An Expository Account of Shanel Cooper-Sykes Misrepresentations Regarding her Failure to Deliver the Woman Habits Hard Cover Book

Weve Heard the Excuses, Now Where is the Truth?

Consumer Report: Published January 26, 2013

Were asking the questions. But, can she provide the answers?

Did you order the hard cover Woman Habits book and not receive your book? Do you like and support Shanel Cooper Sykes, but want a real explanation for why the book is delayed? Or, like many of us, do you just want your book, already? Well, this report is for you. Statement of Purpose: The scope of the report is to examine the facts available and try to get a more accurate picture of what could have caused the delay for the book.

In an effort to uncover the truth, the following will be explored: The pre-order sale timeline and promotion of the book. The shifting delivery date of the book. Substandard customer service responses from Shanel Cooper - Sykes . Inconsistencies in Shanels recorded and written statements regarding the delay of the books will be analyzed. Confirmation that the books are not being stored in an Amazon Fulfillment center as Shanel claimed on an audio to customers.

DISCLAIMER: A good faith effort has been made to support all claims and/or assertions made in this report with demonstrable proof via screenshot, video or web link. Sources of any claims made in the article are on file and can be furnished upon request.

Table of Contents
Were asking the questions. But, can she provide the answers? ................................................ 2 The Pre-Order Sale of the Book ................................................................................................. 5 The Shifting Woman Habits Release Date ................................................................................. 5 Mystery Book: The Extraordinary Woman Collection ................................................................. 7 What Sparked the Social Media Outcry over the Woman Habits Book? ..................................... 8 Additional Customer Service Experiences with Shanel Cooper - Sykes ....................................10 The Apology Video and Audio - December 24, 2012 .................................................................13 EMAIL FROM SCS STATING THE BOOKS HAVE SHIPPED ..................................................15 NOTE: The books still have not shipped. ..................................................................................15

The Pre-Order Sale of the Book

On September 1, 2012, Shanel Cooper - Sykes , CEO of SCS Publishing Media, began promoting the sale of her new book, Woman Habits: 50 Habits to Elevate Your Cleanliness, Godliness and Sexiness. The book was posted as available for preorder. Here is the first promotional sale of the book that can be found on Facebook to confirm the announcement date. The official release date was not posted until September 7, 2012.

There was no mention in the copy that shipment of the hard cover book would be done through Amazons Fulfillment program. SCS is not listed on Amazon as a seller or Pro Merchant. The sales page for the book can be found here. The ebook appears to have been made available around, November 21, 2012, after complaints about non-receipt of the hardback copy began. The e-book is not and was not available through Amazon Kindle.

ALERT: The e-book version of the book is no longer for sale. The sales page link will allow you to The Shifting Woman Habits Release Date order the hard cover book. At the time of this publication, the hardcover book has not shipped. If you order the book, it is unlikely the book will ship in the time specified on the sales page.

On September 7, 2012, six days after the marketing launch of the book, Shanel Cooper-Sykes announced, September 25, 2012, as the release date for the hardcover book. On September 21, 2012, approximately four days before the original release date of the hard cover book, Shanel posted a new cover photo announcing the hard cover release date moved to October 9, 2012. The books have not been received to date.

FIRST RELEASE DATE

SECOND RELEASE DATE

The original release date for the book was also disclosed here as a part of the $197 Womanhood Challenge that was supposed to be a companion program to the book.

The challenge was postponed until the release of the book. The book has not been released to date. See screenshot below.

Mystery Book: The Extraordinary Woman Collection Has anyone received the complete bundle?

When Shanel promoted the Woman Habits pre-order, she also began a promoting a hardcover of Stilettos in the Kitchen and a mystery book. Shanels Lost Thoughts. She was also dealing with outstanding Stilettos in the Kitchen issues from 3 and 4 years ago. Stilettos also failed to ship in a timely manner. Shanels explanation for the blunder is in the screenshot below. The 3 book bundle was sold for $77. The copy promoting the collection can be found here. Stilettos in the Kitchen Hard Cover, has since started shipping. There is no evidence Woman Habits or Shanels Lost Thoughts have shipped.

