* This is a detailed (as detailed as I can get) account of my experience with ABC Wellness, LLC (AKA: United Medical Network, Inc.) and is intended to be used as reference material if you are considering to become a distributor by investing $12K or $24K. Please read the entire report to gain the reasons for my concerns and my suspicions of this company! *
Let me begin with a brief explanation of about myself and my situation. I've worked within "Corp. America" for the past 12 years for both small and large companies where I've managed sales teams ranging in size from 12 to 50. I've been responsible for large departments generating sales worth millions of dollars and I have earned an MBA with distinction from a small, private school in MA. The point is I don't consider myself to be a "dummy". Several months ago the company I was working for as a Regional Sales Director laid-off roughly 100 employees and I was one of them. I began dusting off and updating my resume in order to get myself back out onto the job market but at the same time I've been exploring the possibility of doing something on my own. Enough said.
About a week or so ago I was contacted by a "recruiter" that said they were working on an assignment for a company in the medical field and were looking to expand their network of "distributors". The recruiter asked me if I be interested in speaking with the company. Knowing that the healthcare industry is booming right now I said "sure".
That very evening I received a call from a gentleman by the name of Joe Langner who said he was calling from ABC WELLNESS. Joe began to go into a bit of a sales pitch which focused on the size of the supplement market in the US and how ABC Wellness has affected the industry with their process. Joe then began to describe the ABC Wellness business model and how effective it's been at helping people like myself who have had what he called an "ahh ha" moment in their professional life. Joe explained this ahh ha moment as to mean that they've begun to realize how much money they've made for all the companies they've worked for only to find themselves faced with increased quota's every year and then eventually shown the door when the company decides to downsize or proceed in different direction. I informed Joe that I've already had my ahh ha moment.
Before going any further with our discussions about the opportunity, Joe asked me to call and speak with 2 existing distributors to see of the kind of money they're making is acceptable. Although I had not yet raised the question of potential earnings, I said OK. I took the phone numbers down for Ray Konsul and Todd Berocus as they were given to me by Joe and I told him that I would call them the next morning. Joe said great and we agreed to speak again at 10am the next day, following my conversations with Ray and Todd.
I spoke first with Todd. He explained to me that he had been in the upholstery business for years but found that increasing material prices and competition had pushed him out and he closed his doors. Long story short, Todd told me he'd been with ABC Wellness for roughly 18 mos. And that he was no making $30,000 per month in income. When we concluded our conversation Todd asked me once again for my full name and its spelling and the city and state from which I was calling from. I thought this was a bit odd but I gave him the information.
Next I spoke with Ray. Ray claimed to be a man in his 70's who loved to play golf taking roughly 30 to 40 golf trips each year. Ray further explained that he had just been looking for a business that would allow him to pay for his golf vacation life style without having to use his savings (which he estimated to cost him around $75K per year) when he decided to become an ABC Wellness distributor. Ray then shared with me that he was beginning his 3rd year with ABC Wellness as of April and he's now making roughly $17,000 per month. At the conclusion of my call with Ray, he too asked for my full name and it's spelling along with the city and state from which I was calling from. Odd?
As planned, I spoke with Joe later that day and this purpose of the call was to allow Joe to give me the ABC Wellness presentation. I said OK and sat I and listened. Joe's presentation was extremely (and I use that word politely) unprofessional. He was completely distracted, repeatedly speaking with other people in the room, continually losing his place in the presentation and often putting me on hold. Regardless we got through the presentation which included being instructed to log onto the company's website (www.programedhealth.com) to show me a dummy or simulated client login site which contained dummy test results from their lab for demonstration purposes. The presentation eventually culminated in the explanation that it would cost me $12,000 to get a distributorship consisting of an area with a total population size of 1 million people and in order to do this I would need to fill out an application (with a $500 deposit) which would then be reviewed by the company's panel. If accepted I would then fly down to FL where the company's headquartered for some training as well as to have the curtain pulled back for me so I could see the lab, testing equipment, etc. Before the end of our call I told Joe that I had some questions. Joe said OK and one of my questions involved asking why I was having trouble finding information about ABC Wellness on sites such as the Better Business Bureau. Joe told me that that was because the company liked to fly beneath the radar. I didn't think that was a good thing but I was still interested in looking into the opportunity further. I asked Joe for 2 additional references that I could speak with and Joe replied that I seemed skeptical. I told Joe that I was doing my due diligence as should be expected of anyone before getting involved with any venture costing $12,000. Joe replied that for the $12,000 the company would give me $10,000 worth of urine test kits so I can make most of my money back relatively soon and reminded me that most new distributors begin making between $8K to $14K within their first 6 months. I said that's great but I still need to do my own research so Joe said he was looking through his rolodex for 2 more references. I asked that one of them be someone who was relatively new, only being a distributor for about 6 mos. Joe gave me Bill McBride and Dr. Keys. Joe claimed that Bill had only been a distributor for about 6 months and explained how he kind of screwed up when he started but was now back on track and doing well. This was on a Friday. I told Joe I would speak with the two additional references first thing Monday and Joe said he'd call me later that day and if I was satisfied we'd get the application completed and sent in, in order to get the ball rolling. I said great.
