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Report: #1341229

Complaint Review: CMI Abastos - Buenos Aires

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  • Reported By: Doug Stroh — Cape Coral Florida USA
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  • CMI Abastos Guardia Vieja 4072 Buenos Aires, Argentina

CMI Abastos CMI, Luis Fain, Kim Advent Beware: Bait and Switch or Lose $300,000 Buenos Aires Argentina

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Beware this company at all cost!

If you do not you better plan on spending $300,000 to $500,000 minimum on your family member.

CMI program is used to take advantage of people through guilt and manipulation on the alter of your loved one. The process is designed to get people into the program with false hopes and a promise of a better future and then a bait and switch is done to keep patients there for an undisclosed period of time no matter what the financial ramifications are to the parents or donors.

I'm embarrassed for myself more than anyone as I am usually good at sniffing out these types of scams, however I was blinded by the thought of having a miraculous change in my daughter, that is needed now more than eer.

My only demand has been that CMI refund the anonymous donor their $10,000. (read below)

They are going to bait you in, get your loved one down to Argentina and convince you that if you do not continue to support your freind or family member through getting a 2nd mortgage or begging you freinds and family members for money your loved one is not going to get the care they need.

THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN PROGRAM. if you have been sold that they are lying to you.

They will offer a couple of examples of people that have been helped (all spending over a year in the program at $7700 a week after the $10,000 1st week couseltation.

I am going to tell our story as I am sure that it will relate to the lies that you are being told so you can fall victim to this scam.

The initial meeting that we had was with Kim Advent (their main recruiter for this scam) and Luis Mario Romero the head psychiatrist of CMI, but in all actuality he is just a smooth talking scam artist like Kim.

Upon that initial meeting they proclaimed to be a Christian organization with a unique healing process to empower our daughter Sydney with the necessary tools to live a happy productive life. Sysdney was fresh out af an extensive outpatient program and had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and was in conflict with her own identity. In addition she had been cutting herself and threatening suicide.

We had a real need to look at a higher level program for her to enroll in and CMI was recommended to us by a family member from Holland, MI which seems to be their target market at this time for their scam because of the success they had with a patient with a strong affiliation from Holland Christian. My understanding now is that individual spent or raised and gave to CMI with the same bait and switch program, OVER $600,000!

After a $10,000 week of evaluation they had determined that Sydney has a personality disorder and was in conflict with her own identity, which is what we told them before she even went.

Our daughter said at the end of the program said that there was no reference to any religion whatsoever and that a higher power was never part of the discussion. We werer SOLD what they thought we wanted to hear at all costs to get her to Argentina.

They even went so far as to drive our daughter to Chicago to get her a passport the following day to ensure that she was on a flight to Argentina within 2 days. They told us the ungency was, that Luis could accompany her to Argentina, which was not true, he had no flight. I think he was in Holland beating the streets looking for their next victim and once they found us he went back to Argentina a couple days later (standby).

At teh initial meeting we were lead to belive that the financial requirement was going to be $10,000 for the 1st week and $7,700 for the 2nd week. There was no discussion that our daughter was going to need to be there for 6 months to 1 year.

When they are talking to you they are going to say that there is no way to access how long the treatment will take, however if you do your due diligence you will see that the video testimonials, all 3 of them (outside of Kim Advent's Mom) say 6 weeks, 9 weeks etc. None elude to the real time frame it is going to take of 1 year.

On the 10th day we were given an assettment from the "coaches" on her diagnosis. 1/2 of them don't speak english and the other 1/2 don't speak English well. The conference is for them to read to you the report that they send to you (very frustrating) and no answers for treatment are given, that blow comes in the 2nd week.

The basis of the call at the 2nd week with Luis and Kim is to figure out how much money they are going to be able to get out of you and tell you what the "REAL" expense of the program is. 

In our case after they requested that we get a 2nd mortgage on our home and start calling friends and family members begging them for money "to help our daughter", we told them that we could not get a 2nd mortgage on our home and could only come up with $43,000 for her therapy. They told us at that point, Sydney would make great progress in that amount of time and that they had past donors they could go to for additional funds. They said that the people of Holland, MI were very generous and they could get someone to donate money or in other words kind someone they could scam out of money.

We moved our daughters flight to the date when we were going to be out of money. You have to understand that once you are $20,000 into the program, it only made sense to us that we should give them as much time to help her as we could. You will feel trapped because you have spent such a tremendous amount of recources (that aren't just laying around) and that they are throwing a guilt trip on you about whats best for your child, we would have done almost anything.

