Second Wind Consultants, Inc.

I want to thank Second Wind Consultants for handling my case with a great outcome I received a fax flyer from them, and decided to make a call I really had low expectations that they would be legitimate However, after a brief call, and a day to think about it, I signed an agreement with them to handle my SBA loan case I had to front them some money (a small amount compared to the amount of my loan), and they would begin processing months later, a lot of paperwork later too, they arrived at a settlement with my SBA loan company It was a significant reduction in the debt I would have to pay, and eliminated interest accrual All told they saved me about 2/of the debt
Adam and company are to be congratulated on doing what they said they would and could do, and being COMPLETELY legitimate The process takes some time, a small investment (their fee), and a little legwork filling out the forms and providing the information they need to do their job Cooperating with them fully will get you the best resolution
I recommend them highly for businesses with SBA debt problems You can't do better than these guys

Our business was in distress when we contacted Second Wind ConsultantsAfter several telephone calls and emails with their them, we were left confusedEvery conversation took us in another direction even though the circumstances hadn't changedItems discussed and agreed on were changed with the next communicationIt's like they never took notesVerbal ball park quotes for their services were off from the actual quote by 400%They did reduce the quote subsequently but it was still more of a burden then a helping handIn their one written offer they had completely left out two vendors we were in need of working out a solution withWhen confronted about this, they simply said we can't help youThis after telling us several times there was a path forward other than bankruptcy for us
Very disappointed to say the leastMany months of discussions wastedMuch time wasted in hoping to resolve our issues with creditorsThis now has only made things worse for us because of the delay

I have to thank Second Wind and their offshoot, Debt Relief Services, for guiding me through an SBA workout My partners and I lost our business and were in default on a $125,SBA loan I didn't have the first idea of how to go about dealing with this The workout specialists I contacted required thousands of dollars to negotiate on my behalf Second Wind is a for-profit company, however their Debt Relief Services department was set up for people like me, who simply don't have that kind of moneyThe trade off? I had to do the legwork, fill out all the paperwork and speak directly to the SBA The DRS representative, in this case Adam ***, was available by phone and email and their system worked great for me
Over a three-year period Adam worked with me on a course of action, helped shepherd me through the paperwork on two different Offers in Compromise and offered suggestions regarding hardship letters and how to approach the SBA with my offer
Adam advised that I look at every asset I had, including an IRA and anything I could possibly sell, to come up with an offer He got back to me promptly when I left messagesWith his help I crafted an initial offer and a second counter-offer that was eventually accepted His help in crafting my explanatory letters allowed me to defend my offer with facts rather than emotional pleas and I believe this is why it was accepted
If you're looking for shortcuts, hand-holding and sympathy you'll need to go elsewhere; they won't sugarcoat anything However, if you're willing to do the work and have at least a portion of money to offer as a settlement, this company is a godsend

I signed a contract with SWC agreeing to pay them 10% of money saved from [redacted] loan work out. Loan was transferred to treasury, no orkout no $ returnedSWC was hired to negotiate with [redacted] Bank in a loan my that was defaulted on by a company that I was half owner of. They were paid 20 thousand dollars.Their fee was to be 10% of loan value reduction.The file was transferred from [redacted] to Treasury department,they blame [redacted] bank, [redacted] bank blames them.They made attempts to get treasury to return the file to [redacted].They were unable to do so. I received an email saying that they were unable to get the file back from treasury and to call them for my options. I called and was told in so many words that they could not help me and to contact [redacted] credit to settle. I asked for them to return the money that had been paid to them and they refused.They said they would negotiate with Treasury through [redacted] Credit. I told them I didn't need them to negotiate with Treasury as Treasury doesn't negotiate, in the words of SWC representative "they are brutal" I also contacted [redacted] Credit and was told that having SWC or a lawyer represent me would not help me. I paid a lawyer to write a demand letter. Their lawyer answered the demand letter with multiple inaccurate statements including the money paid to them was from my former partners personal account so they asserted that I had no standing.They also said they could not return money to me as the company that paid them money was closed and any refund would have to go back to the company.As they said they would represent me with [redacted] Credit I contacted them to authorize them to proceed. They did not respond In short they were contracted to provide a service that they did not provide and now they expect to keep money that they are not entitled to under the contract.Desired SettlementThe twenty thousand dollars paid to Second Wind Consultants should be applied to the loan balance owed to Treasury by my former company. Second Wind did not achieve any loan value reduction and therefore is not entitled to any fee per our contract.Business Response We are currently in discussion with Mr. [redacted] to continue the services we were originally hired to perform. There were multiple issues with Mr. [redacted]'s situation that he was made was aware of. He owns a valuable asset, and has unreasonable expectations on settling a six figure debt, when his creditors have repeatedly stated they will not settle with him while he owns this asset. The long and short of it is, we cannot effectively do our jobs (obtain debt settlements) when our clients refuse to listen to us. In this case, Mr. [redacted] should have sold this asset and used the sales proceeds to pay off his creditor.As I mentioned earlier, Mr. [redacted] and our company are currently discussing a strategy for us to move forward as originally intended. