Customers around the country are upset with a local business which converts videotapes to DVD’s. Now, those customers are asking for their videotapes back after not receiving their DVD copies in the time frame they were told they’d receive them by.

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NEWS. TALITHA: NOW TO A 12-INVESTIGATES STORY THAT ALREADY HAS LED TO ACTION BEING TAKEN. KENNY: PEOPLE FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY REACHED OUT TO US ABOUT MEMORIES ON MEDIA, A WINSTON-SALEM COMPANY TH CONVERTS VHS TO DVD’S. THEY SAID THEY SENT IN THEIR TAPES MONTHS AGO, BUT HAVEN’ RECEIVED DVDS, AND NOW THEY’RE WORRIED WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE PRECIOUS VIDEOTAPE TALITHA: THAT COMPANY HAS AN F-RATING WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU, FOLLOWING 13 UNRESOLVED COMPLAINTS IN THE LAST 3 YEARS, AND A DOZEN MORE NEW COMPLAINTS THAT CAME IN IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS KENNY: STEVE KING IS LIVE IN OUR STUDIO WITH MORE ON THE CONCERNS FROM CUSTOMERS. AND THE RESPONSE FROM THE BUSINESS OWNER STEVE: WE FOUND ONLINE COMPLAINTS AGAINST MEMORIES ON MEDIA DATING BACK TO OCTOBER, SOME STATING THE COMPANY HAD THEIR VIDEOTAPES FOR OVER A YEAR, OTHERS STATING THE COMPANY RETURNED THEM AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS WITHOUT TRANSFERRING THEM TO DVD FORMAT. WE ALSO HEARD FIRST-HAND FROM SOME PEOPLE TODAY, WHO SAY THEY WERE WORRIED THEY’D NEVER GET THEIR TAPES BACK, WHICH ARE THE ONLY COPIES OF THEIR FAMILY MEMORIES. >> I FEEL ALMOST PHYSICALLY SICK ABOUT IT IT’S JUST A PART OF OUR HISTORY AND I WANT IT BACK >> I JUST FEEL SICK. HELPLESS. STEVE: JUDY HERRON AND KATHY MONTGOMERY ARE IN THE SAME BOAT. AS OF THURSDAY MORNING, THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THEIR FAMILY VIDEOTAPES, AFT SENDING THEM TO MEMORIES ON MEDIA IN WINSTON-SALEM AS PA OF A GROUPON DEAL. THEY WERE BOTH TOLD THEY’ RECEIVE DVD COPIES IN EIGHT WEEKS, BUT THAT TIMED PASSED, AND THEY HEARD NOTHING >> IT WAS MY CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS, BIRTHDAYS, THE BIRTH OF MY SON, MY FATHER WHO HAS PASSED AWA WE HAD GREAT FAMILY TIME, WE LAUGHED, WE CRIED AND NOW IT’S GONE I WANT TO LOOK AT THAT TAPE AND LOOK AT MY FATHER AND MY CHILDREN WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG. STEVE: HERRON, WHO LIVES I TEXAS, SENT IN TAPES AT HER MOTHER’S REQUEST. >> SHE WAS KIND OF POKING FUN OF ME AND SHE SAID, ’THESE ARE PROBABLY GOING TO BE THE ONLY VIDEOS YOU HAVE OF ME, YOU NEED TO GET THEM DONE,’ AND MY MOM PASSED AWAY ON JUNE THE 15TH. STEV THIS IS WHAT THEY’VE HEARD IN RECENT WEEKS, TRYING TO CALL MEMORIES ON MEDIA USING THE PHONE NUMBER PROVIDE >> MY SISTER AND I EVEN TALKED ABOUT BUYING A PLANE TICKET AND ME GOING UP THERE AND KNOCKING ON THE DOOR. STEVE: WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT WE DID. THE BUSINESS OWNER, ROBERT BEACHLEY ANSWERED, BUT DID NOT WANT TO APPEAR ON CAMERA HE BLAMED THE DELAY ON A FEW FACTORS, A LARGE NUMBER OF GROUPON DEALS THEY RECEIVED IN RECENT MONTHS, LOSING TW EMPLOYEES, AND THE FACT THAT THE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE THOUSANDS OF VHS TO DVD REQUESTS HAS TO BE COPIED OVER IN REAL TIME. BEACHLEY TELLS WXII 12 NEW , "I APOLOGIZE FOR IT TAKING SO LONG. WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF KEEPING ANYONE’S PROPERTY. I UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT I IS. I’M A PARENT, I LOVE MAKING CUSTOMERS HAPPY AND I HATE THAT WE’VE GOT SO MANY CUSTOMERS WHO ARE UNHAPPY RIGHT NOW BUT IT’S A SITUATION WHERE I CAN ONLY DO MUCH AND WE’RE TRYING TO GET EVERYTHING RUN AS QUICKLY POSSIBLE AND GET IT OUT. IF THEY CAN BE PATIENT WITH US WE WILL HAVE IT OUT TO THEM AND IF THEY CAN’T BE WE WILL HAPPI SEND IT BACK TO THEM." BEACHLEY ALSO SAYS HE REGRETS TAKING ON THAT MANY ORDERS, AND SHOULD HAVE SCALED BACK OPERATIONS. THANKS TO OUR VISIT, BEACHLEY CONTACTED BOTH WOMEN, AND TOLD THEM HE’D BE SENDING THEIR TAPES BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. BEACHLEY SAYS HE’S WORKING TO COMPLETE FEBRUARY ORDERS BY THE END OF THIS MONT BUT, FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO WAIT, THEY CAN GET THEIR TAPES BACK, AND POSSIBLY A REFUND. WE HAVE DETAILS ON THAT PROCESS ON WXII12.CO STEVE KING, WXII 12 NEWS. KENNY: IF YOU HAVE A STORY YOU WANT 12 INVESTIGATES TO LO INTO WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. , YOU CAN SEND YOUR TIP TO U

