Isigned up for their Advanced Mentoring Program in May to find and developan Internet niche market. The cost was $8000.00 US (it came to over $8800.00CND after the currency conversion), $7000.00 for the program itself and anextra $1000.00 for building a professional website. I had to postpone theprogram until June due to my lack of Internet Service at my office, atwhich time I resumed the program. Thepackage covered coaching sessions over the telephone and by Email, domain nameregistration and building a professional website. After I chose my nichemarket, I told them what kind of business I had in mind and they had noobjections. Itwent well for the most part, but the real problem was in building the website. Their webmaster, Bron Fieldwalker of Syndicate Digital did not build it to myexact specifications, wanted to charge me extra money for things that shouldhave been included in the package, and finally posted my site online without mypermission and refused to correct the many problems with it. I had other webdesigners examine the work Bron had done and they concurred that it wasbasically a Mickey Mouse job done with cheap templates and no layering. Totallyinadequate for the business I had in mind. They checked the sites of the otherlisted entrepreneurs who completed their program, and they found the samething. Thepeople at IMC waited till later in the program to object to the things I wanteddone and they seemed surprisingly ignorant of basic web design. Forexample, I told my mentor from the beginning that I wanted to build an onlinestore. I understood that certain things like a site manager and a databasewould not be covered, but the basic site would be. Later on, they told me thatshopping carts were not included in the package. I thought they were going toreneg on their promises, but my colleagues told me that PayPal offers freeshopping carts. I was relieved, but also perplexed. These people who work for acompany that claims to have pioneered Internet marketing since 1996, didn'ttell me this fact from the beginning and caused me to worry unnecessarily. Outrageous. On top of that, I had to hire another webmaster to do the work thatshould have been done properly the first time.inaddition, I suspect Bron of trying to sabotage my website. I had some wordswith him, and told him I flatly refused to pay additional money to him andbasically ordered him to give the the files used to create the site, whichafter some arguing he did. When my new webmaster has working on the site, hecouldn't login to the hosting account. The company used by IMC at the time, Hostica, doesn't keep track of who logs in and when, so I can't prove it, butthe rules of evidence, namely motive and opportunity, point squarely at Bron. I guess they wanted nothing further to do with me. Theonly follow up I got from them was another agent calling me about their newIntensive Mentoring Program. I forwarded my complaint to both him and thecompany President, Mr. Derek Gehl, but got no response. Finally I called themand spoke to an agent in person, Breanne Stern. She was looking into it and wassupposed to give me a reply shortly... Over two months ago.
This was filed with the Better Business Bureau in May. So far, sill nothing and worse, they say that since the IMC did provide the service (even if it wasn't what they promised or implied), they can't be prosecuted for fraud. Isigned up for their Advanced Mentoring Program in May to find and developan Internet niche market. The cost was $8000.00 US (it came to over $8800.00CND after the currency conversion), $7000.00 for the program itself and anextra $1000.00 for building a professional website. I had to postpone theprogram until June due to my lack of Internet Service at my office, atwhich time I resumed the program. Thepackage covered coaching sessions over the telephone and by Email, domain nameregistration and building a professional website. After I chose my nichemarket, I told them what kind of business I had in mind and they had noobjections. Itwent well for the most part, but the real problem was in building the website. Their webmaster, Bron Fieldwalker of Syndicate Digital did not build it to myexact specifications, wanted to charge me extra money for things that shouldhave been included in the package, and finally posted my site online without mypermission and refused to correct the many problems with it. I had other webdesigners examine the work Bron had done and they concurred that it wasbasically a Mickey Mouse job done with cheap templates and no layering. Totallyinadequate for the business I had in mind. They checked the sites of the otherlisted entrepreneurs who completed their program, and they found the samething. Thepeople at IMC waited till later in the program to object to the things I wanteddone and they seemed surprisingly ignorant of basic web design. Forexample, I told my mentor from the beginning that I wanted to build an onlinestore. I understood that certain things like a site manager and a databasewould not be covered, but the basic site would be. Later on, they told me thatshopping carts were not included in the package. I thought they were going toreneg on their promises, but my colleagues told me that PayPal offers freeshopping carts. I was relieved, but also perplexed. These people who work for acompany that claims to have pioneered Internet marketing since 1996, didn'ttell me this fact from the beginning and caused me to worry unnecessarily. Outrageous. On top of that, I had to hire another webmaster to do the work thatshould have been done properly the first time.inaddition, I suspect Bron of trying to sabotage my website. I had some wordswith him, and told him I flatly refused to pay additional money to him andbasically ordered him to give the the files used to create the site, whichafter some arguing he did. When my new webmaster has working on the site, hecouldn't login to the hosting account. The company used by IMC at the time, Hostica, doesn't keep track of who logs in and when, so I can't prove it, butthe rules of evidence, namely motive and opportunity, point squarely at Bron. I guess they wanted nothing further to do with me. Theonly follow up I got from them was another agent calling me about their newIntensive Mentoring Program. I forwarded my complaint to both him and thecompany President, Mr. Derek Gehl, but got no response. Finally I called themand spoke to an agent in person, Breanne Stern. She was looking into it and wassupposed to give me a reply shortly... Over two months ago.
This was in May that I filed this report with the Better Business Bureau and the case is still unresolved. Worse, they say the because the IMC did provide the service (even if it wasn't everything they promised or implied), they can't be prosecuted for fraud.
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