ComplaintsforDouglas James Ventures LLC

• Initial Complaint

  01/18/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I invested 10k in this business Nov. 13th 2023, to start a business by taking out a loan for this company under the *** plan that was at a discounted rate plus a $500 scholarship per the representative that closed me on the program. He also stated that all calls were being recorded every time we would talk. I questioned the ****** scholarship after the 2nd class because more money was needed for other software/licensing. When I questioned the $500 scholarship my coach was not knowledgeable about it so he did look into it he was told by one of the support staff that the ****** would have came off of the plan; however it did not come off the plan. I've reached out to numerous of people within this organization about canceling this program because of a sales tactic that was obvious false. Investing in this program has caused me a huge amount to stress and has put me in a financial strain. I didn't have 10k to invest I had to borrow the money so now I'm making payments on a loan for nothing in return. I invested in good faith. All I ask for is my refund in full.

  Business response

  02/02/2024

  Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns regarding your experience with our *** program. We understand that this has been a source of stress for you, and we take your situation very seriously. After a thorough review of your account and the details surrounding your participation in our program, we'd like to address the points you've raised. Firstly, we want to clarify the misunderstanding regarding the $500 scholarship. Our records, supported by the discussions recorded during your enrollment process, indicate that this amount was indeed applied as a discount to the overall cost of the *** plan you selected. We apologize if this was not clearly communicated to you at the outset. Regarding the additional costs associated with necessary software and licensing, we aim to be transparent about the potential overheads our participants might incur. This information is outlined in our introductory webinars, including the one conducted by Beau, where he discusses the operational costs involved in starting and running a business like this. We also noticed that you ended up not enrolling into ***, but you did enroll into our 8 week coaching program and attended only 3 out of the 8 classes provided as part of that program. While we understand that financial constraints can impact one's ability to fully engage with our offerings, we are committed to supporting our clients through their journey. Our support team's records show high levels of communication with you to resolve your queries and concerns. However, we acknowledge that there may have been some confusion due to *****'s departure from our team, which might have affected your ability to get timely responses. Given your circumstances and our commitment to customer satisfaction, we are open to discussing a resolution that acknowledges your investment and the value you've received from the program thus far. We propose a meeting to explore possible solutions, including additional support to help you complete the program or discussing alternative compensations. Our goal is to ensure that all our clients feel valued and supported throughout their learning and business development process. Please let us know a convenient time for you to discuss this further, and we will do our utmost to accommodate. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention. We are here to support you and work towards a satisfactory resolution.

  Customer response

  02/02/2024

  I am rejecting this response because: ******** communicated to me was ******* if I joined within that weeks window with a ****** deposit and that included a ****** scholarship. There is no indication that the ****** the scholarship was applied to balance; however if it was applied I should have been knowledgeable. That further proves my point of lack of transparency and the fees for additional add on were not mention in the webinars that was sent to me prior to me joining however I would have not joined. I had to borrow 10k which means I would have not vested in this had I known it was more fees that would have mounted up substantially. Borrowing this money has caused me a great deal of financial stress and anxiety.  Only one person which was the coach followed up with me on the scholarship question, he was not knowledgeable and another student wasn't knowledgeable either about any scholarship.  Feel as tho I was closed on false and misinformation. I'm asking for my full refund so that I can pay this loan back. 

  Lemeaco Ivy ************ 

• Initial Complaint

  10/24/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I was interested in joining the Douglas James team. I went through with watching the trainings, conducted meetings with my mentor **** and proceeded towards finalizing the terms. On 25 Sept 2023, I did not have the amount of money that was asked to proceed with starting the business venture so I decided to go for the *** package and the financing option. Prior to talking with the financial advisor, I was briefed by my mentor that if I was not approved for the financing then I would be refunded the $500 in which I deposited within **** business days. After credit checks, I was not approved and owed a refund. I have contacted my mentor via texts and emails. I recently was contacted back by the mentor stating that he checked and the refund was processed and should be returned soon. It has been about a month and have yet to be refunded my money.

  Business response

  11/06/2023

  Greetings! Thank you for this opportunity to respond! This was a simple misunderstanding, we have already refunded this customer's deposit and they are all good to go! We look forward to working with them in the future if there becomes alignment to do so! Thanks and have a great day!