The reason Stilettos in the Kitchen was delayed for years.

The books are further delayed because of the personalized autographing process.

This where she starts promoting a new mystery book as a part of a bundle package which includes, Stilettos in the Kitchen, Woman Habits and a book titled Shanels Lost Thoughts. All in hard cover.

What Sparked the Social Media Outcry over the Woman Habits Book? On December 15, 2012, a young lady posted a You Tube video detailing her customer service experience with Shanel in regards to her request for a refund due to Shanels failure to deliver the Woman Habits hardback book. Play Customer Service Review Video

The video seemed to validate the sentiments of other customers trying to get their books shipped or refunded. The backlash spilled over to Shanels Facebook page.

Shanel responded by posting a status saying she needed help and she had to sell more products to hire staff to help her ship the books and address customer concerns. NOTE: Shanel deleted the following post from her page, but someone was able to copy the text in part. The posts are copied below.

Shanel asks for help. She needs more money and help to begin shipping books.

Shanels request for help upsets some customers who now believe they will not get their book unless Shanel can sell some of her other products to make money. One Customer points this out here:

More customers came forward to inquire about what happened to all the money she made from pre-selling the book, which should have gone to the cover the cost of distribution of the book. Click this link to see more exchanges and how Shanel responds. The most important thing to note is Shanel says this in the closing of her response:

This message was posted December 23, 2012. It is now January 26, 2013 and NO ONES doorstep has yet to see this book.

Where is the book, Shanel? Has the book been printed and shipped, yet? If so, why hasnt anyone received it?

Additional Customer Service Experiences with Shanel Cooper - Sykes

Shanel is on the record stating that her business practices are less than ethical and her customer service over the past 4 years has been horrible (reference her audio and/or video apology links for her statement). Her customer service tactics were seen most prominently on her Facebook page. However, the page is scrubbed regularly to delete any comments that reference the delay of book. Customers have taken to Shanels Facebook page to request refunds and express frustration over the books delay. Shanel has either deleted the comments, blocked the users (who would then create alias accounts and continue commenting on her page), or responded with very dismissive comments. Here are some examples of the posts made to her page a few weeks after the release date elapsed.

Throughout November and December, Shanel continued to deal with the influx of dissatisfied customers on her page, but also continued to sell and promote the Woman Habits hardcover book, even though no one had received the hard copy book to date.

10

Here is an Instagram post Shanel sent to out in November 2012. She insinuates disgruntled customers are stupid and haters.

TRANSCRIBED VERBATIM DUE TO SMALL TEXT ON PHOTO: "This is my weekend office, putting in work. Now this is how you thrive rather than grind...get up, meditate, shower, juice, put on something sexy, turn the computer on and GET FOCUSED. So I opened up my email and had a BOAT LOAD of issues, complaints, problems that a CEO has to deal with. Rather than complaining, getting angry or being pissed off because "people are stupid" or "my haters hating"...or me complaining that work is SO HARD & STRESSFUL...I simply took a deep breath and smiled. Because the mere fact that I have customer complaints, company issue and stuff to deal with means I HAVE CUSTOMERS, I HAVE FANS, IM MAKING HELLA MONEY, IM TOUCHING HELLA LIVES, and it means GROWTH, MOVEMENT and SUCCESS. You see...folks who complain about "all the work" they gotta do...DON'T DESERVE A LICK OF SUCCESS. and that is why you will ALWAYS be grinding, and ur life, business, and dreams will always be hard. I am SO HAPPY AND GRATEFUL for every single customer, every single complaint, every single sale, every single click, every single like, every single dislike and every single moment of being Shanel Cooper-sykes!!! Your money and your success will grow as far as YOU DO. #gratitude.