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I was told by Second Wind Consultants that the Offer in Compromise process "mimic bankruptcy" and that in many cases they can achieve a better result than can be achieved in a bankruptcy without the stain on your credit. For that reason I consulted a bankruptcy attorney so I would have a baseline to access any OIC. The attorney I spoke to told me that while he could not state as a fact that I could keep my house ( the valuable asset referred to in their response) he would say with a "high degree of certainty" that I would be able to keep my house. I thus informed Second Wind that I would not agree to on OIC that included me loosing my house. As the process is supposed to mimic bankruptcy and I was informed that I would likely not loose the house in a bankruptcy proceeding I do not think that is an unreasonable position.Secondly the issue I brought up in my complaint has not been dealt with. Second Wind has been paid twenty thousand dollars to handle this case. When they told me that they were unable to get the case transferred back to [redacted] from treasury they basically told me that they would not be able to help me and that I was on my own. When I requested a refund they refused and said they would represent me. After lawyers got involved I was told that it would cost me more to get the money back in legal fees than it was worth.I than contacted Second Wind and gave them permission to negotiate on my behalf,7 days later I had not heard from them and filed this complaint. So while they are representing me again my main disagreement with them is that they have been paid twenty thousand dollars which should be returned to company creditors not kept by them if they do not achieve two hundred thousand in debt reduction, which they have basically told me I have no chance of achieving and through their lawyers response to the demand letter written on my behalf they have no intention of returning. I want to reiterate that I WILL agree to an OIC that mimics bankruptcy as I do NOT want this to ruin my credit and have paid back several company creditors and intend on continuing to do so. I only ask that Second Wind return unearned money (anything in excess of 10% of debt reduction) to the creditors I am trying to make wholeBusiness Response We are still in the process of negotiating with the Treasury for Mr. [redacted]. It's still very possible that when a settlement is reached, he will in fact owe us the full amount of the fee he's paid in. The bottom line is that the job is not done, and once a settlement is finalized we'll be in a better position to discuss a potential refund. Business Response I would like to put on record the fact that the offer that Second Wind Consultants Inc. presented to the US Treasury was accepted. In fact, it was one of our best settlements ever obtained, as dealing directly with the US Treasury often means that our clients have to pay more to achieve a resolution. In this case however, we were able to achieve a 10% settlement for our client, which is a new Second Wind record for Treasury settlements. Occasionally, things happen outside of our control with the lenders we work with. In this case, even though we were closely engaged and pursuing settlement options with our client's lender, the lender "charged off" the debt to a U.S. government office ([redacted] guaranteed loan). When this occurs, the settlement process is in fact slowed down considerably. Additionally, this client in particular owned valuable property that we believed would hinder our ability to achieve an aggressive settlement. We did express our concern over this piece of property, but in the end they were able to successfully maintain ownership and still achieve a very favorable settlement. We understand the stress and frustration of going through a debt workout. There's a significant amount of money on the line, and often things do not move as quickly as we would. In this situation, after a long battle, we were able to successfully settle a sizable amount of debt for pennies on the dollar.

I want to thank Second Wind Consultants for handling my case with a great outcome. I received a fax flyer from them, and decided to make a call. I really had low expectations that they would be legitimate. However, after a brief call, and a day to think about it, I signed an agreement with them to handle my SBA loan case. I had to front them some money (a small amount compared to the amount of my loan), and they would begin processing. 10 months later, a lot of paperwork later too, they arrived at a settlement with my SBA loan company. It was a significant reduction in the debt I would have to pay, and eliminated interest accrual. All told they saved me about 2/3 of the debt.
Adam and company are to be congratulated on doing what they said they would and could do, and being COMPLETELY legitimate. The process takes some time, a small investment (their fee), and a little legwork filling out the forms and providing the information they need to do their job. Cooperating with them fully will get you the best resolution.
I recommend them highly for businesses with SBA debt problems. You can't do better than these guys.

