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IMarketer
Forums Member
Joined: 9 Apr 2008
Posts: 50
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#201 · Posted: 8 May 2009 09:16
Frosco,
I'm not one of the people who actually gave Thrive my money, but only because I had already lost money with another company offering coaching in another area.
But I was contacted by Thrive 3 different times and offered training to set up an EBAY business for a cost of over $6000.
Does $6000 dollars sound reasonable to get information, which EBAY has its own trainers offer through local adult education programs, for less than $200?
I think you should really read through all of the pages on this thread to see what was done to alot of people here.
You might not find it so easy to justify Thrives business practices, if you do.
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used and abused
Forums Member
Joined: 4 Dec 2008
Posts: 45
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#202 · Posted: 8 May 2009 10:28
IMARKETER,
Well said!
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frosco
Forums Member
Joined: 7 May 2009
Posts: 3
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#203 · Posted: 8 May 2009 11:53
IMarketer,
Let me clear something up that seems to be hugely misunderstood. Thrive does not have a sales floor. They do not make any type of sales phone calls out to people who are looking to set up a business. They do not even do any of the spamming that is done online that leads to people receiving any phone calls from some of these sales floors. So to say that Thrive is at the center of all evil of anything having to do with online businesses is really misinformed.
There are other companies that do business coaching like PMI, Prosper Learning and Premier Mentoring that also have their own sales floors. Thrive does only coaching.
Now I am not a proponent or cheerleader for Thrive because the company that I work for also sends clients to one of the the above mentioned companies and on rare occasions have switched some unhappy clients from either Thrive to another coaching floor or vice versa just to satisfy their needs.
As to you getting a quote of $6000 in coaching just for eBay I do think that is going a little overboard. When we have a client that invests that much money with us a website with marketing and drop shipping is usually included. I have read in some of these forums of people complaining that they have read that other people only invested $3000 as opposed to them that spent $15,000. What these individuals don't realize is that the person who invests $15,000 is receiving a lot more resources than the person who is investing $3000. In all honesty the difference in resources is measurable.
As to why spend so much money when you can find the resources online to do this yourself for cheaper. The key thing here to understand is if that was the case why aren't there a lot more people online doing it on their own. The reality is that some people need to have someone call them every week to hold them accountable to their business or else nothing would get done. You also need someone help you use the all the different tools to get a business like this up and running.
The best example I can give on this is people who pay tons and tons of money for personal trainers, gym memberships and diet plans to help them lose weight when really all it takes is eating less, eating healthier and being active for 30 minutes a day. It sounds so simple right? But how many people fail at diets because they cannot hold them selves accountable or are simply to lazy to get off the couch. You then get some of these people that blame McDoanlds because they are fat.
I reiterate what I said in my first posting that I know Thrive is not perfect. When I see that they have dropped the ball they hear it from me. The thing that I do know is that when I tell them to fix something they do it and the issue never comes up again with the client. Every company is going to have complaints as you can never make everyone happy but it is how these complaints are handled that make the difference.
The main issue here is that it is the smaller sales companies that are the issue here. They say they are Thrive when they are calling when they are not. They give Thrive clients that have bloated expectations (not the clients fault but the person who signed them up) and when they do not make all there money back in a month they call in to cancel and say that Thrive is a scam.
At least on our end we train our reps what to say and especially what not to say like earnings claims or guarantees. We take that very seriously and have either fined reps that do say things like this or are out right fired. Having a person sign up and spend money with our company is not worth it when they are signed up on wrong pretenses and are given wrong expectations.
I guess on our end that's all we can do is to hold ourselves accountable and make sure we are doing things the right way.
Thanks,
Frosco
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used and abused
Forums Member
Joined: 4 Dec 2008
Posts: 45
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#204 · Posted: 8 May 2009 12:27 · Edited by: used and abused
Frosco,
I am not going to go into a long diatribe about my experiences with Thrive as that has already been done and as IMARKETER pointed out there are pages of posts on here and we are not all lying.....but one thing you have mentioned is that the coaches from Thrive call the client to keep them motivated ...... this is simply not true.
There is not one individual who has been called by thrive after the initial welcome call to keep them motivated. In every single person's case we the clients had to work hard at motivating the coaches.
I am sorry to be so blunt here, but what you are saying about thrive and their coaches is not true.
