This blog has been started to bring together everyone who has been adversely affected by David Wallace either through Dave’s current position at TriStar or through Dave’s past ownership of ADI. It is my hope that by sharing information we will be able to better understand what happened when TriStar acquired the assets of ADI sometime around February 2007 and why so many people have been left with invoices unpaid by ADI while Dave Wallace continues to carry on with much of the same business as before just under the TriStar name.
ADI was a PTC reseller specializing in sales, services and training in PTC’s product line including Pro|ENGINEER and Windchill.
Around February 2007, Dave Wallace wound down the business of ADI, and gave most of his contractors the impression that it was a simple case of bankruptcy. He began by saying that the money was in the hands of the banks and that it would take a few weeks to determine if there would be any money left to pay all of the remaining debts.
In the weeks and months that followed, many of us would continue to phone Dave asking for updates, but he would rarely respond. Eventually, he told many of us by phone that there was no money left to pay the debts owed to us. However, he has refused to send out anything in writing, which confirms that he does not have the legal right to walk away from his debts.
Dave Wallace is now employed by TriStar to run TriStar’s Canadian operations. Many of ADI’s former clients have had their contracts for sales and service of Pro|ENGINEER and Windchill products transferred over to TriStar. It is not clear whether they were given any choice in this matter.
Since TriStar is now carrying on with much of ADI’s former business, it has been suggested that TriStar might now be responsible for paying off ADI’s outstanding debts. TriStar’s president Patrick Maderia has thus far refused to address inquiries relating to this matter.
If anyone has any experiences with Dave Wallace, ADI or TriStar, please feel free to post your story in the comments section of this web site.
April 16, 2008 at 10:30 am |
I am also waiting on payment from Dave Wallace or TriStar.
I spent six weeks of my life living in hotels in Upstate New York working for Dave Wallace with as yet no compensation or written explanation from him detailing why I have not yet been paid for my work or even for the gas money and expenses incurred on these trips.
From April 3 to April 7, 2006, I performed a 5 day course in Pro|ENGINEER at the Metro Park training center in Rochester at the request of ADI. My expenses for this trip were reimbursed, but my invoice for the work has yet to be paid.
Since then, in good faith, I performed 5 more weeks of work for ADI at the request of Dave Wallace. These assignments included:
•May 22 to May 26, 2006 in Rochester, NY.
•November 6 to November 10, 2006 and November 13 to 17, 2006 at Avox Systems in Lancaster, NY.
•November 27 to December 1, 2006 in Rochester, NY.
•January 10 to January 12, 2007 at Prestolite in Arcade, NY.
I am still awaiting payment for these invoices and associated expenses. I have been calling Dave Wallace every few weeks for an update on the status of these outstanding invoices for the past year. In a phone conversation with Dave Wallace in February of 2007 he told me that the finances of ADI were at the time in the hands of the banks. He suggested that it might be about three weeks before he had anymore information. Although I tried to contact him again after three weeks had past, he would not return my calls. Finally, on June 18th, 2007, I received an e-mail in which Dave Wallace stated:
Brent,
I have recieved your messages but unfortunately do not have any further information. As discussed Advanced Design has sustained large financial losses over the past few years and does not currently have the ability to meet its financial obligations. In short, there is not any money in the company and there are numerous outstanding debts that cannot be paid at this time. I do not know if this will change in the near future, I also can not give any guidance if and when the company will be in a position to be able to pay its debt. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Regards,
Advanced Design Inc.
Authorized Officer
As this e-mail implied that Dave’s financial situation could change, I felt that it was in my interest to continue to check in with Dave for updates. Unfortunately, Dave never replied to the e-mail I sent back to him in response to the above e-mail, nor did he answer any of my calls until January 9, 2008.
On January 9, 2008 he called me back, but only to tell me that my invoices would not be paid and that furthermore, if I continued to call him or e-mail him that he would sue me for harassment. I asked him if he had been paid for the courses that I taught and he did not deny that he had.
On January 10, 2008 I e-mailed him back expressing that I wanted to take him to court over the unpaid invoices. I told him that because he had never sent me anything in writing explaining if or why my invoices would not be paid, that I therefore did not have his current mailing address. I asked him to pass on his mailing address but he has yet to respond with that information.
In February 2008, I sent demand letters to David Wallace and to Patrick Maderia. Both of the letters were sent by registered mail and were received at TriStar’s Phoenix office on February 28, 2008. Each of the letters included the invoices for my work. The letters stated that I was still seeking payment for the work I had done and that I would accept payment from either ADI, since that is the company that the work had been requested by, or from TriStar as they had acquired the assets of ADI.
Dave Wallace has yet to respond to my letter, and furthermore has not returned any of my phone calls urging him to do so.
I have spoken to Patrick Maderia on the phone. He told me that he refuses to respond to my letter because TriStar is not responsible for ADI’s debts. When I asked him to send me that explanation in writing, he refused stating that he would not send me anything that might strengthen my position against Dave Wallace.
I’m at my wits end. If anyone else has had similar experiences with Dave Wallace and TriStar, I would like to hear your story too.
