FortuneBuilders REVIEW: FortuneBuilders dedicated to Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program, a program benefiting consumers, ensuring complete satisfaction & confidence when doing business.
Fortune Builders may be bullying or coercing people into printing retracttions or stopping them from posting negative reviews. This is my justification for that remark.
I signed up to do the Mastery Program and decided the very next daythat I was caught up in the hipe and that the amount we spentwould actually be a deficit on my family. Luckily I wrote a check and cancelled it. In my contract they say you have a 14 day period for refunds and termination of the contract with certain conditions. What they don't disclose is one very major condition. in the contract you agree to an exit interview (which I did and I answered all their questions with the answer of "I decline to answer that". They tried to offer me other options a a cheaper price. When this didn't work the gentleman told me that we were waisting each others time. which I agreed. I was told he would email me 2 papers which needed to be be signed (neither document was mentioned in my original contract and if they were I would have not signed the contract, therefore I believe we did not have a meeting of the minds
The first document sent was a Request for Refund on which was printed in Bold Capital letters and highlighted in yellow stating this form is" A REQUEST FOR REFUND ONLY - NOT AN APPROVA!". Now remember I was told I MUST sign it in order to proccess my request. This by itself may be of little consequence other than you may not get a refund.
It was this next document that they required my signature on that brought out great suspicion and brought me to outrage. Could this be that they are actually asking me to give up my Constitutional rights of Free speech and Free Press in order for me to rescend this contract
This is in basic terms what that Document stated that outraged me. It was a Mutual non-diparagement / Confidentiality / Liquidated damages document.
The first part of said document; Mutual Non-Disparagement states simply that neither party my disparage or criticize the other party, business, products or services, employees agents etc... This brings to point, What are reviews if not critiques or criticism for the public to be able to do due diligence in finding out the reputability of a company or product. Therefore if I had signed this document I would not be allowed to write this without risk of penalty. My rights would be in essence taken away.
The second part of the document; Confidentiality of Agreement basically states that the parties shall keep their Factual allegations and terms of this agreement to themselves. That they cannot disclose what refund if any were given to them. Hmmmm..... Most Confidentiality agreements are entered in when an agreement has been made not before hand. Basically if you get screwed you can't tell anyone about it. Leaving them to posssibly avoid sending you a refund. Now remember this was sent to me saying I must sign it to even be considered for a refund. There, at that point is no agreement for refund was made.
The third and final part of the document: Liquidated damages basically says that if either party violates either of the previous 2 clauses as stated above that there will be a $5,000 penalty per violation. At this point if I had signed it I would have violated these clauses at least seven or eight times by all the places I have put this information out. Now times that by $5,000. Liquidated damages at least in Real Estate are to be agreed upon in Advance. not after the fact as a scare tactic.
Four questions to ask yourself
1. Who does this form benefit and is it truly Mutual?
2. Would you sign into a contract if you knew this a head of time?
3. What do they have to hide if they use such tactics to keep the public from knowing about dissatified customers?
4. Does this practice allow the public to see true and valid reviews?
Though I don't know if their Mastery Educational program works or not I find it highly suspect that they would want to hush up anyone that could give a true an accurate review . Maybe someone might say yeah the program didn't work for me but hey they gave me all my money back. That probably is not the case here though, wouldn't you say.
If there are any attorneys reading this please contact to see if you can start a class action suit against them I believe there are many people out there that have been screwed by Fortune Builders and now have no voice because they signed this agreement.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Monique Walker
Paso Robles,California,
I challenged Than Merrill to an Interview
#2Author of original report
Tue, June 25, 2013
As I am, I believe, a woman of high integrity, I felt it neccessary to update the public on what has transpired since yesterday when I posted my original report of "Fortune Builders Wants you to give up your Constitutional Rights". Last night I was contacted By Paul of Fortune Builders, who assured me this was an isolated case. My reply was that I did not believe it. But as I said before I am a woman of integrity, so we set up an interview with Than Merrill (hereto will be known as Mr. Merrill, since out of respect and the fact we do not have a personal attachment/relationship). Well Mr. Merrill did indeed call me for an interview. I will not go into any of the actual questions or answers due to the fact that it was an hour and a half long interview I will state that he was pleasant and accomadating.This by no means that I am retracting what has transpired.
I had questions on the validity of the actual Fortune Builders programs and he directed me to the Fortune Builders web page. As I promised him, I took some time to check it out and found there is some possibly informative videos and information. The reason I state "possibly" is for me some of the information was of a benefit and to some this information may not be of any benefit. As I have stated before I do not attest to if the program works or not, since I opted out before I started any classes. I need to be fair to both the public and to a company that has the right by our constitutional laws to make money. t For some people this Free information may be of some use to you and for others it may not. It is up to you, the public to do due diligence as I am doing and find out as much information as I am trying to do to protect the public as a whole.
Now as to the question of giving up my Constitutional Rights in the form of a Non-Disparagement/Confidentiality Agreement/Liquidated Damages document (which I refused to sign) I informed Mr. Merrill that I would continue to suggest that anyone who is asked to fill this out as "part of their request for refund process" or before actually getting an agreement in writng should first contact him personally and he has agreed to being contacted. I also asked him to please reach out on these sights and find out if there are other folks like me that were asked to sign this agreement as part of their Request for Refund before or as stipulation in order to get a refund, that he will work with you to rescind it. He acknowledged the need to make a statement. As to what he will write I am not him, therefore I cannot put any statement down as how he plans to handle this. Since I have such high regards for our Constitution and our Justice System I will state that I believe a man or Company is innocent until proven guilty by facts and not opinions. So let us give Mr. Merrill the chance to rebutt.
Lastly, what I would like to present, is how we write reviews and how they affect us. Writing a review that is hostile and insulting is counterproductive and seems to be often the reason for Non-Disparagement clauses. Sticking to facts, putting in personal statements (i.e. The product didn't seem to work for me, I was unable to make money at this, or in my opinion) would be constructive as well as informative to the public. Also asking questions or making subtle statements in a review to give someone food for thought or possibly make them want to research something more is a way to get your point across without being hostile or Disparaging, also try not to be sarcastic (which I sometimes have a subtle sarcasm to me). Remember do not make statements that seem like facts that are not truly factual.This will help to keep you out of letigation for slander.
I believe in the American Public and believe we can find good and bad in everyone.Maybe if we took the time to give constructive criticism we may all benefit and become greater people, as well as greater consumers.
I hoped this helped you and as I said Buyer Beware, do your homework and protect yourself.