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Ripoff Report | Fortune Builders Review - San Diego, California
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Report: #1061681

Complaint Review: Ripoff Report | Fortune Builders, Inc. - San Diego California

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  • Reported By: Monique Walker — Paso Robles Alabama
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  • Fortune Builders, Inc. 4655 Cass St. Ste 214 San Diego, California USA

FortuneBuilders REVIEW: FortuneBuilders dedicated to Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program, a program benefiting consumers, ensuring complete satisfaction & confidence when doing business.


*UPDATE: FortuneBuilders recognized by Ripoff Report Verifiedâ„¢ as a safe business service.

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REVIEW UPDATE: May 15, 2018: FortuneBuilders, Inc. remains committed to increased customer satisfaction and has improved their business practices over the years to better serve their customers. FortuneBuilders, Inc. is truly dedicated to making sure their customers are satisfied and that any complaints which do arise are addressed promptly and fairly.

To date, FortuneBuilders, Inc. has made good faith efforts to resolve all complaints reported on Ripoff Report. Based on our experience, the member business has proven to be among the top members of the Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program as a Verified Safe Business™.

Over time and since becoming a member, FortuneBuilders, Inc. has remained actively engaged and improving the way they address customer service complaints. As an active and current member of the Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program we are happy to report that now more than ever FortuneBuilders, Inc. remains committed to improving customer satisfaction.

Remember, no company or individual can ever satisfy 100% of the people 100% of the time. There are no products or services that will always be perfect for everyone and even the best companies will receive complaints from time to time. However, by participating in the Corporate Advocacy Program, the member business has made a commitment to working with its customers to resolve complaints quickly and fairly whenever possible.

Please keep in mind that as a consumer you have some responsibilities as well. Success has many definitions that based on your past experiences, current situation and your perceived expectations. Success with any product or service is always based on the proper application and understanding. The fastest car will not run if you never turn the engine on. Look at how you used the product or service that was provided in relation with the instructions that you received. The Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program will help you get your voice heard but please be prepared with documentation and fair representation of your concern, also have an idea of how the company can fix your concern. Can they offer additional services, extend warranties, offer a fair refund or just get you talking with someone that can help. ..let them know and let us know!

*Any consumer not receiving satisfaction from a member of the Corporate Advocacy Program should email us at editor@ripoffreport.com.

Ripoff Report Verified™ REVIEW

EDitor's UPDATE: Positive rating and recognition has been given to FortuneBuilders for its full commitment to quality customer service.

Ripoff Report's discussions with FortuneBuilders have uncovered an ongoing dedication by the company to total client satisfaction. This means that clients can expect that the company will work towards finding a mutually satisfactory resolution to any concerns. FortuneBuilders listens carefully to client concerns and sees them as an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and become more efficient as a company in the services offered and the support for those services.

The founder of the company Mr. Merrill has informed us that his personal philosophy is that his students are the heart of the business. As a successful real estate investor and one of the most trusted and well respected real estate educators and authors, Mr. Merrill feels it is critical to listen to his clients and respond properly. By always putting his students first, Mr. Merrill hopes to maintain his company’s strong reputation as one of the top educational company’s in the country. Another top executive, Mr. Chadwick told us that he has worked at the company for the past seven years and that Mr. Merrill, the founder, is extremely committed to constantly improving the educational development and experience of their students.

He said “Mr. Merrill is always inspiring and challenging everyone within the company to continue improving the educational experience for our students. Whether it’s adding more live training events, or improving our online training curriculum, or continuing to improve the systems, tools, or software that we offer students.”



Mr. Chadwick went on to say that he really has never met someone as dedicated to their company as Mr. Merrill. He went on to say “ Mr. Merrill doesn’t sleep and that he has never met anyone with the work ethic and commitment to the company’s programs and students.” He went on to add that “he is also constantly teaching and coaching students within the program at a lot of their advanced live training events and that their students really appreciate how connected he is to the student body.”

One of the things Ripoff Report learned in the course of its review is that the company has thousands of successful investors students around the country. The common thing their students said is that they “truly feel part of a bigger family.”

Many of their company’s clients reference the fact that the company is always sharing best practices not only of the founders real estate business, but also of the numerous successful students who have also created extremely successful real estate businesses in different markets around the country.

