The PTA's Are Missing A Lot Of Money
Where Is The Parents $75,0000?
IS DAN KULLY AND HIS SISTER TRYING TO SWEEP THIS THEFT UNDER THE RUG ?????
SHOULDN'T PARENTS HAVE BEEN INFORMED BEFORE DAN KULLY HOPPED ON A PLANE TO WASHINGTON ?????
WHEN WERE GREENWICH PTA LEADERS GOING TO TELL THE PARENTS THAT THEY HAD BEEN RIPPED OFF ?????
SHOULDN'T SOMEONE CALL THE GREENWICH POLICE DEPARTMENT AND REPORT THIS MISSING $75,000 ?????
MAYBE SOMEONE SHOULD BE CALLING THE CONNECTICUT ATTORNEY GENERAL ?????
SHOULDN'T PTA LEADERS BE SENDING OUT A MASS EMAIL TELLING PARENTS TO DISPUTE THE CREDIT CARD CHARGES, SO THAT THEY WONT LOSE THEIR MONEY ?????
WHY HASN"T THE GREENWICH PTA'S PULLED THE PLUG ON THEIR COUNT ME IN WEBSITE, BEFORE MORE PARENTS LOOSE MONEY ?????
WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP IN THE GREENWICH PTA"S ?????
KIROTV
BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Parents and PTA leaders on Tuesday banged on the door of a Bellevue company that's at the center of a nationwide controversy after a KIRO 7 Eyewitness News story revealed the firm hasn't paid back money it owes to youth sports teams.
Dan Kully was among those looking for answers at the offices of Count Me In, a company that helps thousands of youth sports teams to help collect registration dues and donations.
"Seventy-five thousand dollars really hurts," Kully told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Gary Horcher. "And the last people that anyone should be taking advantage of are kids."
Kully's sister runs a PTA for 15 schools in Greenwich, Conn., that hired Count Me In to supply a Web site and process credit card donations. He said the PTAs discovered Count Me In appeared to be keeping all the parents' money -- $75,000.
Count Me In's doors were open on Monday, and phones were being answered. On Tuesday, phone calls went unanswered and doors were locked.
Some little leagues said they're missing from $60,000 to $150,000 in registration money collected by Count Me In.
The company sent one local parentan email Tuesday that said, "We cannot provide your organization a payment plan as the timing and amount of future funding is uncertain. We will not make promises we do not know with 100% certainty can be kept."
Previous Story:
Little Leagues Nationwide Say Bellevue Company Took Their Money
SEATTLE -- Local little leagues are missing thousands of dollars, and they say a Bellevue, Wash., company took their money and won't give it back.
The company called Count Me In helps thousands of youth sports teams nationwide to help collect registration dues and donations.
According to court documents, some organizations hire companies such as Count Me In to allow members to submit online credit card payments for registration or to pay for other services.
The companies accept the payment, process them with the credit card companies and then take their share of the customer’s payment before giving it to the organization.
The potential for fraud has come to the attention of the Washington State Attorney General's Office, and Count Me In is facing a lawsuit in federal court by a New Jersey soccer team that says CMI took their money and used it for their own pleasure, according to court documents.
Dozens of leagues could be affected around the nation.
The president of Eastlake Little League baseball in Washington State, Todd Pladson, said he hired CMI, which charges about $3 for each registration.
Pladson said Count Me In cannot account for $66,000 parents paid just last week using the online services. When the registration money never showed up in the Little League bank account, Pladson went to Count Me In's Bellevue address.
Pladson said he was eventually told by the CEO of CMI, Terry Drayton, that the company was in financial trouble and could only give him a check for $4,000.
"On Sunday, we sent an e-mail out to all our members who already paid and we asked them to dispute the credit card charge," Pladson said.
The co-president of Issaquah Youth Lacrosse also went to the Bellevue office in an effort to talk with Drayton, but was only able to talk to a sales consultant.
“She said, 'Well, we can assure you that we will be making every effort to pay you back, we have every intention to pay you that money.' I said, 'Every intention?' Sounds like we have a problem. She said 'Well, we are in a bit of a cash crisis,'" said Matthew Balkman, co-president of the Issaquah Youth Lacrosse.
Balkman said he asked the consultant how many other youth sports organizations had this problem and she responded with more than 100.
