Don’t Hire SweetRelease for Marketing

Recently, In-Charge.net has been looking to expand our marketing efforts. We decided to enlist the help of a professional marketing firm to assist with this strategy. To find a marketing company, we searched the XBiz business directory. Our plan was to hire a marketing company and have them first work on our partner site at RoganRichards.com and if things were successful, they would be hired to work on In-Charge.net as well. After contacting various companies, we ultimately went with the most expensive option which was a company called SweetRelease.

In November 2017, SweetRelease presented us with a 3 month marketing proposal for the RoganRichards site which would run from December until the end of February. We then scheduled a conference call for November 12th at 8:00pm EST with Braeden Rhys and Paul (no last name given) from SweetRelease and one of the admins from In-Charge to discuss our objectives. Once that date arrived, hours before the call, Lynette Irene from SweetRelease (Braeden’s mother) emailed us stating “we have had to re-schedule your consultation” due to “urgent unforeseen circumstances” and rescheduled for the following week.

lynette irenebraeden rhys

Now comes time for the rescheduled conference call on November 19th at 8:00pm EST. I get an email at 8:05pm stating that they’ll have to reschedule this conference again due to “delays with a previous client”. I expressed my displeasure with their lack of professionalism and that I might want a refund if this is the quality of their service. Immediately, they email me back and say that they can now do the conference call and won’t have to reschedule. During the call, I let them know that Rogan Richards should join the next call because if he’s not on board, I would want them to do marketing for In-Charge instead. They replied back stating this would be “not a problem at all we will send you a confirmation letter to confirm”.

 

We have a conference on November 24th with myself, Rogan, and SweetRelease. Rogan isn’t on board since SweetRelease couldn’t answer his basic questions about their work experience. I email Braeden and Paul and tell they will be working on In-Charge for marketing since Rogan isn’t on board. After the first week of December, I email SweetRelease asking for an update. They reply back on December 12th and state that In-Charge is ” too complex” and they would spend all of December planning a strategy. On December 20th, they requested a conference with myself and Paul from SweetRelease. At the last minute, Paul cancels because he was “held up with a prior client”. I emailed them days later asking when Paul would update us which prompted Lynette to state all of them are on vacation until January 5th.

 

On January 9th and January 11th, I emailed them for an update about any work, a marketing plan, and my expected call with Paul but no replies to either email. Lynette replied back with a link to the “SweetRelease dashboard” for In-Charge which consisted of web traffic data I provided to them already through Google Analytics. I emailed Lynette back and asked how this would help us achieve our marketing goals. Lynette never responded, so I emailed her back the next day to no response and the next day to no response either. Finally Lynette replied back 4 days later stating that the project schedule would be Month 1 (Dec): Website review, Month 2 (Jan): Strategy development, and Month 3 (Feb): Implement strategy; even though, we were told that December would be “Strategy Development”.

 

I email Paul from SweetRelease on February 4th, asking for an update. The email comes back and says Paul’s email address doesn’t exist. I email Lynette and Braeden asking for updates and why Paul’s email isn’t working and remind them that the contract ends in 3 weeks and no work has been completed. After no one responds back, Lynette replies back 3 days later to state that Paul was fired 2 weeks ago due to “conflict of interest” and that my marketing plan would arrive on February 16th. Lynette then states that she’ll give us a 60-day extension on our contract for this poor service being provided.

 

February 16th comes and no marketing plan arrives. I email them again and leave voicemails nearly every day until February 26th, where I demand a full refund since I received no work. Finally, Braeden emails me to say that my work has been delayed because Paul was fired and now because he had a death in his family. Also, he states that supposedly the marketing plan is done and they’ve been emailing me but their replies are caught in a “loop” (even though I’m replying to them via Gmail and they have my phone number). Braeden adds that they’ll send my completed marketing plan in 4 days on March 2nd and not right now. I reply back that I just want a refund and that I’m done working with them. Braeden cites the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) law on refunds and that they can only issue a refund when a major problem arises. I still demand a refund and find that the ACCC states that a company cannot have a no refund policy and this warrants a refund. Braeden replies back and states that he never said “no refunds” but that they’ll give me a “refund” in the form of a 60-day extension – even though an extension is not a refund. I then ask the next day when I will get a refund to which Lynette replies that the matter was settled when I spoke to Braeden. March 2nd arrives and no marketing plan or any correspondence comes from Braeden Rhys or Lynette.

 

 I researched more into Braeden Rhys and learned that he’s some bizarre and untalented drag queen named Kara Zmatiq that sings on gay cruises or whatever in Australia. Then I found his Linkedin profile where he claims that he did marketing for Rogan Richards website which is a blatant lie because In-Charge owns the Rogan Richards website and Braeden never worked on it. I then wondered if the rest of his Linkedin is false and misleading so I reached out to another company listed on there named MiaMaxx and the owner of that company told me Braeden took $3000 from him and failed to deliver on his promises. Braeden Rhys seems to love leading a double life – pretending to be female, pretending to do quality marketing work – when in fact, he’s nothing but a lying scam artist that refuses to give refunds even when he performed no work.

 

So I’m left with contacting Braeden Rhys’ local government to report him for fraud and shady business practices which I’ve already done. I’m also in talks with lawyers to level as much legal action as I can against him and Lynette to get our money back and for wasting our time.  After more investigating, I seen from Braeden’s cross dressing persona’s Instagram that he’s been partying it up all through Australia instead of delivering the work we paid him to do. I’m assuming he’s using our money for his trips and appearances. I’ll probably even reach out to more businesses that Braeden Rhys is associated with and let all of them know about his fraudulent business practices. I look forward to seeing Braeden and Lynette fail in life and I’ll make sure I do whatever it takes to ensure they don’t scam others again.

So the moral of the story here is to never do business with cross dressing degenerate scam artists because they’ll steal your money and lie through their ugly teeth.

 

UPDATE: After this blog post, we went to Braeden Rhys / Kara Zmatiq’s Instagram and asked him why he still hasn’t delivered on his promises or refunded our money. Like a cowardly pussy, he deleted our comments and blocked us from all of his social media and from the Sweet Release social media without explaining himself. We are in touch with Australian authorities as this is being written