Ripoff Report also learned, in the course of the review, that the company is extremely responsive when and if the company knows about an issue that might arise with a student. It is very clear the company is committed to their students and that even when a student falls behind they stick with the student to help them get back on track.


FortuneBuilders is Ripoff Report Verified
Ripoff Report Verified™ .. part of Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program.A program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business..

The information provided in this report is based on comments made by Geoffery Chadwick during an onsite inspection held by a third party verification company with no biases toward Fortune Builders.

Fortune Builders is a real estate education company that has developed education tools and platforms in order to provide their clients with the highest quality information to further develop their real estate careers. Fortune Builder's goals are for their customers to develop real estate education for buyers and investors to buy, hold, redevelop, and or manage real property. Geoffery Chadwick went on to state the following, "there is no specific area of real estate emphasized, but each course and coaching package is aimed at what the client wants to do and their comfort level in dealing with real estate.”

The leads for Fortune Builders are developed through several different avenues including referrals, radio advertisements, television advertisements, direct mail, and online inquires. Once an initial interest has been made Mr. Chadwick explains the typical experience a client would receive with Fortune Builders, "clients are offered at attend a free two hour seminar. It is mostly a informative show of real estate techniques, then they are offered an opportunity to attend a three day training course at a cost of $197.00." The training course offers in depth details and training materials for the client's review.



CUSTOMER CARE & COMPLAINT RESOLUTION FROM FORTUNEBUILDERS

During the onsite interview Mr. Chadwick was asked to describe a situation where a client was not satisfied with the level of service they received. Mr. Chadwick explained that the complaints Fortune Builder is most aware of involve the sales approach and pitch at the seminars. Some customers are unaware of the dedication necessary to effectively own real estate, and they request their $197.00 back. Mr. Chadwick explained that when this happens, "our policy, at the time, was a delayed return of their money within 7-10 days. We have since streamlined the refund policy to within 48 hours of their request and that has proven to be satisfactory to the clients. We also made the offer for clients to cancel at the end of the 1st day of the seminar instead of at the end." These complaints were at the local workshops in San Diego, and at other workshops throughout the United States and Canada.

When asked to comment on complaints posted on Ripoff Report's website Mr. Chadwick stated the following, "if the client was not satisfied with the product or service promised, perceived or not, a simple phone call to the office would have rectified the problem in the clients favor." Fortune Builders is a company dedicated to education and customer service. This can be shown through their many clients who are successfully selling, owning, and redeveloping properties.

Fortune Builders is proud to be a part of Ripoff Reports Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program. Mr. Chadwick further explains by stating, "as you may be aware, many complaints are made and posted by anonymous posters with no form of rebuttal available to our company. Being a member of the program has given us the ability to interface with the complainant and deal with the problem in a timely and professional manner."

FORTUNEBUILDERS / STATEMENT FROM CHIEF OFFICER OF CUSTOMER CARE ROY LINDENMAYER

"We are one of the top educational company’s in the country that helps real estate investors start, grow, and scale their real estate investment businesses.

FortuneBuilders's The company has an extremely positive work environment. Everyone within the company is encouraged to grow both personally, professionally, and financially. The managers within the company are also always pushing everyone to always think of ways to improve the educational experience of our students while at the same time making sure that every employee is also growing.

If you have any questions please email the company’s chief officer of customer care Roy Lindenmayer at roy@fortunebuilders.com.”



FortuneBuilders takes employee satisfaction seriously as well. Employee feedback and surveys reveal comments such as this, "Opportunities for suggestions and improvements are encouraged within the company. The founders are definitely committed to providing growth opportunities and have created a family like atmosphere within the organization.”

Ripoff Report was pleased to learn that FortuneBuilders's past and current approach to business is focused on its pledge to total commitment towards client and employee satisfaction.

Mastery Coaching

Top professionals in any industry know coaching is an invaluable resource, with some surveys indicating 70% of Fortune 500 CEOs utilize business coaching. We believe to be the best, you have to constantly surround yourself with people who have a different perspective and have already achieved what you desire. Mastery is our program that allows investors to reach their financial and personal goals by learning how to strategically invest in real estate. Mastery students receive unparalleled support through one-on-one coaching, foundational systems and course materials and exclusive access to our live training events.”

