Jessica Dougherty of Marshall, MO thinks that I ripped her off, but... I have another take on it.
Jessica asked over a year ago if she could hold my Zenergy Fitness classes in her hometown. At the time I was considering branching out and we worked out a contracted arrangement. $750 deposit up front, and $750 before her classes launched. Jess received her manual, training guide, not to mention over 15 hours of private coaching from me in the process of setting up her classes. I really spent a great deal of time as I truly liked her, and knew she had great potential in her community.
In addition, I did most of the press and promotions for Jess, even though I was in AZ and she was in Missouri. I did the press releases, emailed practically everyone in her small town and was on the phone everyday to Missouri trying to boost her enrollment. When her classes were days away from starting and she still didn't have enrollment to the level she wanted, I told her not to worry about her second fee set and that she could just pay me out of the future enrollments she received. I trusted her!
She said she had postponed classes, but a week into what should have been her scheduled start date I began receiving emails from participants stating how much they liked the classes. I was then given access into her corporate email account, and found thru her correspondence that classes had actually begun. I called the city, she had purchased her license, and the woman at the city desk said her friend had attended the first class! I was really stunned that Jess would pull a fast one on me, as I had supported her all the way through. She was using everything I had given her, had lied that she had no participants signed up, and had changed the company name.
At the end of the day I had bigger and more pressing issues in my life, and after one final attempt to at least collect the rest of the $ owed to me, I gave up and let her be. I figured this was on her own karma and was happy that she at least didn't use my company name. Also, I knew Jes was going through rough financial times when I met her, and it wasn't worth it to press. I knew even if I took her to court she wasn't going to produce the money, so for her to say I carried on threatening lawsuits... That certainly wasn't me!
Over a year later... Jessica pops up on complaint to write that I had scammed HER out of $750 and ruined her name within the community. Come on Jessica, get real. The only interaction I had with your community in that time frame was to talk you up and promote you. I believed in you, YOU took advantage of ME, adn over a year later you turn up to tell some bogus story? I feel it is my duty to the public to let people know about her character. She took my company model, specific exercise program, time, money, and passed it off as her own and it isn't okay.
Just as you said in the complaint you wrote on me and my company Jes, times are tough, the economy is bad, and I guess things happen... But this wasn't done professionally.
Best of luck in the future.
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