I'm responding to these reviews to set the record straight. Digital Playroom, Inc. was started in 1992 and was a great company that I wish was still around. We developed many personal and business relationships that still exist, and 99.9% of our dealings were all great and positive (it's impossible to please everyone). The business took off like a rocket, growing and peaking with about $4,000,000.00 in annual sales. All was well until around 1999, at which point sales started declining due to factors such as MARS Music (who ironically went bankrupt in 2002), a slowing economy and many unknown things that were about to happen in the US . When September 11, 2001 occured, I feel that infamous day was the beginning of the true end of Digital Playroom, Inc. We never seemed to be able to recover our business after that day and sales started declining even more rapidly in each consecutive year. Our sales shifted from our original primary niche of local and mail order to the exploding internet and became one of the many "" Buy It Now"" websites. Sales were up and down until around late 2007, at which point we, like a majority of businesses and individuals, were caught up in the housing bubble (that was a fraud) bursting. Our sales diminished to a new low point and several of our large receivables were unable to pay us because they too were in the same boat as a lot of us were. It was almost impossible to borrow money and most Americans were struggling just to get by. They either didn't have any money to spend, or if they were fortunate enough to have any cash reserves, they were going to hold on to it.\r
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Now on to TamiS2335 and arosstor.\r
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1) Tami's guitar was on backorder from ESP and she did receive it a few weeks after the date she posted this review. I'm sure she just forgot that she had written her negative review (which I did not know existed until I read it a few days ago) and she never got around to changing it. I did talk with her after she received the guitar and her son loves it!\r
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2) arosstor wrote the check to Digital Playroom, Inc., not to me personally (he did address it to my attention). Around the time we received his check, we had several large receivables that were defaulted on by several Corporations that ultimately went out of business. We set up a repayment plan with arosstor, made several payments, but business got to the point where we were too far gone to continue. When I informed arosstor that Digital Playroom, Inc. was going out of business, he obviously didn't care about the difference between a Corporation and a Individual (not that I blame him, btw).\r
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Now I'm not going to debate with anyone about whether a Corporation going out of business is morally right or wrong. All I will say is we abided by the law, just as the Corporations that defaulted on us broke no laws when they went out of business. Same thing with major companies like GM, CompUSA, Circuit City, Wachovia, etc (the list frightenly grows every day). None of us intentionally plotted to go out of business, these are just hard times for all of us.\r
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So as a result of Digital Playroom, Inc. going out of business, I lost EVERYTHING of material value. I lost the home that my family had lived in for 15 years, I lost cars, Health Insurance, Life Insurance, EVERYTHING (thank God I still have my beautiful wife and son!).\r
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One might say my losing EVERYTHING is poetic justice, but I know in my heart that I never intended to cheat anyone. Everyday of my life I will have to live with the business failing as well as losing basically everything that I had worked my whole life for. I don't want (or deserve) any pity when I say that, as millions of people have it far worse than me. All I can do is find a way to move on with my life and continue to grow as a person and always try to become a better human being.\r
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Thank you for letting me tell my side of the story,\r
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Jerry Schilleci
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