- Report: #425123
Complaint Review: Kokolulu Farm And Qigong Center - Hawi Hawaii
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
Kokolulu Farm And Qigong Center
P.O. Box 340 Hawi, 96719 Hawaii, United States of America
Phone:
808-889-9893
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
Kokolulu Farm And Qigong Center Hawaiian organic farm intern program rip off! Avoid! They will steal your money! Hawi Hawaii
This so-called organic farm is run by two con artists name Karin and Lew Whitney, and they have been ripping people off with their fraudulent internship program for years. These two a**holes lure people in with the promise of a beautiful organic farm and orchard near the ocean, a serious group yoga and qigong practice and fresh, organic meals from the land. They charge a non-refundable $1500 for a mandatory three-month visit that is riddled with bulls**t from day one!
To start, there isn't even a real farm on their land. There are two struggling gardens that produce very little food, a few fruit producing papaya trees and there is absolutely no orchard at all. Most of their wasted property is covered with grass. Their web site claims that all of the food eaten at Kokolulu either comes from their "organic farm" or from a local organic producer. Both claims are lies! 99% of the food comes from the f***ing Costco in Kona, HI, and most of it isn't organic.
By the way, while I'm on the topic of food, Karin Whitney is a real psycho. As an old, dried up hag obsessed with controlling as much as she can, she polices the kitchen making sure you take as little food as possible (even though YOU paid for it), while allowing her fat, bloated, lazy, disorganized, disgusting, fat-a**ed husband (Lew Whitney) eat as much as he can.
During the interview process, they tell you such crap like how you were selected out of a hundred other applicants, that there is something special about you, and all about what a wonderful, spiritual place Kokolulu is. All of that is a fraud. They are con artists that know exactly how to tell you what you want to hear, and it works. Lew Whitney even told me how his farm has such a great reputation and promised to send me his references. Not only did I never get the references, I found out that Kokolulu has a horrible reputation amongst the locals in Hawi, HI. Most of the Kokolulu interns leave early and angry once they realize the bullshit they have been dealt.
When they told me I was selected, I was pressured to send them the $1500 as fast as I could. Lew told me that if he didn't get the money within three days, I wouldn't be able to come to Kokolulu. He also said that the fee would go up to $1700 soon, and I needed to hurry and rush the money. Of course, this is total bulls**t. There wasn't any fee hike, and only a con artist wants your money that fast, especially when he won't refund it.
Their web site claims their farm is organic and styled with permaculture design. All lies! There isn't any permaculture design at all, and their claims to be organics are sketchy at best. They start their transplants with potting soil that contains wetting agents, and this is absolutely not organic at all! In reality, Karin and Lew have virtually no knowledge of farming or even gardening and have never completely eaten off of their own land. What little food does grow there mostly goes to waste. They allow many things to rot in the ground or just let plants go to seed instead of getting up off of their lazy a**es and harvesting. Kokolulu Farm and Qigong Center is a complete and total rip off. Anyone considering this place needs to thing again!
Anonymous Plano, Texas
U.S.A.
To start, there isn't even a real farm on their land. There are two struggling gardens that produce very little food, a few fruit producing papaya trees and there is absolutely no orchard at all. Most of their wasted property is covered with grass. Their web site claims that all of the food eaten at Kokolulu either comes from their "organic farm" or from a local organic producer. Both claims are lies! 99% of the food comes from the f***ing Costco in Kona, HI, and most of it isn't organic.
By the way, while I'm on the topic of food, Karin Whitney is a real psycho. As an old, dried up hag obsessed with controlling as much as she can, she polices the kitchen making sure you take as little food as possible (even though YOU paid for it), while allowing her fat, bloated, lazy, disorganized, disgusting, fat-a**ed husband (Lew Whitney) eat as much as he can.
During the interview process, they tell you such crap like how you were selected out of a hundred other applicants, that there is something special about you, and all about what a wonderful, spiritual place Kokolulu is. All of that is a fraud. They are con artists that know exactly how to tell you what you want to hear, and it works. Lew Whitney even told me how his farm has such a great reputation and promised to send me his references. Not only did I never get the references, I found out that Kokolulu has a horrible reputation amongst the locals in Hawi, HI. Most of the Kokolulu interns leave early and angry once they realize the bullshit they have been dealt.