In a complaint filed by a soccer club in New Jersey, members paid more than $210,000 in fees and donations to the club through the Count Me In Web site.
Count Me In has failed to pay the soccer club at least $142,000 of the $210,000 collected during the spring, summer and fall of 2008, according to court documents.
Two board members of the club called Drayton and he said $210,000 was due to the club, but the company did not have the money to pay it in full, the documents stated.
In a follow up e-mail sent by Drayton to the New Jersey club, he said his company used the money to satisfy debts owed to other third parties of Count Me In.
Soon after the phone call, a check of nearly $68,000 was received by the soccer club, but a balance still remains, according to the complaint.
"That's what really disturbs me is that on Nov. 1, when we opened up our online registration, CMI had already been sued by a youth organization in New Jersey," Pladson said, "It was a soccer organization where they hadn't paid them $140,000 and now we're on the hook for $66,000 or somewhere near that amount."
The CEO of Count Me In would not return phone calls from KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.
League coaches said the company may be sending out a form letter to teams everywhere, telling them they are trying to get financing to pay the money back, but some smaller league coaches said if they don't get the money, there may be no season at all.
Letter From Count Me In To Clients
Here the text of an e-mail from Count Me in to some clients:
We received your inquiry about a late remittance payment for your organization due from Count Me In Corporation. We apologize for a standardized email response but we have a small team and cannot respond to each client individually or with a phone call. Here’s a summary of where we are at the moment:
We are working with investors to resolve the issues and provide the funds necessary to pay you. This is our number one priority.
We are in negotiations and will report to you via email when we have an announcement on that. We expect substantive news in the next 7-10 days.
We currently expect that we will obtain the funds to pay your organization in full.
We will send you a weekly progress report via email until this is resolved.
We cannot provide your organization a payment plan as the timing and amount of future funding is uncertain. We will not make promises we do not know with 100% certainty can be kept. We may have done that in the past but we will not do it in the future.
We understand the difficult position this puts your organization in and are sincerely apologetic.
We will continue to provide hosting for your website, access to the Rainier desktop and full technical support for your organization while we work to resolve this.
Finally, we recognize that you have current programs and upcoming registrations and will understandably be concerned about increasing your financial exposure. We have a simple option to eliminate any risk: we will work with you to set-up your own credit card account so that all future funds flow directly to your organization. This can be done in a day or two and you can get details of how to set it up automatically by sending an email to clientMOR@rainiersupport.com.
Another advantage of this option is that you will not need to find, pay and migrate to another service provider. Until we resolve the issues we will provide our services and credit our fees towards reducing the amount owed to you.
Sincerely,
Count Me In Corporation
ON THE WEB:
Count Me In Corporation
Count Me In Sports, Inc. provides online registration and league management software for league administrators. Our solution is hosted so all you need is a PC with an Internet connection. We're flexible, comprehensive, affordable and quick to deploy. Telephone support is included from our onshore team.
Count Me In Sports, Inc. provides online registration and league management software for league administrators. Our solution is hosted so all you need is a PC with an Internet connection. We're flexible, comprehensive, affordable and quick to deploy. Telephone support is included from our onshore team.
Count Me In makes it easy to provide online registration for players, volunteers, sponsors and officials. Your revenues will increase from higher levels of participation, payment and team sponsorship. Our league management software is perfect for soccer, baseball, lacrosse, volleyball, football, basketball or other sport leagues.
We provide the easy-to-use tools that work for you 7/24. Everyone from coaches to parents has a better experience plus we save you time and money. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved in your sports league! Printable Sports Registration Benefits List and Online Registration Features List.
Learn why Count Me In is the trusted online sports registration software for thousands of organizations, tens of thousands of activities, millions of registrations and hundreds of millions in payments.
Learn why Count Me In is the trusted online sports registration software for thousands of organizations, tens of thousands of activities, millions of registrations and hundreds of millions in payments.
Online Registration and Payment
Fully Customizable Online Forms
Certified Real Time Credit Card Processing
Automated Confirmations and Receipts
Fully Integrated Shopping Cart
Count Me In's online registration software makes it easy to manage your sports league and attract new players, volunteers, and sponsors. Whether you manage a Little League or other baseball league, a soccer association, or a lacrosse or youth football team, our league management software offers easy-to-use tools that make management and administration a snap.
