Complaint Review: The Learning Annex - New York City New York

Hello There! Many years ago I worked for Mr. John Goodfriend, in his own successful company in New York City. I cannot say enough good things about Mr. Goodfriend to express my shock about the things that have been written here regarding him. During the years that I worked for Mr. Goodfriend, he was totally honest, above board and kept his word in every aspect of any business or personal dealings. HONORABLE is the only word that can be used to sum up my opinion of Mr. Goodfriend. And in many cases to keep his word to his clients and his employees Mr. Goodfriend would spend not only his time, energy and wisdom but his own personal money. Any client or employee who had any kind of problem would find a very sympathetic listener in Mr. Goodfriend and Mr. Goodfriend would do all he possibly could do to help them. Mr. Goodfriend also saw in many people the potential that they didn't see in themselves and allowed them to grow, learn and apply themselves. He launched me, by recognizing skills I didn't even know I had, into a brilliant career that took me far away from him and his business. I grew so much while working for him because of the potential that he saw in me and the responsibilities that he gave me. I only found this *report* stating these things regarding him because I was just sitting here at my computer waiting for something to be sent to me, and decided to just plug in his name to see if there was anything about him on the web. I have not seen or spoken to Mr. Goodfriend in over 15 years and I was curious to see if I could locate him and THANK HIM. Yes, his faith in me and his ability to let me grow professionally brought me to great heights in my career, and his honesty, integrity in showing me that no matter what, you make good on your word allowed me to have a wonderful career. Imagine my shock at seeing some of what has been written here. There must be some kind of a mistake. Nobody could honestly write these things about the John Goodfriend that I knew. Sincerely, Connie Headrick Crawford Formerly of New York City, Now of Wilson, NC

The pulled a bait and switch on me. I register for one course ( Creative Financing ) and was actually placed in another one (Basic Investor Training) which was basically a sales pitch for yet more training. They ripped me off for approximately a thousand buck to attend an IAI/WI infomercial. I am so p?ssed with Learning Annex.

OK, now I see that they DID respond to my original complaint. I thought the first line was the entire response. Unfortunately, they demonstrate again that honoring the truth in business transactions is NOT what The Learning Annex is about. They claim that changes to the 2007 contracts were announced in an email in November and that reps were advised of the changes at Expos in November and December. They claim that I must have missed this info. They claim that the amended 2007 contract was NOT retroactive, and that no other rep has complained about thiese changes. Well, I have the printout of the original announcement in AUGUST of changes to the 2007 program, I spoke IN PERSON to John Goodfriend at the November Expo in Anaheim and discussed the changes in the August announcement. He made no mention of an AMENDED 2007 contract. I have copies of my emails to his office in December confirming that my 2007 contract sent in November AFTER my discussion with John, was received and effective (the original, not an amended) and the positive response from his staff, which did not ask for an amended contract when we "talked" on December 21st or when I submitted my final sale of 2006 a couple days later. I have printouts of reps discussing the application of the 2007 contract on the internal Forum as late as January 4th (and the responses of his office staff) and they were NOT discussing the amended contract. On January 9th (the day AFTER I submitted my big sale with payment), John's staff sent out the announcement of the amended contracts. On January 10th, I posted this info to the Forum for discussion by other reps and confirmed that no other rep had been notified of an amended 2007 contract until AFTER they submitted their first 2007 renewal sale. At a meeting in Los Angeles on January 13, 2007, most of the 20 or so reps in the room learned for THE FIRST TIME that there was an amended 2007 contract and that they would be getting paid LESS than they had contracted for if the change was upheld. Many of the reps in that room were pissed off and I have names, phone numbers, and emails from reps that were present. Finally, I have an email from a member of John's staff who sent out the announcement of the amended 2007 contracts on January 9th. In this email from March of this year, she admits, "That email on the ninth was the one I sent around to all active ISA's. That was the first time I sent something out". John's own staff has confirmed that they did not send out an announcement of changes to the 2007 contract until January 9th, the day AFTER my big sale, which certainly makes this a RETROACTIVE change. It is because The Learning Annex in general and John Goodfriend in particular have played fast and loose with the truth that most of the people who signed up as reps have never earned much money. His own statement confirms that 90% of his reps aren't working (and he's stretching the truth in his favor - it's unlikely that more than 5% of the total people who signed up as reps have made more than 2 sales in the last 2 1/2 years!). Most of the companies that have exhibited at these Expos have stopped because of the poor response to most of the shows and because of the high prices and poor treatment by John's staff. Then you have the visitors to the Expos, who have been sold millions of dollars worth of books, tapes, and seminars and who have been unable to get refunds when the products didn't turn out to be what was promised. The BBB, which had a good grade for them for many years, had downgraded The Learning Annex to an "F" grade recently because of the volume of unresolved complaints. Finally, how would you like to work for a company that says you were paid for doing nothing? How obnoxious! He claims that after a company signs up for the Expos that no other work needs to be done except by his staff. That's a ridiculous lie! The renewal sale that I made on January 8th was made by a company that I nursed constantly for 1 1/2 years. It took HOURS of contact by phone and email on a regular basis to keep them involved. As a result of my CONSTANT attention, they spent almost $200,000 on Expo booths over 1 1/2 years. Since I resigned, they have spent $10,000 on ONE Expo and skipped several Expos after that. Was is really worth it to screw me, and several other reps, out of a few thousand dollars and give up TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in sales later? Is this the kind of company you want to do business with? The whole company has been based on the idea of selling "classes" to adults who are usually paying to sit and attend an infomercial. They are mostly there to be fleeced. For years, this company gave refunds when the "students" demanded them. Now, it appears, they have become overwhelmed by Expos that are beyond their control, vendors that offer lousy products, and by a simple lack of intergrity on the part of their executives. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!

