Complaint Review: John Nada - Internet
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- Author Not Confirmed
- John Nada Internet United States of America
- Phone:
- Web: www.goingghost.com, www.fugitivesla...
- Category: Multi-Level Marketing
John Nada Expat Course a Ripoff, Nada Targets Desperate Men with Offers of "Solutions" That Are WAY Overpriced, Internet
*Consumer Suggestion: John, why don't you give the OP a refund then for your overpriced services?
*General Comment: John needs to move on with life!!
*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Sour Grapes
*General Comment: John Nada
*General Comment: Hello
*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Absolutely Flabbergasted.
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Several months ago, I was in the midst of a rough period personally, one that had me considering moving overseas. I checked out John Nada's site at www.goingghost.com (he now has a mirror site at www.fugitiveslave.com). Nada's story is that he is an American who expatriated to Barranquilla, Colombia several years ago following a divorce, and now he wants to help men escape the "woman's plantation" that is the United States and find, as he did, their own "never-never lands".
He offers an online course, the "Fiercely Independent Expat" or FIE course, that he claims will help men smoothly expatriate to the country of their choice. At the time I contemplated paying for the course, he was offering it for $397, but warned that it would soon jump in price, with the new cost tied to the price of one troy ounce of gold. As one ounce of gold currently fluctuates in price between $1050 and $1200, my hesitation could have cost me several hundred extra dollars.
Of course, the fact that he was willing to play the "fear card" on men who, due to various financial and romantic concerns, were both seriously contemplating expatriation and who were, in turn, likely willing to take desperate measures to assure themselves of better lives, should have been a clear warning to me to steer clear. In the midst of depression and anxiety regarding the future, however, I proved susceptible to his sales pitch, and paid for the course before it jumped in price.
As a parenthetical comment, I accessed his FIE offer web page within the past week, and found that he is now offering the course for $501, payable in three installments of $167. I gather that his attempt to sell the course for over $1000 wasn't successful - but imagine if someone paid that much for the course, only to find that he was marketing it less than four months later for less than half the amount for which the poor fellow purchased the course back in January. Talk about a dissatisfied customer!
Anyway, back to my story. In taking his four-part course, I noticed the following:
(1) A lot of what he says falls under the banner of common sense. For instance, he devoted one of his four 'webinars' to the need for doing research on the cultural, political, and other climates of the country to which one planned to expat. Well, sure - I already knew that.
(2) The money you pay for the expat course is intended to be just the beginning - he has a lot of other items he wishes to sell to you, at highly inflated prices. Here are two examples.
(a) He devoted another webinar to implementing what he refers to as the "Geoarbitrage Formula", which amounts to building your own online business, operating as an information marketer. Clearly, this can whet one's appetite - what all is involved? How do I end up becoming an online business titan? Well, if you want to know, all you have to do is pay for Nada's online business course - at a cost of $1588. In the course, he explicitly pushes the idea of marketing to buyers who are in 'dire straits', taking advantage of their emotional pain in order to make big bucks off them.
(b) Lonely? Think that expatriating to a Latin American country will solve those problems? Then head to latinabrideguide.com, where Nada will send you his "Global Dating Manifesto" report, which he values at $97, for free - but there's a catch. (By the way, Nada likes to price things with an amount that ends in 97 - it's his version of "Look at all you can get, for only $19.95!" Whatever. The amount is $20, or $100, or $400, all right? Only when selling to Americans, I suppose.) To get this report, you have to input your name and email address. You'll get the report, then have the pleasure of Nada pestering you, trying to instill fear in you, and if all else fails, insulting you by telling you in so many words that you're an idiot if you don't take what he offers - and what he offers is a chance to become a member of his LatinaBrideGuide inner circle for *only* $497 (last time I checked - as I've noted above, Nada will change the price of something in a heartbeat if he thinks his current approach isn't working).
At one time, Nada also offered a TESOL mentoring course, but the corresponding link appears to be inactive. It's my understanding that he was charging an arm and a leg for this course as well.
