Arch Enterprises Attacked by Fictitious Person
on Ripoff Report?

To our current and potential customers:

It has come to our attention that a supposed individual in Santa Barbara, CA had posted a negative review about Arch Enterprises on a website called Ripoff Report. We want to take this opportunity to educate our current and potential customers on the facts of this post.

1. The person using the screen name “xemployee” that posted the negative review has never been a customer or an employee of our company. We are a family owned metal refiner based in the heart of the Midwest and neither have an ex-employee living in California, nor any records of doing business with an individual in this specific area of the country.
   
   
2. Based on what we researched on Ripoff Report for how to handle questionable posts, there really is no way to contact the supposed person and address their particular complaint. There is no name on the post and all contact information was deleted. In fact, the post looks very much like someone was trying to link to some other site, but Ripoff Report removed it.
   
   
3. We can file a rebuttal report, but this seems rather pointless when it is rather obvious that person does not exist.
   
   
4. We contacted Ripoff Report to inquire about our options and were told that the posting is protected by the Communications Decency Act and the company will not provide details on the posting party without a court order. So, we can obviously pursue this path so that we can sue this person directly, but another option is to pay to join Ripoff Report’s Corporate Advocacy Program.

Are We Alone?

Unfortunately, many organizations are currently suffering from these types of posts and question the validity of comments made on Ripoff Report. For more information, we suggest reading the following stories from respected news organizations.

• See a News Clip from WSVN Miami
• Read an in depth article on Ripoff Report from Phoenix New Times News

Is Ripoff Report Trying to Hurt Us?

As a company, we are committed to being transparent about our business practices and building a loyal customer base so it is very hurtful to see this kind of post.

In fairness to Ripoff Report, we are sure that the site helps many people avoid scams and punishes the reputations of unscrupulous companies. If you go to this page (http://www.ripoffreport.com/wantToSueRipoffReport.asp) in their site, you can get their point of view. It actually makes a lot of sense.

So, why don’t we join their Corporate Advocacy Program?
If you read the page on Ripoff Report’s site, you may wonder why we don’t just join their Corporate Advocacy Program. If we were to join the program, it appears that we could pay Ripoff Report to post positive feedback to any complaint our company received and run ads on their site certifying us as “Ripoff Report Verified Safe.” In fact, Cash4Gold apparently pays for this service already and ironically gets their banner ads published on the page about Arch. Furthermore, their feedback says that the company “has consistently received an A Rating from the Better Business Bureau for seven straight years.” When we looked them up on 4-14-09, Cash4Gold’s BBB rating was a D-. (see BBB Site).

Our thought is that joining this program would just help promote this practice of charging companies to defend their reputation against unwarranted and unsubstantiated attacks.

So what does this all mean?
The reality is that we at Arch Enterprises operate in a relatively confusing industry. Most of us metal refiners are still very legitimate companies that help manufacturers, jewelers, dentists, film processors, and the like refine their precious metals, but because so many consumers have gotten into the act of selling their old silver and gold jewelry, it’s now a very competitive and questionable industry.

As our number one priority, we are dedicated to providing customers with a fair pricing structure that is disclosed to the customer when they contact us. For most items from the general consumer Arch Enterprises pays anywhere from 60% to 90% of the metal value of your items (more is often paid for gold and minted bars or coins. We basically calculate your fine metal’s value weight and the metal’s market price and pay you for it.

Plus, we don’t ask you to just mail in your valuables, we encourage you to get an upfront estimate so you can determine if you even want to have these valuable refined after you get the estimate. Our process follows:

• We ask customers to describe what they have, the metal type and purity and an approximate weight. We do not take plated items.
• We tell the customer the percentage of the metal value we will pay them back and give an estimate based on the current market.
• Your payment will depend on the actual weight and the composition of material we receive. Payment is calculated on market price of gold, silver and platinum on the day your material is processed.
• When material is received that is not as described to us we contact the customer and ask them if they would like it shipped back to the customer at their own expense. Because of this, our customers never receive a check with a surprisingly low value.

As always, we are committed to delivering the finest services in precious metal refining. We are endorsed by the Kansas and Missouri Dental Associations and some of our largest and long-standing customers include Eastman Kodak Co., Sigma Chemical, Barnes Jewish Hospital, University of Missouri Hospitals, Siegel Robert and many more. If you have any questions about the post, or about Arch Enterprises, please contact Julie DiNatale at julie.dinatale@archenterprises.com.