Sincerely,
Brent Curry
May 22, 2008 at 4:48 pm |
On April 22nd, 2008, I received a phone call from Dave Wallace. He told me that he was really angry that I had posted my comment online.
He told me that although he had no legal obligation to do so, he would write me a personal cheque to cover my unpaid expenses if I would take down this web site. He emphasized that this would be a personal cheque and that he would therefore be paying me with his own personal money. I don’t think I was as impressed by this gesture as he seemed to think I should be. I had to remind him that it was my own personal money that I had used to pay these expenses in the first place.
I asked him what would be done about the other party that had posted a comment before me. He claimed not to have noticed this comment, so I pointed it out to him.
At this point, he claimed not to really care that much about the web site. He said that as long as I took this one down, he didn’t really care if others started there own web sites.
I asked him if he was still willing to pay my expenses. He said that he was, but that the web site would have to come down immediately. Furthermore, he wanted me to send him an e-mail stating that I would not participate in any public discussions about this matter and that I would not pursue payment for any of the rest of the outstanding debt.
As Dave described the e-mail that I was expected to write, I wondered if it wouldn’t make more sense for him to write up his own document for me to sign. I suggested this, but he said that an e-mail from me would be fine.
Later that day, I did send him an e-mail. However, in addition to my expenses I also asked to be paid for the work that I had done. As a concession, I offered to accept payment at a lower rate of pay than what had originally been agreed upon.
On April 23, 2008, Dave sent the following e-mail:
You have until the end of business day tomorrow to remove the site or we will not talk again regarding alleged expenses
Dave
Having not heard anything more from Dave, on May 1, 2008 I e-mailed Dave to tell him that he does not need to use the word “alleged” to describe my expenses. I reminded him that I had already sent him scanned copies of my receipts and that I could easily do that again. I demanded that the money be paid by the end of the next business day. Otherwise, I would no longer be satisfied with the reduced pay rate that I had offered to accept before. Furthermore, I wrote that if there was a legitimate legal reason why my expenses and invoices did not need to be paid, then I would accept a written explanation of those reasons in lieu of any payment whatsoever.
As of today, I have yet to receive either payment or a written explanation of why I should not be paid.
I called Dave today to ask about the payment, and he told me that he would not be paying me a cent. He went on to say that if he ever saw me again, he wanted to kick my teeth in. He suggested that I post that quote online. He said that he was glad that I had posted all that I had online because it has won him a lot of business. He claims that because this is a matter of his word against mine, he can easily convince people that my comments are untrue.
I have to admit that I find this entire affair pretty unbelievable. However, I cannot imagine what kind of story Dave would construct to reconcile his actions in this matter. If anyone has heard such a story, I would be very interested to hear it.
Sincerely,
Brent Curry
June 1, 2008 at 4:14 am |
Holy smokes! I think Dave Wallace needs to have his own teeth kicked in. This is absolutely appalling.
June 3, 2008 at 1:47 pm |
Agreed. All the best in recovering those debts from Tristar.
AB
June 5, 2008 at 8:57 pm |
I found this blog while doing some research for my former employer. I was the Director of Sales for Tristar, BD (Before dave) and AD (After Dave). This is funny stuff.
I am also owed a large amount of money by Tristar including my final paycheck and commissions.
This is a pretty funny blog… great job!
June 10, 2008 at 1:54 am |
Great site. Make sure to use the social bookmark sites if you haven’t already
( digg & reddit ) and spread this to a larger audience. I dont know Dave Wallace and have never heard of Tristar but I know his type. Real douche bag. Keep up the fight!
June 16, 2008 at 1:08 pm |
I’ve known Brent Curry for over 10 years. Brent is the type to stay away from controversy whenever possible. Brent is the type who rarely worries about getting the ‘best end’ of the deal and always treats people fairly.
For those reasons Brent is the last person I would of expected to get involved in a controversy like this. Unfortunately this Dave Wallace seems like something else.
For whatever reasons it is not uncommon for some business oriented people to try and further their careers by taking advantage of the technical staff. It seems Dave Wallace is doing exactly this, hoping to take advantage of a percieved lack of “business” knowledge.
We have all met snakes and cheaters like Dave Wallace and they need to be stepped on.
Good luck everybody in this. In the larger scheme of things it is very important for people like Dave Wallace to be stopped. Blogs like these will weed out the bad apples and lead to a more compentent and honest layer of management for technical businesses. Keep up the good work.
And stay away from Dave Wallace!
June 27, 2008 at 12:06 pm |
Sounds like this Dave Wallace fellow is a real piece of work. But at least it sounds like an open-shut case. Either he is liable as owner of ADI and the person who commissioned the work (and especially if ADI is/was a sole proprietorship and DW did not file personal bankruptcy), or as shareholder/owner if ADI is incorporated and the company never filed. Tristar would likely be liable as well as long as they acquired ADI’s assets (aside from DW himself).
Small claims might be one way to go, depending on the size of the amount owed. Or, plaintiffs could perhaps pursue a larger award together. Too bad Tristar, if they like this guy so much and want to defend his actions, won’t step up to the plate too. This situation reflects poorly on them as well. Best of luck to Brent and all else who have been cheated.
