Mike Filsaime - TrafficFusion - HyperJava - MikeFilsaime.com Inc. Beware! It took over a month to get a refund from Mike Filsaime.com after repeated follow-ups! Don't get caught the way that I did! Ronkonkoma New York

At first I was not going to write this letter, but after the horrible experience that I have had in receiving a refund from Mike Filsaime.com this month, I felt that I needed to put this up there as an advisement to anyone interested in his products. Mike, like most internet marketers, writes much about how customers are the most valuable part of your business, and how your reputation online is absolute. Yet, I was a loyal customer, had purchased several of his products, including the Butterfly Marketing Report, Viral Friend Generator, and finally, HyperJava, and made sure that he was credited with other purchases, and I can tell you that I have been treated as less than a number by his staff.

In the last complaint here on the Rip Off Report, Mike wrote that all you needed to do was email him at mikefilsaime at gmail dot com, and someone would help you. You get an autoresponder that states that the email will be read and responded to within a timely fashion. I emailed Mike, and have never received even a note to acknowledge that he would make sure that my message was addressed. Therefore, that argument holds little weight with me and I hope it holds little weight for you, the customer who may read this letter of warning. I have a long complaint, but I will try to condense it and keep it short.

Here is why I'm writing this:

On September 20th, 2008 I purchased HyperJava from Mike. A few days later, I purchased a coaching program from another prominent internet marketer. Mike had a promotion that stated that 16 people could get HyperJava for free or waive the bi-annual fee in order to use the system. I emailed the other internet marketer and had Mike credited for this purchase within 24 hours. Simultaneously, I emailed Mike's office to ask to participate in the special. His office manager Michelle Galvin agreed to contact me within 3-4 days once all of the names of the people who signed up were disclosed. How long should this take if there are only 16 people? Well, apparently it takes weeks, since I did not hear from her despite asking for updates since September 30th. What happened next was a tedious round of follow-up emails, help-desk submissions, and inquiries for an update on the status of my request, and when I found that no one was getting back to me, requests for refunds. Most interestingly, after I finally got to the appropriate persons and asked for a refund, I never received a follow-up response until I was able to track someone down on the phone.

Who I spoke to on the phone was Adam Kaye, Mike's VP of Coaching (adamk at "youcanguess" dot com, 631-615-4595) AFTER emailing Nancy Fahey at his Help Desk who is in charge of refunds and never got back to me (mikefilsaimesupport at "guess" dot com), Michelle Galvin (mikesofficemanager at "guess" dot com) his executive assistant who never followed up on my account, and a Help Desk assistant (Don, Message ID# 100-38136 and ID# 100-37405, Oct 9th & 17th, 2008) who never directly answered my questions for an update on my account and only answered how I could get a refund after asking him for the second or third time. What struck me was that it took nearly a month to get someone on the phone to answer my questions about a refund, but I could certainly get someone on the phone to take more money for additional products and coaching.

I am going overboard with the items of proof very simply because I know how things go when it comes to complaints against internet marketers. Someone lists a complaint, and a business owner or marketer tries to say that they did the best that they could and that due to the sheer number of inquiries, customers have to understand that they cannot necessarily get back to them personally, etc. Or they mention that the instructions are in bold at the bottom of the page, and shift the blame back to the customer.

While these things may be true, I will have to be the first one to say that these excuses are not good enough. It's not good enough to tell me that you're too busy to address my complaints while your organization continues to collect my money. It's not enough to offer a guarantee and then not have a system to actually offer it when it is requested. It's not enough to say email me if you have a problem when the people you put in charge of handling problems do not so much as look up your account, read the emails, or respond to messages. It is not enough to boast that you are on track to making 10 million dollars and that you hope to create a 100 million dollar company, and you do not pay attention to a core pillar of your business: namely, your customers and customer support.

For me, the straw that broke the camel's back and ultimately forced me to post here is that after speaking to Adam Kaye, the VP of Coaching twice and emailing him very specifically on what I needed to have done (namely, a refund) and emailing him with all of the background that I had received from his organization, he had this to email to me:

simply sending an avalanche of emails is difficult to absorb considering the number of emails that our team and company receives on a daily basis. plus, there is nothing specific in the subject lines either.

I'm such a valued customer that he didn't even bother to capitalize or listen to the specific information I had already given to him over the phone. But I am happy to note that I did get my refund after sending an email with a PayPal claim copied into the body and the subject line This is ridiculous. Please refund my money just last night, October 28th. Time of initial purchase to time of resolution: 1 MONTH, 1 WEEK, and 1 DAY.

We all know that the more difficult companies make it to follow up, the more tired the average person becomes with the matter until they just give up and write whatever the purchase was as a loss, and that's what bothers me. I'm not sure that someone else would be as persistent in getting an answer as I was, nor should they have to be. There is an unwritten rule with all business that you take care of your customer because your customer takes care of you. Somehow this has broken down on the internet to where it has become "get what you can and make it so difficult to follow up with a lack of telephone support and spotty email service that the customer just gives in."

So let me spell this out to be clear: To all internet marketersit is NOT ENOUGH to cry about the pressures of keeping up with email when you are asking for the money that comes along with the status of your employ. With your privileges come the same amount of responsibility to the people who are making it possible for you to meet celebrities, work when you want, and go on vacation at the drop of a dime. Enough with this I'll personally ask you for your money, but I won't personally help you with your problems philosophy.

As a customer, Mike Filsaime has lost my confidence not so much because I think that he himself is a crook. However, I do not believe that the people who he has in charge or the system that he has in place is built to help his customer, answer their questions, or make their lives easier. I had to ask for a refund and follow up well over a half dozen times several times a week for nearly a month before my issue was finally taken care of. Furthermore, I do not feel that he is paying enough or any attention as a business owner to his customer service, because I guarantee you that he would not himself go through the process that he forces his customers to, and when I copied the email address that he had on file I had absolutely no response from the top (namely, him).

I'm sick to my stomach from the people who outright tell you that they are making millions of dollars a year, and yet cannot answer simple questions or make it impossible for customers to reach a single live person for help. As a small business owner myself, I empathize with the task of customer service. Sometime it is an absolutely thankless job. But I absolutely reject the complete breakdown in service and excuses for bad behavior that I have received from this web marketer who is supposed to be at the top of his game.

I've said my peace, and I hope that I have helped anyone who is considering a Mike Filsaime product purchase (or any internet marketer's product purchase). I'm sure that there will be a rebuttal that my views are in the minority, but ask yourself if you want to risk that or not based on the hard-earned money you are forking over, and whether you could part with it for a day, a week, or a month (or all of the above) if the purchase does not pan out the way you want it to. When your marketer tells you that they are making millions and you're not, it takes a lot less to hurt you and more to hurt them, so be certain that you can call and get a live person on the phone, that their support actually answers questions, and that you will be treated with the respect due as a paying customer and not just as another number. If you don't, make certain that you can live without just in case.

There is a time to reflect and fix a broken system, and I hope that Mike and other internet marketers will read this post and reflect and fixing theirs. In the meantime, I will be extra careful of with whom I spend my money since it is obvious that "guru status" does not equate to being focused on the most important person: me and you.

Very Sincerely,

Absolutely Fed Up
Every town, New York
U.S.A.