Complaintsfor401k Depot

• Initial Complaint

  01/25/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Booked 14 leads, 1 showed up. Charged for 4 leads + setup, held 1 appointment. Their response? We booked 14 leads, the contract says they must be qualified, confirmed, in the market, and attend the meeting, but what's that matter? Just trying to take your money like all the rest. My company removed them as an approved vendor shortly after this. I have a signed contract that spells out all of the parameters in writing, and only 1 of the leads meets the criteria, and I'm still out 1250$.Remedy: Refund setup and 3 paid but unused leads, or finish the job, but they've had enough chances.

• Initial Complaint

  08/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  $5,250 was paid by me to 401k Depot on 4/30/21 under a signed agreement to set (15) exclusive appointments @ $350 per, where the prospect would attend virtually or in-person to review their current 401k program and has expressed a general interest in our services. There was only (1) appointment that was scheduled and then kept by the prospect. On that appointment, the prospect noted that they did not know what they were attending for and had no interest. All other appointments cancelled or no show. So, there were no appointments delivered in good order. There have been (10) efforts throughout 2022 to have 401k Depot refund, including a demand letter received by 401k Depot in April and again in May 2022. All requests have been ignored.

  Business response

  08/18/2022

  August 9, 2022 
  
  Dear ****************,  
   
  I am writing in response to the notice received on Tuesday August 9, 2022, regarding the complaint from our former client **** ***** (complaint ID *********. Our response will outline the various ways we have attempted to resolve the conflict and appease our client. From the beginning of the situation our focus has always been to do everything possible to make things right and remedy the situation. Unfortunately, our efforts, time and hard work were repeatedly discredited by Mr. ***** and his team. 
   
  We thank you for the opportunity to present our side of the story and would like to affirm that we have attempted, several times over the last few months, to resolve the issue at hand with our former client in a fair, efficient, and timely fashion but to no avail.  
   
  We entered a contractual collaboration with Mr. ***** on April 27, 2021, where he enlisted our services to generate Business to Business (B2B) leads in the Orange County area. From the beginning, we ran into difficulties as our former client modified the contract, disregarding the section written in bold red capital letters, stating that doing so would null and void the agreement. We decided to proceed with our collaboration as a courtesy and with enthusiasm about the prospect of working with a renowned firm such as Mass Mutual. The service agreement outlines that an initial order of 15 leads at a cost of $350 per lead (totaling the amount of $5,250) would be charged upfront and be used as a reserve. Each approved lead generated by our team would be released to the client with the unit price deducted from the total amount.  
   
  Each lead was generated in accordance with the requirements outlined by Mr. ***** at the start of the campaign. Our production process has been outlined to ensure strict adherence to the requirements established in collaboration with Mr. ***** and our team to make sure that the profile of each interested prospect matches the desired criteria. Once our production team generated a lead, our Quality Assurance Department reviewed and approved it according to the requirements established by the client. Each lead was then released to Mr. ****** Lead Management System portal (LMS Leads) with the details of each appointment.  
   
  To ensure the success of the campaign, our Customer Success team kept regular contact with Mr. ***** and his team, making sure the work and efforts put behind the campaign were fruitful. We advised our former client of best practices on running their meetings, but our recommendations were disregarded. We also identified some areas of improvement to address Mr. *****'s concerns and modified our approach switching our former client to our targeted Sales Development Representative program on October 14, 2021, at no additional cost. This program provided them with one dedicated employee working on their campaign.  
   
  We assigned Mr. ****** campaign to one of our top producers and had him focus on his production as a dedicated SDR. To ensure progress and close collaboration, our SDR was to set up a weekly meeting with Mr. ***** and his team to discuss the progress of the campaign. However, our suggestion was declined by Mr. ****** representative in an email dated November 9, 2021, stating that they did not have room for additional meetings. 
   
