the mekeni story

seemed like it was heaven-sent by the gods when a person claiming to be a sales representative of the mekeni company approached the store two weeks ago, showing me a folded piece of bond paper containing their list of products, wholesaler prices, retailer prices, and standard retail prices.  he then went on to discuss a good business deal, a very good business offer.  he said he was from panpanga and that they were looking for a business partner here who could act as a wholesaler for them.  of course, was interested in his offer, and so was gords.  however, didn’t want to make the decision on my own so called bo.  after about an hour of discussing the business deal, we shook hands.  the decision was relatively easy to make, especially since bo and i were talking about adding new products in the store and thought of selling cold cuts, so this deal really seemed perfect.  anyhoo, who would not have grabbed an opportunity like this, right?

what he was offering was a mekeni product dealership, and it was so very much like a win-win situation that it immediately caught our interest.  and honestly, the sound of imaginary “kaching-kaching” was too much to ignore.  hehehe.

s’okay…the deal goes this way…

he told me that we need to purchase 30 kilos of mekeni products worth more or less P5,000 on the first shipment, but i didn’t want to risk that much and told him that that was a bit too much for me.  he saw my interest fading, so he bargained.  “get half that much, and the dealership is yours.”

told him that have to think it over, but he said that the offer was good for that day only.  however, the opportunity sounded too good to pass up, so finally called bo to help me and gords decide.

here were the terms and conditions of the dealership:

1. 15 kilos of mekeni products for only about P2,500+  as starting stocks, as compared to the whole 30-kilo deal, but if you opt to choose the 30-kilo deal, you get to benefit from a 10% discount.
2. the second month of your dealership, you get a free freezer, plus a whole lot more.  one, the mekeni company will shoulder the electricity consumption of their freezer.  two, you can store other products inside the freezer like soft drinks and ice, except, of course, their competitors’ products such as pampanga’s best, purefoods, etc.
3. they will put signage over your store like banners, posters, and streamers to advertise the mekeni products.
4. you get to benefit from their great consignment deal on your second month as a mekeni product dealer.  this includes picking up old stocks weekly and replacing it with new stocks so as to keep the good name of their company.
5. the company will provide you a customer base, the retailers that they are delivering their products to, and these will be the carenderias near you as well as the smaller sari-sari stores in your neighborhood and other neighboring streets.

of course, we were ecstatic over this wonderful business deal.  we  need not worry about unsold and expired products, the additional cost of electricity, advertising the product, and establishing our customer base because they will be provided by the company.

then lala, the doubting thomas or thomasa, for that matter, showed up.  with frantic eyes, she signaled that she wanted to talk to me, so up i went and talked it over with her inside our room.  then she asked one little question that was going to put the big seed of doubt in my mind.  “why choose us when there are better and bigger stores?”

when i went back down and asked the sales representative why he chose our store, all he said was that they needed a store where they can drop big loads of mekeni products and a store which is very much accessible to their retailers because, he said, the cost of transporting their goods from one store to another is a bit high as compared to having one store where their retailers could go to when they run out of supply.  s’okay, that sounded good enough.

we then discussed contact details, their office location, his name (which he hasn’t told us yet, mind you), and the money we were supposed to shell out for the first stock.

*insert warning bells ringing here*

phone numbers, he said, will be given when we receive the receipt.
office location, he said, was in our local wet market area.  the exact location of which he cannot specify.
the money, he said, will amount to more or less P2,500.
name, he said, was karil.  no last name…just karil.  name was given after we shook hands to close the deal.

and then he said he’ll be back after lunch with his boss and that they’ll be bringing with them the products and the posters and banners.

when karil (or whoever the fuck he was) left, we discussed the warning bells we heard ringing  in our heads and what to do in case it is a scam.

1. karil was not in mekeni uniform.  that much shouldn’t been obvious to us (slaps head in disgust!).
2. the product and price list was just a piece of folded bond paper, as compared to valid sales reps who show you brochures and folders.
3. he couldn’t tell us the exact location of their office.
4. he couldn’t name the retailers he said would be coming to our store to get their supply, except for ate nene, and there are way too many ate nenes in way too many carenderias in naga.
5. he couldn’t tell us upfront their office phone numbers, except that it will be written on the receipt.
6. he couldn’t tell us the specific reason why he chose this store, except for what have written above.
7. when gords spoke in kapampangan to him, he couldn’t answer a simple “nanung lagyu mu?” or “what’s your name?”
8. he didn’t even understand what gords meant when he said “lukluk keni” or “sit down” when gords invited him to sit with us at the store’s table to discuss the matter.