Our sports registration software allows you to simultaneously automate league management, increase participation and revenue, and save time and money. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved in your sports league!
Printable Sports Registration Benefits List.
Learn why Count Me In's is the trusted online registration software solution for more than one thousand organizations, more than ten thousand programs, and millions of registrations.
Youth Sports Registration Software Video Demo
Team Building & Game Scheduling
Player & Volunteer Management Tools
Membership Management
Broadcast and Targeted Email
Free Hosting, Support & Training...
Printable Sports Registration Benefits List.
Learn why Count Me In's is the trusted online registration software solution for more than one thousand organizations, more than ten thousand programs, and millions of registrations.
Youth Sports Registration Software Video Demo
Team Building & Game Scheduling
Player & Volunteer Management Tools
Membership Management
Broadcast and Targeted Email
Free Hosting, Support & Training...
MORE NEWS ABOUT COUNT ME IN:
TechFlash, WA
Several little leagues, youth soccer clubs and non-profit organizations across the country have been left wondering what became of their operating funds after allegations arose this week that Bellevue-based Count Me In failed to make payments to customers.
Chief Executive Terry Drayton now tells TechFlash that they are attempting to address the issue. "Know we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation," said Drayton via text message today.
Count Me In, which handles online registrations for thousands of non-profit groups, including several little league baseball and youth soccer groups in the Seattle area, allegedly used some of the registration fees for corporate expenses, according to a lawsuit filed by a soccer club in New Jersey.
But the problems appear to run deeper than the soccer club, with the Anchorage Daily New reporting that a softball club in San Diego, a Lacrosse organization in Illinois, a soccer and ski clubs in Alaska are each owed between $10,000 and $200,000......
.....Lisa Pyper, president of the North King County Little League, said the baseball league pulled the plug on Count Me In last week after they learned of the company's problems.They are not owed any money, with Pyper saying the little league received a check from last summer. But with registration starting December 1 for the next baseball season, Pyper said the timing is not good.
The league is looking into setting up a PayPal system to handle registrations.
"If the Web site goes down, we have all of our parents' email addresses so we will do it all manually," she said.
Pyper said they no choice but to abandon Count Me In given the reports of mismanagement of funds. "We only have $35,000 in reserve, so if we didn't get paid $35,000 that would be all of our money," she said. "We can't take that chance as a non-profit."
A spokeswoman for the Boys and Girls Clubs of King County, which uses the Count Me In registration system, said they were investigating the matter.
KING5.com
By ERIC SCHUDISKE / KING 5 News
BELLEVUE, Wash. – A financial scare climbing into six figures is rattling local nonprofit and youth sports programs.
At the center of the scandal is a Bellevue company called "Count Me In" – a company that collects registration fees for sports clubs over the Internet.
Sports clubs claim "Count Me In" isn't paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee percentages they're owed.
Red flags began to rise last week for area sports organizations like Little League.
"They contacted me and told me CMI isn't able to make their financial obligations," said Bob Toiga, District Nine Little League.
CMI is "Count Me In."
Terry Drayton, the entrepreneur who launched homegrocer.com, started "Count Me In" seven years ago. The online site handles registration fees for sports and is supposed to then funnel money to the organizations.
Many say they haven't received payments since November.
"$44,000 and 247 registrants at the time we turned off the credit card feature of the Web site," said Walter Scott, President, Bellevue West Little League and parent.
And that's just Bellevue West Little League's balance with CMI. Dozens of local clubs could be affected.
The League president advises parents to dispute the registration charge with their credit card company.
"Our programs will continue. We have reserves for events like this. It will hurt, however," said Scott.
Tuesday, the downtown office address for CMI listed on Google was empty. There were no employees, no signs, just fresh paint.
Another company owed by Drayton wouldn't open the door. The contact phone number went to voicemail.
The allegations stretch from a soccer club in New Jersey to a ski club in Alaska.
Washington sports clubs are caught in the middle. But Scott says the company isn't in default with their club yet.
"I have full faith that this thing will work out and my hope is that this is just a scare," he said.
Local Little League sports programs promise kids will still take the field, but they want League parents to protect their money.
The Attorney General's Office will not say if they're investigating, although they do say they have four complaints.
Calls to "Count Me In" were not returned.
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