This company has failed to respond to numerous attempts to settle a debt for a company they represent. Lack of response and Lack of knowledge.Received communication from an [redacted] that he would be representing a company, [redacted] Services, LLC, to settle the Promissory Note. I was told I would get an offer for full repayment of the Promissory Note. [redacted] then proceeded to send me documents that misrepresenting agreements made with [redacted] Services, LLC. [redacted] proceeded to have phone conversations as to what the repayment schedule would be. When I asked what proof would he have to show me that his company was able to pay these Promissory Notes, [redacted] said that he wasn't able to furnish any of the documents to show that the company he worked for had sufficient Cash Flow to pay the Notes he was negotiating. Upon questioning [redacted] and [redacted] of [redacted] services, I have received no response. [redacted] has alleged that Second Wind Consultants has purchased [redacted] Services. I have seen no documents verifying that information. Only that [redacted] has not returned a phone call or an email in over 25 days. The Promissory Notes I am referring to have had a payment made since October 2013. [redacted] and [redacted] have alleged sending me an offer for a full repayment. This is not the case. The documents sent lacked about [redacted] in fees, unpaid payments, and profits promised by the Promissory Notes. Desired SettlementI am seeking a full refund of the Promissory Notes signed by [redacted] Services LLC, that is represented by [redacted] and Second Wind Consultants, LLC. Full refund including any and all fees incurred with the collection of the Promissory Notes. Business Response Firstly, before even making a response I want to make it clear that this complaint is directed at the wrong party. Second Wind Consultants is not involved with [redacted] Services, LLC, [redacted] or [redacted] who made this complaint. The complaint itself states that your intended relief is "seeking a full refund of the Promissory Notes signed by [redacted] Services LLC"- this is not our company and seems that this is the company you should be making a complaint against. I cannot even begin to try and provide any relief or resolution as our firm does not owe this money. Seems this individual lent money to [redacted] Services, LLC, so they should either contact [redacted] Services, LLC or seek legal council to protect their claim rather than making false complaints against unrelated entities. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Since [redacted] has copied your email address "[redacted] ," in an email to me in reference of a sale of [redacted] services to Second Wind Consultants, I find your confusion shocking. You are well aware of the status of both Second Wind Consultants and [redacted] Financial Services (which you have purchased). If you purchase a company, you purchase the debts. The fact that you state this as unrelated to your company is a very very weak attempt to side step an issue that you and your company are now responsible for. Again the outcome I would like is to have a debt repaid that was originally made by [redacted] Services, purchased by Second Wind Consultants as referenced in the email you were copied on.Now, that I have refreshed your memory, please respond to the previous complaint and the new information in this response.See the email below.[redacted] Apr 3 (13 days ago)to [redacted] As you represent [redacted] and [redacted] Services, LLC, I am forwarding you this communication.[redacted] Final Business Response Let me just straighten out a few facts. It's preposterous that you would believe that Second Wind Consultants is obligated to [redacted] because [redacted] was copied on some email correspondence related to a debt owed to you by [redacted] Services, LLC. [redacted] is a debt workout consultant and deals with hundreds of creditors, banks, attorneys related to debts owed by our clients. Second Wind is neither the borrower, guarantor, or obligor on any of the debts that it negotiates, including yours if we were even involved with your case. I cannot make this any more clear. Since when does the attorney of a debtor become liable for the claim they are defending? I just cannot agree with your logic and I'm sorry you had to take to the internet spreading false claims about our company. Also your claim that Second Wind Consultants purchased [redacted] Services is also completely untrue and I don't know where you have heard this or seen any documentation to indicate this. Perhaps you need to discuss your disagreement with Mr. [redacted] in more detail to simply understand who is obligated to you. It is not us. Lastly, Second Wind Consultants works hard for our clients and we effectively settle outstanding obligations with creditors for amounts drastically below what is owed. Often if the creditor is a private investor, individual, vendor, landlord etc...they take this very personally and often take to the internet to try and "shake us down." This is simply an unfair business practice to try and go after Second Wind for representing a debtor that may be unable to pay. All of our clients are insolvent and in a deeply difficult situation but many small creditors believe that they are being "burned" but they do not understand what it means to be a subordinate creditor or an unsecured creditor. When you lend money, there is ofter great risk and when a deal goes sour, many creditors act emotionally and come after us. This seems to be the case here and I hope anyone reading this understands that this is a false claim by an emotional creditor. I'm sorry we cannot help you [redacted] and we cannot pay the money that we do not owe. You really should discuss this with an attorney so you can identify who is truly obligated to you.

