Shortly after I had attended a Robert Shemin speech and purchased his course, in November I was contacted by John Nosak, a sales representative with the Robert Shemin Group/Clickincome Inc. (800-731-7220 or 801-571-0016) John Nosak (800-731-7220 ext. 318) said that he wanted to talk to me about my real estate investment goals. During our conversation he asked me why I wanted to invest in real estate. I told him that I was ready for a career change. He went into great detail to tell me about their coaching program that teaches you how to buy property with no money down. Their program supposedly consisted of one 30 minute phone session per day, 14 weeks of education, followed by 38 weeks of having a coach walk with you through your deals. At this point he had me really excited. What I didn't realize was that I was being set up to be scammed.
First, John Nosak told me that I would have to qualify to get into their program (great, this is where they made me feel as if I were applying to Harvard). John then transferred me to the smooth talking high pressured salesmen named Colin Archulleta (800-731-7220 ext. 314). Colin was supposedly a former mortgage broker who owned 97 properties. Now, after they made themselves out to be superior so that I would feel like a groveling idiot dying to get into their program, Mr. Archulleta, with his grandiose attitude used reverse psychology and had me to answer several qualifying questions. One of which was why should we work with you? (He acted like they would be doing me a big favor). So I eagerly gave him an ambitious answer (Oh, lucky me) and he appeared to be impressed with my response.
Then Mr. Archulleta proceeded to ask me about my credit card limits and interest rates. At first I figured that he was about to reveal some amazing technique for buying property by using my credit cards, but instead he quoted three different figures for the cost of their program, the lowest being $9575.00. Well this trickster really had me in sort of a hypnotic state of excitement and before I knew it and against my better judgment, I made an un-wise and impulsive decision and I forked over nearly ten grand.
Several days later I received reading materials and a few CDs,
On December 1st I had my first session with Eric Blackwell (800-731-7220 ext. 236). My first assignment was to get listings for foreclosures through a real estate agent, which I found to be odd, because I was supposedly in the education phase. We had not discussed nor were we following any type of curriculum. I had not even had a chance to crack open a Real Estate for Dummies book. When I inquired about the education, I asked am I just supposed to read the materials that were sent to me? He said yeah in a nonchalant way.
For six weeks I stayed in denial about what I was getting for my investment. One session per day turned into one session per week and as I continued to look for properties I felt stressed out. First of all I was told to be dishonest to the realtor about my intent to buy property with no money down. There was no step by step preparation for what would or might come next, not unless I pushed the issue. I wasn't even told to get a pre-approval letter. And then I received incomplete instructions on how to deal with a contract. I came close to putting in an offer for a property and all my coach said was to have the realtor to add and highlight certain contingencies in the contract. I had to tell him that I would not sign anything until he reviewed it, and sure enough after he did review it he said that the contract had things in it that would have kept me from buying property with no money down.
Before my next meeting with the realtor I asked my coach to e-mail me with revisions in the contract so that I would be better prepared. I called him twice and I never received a response.
For the next couple of days after I digested my situation I became very angry, because I realized that my stress came from not receiving the education that I was promised.
Then I called the qualifying salesmen, Colin Archulleta, and told him that I was not happy about the lack of education. Even though he used the education phase as a big selling point with me, he said that 95% of their customers don't have this problem. I was firm and told him that not receiving the education doesn't work for me and that it's like a medical student told to operate without any courses. Then he asked me if I would be happy if he assigned a new coach to me that would go slower. I said absolutely. Then he told me that the customer service manager Cinda Alger, would call me in 30 minutes. I waited until the end of the day with no returned phone call.
The next morning I left a message on Cinda's voicemail (because they almost never answer the 800 number) saying that I had not received a phone call. Then at my previously scheduled session time, my first coach, Eric Blackwell, called me and he was clueless about my conversation with the qualifying salesmen, Colin Archulleta. He claimed that he hadn't checked his messages and that he had probably received a call about my situation and then he basically repeated the same nonsense that the qualifier told me, that 99% of their customers want to throw in an offer on a property the first week. Excuse me, if you let the customers skip the education where is the integrity of your program?
Later on that day the customer service manager Cinda Alger, called to say that a new coach named Chris would call me no later than the next day. I never received a phone call from Chris, and I called several times in an effort to find out what was going on. So a week later I discovered that she had been misdirected to my New York City phone number, a number that I only had them to call once during our sessions.
When I finally spoke to the new coach, she asked me had I been given any assignments. I told her that I hadn't received any education whatsoever and that I had talked to Colin Archulleta about it. I told her that my first coach just had me to look for properties right away and that he left out the education. And then she said well that is the way it's done, you learn by doing. At that point I felt like exploding. I told her that would not work for me. Then we discussed me talking to Colin Archulleta about it (right, so he could continue to give me the runaround). That was when I realized that I had been scammed by Guru Robert Shemin. Their so-called 14 week education was BS and Mr. Qualifier was lying from the beginning so that he could swindle me out of thousands of dollars.
Yes I paid nearly ten grand to those jokers, for five three ring binders with a lot of redundant information printed in large type, a few CD's, one thirty minute session per week, phone calls and e-mails that weren't returned in a timely manner if at all, invitations to three seminars and zero education. There was never any discussion of written materials, test or homework assignments.
These people have no code of ethics not to mention the fact that they were leading me to do something that was potentially risky. They never even advised me to consult a real estate attorney about my contract. Since then I've received legal advice and I've been told to never sign a contract without an attorney reviewing it first. No reputable learning institution would use deceptive and high pressured sales tactics to sell their program nor would they have a total disregard for customer service by having their customers to verbally agree to no refunds, give you a vague statement of what your purchase includes, and give you no written statement of the terms and conditions of your investment.
I tried to dispute the charges with my credit card company but unfortunately by the time I woke up and smelled the coffee, I was six days past the deadline. I've checked out Clickincome Inc. (801-571-0016, the third party company that guru Shemin hides behind) with the BBB and their type of business is not listed as real estate mentoring its encyclopedia and book sales. And the Robert Shemin Education Institute mailing address is P.O. Box 1212 Sandy Utah 84090.
It's been very difficult to talk about this because I'm an educated woman who normally researches everything and I feel embarrassed and isolated, but then again it's common for someone whose been victimized to blame themselves. But I'm speaking out because these crooks need to be exposed.
I would have come out better buying a book at Barnes and Nobles, and using the ten grand to put down on a property. But instead I gave it to those sociopath flimflammers.
Right now I'm ballistic.
Stay away from the robert shemin fraud institute!
0 comments