I have nothing to gain by being on here at this point in telling this, except that I know what the truth is as I have lived it and want to prevent other people from having to experience the horror of what the coaches at Thrive put me through. I worked like a dog and had to LITERALLY BEG THEM to help me.
You have everything to gain.
This is your livelyhood and as everyone of us on here who has had a bad experience with thrive knows, your nice guy attitude is only going to benefit you, just like it benefitted the all the salesmen who sold us out FOR THEIR OWN GAIN.
Thrive and similar coaching companies are in a lot of trouble right now. I am not assuming this...it came straight from the horses mouth- the officials who are having to deal with all the complaints. You might be out of a good paying job, so sugar coat it all you want, but people aren't as stupid as you would like to think and wont be fooled by your comments.
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frosco
Forums Member
Joined: 7 May 2009
Posts: 3
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#205 · Posted: 8 May 2009 14:37
Used and Abused-
I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with Thrive all together. Believe me when I tell you that I am not here to sugar coat anything or that I think people are stupid. If you really did beg Thrive to help you with your business and they did not then you are in the right.
I want you to understand that I did not come here to change minds but to bring another point of view to the conversation. While I am giving you the benefit of the doubt on your experience you must understand that I have also heard many more stories opposite to yours of people having success. I just do not want people to paint this whole industry with such a wide brush that it seems that this is all bad and no good can come from this.
I hope that you do find something that this time you can benefit from that helps you achieve your goals whether Thrive is a apart of that picture of not.
Frosco
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Trebor
Forums Member
Joined: 16 Apr 2009
Posts: 3
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#206 · Posted: 11 May 2009 21:13
frosco: I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with Thrive all together. Believe me when I tell you that I am not here to sugar coat anything or that I think people are stupid. If you really did beg Thrive to help you with your business and they did not then you are in the right.
The problem with Thrive is that you have to "beg them to help you." What did they get the $6G's for - so their clients had permission to beg? (Their email for help used to be "[email protected]" - not proactive.)
The problem with Thrive is that they appear to be oversubscribed and cannot fulfill their contracts honestly. And if their contracts do not allow them to receive enough income to hire coaches that can be pro-active, then perhaps they have a flawed business model.
Evidently, they should spend more on their CRM backend, or forums like this one would not have expanding threads on Thrive Learning Institute's apparent scams.
[u]used and abused [/u]as well as[u] IMarketer[/u] point out that in this one thread alone, there are far, far more complaints about Thrive Learning Institute than there are people submitting actual and factual sites where people have had a success. A single success.
You yourself are speaking in wide generalities and I'm sure we would all be interested if you could give us one or two sites where we could actually look at their Google standings for the keyword niche they are in to see how well they are ranking. And perhaps a link to a site where we could all see a screen capture of an income statement? As well, look up who registered that domain name?
When so many people have posted their personal stories of how they have been cheated by Thrive, and the specific ways it was done, it doesn't seem fair for someone to come in and gloss it over with some assurances that Thrive Learning Institute is not a scam, but a deeply caring organization (that you have to beg for help.)
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FANTASYFARMS
Forums Member
Joined: 11 May 2009
Posts: 2
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#207 · Posted: 11 May 2009 21:35
Do not get involved with these crooks. they offer the world but do not deliver the goods. I know. I lost $10,000.00 with them and still no web site. They are crooks.
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BEN JACKSON
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FANTASYFARMS
Forums Member
Joined: 11 May 2009
Posts: 2
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#208 · Posted: 11 May 2009 21:41
They take you for what you are willing to pay. They will get everything you have. They are crooks. I was stupid enough to give them $10,000.00 for all their promises, but have nothing to show. If you are a student or not working anywhere this could work but only if you are already very good at creating a web site. Then why pay them?
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BEN JACKSON
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c a future
Forums Member
Joined: 12 May 2009
Posts: 16
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#209 · Posted: 12 May 2009 00:20
I am joining here in gratitude, first to Bhavesh, then to Used and Abused, then to JoeBlow2009! I am another dissatisfied "customer" of Thrive and affiliates! Frosco, speaking as one who admitted to the person who sold me the whole thrive package that I had no marketing background and my computer skills included emailing, websearching, and typing letters on Microsoft Word, you need to understand something! I am also a four-year college graduate from more years ago than I care to mention and I also graduated from an intensive registered nursing program. That salesman had no business approving me for that program with my background. Maybe that's why others seem to do better by your assessment...because they grew up on computers and understand programs and even something about internet marketing. But for me it was simply a matter of my excellent credit and my red hot credit card that I readily made available!