Misrepresentation of their service contract. I hired this firm to help me prepare an Offer in Compromise for an SBA loan on which I defaulted. I paid them $1,000 gave them large amounts of paperwork, which took them more than 2 weeks to look through. one afternoon, 8 days before the Offer was due, I received a terse email stating that they could not help me, and were severing their services. When I phoned, they stated that I did not meet the criteria for their services. There is a deadline on the Offer, and if not delivered by that deadline, it is turned over to the treasury, who adds an additional 28% penalty onto the total loan. While their contract did say that they could sever the contract without cause, there was no mention in the contract, or by any of the consultants, that certain criteria needed to be met before they would actually help me. The contract implied that, while a certain outcome could not be guaranteed, they would supply a service. Because they spent over 2 weeks on my case, this caused me precious time that I could have used to work with another consulting firm. Had they or their contract stated that certain criteria needed to be met to help me, I would have not bothered and gone to another firm, because time was of the essence. When they severed the contract, they did not even offer suggestions on what to do or where else I could go for assistance. This is misrepresentation. There was NO mention that criteria needed to be met. This is poor customer service and lack of accountability on their part, as their poor business practice has cost me a very large sum of money. They did return the initial $1,000 after a very angry phone call (they had not planned on doing that). However, their complete disregard of the seriousness and time sensitive nature of these SBA loans has caused me large monetary damages that I believe they should be accountable for.Desired SettlementI would like them to offset a portion of the 28% penalty that the Treasury Department will add to the total of my loan for failure to turn it in before the deadline. I also want people to know not to trust this firm with such a crucial business issue.Business' Initial Response This particular client engaged our services, seeking debt forgiveness on a business-related debt. She had been in default (i.e. not paying this debt) for approximately 2 years prior to becoming a client of ours. Upon a thorough review of this client's financial condition, it was determined that she had the ability to pay the debt completely, in full. The bottom line is that we cannot, and will not help clients escape their financial obligations if they possess the means to pay them. In this case, the client was refunded her $1,000 and was offered free advice as to her options for resolving this matter. Further, any "damages" incurred by the transfer of to this note to the Treasury Department would be due to the decision of the client to not pay on this debt for 2 years. Our involvement did not create any damages whatsoever.Consumer's Final Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Unfortunately this company thinks that it is acceptable to engage in false advertising. They do not advocate anywhere about "having the means to pay a debt" They did not determine that at all. They gave absolutely no reason for why they "dropped" me. And yet, they are still defending their shabby behavior, trying to make it look as if I did something wrong. They know very well that this is not the case. They also know that they mishandled the whole situation, which is why I got the apology, and a offer for "free advice". Why would I wante free advice from a firm that does not have the ability to perform the services for which they advertise. Second Wind Consultants know they did wrong. Any prospective clients should know that they do not honor their contract and they make up the rules as they go along. They know it was absolutely wrong to sit on my file for 2 weeks while time was ticking away, then drop me without notice or options. They should have referred me to a more competent firm. Their handling of my case was shabby and they know that. Now all they can do is try to put the blame on the consumer that trusted them to do what they advertised. And this in no means not paying my debt. It meant figuring out a lengthy, difficult process. I spoke to their "references" and these references had means to pay back most of their loans, but Second Wind "got them a deal" so don't pretend that you are about paying back what is owed to the government. Own up to your wrong doing. Practice good business and stop blaming the people you are supposed to help. As I've said before... shame on you. Shame, shame. Make sure you put all of this nonsense that you have responded in your advertisement. If that is your policy, I DARE YOU! Put in your advertisement, "we do not accept clients that have the means to pay their loans. We will not help you". Do that, and I will be satisfied. Put that on your website. Also put that the client must be screened first to determine if they are "acceptable clients" PUT THAT ON YOUR WEBSIT AND IN YOUR CONTRACTS. Prove it. Otherwise your works are deceit just like your business practices.You also need to admit that had you not fooled around with my information for 2 weeks I could have found a competent firm to help me and could have avoided turnover to the treasury. Especially as I spoke to your staff about ALL OF MY FINANCIAL ASSETS before you sent me a contract and sent all bank statements and holdings BEFORE you sent the contract.Second Wind Consultants maintains bad business practices.Business' Final Response There is clearly a difference of opinion to the facts of this case. We are of the opinion that we took on the client, reviewed the facts and had to turn her away because we believed a settlement was un-achievable given her strong financial position. We returned her money as requested and parted ways. She is now looking for us to "offset a portion of the 28% penalty that the Treasury Department will add to the total of my (her) loan" a position which we believe is completely unreasonable. Never in our services agreement do we guarantee a result nor do we have to give a reason for terminating services and having to provide an acceptable explanation. We reviewed the case and determined we could not help her, then we communicated this to the client. Additionally, she was in default with her lender for a very long time before coming to us. We returned her money and the services we provided did not cause her any damages that she is claiming. She would have been in the same position either way had she engaged us or not. We cannot be blamed for the terms of her contract with her lender and the SBA, this was in place many years ago. Our goal is to reduce the balance owed for those who qualify for debt forgiveness, she did not qualify and is now blaming us. I truly feel bad for this client, she is in a difficult situation. We understand the way the SBA works and we know that they will not agree to a settlement for her which is unfortunate given how much money she has lost in the business. We did not want to continue work for this client knowing we could not resolve her issues, a position we reserve for any new client. We investigated the issue including our services contract and the handling of this case by one of our employees and discovered that no wrongdoing occurred. At this point I do not believe we can offer the client anything further to resolve this complaint. We feel we have been very fair to her and have tried to make things right, however if there is anything further we can do, we are open to it. Thank you,

