State of Maine - Dept. of Administrative and Financial Services - Human Resources Security and Employment Service Center - Kathleen D. Carnes - Human Resources Manager and Annette Caron-Nash - Human Resources Generalist This Agency Failed to Act on a Serious Complaint we made Against the Maine Real Estate Commission - Citing "Confidentiality" Reasons Augusta Maine

I am the author of the original report against the State of Maine Human Resources  Department.  My truthful and honest report of my experience was ridiculed, 3 Times by someone calling themselves, JIM.

I think I know who JIM is, but - without concrete proof - I will not name him.

I now have evidence from several people I have spoken to - who also had problems with personnel from State of Maine Agencies.  These people filed a complaint against the Maine State Employee and - also got virtually the same treatment from the Human Resources Dept.

One gentleman, from another part of Maine actually called me to ask if my complaint against the Investigator of the Maine Real Estate Commission was ever resolved.  I had to tell him that it is certainly NOT RESOLVED, and that I got no justice at all from the Human Resources Dept.

This gentleman listened to my story and agreed with me totally.  He said that he also filed a complaint with Human Resources and again, NEVER RECEIVED ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE RESULT OF SUCH COMPLAINT. Thus, he knows his complaint was IGNORED by Human Resources, whose clear intent is to PROTECT THE OFFENDER.  He said that he also happened upon this website and saw the 3 Ugly, Nasty, Uncalled for Comments from the person calling himself, JIM.

From support I have been given, by other people, I have more evidence that complaining to Human Resources - against a State Employee from the Maine Real Estate Commission or any other agency, will lead the citizen to further fustration, and open them up to sick, stupid people like this JIM.

In our case, we could not afford to hire a competant lawyer against Carolyn Fish, the Real Estate Agent from Better Homes and Gardens in Bangor.  After her negligence and failure to disclose negative aspects of a home and area - we lost $60,000.  Lawyers told us that it would cost $ 50,000 to bring a case against the agent to trial.

This is why it was STUPID for this JIM to tell us YOU NEEDED A LAWYER, when we clearly tried.  This idiot, JIM should know that lawyers do NOT work for nothing.  Trials are expensive.

Our only other recourse was to file a complaint with the Maine Real Estate Commission.  We "thought" there would be some kind of justice for us.  However, we did not know - at the time of filing - that the investigator was once a Broker for the Better Homes and Gardens in the past.

This was a clear CONFLICT OF INTEREST.  That is the reason why our valid complaint was dismissed with 5 pages of lies and gross distortions of the truth.

A remedy for this should be that Members of the Maine Real Estate Commission should be made up of an equal number of realtors and impartial citizens - who are not realtors or brokers.  Then, the citizen might have a fighting chance.  Unfortunately, the FIX is IN against the citizen.

I now warn people, NEVER to file any kind of complaint with the Maine Real Estate Commission - because the cards are stacked against them.

Then, we filed our 23 page complaint the Human Resources Dept. against he Maine Real Estate Commission and the Investigator.  At first, we thought, the 2 women we saw and met with for 90 minutes, would take our complaint seriously.

At the end of the 90 minutes, we were told that ALL IS CONFIDENTIAL AND THAT WE WOULD NEVER KNOW THE RESULT OF ANY ACTION (or shall I say Inaction) they would take.

Of course, this was all designed to gather as much information from us as they could in case we should seek any type of legal action - which is almost impossible because State Agencies are generally immune from prosecution.

Catch 22, if you ask me.  As I said before, the cards are stacked against the citizen and there is no justice for us nor to the 3 people I spoke to - who have had similar experiences.

It is HEADS, THEY WIN, TAILS THE CITIZEN LOSSES.

At least we feel validated to know we are not alone in this.  Others have suffered - all because they dared to file complaints against State Employees with the PROTECTION RACKET, the Maine Human Resources are running.

Hopefully, there is Karma and a Universal Justice in this world that will ultimately result in Vindication for Us and other wronged citizens.

Now, I invite this JIM person to respond.  I am up to the task.  I just want JIM to know that it is HE that is 3 TIMES STUPID.

Thankfully, and I believe I speak for many authors on this valuable website - there is a place where wronged citizens - victims of injustice - to air their story for others to see and learn from.

