Garland Coulson Common Sense Solutions E-Business Tutor Free Traffic Bar Stay away from this scam artist. Offers lifetime memberships and then shuts down sites Nanaimo, British Columbia Canada

I was in contact with the owner of Free Traffic Bar and the matter is resolved to my satisfaction. I hereby withdraw my complaint.

Wow...there's so much wrong with what Mr. Garland Coulson said that I don't know where to begin.

First of all when I requested a refund via posts/comments on his Google Plus page, I did not use the term "full refund" as he implied. I am willing to accept a partial refund for all the years remaining in the lifetime membership I paid for that I will no longer be able to use the service. I made Mr. Coulson a very reasonable proposal. He insists and wants to force me to accept a useless 2 hour coaching via Skype/phone which he valued at $150 in his rebuttal above. So since he supposedly values his coaching at $150, I requested a $150 partial refund. Instead of accepting my reasonable request, he did not reply back and instead deleted his comments from his Google Plus page and blocked me from posting there. Fortunately he cannot delete his rebuttal above from this site. I had to sign out of my Google account to notice what he did. So obviously he doesn't think his useless coaching is even worth $150. Also think about how ridiculous his proposal is....if someone ripped you off for $297, would you want to talk to that person for 2 hours on the phone and get coached by him/her?

Mr. Coulson says he cannot issue a refund to me because he may have paid a commission to the person who referred me. But he obviously didn't bother to find out if he indeed paid a commission who the person who referred me (if someone referred me at all). Not everyone who pays for a lifetime membership gets referred by someone and a commission is due. Also most members of the site do not have a paid membership and if they refer someone who pays for a membership they were supposed to get a 10% commission. Is it really fair that if I was referred by a free member that Mr. Coulson gets to keep $267 ($297 - 10%) for not providing the lifetime membership he promised?

Also Mr. Coulson said in the rebuttal "No one provides a product forever." I can think of many companies who do provide a product and continue providing it until the owner dies (and sometimes the owner's heirs continue running the business and keep providing the product). But he contradicts himself on his own website at freetrafficbar.com  His website says "To thank my Lifetime members of these services and to compensate them for the services not continuing for their entire life, I am offering free 2 hours of one-on-one coaching with me via Skype or phone...so on his own website he is admitting that the services should have continued for the entire life of his members.

Garland Coulson should do the right thing and provide a refund/partial refund for offering a lifetime membership to his site and then shutting down the site.

The service in question was an online advertising service. Most pro members paid a monthly fee ($19.99) to advertise and there was also a one time fee option called a "Lifetime" package that sold for $297.

The lifetime offer was a one time payment that provided extra advertising credits used to show their ad in the advertising toolbar used by members. So by paying the equivalent of 16.5 months up front, they could advertise  with more credits.

The product ran for some years, but with the advent of social media this type of advertising became less popular and the number of members using the toolbar dwindled to a very small number.  At that point, I felt it was no longer providing value to my members, so I cancelled the automatic payments coming to me and closed down the service and sent an email out to all my members. I could have kept it running and kept collecting these monthly payments, but that would not be fair to my members paying monthly.

In hindsight, it would have been better not to have used the word "Lifetime" but it is common that products have a life span. Google just cancelled Google Reader and there are many people upset over that loss as well. No one provides a product forever. I will not use that phrasing again.

Over the years, many members received thousands of dollars from the service as well as lots of advertising and leads so it was good value during it's popular period. I had a lady call me the day it closed and thanking me for offering the service as she had found it and my articles and communication a big help to her for years.

I did offer a thank you to my lifetime members by offering $150 of my time management coaching but this particular member didn't want the coaching and insists he would only take a full refund. I do offer refunds to any payments made in the last 30 days prior to the closure but cannot go back and refund every one of the lifetime fees paid over the many years the system operated, especially since commissions were paid to the people who referred them. 

I remain willing to help this member or any other of these members  by offering my coaching services, but cannot refund 5-6 years of sales. No company would do this.