In February I ordered John Beck's Financial Freedom Free & Clear Kit from an info-mercial on TV for $54.45 (including shipping.) It arrived in early March. I had not even had a chance to check in out, when a couple days later, David McFarland from John Beck called and said that they were looking for only about 30 people to participate in a special program to work one-on-one with John Beck (John Beck Mentoring Institute) or one of his professional real estate tax sales specialists. However, you had to "qualify".
David proceeded to tell me that you had to invest only 5 to 10 hours per week, and they would show us how to purchase real estate tax properties for little or no money down. They also stressed that we had to be "quick decision makers". David wanted to know if we had good credit and proceeded to find out how much open credit we had our cards. He explained that we would use "other people's money" (banks) to purchase the program and properties by simply placing the debt on our card for only 1 to 2 months and then paying if off in full with a large profit. (I later found out that this is where they determine the cost of the program. Prices range from $2,000 to $10,000 and more based upon your open lines of credit for essentially the same "fake" program) He said that their professional specialists or John Beck would personally show us how it is done.
They were working one on one with only these few in order to help create more success stories for the next info-mercial. We thought it was almost like the lottery or something, because we felt we were going to be taught all the secrets of success without having to make costly and timely mistakes ourselves.
We were so wrong! David said that he thought we would qualify and transferred us to Jeff Beamish, his manager. Jeff was a smooth talker and guaranteed that we would make back our $6,499.00 program cost within 2 months and receive large profits. We were coerced into purchasing the program with many, many guarantees and expectations. They transferred us to his secretary, who started trying to record our acceptance into the program. What she was saying was not exactly what Jeff had said about the guarantee and the program, so we told her.
Jeff was immediately back on the phone totally slicking everything over, and guaranteeing the program. Jeff explained that this had to be recorded in order to tstart the program and we would make our money back ($6,499) in merely 2 months or less. The next day, we were feeling a little apprehension after sleeping on it, and we phone Jeff.
Jeff totally assured us and guaranteed the validity and success of the program and put us at ease. He also told us to immediately sign the paperwork they were sending out, so the mentor could begin.
They sent our box of binders and Cd's and the enrollment confirmation which had to be signed. We returned it. Our mentor, David Yates, began calling on the wrong day. He left a message and I was upset that he had called on a different day than the secretary had told me. I called the office number and they somehow transferred my call to David's cell phone. David was totally freaked out and nervous..."How did you get my number?" Apparently, they have never transferred his calls directly to him, and incidentally, after that I have never been able to or allowed to reach him by phone.
It must have been a new employee or something. Ha ha! I was confused why my mentor, who was supposed to be my right hand man, and work so closely with me did not want me to contact him or even be able to do so! He ended up calling back the next day, and said that he would only call me 1 time per week for only 1/2 hour per day for 10 weeks. No one had EVER said anything about only 1/2 hour!
This was ridiculous! That breaks down to approx. $650.00 per 1/2 hour phone call! That is more than ANY attorney that I know even charges! He was cold and rude. He started and continued to give evasive, vague, general and confusing information each week. I continued for 4 or 5 sessions, when I realized that this was a farce. I truly worked hard on the program. I spent 30 hours, and found his information stupid and general.
I learned that all of the properties that I researched (hundreds and hundreds and more) were "junk" properties. They were tiny, tiny pieces of land, leftover portions in a subdivision where utilties ran, intersections in roads, well sites in towns, time shares, percentages of condo ownership, and my favorite... Subdivisions that never became subdivisions without utilities or even maintained roads.
In fact, after further research, there were no hopes that they would EVER be developed. They were all overpriced, and many tax sales started in the thousands or hundreeds of thousands of dollars. Many were withdrawn. I confronted my mentor many times, and he said that he knew that there were tons and tons of bad tax sale properties, and he never once agreed to look at any of the properties with me to discuss any good or bad points, specific information, etc. He agreed that they were extremely hard to even find!
I tried the Johnbeckland.com site, and it was a joke. They were not low priced, and there were not many to choose from. Most of them were similiar to a camping membership in a park that I purchased once, where you pay a yearly maintenance fee and can put a camper or RV on the property and use it for recreation.
Nothing that I found anywhere was a good investment.in fact, I knew that everything that I had diligently researched would place me farther in debt and I most definitely would not be able to sell it for a profit or possibly sell it at all! I had been trying and trying to get through many different John Beck phone numbers, and mysteriously, I couldn't even get a live person. My original salesman, David and Jeff, were unreachable and never returned messages.
I told my mentor that I was cancelling and this was not represented like it was being handled. He told me to call customer service. Finally, after many, many attempts, I reached Erin White in Customer Service. She was rude and said payment was final and there would be no refund. After pleading with her, she finally agreed to have Stacey Johnson, a committee member, return my call in 3 to 5 business days. She did not.
I e-mailed my mentor again, and finally Stacey called. She was the coldest, rudest person I have ever dealt with in my entire life. Almost immediately, she was sighing on the phone while I was speaking, and then cutting off my words, and saying "no refund"..."payment was final". Before it was over, she hung up on me twice and brought me to utter tears.
I was a psychological mess! The only thing she finally sent was an offer for $1000 credit and changing my coach. I did not want to sign anything further until I researched some more. How did I know of another coach would be any better? I found that there are TONS of complaints on usacomplaints.com and infomercialscams.com. All with extremely similar stories to my nightmare. Some have actually changed coaches and ended up the exact same way.
This company cares nothing about anyone, but your thousands of dollars that they coax out of you up front. I have filed a report with the FTC, I submitted it to the FBI, I am disputing my credit card charges, I have filed with attorney generals in Utah, California, and Indiana, and I intend on filing with the Better Business Bureau.in fact, the Better Business Bureau has them rated as an "F", which is horrible, and they have had 166 dispute claims just this year alone! I only wish that I would've had the time and knowledge to have researched them first.
I am out $6,499.00 and their deceptive phone tactics and tactic of rudeness just doesn't work with me. They have misrepresented their information and guarantee and have failed to provide me with a successful program. It is a scam, and I highly plead for everyone to NOT purchase anything with John Beck's name on it.
If any one can help me in my case, I would certainly appreciate any help at all. If there is a class action suit, I want to be a part of it. I urge everyone to file many, many claims against his fraudulent company and behaviors.
Shannon
Florence, Indiana
U.S.A.
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