Anyway, to the three that I mentioned first in opening this message, because of you all, I have contacted various agencies via the US postal service, which was all sent out today, in an attempt to recover what I spent on the Thrive program. I will keep everybody posted!
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c a future
Forums Member
Joined: 12 May 2009
Posts: 16
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#210 · Posted: 12 May 2009 21:10
By the way folks! Since I was originally approached by Platinum Training Solutions, I wish to make the correction from a past entry here: It was Platinum Training Solutions rather than Platinum Trading Solutions. Platinum Trading Solutions is a firm in Florida which I believe has no connection with these Utah scammers!
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justintime
Forums Member
Joined: 14 May 2009
Posts: 1
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#211 · Posted: 14 May 2009 11:44
Hi All,
I am really glad I found this forum...the other day I clicked on a Google link to earn extra dollars working for Google entering links on websites? read all the cooments from all the others who joined and it sounded quite interesting... I could set this up for my daughter to do a few hours a week and make anywhere from a couple of hundred to a few thoudand dollars a month! GREAT
I quickly filled out the form and gave my credit card number to bill $1.87 for the CD that they will send me over the next three weeks.
Yesterday I received a call from Wes who works at the Thrive Institute of Learning, I asked him how he got my information and said that their partner "blazingkeywords.com" recomended me as someone Thrive might be able to use as a success story! Wes then proceeded to sell me, he made it sound very easy to make upwards of 200 to 300 thousand dollars a years for joining them and learning from their "coaches" on how I could make all this money, but only if he approved me and had to go over some questions to qualify me and then he would pass me over to his Director for finalizing... but I had to be able to make a decision on the spot..... hmmm "red flag"
The fact that Wes was unable to or willing to give me any information at all as to what the business was about or what it entailed set a big red flag for me... the clincher having to make a decision on the spot hmmm bigger red flag, unable to give me any websites and or contact information of anybody else already doing this business! another red flag...
After 20 minutes or so Wes informs me that he had to speak to his Director and would come back on the phone asap, so I told Wes "you know it is almost 6pm and I need to help my wife feed and bring in the horses to the barn and had no more time to spare but that they could call me back"
Wes was a little reluctant but agreed to call me back tomorrow which is today... this gave me time to do some reading and research on Thrive Learning Institute.
I can tell you that after reading this forum, it reassures me that old tale "if it sounds too good to be true IT IS" and if anyone ever forces you into having to make a decision on the spot, there is usually something wrong, " great wealth comes with great effort"
I want to thank everybody on this forum for having shed some truth on yet another scam on the internet and hope that those who have been burned get back everything they have lost plus some for what they had to go through.
just in time
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New to me
Forums Member
Joined: 19 May 2009
Posts: 1
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#212 · Posted: 19 May 2009 13:23
Used and abused,
Hi I,m from Canada also and bought into Thrive through a company called Accelerated Business Solutions Marketing and Personal Coaching Program. I am very worried about this company after reading some of the comments here, I've been in it for about 1 week now and would be interested in a little more information on how you were able to get a refund out of them, was it from Thrive or from the cover company that signed you up? The company that signed me up never mentioned anything about a 3 day refund period I didn't think there was one because it was from the US. Accelerated Bussiness Solutions (ABS) sent a contract with a "Double your money back guarantee" If after 12 months of the start of your new bussiness your total revenue is not at least double your initial tuition amount, we will continue to work with you for free until it is, or we will refund you the entire tuition amount. I thought with a guarentee like that what do I have to lose. Their contract made it seem like ABC was going to do the coaching and they were the ones who made the guarantee not Thrive, although I'm sure they are the same people invoved in all of these companies. Please let me know how I can get a refund as I now have absolutly no trust in this company anymore.
Thanks New to me
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Trebor
Forums Member
Joined: 16 Apr 2009
Posts: 3
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#213 · Posted: 20 May 2009 22:05
Here's an ebook which contains tons of data on how Thrive Learning operates and exact steps to take - who to contact, etc. on getting a refund from their scams. http://www.scribd.com/doc/15672916/Internet-Scam-Capitol-USA
It's free download from Scribd and has tons of links and useful research.
Hope this helps.
