Complaint Review: Annuity Leads Review

After reading the other reports I am astonshed to see that more people were sucked into this fiasco than myself!

*There must be enough people here for a class action law-suit?

How can this guys keep doing this over and over and over... isn't there any Govt agency that is willing to look into this crook?

Here is a copy of the letter I sent to American Express requesting that they refund my money. THEY DID! Since then, Annuity Lead Review does not take Credit Cards. I mean Annuity Leads Review is out of business. I mean Annuity Leads Review is now Nationwide.

I am a financial planner in New Jersey and had recently purchased services from Annuity Leads Review out of Santa Monica, CA.

On January 24th, 2005 I paid for $850.00 worth of appointments through Pay Pal. On January 26th, 2005, I again purchased another $1,600.00 worth of appointments, totaling $2,450.00. It was paid in two parts because Pay Pal had a pre-approved dollar limit and would not allow me to complete the purchase in one transaction.

I negotiated and agreed to 82 set appointments with Neil Tuna, a salesman from ALR. Neil said I would have 2 appointments per day Tuesday through Friday for 10 weeks.

This is an excerpt from the contracts Neil sent me.

Appointments
If the lead results in a presentation, we charge your account for the hour, however if the client does not wish to do business with you, we consider that a 1 hour of work and charge your account accordingly.
Any appointment that results in a NO SHOW will be replaced.
Additionally, any appointment that does not result in a presentation will be replaced in the form of a one-hour credit on your account

ALR can be found at www.annuity-review.com.

Neil said that someone would contact me and request a bio to assist the appointment setters, explain the services, gather additional information from me, as well as the zip codes in which I wanted to work.

A few days went by and I became proactive in trying to supply this information to ALR. Each time I called, I was quickly rushed off the phone, and none of my questions were ever answered. After becoming frustrated, I reached out to Neil Tuna, the salesman. I only received assistance after I threatened to call Amex and the Better Business Bureau.

Shortly after the call to Neil, ALR called me and asked me for zip codes. I supplied ALR with 19 zips: 08530, 08551, 08559, 08801, 08809, 08822, 08833, 08848, 08858, 08870, 08885, 08887, 08888, 08889, 08502, 08835, 08844, 08869, and 08876.

I was then told that on February 3rd that my appointments would start. February 3rd came and went and I had no appointments. I called ALR and they had no idea who I was! After calling Neil again, he called me back shortly claiming there was a misunderstanding and that my appointments should start February 8th, 2005.

To make a long story shorter, around 6 PM Tuesday, February 8th, I called Neil again and asked what the process was for receiving my appointments. He said someone would have covered that I explained I was again in the dark. Again, after threatening to cancel the services, Neil had someone call me.

Mike from ALR claims he was just about to call me with my first appointment.

Appointment #1 - Joanne Friedman in Monroe, NJ. I showed up Tuesday morning to an empty house. I then called the number that ALR supplied and she stated that her husband told the phone solicitor that they were NOT interested and did want to be contacted again!

Appointment #2 came mid-day Tuesday- The initial part of the message started by giving me one of my own clients! One of the Marc's then corrected himself declaring that I should stop by Mrs. Rudolph Lukak's home anytime on Wed. He also added that she was very interested to see me and wanted to roll IRAs. Mrs. Lukas told me at her doorway that she did not want to talk to anyone and that her husband had recently passed away, and she had an advisor. She also added that she told whoever was on the solicitation that she does not want to meet with anyone!

Appointment #3-(my favorite) - Mike called and left me message saying he had a very nice couple that was VERY eager to meet me. Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Hill., 9:00 AM Wed. I knocked on Mrs. Hill's door. She was very nice, and asked if I would give her a few minutes because her husband was in the shower. I waited in the car for 15 minutes. Moments later, two Milltown police officers were asking me for credentials!

4 PBA cards thankfully got me out of going to the police station! Mrs. Hill said she did want anyone coming to her house and she explained that she would have the cops come if the person sent someone to her house! (I guess she wasn't bluffing!)

Appointment #4. I received a call claiming that Marc Tyler made this one himself, and that it was rock solid! I was to meet Mr. and Mrs. Starling in Monroe on Thursday 2/10 between 4-4:30 PM. Mr. Starling is to be interested in Life Insurance and Mrs. Starling owns an Annuity.

The Starling's son answered the door at 4:15 PM today telling me that both of his parents are at work and will not be home until after 6-6:30 PM!