  Customer response

  11/06/2023

  I have reviewed the business response and accept this resolution. 

  I am informing you that I was refunded my money from the Company. Thank you for your help. 

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  06/08/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was pursued by this company known as Douglas James Ventures, LLC as they were very persuasive about the company. I followed through as I was informed to do so and even went as far as paying their mentorship fees of $10,000 and another amount of $14,999.00 in hopes to gain knowledge and support with starting my own company. As the months went on, I was told that I was one of the few who was hand picked to meet the *** with another charge of $6,000.00 and that it would benefit me. It was not until after this last transactions and 20 or more smaller transactions that I was, for the most part, cut off from any mentoring or advising I paid for. This only put me and out of a whole lot of money. I was left with no mentoring or advisement by this company. They literally took my lifesavings and profited off of me and I received absolutely nothing from this company in return. I attempted to contact anyone and request a refund and that is where I was completely cut off from any sort of communication with Douglas James Ventures, LLC.

  Business response

  06/21/2023

  Greetings and thank you for allowing us to respond!
  
  After investigating this customer account (*****************************), we found that the customer was delivered ALL assets outlined in our agreement. This is to include a number of new appointments for their business, a new paying client with an upfront value at $16,000 (which isn't guaranteed) and new leads for their new client with the potential to land more clients.
  
  Below you will find a detailed date by date sequence of events of our involvement with this customer. In summary, he attended all the coaching calls, received all his assets, landed a client, got great results with that client according to reports, and was invited to an additional coaching phase and then went unresponsive.
  
  6/30/22 Customer ***************************** had onboarding call
  7/5/22 Customer ***************************** had market research call with coach
  7/15/22 Customer ***************************** attends handoff
  7/18-7/22 Customer ***************************** was sent recording and ALL documents from handoff week
  7/27 Customer ***************************** was sent logo and branding guide to approve
  7/28 Customer ***************************** APPROVED logo and branding
  8/4/22 Customer ***************************** claimed he was in the dark about where he was, however, account manager was very specific up to this point on what was happening
  8/5/22 Account manager endorsed Customer ***************************** to next phase which was his GHL integration call
  8/9/22 Customer ***************************** was sent demo deck for approval and educational content if he wanted to edit that asset himself
  8/10 Customer ***************************** was sent funnel for review along with educational content if he wanted to edit that asset himself
  8/17/22 Customer ***************************** attended week 1 of coaching
  8/18/22 Customer ***************************** received his social media posts
  8/24/22 Customer ***************************** attended week 2 coaching call
  8/31/22 Customer ***************************** attended week 3 coaching call
  9/7/22 Customer ***************************** attended week 4 coaching call
  9/8/22 Admin offered an OPTIONAL coaching call Customer ***************************** replied I would love to, but unfortunately I'm going to meet a client, will there be a recording
  *This is him meeting with a potential client
  
  09/08/2022 Check-in 1-1 Call with Customer *****************************:
  
  -Customer ***************************** expressed being happy with his program.
  -Customer ***************************** mentioned that he was able to get a meeting with a solar prospect. He got a contract drafted and a meeting booked for a sale.
  -Customer ***************************** decided to sign up for our in person Event and paid in full.
  
  9/8/22 Customer ***************************** was invited to an in-person event and said put my name on the list
  9/9/22 Customer ***************************** paid for live event
  9/13/22 Customer ***************************** attends week 5 of coaching
  9/16/22 Customer ***************************** sent paid ads form to complete to begin the prospecting phase of the program
  9/20/22 Customer ***************************** completed fulfillment form, because he LANDED A CLIENT
  9/23/22 Customer ***************************** was sent some brief videos on some GHL tasks to complete before going live
  9/26/22 Client was wondering when the ads would go live and claimed Thank you, hope I'm not being pushy, but this is my ticket to spending time with my six kids more
  9/26/22 Customer ***************************** jumped on a call with ***** because he needed help building his clients funnel
  Customer ***************************** paid ***** for his services
  9/28/22 Clients ADS WENT LIVE**
  9/29/22 Customer ***************************** wanted to be removed from in-person event
  10/10/22 We sent Customer ***************************** a lead report that showed they generated 18 leads for the Customer *********************** client
  10/11 -10/13/22 Admin reached out to Customer ***************************** to schedule a check-in call with us to discuss his ads
  
