Tuesday, November 2, 2010 Blue Knights stomped Gold Knights during an inter-club rivalry match.
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ary Annivers 1985-2010
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Business
Marketing company questioned
A Maple Ridge woman just wants out of a business deal she entered with Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing. by Matthew Claxton Postmedia Network Inc.
A multi-level marketing scheme expanding into the Lower Mainland says it can offer its sales force a new job, trips, and even a Lexus if they do well. But a Maple Ridge woman who tried to back out is just trying to get her initial investment back. Susan (not her real name) never got anywhere near a Lexus in her brief
time with Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing. Unemployed since she was laid off several years ago, Susan was invited by a friend who was already a member. The Maple Ridge woman signed up two months ago, paying $299 to become a member. She then had to immediately accumulate three “customer points” to begin selling and recruiting. She paid for the company’s on line office system, which keeps track of sales, a video site, and a telephone service. “It came to another $150 bucks on top of that,” she said. “At first, they seemed very helpful,” she said of the company’s reps. Susan quickly realized that the system was not for her. Within a week of join-
ing, on Sept. 30, she had decided to leave the company, and she tried to get her money back. She had been told she could get her $299 fee back within 10 days, and when she phoned a rep, she was told it would be no problem. Then she received an email saying she would have to return the binders and info packages she’d been sent, and that she would have to fax in a signed statement saying she was quitting. Susan said she believes she sent everything back in time, but she still hasn’t got any of her money back. She said she’s going to keep trying to get her money returned. FHTM calls itself a “network market-
ing” or “relationship marketing” company, using personal connections and social networking to sell a variety of products. The company has come under fire for its practices in the United States, largely because it pays its members for signing up new members. That’s a warning sign that a company may be a pyramid scheme, say government and business watchdogs. Gabrielle Tasse of the Competition Bureau of Canada said standard multilevel marketing companies make their money selling products. “[Pyramid schemes] make their money off recruiting others,” Tasse said.
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Maria Rantanen/TIMES
Police cordoned off several blocks around Hammond Elementary on Friday, after a suicidal man apparently threatened to hurt himself or others in the vacinity.
Crime
Unstable neighbour forces school lockdown An elementary school dance was in full swing when it was locked down.
by Maria Rantanen mrantanen@mrtimes.com
Police shut down several blocks east of Hammond Elementary and partially locked down the school on Friday afternoon after a man on 115 Avenue threatened to harm himself and anyone else around him. Police were called to the area around
1:15 p.m. and secured the school – where students were having a school dance. Officers also cordoned off several surrounding blocks. The emergency response team came in an armoured vehicle in case the man had a weapon. “That was our fear,” said Insp. Derren Lench, head of Ridge Meadows RCMP. “That was implied in the threat.” The street where the suicidal man was housed backed onto the school, which is why police took extra precautions, Lench said.
A relative was in the area, but the man Parents were called and they were told was the only one in the house when to pick up their children on the north police arrived, so no one else was in dirside, while the incident was taking place ect danger. on the south side of the school. Only students in School district comGrades 4 to 7 were at the munications officer This story first Halloween dance at the Seamus Nesling said none appeared as time, as the school had an of the students were in early dismissal time. danger in the school. breaking news at The dance was just “It didn’t impact the www.mrtimes.com wrapping up when police students,” Nesling said. arrived. School administra“It was just happening on tion and police didn’t want those students the outskirts of the school.” leaving the school on their own. Police defused the situation by 4 p.m.
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