This is why the Wisdom of the Founding Fathers of this Great Country, gave us FREE SPEECH.

Free Speech I say, NOT Vindictive and Hateful Retorts from Idiots like JIM.

Signed,

Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Justice.

I guess the 3rd time is the charm Barbara.  You're aren't just stupid but a moron to boot.  Once again, the 1st amendment allows for all to speak and your desire to suppress my right gets you nowhere and only tells me you have no love for either the 1st amendment, or the truth.  You also can't tell me to go away because only I decide whether I wish to go, or not.

The truthful fact is this:  You failed in every effort to take any responsibility for what happened to you.  All of what happened to you was perfectly avoidable - none of it had to happen had you simply done your own due diligence before you overpaid on the home that eventually netted you a loss of $60K.  When you screw up a real estate transaction as badly as you did, this happens.  I know people who have lost far more on real estate transactions who bought the wrong property, or bought a house that needed far more in repairs than they believed.  These actions have nothing to do with the realtor.  It has everything to do with the buyer of the property when they either fail to properly assess the offer they should have made, or carry out a simple investigation.  The rest of your complaint against the government employees is a waste and no one reading your rant should take any of it seriously.

The reason I am responding - other than the fact that you're stupid - is that there is no blame that needs to be assigned to anyone who works for the State of Maine (no, I don't live anywhere on the East Coast either), nor should the realtor who represented you nor the realty company be blamed in any of this.  If you knew anything about how State and Local governments work, then you would also know complaining to them was a waste of time.  Nothing happened to the people you reported on because they did nothing wrong.  The realtor - based on your own writing - did nothing wrong.  Therefore, the Realty company could not have done anything wrong.  You acted on an impulse and put an excessively high offer on a property you had no business doing.  That's no one's fault but your own.

Accordingly, the blame for all of this rests with you Barbara - and Barbara alone.  Not her husband (jeez, the poor guy who has to put up wih that).  Not anyone in her family.  Just Barbara.  You lost $60K of your retirement for you and your husband, on your own, and you can't make that up at this point unless you decide to work a few years at Walmart as a greeter.  People who read this report should disregard the rantings of Barbara as nothing more than a remorseful and irrational diatribe.  People who read this report should also exercise due care in their retirement years and avoid the sort of actions that Barbara undertook to lose a good chunk of their life savings.

Barbara, if you're looking for justice - STOP.  You will not get it by posting your rebuttals here.  Justice can be obtained when you were deliberately wronged as an innocent person, and the law says you would be entitled to relief in such a circumstance.  The problem is you're guilty beyond any shadow of doubt of impulsively acting without exercising due diligence; this failure caused you to lose $60K, and all of this is clear from your own narrative.  You are therefore not an innocent and accordingly the law says you are not entitled to justice. 

It is important readers understand that your posts should be disregarded.  It is also important to understand truth is completely irrelevant when you fail to admit your own wrongs; when you fail to do that, you cannot possibly tell the truth.  I doubt your able to understand that....

I am the person, Barbara, who filed a truthful report on the horrible treatment I received from the State of Maine - Real Estate Commission and Human Resources.

This JIM person, seems to be bent on insulting me - not once, but twice.

JIM, which I do not know IF that is his real name at all, is obviously in need of Mental Help now.  Jim, please see a doctor and have that doctor sign you into a mental hospital.

You are in bad need of treatment.

No one, in his or her right mind would continue to post harrassing and untruthful comments to our review.

May I remind you, that this site, is for people who have had bad experiences and did not get justice nor results.

You calling Me Stupid.  It is YOU - Jim who are the stupid one.

You have no knowledge of the facts here and are making comments, which have NO BASIS IN FACT.

Do you work for the State of Maine?

Are you friends of those in the Real Estate Commission?

Do you work for Better Homes and Gardens - Masiello Group and know this Carolyn Fish and her broker?

Either that, or you are just some crazed person - who needs to be hospitalized Permanently.

I will tolerate no more of your mean and unfounded comments.

The other readers here can clearly see what a Sick, Twisted Person you are.

CEASE AND DESIST NOW.  If you continue this assault, you will be violating the useage of this valuable site.

You will also open up yourself to CRIMINAL CHARGES.

DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR??

Again, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.  