FORTUNEBUILDERS' REAL ESTATE INVESTING EDUCATION

"We are passionate about real estate and business and we believe education, systems and coaching are the key components to running a successful real estate investing business. We have built our business on this foundation and our sole purpose is to share our knowledge, systems and coaches with investors at all levels from aspiring to experienced. Our education and systems are designed to accelerate the learning curve associated with investing in real estate and running a business, and reduce the risk and costs associated with the challenges all new investors and business owners encounter.

Truly wealthy people do not trade their time for money. Truly wealthy people invest in their financial education, start businesses and accumulate assets that do the work to produce income for them. This is why we have made it our mission to teach our students how to build a business that is not dependent on you trading time for money. Browse our educational programs and resources to learn more about how we can help.

STATED IMPROVEMENTS FROM FORTUNEBUILDERS

FortuneBuilders recognizes that complaints posted on Ripoff Report (whether true or not) are issues that need to be addressed, not ignored. If handled correctly, complaints can be valuable learning opportunities. With the feedback generated by Ripoff Report's review, FortuneBuilders has made organizational changes allowing its clients and employees a more streamlined approach to problem resolution and a commitment to a great client experience.









In summary, after our review, which included discussions with Mr. Merrill the founder, Mr. Chadwick, and Mr. Roy Lindenmayer the chief officer of customer care, Ripoff Report is convinced that FortuneBuilders is committed to quality delivery of services resulting in total client satisfaction.

Read more about why consumers should feel confident when doing business with a member of Ripoff Report's Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program. Yes, it’s a long name for a program that does a lot for both consumers and businesses alike. Read about Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program, a program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business. This program works.

As a matter of policy, when a business becomes a member of the Corporate Advocacy Program they agree to allow Ripoff Report to contact every client who filed a complaint so they can make things right with them. In order to confirm that the complaints were resolved, Ripoff Report is copied on all responses so we can insure that the member business did right by their customer.

NOW TO THE ORIGINAL REPORT THAT WAS FILED

----------------------------------

Fortune Builders, Inc. Wants you to give up your CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS to get a refund San Diego and Nationwide California

Fortune Builders may be bullying or coercing people into printing retracttions or stopping them from posting negative reviews. This is my justification for that remark.

I signed up to do the Mastery Program and decided the very next daythat I was caught up in the hipe and that the amount we spentwould actually be a deficit on my family. Luckily I wrote a check and cancelled it. In my contract they say you have a 14 day period for refunds and termination of the contract with certain conditions. What they don't disclose is one very major condition. in the contract you agree to an exit interview (which I did and I answered all their questions with the answer of "I decline to answer that". They tried to offer me other options a a cheaper price. When this didn't work the gentleman told me that we were waisting each others time. which I agreed. I was told he would email me 2 papers which needed to be be signed (neither document was mentioned in my original contract and if they were I would have not signed the contract, therefore I believe we did not have a meeting of the minds

The first document sent was a Request for Refund on which was printed in Bold Capital letters and highlighted in yellow stating this form is" A REQUEST FOR REFUND ONLY - NOT AN APPROVA!". Now remember I was told I MUST sign it in order to proccess my request. This by itself may be of little consequence other than you may not get a refund.

It was this next document that they required my signature on that brought out great suspicion and brought me to outrage. Could this be that they are actually asking me to give up my Constitutional rights of Free speech and Free Press in order for me to rescend this contract

This is in basic terms what that Document stated that outraged me. It was a Mutual non-diparagement / Confidentiality / Liquidated damages document.

The first part of said document; Mutual Non-Disparagement states simply that neither party my disparage or criticize the other party, business, products or services, employees agents etc... This brings to point, What are reviews if not critiques or criticism for the public to be able to do due diligence in finding out the reputability of a company or product. Therefore if I had signed this document I would not be allowed to write this without risk of penalty. My rights would be in essence taken away.

The second part of the document; Confidentiality of Agreement basically states that the parties shall keep their Factual allegations and terms of this agreement to themselves. That they cannot disclose what refund if any were given to them. Hmmmm..... Most Confidentiality agreements  are entered in when an agreement has been made not before hand. Basically if you get screwed you can't tell anyone about it. Leaving them to posssibly avoid sending you a refund. Now remember this was sent to me saying I must sign it to even be considered for a refund. There, at that point is no agreement for refund was made.