(c) Throughout the course, Nada emphasizes the need to stay "under the radar", even to the point of trying to keep family and friends in the dark as to your expat plans. This is a classic technique of con artists and cult leaders, to foster the "You and me against the world" mentality in their followers.
So, in summary, Nada's expat course:
(1) Tells you things that you could have figured out on your own, or could learn from a site such as happierabroad.com, for free, or at most a mere fraction of the cost.
(2) Teases you with the prospect of assuring yourself of financial wealth and romantic fulfillment abroad, but only if you take his courses, which will set you back thousands of dollars.
(3) Touts the wisdom of separating yourself from family and friends during the expatriation process, a quest that involves you, Nada, and your wallet.
In addition to the FIE course, Nada also permitted me access to his 'Mastermind' discussion group, which meets each Tuesday evening for two or more hours on Skype. Several men from various parts of the US, men who have given Nada a chunk of their hard-earned funds, connect with Nada for a conference call. As a new participant, I kept quiet for the most part, being content to listen and to observe, in the hopes of gaining useful information from Nada and others. Most of the time, however, the calls were simply 'rah-rah' sessions with Nada either speaking tritely or posting links that either called for those who accessed the web sites to pony up yet MORE money to 'achieve their dreams', or that stoked the fears of those who read the articles with prophecies of impending doom. (Personally, I think the US is on untenable ground financially, and cannot continue on its current course without dire consequences resulting, but it's one thing to think that, and another thing altogether to let such thoughts dominate your thinking, which was clearly Nada's hope.) In short, it was obvious that Nada didn't come into the conferencing calls with a plan, at least not one that would have truly benefited the men who spent two hours each week on Skype instead of relaxing, pursuing hobbies, and so forth.
Push came to shove last Monday. I awoke, and opened my email to find that Nada had sent an email that included a link to a video - a link that has since been disabled, interestingly. I watched the six-plus minute video, and in it, Nada says that he's disappointed with the Mastermind discussion group. After a token nod towards his own accountability in the matter, instead of telling his audience that as the leader, the burden rests upon him and he will resolve to do better, he castigates the members of the Mastermind group for gossiping, indecision, and lack of results, and says that to resolve the problem, he will now charge $197 per month for access to the Mastermind discussions, an amount that would jump to $397 per month if one didn't sign up by the end of the next day.
On top of this, he sent another email the same day in which he offers two tips at a time, twice a month, for $97 a pop. In the email, he tells you that after watching the video, if you make excuses and don't sign up, then "you hate success". So, in short, his solution to the problem is to blame others, and charge each person an additional $400 to $600 per month.
Well, that was enough for me. I severed contact with Nada, and took my name off his mailing list. The money he got from me was not nearly the amount he received from others, but it's all the money he'll get from me.
At first, I was hesitant to post a report, due to my embarrassment at having been conned. But then, I realized that by not posting, I was letting Nada win. By posting this, I not only regain power and dignity, but also help make certain no one else gets taken in by him.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/01/2010 09:29 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/john-nada/internet/john-nada-expat-course-a-ripoff-nada-targets-desperate-men-with-offers-of-solutions-th-598931. 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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#6 Consumer Suggestion
John, why don't you give the OP a refund then for your overpriced services?
AUTHOR: Truth seeker - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Monday, August 02, 2010
John Nada,
One question for you. Why do you charge so much? $400 and then a thousand? Sheesh. You're just making excuses to cover your greed.
What do you offer that one can't find for free on the internet on global dating sites like HappierAbroad and the free forum on there with all its expert expats? What do you offer that they can't?
#5 General Comment
John needs to move on with life!!
AUTHOR: David - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, June 08, 2010
John, do you wake up every day and immediately begin typing your name online to see what people are saying about you? Move on as you are making yourself look bad by feeling the need to constantly defend yourself. If what you do is legit and honest then time will always tell. I do not believe in your website testimonials, as you can read testimonials praising that dog manure cured someone's cancer. You can read testimonials about how you can earn $5000.00 a month just by stuffing envelopes for a busy company even though people are really being scammed. As I said, if what you do is legit then time will tell as people will start talking about you and not you talking about yourself. If you get this emotional over one negative reviewer then I hope you don't go postal over several of them if they start popping up. I'm glad that you do not own a hotel because any little complaint that will come your way will probably have you on Prozac. You should know by now in life that someone will always complain about another or something.
