Back in July 2007 I bought Mike Filsaime’s 7 Figure Code course.
Mike held a JV competition and offered a whole host of expensive prizes for those marketers who made the most affiliate sales.
1st place got a Rolex watch and a cruise, 2nd place got a 50″ flat screen TV plus a cruise, 3rd got a MacBook and a cruise… all the way down to 16th place – who got a set of steak knives.
Of course, each marketer also got some commission for each sale they made which at a standard 50% was probably about $250 per sale.
Once the competition ended we discovered that the top performing affiliate had sold a massive 302 units through his affiliate link and so very likely gaining around $75,000 in commissions as well as the prizes.
Now, obviously it was very lucrative to get a lot of sales for this particular launch so all the “top gun” marketers offered some amazing bonus packages to anybody who bought through their affiliate link.
For the customers this was great. Not only did you get the 7 Figure Code for your $497 but you also got a load of extras simply for buying through one particular link!
Or at least that’s how it should work…
As it turns out, some marketers did not fulfill their promises and never sent out all of the bonuses they had lined up.
And I happened to fall victim to one particular marketer who failed to deliver the full package of bonuses he promised me back in July 2007.
Find out the facts on the website:
Here is a short version of the BS Keith Wellman put me through, and my response. He made $210 in unauthorized charges to my credit card.
First, he announced that he was about to charge my card as he said I had “agreed” to. The same morning, while I was writing an email demanding that he not charge my card, I received an email apologizing and explaining that the former message had gone out to the wrong list, and reassuring me there would be no charge to my card.
Then, about an hour later, he sent another email reiterating the apology and the reassurance that I wasn’t being charged. Then he did it anyway.
Eventually, I challenged his charges with the bank, but the bank did nothing about it. After months of my calls and emails being completely ignored, I posted my story on the Warrior Forum.
Within 24 hours, Mr. Unavailable, Keith Wellman, responds with a series of lies, including saying that even though I was in the wrong, and I was taking advantage of him, he had refunded me.
I reply, calling him on every lie, but he can’t respond, since he was banned from the forum.
I eventually got his office to agree to pay me the money he publicly claimed to have refunded, and they said they would send a check. Weeks later; nothing, so I wrote to say “where’s the check?”
They replied that their old bookkeeper left when it should have gone out, so it never got sent, but they’re sorry and will follow up asap. More weeks go by.
I finally got fed up. I sent them another email, saying because of all the hours of work I had to put in, and the hassle in getting my own money back, I’m adding a $150 collection fee; quite modest considering I’ve got probably more than 20 hours into the fuitless attempts to retrieve the stolen money.
I tell them not to bother with any more excuses, just pay the full amount, which has gone up to $360 now.
Nothing for a few days, but finally, this morning, I got an email from Wellman’s office. It’s the new bookkeeper introducing herself, and telling me that a check is not an option, and that I need to choose between paypal and some other online bank transfer.
She says she’s dedicated to making customers happy and wants to get me my refund as soon as she can. She makes no mention of the total, or of my collection fee, so I guess I’ll have to remind her of that.
If I don’t get satisfaction, I will make my story known as widely as possible. I’m thinking of buying a domain and launching a blog about Keith Wellman of my own if they don’t (belatedly) do the right thing.
That’s about it, except for one final thought. I’ve bought quite a few “make money on the internet” info products from many different “gurus”, and so far Keith Wellman is the only unethical one I’ve encountered.
The upside of that is that most “make money on the internet” gurus are decent and honorable. Keith really stands out as one who’s not. This is bad for all who wish to sell in this large and profitable market. He’s hurting the reputation of the industry as a whole.
So fellow gurus should try to nip his crap in the bud, rather than do what some appear to be doing, and pulling their wagons in a circle, demanding nobody speak ill of one of their own. A bad apple in this bushel might not spoil the whole bunch, but it makes prospects look on the entire bushel with suspicion.
Comment by Greg Vinson — 13th October 2009 @ 4:30 am