I originally answered a mailing that promised a way to make large amounts of money by seeking out "distressed, discontinued, or unsold inventories; which Zaken would broker the sale of and pay 50% commissions on. This cost $174.00, plus $20.00 shipping. I read the material and began researching local and in state businesses that seemed to fit the criteria in the "Course". I had a couple of Questions, so I called the office and spoke with a woman who called herself Gigi Gallo. She proceeded to tell me of a new program that involved setting up a website, a"course on CD", imprinted postcards, a Lifetime supply of current leads and a mentoring program. She said that all I needed to do was get the potential client to list their product to the website and "their people would handle it from there". I put up the required down payment of $300.00 and began following the program. This was on Jan 13
Over the course of the next two months, I made over 300 phone calls and sent out about 200 of the imprinted postcards, using a combination of the leads from the "directory " listings sent by Zaken and many that i researched myself. I noticed that a large proportion of the leads from zaken's list were invalid—phones no longer in service or disconnected. Etc.—but I persisted and on Zaken's advice set up a phone answering service to take messages from the anticipated response from the postcards and website (which I was getting listed on every internet search I could manage)—getting no responses from cards and most of the businesses where i did get an actual human on the line either rejecting the idea that they had anything that they would sell at the prices the Zaken material had me offering or putting me off with a vague promise to check with their inventory and get back to me.
I guess I should have realized that there was an omen in the discovery that the CDs from the "course" wouldn't play on any of the cd players in either house or car. However, being unemployed and desperate, deluged with creditor calls and panicky I went on "working the program".
Then it happened; a fellow I had talked to loaded a lot of hats to the website. A few days later, I called him back to follow up. He told me that he had not gotten any calls from Zaken. I called the office and talked to a guy (who called himself "Allen")- who said that I needed to get the client to send "images, samples—something for them to work with". I contacted the client, who sent images to the fax and e-mail addresses. Still no calls or contact from Zaken. This was when I started to realize that something wasn't right—I 'd call zaken, leave voice mail and no response—it seemed that any call from my number went straight to message. ON July 10, I sent an e-mail to the customer service dept. To "mr Zaken"s personal assistant asking for a refund-because I didn't feel that they wre delivering the services that they had promised-even while continuing to debit my account (which I closed when it was nearly completely cleaned out)— I got a call back on that e-mail - from a woman who called herself "Jennifer" who informed me that I would not get a refund —but they would forgive me the rest of MY "obligation" and that she would be sending me some material in the mail. This is the state of affairs at this time,
This whole mess has cost me not only money—but a great deal of time and has put great stress on my relationship—nearly ending in my being thrown out homeless in the street. I am basically bankrupt, unemployed and after doing some research on the 'Net; I find that I am one of many who has suffered at the hands of this Zaken outfit—I am hoping that by submitting this report, there might be some hope of redress.
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