Misrepresentation of their service contract. I hired this firm to help me prepare an Offer in Compromise for an SBA loan on which I defaulted. I paid them $1,000 gave them large amounts of paperwork, which took them more than 2 weeks to look through. one afternoon, 8 days before the Offer was due, I received a terse email stating that they could not help me, and were severing their services. When I phoned, they stated that I did not meet the criteria for their services. There is a deadline on the Offer, and if not delivered by that deadline, it is turned over to the treasury, who adds an additional 28% penalty onto the total loan. While their contract did say that they could sever the contract without cause, there was no mention in the contract, or by any of the consultants, that certain criteria needed to be met before they would actually help me. The contract implied that, while a certain outcome could not be guaranteed, they would supply a service. Because they spent over 2 weeks on my case, this caused me precious time that I could have used to work with another consulting firm. Had they or their contract stated that certain criteria needed to be met to help me, I would have not bothered and gone to another firm, because time was of the essence. When they severed the contract, they did not even offer suggestions on what to do or where else I could go for assistance. This is misrepresentation. There was NO mention that criteria needed to be met. This is poor customer service and lack of accountability on their part, as their poor business practice has cost me a very large sum of money. They did return the initial $1,000 after a very angry phone call (they had not planned on doing that). However, their complete disregard of the seriousness and time sensitive nature of these SBA loans has caused me large monetary damages that I believe they should be accountable for.Desired SettlementI would like them to offset a portion of the 28% penalty that the Treasury Department will add to the total of my loan for failure to turn it in before the deadline. I also want people to know not to trust this firm with such a crucial business issue.Business' Initial Response This particular client engaged our services, seeking debt forgiveness on a business-related debt. She had been in default (i.e. not paying this debt) for approximately 2 years prior to becoming a client of ours. Upon a thorough review of this client's financial condition, it was determined that she had the ability to pay the debt completely, in full. The bottom line is that we cannot, and will not help clients escape their financial obligations if they possess the means to pay them. In this case, the client was refunded her $1,000 and was offered free advice as to her options for resolving this matter. Further, any "damages" incurred by the transfer of to this note to the Treasury Department would be due to the decision of the client to not pay on this debt for 2 years. Our involvement did not create any damages whatsoever.Consumer's Final Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Unfortunately this company thinks that it is acceptable to engage in false advertising. They do not advocate anywhere about "having the means to pay a debt" They did not determine that at all. They gave absolutely no reason for why they "dropped" me. And yet, they are still defending their shabby behavior, trying to make it look as if I did something wrong. They know very well that this is not the case. They also know that they mishandled the whole situation, which is why I got the apology, and a offer for "free advice". Why would I wante free advice from a firm that does not have the ability to perform the services for which they advertise. Second Wind Consultants know they did wrong. Any prospective clients should know that they do not honor their contract and they make up the rules as they go along. They know it was absolutely wrong to sit on my file for 2 weeks while time was ticking away, then drop me without notice or options. They should have referred me to a more competent firm. Their handling of my case was shabby and they know that. Now all they can do is try to put the blame on the consumer that trusted them to do what they advertised. And this in no means not paying my debt. It meant figuring out a lengthy, difficult process. I spoke to their "references" and these references had means to pay back most of their loans, but Second Wind "got them a deal" so don't pretend that you are about paying back what is owed to the government. Own up to your wrong doing. Practice good business and stop blaming the people you are supposed to help. As I've said before... shame on you. Shame, shame. Make sure you put all of this nonsense that you have responded in your advertisement. If that is your policy, I DARE YOU! Put in your advertisement, "we do not accept clients that have the means to pay their loans. We will not help you". Do that, and I will be satisfied. Put that on your website. Also put that the client must be screened first to determine if they are "acceptable clients" PUT THAT ON YOUR WEBSIT AND IN YOUR CONTRACTS. Prove it. Otherwise your works are deceit just like your business practices.You also need to admit that had you not fooled around with my information for 2 weeks I could have found a competent firm to help me and could have avoided turnover to the treasury. Especially as I spoke to your staff about ALL OF MY FINANCIAL ASSETS before you sent me a contract and sent all bank statements and holdings BEFORE you sent the contract.Second Wind Consultants maintains bad business practices.Business' Final Response There is clearly a difference of opinion to the facts of this case. We are of the opinion that we took on the client, reviewed the facts and had to turn her away because we believed a settlement was un-achievable given her strong financial position. We returned her money as requested and parted ways. She is now looking for us to "offset a portion of the 28% penalty that the Treasury Department will add to the total of my (her) loan" a position which we believe is completely unreasonable. Never in our services agreement do we guarantee a result nor do we have to give a reason for terminating