By the way, we have no intention of moving to Kentucky.  Where, in your sick mind, did you get this idea?

GET A LIFE JIM.

GO AWAY AND CRAWL BACK UNDER THAT ROCK YOU CAME FROM.

Warning:  Any further comments will be reported to this site and the POLICE.

Then you can spend Christmas and New Year warming your a*s in JAIL.

Signed,

The Truth is Out there.

If your stupidity wasn't so idiotic, it would be almost precious.  But you have to love foolish people who claim to cheer the 1st Amendment right to say whatever she wishes, but then has a real problem with the 1st amendment when it comes to my response to her clearly deranged and untruthful statement.  Clearly Barbara has no love for the 1st amendment - if she did, then she would have remained silent on that subject so that others who also love the 1st Amendment can respond.  Barbara, just as an FYI - the 1st Amendment must apply to all people, or it applies to no one.  Can you understand this simple concept?

Barbara, you'll also see there is a rebuttal button.  See, your posting on a public website means you're making your problem everyone's business.  That rebuttal button is for people like me who understand that nothing illegal happened.  It is therefore impossible to stay out of your business because you made your problem everyone's business.

Now, frankly, I don't really care how hard this has been on the both of you.  Feelings have no place here.  The question is whether anyone committed any wrongdoing.  Clearly, the answer to that question is NO.  And yes, not even the original realtor did anything wrong.  You decided - on your own - to try and do this without the benefit of a car; I mean you were the last person that should have been looking for a house for you and your poor husband.  But since your ditched your husband, presumably because you were being a pain in the ___ closing the sale on your house in Georgia, that you decided to make an equally poor decision to actually buy a home in a state you had no knowledge of.  The things you wished you had obtained, like a relocation specialist - might have helped.  But at the end of the day, you would have found this person to be incompetent as well.  Why?  Because nothing is Barbara's fault.  It's always someone else's.  That nervous breakdown you suffered?  Closest you'll ever come to admitting you screwed up.  But then, you'll blame that on someone else too.

Do I know what happened to you?  Yes - you made it pretty clear not only from this complaint, but from the one you posted in 2017.  Telling me I don't know what I'm talking about?  I know enough not to make an offer on a house without knowing everything about that house.  Seems you don't know this.

BTW, you cannot undo a Real Estate transaction unless there was a fraudulent act committed by either party during the course of the sale.  That didn't happen, per your own writing.  The seller was a spiteful person and sounds like a slob, but that isn't illegal.  Comments made by neighbors and others are meaningless.  You jumped and made an offer on a house without doing a single bit of due diligence prior to the offer, or even doing the walkthrough yourself.  I mean how dumb is that?  All that stuff you found out later is stuff you should have known BEFORE you made your offer, not after.  I'm not a realtor, but even I know not to make an offer for Real property without knowing all of the things you found out later, and more.  Once you made the offer and it was put into writing and accepted...the deal was done.  And the lawyer who wanted $50,000?  Nothing he could have done for you either.  Like I said, a lot of lawyers go into something like this and bill you - knowing fuill well they can't do anything for you.  They'll rack up the fees and will end up saying too bad so sad.  But again, I digress.

It also seems clear you have no idea how civil service and civil servants operate.  As I implied in my original rebuttal, civil servants are employees for life unless they commit acts of an inappropriate nature, such as sexual harassment.  There is virtually nothing you can do to displace a civil servant.  I actually had a county employee once tell me the only way the county would ever get rid of me is by hand grenade or carrying me out...dead.  He's right.  Trying to get the investigator fired?  Not going to happen.  If there was no inappropriate action, then what did you expect the HR people to do?  HR people are not qualified to assess whether the investigator did his job competently.  Neither are you.  From your 2017 posting, I'm not surprised the investigator didn't find any wrongdoing.

After all of this, you end up taking zero responsibility for any of the things that happened to you.  It was always someone else's fault.  It was someone else who did all these wrongs to me.  No, virtually all of this is your fault.  ALL of it.  The lesson for everyone here is not how screwed up the State of Maine is, or your realtor.  The lesson here is doing your due diligence BEFORE you buy real estate, not after.  Once you buy that home, or piece of land, it's yours.

You'll like Kentucky better than Maine anyway.... just saying.

First of all, Jim, you do not know the entire story here.

