Complaint Review: Daymond John academy - Daymond John- Mike Huska eric Brown George Fuchs Ted Kingsberry - Nationwide

Just because someone writes a report on Ripoff Report doesn't make it truthful. While Mr. Antouri is a very nice guy, his statements of what happened and what was done for him are completely and entirely untrue. Everything in his agreement was done and done well, and all the other connections he was given were given to him above and beyond what he paid for.

I'm not going to make this a long rebuttal, but I'm also not going to watch someone make claims that I know for fact are incorrect and slanderous. Just one example, Mr. Antouri claims his product was not presented to TV Shopping networks...this is simply not true. He spoke directly with someone who has sold over $200M of product on the major networks, is still currently selling on TV, and has direct lines to the buyers, who he spoke to about the product. He was told they like the product, but, in order to substantiate claims on TV, the networks and the FTC require real (white coat) clinical trials.  Especially if you are making weight loss claims.  For example, Sensa was pulled from ShopHQ and fined $30MM because they did not have the proper trials to support their claims. Mr. Antouri chose not to get those clinical trials, which is fine, it's his decision, but to say it was never discussed is well documented to not be the case.

I am a former employee of the company and have met Joe and know him to be a nice guy, but I do not agree with his account of what was provided for him.

From this consumer's complaint and reading the rebuttal I don't see where they fulfilled any of their promises.  If they were offering introductions for $25,000 that would be one thing but this consumer received nothing of the promises made.  Doesn't he have a good lawsuit here?

that is so sad that they dont take any accountability on their part. It is also unfortunate that they keep denying the truth to make my claim false. they are realy good about dodging and twisting the truth.

Prior to signing the contract, I had few meeting with Mike Huska, George Fuchs, and Eric Brown in regards to what they are capable of doing with my product. Come to find out that everything they said was for the purpose of signing the contract. I did question them about the contract and why it is only one page, no detail about the what is going to happen or what they would do. the purpose is to collect the money. their word is " we will toalk about it later and get it done, dont worry, you are in good hands."

it is so disturbing that when I call to speak to any of them from Daymond John Academy, there was always an excuse to get me off the phone. it is because it is a holiday, or we will call you next week but never did, or they dont return my calls after numerous attempts. it was a family gathering all this week, or lets talk after the holidays. they disregard the importance of time and the value of peoples money. It is all talk and no action.

Paying 25.000 dollars for someone that always has an excuse to not do anything is outrageous.

in regards to the 5 entrepeneurs meeting in LA, was that only 2 where there conducting a seminar about how to start a busiiness, how to pay taxes, how to create good credit. Well I have owned 3 businesses for over 30 years, that seminar for two days was not for me since I have my product developed and on the market already on a small scale.

their idea about marketing is to pay more money for marketing to twitter, facebook, and other mediums and it was not cheap.  I would thing after paying 25.000 dollars to Daymond John Academy some marketing should be done to start the process as they promessed to do.

I did get to meet with Daymond John himself in Los Angeles, beverly hills at a hotel. He loved my product, and he also tweeted about it. about what he promised to do at that meeting, it never happened, as a matter of fact, I kept leaving messages for his secretary to call me for over 2 months and finally she responded inform me that she no longer work with Daymond John. Here we go another dead end.

the reason I payed Daymond John Academy is to take my business to the next level as they promised, but instead they demolished it, leaving me without any money to continue operating my business.

They also suggested that if they connect me with a factoring company and the orders come in, then I would not have any issues with finances, on top of that my credit was 800 plus, immaculate. The reason I got a 7 figure factoring/funding is because of my credit not theirs.

some of the conversations with their reps was so short and uninterested especially about the PR, No information was giving but instead stories about what they claim they did and it worked.

Mind you that I was told that this is the first time they have worked with a company like mine, they dont know anything about the GUM business or the health and nutrition business.

in regards to the distributors that they claim to introduce to me, I have never spoking to any of them, dont know their phone numbers and dont know what their history is. I was told to send samples to some addresses and never heard back from any of the distributors. I also requested phone numbers to speak to distributors that we sent samples to, but Daymond John Academy refused to forward any phone numbers to any of the distributors. They said it was confidential.

Confidential ?  so who is representing my product? dont you think I should at least speak to them and deal with them directly? Besides who is running my business , is it me or Daymond John academy.

the one and only distributor I was able to alk to, required $4.500 dollars to start, and after many months, nothing happened, copme to find outthe guy did not even have a pot to pee in. I did sue and won, even after winning I have to hire a collection agancy to recover my money but only a small portion was recoverd because that distributor did not have any money.

so what kind of people are we dealing with here. Where did Daymond John Academy find these people ( creaigs list maybe).

in regards to QVC or HSN, that is news to me, I was never introduced to them nor I do know them. that is a lie.

in regards tp the research, it was done prior to meeting with them and signing a contract. the research did prove the benefits associated with the product. but Daymond John Academy insisted that I would need another one. Why, they could not tell me. but they want me to spend money with out questioning an of their actions. that is not the way it works.

in regards to the suggestion to lower the wholesale prices, it was the other way around, they demanded that my product should be sold for at least twice as much as originally priced.

there was no distributors mentioned by their rebutal that spoke to me personally. like I said I never met or spoke to any of the distributors they mentioned. remember it was confidential. they dont share their contacts.