Advertisement 'I just feel sick': Customers worried Winston-Salem business won't return precious family movies Customers around the country are upset with a local business which converts videotapes to DVD’s. Now, those customers are asking for their videotapes back after not receiving their DVD copies in the time frame they were told they’d receive them by. Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Customers around the country are upset with a local business which converts videotapes to DVD’s. Now, those customers are asking for their videotapes back after not receiving their DVD copies in the time frame they were told they’d receive them by.Memories on Media moved from Charlotte to Lewisville eight years ago and from Lewisville to Winston-Salem about eight months ago. Right now, the Better Business Bureau has given Memories on Media an “F” rating. The company received 12 complaints since July 30th, which the company has 10 days to address. Before that, the company had received 13 complaints in the previous three years.Some people around the country reached out to WXII 12 News to tell us that they were worried their family home movies were gone, after sending them to the company to be converted into DVD format and not receiving them by the specified time. They were also unable to get a hold of the company after calling the number provided on the company website and hearing a busy signal.Judy Herron and Kathy Montgomery both used Groupon to get deals for their VHS to DVD requests through the company. Herron lives in Texas and ordered the conversion of videotapes at her late mother’s request in May and Montgomery lives in Virginia and ordered the conversion of her family videotapes in March.“I finally bought a Groupon on April the 30th to have her VHS tapes transferred and she kind of poked me for a while about it and she was kind of poking fun of me and she said, ‘These are probably going to be the only videos you have of me, you need to get them done,’ and my mom passed away on June the 15th and I haven’t even gotten my tapes back yet to see what’s even on there. I’ve reached out to the company multiple times and all I get is a busy signal,” said Herron, who lives in Houston.“I just want my tapes back, I don’t even care about the lousy money, it’s not about that. I just want my tapes back, that’s all.”The cost of the tape conversion was about $70.“I just feel sick, helpless, my sister and I even talked about buying a plane ticket and me going up there and knocking on the door,” Herron said.“I want those memories of my mom. It may be the only videos we have of her,”“It just saddens me that a business would treat someone’s memory this way.“If you’re going to own your own business, they should have gotten in front of this, they should have done some damage control, they should be reachable right now, they should be sending out letters or emails or communication to their consumers so no, I will not forgive them. I would never give them a chance and I would never recommend them.”“I just want somebody to tell me my tapes are okay or I’m going to get them back or they’re going to do what they say they’re going to do,” said Montgomery.“It’s all my memories.”“It was ten VHS tapes and it was my children’s Christmas, birthdays, the birth of my son, my father who has passed away and just very precious memories and I just want them back.“I feel almost physically sick about it.“I’m not worried about the $69 , if they would just send me my tapes back, I won’t even go on Google and write a review, I just want my tapes back.“We had great family time, we laughed, we cried and now it’s gone and we want to do that again and we want to do that again and have that family time again and I want to look at that tape and look at my father and my children when we were young and there’s no way I can describe to you how important they were to me.”Action has since been taken since the 12 Investigates report began. The owner of the business, Robert Beachley, contacted both Herron and Montgomery and told them he would be mailing them their tapes back as soon as possible.Beachley says his company, which has two employees, receives over 200 calls a day and has not been able to answer the phone for that reason. He says Memories on Media fell behind due to receiving an unexpectedly high number of calls because of the relatively new partnership with Groupon, which has since been cancelled because Beachley says the call volume was too much for the company to handle. That is why Beachley says Memories on Media cancelled the deal with Gruopon.