When they told me I was selected, I was pressured to send them the $1500 as fast as I could. Lew told me that if he didn't get the money within three days, I wouldn't be able to come to Kokolulu. He also said that the fee would go up to $1700 soon, and I needed to hurry and rush the money. Of course, this is total bulls**t. There wasn't any fee hike, and only a con artist wants your money that fast, especially when he won't refund it.
Their web site claims their farm is organic and styled with permaculture design. All lies! There isn't any permaculture design at all, and their claims to be organics are sketchy at best. They start their transplants with potting soil that contains wetting agents, and this is absolutely not organic at all! In reality, Karin and Lew have virtually no knowledge of farming or even gardening and have never completely eaten off of their own land. What little food does grow there mostly goes to waste. They allow many things to rot in the ground or just let plants go to seed instead of getting up off of their lazy a**es and harvesting. Kokolulu Farm and Qigong Center is a complete and total rip off. Anyone considering this place needs to thing again!
Anonymous Plano, Texas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Dali Wali
Falls Church,Texas,
Yes, it's very true that they are con-artists
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, January 05, 2015
I agree 100% with what was said about this 'company'. They prey upon sick and desperaete people...Lew is obese and disgusting beyond belief. How can a guy who is so obese and just plain gross be lecturing people on a healthy lifestyle, or anything for that matter?
It's all true.
Kokolulu
Hawi,Hawaii,
U.S.A.
Kokolulu Farm, Hawi, Hawaii, is the real deal!
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, May 06, 2009
This is a rebuttal to a libelous report against Kokolulu Farm in Hawaii that was written by Nicole, a trail hand at Yosemite National Park in California. NOT an anonymous writer from Plano Texas, as she claimed. She didn't have the authenticity to be honest about her name, which is consistent with the lies she writes in her report to ROR. She was never honest while here either, as we have weekly staff meetings and ask each individual how things are for them and are there any issues; she denied issues each week for the month she was here and stated things were going well for her. We know this is from Nicole as she uses the words verbatim in her report here that she used in a complaint she issued with the Hawaii Better Business Bureau. The Hawaii BBB investigated us and we met with them in person as well. That complaint was dismissed as untrue by the BBB, so Nicole now has chosen this avenue for her misplaced anger. Nicole is a woman of questionable integrity; one intern here at the same time as she, expressed concern about Nicole's "dark side". It seems Nicole needed some money and thought she could file a claim with the BBB asking for a refund of not only the $1500 she paid for 3 months stay at Kokolulu Farm, but also wanted her travel expenses reimbursed. She was denied any compensation at all. Nicole uses language that exemplifies her immaturity and anger issues and makes accusations that are completely untrue. She asserts we are not a real farm, though we are currently eating approximately 60-70% from our gardens (a little less than that when Nicole was here as she was here in January and food production goes down a bit in the dead of winter, even in Hawaii!). She was requesting apples, which don't grow in Hawaii at any time, so I got them for her from Costco. As an example, the plant inventory of Kokolulu Farm is as follows, decide for yourself if we are indeed "a farm"...VEGGIES: kale, chard, 4 types of salad greens, chinese greens, 3 types of spinach, tomatoes; cherry and beef steak, tomatillos, asparagus, corn, popcorn, peanuts, pidgeon pea (lentil), pinto beans, brussel sprouts, winter squash, zucchini, 50 pineapple plants, eggplant, chinese peas, collard greens, ginger, turmeric, lemon grass, onions, garlic, basil rosemary, and more. TREES: 40 coconut (producing currently!), 4 mango, 35 papaya, 25 bananas, 2 rolinia, persimmon, numerous varieties of lemon and limes, grapefruit, chermoya, figs, 40-50 bamboos, 20 oil palms (Nicole helped plant a few of these), and lots of flowers and herbs. Nicole asserts we have a 'bad reputation' among the locals in Hawi. We will happily provide references from many that prove otherwise. We are founding members of 'Sustainable Kohala', a group working together to make our community sustainable and are active business members in our community. We do cancer retreats and offer them free of charge to locals affected by the disease. We are well known and respected. We are also happy to provide references of others that have interned here at Kokolulu (Nicole states she never received these references, but we have saved every communication from her and she NEVER asked for them). Nicole, on the other hand, spent her free time sitting in her room stuffing her obese body with chips and candy (that she purchased herself as we don't provide them. I assume that's why her statement that I 'police the food!). She didn't interact with much of the local community at all. Our permaculture design was done professionally by Douglas Bullock, who designs permaculture plans around the world. http://www.permacultureportal.com/home_people.html
