Thursday, January 6, 2011

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.

8 comments:

  1. Please post any experiences you might have had with PMI.

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  2. They have it down to a science. And the credit card companies are in it with them. Tell everyone you know, post it on your websites and blogs. "Don't do business with these people-PMI." Not one of their services are complete, but you sending in the money is. I wanted to do affiliate marketing, paid for it, went out there!, and found out that it was only a conversion of their Internet Marketing scam.

    Stay away from doing business with people from Utah. I have only met one that I would trust in my house.

    be well; peace...dan

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  3. Thanks Dan for your post. Only when we unite and post all over the net, they might stop doing their dirty business.
    I do agree with you that they have these scamming techniques down to a science. Have you gotten any money back? Did you dispute the charge through credit card, BBB?

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  4. We are in the process of trying to get our money back. We faxed and over nighted a letter to cancel after I saw your blog within an hour of signing up. Eric Rash tried to pressure my husband into a new deal and my husband told him to send it by email and we would look it over. He did not agree to this. Eric was conviently gone all last week and we called everyday to talk to either Lance Yates or Shannon Tolley or Eric Rash and no one ever answered their phone. We did get a return call from Lance and told him that we cancelled and did not agree to anything else. He said Eric will call you first thing Monday morn...well it's Wed, left 3 messages and no call yet. Tried calling Lance, no answer.
    All I know is that I never do things like this and I feel like an idiot....any advice?

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  5. I have not figured out how to post my story here but it is basically the same as all others. I am also trying to get my money back although doubtful. I have filed with the BBB in Utah and also on Scambook. There must be many others out their and they need to be found. These companies, PMI, PMI education, Tax Club, Stores Online, EBizPro, etc and all of the same and all work together to steal our money before we even know what happened. They have no intend in honoring any commitments. There needs to be a class action lawsuit against them. They bank on it that most will be to embarrassed to take any action and the ones that do they will get tired of the fight soon afterwards. They basically make money providing useless services and bank on never having to give any refunds.All I can say is the more complaints made the better. There name needs to be everywhere to bring them down. I would like to hear from just one real person not employed by them that has become successful using their approach. If I was willing to invest anther 10K or so I could probably make something of it but this is not what I was lead to believe. I have not had any contact with them now in over a year. They did not provide me with 6 months of coaching and this is the ground of filing a lawsuit against them. Everyone should be filing a lawsuit against them and informing the Governor of Utah of this. It's never going to stop unless victims
    like ourselves take action.

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