing any Race Teams to join our Network, but we know the strength of the Group is stronger than the Individual. Please keep in mind, we are trying to HELP the Race Teams. There are no hidden costs, nor fees,everything we do as a Company is above board. Being skeptical is healthy in this world, unless it does not allow one to see assistance when it is offered.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate this opportunity.

Scott Still

President

The American Motorsports Marketing Group,llc

I tell it like I see it.

Hello ILSprints

My only comment to your post as it mentioned $200, which is our Membership Fee. So I am assuming that you are referring to our Company. For the record, Our Members are not paying for discount coupons. The Membership Fee is to hire our Team Representatives for a 1 year period to Secure Sponoships. The Discounts we offer immediately are to offset costs, and in most cases could not be acquired without our Assistance. That is what our Company does, offers ways to cut cost, through Product Sponsors or Monetary Sponsors.

I agree there are scams out there, in every business, in every aspect of life, but like you mentioned there are Companies out there that are assisting.. and I know we are one of those doing this the right way.

Amotogroup

Consumer Rule #1.... Never pay for services in advance and only pay after you have confirmed the work you are paying for is completed to your satisfaction.

From childhood through to retirement I have been in sales. All of the mentioned services sound fishy to me and too good to be true. If you have to pay up front, run, don`t walk from the offer. Always work on a results oriented program. Check with other drivers because if something sounds too good to be true it probably is a scam of some kind. Get positive feed back from others who have enjoyed sucess from their use of these deals. They have been popping up on these sites for years and I have yet to see one driver post a positive review. DO YOUR HOMEWORK OR GET TAKEN.

After all that was written about this company, on here, you would think that NO ONE would get taken by their words.  What was it that that was said, supposedly by P. T. Barnum?  There is a sucker born every minute.....