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The Private Equity Institute Owned By Matthew Murray, Aka PEI Quality of instruction extremely poor. I felt angry and ripped off after taking the course. New York New York
I am the original poster of the complaint, and this is my response to the rebutal posted by an employee in "admissions" of the Private Equity Institute ("PEI"). I strongly suspect that this " admissions employee" is actually Matthew Murray, the owner of the PEI and so I will address my responses to him. BTW, there is no admissions exam to enter PEI, unless you count sending money through Paypal as the exam!
1. Matt, trust me when I say I am not one of your competitors. I am a former student. How would I know these facts if I weren't: You were fired by Rodman & Renshaw and now find it difficult to obtain another analyst position on Wall St., I and the other saps who took your course met with you for a week at your home while you tried to pressure us into working for you as unpaid interns while you were building pese.com (private equity stock exchange) using a computer programer in India, you use Google docs to manage all course files, one of your former instructor's name is Jeb Boccacio, your former associate who helped recruit students is named Jonathan Marks - I take it you feuded with him and he left, no? Shall I go on and on? NONE OF YOUR COMPETITOR'S TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY ENOUGH TO POST ON HERE. THERE ARE TONS OF FORMER STUDENTS UNHAPPY WITH YOU.
2. Of course you are going to post only your positive testimonials, why would a rational person post negative reviews? The testimonials are probably by suckers who don't know any better; do you think a newbie can properly judge the quality of instruction when they've never had ANY exposure to finance, much less private equity? Out of the 10 students in my class, 9 were unhappy with the instruction and felt you were a con man. The 1 other guy was on the fence. There were active email discussions going forth between former students how much they feel ripped off. DO YOU WANT A SLEW OF NEGATIVE TESTOMINALS FROM FORMER STUDENTS SO YOU CAN POST THEM ON YOUR SITE? I CAN GET THEM FOR YOU IF YOU WANT THEM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
3. I'm not going to reveal my real name because frankly I am a little scared of you. I saw how vindictive and angry you can be first hand. I am outing you on ripoffreport only because my conscience kept eating at me how you are making a living off of other's fears and desperation of getting into finance/private equity. Doesn't it bother you that these people can't really afford to blow $1450 or $990 on a course if it truly doesn't benefit them educationally or career wise? I know I felt so angry and ripped off after I took your course. BY THE WAY I SAW HOW THE ORIGINAL RIPOFF REPORT MYSTERIOUSLY AND SUDDENLY GOT LOWER RANKED ON GOOGLE ONCE YOUR RESPONSE WAS POSTED. I must admit that you understand Google analytics and page ranking better than I do....
4. If your company is legit and can actually help people get jobs, then POST A LIST OF THE PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS OR COMPANIES that hired your "graduates" on your website. You WON'T because very few people or none landed jobs at reputable private equity firms like KKR, Blackstone, Madison Dearborn, etc. I've heard that the only jobs people have gotten have been "mule" jobs at unknown or obscure firms. YOU WON'T POST A LIST OF YOUR TEACHERS because they probably don't have proper credentials to be teaching. How many worked at well known private equity firms? How many worked at well known investment banks? How many have advanced degrees (JD, MBA, PhD)? How many are current or former professors?
5. In my opinion, your course is worth about $20. Anyone with computer literacy can look up what you teach on Google, Investopedia, or other public sites and the level of comprehension and mastery would be the same as what you teach at. $1450 or $990 is COMPLETELY NOT WORTH IT!
Again, everything I've said so far is my opinion based on being one of your former students. I am not a competitor and have no interest how your business fares. I am reporting you on this site only to warn potential future students. Thanks, and shame on you for not feeling any remorse when you look at yourself in the mirror.
Quincy
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Drake Corrigan
Key Biscayne,Florida,
USA
Eugene Fallon does not exist.
#3General Comment
Mon, May 17, 2010
Matthew Murray is a con man crook scammer who defrauds honest aspiring PE students and professionals. His class is a joke. Matthew is responding to this complaint pretending to be someone else from the nonexistent PEI.
SHUT DOWN THIS CON MAN NAMED MATTHEW MURRAY.
Eugene Fallon
Nanuet,New York,
U.S.A.
Regarding your comments on the quality of Private Equity Institute learning materials
#3UPDATE Employee
Wed, August 20, 2008
Dear 'Quincy':
My name is Eugene Fallon, not Matthew Murray, and I am in charge of online learning at the Private Equity Institute. Let me address some of your comments:
1) Dr. Murray was removed from Rodman and Renshaw's Research Department two days after he sent numerous emails to the Director of Research and Head of Compliance at Rodman and Renshaw asking for permission to lower his investment rating on an investment banking client. He was then fired two days after he turned over these emails to the Senate Finance Committee. The facts on this case can be found at www.researchindependence.org. Dr. Murray's termination at Rodman was due to his high ethical standards and not due to his performance, in my opinion. I am sorry if you were not happy interning with him at New York Private Equity, but we are very happy he has let the Institute make use of the Private Equity Stock Evaluation web site you were assigned to work on.
2) Like most web-based firms, we post complimentary emails after we have received permission from the author. However, we also deal seriously with all complaints. As I have mentioned before, we have more testimonials/compliments than complaints, but we have refunded money two to students who performed well on their post-course tests and felt that the class did not benefit them.
3) I will point out again that it is difficult to take criticism seriously from an anonymous posting. I would, however, correct some of your facts. Our in-class training price is not $1,450 but $1,295 and we offer a web course for $495. It should go without saying that people should not spend money on Internet or classroom training if they cannot afford it. We don't have any impact on the web page ranking of this web page as you allege.
4) We would be surprised if any of our graduates were hired by KKR or Blackstone because those firms are well known and offer high paying starting salaries. Therefore, they generally take their pick from leading business schools. Our program is targeted at small to medium sized private equity firms, which is the same place we get our instructors. However, we do have PEI graduates that have gone on to get jobs at most major investment banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc. We state on our FAQ page that students should not feel they are guaranteed getting a job or an internship by taking the course.
5) If you don't think the course was worth the money, you should ask for your money back. As I mentioned previously, we have refunded two students who performed well on their post-course testing. Because you have not identified yourself I now assume that you are the student who asked for his money back after he performed poorly on his testing. When we refused this student, he threatened to defame us on the Internet. If I am incorrect on your identity, then I would encourage you to contact me (see email below) and we will review your test scores. If you performed well and are willing to give up your login and password rights, we will refund half your money.
Eugene Fallon
Director of Online Learning
Private Equity Institute
eugene.fallon@privateequityinstitute.com