Professional Financial Associates

Review: I am reporting this to the rip-off report because I don't want anyone else to get scammed like I did. PFA offers commercial loans to businesses. I am a mortgage loan officer and can only do residential loans, so I thought I would add this service to have more loan options for my clients.I came across PFA's website and wanted more information before I signed up. When I spoke with [redacted], he advised me of all the different types of commercial loans the company does, but before I could do anything, I needed to pay a $399 signup fee.I was reluctant at first, but he had a (1) year guarantee (that was listed on his website) that if I didn't like it or didn't find it helpful that I could get a refund. He also told me the same information verbally, so I signed up for the service with him over the phone.I ran several deals by him, but he told me they could not do them. Some were non-traditional, but this is what I signed up for. It was to do loans that I couldn't currently do. Since I ran out of cash for marketing, I decided the service was not for me and would consider returning to it later.I requested a refund within 90-days of the service according to what I was told and what was on his website, but I didn't receive a return email or phone call. I sent emails and left several voicemails (approximately 5-7), but no response. I then checked his website again, but the refund policy had been changed to 1-month!I've had no success on him returning my phone calls or emails so maybe you will be able to reach him. I still want my refund and want him to honor his original agreement with me.Desired Settlement: I paid $399 for nothing and I want it all back because I was deceived into signing up for this program.

Business

Response:

By way of explanation, PFA has been providing proprietary training materials in the financial service field successfully since 1978. After 34 years in business it was decided about 9 months ago as a company policy to change the one year money back guarantee previously offered to a 30 day money back guarantee which we currently offer purchasers of our materials. This was prompted by advice from our merchant provider who explained that such an extended guarantee period could exceed the ability to issue credit to certain expired cardholders and also goes beyond the period allowable for chargeback's as well.

As you can see from our records, of the thousands of individuals who have purchased these materials over the years, few purchasers ever elect to exercise this option as we have very few refund or credit requests and few if any complaints. Purchasers tend to be more than satisfied with the materials being provided to them and see no reason to return them or question the credibility of their orders.

The complainant, phoned this order into our offices on November 7, 2013 well after we had changed our refund policy. Materials were provided to fulfill this order electronically and she responded acknowledging successful receipt of the materials purchased. She continued to correspond with us fairly regularly both via email and by telephone seeking assistance and support which we routinely provide to anyone purchasing materials from us.

We received no written requests of dissatisfaction or any sort of a written refund request of any kind until January 17, 2014 in which she didn't really express dissatisfaction with the materials or the support provided, but indicated that she found she didn't have sufficient time to devote and was becoming involved in some other business venture or financial service program and needed the funds spent for these materials to pay for some other materials she had since become interested in. She then requested a refund under our previous one year money back guarantee which she apparently thought was still in effect.

Since we clearly offered the materials purchased by this complainant on a 30 day money back guarantee which is plainly posted on our website in a number of areas including; http://pfa.com/pfastory.htm and http://pfa.com/pfastory.htm and as this refund request fell well beyond our 30 day guarantee period, there is no refund or credit due to this complainant.

Upon discovering this fact, she erratically accused us of singling her out and changing our policy just to avoid her refund request and indicated that since she was "under the impression" that the one year guarantee was in effect for her, that we needed to make an exception in her case and if we didn't, she would file complaints across the Internet in retaliation which she appears to have done, including this complaint to the Revdex.com.

In all fairness, it seems extremely unfair that someone would use this type of Internet intimidation to attempt to force a refund to be made, when none is clearly due, which is why none was ever processed.

In summation: Despite the circumstances described here, since this complainant still retains the materials provided, we will continue to honor the fair use of those materials purchased should she decide to do so in the future.