Complaint Review: Premier Family Services, Father's Choice, Fatherschoice.org, Father's Advocate - Goleta California
- Premier Family Services, Father's Choice, Fatherschoice.org, Father's Advocate 1179 Patterson Avenue, 93 Castillian Drive Goleta, California U.S.A.
- Phone: 800-964-1664
- Web:
- Category: Family Services
Premier Family Services, Father's Choice, Fatherschoice.org, Father's Advocate "We've helped over 5,000 families....." YEAH RIGHT !!!!!!!! Helped them waste $$$ Goleta California
*UPDATE Employee: I admit I was hard to be reached I was training to better service our member's but i do recall being nothing but helpful and informative. Hello Every
*UPDATE Employee: Resolution of issue for Matthew and Amber of Oakland, Iowa'
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When I signed up for their services back in June, it sounded like the answer to our prayers. A way to keep custody of our children for less than half of what most attorneys would charge. The man on the phone who talked me into signing up was great... "We'll have an actual lawyer reviewing your case every step of the way, we've won thousands of cases just like yours, etc..." Unfortunately, I didn't look at ROR until after I'd already signed up. As soon as I found your web-site I immediately called to cancel my account. They talked me out of it saying that there are always a few disgruntled customers for every company, "just like the phone company has." So, I stayed and paid the price.
In the following weeks and now months, I've had some of the absolute worst customer experience in my life! First of all, the case manager who I was originally assigned to (Renee Guillen) was not exactly the most friendly or courteous to work with. She was unable to answer many of my questions and it was extremely hard to get hold of her. I would leave a message and not hear back for days. I finally started emailing her just to get some sort of response. She was supposed to do research for my case, and get back with me, but never did... I always had to call her to get my answers.
Then, I paid $420 of the $845 they asked me for in order to handle all of my paperwork. They had some ditzy woman call and waste over an hour of my time asking the same stupid questions over and over again. When I was emailed my "intake information" sheet to look over for typos it was insane! My 6 year old could have done better... this lady couldn't even spell "Brown St." right, even when I said, "you know, Brown, like the color, b-r-o-w-n." We ended up living on "Rown St." She messed up important information like social security numbers, dates of birth, on and on it went. I immediately called to complain. It finally took 4 phone calls and 2 weeks before some other guy (Frank Desales) called me back and we had to redo the entire thing! Then it took over 4 tries for them just to email the thing in the correct format to be opened on my computer.
I finally got all of the information corrected and Renee said they would start working for me right away, as soon as I paid the remaining $425, they would get the finished documents to me. At this point, I was having some severe doubts as to this company's ability to help me win my court case, so I put off paying for a week to think about it. When I finally called back to talk with Renee on a Monday, some other guy named Tom answered her extension and said she was in training.
I left messages and voicemails all week long trying to reach Renee with no response other than that she was in training and would get back with me as soon as possible. When I called back the following week, I was told by some other guy (Mike maybe?) that he was my new case manager since Renee had transferred to a new department. No notice, no calls, no emails whatsoever and this was the person who was supposed to be my number one contact, available at anytime I had questions or concerns, etc, etc
Well, I hate to admit it, but I totally lost it. I wouldn't let this guy help me at all, I yelled that I wanted his manager and refused to let him get in any other word in edgewise. Finally, someone named Edward Herstock took over the call saying he was the new guy's manager. I told Edward that I no longer had any faith in the company and I wanted my money back. He told me (believe it or not) that His job isn't to make us have faith in him, it's to help the children. To which I replied, How the hell do you expect to help the children when I don't trust you to handle my case properly? Anyway, as you can probably guess, the call deteriorated rapidly. Finally, he said that they could send me a rough draft of the forms I was paying for to see that it was all legitimate and then I could pay the remaining $425 to have the final copy sent to me.
The paperwork showed up 3 days later than it was supposed to, and it was ridiculous. It was literally the same form that I had found on the Internet myself. Only, it wasn't even completely filled in they left some spaces for us to still fill out. At this point, I called back to speak with Edward. After two non returned calls, I spoke with a secretary named Veronica who told me that Edwards manager is Craig. When asked for Craig's last name she replied, I don't know. When asked for her last name, she refused. And guess what??? I haven't heard from anyone in the company since then, and it's been over two weeks.
Now, the children's biological unfit mother is trying to take us to court and it's going to look like the only reason we're fighting the case is as a form of retaliation... that'll look great to a judge ~ NOT! We're out $518, over two month's worth of time, and lost our advantage of being the first to file.
