Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Another unsuccessful contact with PMI Education

Just an update: I called PMI Education again in hopes to arrive at some sort of resolution that would be somewhat acceptable. I was contacted 2 days later by Thayne Gooch from Quality Department and explain to him that I only received 2 coaching sessions and that I would agree for them to keep about $200 for them, and refund the rest of my money, ie over $9,000. He refused stating that there were many products that they provided which cannot be refunded. I wonder what products they provided which cannot be returned. I can return the CD and they can cancel the access code for some useless PMI toolbar which did not provide me with any useful information. But Thayne claimed that he simply cannot refund the money even though the sales manager Dave misrepresented what exactly is going to be PMI's involvement in this venture. He drilled me and was convincing me for almost 2 hours to agree to this program after making numerous representations and assurances. Thayne did not acknowledge unfair trade practices PMI Education uses, and stated that Dave was simply doing his job to make sure I sign up with the program.
Thayne offered me to refund $400 in return for agreeing not to hold PMI responsible for the rest of the money!!! That is unheard of! Even their refunds are with strings attached!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Any other victims of PMI scams?

Please post any experiences you might have had with PMI.

The complete story of the scamming ways of PMI Education

Dave Hodgkinson, a sales manager for Professional Marketing International (PMI) Education contacted me at the end of October and spent about an hour and a half convincing and pushing me to sign up for their success team program so I can make great money. Based on the credit limit and the balance on all of my credit cards, he told me it would cost $9,540.00 to start up. Interestingly enough, they are selling the same services for half or even a quarter of the price they charged me, see this post: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/pmi-education-c271177.html.
I asked to see the contract first before charging my card, but Dave said he needed to charge the card first. Many times Dave stated to that only smart and intelligent people qualify for this service, and if I did not sign up he insinuated that I was a fool and of low intelligence. Dave did not let it go, and several times when I hang up stating that I don’t think this is for me, he called me back over and over. He did not give up until I finally said yes after 1.5 hours – he practically manipulated me into signing.  I gave in only after he promised me that they will help me 100% with everything there is to do to get a real estate deal. He said that a coach will call me to start letting me know about the program, and  that I will have 3 days after an extensive interview with another representative from PMI to cancel the program. The interview was supposed to be within 1-2 weeks from the day of signing. He also promised me that if I decide that the program is not for me and I’m not making money, I can get a refund even after the end of the refund policy. Only with this assurance and after being manipulated for 1.5 hours I finally gave up.
A couple days later I got a call from my coach Eric who told me about the educational website where I should complete real estate lessons. During second call the week after that, he told me that I need to compile the buyer/seller lists myself, even though Dave told me that PMI have the buyer lists available which I could use for selling real estate I find. Eric said that I needed to compile the lists myself. Dave told me otherwise and this was one of the lies he told me. When Eric, my coach called me the third time I told him that I did not have time to allocate for this to do all the work myself and I wanted to cancel the service. I called up the customer service to cancel it, and the lady told me there is not much she can do, that quality assurance department would give me a call. I asked her when they will give me a call she mentioned that the call will be in 2 days. 2 days went on and past and I still did not get a call. Third day Jason called and he told me that I cannot get my refund because I past 3 days. I expressed how unhappy I was with the service because I only got a total of 3 calls for my coach and that I never received a call from another person who was suppose to interview me (which would trigger the start of the 3 days to cancel). I did all the leg work with no follow up and asked him that I want my refund because I did not appreciate how I was scammed and lied to by Dave. Jason told me that the conversation with the coach Eric WAS that interview, however Dave said that the interviewer will be somebody different than my coach and that the conversation would be extensive. He went on arguing that there will be no refund. I am very upset with PMI education, the whole experience is a nerve wreck, and I’m left with almost $10,000 in debt for something that is completely useless. The service was supposed to be for a year with possible extension of the term. And I only received 2 training sessions with the coach for $10K.
Beware and please post on all websites about their scamming policies.