Complaint Review: 123college.com - Deerfield Beach Florida

The concept of 123 college.com works but will take a couple of years to get going IF you are in an area that has approachable school system, favorable family income and wants help with college enrollment. My area in South Florida is not like that. Other areas in the US will do better than South Florida.

Some things you must know before signing contract, paying $5000 franchise fee plus Annual $4800 associate fees and the $4-5000 marketing fees for each high school (about 6 a year).

1.       The contract should be reviewed by an attorney. Mine said this was an old timeshare contract that the timeshare industry may not be allowed to use any longer, permitting quarterly $1200 charges.

2.       I did not have it reviewed by an attorney as it seemed the verbal promises given by the owner of the company would be fulfilled. I was ignorant.

3.       The owner of the company is very smart and experience. Make sure it is in writing as before you sign the contract, as there are no stopping future charges on your credit card.

1.       Before signing the contract, I was provided with 4 references/agents. Each gave great reviews.

2.       What I did not know until later is that 3 of the 4 references had financial gain if I joined 123college.com. They were recruiting me to go into their insurance hierarchy for commission overrides. The fourth reference is in a remote mountain town in CA and he has several jobs to supplement his income.

3.       I was promised seminars in front of the top schools in my area within 30 days of signing the contract.

4.       I joined at the worst time as fafsa forms are processed on 01/01 of each year. You dont want to sign in the first quarter of the New Year if you are depending on a quick ROI.

5.        As a result, Associates at 123college said that no calls were made to any of the schools in January as there would be NO TIME until February or March, due to the fafsa filing deadlines. Furthermore, I was told that no such promises listed above were made by the owner, who stopped taking my calls.

6.       In February I had an attorney write a letter to 123college.com and cancelled credit card.

7.       The owner asked that I sit down with him again. He apologized for promising me things that could not be done and he refused to refund my money.

8.       He promised that 123college.com would not charge me any quarterly associate fees for 2012.

9.       But All the top schools in my area declined. So I followed up to see if the calls were actually made. A few schools stated they had bad experiences with this organization.

10.   The schools I was given in March and April were low income and the timing of the direct mail was not right.(August through December are best). I lost several thousand in marketing costs.

11.    So I decided I would work the program myself and get my own schools.

12.   The first report I did for a family was so poorly completed, 123college offered the client a freebie because he was so upset.

13.   1 client asked for her money back and the owner told me that I would pay the $1295, even though I did not receive commission or payment. Still not sure why they demanded it.

14.   123college.com then warned me that they would put me into a collections agency, which the contract I signed agrees to. The Credit Card Company also agreed with them and stated that they had the right to all associate fees of $4800 for the year AND for the refund of payment to the client based on the contract I signed, even though my credit card was cancelled. But this would only happen if 123college.com pursued it.

15.   I had an attorney letter stating that I would fight this the moment they put me into collections.

16.   team members at 123college.com never addressed the verbal promises made by the owner and seemed like this was not the first time this had happened.

17.   The hiring process seems to revolve around getting agents to sign up and then leave rather than trying to get agents to stay and build a career.

18.   When I joined 123college.com, I made the mistake of telling the owner that I had 3 agents that worked with me and that I would be interested in having them work the 123college.com program for my given territory under me.

19.   The owner asked to meet them in January and I obliged.

20.   In April, the owner called my agents behind my back and offered them parts of my given territory (again my territory was not in writing.) for Appx $2000, not $5000.

21.   All in all, the 123college.com concept is a great concept that does work given time. But for me, the company operated more like a used car dealership. That type of organization is not for me, but it might be for others.

22.   If I had stuck it out and paid some expensive fees, the program would have worked because I was making it work.

23.   I just could not take working with an organization like that any longer.

24.   Hope this is of help!