services and having to provide an acceptable explanation. We reviewed the case and determined we could not help her, then we communicated this to the client. Additionally, she was in default with her lender for a very long time before coming to us. We returned her money and the services we provided did not cause her any damages that she is claiming. She would have been in the same position either way had she engaged us or not. We cannot be blamed for the terms of her contract with her lender and the SBA, this was in place many years ago. Our goal is to reduce the balance owed for those who qualify for debt forgiveness, she did not qualify and is now blaming us. I truly feel bad for this client, she is in a difficult situation. We understand the way the SBA works and we know that they will not agree to a settlement for her which is unfortunate given how much money she has lost in the business. We did not want to continue work for this client knowing we could not resolve her issues, a position we reserve for any new client. We investigated the issue including our services contract and the handling of this case by one of our employees and discovered that no wrongdoing occurred. At this point I do not believe we can offer the client anything further to resolve this complaint. We feel we have been very fair to her and have tried to make things right, however if there is anything further we can do, we are open to it. Thank you,

Company promised that they could help us settle our [redacted] debt for less than we owe. They failed to do this, and cost us over $100,000. To anyone who has a business and [redacted] loan that has failed, please do not make the same mistake my wife and I did. Stay away from Second Wind Consultants. I'll never forget going to see these guys once we determined our business had to close. We were scared and desperate. We had a huge [redacted] business loan and we were guarantors. We found Second Wind on the internet and went to visit them. At first they were very sympathetic and reassuring. The promised they could help us with a workout and get the lender to accept an offer in compromise that would settle our debt. I rember my wife asking "what can you do that we can't do ourselves". Second Wind assured us that they had the secrets, tactics, and experience to succeed where we as individuals would surely fail. We contracted with these guys and started following their advice. Their first promise was that we would always have 2 consultants working on our case. That was the first promise broken. The only time we had any discussions with 2 consultants was when we specifially asked. But the biggest problem is that we relied on these guys to give us good, sound, ethical advise on settling our debt with the lender and [redacted] However, their advice all centered around hiding assets and restructuring our other business interests to confuse the banker and keep them from knowing what our assets were. When we started with Second Wind, we had over $100,000 cash in an investment account that could have been used to help satisfy the loan or pay down debt. Second Wind advised us to liquidate that capital by "paying bills in advance" including their own consulting fee! Next they advised us to close our other business that was also a guarantor on the [redacted] loan and reopen under as a new entity. They said any funds in the new entity would be hidden from the lender and protected. It would not impact our ability to settle the debt. Well all of this proved to be totally false. The lender quickly saw through the restructuring as nothing more than attempt to protect assets. They saw our beginning and ending bank balalnces and knew we had liquidated cash. They quickly rejected our OIC. Over the next 1 1/2 years, Second Wind kept putting together new settlement offers, each one more than the last. Again the lender could easily see through this tactic and rejected all offers. Finally the loan as turned over to the [redacted] for collection. At that point, our communication with Second Wind became very limited. We heard from them only when we made contact. They finally told us our case was better off being handled by the [redacted] because they would be more willing to accept and OIC. Well, shortly afere we received a letter from the [redacted] stating our loan would be turned over to treasury for collection if we didn't make arrangements to pay the full balance! And the [redacted] told us they will not negotiate an OIC that doesn't start with the lender! Completely opposite from what Second Wind told us. Today we're still paying on the full balance of the loan. We are going back ourselves to the lender to try to get them to accept an OIC. We are doing this on our own. The lender actually admitted that the reason they initially rejecteed our offers was becasue of the appearance of hiding assets. And this was due to the advise given to us by Second Wind. In the end, we still owe the full [redacted] debt. Second Wind has not done anything positive for our case. In fact, by folllowing their advice, we have lost $100,000 in case that could have been used to pay down the debt. We prepaid their fees and have nothing to show for it. Our case was made much worse by following their advise to try and "complicate' our case and protect assets. Be warned, theses guys left us in a worse situation than when we started with them. They cost us thousands of dollars and now we'll be paying the [redacted] until we are well into our 70's. And we have no recourse now.Desired SettlementWe would like for them to refund the $20,000 that we paid them to represent us. We feel like the advise they gave us was not only bad, but in fact hurt our case with the lender and [redacted] and needless caused us to liquidate over $100,000 of our personal funds with no benefit. If we had not contracted with Second Wind, we could have used that cash to lower our [redacted] debt, pay the lender, or pay down our mortgage. Today, we still owe the full [redacted] debt. By following the advise of Second Wind, the lender is suspicious of us and feels like we tried to mislead them. Today we are again working with the lender to rebuild our personal reputation and finally settle the debt. The advice of Second Wind cost us 2 years of negotiation with no benefit and cost us our reputation with the lender and over $100,000 in cash. We fell like they did not properly give our case the attention it deserved, and they did not do their duty in protecting us. We know there was no guarantee for their services, but we never expected that following their advice would leave us in worse shape than when we started.Business Response We are working on the consumer's behalf and we have resolved our issues with them. The client's situation has been difficult to resolve but we are overcoming all these difficulties found in their case and are committed to a successful resolution. We understand that the client is satisfied with our services