Please note that their response does not deny anything that I said. Also note that this company recently had an "F" grade from the BBB (currently under review - maybe they're looking for something lower than F?") because of their poor response to customer returns and complaints. Many of the exhibitor clients have stopped working with them because of the poor response at the events and because of the poor manner in which they are treated by The Learning Annex. MANY visitors to the Expos have been unhappy with the products they've been convinced to purchase (books and tapes and weekend seminars that cost thousands of dollars) and their inability to get The Learning Annex to make good on their guarantees. Add the fact that the overwhelming majority of people that sign up to do the work I was doing don't make anywhere near the $2,500 an hour advertised and I ask you - Is this the kind of company you want to do business with?

Much of what Michael said is accurate. ISAs (Independent Sales Associates) do earn large incomes selling exhibit space for the Wealth Expos. They earn 25% commission for their first sale and 50% commission for subsequent sales. We have been paying these commissions since early in 2005 and hundreds of ISA have been very successful. And yes - until a year ago we paid the same commission for exhibitors returning to exhibit in additional Expos - - even though the ISA was not involved in the exhbitors decision to return. Where Michael is incorrect is when he says it was "retroactive" and that "nobody was advised" of the change. The first e-mail to ISAs went out in November and discussed with ISAs at Expos in November and December. The Learning Annex does many promotional mailings to our students and ISAs and we somtimes erroneously end up on a mail server's spam list. Perhaps that is what happend to the e-mail sent to Michael. From the first days of the ISA program in 2005, ISAs were told that their job ends when we receive a contract and payment from an exhibitor. All the work from that time forward is done my me and my office staff. When an exhibitor returns for future expos it is based on their experience exhibiting - - not an the sales efforts of their original sales person. Michael earned almost $3,000 for doing essentially nothing - - just because the exhibitor he originally sold decided to return. More than a thousand people have been authorized to sell exhibit space over the past 3 years. At any one time more than 100 may be actively selling. Of all of the other ISAs no one - other than Michael - claimed that we made changes "retroactively" - or that they were never notified of the change. John Goodfriend - Exhibit Hall Manager