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EWI, Robert Allen, Enlightened Wealth Institue, EMI, Conrad Acceptance Corp Involved with EWI? Prepare to have your credit destroyed and lose thousands of dollars Internet
Here is my story: I bought a book written by Robert Allen online and a few days later was contacted by someone claiming to be from his office. I was told they were looking for a handful of individuals to work with so that Robert Allen could write his next great success story. I was then put through an interview process with several people. Finally they said that I qualified and they would work with me to develop multiple streams of income and it would only cost me $6000.00 and they would defer payments for 6 months so that I could start making money to pay it off with. I later learned that this was one of Robert Allen's "Partner" companies called Prosper learning.
Once I had signed up with these guys I started getting contacted several times a week by Robert Allen and/or his partners. Eventually I was invited to a 3 day foreclosure workshop absolutely free.
The workshop was a great deal of hype and set out from the opening moments to "change" your habits and your thinking to accept what they were telling you. They had us look up foreclosure properties on fanniemae.com so that we could see the hundreds of properties there for pennies on the dollar. The idea was to convince us how "easy" it was to make huge money in real estate.
We were advised that those of us who had good credit were "gold" and poised to take advantage of the current market conditions. We were asked to bring in a copy of our credit report so we could meet with one of their advisers in the back of the room to counsel us on how we could take advantage of the current real estate market.
By day 3 it had turned in to nothing more than very high pressure sales to join EWI's "Mastery" program for $36,000.00 and we were assured that if we just did what they said we would make all of it back and more within 30-60 days. We were told that we would have a personal mentor to take us by the hand and help us to invest in Real Estate.
We were told that Real Estate was as cheap as it was going to get and that it was already starting to turn around - if we didn't get in now we were doomed to failure for the rest of our lives. 3 people were waiting in the back of the room to process our credit cards.
I and my wife tried to explain to our "adviser" how desperate our financial situation was. I had been laid off in November and soon I would have this 6K bill coming due from Prosper learning and had not made a dime yet.
We were told that because we were already students with Prosper that the cost of our training would be reduced to about 32K instead of 36. We had about 9k available on our credit cards. We were then advise to put 9K on our existing credit cards (maxing them out) because with our "excellent credit" we would be able to get additional credit cards and also be able to call the credit card companies to get our limits increased.
All of these claims were FLAT OUT LIES!
We did apply for more credit cards the next day and over the next few weeks we were rejected by every one of them because we had just MAXED OUT ALL OUR CARDS. We got the same response when we called the CC companies - "you just maxed out your cards, no WAY are we going to increase your limit now". Meanwhile our credit score PLUMMETED due to the bad debt to credit ratio.
Then I learned that the "personal mentoring" which I had paid for consisted of "field training" (the mentor takes you around the city where THEY are currently holding their next seminar scam and shows you different neighborhoods) and that we were not allowed to go to field training until we had paid over half of the 32k.
I was promised that my "mentor" would call me for weekly training sessions. I did get a call, half an hour late, the first week. The call consisted of "I am running through the airport and can't talk now, get on the recorded classes on the training website and they will answer all your questions".
This was followed up the next week by a similar call in which he was once again "racing through the airport" and couldn't talk.
Soooo.... I tried to apply the scattered knowledge I had been given during the free seminar and actually look for a Real Estate deal. I tried to get on the calls where I was told I could ask my questions and get help. Typically there were 30 people (yes I pulled that number out of thin air, I don't know how many people there actually were but it was a lot) all wanting questions answered and the moderator would typically give 10 minutes to answering questions and then go into "seminar" mode (all lines muted).
I got 1 question answered once out of all the calls I was on and it was a short response with no further dialogue as he was on to the next question.
I tried emailing my mentor. I sent an email almost as long as this complaint explaining that I knew absolutely nothing and would require a lot of hand holding but that I would do whatever he told me to do. I got a one line response back telling me "just listen to the calls".
When the next $10,000.00 payment came due (30 days later) I made numerous attempts to work with EWI and/or Conrad Acceptance Corp. (who handles their finance contracts) and got absolutely nowhere. They would not return my calls and I had to just keep calling until I got through to someone who would talk to me.
I explained that there was no way I could come up with the money and even offered to work it out with them. They could keep my 9K, downgrade us to just getting 2 boot camps and no field training which costs about 8K as I recall (the one we signed up for was 5 boot camps and field training). They refused to work with at all and kept quoting their "the law provides for 3 days in which you can cancel, after that you owe us that money and we will not negotiate".
I have sent registered letters to both EWI and Conrad but the only response I have gotten to date is demands for payment.
Fortunately I am in contact with many people who were in attendance at the Seattle seminar. Several are experiencing the same garbage as I am and there are dozens who did not sign up but are willing to testify as to the promises made at the seminar (which of course do not show up in their contracts).
At this point I am seeking a Lawyer to take the case and possibly file a class action lawsuit. I am sure that I could find many people willing to be a party to such a suit.
Funny thing is I still get emails from different departments at EWI telling my how Robert Allen is looking for people to work with personally and he GUARANTEES their success but I have to CALL NOW!
btw before anyone says it was my own lack of drive or anything ridiculous like that I want to let you all know that I found a company that is providing everything I THOUGHT I was getting from EWI and I am now in the midst of my first authentic Real Estate deal. I have a house under contract, have the contractors bids for rehab, and when all is said and done will be into the property for less than half of it's appraised market value - and I didn't have to take advantage of ANYONE to do it as it is a foreclosure property I am buying from the bank (many of Robert Allen's hyped deals he teaches rely on looking for people who are in desperation and stealing the property from them to supposedly "help" them).
Jack
Federal Way, Washington
U.S.A.