and that they tried to withdrawal the complaint but we not able to per Revdex.com policies. We are happy to have satisfied the client needs at this point and will continue to work hard on their behalf.Business Response I wanted to submit the following update on this case:I am pleased to state that the clients debt has been successfully settled for a fraction of what is owed with the lender to the client's satisfaction.Sometimes the debt settlement process takes longer than originally expected, especially when it is a complex case with many assets and complicated tax returns. This was the case with this client and after the second offer in compromise was rejected, they felt the matter would never be settled and they filed a complaint against us. This is unfortunate because in the end they because satisfied clients. After the second offer was rejected, we stuck with it and worked with them until the matter was settled as we originally promised. It is unfortunate that this complaint was filed, but we understand that in debt settlement, people are often put under much pressure and the mental drain can be difficult if the process takes longer than anticipated. We try and avoid these situations, but sometimes in a difficult debt workout, these things do happen, but we do everything we can to make things right. With the Revdex.com, the client does not have the ability to retract a complaint as they intended. Here is an email from the client a few weeks after the complaint was filed where they attempted to retract the complaint:I'll contact the Revdex.com today and retract the complaint. We've appreciated the response from Second Wind over the last couple weeks.In the end, it was a difficult journey, but we fulfilled our mission and helped this client through a difficult debt settlement. Business Response I wanted to submit the following update on this case:I am pleased to state that the clients debt has been successfully settled for a fraction of what is owed with the lender to the client's satisfaction.Sometimes the debt settlement process takes longer than originally expected, especially when it is a complex case with many assets and complicated tax returns. This was the case with this client and after the second offer in compromise was rejected, they felt the matter would never be settled and they filed a complaint against us. This is unfortunate because in the end they because satisfied clients. After the second offer was rejected, we stuck with it and worked with them until the matter was settled as we originally promised. It is unfortunate that this complaint was filed, but we understand that in debt settlement, people are often put under much pressure and the mental drain can be difficult if the process takes longer than anticipated. We try and avoid these situations, but sometimes in a difficult debt workout, these things do happen, but we do everything we can to make things right. With the Revdex.com, the client does not have the ability to retract a complaint as they intended. Here is an email from the client a few weeks after the complaint was filed where they attempted to retract the complaint:I'll contact the Revdex.com today and retract the complaint. We've appreciated the response from Second Wind over the last couple weeks.In the end, it was a difficult journey, but we fulfilled our mission and helped this client through a difficult debt settlement.

Company promised that they could help us settle our [redacted] debt for less than we owe. They failed to do this, and cost us over $100,000. To anyone who has a business and [redacted] loan that has failed, please do not make the same mistake my wife and I did. Stay away from Second Wind Consultants. I'll never forget going to see these guys once we determined our business had to close. We were scared and desperate. We had a huge [redacted] business loan and we were guarantors. We found Second Wind on the internet and went to visit them. At first they were very sympathetic and reassuring. The promised they could help us with a workout and get the lender to accept an offer in compromise that would settle our debt. I rember my wife asking "what can you do that we can't do ourselves". Second Wind assured us that they had the secrets, tactics, and experience to succeed where we as individuals would surely fail. We contracted with these guys and started following their advice. Their first promise was that we would always have 2 consultants working on our case. That was the first promise broken. The only time we had any discussions with 2 consultants was when we specifially asked. But the biggest problem is that we relied on these guys to give us good, sound, ethical advise on settling our debt with the lender and [redacted] However, their advice all centered around hiding assets and restructuring our other business interests to confuse the banker and keep them from knowing what our assets were. When we started with Second Wind, we had over $100,000 cash in an investment account that could have been used to help satisfy the loan or pay down debt. Second Wind advised us to liquidate that capital by "paying bills in advance" including their own consulting fee! Next they advised us to close our other business that was also a guarantor on the [redacted] loan and reopen under as a new entity. They said any funds in the new entity would be hidden from the lender and protected. It would not impact our ability to settle the debt. Well all of this proved to be totally false. The lender quickly saw through the restructuring as nothing more than attempt to protect assets. They saw our beginning and ending bank balalnces and knew we had liquidated cash. They quickly rejected our OIC. Over the next 1 1/2 years, Second Wind kept putting together new settlement offers, each one more than the last. Again the lender could easily see through this tactic and rejected all offers. Finally the loan as turned over to the [redacted] for collection. At that point, our communication with Second Wind became very limited. We heard from them only when we made contact. They finally told us our case was better off being handled by the [redacted] because they would be more willing to accept and OIC. Well, shortly afere we received a letter from the [redacted] stating our loan would be turned over to treasury for collection if we didn't make arrangements to pay the full balance! And the [redacted] told us they will not negotiate an OIC that doesn't start with the lender! Completely opposite from what Second Wind told us. Today we're still paying on the full balance of the loan. We are going back ourselves to the lender to try to get them to accept an OIC. We are doing this on our own. The lender actually admitted that the reason they initially rejecteed our offers was becasue of the appearance of hiding assets. And this was due to the advise given to us by Second Wind. In the end, we still owe the full [redacted] debt. Second Wind has not done