  10/14/2022 Resolution Call with Customer *****************************:
  
  -Call with the Client Relations Director.
  -Stated that his program is taking longer than he expected to produce money.
  -STATED THAT HE LANDED A $16,000 CLIENT USING OUR SERVICES
  -Customer ***************************** mentioned that he signed up with another agency program
  -Customer ***************************** had good things to say about our coaches and programs. He said that we did nothing wrong.
  -Customer ***************************** said that he had fun in organization and learned a lot.
  -Customer ***************************** stated that he is just going through a difficult financial time and has run out of money.
  -Customer ***************************** mentioned that he no longer wanted to attend the in person Event
  -We gave him the option to resell his event ticket to our community. He agreed to resell his ticket to our Customer ***************************** community.
  -Customer ***************************** did not show up to our in person Event.
  
  10/18/22 Customer ***************************** acknowledged his client got more leads but was unable to see them in GHL, seems to be an integration issue
  10/26/22 Customer ***************************** notified account manager to turn off his client ads **
  10/27/22 Admin invited Customer ***************************** to incubation phase (which is an additional coaching phase to provide Customer *********************** more coaching)
  
  Customer ***************************** went UNRESPONSIVE AFTER THIS DATE
  
  Regarding the request for refund, we don't agree that the request has been substantiated, due to our team's fulfillment of services for this customer. This customer has also been very friendly and amicable with our team throughout this process, until they went unresponsive.
  
  We do not offer refunds past a certain period due to the fulfillment costs associated with taking care of that customer, to include our time, assets, IP, payroll, software etc and even food and resources for events.
  
  If the customer wishes to come back and work with our company, we would love to welcome them, however, our team did all we can do for them and then they went unresponsive to our outreach for many months. **************** is our #1 priority and love the opportunity to create a better experience we can for them every step of the way. We've attached all supporting documents in our response and are happy to provide any additional information as needed.
  
  Thank you
  
  

  Customer response

  07/01/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:   Douglas James coaches also stole another business branding and logo for my first client from a business called ***********. There was zero actual training for social media advertisement. I did express multiple times that I was unhappy with the way the coaches directed training on multiple occasions. This same training is offered from other trainers for seven dollars a month. Douglas James coaches also did not provide any feedback on first client that I took on, which was a percentage based client, huge mistake. The ads were extremely bad and copy and pasted from other brands ads. No guidance on building a brand or SEO from coaches, which you can not do with SM ads, thats done through PR. 

• Initial Complaint

  07/10/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I can say that VIP was NOT worth the $25,000 AT ALL. It was the ULTIMATE LET DOWN. The team DID NOT execute any of their promises. No one has taken responsibility to make this right and it is an embarrassment. I invested myself into this process (9 months), and have yet to see them fulfill communicated expectations. The quality of deliverables were LOW and was told by my coach that the fasted way to get things done was to do it myself..isn't this part of my 25k investment? Communication was confusing and prolonged. Many students, including myself, had to ASK for spelled out curriculum, because it wasn't supplied at the beginning if the process. I was walking blindly, trusting the process to look back on disorganization, miscommunication and poor execution. I was sold The VIP Agency "Done for you" Program Sept 2021. 90 days I was supposed to have the program done "start to finish in 90 days", have my "business done and set up for me" in "approx 30 days" which was supposed to include "enroll, you onboard, we build out everything, hand it over to you, coach you on everything, we get you appointment, you close deals, and do fulfill for you, thats, completely turn key, we do all the work, you collect checks" which I can accurately say DID NOT HAPPEN 9 months in (***********************). At this point in my journey, I don't think this is even possible to achieve. I was sold on the premise "The VIP Agency is a Done For Service that Builds, Automates and Systematizes a Proven Revenue Ready Digital Agency Business for you. Everything is done and set up so you just have to press go" (***********************). Absolutely ridiculous- REMINDER 25k INVESTMENT. I am arguing this is an UNETHICAL BUSINESS. Any other program, book, or coach has warned from the beginning that this type of business takes work, commitment and understanding- DOUGLAS J****, YOU promised in VIP AGENCY "Done for you"- I am one of many who have had this experience. **************************************