The third and final part of the document: Liquidated damages basically says that if either party violates either of the previous 2 clauses as stated above that there will be a $5,000 penalty per violation. At this point if I had signed it I would have violated these clauses at least seven or eight times by all the places I have put this information out. Now times that by $5,000. Liquidated damages at least in Real Estate are to be agreed upon in Advance. not after the fact as a scare tactic.

Four questions to ask yourself

1. Who does this form benefit and is it truly Mutual?

2. Would you sign into a contract if you knew this a head of time?

3. What do they have to hide if they use such tactics to keep the public from knowing about dissatified customers?

4. Does this practice allow the public to see true and valid reviews?

Though I don't know if their Mastery Educational program works or not I find it highly suspect that they would want to hush up anyone  that could give a true an accurate review . Maybe someone might say yeah the program didn't work for me but hey they gave me all my money back. That probably is not the case here though, wouldn't you say.

If there are any attorneys reading this please contact to see if you can start a class action suit against them I believe there are many people out there that have been screwed by Fortune Builders and now have no voice because they signed this agreement.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/24/2013 01:23 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/fortune-builders-inc/san-diego-california-91730/fortune-builders-inc-wants-you-to-give-up-your-constitutional-rights-to-get-a-refund-s-1061681. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
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0Employee/Owner

#1 Author of original report

I challenged Than Merrill to an Interview

AUTHOR: Monique Walker - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, June 25, 2013

As I am, I believe, a woman of high integrity, I felt it neccessary to update the public on what has transpired since yesterday when I posted my original report of "Fortune Builders Wants you to give up your Constitutional Rights". Last night I was contacted By Paul of Fortune Builders, who assured me this was an isolated case. My reply was that I did not believe it. But as I said before I am a woman of integrity, so we set up an interview with Than Merrill (hereto will be known as Mr. Merrill, since out of respect and the fact we do not have a personal attachment/relationship). Well Mr. Merrill did indeed call me for an interview. I will not go into any of the actual questions or answers due to the fact that it was an hour and a half long interview I will state that he was pleasant and accomadating.This by no means that I am retracting what has transpired.

I had questions on the validity of the actual Fortune Builders programs and he directed me to the Fortune Builders web page. As I promised him, I took some time to check it out and found there is some possibly informative videos and information. The reason I state "possibly" is for me some of the information was of a benefit and to some this information may not be of any benefit. As I have stated before I do not attest to if the program works or not, since I opted out before I started any classes. I need to be fair to both the public and to a company that has the right by our constitutional laws to make money. t For some people this Free information may be of some use to you and for others it may not. It is up to you, the public to do due diligence as I am doing and find out as much information as I am trying to do to protect the public as a whole.

Now as to the question of giving up my Constitutional Rights in the form of a Non-Disparagement/Confidentiality Agreement/Liquidated Damages document (which I refused to sign) I informed Mr. Merrill that I would continue to suggest that anyone who is asked to fill this out as "part of their request for refund process" or before actually getting an agreement in writng should first contact him personally and he has agreed to being contacted. I also asked him to please reach out on these sights and find out if there are other folks like me that were asked to sign this agreement as part of their Request for Refund before or as stipulation in order to get a refund, that he will work with you to rescind it. He acknowledged the need to make a statement. As to what he will write I am not him, therefore I cannot put any statement down as how he plans to handle this. Since I have such high regards for our Constitution and our Justice System I will state that I believe a man or Company is innocent until proven guilty by facts and not opinions. So let us give Mr. Merrill the chance to rebutt.

Lastly, what I would like to present, is how we write reviews and how they affect us. Writing a review that is hostile and insulting is counterproductive and seems to be often the reason for Non-Disparagement clauses. Sticking to facts, putting in personal statements (i.e. The product didn't seem to work for me, I was unable to make money at this, or in my opinion) would be constructive as well as informative to the public. Also asking questions or making subtle statements in a review to give someone food for thought or possibly make them want to research something more is a way to get your point across without being hostile or Disparaging, also try not to be sarcastic (which I sometimes have a subtle sarcasm to me). Remember do not make statements that seem like facts that are not truly factual.This will help to keep you out of letigation for slander.

I believe in the American Public and believe we can find good and bad in everyone.Maybe if we took the time to give constructive criticism we may all benefit and become greater people, as well as greater consumers.

I hoped this helped you and as I said Buyer Beware, do your homework and protect yourself. 

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