My claim has more merit that you can even imagine. DJA Daymond John Academy cannot hide behind their fingers.

This is in response to the claim Mr. Joe Antouri has made against DJA.

Mr. Antouri’s claims are far from the truth of what he actually received and the work that was done for him. It’s unfortunate that anything can be written on ROR without any proof of false claims such as this. The academy has an A+ BBB rating and has successfully helped many entrepreneurs.  Mr. Antouri was never told we would get him a strategic partner, a licensing deal, or in to a retail store, in fact, he had no interest in a partner or licensing. Not only did he receive everything promised in his program, we went above and beyond what was promised. Please see below at what he received and you will clearly see that his claims are completely unfounded! The difference between his false claims and the reality of what truly occurred is that we have documentation to back up our facts.

We started working with Joe and had countless communications on what should be done to grow his business. This was done through at least three business coaches that he also had access to anytime he needed, as well as scheduled coaching calls. In addition to calls and emails, a team of at least 5 successful entrepreneurs went to LA to meet with Joe for 2 full days. This was scheduled and confirmed well ahead of time and the agenda was laid out for a productive 2 days of hands-on work. These 2 days were to create marketing and operational plans, create an action plan, and work on digital media. Joe’s schedule apparently became busy and he decided to be present only half of the time. This was no fault of DJA and again, this was scheduled and confirmed with Joe weeks in advance.

Joe was concerned about funding if he received a large PO so we connected him with a PO lender and a Factoring company, and got him approved for 7-figure funding from a well respected company, something he had never done on his own.

He was able to speak to our licensing director, but he declined because he said he was not interested in licensing, which we understood and it made sense. Same with our PR director, he did not feel it was necessary, but it was offered and he was told if he changed his mind, he could have the call anytime. He did speak with Daymond’s business development manager, who connected him with several key distributor contacts in he health and nutrition industry, something he had not been able to do on his own. These distributors have put multiple products on the shelves of the nutrition giants such as GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, etc.  When the distributors told Joe what they needed, he was not willing to do what was asked. Joe claims these contacts never contacted him, but they have emails to and from Joe that prove differently. One distributor who worked with GNC told Joe his packaging would need to be changed in order to be considered for GNC, but Joe refused, saying he had many compliments on his packaging and he didn’t want to change it. Some of the distributors he was connected to presented his product to some very large retailers, some who had some interest and some who did not. In fact, we even introduced him to a contact with strong ties to both QVC and HSN. This contact has sold well over $200 Million worth of product on these shopping networks and has tremendous contacts within both networks. When they spoke to the buyers about FitGum, the buyers said they liked the product, but Joe would have to get independent research done to prove the claims he made about the weight loss from the gum. This is very standard procedure. You cannot just make claims about weight loss and not have the proof to back them up. Joe was unwilling to spend the money on independent research to back the claims so the networks would not consider his product. Joe has a perfect background for shopping networks and has accomplished a lot in fitness so it may have been a great fit, and I’m sure the product worked as he says, it was good, but they still will never allow anyone to make a claim they cannot back up through independent research / clinical studies. Another distributor with ties to top nutritional retailers suggested a lower wholesale price so they could present it, but Joe would not consider it. His margin for the retailer was only 23.7%, which is about 12% off their typical target. Most retailers in this industry are looking for 55%+ margins so his wholesale had to be lowered or MSRP had to be higher, neither of which he wanted to change.

In all, the distributors spoke directly to CVS, Rite Aid, AAFES, Walgreens, GNC, 7-Eleven, Hudson News, Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin World, Wakefern, and Europa, most of which even received his samples. Introductions to retailers were not even part of his program, but we tried to go above and beyond for him.  We cannot force a retailer to buy a product, all we can do is present it.  Joe wanted his product in the retailers, but when there was interest, he was unwilling to do what they wanted. The retailers call the shots no matter who you are. If you want in their stores, you must do what their protocol asks for and if you are unwilling to do so, they will not consider you. Joe was offered more assistance, but he refused.

Having your product presented to so many top quality retailers is tough to do and this, in addition to all the other support and coaching he received was worth well more than what Joe invested in his program. Most entrepreneurs work tirelessly and never have the opportunity to have their product presented to retailers like this. The fact that they didn’t buy Fitgum is out of our control and it is unfortunate that this claim is against DJA is even listed on Ripoff Report as it has no merit whatsoever.