  Business response

  02/15/2023

  Business Response /* (1000, 17, 2023/02/15) */ ***Document Attached*** E-MAIL DELIVERY Better Business Bureau Attn: **** ******* Sr. District Manager 1601 Elm Street, Suite **** Dallas Texas XXXXX E-mail: ***********@nctx.bbb.org Re: ****** ******** Mr. ******** Our firm represents ******** Mentorship and Coaching, LLC *************** The purpose of this letter is to respond to the complaint filed by Ms. ****** ******** ("********"). It appears Ms. ******** filed her complaint the day she notified ******** that she had any concerns. ******** worked with ******** and entered into an agreement providing her a partial refund in return for her satisfaction and release of claims and liabilities. ******** was supposed to inform the BBB of our settlement and resolution of this matter. It appears that she failed to do so. As a result, please find a recitation of the resolution of this matter, as follows: In September of 2021, Ms. ******** entered into an agreement with ******** for VIP services. These services included but were not limited to access to live event and recorded training on operating an online business. She signed up for a VIP package which included personalized training. ******** performed a considerable amount of work for Ms. ********, including the following: 2021 9/24 - ******** invited to a private Slack group and is onboarded into the training courses. ******** had several conversations with the client to discuss creating a logo for her online business and coordinating the integration of Ms. ********'s friend into the VIP experience. 10/8 - ******** creates a unique brand guide for Ms. ******** and forwards the documents for her review. 10/11 - ******** provides her feedback to the initial brand guild and ******** adjusts based on the requests. 11/18 - ******** finishes the creation of ********'s sales funnel and provides outline and instructions of funnel to her. 11/19 - ******** provides ******** written approval of all materials and sales funnels, agreeing to the satisfaction of all assets created. 11/24 - ******** attends the scheduled live training, provided only to VIP students. 12/1 - ******** starts to hand off the business directly to ******** for her implementation of the strategies to start her online business. 12/6 - ******** completed the creation of social media posts designed to promote traffic to ********'s online business. Posts are forwarded to ******** for review and approval. ******** accepts the posts. 12/7 - ******** finalizes creation of the student VIP paid advertisements and sends ******** to review. 12/10 - ******** reviews paid advertisements and submitted approval to ********. 2022 1/11 - ******** finishes creation of demo deck of products and send to ********. ******** submits to ******** a follow up demo deck and responses. 2/3 - ******** conducts VIP paid advertising onboarding call. ******** fails to attend requiring ******** to propone the launch of her store and advertising. 2/21 - ******** provides additional creatives of paid advertising to ******** to review. 3/21 - ******** sends third version of paid advertising creatives. 3/26 - ******** approves paid advertising. 4/11 - ******** posts approved advertisements live. 4/15 - ******** agrees to pause advertisements because she desired to change her offer. 4/26 - ******** wants to pause again based on her desire to "hone in her skills" After 6/16 Client does not respond again, until in July asking for a refund. In July 2022, ******** comes to an agreement with ******** to provide her a refund in lieu of a release. ******** completed a significant amount of work on her behalf. The settlement was a mutual compromise which was signed by the parties on the 12th of July, 2022. Upon executing the Agreement, ******** provided ******** with a partial refund of her purchase totaling $14,500.00. The release signed by ******** stated that she released all claims against ********'s "successors and assigns" will discharge any and all claims, demands, causes of actions . . . or demands of "any nature or kind." Paragraph No. 3.2. Furthermore, Paragraph No. 3.4, states that she agreed to "inform any organization, reporting agency, or body" that your concerns were resolved. At this point, and prior to the filing of the complaint with your office, ******** provided full satisfaction to ********. While ******** was required to notify your office about the complete resolution of this matter, she failed to do so. Given the release, however, the BBB should close ********'s Complaint. Sincerely, /s/ ******* ** ************ ******* ** ************, Esq.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