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The explanation Russ Whitney employees are told to give when asked about their unsatisfactory Better Business Bureau rating by John T. Reed

If you go to the Better Business Bureau’s Web site—http://www.bbb.org/—you will find a link labeled “Check out a company.” Clicking on that will take you to a page where you type in the name and state of the company in question: Whitney and FL in this case.
For some reason, they now list all of Whitney’s companies under Whitney Leadership Group, Inc. There you will find a tortured discussion. Previously, they just said the company had an unsatisfactory rating and why. Now they say Whitney’s people have met with the BBB staff and taken action to resolve previously unanswered complaints. Isn’t that cozy?
Now read what Whitney’s employees are told to say when asked about the unsat BBB rating and you see that they talk out of one side of their mouth when meeting with the BBB and another when the BBB is not around. Here is what Whitney told its employees in a 6/23/03 email and my comments about each point.
Whitney instructions to employees
Reed response
One wrong answer to an objection and you not only loose [sic] a sale
Sales is what these guys are about.
but also kills a person’s chance of ever changing their life through real estate.
This suggests that Russ Whitney is the only source of real estate investment information in the universe. The world is full of people who had their lives changed through real estate without ever buying a single Russ Whitney product or service.
Better Buisiness [sic] Buereau [sic] objection
>
> Attendee's Question>>> I saw that you have an unsatisfactory rating on the Better Buisiness [sic] Buereau[sic]'s website[sic].

Field Representatives [sic] answer>>> I don't know how much you may or may not know about the Better Buisiness [sic] Buereau[sic] but in case you did not know,
Whitney either does not own or does not know how to use a spell checker. Seems like a company that charges up to $40,000 to share its “expertise” through a bunch of investment seminars ought to have at least learned how to use Microsoft Word—or hired someone who does.
they are not regulated by the government
The BBB is about as regulated as Whitney.
--- in fact they are actually a for profit organization
So is Whitney.
--- which means if you pay them you get good ratings.
I suspect Whitney, Inc. has just libeled the Better Business Bureau. They do not sell ratings.
We as a company refuse to subcome [sic] to that type of strong arming.
I suspect Whitney, Inc. has just libeled the Better Business Bureau again.
so we answer soley [sic] and directly to the student---not the Better Buisiness [sic] Buereau[sic].
Actually, it appears Whitney answers to neither. If he answered to the students, they would not have complained to the Better Business Bureau. My impression is that Whitney answers to no one except regulators and prosecutors—and they are generally too busy to focus on him. When students have spoken out against Whitney on the Internet, he has threatened to sue the Web sites that posted their comments. In my case, he did sue me for posting complaints about him by his customers.
The Better Business Bureau has a powerful voice through its Web site, a national reputation, and long-established credibility. The students Whitney claims to answer to have none of the above—so it’s kind of hard for anyone to tell just how responsive he is to legitimate student complaints. By claiming to answer only to the students, he moves his “answering” to where we cannot see whether he answers them or not.
First off, I need to observe that Whitney’s recent cooperation with the Better Business Bureau seems to be a new tack for him. Before, he apparently ignored them. Why the change? I suspect it might have something to do with my putting the BBB’s unsatisfactory rating prominently on my Web page about Whitney.
In addition to saying that Whitney met with them, the BBB comments that response to complaints has been better lately. Wait a minute! How would they know that? Whitney “answers solely to the student and not to the Better Business Bureau.” Says so right in the above email he sent to his employees. That’s what they’re telling customers all over the world. They do not answer to the BBB—or so they claim.
Apparently, they do, too, answer to the BBB—albeit only recently.
I cannot give too much detail of the BBB report on Whitney. It’s copyrighted. Read the whole thing for yourself. It gives details about the number and nature of the complaints.
John T. Reed
Copyright 2003 by John T. Reed
Last update 6/24/03
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John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.