Yesterday (June 26th) I attended a free 2 hour workshop with the Robert Allen Institute for Creating Wealth with Real Estate in Surrrey (Vancouver), BC. The speaker, Chuck was very well spoken and knowledgeable about real estate. He was reeling in everyone including myself. Their presentation is very convincing, and soon had everyone seeing dollar signs in their eyes.
They closed the session strong by emphasizing their money back guarantees. One says that they will refund your money back after the first day of the training, the other guarantee says that you will make your money back from the course within one year or your money back. After reading all the horror stories about all the people who have tried to get their money back after disappointing experiences I realized that this was a scam.
The first red light for me was when the free workshop ended. Chuck would not answer questions in front of the group. This said to me that he had something to hide. Chuck said he would only answer questions at the back of the room one on one. This location was chosen strategicaly because this is where they are selling the training.
The second red light was when I asked one of the assistants, Terry where the training was being held (only the dates were mentioned in the workshop) he said he did not know. I was very surprised because this was the third free workshop of six being offered (What?! No one had asked at the previous two workshops) and the date of the training was to begin in less than two weeks (July 7). What further surprised me was that he made no attempt to find out where the training was to be held.
The third oddity I noticed was that Chuck had said that if you buy the three day training course tonight it would cost $3495 (no PST and GST hilarious!) instead of the $4995 that was originally stated. I asked Terry about this after the workshop and he informed me that the offer was actually good until Wednesday morning (June, 27). This told me that Chuck was employing a classic high pressure marketing strategy.
My advice to everyone is to do your research on a company before even thinking about giving them money for a product or service. Many of these opperations are very organized, smooth and calculated. A great deal of research is done to figure out how to lure you in. They almost had me if I had not done my research after the workshop!
*Also NEVER give any company your emial, address, or phone number unless you like to be spammed, junk mailed, or telemarketed. If after careful research of a company you decide to utalized their product or service it is easy to find them again using a quick internet search.
Remember look behind the curtain!!!
Michael
Surrey, British Columbia
Canada
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