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used and abused
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Joined: 4 Dec 2008
Posts: 45
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#214 · Posted: 21 May 2009 08:00
New to me,
In your complaint to the AG of Utah and the Division of Consumer Protection in Utah, you will have to mention both Thrive and Accelerated Business Solutions.
Your refund will come from ABS, but the division of Consumer Protection will be the ones to force them to pay you back.
You should cancel everything immediately and send a letter to ABS, asking for a refund on the premises that by law they have to disclose a refund policy.
Before you do this, you should see if they even have a lisence to sell as well, the more laws that they have broken is all the better for you. There is a list to check this on the consumer protection website.
http://consumerprotection.utah.gov/lists/telemarketers.pdf
You can be certain ABS will refuse to give you a refund, but you still must send them your request.
I am sorry to say that once you have signed on with any of these companies, you are in for a fight. There is no easy button to push here. You will have to be patient and persistent and NOT LET UP!
I sent several emails to Momentum Marketing demanding a refund. I also sent complaints to every government agency I could think of that has authority over them.
If you are in Canada, you need to contact your RCMP, your member of parliament in Ottawa, and Phone Busters as well as your consumer protection agency. Phone busters has a phone number to call and are very interested in hearing your full story. They want all names and any information you can provide.
Please make sure to go back and read my post on the steps you need to take to get your refund, as well as JOEBLOW'S posts, BHAVESH'S and TREBOR'S posts. The links they provide are very important as well as the information they give.
I know all this can be confusing at first, especially when you are upset, so just remember that it will all work out if you follow those steps and be patient. Read all the information in the City Weekly article and check out this website -
http://stop-telemarketers.midwestjournalpress.com/
I have one last piece of advice that may be really helpful to you as a Canadian.....
If you purchased their program with a credit card, it might be really easy to get your money back!
If your credit card is through a bank and you contact Greg Thompson's office in Ottawa, they will put a call in to the head of your bank and tell them to reverse the charges on your credit card.
I deal with capital One and I am in the process of cancelling my service with them and transferring to another credit card....through a bank....as capital one is independant and in the US, my MP could not just make a phone call for me.
Here is the # for Greg Thompson's office: 1-888-350-4734 or 1-800-387-1193.
I am not sure which is the correct one, but either place will put your call through to Greg Thompson's office. You will need to speak with his assistant, Francis. She knows all the information on Thrive and will know what you are talking about.
Here is Phone Busters' #- 1-888-495-8501
I hope this helps. If you would like to call me, please go to the lawsuit site and send an email there with your personal information. You can trust the administrator of this site and I can give you my personal email info., if you prefer, through there as well.
[email protected]
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used and abused
Forums Member
Joined: 4 Dec 2008
Posts: 45
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#215 · Posted: 21 May 2009 09:51
As most memebers on here already know about trying to do a chargeback on their credit cards, I felt this information may be useful.
If you have already tried to do a chargeback, or have contacted Thrive or any of their associated companies, you have probably been told, as I was, that the credit card company "WILL NEVER SIDE WITH YOU".
This is what Momentum Marketing told me with absolute certainty.
Well.....if you are dealing with Capital One, this is probably the only TRUE statement they will ever make.
I have been fighting with Capital One over this and still am even though I have my refund as I am pxxxed that they continue to allow these fraudulent companies to rip people off. After all WE are their clients.
The Midwest Journal site really explains why the credit card companies endorse these criminals.
I also found out just yesterday that Capital One's dispute division is located in...guess where???...SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.
I guess I don't have to wonder any more about why they were defending Thrive's honor to the death.
Not all is lost here though. Capital One does have SOMEONE to answer to. There is a division in the US AG's office that investigates and controls the practices of credit card companies.
They are the Permanent Subcommitte on Investigation 1-202-224-9505
I have contacted them and they were very interested in this information and took several notes on the information I had.
I feel this is very important as Thrive and their associates will no longer be able to operate without access to merchant accounts.
This will hurt them where it counts.....their pocket book.
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Imanidiottoo
Forums Member
Joined: 15 Mar 2009
Posts: 9
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#216 · Posted: 21 May 2009 09:57
Hi everyone,
I have some good news -- as of yesterday, my credit card company (in Australia) has reversed the Thrive charge of $2050.