There is an old Saying.  FIRST WALK A MILE IN SOMEONE'S SHOES BEFORE YOU MAKE A JUDGEMENT.

You, obviously either work for the State of Maine or are a good friend to this Bruce Osborne - who is a very biased investigator.

Now, read this - before you open up your arrogant mouth again and make comments without knowing all the facts.

The very fact that you think our COMPLAINT NEVER HAD ANY MERIT, SHOWS YOU TO BE IGNORANT AT BEST.

YES, we did seek out several lawyers to sue the real estate agent and her broker at Better Homes and Gardens in Bangor, Maine.

Most lawyers do NOT go after real estate companies, because they have CONFLICTS OF INTEREST and often do real estate closings.  Others, did not do that kind of law.  Others wanted $ 50,000 - to take the case to court.  Money, we do not have.

Jim Boy - you have no idea of the horrible ordeal we went through.  The Maine Real Estate Commission is supposed to help the consumer, yet they failed - big time -in our case and other cases as well.

You have no right to assume that our case HAD NO MERIT.  You clearly know nothing about our case.

So. why don't you close your arrogant mouth before you put your foot further into that mouth.

By the way,  A BIG LUMP OF COAL IN YOUR STOCKING THIS YEAR.

Also, here is wishing that you oneday get ripped off by a company, and you have no one to help you.

This is why, you should simply, shut up. and MYOB.  In case you do not know what MYOB means, I will spell it out for you.

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

You don't go into the reason how the $60K loss occurred (and I think I know the reason why based on everything you've written), but I suspect you infer malpractice on the part of the realtor who represented you.  In such a case, you need a lawyer.  The fact you decided to do something like this without one was a complete waste of time on your part.  Now that I said that, a lawyer might cost you far more than whatever loss you incurred.

So without a lawyer, you decided to go after the realtor by using the state's RE Commission since such an action can only cost you time.  Clearly, the complaint you filed wasn't valid because it was rejected by the commission's investigator; the fact you think your complaint was valid happens a lot when you decide to pursue such a situation without counsel.  Your opinion as to your complaint's validity does not make it so.  This is where having a lawyer would have helped to at least advise you whether your complaint had merit.  Or not...the lawyer would have advised you either way after he collected his/her fee from you.  BTW, a lot of lawyers might tell you that you have a case just to collect the fee.  But I digress....

Not satisfied with the investigator, you then went to try and have the investigator removed from his job - a job for which he cannot be removed due to civil servant rules that exist in virutally every state.  But since the pursuit costs you nothing except time, you figure why not?  I'm not sure exactly what you expected the HR department to do.  Unless the employee behaved in an inappropriate manner, there's virtually nothing they can do.  And no, a report that strikes down the validity of your claim would not be actionable.  The nice HR ladies who listened to your complaint determined there was no inappropriate behavior and decided not to take your complaint to anyone, but documented your complaint in the employee's file.  The lawyer who would have received the HR case is used to saying I'm sorry - without meaning any of it.  He's a lawyer - that's what they do.

Then you complain that whatever action was taken would be confidential and not revealed to you.  That's 100% correct.  Since this is an internal matter and revealing the results to the public would violate the employee's rights (yes, the employee has rights too), you would not receive the results of any investigation.  Then - and I laughed at this - you compare it to a jury reaching a verdict and not revealing the result.  Not really.  The difference is that a court case is public information for which a verdict must be rendered to the public.  Your complaint is not public and as I said, would violate the employee's rights should any decision be made public - especially if the complaint you filed had little merit - I suspect it had none.  If you had received the information and made it public, you would be sued for everything you own - period - and you would lose.

Your entire complaint is argued from the standpoint that everything you claimed as a complaint was valid and truthful.  Clearly it was not valid, and it is your subjective truth that you're telling - not the actual truth.  Perhaps the investigator's report is the actual truth?  The truth is always the truth from a certain point of view, isn't it?  In any case, I doubt seriously anyone got a slap on the wrist because of your complaint.  All this boils down to is your differing opinion from that of the investigator. 

This is not a ripoff - this is a difference of opinion.  Your rights as a citizen are not unlimited and if your claim is rejected - your action as a citizen is to accept the decision....or hire a lawyer to xhallenge the decision, which is what you should have done in the first place.