BEWARE OF ARIHANT!!
I was soclicited by a person named Jim Deberry back in march of 2018. He asked me if i was interested in join a model building competetion where the winner of the contest would be flown to the trade show in Orlando, FL and would have their models featured at the IAAPA trade show.
Jim also said that there were 8-10 contestants that have already started and that i need to start ASAP if i wanted to finish in time by June 26th deadline. He said that there were a pannel of people judging this based on not just the artists talent, but their overall story! Jim also said that there would be a press conference where the top 3 finalest of the competetion, would have pictures of their work and would be mentioned.
I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to expose my talent in the Amusement Park Industry so i decided to join! Keep in mind that all material costs and expenses are coming out of my own pocket! By the time the first model was complete, the model costs me $5,650.
From time to time while contructing the model, Jim would touch base with me, asking me how things were coming along. I would tell him things like " this is a lot, its becoming very pricey for me, im not sure if i can finish because of the costs" He would always say "Jeff, the opportunity will be so substantial for you! you're going to be a "rock star" at the show, trust me!! so silly me, i would continue building!
Fast forward a few months to july 6th, the day of announcing the winner. Jim called me saying that there were a lot of amazing model builders and that i was neck to neck with someone else that they really liked, but Jim announced to me that i was the winner of the contest!
When he told me i won, i was in shock, i was so excited becuase my model was going to the trade show! After all the excitement, jim then told me that i needed to build ANOTHER MODEL. This time it needed to be a fully detailed water park! In my head i was like… "somethings not right here", another model??
Once again, jim would check in and say "but jeff, think of the opportunity, you're going to be a rockstar at the trade show! trust me!!" so i did…
After creating the second model, the total cost for the model was $6,000
When the water park model was complete, Jim then said that i was going to be resposible for the shipping of the models! which means i had to have customized crates built for each model which costed me $850 for both. Some how, later on, jim said that the company will pay for the shipping of the models from Los Angeles, CA to Orlando, FL but i had to front the model first and that they would reimburse me later. So without question, i did it! only because Jim kept putting it in my head that this is going to launch my career!
It's now November 12th, 2018, the week of the IAAPA trade show. I arrived at my hotel, that they booked me. I was thinking that becuase I'm doing a great job for Arihant that they would have the courtesy to put me in a half decent hotel room! that was NOT the case! It was a very trashy low budget hotel that was infested with bugs! I was like "this is a red flag for sure, they cant even put me in a clean room?'', Anyways, thats beside the main points here.
This is where things start to get interesting
A day before the show, jim had me go to the O.C.C.C (Orange County Convention Center) with him while his team was setting up the booth, It was ALL OVER THE PLACE, they were sooo unorganized, things were not set up and they whole entire booth just looked very unporfessional, in compared to all the other booths around them. Jim was yelling and swearing at the setup team and at one point, he even asked if i could help set up with the team! i said no right away!!
SHOW TIME!
I arrived 2 hours ahead of time where i finally got to meet the rest of the team! everyone seemed very friendly as they were congratulating me on my beautiful hand made models. I mean.. of course they would.. their getting to use them for free right?!
Things at 9:30am were still not finished, one of their models that they brought from India was broken and becuase i wanted to look good, i helped them fix it becuase they clearly had no idea what they were doing.
As the show started i noticed that Arihants booth was empty! everyone seemed like they were interested in PRO SLIDE and WHITE WATER, other main competitors of Arihants. At many points in the day, people would come and admir my models, but no one was actually interetsed in purchasing anything. It was like that through the entire 5 days at the show. People were amazed by the models but nobody was actually interested in working with me. Remember that Jim said that i would get so many contacts and people would start offering me jobs left and right! NEVER HAPPENED!
SCAM #1
Keep in mind that on Arihants Banner ad, they marketed them selves as "BEST PRICE GAURNTEED! and Best QUALITY GAURNTEED!!
Well thats interesting becuase on the 3rd day of the show, Jim Deberry came to my hotel to pick me up from my hotel. We descussed the industry and i told him how passionate i was about it and that this is where i need to be in my life!
I asked him about what he thinks of being in the industry and his exact words were "I DONT REALLY CARE ABOUT THE INDUSTRY, I HATE WATER SLIDES AND I'M ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY!''
Jim also said that ARIHANT CLIENTS ARE ACTUALLY NOT GETTING ANY TYPE OF A DISCOUNT! Jim's exact words were "ONCE THE CLIENTS SIGNS THE CONTACT, THEY GET SO INTRENCHED WITH PAPER WORK, THAT THE CLIENT ACTUALLY FORGETS THAT THERE WAS A DISCOUNT TO BEGIN WITH! THE PRICES ARE ALL THE SAME! he said!
Keep in mind the Jim Deberry, at the time was the President of marketing in the U.S.A branch for Arihant. When i heard that i thought to myself "Okay… if Jim and this company are scamming their clients, what makes you think that their not doing it to me!"
That was a huge red flag for me at this point BUT, i continued on trying to forget that he had said that to me. The day of the press conference, the only people who really attended where people that jim solicitied and 1 or 2 publisists from IAAPA. At no point in time did jim ever mention the top 3 contestants or show any of the other artists work!
SCAM # 2
After the press conference was finally over, i simply ask jim if i could see the other contestant work and his exact words were "all contestant signed a confidentiality agreement so unfortunietly we will not be able to show you any of the other artists work". Once again, Another red flag for me. If there was an actual competetion, why wouldn't they show the top 3 participants, things are just not adding up!!! Jim spacifically tolds me when i signed up at the very beginning that the Top 3 finialest would be mentioned. NEVER HAPPENED!
