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Report: #626508

Complaint Review: American Mediation - St. Augustine Florida

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  • Reported By: Abe — Gobles Michigan U.S.A.
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  • American Mediation 1093 A1A Beach Blvd, Box 175 St. Augustine, Florida United States of America

American Mediation Patrick Kienel Mediates your debt but doesn'st pay their own bills, lies, bounces checks St. Augustine, Florida

*Consumer Comment: just as an aside

*Author of original report: Follow up to the situation- From Abe original poster

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I first came in contact with this company a few years ago.  At first, they seemed very upfront and honest, and this company contracted with me to provide services to them.  Shortly after, he began falling behind on his bills.  Trusting his word, I allowed him to build up a "credit" of some sort where he paid once a month.  After this, the excuses started flowing.  Every time I talked to Patrick, the owner, he stated how he just bounced several checks and had to go to the bank to take care of it.  On multiple occasions, he stated his power was getting ready to be shut off.


He often stated that he could not pay his $3000+ bill that he owed me because he was behind on his car payment and they were getting ready to repossess it.  His house has supposivly been in foreclosure since 2007, and he owes thousands to the IRS of which he claims he has tax liens.  A quick check at the register of deeds office will show that these claims were lies.


Believing him on his word, we allowed him to begin using our services again to help him.  We were a lead generation company.  We employed close to 60 people to provide him with the services that he needed.  With a past due balance of $3,000 sent to a collection agency, he started again.  The second time, he managed to get up to close to $5,000 before we said enough was enough.  This was when he stated he was losing his home and he was going to file for bankruptcy.  The fact that Patrick made nothing but excuses for over 2 years and paid the bare minimum, with a past due amount of over $8,000 to us is sad.  We finally terminated his contract, which put over 80 people out of work.  80 people is nothing to sneeze at!  Not even 2 weeks after we terminated his contract, his office contacted a competitor about acquiring services from them, pretending like they never used anyones services before.


One interesting note, if you do a search on the BBB, his BROTHER IN LAW, Charles Newman, screwed a lot of people.  He has allowed his brother in law, despite doing this, open up a new office in another state to get a new credit rating.


This company is suppose to be helping people with their debts.  Would you honestly want to trust a company with your debt and personal information that can't even pay their own debts?  I know I sure wouldn't want to.  This company doesn't pay their bills, they lie, they cheat others as you can see from the BBB reports, and they put over 80 people out of business because of their dishonesty.


I even attempted to contact Patrick two weeks ago (About three months ago, he stated he was diagnosed with Cancer and was shutting down the business.  As you can see from his website and calling him, he is very much still in business and in fine health) to make amends to work out this debt.  Despite calling three seperate times, this office has made absolutely no attempt to contact me to pay his bill due to us.


Do yourself a favor, do business with only honest companies.  If a company contacts you to help you with your debt, make sure they take care of their own debts.  After all, if they can't handle their own debt, what makes you think they can help yours?

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/25/2010 04:32 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/american-mediation/st-augustine-florida-32080/american-mediation-patrick-kienel-mediates-your-debt-but-doesnst-pay-their-own-bills-lie-626508. 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
1Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#2 Consumer Comment

just as an aside

AUTHOR: Jobe - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Just if anybody was curious, it looks like all the bad press on this site and other sites was getting to Patrick Kienel because he switched company names. He now "does business" as ezMediation. Here are the two websites for your confirmation:

www.americanmediation.us

www.ez2mediate.com

So unless they had the EXACT SAME web designer as each other and did not know it, and unless they have coincidentally "been in business" for the same amount of years, then it is the SAME COMPANY. This is very common with a lot of scam operators. They run one company until enough bad garbage has come out about them, then they bankrupt THAT company and open a nearly identical one under a different name. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE in the websites is that the "Locations" button is missing from the new page.. and upon further investigation, most of the "location offices"
are still up and running. So did Patrick abandon all of his other offices to deal with the bad press while he went off to try and re-invent his image? Tough to tell for sure.

I CAN say that I was an old customer of theirs and was not happy with their service. Patrick worked my case and every time we talked, he seemed like he had NO IDEA what was going on in my case and offer to call the attorney. I am THINKING that he took my money and never worked my case until I would call to get an update.. every time I called OVER TWO MONTHS. I got a default judgment for not answering the court summons and when I could not pay the arrangement he set up for me, he tried to push me into bankruptcy. The issue finally got worked out, but I have a feeling, if I did my homework BEFORE I called them, I would have been able to avoid A LOT of the headache. I tried to deal with the attorney BEFORE calling American Mediation/ezMediation and they were difficult to work with, but I feel like if I would have hired a CERTIFIED MEDIATOR, I would have been better off.

REMEMBER if you do not see a certification number or license number on a letter of somebody offering their services to you, DO NOT GIVE THEM A DIME. Certified mediators can be worth their weight in Gold and save you a lot of cost and headache (I used one for my divorce), but MANY STATES DO NOT REQUIRE a certification to be a mediator!!!! (Something ELSE I did not know before I gave Patrick my money). What that means is that ANYONE can send you a letter that claims to be a mediator and NEVER gone through the certification process!

Just like anything folks! Do your homework. I am NOT opposed to people  working out of their home to keep their operating costs low but I AM opposed to con artists posing as people that SHOULD BE LICENSED OR CERTIFIED PROFESSIONALS. If he was certified, I could have complained to the Supreme Court or whatever body was responsible for certifying them.

Instead, there was nothing I could do but write a complaint on ripoff-report and write a complaint here to hopefully save anybody else from dealing with this man or anybody under the name of AMERICAN MEDIATION or EZ MEDIATION.

I do not know if they are scams, but I DO KNOW that they are not recognized by the State Bar, the Supreme Court or any other regulating body that can act as a person of authority over their business practices. I DO KNOW that my money would have been better spent on hiring A REAL MEDIATOR. I DO KNOW that they seem very unorganized and
unprofessional. I DO KNOW that my situation was BETTER BEFORE I did business with them.

REMEMBER if you get a letter from AMERICAN MEDIATION or if you get a letter from EZ MEDIATION, instead of calling them, find a CERTIFIED MEDIATOR that can help you with your case. You will be glad you did.

I hope this helps somebody!!!!

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#1 Author of original report

Follow up to the situation- From Abe original poster

AUTHOR: Abe - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, April 11, 2011

I wanted to follow up to this listing I did a month ago, as once a report is filed on this site, it can't ever be removed.  In the past couple of months, Patrick of American Mediation has taken the initiative of  contacting me to work out a deal to settle this debt.  We have worked out a settlement amount.  In addition, Patrick of American Mediation has agreed to sponsor my trip that I am taking to Eastern Europe on a volunteer trip for a month, assisting with those most in need. 

When working on a settlement amount, Patrick agreed to the settlement amount, and when discussing this volunteer trip, he voluntarily agreed to sponsor this trip as well.  While I cannot take back anything that I said when posting, the economy has made it rough on many small businesses.  I applaud Patrick for his efforts in voluntarily offering to sponsor my trip.  I am committed to many local volunteer opportunities in my local community, this would be my very first international volunteer trip.

If anyone has any questions concerning this situation or whether or not to proceed doing business with Patrick, you are more than welcome to contact me.  My company's website is http://www.jellybeanservices.com which lists my contact information.

I would also like to add that his Los Angeles branch has been successful at helping several people I know come up with acceptable terms and settlements.

Once Patrick has successfully completed his commitment to our settlement amount, I will also post this as another update.  To date, I am happy with our agreement.

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