Three weeks ago I forwarded a hefty volume of paperwork to them that included:
-all correspondence between myself and Thrive during the subsequent 3 weeks from signing on to the program on 25 Feb 09;
-the article posted on this forum by JoeBlow2009 re "Called into Question";
-excerpts of posts by other people on this forum and their experiences with Thrive (no names mentioned);
-a link from the 'Complaints Board' USA, re an article about a couple who lost $10,000 to Thrive LI/Infusion Media entitled 'Services Not As Promised';
-a link from to 'Duties of a Telemarker: Zack Bradshaw, Internet Scammer?';
-a fax and email to Thrive of a letter from my GP stating that I have "developed increasing anxiety, agitation, fatigue, and related symptons of stress-induced mood disorder" ... and that in my GP's opinion, "the primary causative factor of the acute exacerbation of the mood disorder has been her involvement in this marketing scheme, and I advise her to cease all involvement".
-a copy of the 3-page contract from Unity Marketing and highlighted the refund conditions in Section 1 on Page 1, ie "Refunds will only be issued due to health enabling you to not work the program or loss of life".
I'm not sure if any or all of the above had an influence on the
decision of the my credit card company to reverse the charge.
I do believe that those of you who are still waiting to receive a refund from Thrive and their affiliates are most probably experiencing similar health side effects as I have.
I urge you to use the above refund condition -- It's legitimate! It's in black and white. And you're not dead!
And if you are suffering emotionally because of this experience, go
to your doctor for advise and help.
In all, it has been a harrowing 3-month process for me and a hard lesson learned. Hopefully I'm a wiser idiot now!
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Pamela
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used and abused
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Joined: 4 Dec 2008
Posts: 45
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#217 · Posted: 21 May 2009 10:16
Hi-ImAnIdiotToo....lol, love your aka,
You are not an idiot though as I have seen through making connections with some extremely BRILLIANT people on here who were also taken. It just goes to show you how dangerous these companies are!!!! Ans call me crazy, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if ther was some subliminal messages going on within their sales' pitches!
I am so glad to hear you got your refund...it just goes to show that there are several avenues that can be taken....I too, let it be known in my complaints that the stress from this had caused me extreme health related problems, including extreme back pain from hours at the computer as well as carpel tunnel and the obvious, extreme stress causing nervous disorders.....all true.
I am very glad you pointed this out as I hadn't thought it relative in getting my refund, but maybe it was!!!
Thank you for posting this info!
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c a future
Forums Member
Joined: 12 May 2009
Posts: 16
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#218 · Posted: 22 May 2009 15:55
Ok everybody! Today I am in the process of faxing my letter concerning Thrive and Platinum Training Solutions along with emails and other documents to my credit card company. I already talked to a rep there on the phone who seemed to think I had a good case for not having received services...I have not actually talked to anybody at thrive to try to get my money back, but PTS has been contacted thru my state Attorney General office and Thrive has been contacted through Utah BBB...not a peep out of thrive or PTS so far of course. Let's see what happens with my credit card company!
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Trekking
Forums Member
Joined: 22 May 2009
Posts: 1
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#219 · Posted: 22 May 2009 22:15
I don't recommend Thrive Learning Inst.. I feel as though I paid them over $6,000 so that I could build my own web site? NOT!!. They completely misrepresented themselves, saying they would be working along with me, and made it sound as though they would be doing the technical work. I am not a web expert. It became completely overwhelming , frustrating, and just generally causing a lot of stress. They have people on a team helping you for a few weeks that you can talk live to, then they turn you over to a, supposedly "tech" team, who you cannot talk live to. You can only "chat" with them. You don't get much accomplished. The web sites they show you that are successful (so they say) are web site created by kids who live there in Utah. Their fathers probably own the business.
I have learned that for $6,000. I can have a web site created by a reputable company who does all the hard work for me, including marketing. The web site is user-friendly, and I can input my products and prices. I believe that Thrive Learning Inst. is a SCAM.
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Sharon Greenspan
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mountainmom5
Joined: 30 Aug 2007
Posts: 2210
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#220 · Posted: 22 May 2009 23:17
justintime: this gave me time to do some reading and research on Thrive Learning Institute.
That window is probably what saved you. I have learned that it is ALWAYS okay to ask for a call back. If they are legit, they will understand that you need some time to do research and make sure of your decision... If they are hesitant and keep lowering the price if you buy today, it is a huge red flag!
Thanks for sharing on here and welcome to the forum, by the way.
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