   
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  As we continued to produce in the campaign, the representative began making disparaging remarks and untrue claims regarding the nature of the leads produced, discrediting the time and effort put behind their campaign. We assured them that the quality of each lead was backed by tangible justifications through phone-recordings confirming that each appointment was agreed to, revised through our Quality Control department and handed off to them, according to the requirements spelled out in our contract.  
  The outcome of our efforts and work with Mr. ***** is summarized as follows: 
  - 38 leads generated total 
  - 21 Approved leads 
  - 7 Replaced leads 
  - 10 Rescheduled leads 
  
  With a cost per lead of $350 this represents $13,300 worth of work, not including the shift to the SDR program. Based on the initial $5,250 budget allocated by Mr. *****, we provided an additional $8,050 worth of work as a business gesture and attempt to resolve our clients concerns.  
   
  Because of the nature of the business, we understand that not every meeting set will occur and for that we have been open to working with Mr. ***** and his team in getting appointments back on calendar or even replace some of these opportunities on their behalf. Since the product that we provide is intangible, we have no way retrieving lead details. Once the information is released, the client has free rein to act on it whether it be today or in the future. Since the information was provided to Mr. *****, we have no way of restricting the use of the information anymore.  
   
  Our team has met with Mr. ***** over zoom meetings, exchanged emails and phone calls over the last few months, the last resulting in Mr. ***** stating that none of our work efforts mattered, even though we have gone above and beyond the original resources allocated.  
   
  We acted in good faith and prioritized customer satisfaction by offering and delivering additional services?at an?adjusted rate. We are saddened to hear that this customer was unsatisfied as we take great pride in our work and always strive for positive outcomes. 
   
  Sincerely,  
  
  Valentin K
  COO | 401k Depot
  

  Customer response

  08/18/2022

  Thank you for this update. 

  I am rejecting this response because most all statements by Valentin K are false.

  1.    1.   The signed agreement was with Glen F   I had no business dealings with Valentin K at the time of the agreement and no knowledge of their involvement in any way.

  I would like to know what happened to Glen F and if he is still with the company.

  The agreement was between myself and Glen F on 4/27/21 and is attached.

   2.     This is a false statement from Valentin:

  From the beginning, we ran into difficulties as our former client modified the contract, disregarding the section written in bold red capital letters, stating that doing so would null and void the agreement. 

  There were no difficulties whatsoever at the start of the agreement and no such communication from Valentin.  Again, they were in no way a part of any conversation or agreement.   If there had been any issues with Glen or 401k Depot at the start, of course I would not have pursued business with 401k Depot.

  Glen had assertively solicited me to do business with him through 401k Depot for quite some time and ultimately, I was pleased from what I heard by phone with discussions centered around the integrity and professionalism of 401k Depot.  Unfortunately, that did not turn out as expected.

  There were no modifications to the agreement by me.  The information filled in on the agreement was mutually agreed and signed in good faith by both parties.  There was nothing unusual in the agreement except for the red bold statement that almost seems overly defensive by 401k.   Nonetheless, we entered in good faith to partner together. I then absolutely upheld by end of the bargain by paying 100% in advance and with fair expectation that appointments would be delivered.  None were!

  3.    3. There were no attempts by 401k Depot to resolve the matter in any way.   Instead, 401k continued to assert that they were 100% correct and providing legitimate appointments and strangely, that it was out fault that their appointments (all of them) cancelled!   It was absurd and astounding to our professional team that 401k Depot blamed us! 

   

  4. There was never an offer to resolve the issue by honestly scheduling actual appointments and not charging us for all of the non appointments.  Accordingly, of our time we have recorded $20,000 of work hours in chasing non-leads!      So,none of that from Valentin is accurate.  Related, we have witness to every phone call made in our efforts to secure even a single appointment with a lead.   Per our very detailed case history notes of each and every profile, unfortunately 100% of them were bogus.  Not a single business kept a scheduled appointment.

   

  4.    5. We are experienced retirement plan specialists and well respected within the industry. We are polite, professional, and always fair with our clients and business partners.  There were no disparaging remarks made about 401k Depot. 

  AsAs our team evetually gave up trying to have 401k Depot produce a single kept appointment, we eventually gave up.  

  AA letter was sent on 5/3/22 received by 401k Depot by email and certified mail.  There was no response to that full refund request.