Appointment #5. On Friday 2/11 I was supposed to meet with a Ms. Dekok in Kendall Park at 1:15 sharp. I showed up at 12:30 to be early, and waited until 2 PM. No one ever showed.

Appointment #6. Mr. and Mrs. Valiant, Tuesday 2/15 at 5:00PM in Edison. I called to let Mr. and Mrs. Valiant know I was on my way and I was looking to confirm some quick directions they told me not to bother because they explained that they have an advisor and he is their son! They are not interested! They told that to the appointment setter!

Appointment #7. 2/16-today. I called to confirm Mr. and Mrs. Macarthur in Bound Brook at 4:15. Mrs. Macarthur said she was not interested and was going to call the police last night after the call but did no have a number to give to them because the call came up blocked on her called ID.

I explained who I was and that I was having some difficulties with this service, and asked if she would shed some light on the call. She nicely agreed and proceeded to tell me that the call came in after 8:00 PM on Tuesday evening 2/15. The called did not give a name, number or company, but proceeded to probe into what type of investments that her and her husband had. She said she tried to end the call twice but the person kept talking.

The called ended the call by saying that they had a person affiliated with the investments that they had in the area, and that they would have that person come by 4:00 PM on We. 2/16. Mrs. Macarthur claims that before she could say NO, the call was ended and there was no way for her to call back and cancel.

She said she was going to call police, but did not what to tell them other than that it sounded like a scam. She told me that she was going to call the police if someone came to her door and/or report them from any information that she collected.

I gave her my name and number to ease her confusion. Today, after to speaking to Mrs. Macarthur, I tried to call Mark Tyler at ALR more than 5 times. He will not take my call, and has not returned any of my other calls for more than a week. I receive emails intermittently, advising me to be patient.

I have tried addressing the issues on more than 10 separate occasions now. To date there has been no resolve and no progress. I have no other choice but to cancel the services for a full refund, but they will not accept my call to do so. That is why I turned to American Express.

On a side note, my brother in law, is also a financial planner and sent a check for $2,000 to ALR. He has had the same results and complications. He also has not received any calls back from Mark Tyler.

I am also going to filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Affairs, and the FCC. I also have calls into the State of NJ dept. of Insurance and Banking as to the validity of the services and the overall ethics and possible violation of the DO Not Call List.

This is not what I expected. This is not how I do business. I thought I was paying for an appointment setting service that was going be ethical, and was to use my credentials to set appointments with people that wanted my help and services. I do not want to be associated with an organization or service that conducts business as they have over the past few weeks. It is an obvious liability for my practice to be involved with an organization like this.

PS. While writing this letter, ALR has now finally called me after I left an 11th message that I was going to call the Better Business Bureau and the Department of Consumer Affairs, if I did not hear back from someone within 30 minutes.

I was now pushed to the Customer Service manager Mark P. He told me to give him one more week and if I am not happy that he would refund my money. I explained that I did not want to wait. He asked me to send him an email of our conversation and that he would confirm the refund if I give him another week!

I asked him to address the issues which I had and he told me to call back after 9 PM California time, that he did not have time for me! He said someone would call me with more appointments today he refuses to listen to what I am saying! I asked to speak to Mark Tyler, and I was told he is smoking a joint on the beach writing a new song! What is this?

This has been a fiasco from the start.

Please help!

This Guys Needs to be put out of Business! Spread the word about these frauds.

Randy
Flemington, New Jersey
U.S.A.

STOP! ..before you think about using the Better Business Bureau (BBB)... CLICK HERE to see how other consumers were victimized by the BBB's false or misleading information. Don't be fooled! It has been reported, when there are thousands of complaints and other investigations underway by authorities, the BBB has no choice but to finally give an UNsatisfactory rating to a BBB member business that is paying the BBB big membership fees every year. When a business is reported that is NOT a BBB member, BBB files WILL more likely show an UNsatisfactory rating, then reportedly shake down that company to become a member of the BBB. One positive thing about the BBB is, either way, if a business has an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB, you can be sure, the business is bad. But what about all those BBB member businesses that had complaints filed against them? Consumers never get to hear about them. What about the BBB advertising to the public? Is this a false and misleading perception they are giving about consumer confidence when dealing with a business? Click here to understand more of what consumers and business alike are saying about the BBB. You decide. ..Remember. The BBB membership is not earned, it's paid for!