- Report: #251438
Complaint Review: IPA International Profit Associates - Buffalo Grove Illinois
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IPA International Profit Associates
1250 Barclay Blvd Buffalo Grove, 60089 Illinois, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-531-7100
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IPA International Profit Associates Scammed Us for Big Bucks and Provided NOTHING but LIES Buffalo Grove Illinois*UPDATE: Rip-off Report Investigation - International Profit Associates recognized by Rip-off Report as a safe business service - IPA pledges to resolve all complaints, 100% commitment to customer service and satisfaction, feel confident and secure when doing business with IPA
IPA approached our company with the promise to analyze and provide help to increase our sales. Looking back now, they began scamming us from the very first telephone call.
No one showed up for the initial "consultation". So to "make up for it" they offered a free analyst's time. He came, told us we needed about 30 hours of "help" and tried to charge $350.00. I explained his services had been offered to us for free. He apologized for the "mis-communication". He told us ONE person would come for ONE day and write the business plan on the following Monday. He also told us that we were "too small" but for us they would make an exception.
Monday TWO men showed up and informed us they would be with us for TWO days. We explained we HAD NOT AGREED to this. They could not believe the "mis-communication" and promptly made themselves at home. The two stayed for two days, did NOTHING but play on their computer. At the end of the second day they DEMANDED I pay them $9,900.00. They would not leave my office until they were paid.
These people NEED TO BE STOPPED. I would join anyone in a class action lawsuit. I can not believe there can be this many businesses that have been ripped off and that there are not thousands more.
Anyone that works for this company should be put in jail. They are completely aware that all they are selling is a scam. No educated American would be able to spend their days doing what they are doing and not know it is WRONG. This company is helping to put thousands of good hardworking American Citizens into bankruptcy.
Cindy
San Rafael, California
U.S.A.
No one showed up for the initial "consultation". So to "make up for it" they offered a free analyst's time. He came, told us we needed about 30 hours of "help" and tried to charge $350.00. I explained his services had been offered to us for free. He apologized for the "mis-communication". He told us ONE person would come for ONE day and write the business plan on the following Monday. He also told us that we were "too small" but for us they would make an exception.
Monday TWO men showed up and informed us they would be with us for TWO days. We explained we HAD NOT AGREED to this. They could not believe the "mis-communication" and promptly made themselves at home. The two stayed for two days, did NOTHING but play on their computer. At the end of the second day they DEMANDED I pay them $9,900.00. They would not leave my office until they were paid.
These people NEED TO BE STOPPED. I would join anyone in a class action lawsuit. I can not believe there can be this many businesses that have been ripped off and that there are not thousands more.
Anyone that works for this company should be put in jail. They are completely aware that all they are selling is a scam. No educated American would be able to spend their days doing what they are doing and not know it is WRONG. This company is helping to put thousands of good hardworking American Citizens into bankruptcy.
Cindy
San Rafael, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Gordon
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
clarification
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, October 22, 2007
You miss the point when you say "they are fully aware it is a scam". We weren't aware. I worked with IPA for over 4 years and in many cases we did good work. However many things that occurred happened in an information vacuum. And if several good things are happening--and they were, perhaps not any more--then it is easy to justify and use defense mechanisms to de-value the contradictory information. It is common psychology, but it works. If the salesman doesn't know that the appointment is phony, then the salesman can continue to work, and sooner or later, one appointment will give him hope. Maybe that appointment will sell, and maybe the "analyst" will arrive and have an open-minded audience. And just maybe that "analyst" will be an analyst and do the job of identifying costs of doing business badly, and maybe that analyst will have enough credibility to get the "go-ahead" (the working agreement signed). I did see many cases out west where the "go-ahead" had probably been signed by mistake, or perhaps even forged, when the so-called "analyst" had simply put a piece of paper in front of the client and the client was probably told "go ahead and sign these papers, they just prove I was here" or something similar, because the so called "client" was completely unaware that I was arriving. But many times everything was on the up-and-up, and of those many times, we actually managed to do a good job. The good clients don't write "rip-off report" and the good employees are afraid to, trust me, because they won't last long. I personally am not welcome back there (although I admit I tried) because I took too good care of the client, that is, counseled them about how to get the work without putting up with this BS. That is definitely (and unstated) against the culture of the company, but it needed doing so I did it. However, there is a whole strata of what the biz calls "BMS"--below minimum standards--that John and his cronies don't mind making money off of, anyway. Those are the ones who are mostly represented in the Rip-off Report. Not that it makes it acceptable, it doesn't. But--there are a lot of companies, some I've worked with in the same towns/cities as those the complainants are from, who we did good work with. I was first acquainted with the "they took our post-dated checks and cashed them all whether we wanted them to or not" in Kansas City (a suburb north actually) with some really nice people. I did a complete project, sent the post-dated checks, and after the project was over called them back to see how it was going and the entire value of the project had been seriously compromised by the "office" (and nobody has any accountability there either--the CSD (consulting services director) is nominally in charge of the project and the collections, but they blame "accounting" and nothing can help the business at that point anyway--in this case, they couldn't make payroll because of the "mistake")--when all this happened, the client "threw the baby out with the bathwater", that is, over-reacted and assumed that everything was wrong with the project. I see that same thread of ideas here. I would ask that you all pay careful attention to the good ideas and not let the "perfect" (or in this case, the honest or acceptable) be the enemy of the "good"--use the material, in many cases it really will help and God knows you paid enough for it. Overpaid--yes, unfortunately--but where else can you get this? Again unfortunately, these people's greed has completely ruined the business of small business management consulting, introducing an element of distrust that is well deserved--for them--but not necessarily deserved for the methods taught, or at least the basic ideas. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater--but there's no use in keeping IPA in business, either, because they are fundamentally flawed with a dishonest infrastructure of values and ethics.