August 4, 2008 at 3:44 pm |
Dave Wallace sold his business (ADI) to Trisar. He received, is receiving financial benefit from the sale.
It’s funny how shit sticks together. Tristar works the same way and I’m sure it won’t be long before a similar forum is started about Tristar.
August 13, 2008 at 6:57 pm |
Now I think it’s time for Dave to tell us his side of the story. Silence is most of the time an answer, though.
Common, Dave! We’re listening!
Just a watcher
August 26, 2008 at 6:24 pm |
Nice job of documenting the actions of a despicable human being. There is always the option of filing a complaint with the better business bureau. Good luck, in the end dirt bags like Wallace ultimately get their just desserts.
August 27, 2008 at 1:04 am |
Wow, where do I begin? Lets just say that I have known Dave Wallace a long time, and lets just HOPE that what goes around, eventually DOES come around. 2 years ago, at the opening gala of a PTC Reseller Meeting, one of the sales reps from a competing reseller punched Dave Wallace in the face and started to stomp his head into the floor. It was amazing. I am sure that Dave would like to replay that moment, and not look like such a weak and helpless lightweight who didnt even get a single punch in! From what I understand, he never filed any complaint against the sales rep (who is huge, compared to Dave). I find that people like Dave dont go after people in these instances because they dont want to bring attention to themselves because there are so many others that could come after him for less visible attacks and scams.
There are people that have worked at turdstar and been dismissed without being paid money that they were owed, who went to court and won these monies, and got paid. I will check through the network to see if these people may have insights on how to get your money after the ADI mess.
Being in business must be harder than it looks, so I cant judge completely. However, this one just doesnt pass the smell test. If it smells rotten, it usually is rotten. To the people that have gotten ripped off – dont do any work without a written agreement, and some prepayment in advance. The economy is tough, and its going to get even tougher over the coming year.
Do you know where Dave lives? Just brainstorming. Good luck, and dont lower yourself to his level, but DO get thinking about a list of ways to get your bucks back. BTW – Roughly how much money are we talking about total? *roughly, not including penalties, interests and damages?
Have you approached the software vendor (PTC) to see if they would help you get paid?
Have you approached the customers which attended the training classes that you delivered, to make sure that the refuse to buy from these characters again?
Are you using these software products or knowledge in your current job or business?
Have you approached any of turdstar’s competitors to see what is happening in their business, and how you may be able to pressure them to make your money appear?
Have you considered that at some point, someone is going to offer to pay you all of the money that you are owed, in trade for shutting up or taking back what you have said? Then you will have a character-defining moment.
Are you still a certified Trainer? If you are, I have an idea that might help you. I will follow the blog and try to help.
September 3, 2008 at 5:41 pm |
I’ve already obtained the address of Mr. Wallace for another client. Anyone wishing to know it can contact me at: skip.locators@gmail.com .
September 19, 2008 at 10:45 am |
I am an ex employee of Torgon Industries Inc. Torgon was a leading competitor of ADI back in the day offering the same type of services and products. Torgon was run by Jay Sussman, a very similar snake to Dave Wallace. I am posting this so everybody will know that Jay Sussman has done the very same thing that Dave Wallace has done in regards to leaving his employees unpaid. There are many ex Torgon employees out there that were left holding HUGE credit card bills from unpaid business expenses not to mention bouncing “late” paychecks. I hope Brent gets his money from Dave Wallace and I hope one day that all of the ex Torgon employees will get what is owed to us.
Not holding my breath………..
Ex-Torgon Guy
September 25, 2008 at 1:11 pm |
Vegan CADman, that’s an interesting anecdote about Dave getting beat up. I guess it explains the mentality behind some of Dave’s violent comments. When he first discovered this web site, he called me up and said he was afraid he might wind up in jail because of the things he might try to do to me. Months later, when I finally reached him again on the telephone, he said he wanted to kick my teeth in. At the time, I thought it sounded crazy, but I guess coming from someone who’s had his teeth kicked in…
I do have Dave’s home address. However, out of concern for his wife and two daughters, I’m reluctant to post it online. On June 19, 2008, after getting nowhere with my letters to him through TriStar, I sent a letter to Dave’s home address, once again demanding payment for the six weeks of work plus expenses. I also stated that if due to bankruptcy or some other legally acceptable reason, he could not pay me the money, then a written explanation would also suffice. The letter was sent registered mail and was received on June 23rd, 2008. Three months later, there has been no response.
Just to put my frustration with this affair into perspective, the money owing is $17448.65. This does not include interest.
Sincerely,
Brent Curry
November 19, 2008 at 9:34 am |
Brent,
Keep your documents, hire a lawer, sue.
January 23, 2009 at 2:37 pm |
Rumor has it Dave has resigned from TriStar to join BRT… guess Dave is ready to f-up another company… what a douche
January 30, 2009 at 4:56 pm |
Just an FYI…. Dave has left Tri-Star and is now working for another Canadian PTC Var called BRT Solutions…. Don’t let him go…