Tyler
#2Consumer Comment
Sun, April 21, 2013
Like the author above I was also excited to start working with Bob Fitzgerald and his team. In fact, I began very much in the same fashion allowing Bob's team to receive my pre-scrubbed list once a week on the same day. In addition, they had a 6 month money back guarantee if I was displeased.
You see, Bob's team doesn't actually do much work. They take your money up front, in my case $10,000, and provide a promise to deliver you qualified leads that would turn into listings and ultimately 25 sales. At first I thought the plan sounded solid because I was convinced it would be a systematic approach; this approach was very similar to cold calling I did on my own and helped me with my sales. It turned out they just blatantly didn't do what they promised. Furthermore, when they did provide to me a lead the lead was usually told by Bobs staff a set of lies about me; this made it uncomfortable for me when I made the follow up call to confirm the appointment. I was concerned my reputation would be damaged as a result of their service. The leads were also awful and his staff would set appointments but they would be at 9PM at night on a Friday for instance. When I called the leads they would tell me they never agreed to the time to meet because they wouldnt even be in town that week.
About month 4 I noticed things were a little fishy. I brought it up to his team and requested my money back. They insisted that I continue the program until 6 months into the service and then if I was still dissatisfied I would get my money back.
On the day of the 6th month I called Bob's team and insisted they deliver on their money back guarantee? Did they... no. His "assistants"(cohorts in his scam) told me they couldn't help me anymore and that I would need to discuss this personally with Bob. Then they refused to give me his phone number to discuss the matter with him but provided me with an email address.
My first email to Bob was extremely kind and gracious explaining that I just didn't feel the system would work for me. I asked that he please return the funds as he promised in our agreement. I didn't hear back. I wrote a second and third over the course of thirty days (again very polite emails); I always called to speak with his "asssistants" but they said they couldn't help me. Finally after about 30 days Bob wrote me an extremely out of place email saying that I was in breach of his contract and he will not allow me to threaten him and he would not return a single penny of my funds. Threaten him? I hadn't so much as even hinted at a case of lawsuit or upset.... for all I knew at this point the refund was going to be forthcoming without a single hassle.
I responded to Bob's defensive email and of course explained I was only requesting the funds as were promised to me in our agreement and that I would enjoy speaking with him on the phone so we could work something out. He then said I could sue him but he wasn't intending to give me back one penny - ever. Bob also never provided to me his phone number. He had no real explanation and frankly I don't think it matters. Turns out this guy's incorporation is the typical new york/canada situation - where you can't really sue him because he most likely incorporated and runs his business in Canada and it would have to go internationally in order to pursue him. I guess he feels that shields him from the law. I contemplated contacting the New York prosecutor but I did get tired of the chase.
It must be hard to be a scam artist like Bob. He has to appear like he's working just hard enough to actually make people not complain at first. His staff probably knows he does his scamming but are so desperate for a job that they are willing to assist this scumbag in his plot. Just for your information his assistants names are Cheri Washburn and Kate Huddle. They seem nice but actively participate just like he does in their scam.
Word to those looking up Bob.... don't trust him. You'll get ripped off like I did. On other complaint forums he actually responds and insists that the agent is the problem and they aren't good at their business. I sold almost 50 homes last year and 30 already this year. I thought Bob's service would enhance my business. Do yourself a favor, run as far and as fast as you can from Fitzgerald Coaching / Bob Fitgerald / [email protected] / fitzgeraldcoaching.com which now looks to be prospectingworks.com. If you look at his "websites" you'll see they were built on the same premise his system will actually be run on, about 5 minutes of real work.