To view additional screenshot captures of Shanels exchanges with customers and supporters, please go here.

11

Here is another screenshot of a message Shanel posted to customers on her Facebook page.

A day later, she released a video to the public explaining what is going on with her business and an audio to customers regarding the reason the Woman Habits book was delayed. The video, now dubbed THE APOLOGY VIDEO, has since been removed from her Facebook page, but a link and synopsis of the video are available below.

12

The Apology Video and Audio - December 24, 2012

Play Shanel Apology Video In the video, Shanel acknowledges her customer service issues and the delays with the book. She attributes the issues in the company to her being IGNORANT ON FIRE. This is apparently a mode she goes into when she is pursuing what she wants without paying attention to the mistakes she is making along the way. She admits she manages her money and business poorly, but is learning from it. She says those concerned about their refunds should let the universe and/or God deal with it. She says the book is delayed because she uploaded the wrong file to the printer and 3,000 copies of the unedited version were printed. In the video, she did not say when the Woman Habits hard copy would be shipped only that revisions would be made to the book. (19:00 minute mark) On December 24th, the same day Shanel released the Apology Video, Shanel also sent customers who purchased the Woman Habits book an audio file explaining what caused the delay in the books and how she planned to solve it. The audio file contradicts her statements in the video. You can listen to the audio here to do your own contrast. In the audio mp3 file, Shanel now sites Amazon as the issue with the books. She states: 2000 of the Woman Habits books are stuck in an Amazon warehouse and Amazon will not ship them. She is going to buy 2,000 books with her own money and have them printed elsewhere. She will label, pack, ship and autograph each book herself. She says this will begin happening the week after Christmas.

INCONSISTENCY ALERT: Shanel does not cite Amazon as the issue in the video released to the public. She cites the printer being given an un-edited copy as the issue. She cites Amazon as the issue to customers. The statements are contradictory and warrant additional explanation. Shanel Cooper-Sykes has declined to offer additional clarification.
INDUSTRY NOTE: As an alternative to Amazon, some self-published authors use what are known as vanity presses to print their books. The author secures their own ISBN, handles the marketing and promotion of the book and the vanity press prints the book. The author must pay a deposit. Once the books are printed, the author must pay the remaining balance or the press will not release the books. Authors will typically make the book available for pre-order and pay the remaining balance owed to the printing press with the proceeds from the pre-sell of the book. If for some reason, the author fails to pay, the printing press will refuse to release the books. For more details about a vanity presses, go here.

We do not know if Shanel used a vanity printing press. We do know it is January 26, 2013 and no one has received their book. 13

On January 26, 2013, the date of this publication, we did a Fact Check on her Amazon claim and discovered the following:
Amazon did not have Shanel Cooper - Sykes or SCS Media Publishing on file as an approved Amazon Seller affiliated with their Amazon Fulfillment program. Amazon does not list her Woman Habits product as her seller page is not found on an Amazon search. Here is a link to the Amazon Fulfillment Program here. When we asked if we should pursue Amazon for the book, we were told by Amazon to pursue the seller regarding the delay of her book. We were told her statement is false and she is in no way affiliated with Amazon. The process for order Fulfillment is shown below. Shanel has provided no evidence she implemented any of these steps. She is at liberty to respond to this assertion with any evidence that would indicate otherwise.

14

EMAIL FROM SCS STATING THE BOOKS HAVE SHIPPED

NOTE: The books still have not shipped. On January 12, 2013, Shanel Cooper - Sykes sent the following email stating the Woman Habits book was shipped via Media Mail. Media Mail delivers books within 2 to 8 days. It is January 26, 2013, a total of 14 days later and no one has received the book.

We do not know where the Woman Habits book is and why it was delayed. We do know where it is NOT. It is not in the hands of customers who paid for it. Shanel Cooper - Sykes reserves the right to address any and all claims noted in the report. Above all, she is encouraged to be honest and forthcoming with her customers.

15