Here's where things start to get screwy!
I call Bill and he seemed like a real nice guy and he went into how he was real skeptical too when he was considering ABC Wellness and then explained how it was a fitness trainer friend of his that was so excited about the program that he basically pushed Bill into becoming a distributor. Bill later told me that he had basically done nothing with the program after signing up his fitness friend (s) but that for the past couple of months he was now promoting his distributorship hard and that last month he'd had his best month making roughly $5,900. Bill went on to explain that fully expected to be making at least $20K by next year. Once again at the conclusion of my call with Bill he asked for my full name and spelling of it and the city and state from which I was calling from. Odd once again!
Next I spoke with Dr. Keys and he came across as a very intelligent man who claimed to be both an attorney and an MD who was very well accomplished. Early on in my conversation with Dr. Key's he too asked me for my full name, how it was spelled and the city and state in which I resided. Bursting with curiosity at this point I just asked him straight out why are all of you asking for this information? All Dr. Keys said was that he really didn't know. I shrugged it off but I still thought it was quite strange.By the end of my conversation Dr. Keys I decided to share a piece of information (in the form of question) that I was reserving for Joe when we spoke with him later that day but since Dr. Key's had mentioned to me that he'd been associated with ABC Wellness since its inception I thought I'd ask him first.
(Note: While conducting some research about ABC Wellness, LLC and in my conversations with Joe and the various distributors, the name of the founder of the company, Dr. Gregory Pouls, had come up many times. On the ABC Wellness website (www.programedhealth.com) there's a picture of Dr. Pouls and his wife along with detailed lists of their accomplishments, previous career positions, books, etc. So I decided to look up some of Dr. Pouls books on Amazon.com where I found several of them. I thought to myself that this was a good sign until I noticed that on some of the book covers written by Dr. Pouls there was picture of him and it was NOT of the same man that's on the programmedhealth.com website? The man on the books looked to be about 60 yrs old and the man on the website appears to be in his 40's but nonetheless it's perfectly clear to me that these are pictures of two different men.)
When I asked Dr. Keys about this large and very odd discrepancy there was silence on the other end of the phone for about 5 seconds. Dr. Key's then replied that he didn't know and that he'd only spoken with Dr. Pouls over the phone. I thought this was very strange considering that Dr. Keys claimed to have been with the company since its inception!
I never received the scheduled call from Joe Langer later that day.in fact over the course of the following week I left 2 messages with Joe's secretary (or receptionist) which have yet to be returned.
Here are the unanswered questions I have with ABC Wellness, LLC as well as the discrepancies that I discovered.
1-The photo of Dr. Gregory Pouls on ABC Wellness' website (www.programedhealth.com) is not of the same man as those on the Dr. Gregory Pouls books.
2-Why did each and every reference I was provided with and encouraged to talk too about becoming a distributor ask me for my first and last name with the correct spelling of my last name and the city and state in which I was calling from? My guess and it's only a guess mind you, was that they were receiving a portion of the $12K investment that people were being asked to spend and this was their way of keeping track of who they spoke with and how much they were entitled if those individual signed on to become distributors with the company.
3-In my research I found that the corporate name for ABC Wellness, LLC was United Medical Network, Inc. When looking up that name on this site (The complaint) I found several reports that detailed and described the very events that had occurred to me and as I've described above and the names these people were given as distributor references were that same that I was given such as Bill M. And Ray K. Which were listed in one of the reports. Odd thing is that they reported different income amounts associated with at least one of the references. Bill M. (as noted in a previous consumer complaints) which I'm assuming is referring to Bill McBride said he was making $30K per month yet when he spoke with me he claimed that his best month ever was $5,900. The $30K / mo. Was the amount that Todd Berocus claimed to be making to me??? Very strange and yet another report noted that after further investigation one of the distributors they were given was a made up person and doesn't even exist???
4-Lastly why have I not heard back from Joe Langner? I was a very interested prospect that simply explained that I was performing my due diligence in fact I was giving Joe every indication that I was planning on moving ahead with the program yet once I asked about the differing photographs of Dr. Gregory Pouls and about all the questions regarding how my name was spelled and where I was located I was never contacted again and essentially dropped from consideration!
I have no idea if ABC Wellness is a scam but I do know there are several unanswered questions and some suspicious things about this company and my only intent for writing this lengthy report is to detail and provide information to others about what I experienced with ABC Wellness, LLC and to recommend that AYNONE considering to become a distributor by investing $12K or $24K do so very, very cautiously!
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