Mike Fillsaime, an affiliate of Keith Wellman, emailed me with an offer to check out a program called Automated Formula which was a new video marketing program developed by Keith Wellman to market products easier and more efficiently on the internet.
They advertised how an individual could make a good deal of income from home implementing this form of marketing and that anyone, even those with little internet abilities could do it...you just had to have the will. I took the bait.
Their site never talked about the fact that a consumer had only 72 hours to decide whether the program was for them or not in order to receive a refund. At the time of purchase and check-out a quick 100% satisfaction guarantee was shown. And at that time I thought, OK, I will try this, I have nothing to loose because of the guarantee.
On January 6, 2010 I purchased and on January 10, 2010 I asked for a refund. The program was definitely not for an amateur. In those 5 days, I even waited for a class that Keith Wellman conducted in hopes that I could understand this business but it was so badly organized and brought more frustration to my life and made me realize that this type of business was not my purpose in life. I was seriously giving it my best approach of action because I wanted to make sure I gave it a fair shot. His advertisement said an individual could have this program up and running in 3 hours. Yes, maybe for the pro-affiliate but not an amateur and that is why it took me as long as it did to figure I made a mistake in my purchase.
Thinking that legally a consumer had 7 days to return a product and the fact that this company offered a 100% satisfaction guarantee, I felt I was within the margins. But when my request went in for a refund and request to work with Mr. Keith Wellman by telephone, they negated. All that was allowed was an email ticket. No verbal communication was allowed nor did they give you a telephone number for their office so that you could work with a human being on such a serious matter.
When a refund is in place, this company could care less to work with the individual on a one on one or help come to a mutual understanding. They hid behind their emails. The customer was not allowed to have a voice.
Once I became aware of there disrespect for the consumer, that is when I knew I was dealing with people that only dealt in greed and their best interest. Oh, they did offer to work with me, but they refused to see how wrong they were with their marketing information. You see, this new program was brand new and they wanted to be the first to offer this new video concept to the world before anyone else came out with video. They didn't have all their t's crossed or i's dotted. And when caught, they went back and pulled that website and adjusted their mistakes. Now when you bring up that website, you will find their data capture page with their 'buyer beware' of their terms and policies.
It took 11 days with back and forth emails for all this to transpire. This possibly could have been taken care of in one (1) day. I was hoping that they would be decent in working some sort of win-win situation because we both had miscommunication issues. I was even willing to do like a restocking fee. But with no verbal communication, gate keepers and dealing with words and machines, nothing good can come of things.
They never posted anything about the 72 hour time-frame in their new video or was it ever posted in their customer receipt(I have a copy of that). This organization took me for $497.00 because of a policy that states that a customer only has 3 days to request for a refund on their product. This policy was not in any way, shape, or form in view. They of course say otherwise, and if it was, it was very inconspicuous. Their 100% guarantee might as well be bogus because I couldn't fall onto that as well.
I finally let go of it and decided I would put it in bigger hands. I asked them twice through email to cancel me completely out of their program. That was in January...I thought I was done with them. They should have been smarter and deleted me from their data base because today, February 21, they charged my credit card $97.00 without authorization. So, I took this as an intuition call from above and the fact that I had unfinished business. Everything has a reason and I believe that I have been placed in this situation in order to report these people for their injustice, and faulty business techniques. Consumers need to be protected from wolves wearing sheep skin. I even think wolves and sheep have more integrity.
I requested a refund not because of bad customer service, as I said before, they were willing to offer support, but because this program was meant for individuals that understood affiliate marketing, and I discovered it the hard way, that I was not one of those. I, green as green could be on this kind of business went into it blindly because of their great marketing ploy. Oh, I will hand it to this guy, he knows how to hit the emotional side of the human being in order to make the sale. I refuse to work with individuals of this sort.
People like this make good business marketers look bad...they need to be weeded out.
Gandhi said, First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
As I told them in my last email, "Everything will workout, because under the current system everyone eventually discovers truth...either through manifesting so much chaos, they're force to ask the hard questions, or through just plain asking the hard questions from the get-go."
I may not have received my $497.00, but I will make it a point to get my $97.00 refunded. Plus, being a part of this motion is what is the most important part of this whole situation and that is, that a customer is your business and a business's best friend...they should be honored and respected in order to receive honor and respect.