  
  

  Business response

  08/29/2022

  This situation illustrates the diverging philosophies between our former client and ourselves. We presented evidence and facts to explain and outlined the process we follow to fulfill our clients order, we provided leads with interested prospects who not only accepted the meeting but also confirmed their interest in meeting with our former client. We have offered remedies when the client was unsatisfied, exceeding the original order placed.
  
  I am the COO of the company; I was brought into this situation in attempt to find a resolution after the disparaging remarks that were made by Mr. ****** team brought the situation to a standstill. I initially contacted our former client on February 18,2022 and we set up a meeting for February 24, 2022 where I explained my role and the fact that I was stepping to resolve the issue.
  
  Our account executive, Glen F and our team had been working in the background to resolve the issues with this campaign which resulted in us pivoting to the SDR program and, after careful review, approving the significant allotment of additional leads extended to the client in attempt to make things right. As previously mentioned, we cannot take the information given to our client back, nor can we take the resources allocated to him either. During our meeting, Mr. ***** claimed that none of our efforts mattered to him and that he expected a full refund. A statement which discredits the months of resources put behind his campaign and that is incongruent with a business relationship that lasted nearly an entire year.
  
  Based on the amount of resources we allocated and as we significantly exceeded the original order of our former client, all in an act of good faith, we believe that we have gone above and beyond to make our collaboration with Mr. ***** work and that his refund request in the face of nearly twelve months of work is baseless and devaluates our efforts. 

  Customer response

  08/30/2022

  Good afternoon.
  
  Thank you for this update.   I am writing on 8/30/22 in response to 401k Depots reply, received today.
  
  As with the former correspondence, most all statements by Valentin / 401k Depot on this BBB response are contrived and inaccurate.    I have detailed this earlier, and the way that 401k Depot is replying now is very consistent with our experience during 2021 and into 2022.   That is, they have refuted every point with extensive defensiveness and aggressiveness, yet quite simply never delivered on the agreement!
  
  Again, I had no business dealings with Valentin K at the time of the agreement and no knowledge of their involvement in any way.My contact was Glen F and all initial discussion of services, including the signed agreement were with Glen F.There we no conversations or correspondence with Valentin K at that time and no effort by Valentin or any person at 401k Depot to refund in full nor in part.

  $5,250 was paid by me to 401k Depot on 4/30/21 under a signed agreement to set (15) exclusive appointments @ $350 per, where the prospect would attend virtually or in-person to review their current 401k program and has expressed a general interest in our services. There was only (1) appointment that was scheduled and then kept by the prospect. On that appointment, the prospect noted that they did not know what they were attending for and had no interest. All other appointments cancelled or no show. So, there were no appointments delivered in good order. There have been (10) efforts throughout 2022 to have 401k Depot refund in full.Nothing has been refunded.

  Our team of financial professionals has clear evidence as a record of each and every business appointment which was not kept.There are not a lot of moving parts here!The appointments were all cancelled except for one. We can easily prove that and anyone objectively reviewing this would clearly see that there were no kept appointments.

  There were no attempts to resolve the issue which was that zero appointments were delivered.The businesses all cancelled or did not show.The allotments of additional leads were a good attempt but unfortunately, there were no kept appointments.The contract was to deliver kept appointments.The contract was not for leads, it was for appointments.

  I had answered earlier:
  There were no attempts by 401k Depot to resolve the matter in any way.   Instead, 401k continued to assert that they were 100% correct and providing legitimate appointments and strangely, that it was out fault that their appointments (all of them) cancelled!   It was absurd and astounding to our professional team that 401k Depot blamed us! 
  
  There was never an offer to resolve the issue by honestly scheduling actual appointments and not charging us for all of the non appointments.  Accordingly, of our time we have recorded $20,000 of work hours in chasing non-leads!      So, none of that from Valentin is accurate.   Related, we have witness to every phone call made in our efforts to secure even a single appointment with a lead.   Per our very detailed case history notes of each and every profile, unfortunately 100% of them were bogus.  Not a single business kept a scheduled appointment.
  
  There were no disparaging comments by anyone on our team regarding 401k Depot.We are experienced retirement plan specialists and well respected within the industry.We are polite, professional, and always fair with our clients and business partners.

  
  

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