Complaint Review: Union Living - Internet

 I received a telephone call at my counseling/psychotherapy practice from a man named Lewis/Louis who asked whether I would be interested in providing counseling services to union members and if so would I please call him back. From the information in the message, it sounded like he was working for a union or for an EAP (employee assistance program) so I was eager to sign up. We played phone tag for two days and finally connected. He asked when we could schedule a time to go over some things by internet. He made some references to being busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest. I laughed because I used to know someone who used to say that, but I did think it was an unusual way to speak during a business call. I told him I am available right now. He said okay, let's do that, because he wanted to make sure I got an opportunity because spaces fill up fast. This was the first time he said something that made me suspect a scam.

He directed me to a website www.unionliving.org. He asked me to click on California and then Orange County and then on real estate to see examples of what their ads look like. Once I had seen them, he then directed me back to my own state (Texas) and my own county (Bexar). He still wanted me to focus on real estate, though. Eventually we got to counseling (there were MANY related fields, too. I could selected counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychotherapy, psychologists, or PTSD. There may have been others.) He indicated that his organization has been serving union members for nine years and that one of the things the members ask for more than anything else is referrals to professionals. They say "We don't want to have to use the doctor our insurance company tells us to..." etc. (Okay, lots of people say that, right? It's possible.)

Then he gets to the price. It's $380.00 for a year for one category or $525.00 for two years, one category. I'm still interested (although not yet committed). He finds out I'm interested in the PTSD category and says that's a really high need area so he's going to go get Mr. Michaels out of his office right now and get him on the phone to get me a special deal. (It was really sounding like a sales pitch now, but still no red flags, because sales pitches is what sales people do, right? My father was a salesman until he retired. I don't have anything against salespeople doing their jobs...)

While I'm on hold I internet search the Better Business Bureau. (This is how I found out that the National Association of Professional Women was a scam, so I figured it could help.) The BBB hasn't heard of them. So...

Another man comes on the line and introduces himself as Tim. He says he understands I want the two year program and he's going to help me choose a category. I tell him I'm thinking of counseling and PTSD. The call shifts to a hard close. I backpeddal and ask for market research. I'm not the shrewdest business woman out there, but I'm not an idiot, either. I'd like to hear some numbers like "83% of those who join our program report an increase in business" or "all of our clients reported at least a 10% increase in sales" or something, anything, to try to get some type of idea what I could hope to expect to get out of a $525.00 investment. He said I was asking for that because I was "thinking of this like advertising" which it isn't. (If it's not advertising, why am I paying for it?) This is a special program to help the union members. (Okay, I'll agree to help. Sign me up no charge, please?) They're not like one of these Google programs with pays per clicks and all that nonsense and they're not Psychology Today (had I said I didn't approve of PT or google? Why the comparison?) I said "I need some type of market research or statistics or something" and he said that wasn't fair because some of the companies are in metropolitan areas and others are rural and you can't really make comparisons nationwide like that (isn't that why there are percentages? I took research methods. I'm pretty sure there's a way to perform a statistical analysis here...) I said "Okay, I'm going to do some research on my own and--" I was going to say call back to sign up in a few days.

But I didn't. Because as soon as I got to the word "research" he began to talk very rapidly and very loudly over me. He said "Okay, I'm going to let you go because I'm very busy." And he hung up.

I called back on Louis's number to say "Look, Tim hung up on me, but I'm still going to do the research and get back to you, okay?" but on Louis's number they picked up the phone and hung up on me. Nice.

Now that I'm off the phone I can think more clearly. I perform another internet search, and there's a Rip Off Report from someone who did pay them $380.00 for the year and who claims it is false or misleading advertising and/or a scam. I am writing this report to warn anyone else about this company. It sounds fishy. They won't (or can't) provide any statistics. Keep looking through the site. It's mostly blank, except for Orange County. If I had more time to research, I would actually call those therapists in Orange county and see if they actually have practices or if they are made up ads from not even real people. What a load of you-know-what.

Rip off report asks if I used a credit card for this transaction. Fortunately, I bailed before I fell for it, so no... but I would have. I wonder if they would have accepted it or not....