“I know they’re frustrated. I would be frustrated too if I were in their position but the bottom line is we’ve got to get the work done and we’ve got to get everything out and the sooner that we can get everything completed and out, the happier they’ll be but we’re getting so many phone calls it’s slowing the process down even more and then we have people who think we’re trying to ignore them and not answer their calls, that’s not the case at all. We’re answering the phones but we can only do so much in a day. We’re a small, family owned business,” said Beachley. “100 percent of the customers will get them back . We’re handling them in the order that they came in. We’re working orders right now that came in in February so as soon as we’re able to get those done we’ll then start working all the March orders. We’re just way behind and we’re just trying to get caught up.“I’m sorry we’re so far behind. I wish it was a different situation. My mother helped to build this business with me. She’s been having major health issues.”Beachley also says that late last year, two employees “started hiding orders behind other orders” to make it appear they had completed more work than they indeed had completed. Beachley says he fired those employees once he found out that they took those actions but that it had created a “snowball effect” and put the company behind on its orders. He says that he thought he would be able to pick up the slack and complete all of those orders but he was unable to. He says he canceled the deal with Groupon after realizing he would not be able to complete all existing orders in a timely manner.In addition, Beachley says the fact that tapes have to be converted to DVD format in real-time only slows down the process.Now, Beachley says the company is working to complete all February orders by the end of August, all March orders by the end of September, all April orders by the end of October, etc. “I apologize for it taking so long and I certainly understand their frustration. I would be in the same predicament that they are in right now. I would be very upset. I would be calling everyone in the world that I can but all of their media is safe and sound. It’s all stored,” Beachley said.“Everything is in very, very safe condition. It’s just a matter of getting them run and getting them out to them, but if they aren’t willing to wait the time, we’d be happy to send them back.“The further behind we got, the more the phones rang, the more the phones rang, the more time we were on the phone and the less time we could be transferring orders for people and it just kind of created a snowball effect and it’s a situation now where we’re just trying to get everything done. We have no intention of keeping anyone’s property. I understand how important it is. I’m a parent.“I understand what it’s like to have videos of your children that are irreplaceable.“I love making customers happy and I hate that we’ve got so many customers who are unhappy right now but it’s a situation where I can only do so much and we’re trying to get everything run as quickly as possible and get it out. If they can be patient with us we will have it out to them and if they can’t be we will happily send it back to them.“I’ve learned a lot of lessons. One big lesson is, ‘Don’t take on more than you can handle’ because we certainly took on way more than we can handle.’ I don’t need nearly the volume of business that we have right now to support myself and my family so I would much rather run at a lot lower volume.”Beachley says his business has received multiple letters requesting that tapes be returned but he has not had the opportunity to respond to all of them because an employee misplaced at least one of the letters.However, he says that he is now in charge of mail operations and will return any videotapes to people requesting their return if they send a letter to his business. While he says he will provide a refund to people who request one, anyone who placed an order through Groupon will have to receive their refund through Groupon.To request your videotapes back, you can send a letter with your order information and request information to Mr. Robert Beachley, 1422 Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem, NC 27104.