On Novemeber 14th, 2018 Jagat Parikh pulled me aside and he wanted to congradulate me personally for all my hard work on the models! Jagat said that him and the arihant team loved my work so much that they wanted to hire me as an independent contractor to be a concept creator for their company! they said they would have me sign a contract and the concepts would be used for the next years show in Paris France in exchange for me to let them use the water park model at their shows for free. i agreed to the offered, dispite of what jim said about how they run their business. I thought this was my big break!!
On the very last day of the show, Jim said that the company was not interested in purchasing the first model i built so Jim offered to store the model temporarily until i either send for it or jim would make other arrangements to donate it "temporitly" at either IAAPA headquarters or a water park museum in Daytona. Jim insured me that the model would be safe and sound, however he insisted that the crates that i paid $850 were disposed becuase they were too big and bulky. I told him no, but he threw them out anyways behind my back. Jim also told me that the company was going to cover the shipping costs which costed me $2,200
In January of 2019, i had a conference call with Jagat and he said that the contract will be coming to you via email by february. I didnt recieve my payment of $2,200 or hear back from them until the middle of April. I signed the contract and started coming up with new water slide ideas! Mean while during January threw April, they were using my water park model at various trade shows, which i was ok with because i was now a concept creator for Arihant. Around May 16th, i submitted many concept drawings to them, the team selects 3 out of the 8 concepts. Jagat ensured me that we needed the concepts fast because, the models needed to be made for the Paris show in September.
After submitting the concepts, i sents dozens of WhatsApp messages to Jagat and Vancilia asking what was happening with the new concept models. NOT A WORD! not up until one week before the Paris trade show. Vancilia repiled " oh.. i dont think the concepts will be at the show in Paris becuase of the space restrictions. I told her that we have a contract that says my models will be featured at the Paris booth in exchange for me letting them use my water park model. Vancila said she'd get back to me and never did.
During all of this back in fourth and getting the run around, i realized that i haven't heard from Jim in a while, i texted him asking how things were going and he said "Great, however i'm no longer working for Arihant!" i said ahhhh okayyy.. but what ever happened to my model that was suppose to be shipped back to me or donated? Jim says "the model got destroyed in transit! Sorry jeff, but you knew the risk, theres nothing i can do!!" i fired back and said "why didnt you tell me? now how do i rebound from loosing almost $6,000?? he stopped texting after that point!!
Days later Mengesh, another employee of Arihant, reached out to me saying that some concepts didnt make it threw the design phase but we'll fly you out to the show if you'd like. They obviously knew that i wasnt interested in going to Paris if i knew my designs were not going to be at the show. I told them i wasn't going! they never responded after that!
Some time goes by and its now the middle of October 2019. I Never EVER heard back from Jagat! out of know where Hardik Shah reached out to me saying that he will now be the new point of contact from now on moving forward with future projects. I told him "but what about the concepts??" what about my models that you already have? Hardik response was "concepts take months or even years to launch of the ground". I said, why wouldn't jagat just tell me that?, instead of leading me on for several months. Hardik could answer that question. Hardik also said that the water park model was being shipped back to Orlando to attened the IAAPA trade show for 2019. I never agreed nor did it say in the contract that Arihant could use my model for this years show. They just took it upon themselves to use my work without permission.
SCAM # 3
Hardik completely acted like our previous agreement didnt exist and asked me to build another model for Arihant!
I told him that i would simply need to be compensated for my work, since his company already has 2 very expensive models of mine and 1 of them ended up in the garbage. Hardik replied back "sorry for your loss but we need another model ASAP! I told him i needed $5,000 for my work plus the flight and hotels. Days later Hardik comes to me and says that Arihant is only willing for provide you $4,500 BUT that will include material costs, flights and hotels.
I told hardik, "How do i benifit from any of this? I'm doing all of this work for free, 1 model is in the trash and the other is beging used at various trade shows around the world and the concepts NEVER happened!
Hardik got very hostile and very unprofessional on the phone!! At this point i was 1000% knew i was being taken advantage of and being RIPPED OFF!
I asked hardik, please just tell me the truth, was there even a competition last year? just tell me the truth, Hardik starts screaming "THERE WAS NO COMPETITION, THERE WAS NO COMPETITION! FINE, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!!!
I said, "okay.. thank you, thats all i needed to hear!
After the show i text Jagat saying that i needed my model back, jagat said "sure, you're more than welcome to come to Orlando to get it!'' i said" are you serious?? i worked sooo hard for this company and got paid ZERO DOLLARS! He obviously felt bad cause he then changed his mind and said he will ship the model back to California!
Weeks later when i received it, the model was COMPLETELY DESTROYED!! you can tell that the model just didnt hit a few bumps during transit! This model was destroyed by someone!! support structures were on opposite sides of the model , things were ripped out of the ground and things that were cemented were completely broken!!
SO.. TO SUM IT ALL UP
1.) Arihant created a fake contest to have me start building models ASAP for them for FREE
2.) Arihant created a fake contract to string me along so they could use my $20,000 model for FREE at all their trade shows
3.) Arihant destroyed my property that retails for $16,000
4.) Arhiant tried to squeez another model out of me for FREE for the 2019 trade show
5.) Arihant uses deceptive marketing practices by marketing them selves as a cheaper financial solution when customers purchase their products
The following people from Arihant Water Park Equipment have engaged in a FRAUDULENT SCAM in order get free products!
Jim Deberry, Jagat Parikh, Hardik Shah, Mengesh Taksale, Vincila Colaco