When I told them I sold my SUV to help pay for the program, they acted like that was what everyone does.

That week we made a suggestion to teh staff of CMI (through email) that they take away our daughters phone so she could concentrate on the program. They all agreed that was a great idea because Sydney was spending a lot of time in her room, on her phone, while we were spnding $1,100 a day for treatment.

We know that was happening because she was constantly posting on Facebook how rediculous the whole program was and how we were paying a bunch of money for her to eat, ride horses, watch movies, and learn archery.

5 days later we had a conference with the coaches (our 2nd in 4 weeks, other than the 2 calls where they were asking us to come up with more money) wherer they told us that the 5 days she didn't have her phone they had no progress and through 3rd party stories tried to guilt us into believing that the reason she was not getting better was because they took her phone. We said, then gice it back.

At the end of that call, where they basically just talk in circles and don't give you any information, I was so frustrated, I told them that they were in 100% control of of all decisions needed to help Sydney through the therapy.

4 days before Sydney was scheduled to come home we had another call. This call was to let us know that they had found someone to donate $10,000 to Sydney's therapy. At tha time I asked if an extra 9 days would make a difference or if we should just bring her home. the concern that I expressed to them was that Sydney wanted to come home, was looking forward to getting out of there since she had (now we find out) just been hanging out, not learning anything all that time.

We were then convinced that it was critical for her to stay. My wife asked for teh 20th time, what they use for post therapy and what are we going to do when Sydney gets home? We don't know what they have been doing and how to help our daughter post treatment. Luis and Kim suggested thatthe only way to know would be if my wife flew down to Argentina, stayed in a hotel room and visited to see what was going on at CMI.

What my wife experienced was that a few times a week everyone eats together and in the group meeting she attended, they watched a soccer game on tv for their therapy. When the meal was over, everyone went back to their rooms.

One of the highlights of the program was that there is a personal trainer, Hernan Busler that works with the patients 2 times per day. My daughter did meet him, howveer somehow she gained 25 lbs in 6-1/2 weeks. She was already 40-50 lbs overweight before she even went there, 25 more lbs has put her into a further depressed state, reaching out to any guy that will act like she is good looking (which is another one of the things that CMI said they would be working on and did not).

Here's the part that seals the deal, I know you have been waiting for it. After my wife was there for 4 days, Luis met with her with a NEW PLAN. The con continues as they proceeded to try to get my wife to talk me into spending another $43,000 for her and Sydney to be in the program together for 3 weeks. I know you think I am kidding but I am not.

They gave her a proposed invoice (which I am sure they had ready before she got there) outlining the treatment they would both receive. All on the Alter of what was best for our daughter.

I am disgusted with teh fact that they take advantage of families in need this way. I am embarrased in myself for falling for this scam and that they somehow extracted $10,000 from an unknown party even though they knew that money would not help my daughter. 

THIS COMPANY IS RUTHLESS AND WILL GO TO ANY LENGTHS OF MANIPULATION TO "GET YOU".

By now you might be wondering what happened to Sydney, what were the results?

1. No change. Exactly the same 17 year old that went to CMI Abastos

2. She did not learn 2 tool that she has used in the past few weeks to address and handle problems

3. She used her phone to stay connected mentalyl and physically to the outside world and manipulated CMI to think differently

4. She is not thankful for her time there, rather she is now cynical about any treatment programs.

5. She gained 25 lbs. from overeating and not exercising putting her into further depression and wanting to feel beautiful to whomever will give her attention. Through one of her relationships that she met on an app while there she communicated whith a guy (andrew) and the day after she got back into town, met him at her grandparents, was laying on him, sitting on him, kissing on him to the point where her grandma told her to stop that inappropriate behavior.

6. I overheard her on the phone with her Gpa trying to manipulate him teh day after she was back.

7. My wife went out and bought her all new clothes because of teh 25 lb weight gain and did not even get so much as a thank you.

8. She has had multiple emotional outbursts, crying out of control, breaking down, each time she does not get her way.

I am literally sick to my stomach that I and others have and will fall for this scam.

Do you due diligence and investigate all aspects of the company before you dive in.

Do not let your loved one leave this country until you know the real cost, no estimates. ask for real references, they will only be able to provide 2 or 3.

Ask better questions than we did so you do not get scammed out of 100's of thousands of dollars!

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/03/2016 02:46 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/cmi-abastos/buenos-aires/cmi-abastos-cmi-luis-fain-kim-advent-beware-bait-and-switch-or-lose-300000-buenos-ai-1341229. 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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