I enrolled as a BetterTrades member for $2995 in Dec.'08 after participating in a Financial Freedom sales event in Greenville, SC. I studied the materials from the sales event in preparation for the 2-day workshop held in Atlanta several weeks later. Following the 2-day workshop, I immediately followed their prescribed training regimen, including participation in online training by their traders & enrollment in a 3-month training workshop by Bob Eldridge (another $1300). After participating in a number of training classes & practicing in paper trades as recommended, I funded a brokerage account with $5000 & began making real trades. (Fortunately, I chose not to purchase their additional trading software for thousands more, so I can at least take consolation in the fact that I saved myself from throwing away additional money.)
Despite my diligence & countless hours studying their materials & participating in trades, I managed to lose $5000 in about 30 trades. (Interestingly, in one of their message board postings, one of their traders cautioned against funded trading during that particular period because of the unusual market volatility.) I called the BT office to request a refund of my tuition, but was told that since I had not completed 36 trades in the guarantee, I had not satisfied their requirements & would not qualify for a refund. I called again several weeks later, but was told the same thing.in my defense, I argued that I had satisfied the spirit of the agreement since I had put $5000 of my own money at risk. I further argued that it was impossible to satisfy the terms of the agreement since I had lost all of my money; nevertheless, the lady on the phone was adament that I knew the risk & that they had satisfied their legal obligations.
I am now angry enough with Bettertrades that I am ready to take further action. For starters, I believe it is possible to argue that they made unfair representations about the opportunities for making money without equal disclosure of the risk involved. These distorted representations could be considered to meet the legal definition of inducement through fraud. As an example, before the Financial Freedom event, their sales people chatted with attendees about the thousands that they had made as a result of their BT training. They talked about how BT had changed their lives. On their promotional videos, they featured people who made tens of thousands on trades, but failed to disclose the amount of money used to make this money, etc.in their training video, Freddie Ricks makes the comment that only about 2% of people request a refund. I find this questionable if in fact others have had experiences similar to mine.
If any other BT members with similar experiences wd like to discuss possible litigation through a class action proceeding, please contact me at
Neal
Greer, South Carolina
U.S.A.
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