Do yourself and your friends and family a favor. Bite the bullet, find a REAL lawyer who is willing to help you win a case. Borrow money if you must, but hire someone who actually is part of a State Bar, who can help you win. And tell others about this As I was telling a girlfriend about my many problems the other day, she told me that her brother had also wasted money with Father's Choice and has yet to see any kind of a refund.
Amber
Oakland, Iowa
U.S.A.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/21/2008 03:09 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/premier-family-services-fathers-choice-fatherschoiceorg-fathers-advocate/goleta-california-93117/premier-family-services-fathers-choice-fatherschoiceorg-fathers-advocate-weve-help-365233. 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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#2 UPDATE Employee
I admit I was hard to be reached I was training to better service our member's but i do recall being nothing but helpful and informative. Hello Every
AUTHOR: Marie - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Hello Everyone,
I am a current employee of Father's choice I'm here on this site just to share a little bit of the truth with old, new, or potential member's. We have a member service group that makes the first contact with a member. That initial person that enrolled that member did nothing more but explain the services as well as the options in which they have 3. At this point they are asked if they would like to utilize the service. If member did enroll they will be sent an orientation video which will go over the details of our service, monthly billing and in house legal document preparation services. After reviewing the "terms and conditions" you have the option to accept or decline the terms that you read.
We use this video to stray away from the he said, she said it allows us to be efficient and enables the customer not only to hear a verbal play out of the service but also get a visual so that by the time they make it to the case manager they know what to expect. Unfortunately just like any normal human we tend to not pay attention to the details that were layed in front of us or even tend to not follow simple instructions by merely just watching the orientation video that was asked.
When we notice that a member did not view the orientation video we route them back to their emails to assure they review the terms and conditions as I mentioned earlier because after viewing it they have a clear undersanding of what type of service they enrolled in. I would like to also mention that at that point if they do not feel what was read matched to what the representative said to them they declined the terms and would receive a full refund.
Unforunately instead of that happening we would have a good portion of those members fail to call us back after accepting or decling the terms. While working there and dealing first hand with member's we come to find out just like ourselves at Faher's Choice our member's have a commitment to their lifestyles and work schedule so that tends to disable us from reaching everyone. We do come across voice mail boxes more than actually contacting a members live. Not to mention that about 2/3 of of our member's live in the East Coast and are work schedules have a 3 hour difference in them.
The words that I type here are not to provide an explanation or even excuses of what the realty is but only to allow fairness and hear both sides to a story. In the time that I have been employed there I have only encountered few unhappy member's with a legimate reason for their complaint and mishap with our company I know we are far from perfect but everyone who currently works for Father's Choice after us being able to seed out the employees who may have not had the member's best intrerest at heart we are a group of individuals who's intention's mean nothing but to be helpful, encouraging, and supportive through a process that is emotional and exhausting because we ourselves have had to overcome similar situaions.
Every day and minute we spend in our office is completety and sincerely devoted to the the Father's Choice's member. A lot of employees that I work with on a day to day basis will skip out on their break, lunch break, or even stay late to make sure they helped that member to the fullest and best of their ability. We were given this chance because we showed concern and willing to want to help these people and we were given that oppurtunity to change lives because Brian Azouz a man who knows the family law system to well after his ex-wife intentionally kept his son from him for several years. This leared him to invest his time and money into an organization to help father's find an affordable solution to deal with their family law issues. Since he decided to open this company he has helped over 5,000 member's including mother's and father's get a new court order. To show our accomplishments and devotion we keep a wall of smiles in the office which is a wall that we have filled witth pictures of member's and their children. This allows us to visually see who were are reuniting So to all the families who may have been negatively affected by Father's Choice we deeply apologize for any inconvienence or burden I just wanted to express this on behalf of our company. Thanks for your time if you decided to read this report.
#1 UPDATE Employee
Resolution of issue for Matthew and Amber of Oakland, Iowa'
AUTHOR: Customer Service - Father's Choice - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, September 02, 2008
As of 8/28/2008, Matthew and Amber and Oakland, Iowa were refunded the money they paid on their account. We strive to provide excellent customer service and, in cases where we do not, a refund is in order. Such was the case for Matthew and Amber. We are always grateful to receive honest feedback from specific members concerning their cases.
Contrary to the statement in the title of Amber's report, over 5000 of our members have been successful in court with the documents we prepared for them. Additionally, thousands of others have benefited from the information communicated to them by their case mangers, intake staff and lawyers to whom we have referred them. Our intention is to help parents and provide excellent customer service. Our gratitude goes to Amber for her honest feedback on the situation.
Sincerely,
Customer Service Department
Fathers Choice
customerservice@fatherschoice.org
www.fatherschoice.org
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