Snow Cap Agency - Judy Snow - Federal Benefits Specialists THEY'LL TAKE YOUR MONEY, FAIL TO DELIVER, THEN BLAME EVERYONE ELSE! ripoff Castle Rock Colorado
I have been completely misled and misrepresented by the Snow Cap agency in Colorado. In June of 2007 I paid Snow Cap to schedule two Federal Employee Benefits seminars; one in Key West, another in West Palm Beach, FL. To date, Snow Cap has been paid a deposit of $3,300 ($1,650 for each seminar).
I run a Wealth Management firm in Miami, and was expanding our services to serve federal employees. I am writing this report because I don't want other financial advisors to get burned. I have already referred snow cap to 2 friends, my reps and my sister who is expanding her financial practice in Cleveland to serve federal employees. She's pregnant and expecting in 2 months, so I'm glad I found this out when I did since I was able to warn them before throwing her money away. It makes me sick that I have referred these people.
The ONLY reason I scheduled a 2nd seminar is because they informed me via telephone and email that they had an "easy 50" attendees for the 1st, and could easily schedule more for the 2nd. They called my office continuously, pressuring for a deposit for the 2nd seminar. They guaranteed 50 attendees via email so I paid them another deposit. All this was done before the first one was completed.
One week before the Key West seminar they notified me that there were fewer than 10 attendees for both seminars!! I still don't know what happened to the other 90. They blamed the Federal Executive Board when it wasn't the F.E.B.'s responsbility to fulfill our contract. It was Snow Cap's.
By their own admission they failed to fulfill their contract with another financial planner here in Miami, referring to him as a "cry baby". I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They failed, took his money, AND trashed him.
Snow Cap seems to make a habit of taking money from financial planners, failing to deliver their services as promised, and BLAMING the customer for their failures. I have since talked to other advisors throughout the country who have heard similar stories; they weren't shocked.
For over 6 weeks they communicated to me that they were keeping in close contact with the Federal Executive Board; what I later discovered (by their own admission) that they had not had contact with the F.E.B. for 6 weeks.
On July 20th I spoke with Judy Snow. When I explained to her that I was lied to and pressured her response was "YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY YES". Sixty seconds later she said "WE'LL HAVE TO GET YOU A REFUND". Twenty seconds after that Snow said "THERE IS NO MONEY". Within 20 seconds she went from refund to "there is no money". Then she hung up on me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
If you are a financial planner considering Snow Cap to put on seminars for you for the federal market, save your money and more importantly your time. If they screw up, they will not accept accountability, and they will find anyone to blame for their failures but themselves. Chances are, they'll blame the customer.
They made derogatory comments about members of the Federal Executive Board, other financial planners -- AND in each case, they did so while defending themselves for FAILING TO KEEP THEIR PROMISE!
I doubt they'll refund my money. I spoke with the other advisor in Miami, and he had to hound them for weeks before getting a partial refund. I don't have the time. I sponsored over 35 seminars last year; I invest over $50,000/year on seminars and presentations and was planning to spend more than half of that each year with Snow Cap -- Thank God I saw their true colors early.
Thank you for taking your time and consideration.
Kindest regards,
Rwm
Coral Gables, Florida
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Judy Snow
Castle Rock,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Response to complaint by Rwm, Coral Gables, Florida
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, April 08, 2008
In response to the above complaint, the actual company that Rwm has a contract with is Federal Employee Seminars, Inc. (FESI) not the Snow-Cap Agency, Inc.
Snow Cap Agency, Inc is a contractor with the federal government only. Rwm does not work for the federal government. FESI has a contract with Snow-Cap to use Snow-Cap instructors when doing FESI seminars, which Rwm does have a contract with. Rwm entered into a contract with FESI on 5/31/07 to do a seminar in Key West. Fla. There is a federal agency there with whom we do on going business and they approached us about doing a seminar for them and agreed to meet our guildelines which one of of our guidelines includes having at least 40-50 people present at the seminar. We called Rwm and explained what we knew and he opted to buy the seminar. The date that was set by the federal agency was July 26, 2007. Our office worked on this event and the agency contact was putting things in place to make this happen. Our original contact left for sick leave and then a 2 week vacation. She left an assistant in charge of keeping progress going. Our office spoke to this person twice and was assured that the location address and all details would be forwarded over to us so that we could book airfare and ship presentation materials. On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, our main contact at the federal agency was back from vacation and informed us that she was not satisfied with the job that her office had done in her absence and asked that we move the date to August 7th. Rwm has a contract for W Palm Beach.Fla with the same federal agency with a seminar date set for August 7th. The Key West date would be moved to August 7th and the W. Palm Beach serminar would be changed to Miami, Fl August 28th. In the contract that Rwm signed it states on page three, number four that, "dates and locations may change and that every attempt would be mafde to schdule seminars with the "suggested dates and locations." It also states on page one, number 9, "a money back guarantee if the seminar cannot be reschduled." Both seminars had been rescheduled with dates that were cleared by the federal agency and our office.
When our office called Rwm to inform him of the situation, he totally lost his temper and insulted our staff. FESI and staff have been operating under the guidelines that are stipulated in the contract.
Rwm was given every opportunity to work with us on the new dates set for him in abeyance of the contract that he signed and agreed to. He has declined every offer we have made to uphold our contractual obligation to him.
We have done seminars before for him and very successfully. He had no problem paying a deposit in advance then. Now, he is acting like he was made to pay for seminars against his will. On page one of the contract, the very first opening paragrah states in the last sentence that the ChFEBC (Rwm) will pay a fee for each day of the seminar in advance and then again stated on page 2, number 8 that he must pre-pay. Now, that his seminars had to be modified he has called our office numbrs times to start arguments and sending email threats.
I can underswtand if we had called him and had to cancel the event with no plan in place. We have over 1000 clients and no one has ever reacted this way given the same situation. We are at the mercy of the federal agency when it comes to dates.
This situation is under review with our attorney. This complaint on "Rip Off" came to my attention only last week.
Rwm had a seminar with us in Davie Florida on June 1, 2007 and had 58 people in attendance. He had bought three seminars and we after doing the first one,as stated above with all the challenges we had with Rwm, we gave him back his deposits ($3325.00) for the other two because he kept complaining. We have a copy of the check and we fed-ex'd the check to him and he received it on July 27, 2007.
We feel that if Rip Off keeps this complaint on their websit and under Snow-Cap search, that the appropriate company name should be used, FESI, Federal Employee Seminars, Inc. By referring to Snow-Cap Agency, Inc. this could have an impact on our doing buiness with the federal government. They are two separate corporation doing business with different clients.
Thank you for any cooperation you can provide to us.
Judy Snow, President of FESI
399 Perry St. Ste 320, Castle Rock, Co. 80104
1-800-696-3505n or 303-688-4019