bo said, “look at it this way, if this wholesaler deal turns out good, we have a good business deal.  if it is a scam, we have some cold cuts to eat (in fact, lots of ‘em for days to come, worth 15 kilos!).

gords said, “just make sure though that you don’t give them any money unless the products are on the table and make sure, too, that you count the products and that the amount is right.”

me, “don’t you two fucking leave me here alone to deal with them when they return.  i’m gullible and susceptible to scams, so don’t you dare leave the freaking house or you might go home only to find out that i’ve given them the store’s cash, earnings, and more!”

after gords and bo left me to mind the store, lala, the ever-doubting thomasa (thank god for that!), came down and nagged me about it, “are you sure?!  how sure are you sure?!”

to ease my doubts and stop her nags, i searched for “mekeni scam” in the web, and lo and behold, there were stories about such scams.  here’s what i found:

1. from a forum in sulit.com.ph warming people of mekeni scam.
2. from the blog of paetechie, warning of the same thing.

so, what to do?

1. cancel the deal, of course.
2. call mekeni head office and ask them if they are aware of this.
3. bash our heads with a big stone for being such gullible asses!

after lunch…

we called the mekeni head office, but unfortunately, we couldn’t contact them.

and then karil, with an older man, came back, lugging with them a red mekeni basket filled to the top with mekeni products.  was sick just looking at them, at both the people and the products.

don’t know why but the fact that karil took off his slippers before he entered the store struck me as odd.  haven’t known any sales representative taking off his shoes before he enters the premises of a building.

anyhoo, older man ordered karil to show us the expiration date and to count the products, while gords pretended to count with him and check their prices.  everything checked out right.

then called bo (who looked about ready to cry when he saw us entertaining them) to help us shoo them away.  they talked a few minutes about the products, and then they gave us the product list (which was the same fucking folded piece of crap!) and the receipt, which:

1. has no company name and address.
2. has no company logo.
3. has none of the what-have-yous needed to produce a legitimate company receipt.
4. has no contact numbers, except for the written cellphone number that was probably karil’s, seeing his name was written above it.

gords asked them why that was so, but they didn’t have any answer, except to say that that was their official receipt.  gords and bo began quizzing them once more about their office location, which karil insisted was at the wet market.

the older man, seeing that we were beginning to doubt them, said that he was calling their bigger boss (who was apparently with them at that time daw) to explain the details to us.  bigger boss came and tried to get us to sign the receipt, which we refused to do, of course.

it was funny to note though that karil seemed to know much more about the products than bigger boss did, and whenever we directed our questions at bigger boss, it was karil who would answer.  they gave contradictory answers as to the location of their office here.  karil says wet market, bigger boss says pili.

anyhoo, older man was outside the store, impatient and was starting to get angry, i know.  he gave bo numbers to call, including the number of their biggest boss here in naga.

bo went up and pretended to call the numbers they gave him, but he called the mekeni head office instead.  fortunately, he finally got a hold of somebody who told him that…
no, there is no such wholesaler deal…
and yes, they are aware of the scam…
and no, we should not deal with the scamners…
and yes, they have an office here in camarines sur, but not at the wet market or in pili, but in camaligan.

person on the other end of the phone also told bo that they will be contacting the camaligan office and that bo is to wait for their valid sales representative’s call.

when bo came back down, he told them that we want to think the deal over, but older man insisted that the deal was good for that day alone but says that we can call them in case we wanted to push through with it.  knowing that we were becoming doubting thomases, he showed us his ID but was careful enough to cover his real name.  he went on to say in a huffy voice that they are not scammers and that they can be trusted.

karil remained impassive; bigger boss looked liked he was suffering from severe constipation and wanted to get the hell out of here; and older man was pissed off that a deal had gone bad.

anyhoo, to close the issue, older man told us to simply purchase something from them to compensate their efforts for lugging around the products (plus the bogus sales talks, am sure!) and wasting their time.

steering away from any arguments and other nasty stuff, we decided to buy one of each product, and so we were stuck with eight types of mekeni cold cuts.  but hell, shelling out P328 is way better than giving them P2,788.

we promised to give them our decision the next day, and they promised to come back the next day.

fortunately, both promises never came true.

ay, third palan, counting mine.  hahaha!  promised to tell you the story but didn’t. ehehe.

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Tags: mekeni dealer scam, mekeni scam, mekeni wholesale scam

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