Complaint Review: Internet Marketing.com - vancouver bc, Internet

I put my trust in IMC (Internet marketing.com) powered by Internet Marketing Centre, Vancouver Canada, now owned by Columbia Web Services Incorporated which is one and the same thing. I build my own website in 2006 and signed up to receive emails from this company on a weekly basis, which offers to give free so called weekly expert advice on sales and marketing. The company states on the home page. The Leader in Internet Marketing Resources and Training for small businesses.

After 4 years digesting all this and not getting very far, I paid for and signed up to IMC's Insider Secrets course and the which is a step by step guide on how to sell online., using S.E.O specialist techniques. I still don't know what the Entrepreneur Club is to this day. After weeks of reading through all this, it lead me into looking into The Advanced Mentor Programme, which offered one to one training by telephone. I emailed the company to ask about what was involved and how much it cost. The fee was $8000 USD. (OUTRAGIOUS), after some negotiation they said they would reduce it to $7389 USD. Payable in instalments. IMC said that only a few places for training were available and I would have to fill in an online candidate survey, to see if I was suitable for the training.

Well Surprise, Surprise I was just what they were looking for. What they failed to ask me however, was what type of computer I was using and its system RAM. I received the Agreement electronically to sign and was given only one day to agree to it or the deal was off. After I read through it, I had a lot of misgivings, especially as there was no cooling off period and no backing out from it, an earnings disclaimer and no money would be reimbursed. For some stupid and rather desperate reason at the time, I fell for it and paid my first instalment with my American Express card, thinking that if they did not deliver, I could get my money back from their legal dept.

The programme included the use of Bebiz and several other add on bits of software. My first phone call from my assigned mentor was around 7.30 p.m. One of the first things he said was that it was now extremely difficult to sell any new products on line. I realised at that moment, that I was being taken for a ride. What ever you do Do Not Sign This Agreement. The mentor also mentioned that Bebiz would be useless to me and the other bits of software would probably cause problems and advised me not to use them. From the first call I received the mentor was using a programme called webex a web hosting package. This program slowed my computer down, also the line quality was so poor that I had to install skype. This slowed my computer down to a point where it was unusable, so I had to go out and by a headset and spend 500 to get the computer upgraded. About half way through the program I was told that the company had changed its name to genex marketing.com.

I emailed IMC's customer complaints dept. about my concerns and they did show some interest but did nothing about it. I am now out of pocket by some 5,118.00 plus the countless hours I have spent writing emails and letters and have not earned a single penny from the programme. I have spent 10 months trying to get this money returned. I wrote to Andrew Morden who I believed was the CEO at the time and have never received a response. I contacted American Express, the Better Business Bureau and the Financial Ombudsman Service and none of them have been able to help.

I am now totally outraged at this company and its appalling behaviour, it deliberately divorces itself from any moral obligation to deliver what is described. The sales copy is totally misleading and the cost of the programme grotesquely disproportionate. There is nothing in this programme that you cannot already learn free from a book and what is already on offer from Google Adwords. This company was set up by Cori Rudle, who is now deceased but widely known as a successful marketeer. The only response I ever received was an email from Chuck Anderson (Director) who suggested I contact someone he admired, this turned out to be Eben Pagan. There are quite a few stories about him on the net. I contacted him and one of his staff rang me and listened to my storey, he said that IMC do not understand anything about marketing and was shocked and appalled at how much they charged me. He was not able to or not willing to get involved.