I was brought into this company by being spammed by one of it's members. Even after asking the person to remove me from their list they continued and offered to pay my $25 fee to join. For this $25 I was supposed to get free unlimited ISP for life.
About 10 months later I noticed they had started a premier service which for $25 a month you got access to premier benefits and "unlimited" ISP (this was advertised on their site). This monthly fee was to be charged only until the end of January, according to the membership agreement, and then would be free for those that had paid the initial $25 fee prior to August 27.
Upon joining I discovered messages on the boards that the ISP was not unlimited, but had a limit of 150 - 200 hours depending on your access number (mine was 150).
Over the next two months many excuses were given about why the ISP was not unlimited (all of which were "someone elses" fault). We were promised it would be corrected by Feb. 1st 2002. It wasn't. It also did not become free at the end of January as promised, and worse, they slipped in a policy without telling anyone that members had to give 30 day notice to cancel the premier membership. This forced members to pay an additional month. The first mention of this policy by staff was on Feb. 6th and was stated on the message boards as "I believe that's the policy".
The Feb 1st date to correct the ISP limit was changed to mid-February, then beginning of March, then beginning of April.
In the mean time, in March Going Platinum changed the membership agreement so that Grandfathered Metal Round Members (those that paid the $25 prior to 8-27-01) received free premier membership for life instead of free lifetime ISP and premier membership, with the option they could exchange the free premier membership for free ISP 90 days after launch and after they had earned $30.
In Mid April, Going Platinum CEO Alan Catalan informed the membership that the ISP limits were fixed and they no longer had to worry about being cut off. This turned out to be another one of his lies. As April started coming to an end, members were getting cut off and told by tech support that they had reached their limit. At this time, they still do not have unlimited ISP.
Another thing I found was the amount of manipulation going on in the message boards. The company would feed certain high profile members information who would then try to sell it to the members as "suggestions". Members who disagreed or who had the "audacity" to question the companies methods, were met with organized attacks on them and their character. Many were driven out of the company in this manner. The obvious goal was to get rid of anyone who might point out flaws in the information being pushed on the members.
Going Platinum has built itself on the approximately 110,000 people who paid that initial $25, then having found another source of income (the Premier members) has turned on them and broken their initial promises.
Previous reports here claim that Going Platinum never encouraged it's members to advertise "free ISP". That is a lie. While it is True that Alan Catalan did "tell" members not to, he turned around and provided them with a banner to use that advertised the free ISP. It was obvious that his wish was they advertise the free ISP and the statements otherwise were just to cover himself against claims later of false advertising.
Going Platinum, INC is currently being investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission for "selling securities through a ponzi/pyramid scheme" and by the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office for fraud (advertising and selling "unlimited" ISP that was limited).
Rick
Yuba City, California
0 comments