I feel that I have been ripped off by Prosper, Inc., Private Mentoring Group and my story is similar to the others here.
My husband and I had a financial consultation and interviewed with Coaching Director Nicholas Johnson to see if we qualified for the "Success Team" for John Cummuta's “Transforming Debt Into Wealth”. The interview was very fast paced and I if we were slow to respond, Nicholas would answer for us and kept up the pace. During the interview, we were asked what kind of goals we wanted to accomplish and we were told that the company will stand behind us to achieve our goals.
Also, he gave us a “Guarantee” that we would make back the tuition amount or more ($9900) within a year if we committed to ourselves that we would have to work with our assigned coach and complete weekly or monthly assignments which we agreed. Lastly, we were told that we would have 3 days to cancel for a full refund.
He already had our credit card information from our initial consultation earlier that day with Dave Smith, so when we told Nicholas we didn't have the kind of money to join this program, he was quick to point out that we had credit available and could finance the whole program on any one card or combine a number of cards. I was very confused as to why the program that was interested in helping us pay our debts off faster and remain debt free for the rest of our life was so quick to tell us it was OKAY to just add more debt. When I asked him, he just reminded me of the “Guarantee” and told me to look at this as an INVESTMENT and assured me everything was OKAY and we were making the best decision for our financial future.
Into our first phone session with our coach/mentor, he forwarded by email a file with info. to read over. We were unable to open the file, so the following week when we brought this to our coach/mentor's attention he suggested we call Prosper's tech support. My husband called and left a detailed message which no one to this day has returned. Also as part of our “TDIW” program we received a set of CD's “Tax Strategies for Business Professionals.” The CD's do offer a lot of info IF you have a business. We explained this to our coach/mentor but he didn't have an explanation. I also asked what he could tell us about the “Guarantee” Nicholas Johnson gave us and he was not aware of any guarantee by Prosper.
At this time I decided that this program was not in our best interest. I made several attempts to reach Nicholas. Finally he returned my call and I explained to him my dissatisfaction with the program and requested a refund. He told me that I had agreed to the program and didn't have the option to quit. I also asked to get a written “Guarantee” from Prosper since he made that “Guarantee” to us. He said that “Guarantee” is we made a commitment to ourselves.
Same thing happened when I later spoke to Student Care Manager Devin Willis. During our talk he gave me his work and home email addresses. When I later emailed him with addt'l questions and concerns he never responded and his home email was sent back as failed delivery.
At a later time I tried to talk to Prosper CEO Ethan Willis, but I haven't heard anything from anybody since 2/22/05. Meanwhile, my husband and I have continued with the study materials and coaching sessions. I strongly feel no one from Prosper wants to follow their commitment to us and are only concerned about their well being rather than ours.
Lastly also as part of the “TDIW” program package we were to receive a free tax consultation, 2 year tax review plus 1 year access to the “Tax Hotline” a tax service. Our initial consultation, the representative never called. We called to reschedule for the following week at 10am, again the rep. didn't call. So my husband called and gave the name of the person and time of the session. The agent at first had a difficult time in finding us in their system.
After five minutes or so on hold she came back and said that a person by that name did not work for “Tax Hotline” and the meeting was for 11am not 10am. The previous week when my husband called they gave him the option to choose the time and he specifically chose 10am because that was the only time in his schedule. This has really caused a lot of undue stress to our family. I'm very disappointed with the unorganized student care and unprofessional attitude of Prosper, Inc. I will continue my investigation into obtaining a refund.
Jenny
Chandler, Arizona
U.S.A.