Lief Simon, Living and Investing Overseas Cancelled my booking on his conference in Panama without warning Panama Nationwide
I came across the company Live and Invest Overseas online via a Facebook advert, and subscribed to their newsletters. Basically this husband and wife team sell the "living overseas dream" and through various associates/affiliates, they also promote investment in things as varied as property-to mangos-land-teak..and so on.
They also sell online their own "Top country for retirement" type publications , essentially re-hashing widely available information. They sell their e-books and expensive conferences and "consultancy" subscriptions.
That is fair enough I suppose, and indeed I signed up to attend a 4 day conference in Panama which was taking place in early June 2016. Meanwhile I was sent details of a real estate "investment opportunity" in Panama....which it turned out was a resort type development being built and sold by non other than Mr Lief Simon. I enquired and asked a number of questions [I am a lifecoach and wealth mentor with a 23 year background in Investment banking, and extensive property investment experience.]
The staff member did not in my assessment seem up to the job and the whole development, sales pitch and marketing effort struck me as amaturish and ill-concieved, however I persisted with a number of questions -all of which are standard for reputable developers. Mr Simon and his cohorts are building a "life-style" resort called Islotes, on the east coast of Panama.
However, as I am interested in investing and possibly retiring in Panama
I did not recieve a reply to my queries, so I sent a chaser email to different staff members and asked them to pass this onto Lief Simon. This was done and I duly recieved a very curt reply from the man himself-basically giving me the brush off while they were "concentrating on 200 active leads". I replied again, repeating my request for my queries to be answered.
Mr Simon's reply was nothing short of rude and dismissive, so I challenged his "assumptions", and advised that rudeness was un-necessary, and politely re-iterated my request for more information.
The next day this man cancelled my booking on hs Panama course and refunded my booking fee of some $800 via Paypal...but no mention of refunding my flight or hotel costs!
This person is extremely rude,abrupt and unprofessional when it comes to inter-personal skills and it appears that he has zero concept of customer service.
After cancelling my conference booking he emaled me telling me to "get your information some place else."
The disgraceful audacity of this man, I whole heartedly agree with the other post which describes the activities of this organisation as a complete rip-off.
I am an ex-dervatives trader and have extensive financil and property investment experience and help clients find genuine real estate opportunities [which is probably precisely why-as I know hat I'm talking about-Lief Simon did not want me asking relevant questions at his conference.]
What worries me that people could be taken in by him, and his building site in Panama...he's telling everyone they will definitely make money and if they buy one of the "turn-key cassas" [which have only the vaguest of details availble]he's building he's saying they'll definitely appreciate in value.
Somehow I doubt it..his attitude is terrible and unless he's way better at crystal ball reading than he is dealing with clients, I suspect a lot of people are about to get duped and ripped off with his scheming.
So, I am filing this as a warning to all would be dreamers- do'nt risk your savings and hard earned income on this bird-brained organisation. Run, run away ...fast.