FTC vs. the Invention Promotion Companies

I was contacted by Ted Leggens from Davison Design Feb.6,06.Ted said me ideal was GREAT ,I told him I was talking with another Inv. Co.,but he really gave me a SALES pitch how much better their co. was and how they how relationships with these major co.s to professionally present my finished in the box ready for the store shelves finished product,which your average person could never make contact with these people. He stayed in constant contact with me at the beginning. Ted said they would need 685.00 to research it and make sure nothing else like it was out ther I told Ted I already had a patent for several years on it,but he said it had to be done anyway. So I mailed him 685.00. Ted contacted me a short time later to say how excited the design team was about my ideal,and Mr.Davison himself would probably be calling me. I ask Ted at the onstart how much this was going to cost,he said the 685.00 and it would take some money to make a proto-type,but we would cross that bridge when we got to it. A few weeks past and he called to say the design team had been in meetings about my project and had come up with some great stuff. ^Ted said he had sat in on some of these meetings. Ted then said he would need 1000.00 for design team to make proto-type,I mailed that 1000.00. A few weeks later Ted called to say he had in front of him a virtal-reality picture of my invention and it looked GREAT. They were all thrilled with it.I ask him if it had the features we had discussed and he said yes,he was sending me a picture of it and not to be disappointed if it wasn’t to the letter like my patent but the design team did it the way their buyers would be receptive of it. Ted called to see if I had received it a few days later,I had,and I ask him about the features that I did not see in the picture,but Ted assured me they would be on proto-type. Ted then said he would need 4650.00 to continue as time was very important he would need it sent in over-nite mail. I sent it. Ted from the beginning that it was who gets their product on the market first, so time couldn’t be wasted. When I first talked with Ted also he said it would take 10-12 weeks to complete proto-type. Ted said also that when proto was completed he would need another 3700.00 and he would be handing me over to someone else,because when it was finished and ready to be presented to the big co.s another department handled that and they didn’t cross over into each others dept. (so to speak). Ted assured me it was almost ready to go tho. and he would always be there for me,said they were working their tails off for me. Well in the mean time I found out about a 26 million dollar lawsuit agaisnt Davison Design thu. Pittsburg Tribune and the many,many,many, complaints against them registered with ftc. and many more sites as well. Ted called end of Sept.06 to say “I hope you have been saving your pennies,the design team isn”t finished with your proto-type yet but I need that 3700.00 to continue. I ask him how it looked etc.,etc., oh it was looking great and it looke great,it wouldn’t be long now. I reminded him of the 10-12 week window he told me when we first started,but he said it was almost complete.I ask him about all this money I was sending him but he brushed that aside and said not to be offended if I was offered say 25,000 and a persentage because thats what they do sometimes. I let Ted go on and on then I said Ted the scam is up I know all about the lawsuit and whats going on and I don’t want you or Davison in any way to use my ideal for yourselfs and to cease with it and I wanted my money back.Ted said “you’re kidding and I said no,and I’ll be sending you a letter next week stating the same. I reg. with the ftc.gov and called Steven Balster’s office to have form sent to reg, with them. Ted called me at work Oct.5th to say my protp-type was finished and I told him I didn’t want to talk with him I would be mailing him a letter. I still cannot believe Teds boldness to call like nothing had happened,business as usual . Ted was so greedy to get more money out of me ,he already had that 3700.00 spent just like the money before that I mailed in absolute trust. These guys are all crooks and I think they should all serve time for stealing from hard working honest people. It’s a shame. The judge told them to stop this in the lawsuit and they are continueing on with reckless abandon.They (Director of New Product’s,that was Teds title,and about 50-100 more of them with the same title)are all operating with the same script, and time frame and dollar amounts on every single person. Thats why they get your money in stages and they know the average person after you get so far in want to protect your investment, and after all the wonderful and hopeful things they tell you, they lead you to believe its all but a done deal ,your ideal is that good and they have the experience to determine this.I hope you fine people and myself get all our money back and all these crooks go to jail.