People will be here backing you up if what you offer is as good as you claim for the money. The fact that only you are the only one here backing yourself up with the supposed evidence of honesty and legitimacy found only at your website doesn't come across very well. I am now a little suspicious as one man out there is throwing you into such a tizzy.
Enjoy that wonderful life you are supposedly having and don't let people ruffle your feathers so easily.
Let's see if you have what it takes to ignore this comment and move on.
#4 REBUTTAL Owner of company
Sour Grapes
AUTHOR: John Nada - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Monday, May 31, 2010
The original poster made baseless accusations against not just one particular product line, but ALL of them (even ones he had not purchased). These were borderline libel and I value my reputation.
1) I am not a scam artist and I resent the implication. He received exactly what I promised: a viable game plan on how to move overseas in a long-term, sustainable way. Yes, I teach this by using common sense methods but applied IN AN UNCOMMON WAY.
For brevity's sake, please re-read where I gave him an additional, more
expensive training course absolutely free--so he received in total about
$2,200 of value for $400. Why did I do that? Because I am genuinely interested in his success. If the training was so bad, he had 30 days to
ask for a full refund...after the entire course was complete.
2) I (like every other free market entrepreneur) am in business to make money and yes, I charge premium prices because of it. I do that by selling products and providing tremendous value. If I don't sell, my family doesn't eat and if I don't provide great value to my clients well, I do not sell.
The bottom line is that he seemed upset that the other training was out of his price range. I understand his point, however some might say that a question as life-defining as expatriation should cost well above what I currently charge. And if by raising my prices weeds out "sour grapes" customers like these (especially those that bite the hand that feeds them) then it'll be well worth the effort.
Lastly, feel free to contact me or any of the testimonials on my site. They are all paid customers of mine and none of them were compensated for their endorsements.
#3 General Comment
John Nada
AUTHOR: David - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Monday, May 17, 2010
First, I would be highly suspect of anyone that I cannot find out any info about their company online. I searched the BBB for myself and could find nothing about John Nada, Fiercely Independent, his address, websites, phone number and so on. The only info seems to be all coming from John's site. I also would be highly suspect when all the testimonials comes from the
persons website itself. I can't find anyone sharing their wonderful
experiences to any group anywhere else online. I could be wrong but was
not able to find any.
I found John Nada defending himself here and one other place. He does come across as a little sensitive, but he has the right to defend himself as anyone else would. I read John's rebuttal and it does initially come across as valid. However, I have many times praised a product or system only to discover that it actually was crap later. You can order a fine steak at a restaurant where you tell the waiter after your first few bites how wonderful it is, but that was before you realized that the center was not cooked enough. John Nada could be that waiter mocking the guy saying, "You just said the steak was absolutely wonderful, but now you have issues???" You might have a wonderful meal but later that night discover the meat was contaminated and now you are very sick. I know I would take back my earlier pleasant reviews as well.
Reading the complaint tells me that this person appeared initially pleased just as John Nada stated. However, it was when taking this 4 part course that the complaint stated that he noticed some things: 1. Common sense knowledge in John's material. 2. Expect to keep paying more and more as John Nada had more stuff to sell you. The person that wrote the complaint appears to be the guy that was at first eating a wonderful steak but later noticed that it wasn't what it initially appeared to be. John to me is the one trying to get people to focus on the wonderful steak comment as he quoted the person as originally satisfied. It appeared that John was trying to convince others that one cannot initially be satisfied but later discover that you might be full of prunes. I think we all can say that we were satisfied with something at first but later discovered that it wasn't all cracked up to be. I went after girls that were at first amazing but then they spoke.
I am not claiming that John Nada is a scam artist. I just didn't like how he went about defending himself. He appeared to be making the guy look ridiculous because the complaint initially enjoyed the first few bites of his steak. There is just no information that I can find on John Nada. I found him all over youtube and was not able to read any testimonials there as well. It is too much money for me to give someone that I can't find anything about accept through him alone and his website. I would only be suspicious and recommend people to use caution.
