Charlie Nicks tomlin nicks wells advertising Charlie Nicks scammed about 30 real estate agents out of their money boise, Idaho

To clarify, agents that participated in the Seller Direct 995 program lost $795, not $295 as stated by Charlie Nicks. 

Assuming 30 agents that participated in the program, that would be around $25,000 that went somewhere....

I do not believe Charlie Nicks is a scam artist, but his previous company Tomlin Nicks Wells Advertising walked away with the agents money paid to implement the Seller Direct 995 program. 

I was at one time a minority interest partner in the Colorado Corporation, Tomlin/Nicks/Wells & Townsend Advertising, Inc., I did not run the company nor act in any administrative capacity at any time over the 6 years I was employed by the company.



In early 2008, the company marketed an innovative product called ZipPartners to real estate agents throughout the U.S. and Canada.  It was essentially a For Sale By Owner assistance program that was developed to help people sell their homes without the assistance (or commission) of a real estate agent.  In the event a homeowner was unable to sell it themselves, ZipPartners would deduct the amount the homeowner had paid for the program intially ($995.00) from their commission and list the house.



ZipPartner agents who purchased the program from Tomlin/Nicks/Wells & Townsend Advertising, Inc., signed a marketing agreement clearly stating in bold, 14pt. Arial type at the top of page one, "I understand this is a marketing program and may or may not work and that I may lose all or part of my money."



About 70 agents enrolled in the program paying $295.00 per person.  The housing market was just begining to fall apart, and when it did, Tomlin/Nicks/Wells & Townsend Advertising, Inc., went out of business, closing it's doors on October 20, 2008.  Some of the agents who had become ZipPartners did exceptionally well with the program, others did not, which is exactly how marketing programs generally go.



I personally felt very bad about the program not working better as I did the design work on it - to this day I do not understand why it didn't work better.  I personally wrote these sentiments in letters to each and every ZipPartner and advised them, based on the state of the economy, that they spend no more time with the product than they already had and expressed my hope to someday voluntarily repay all of them their $295.00 purchase price.



Like everyone else affected by the recession I have not been in a financial position to personally and voluntarily make all of those refunds, though some have indeed been paid.



This persons complaint obviously depicts the feelings of one who hasn't (and won't) receive a refund from me.



I work hard to be a transparent and fair man in my business and personal dealings - unfortunately for all of us we live in a world where the Internet let's people make any allegation they can dream up a public matter, and that's too bad for all of us.



This person was not treated unfairly by Tomlin/Nicks/Wells and Townsend Advertising, Inc., and certainly not by me.



Thank you.