#2 General Comment
Hello
AUTHOR: axxx - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, May 06, 2010
I don't know anything about John Nada, his courses etc. But, John, since you seem to be monitoring this thread - if you really have escaped from slaveland hats off to you. To the OP - I have no position on your ripoff report, but I would like to make a suggestion - Thailand if you have money, Cambodia if you don't.
#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company
Absolutely Flabbergasted.
AUTHOR: John Nada - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, May 06, 2010
With all due respect, I have not "conned" anyone and I resent the accusation; it's borderline libel. He paid for and received exactly what I promised: a 4 week online ecourse leading to a long-term, sustainable expatriate game plan. In fact, he even admitted that I GIFTED him my internet marketing ecourse that I sell for $1,588. However, he goes on to post this to "make certain no one else gets taken in by him"? You can't have it both ways, Professor. Either I care for my clients success (the gift, remember?) or the only thing I care about is money.
Moreover, I do not apologize for charging premium prices for my information. I do live in a dangerous country like Colombia and have unique insights and experience that very few have or are willing to share. In fact, I believe so much in my system that I STAKE M LIFE ON IT. As unbelievable as it may seem to the original poster, not everyone wants "free" or "cheap" information, most of which has little detail, is erroneous, outdated and incomplete anyway. And when it comes to something as serious as moving overseas, I would hope anyone considering it would go over their plans with a fine tooth comb.
I have a 30 day full refund policy. All he had to do was ask me for a refund within 30 days and that is after going through the entire course so I take all the risk, not my clients.
Alas, that's not what happened. Let's see what he wrote in his own words just a few weeks ago (his name has been omitted):
Your course has already provided me with the motivation I needed to find, and speak to, the head of the TESOL program at Penn State. It's on my to-do list for this week. Thanks, John!
Hi John,
It was good talking with you and the others on Tuesday. The encouragement and links you provide are very helpful, and very much appreciated!
I really appreciate your advice regarding Costa Rica. Your email prompted me to do further due diligence, and it's become clear that Costa Rica would be one of the WORST places for me to plant my flag.
(Wait, but he already knew where to go, right?)
Hi John,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, and thanks especially for your insights into the Bolivian situation. Sometimes, the hurdles in front of you can be too great to overcome, and that would seem to be the case with Bolivia. I've turned my attention from Bolivia to Ecuador, and the latter seems, at first glance, to be more promising, especially if one wants to live around Guayaquil.
(Scratch my head on this one: Costa Rica, now Bolivia, now Ecuador. Again that begs the question, he already knew the common sense I teach in my ecourse, or no?)
Thanks for your email in which you inquired about my progress, and offered to help me by way of personal coaching. As you can tell, things are moving on my end, and I'm going to make sure they stay moving. Once again - and finally! - I'm the conductor of my train, and not merely a passenger. I will continue to be able to join the MM discussions on Tuesdays, but if my schedule should ever change, I'll let you know, so that we can work something out.
(Does this sound like a man that lost his "power and dignity" by taking my course? Quite the contrary, right?)
I'm absolutely flabbergasted. I'm not sure exactly why the original poster made this claim. I have several video testimonials from satisfied clients on my sites right now.
Lastly,
#1) Not everyone wants or trusts "free" or "cheap" information. They tend to let the market decide. Premium buyers want value-laden, premium priced products. An Aston-Martin driver will NOT drive a Hyundai, no matter how cheap it is.
#2) I present opportunities to men that may be more available to them overseas. I live here and have done successfully what they want to do and of course, I provide the products and information necessary copy my success. And so what if I change my prices. They've tripled now thanks to you so why not let the market decide if I'm wrong?
#3) More libel, Professor. I do NOT run any type of cult and I resent the implication.
I've always maintained complete transparency in my business dealings and have never conned anyone, (especially the original poster as evidenced by his own words) and have had not ONE refund request. EVER.
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