anything positive for our case. In fact, by folllowing their advice, we have lost $100,000 in case that could have been used to pay down the debt. We prepaid their fees and have nothing to show for it. Our case was made much worse by following their advise to try and "complicate' our case and protect assets. Be warned, theses guys left us in a worse situation than when we started with them. They cost us thousands of dollars and now we'll be paying the [redacted] until we are well into our 70's. And we have no recourse now.Desired SettlementWe would like for them to refund the $20,000 that we paid them to represent us. We feel like the advise they gave us was not only bad, but in fact hurt our case with the lender and [redacted] and needless caused us to liquidate over $100,000 of our personal funds with no benefit. If we had not contracted with Second Wind, we could have used that cash to lower our [redacted] debt, pay the lender, or pay down our mortgage. Today, we still owe the full [redacted] debt. By following the advise of Second Wind, the lender is suspicious of us and feels like we tried to mislead them. Today we are again working with the lender to rebuild our personal reputation and finally settle the debt. The advice of Second Wind cost us 2 years of negotiation with no benefit and cost us our reputation with the lender and over $100,000 in cash. We fell like they did not properly give our case the attention it deserved, and they did not do their duty in protecting us. We know there was no guarantee for their services, but we never expected that following their advice would leave us in worse shape than when we started.Business Response We are working on the consumer's behalf and we have resolved our issues with them. The client's situation has been difficult to resolve but we are overcoming all these difficulties found in their case and are committed to a successful resolution. We understand that the client is satisfied with our services and that they tried to withdrawal the complaint but we not able to per Revdex.com policies. We are happy to have satisfied the client needs at this point and will continue to work hard on their behalf.Business Response I wanted to submit the following update on this case:I am pleased to state that the clients debt has been successfully settled for a fraction of what is owed with the lender to the client's satisfaction.Sometimes the debt settlement process takes longer than originally expected, especially when it is a complex case with many assets and complicated tax returns. This was the case with this client and after the second offer in compromise was rejected, they felt the matter would never be settled and they filed a complaint against us. This is unfortunate because in the end they because satisfied clients. After the second offer was rejected, we stuck with it and worked with them until the matter was settled as we originally promised. It is unfortunate that this complaint was filed, but we understand that in debt settlement, people are often put under much pressure and the mental drain can be difficult if the process takes longer than anticipated. We try and avoid these situations, but sometimes in a difficult debt workout, these things do happen, but we do everything we can to make things right. With the Revdex.com, the client does not have the ability to retract a complaint as they intended. Here is an email from the client a few weeks after the complaint was filed where they attempted to retract the complaint:I'll contact the Revdex.com today and retract the complaint. We've appreciated the response from Second Wind over the last couple weeks.In the end, it was a difficult journey, but we fulfilled our mission and helped this client through a difficult debt settlement. Business Response I wanted to submit the following update on this case:I am pleased to state that the clients debt has been successfully settled for a fraction of what is owed with the lender to the client's satisfaction.Sometimes the debt settlement process takes longer than originally expected, especially when it is a complex case with many assets and complicated tax returns. This was the case with this client and after the second offer in compromise was rejected, they felt the matter would never be settled and they filed a complaint against us. This is unfortunate because in the end they because satisfied clients. After the second offer was rejected, we stuck with it and worked with them until the matter was settled as we originally promised. It is unfortunate that this complaint was filed, but we understand that in debt settlement, people are often put under much pressure and the mental drain can be difficult if the process takes longer than anticipated. We try and avoid these situations, but sometimes in a difficult debt workout, these things do happen, but we do everything we can to make things right. With the Revdex.com, the client does not have the ability to retract a complaint as they intended. Here is an email from the client a few weeks after the complaint was filed where they attempted to retract the complaint:I'll contact the Revdex.com today and retract the complaint. We've appreciated the response from Second Wind over the last couple weeks.In the end, it was a difficult journey, but we fulfilled our mission and helped this client through a difficult debt settlement.

This company has failed to respond to numerous attempts to settle a debt for a company they represent. Lack of response and Lack of knowledge.Received communication from an [redacted] that he would be representing a company, [redacted] Services, LLC, to settle the Promissory Note. I was told I would get an offer for full repayment of the Promissory Note. [redacted] then proceeded to send me documents that misrepresenting agreements made with [redacted] Services, LLC. [redacted] proceeded to have phone conversations as to what the repayment schedule would be. When I asked what proof would he have to show me that his company was able to pay these Promissory Notes, [redacted] said that he wasn't able to furnish any of the documents to show that the company he worked for had sufficient Cash Flow to pay the Notes he was negotiating. Upon questioning [redacted] and [redacted] of [redacted] services, I have received no response. [redacted] has alleged that Second Wind Consultants has purchased [redacted] Services. I have seen no documents verifying that information. Only that [redacted] has not returned a phone call or an email in over 25 days. The Promissory Notes I am referring to have had a payment made since October 2013. [redacted] and [redacted] have alleged sending me an offer for a full repayment. This is not the case. The documents sent lacked about [redacted] in fees, unpaid payments, and profits promised by the Promissory Notes. Desired SettlementI am seeking a full refund of the Promissory Notes signed by [redacted] Services LLC, that is represented by [redacted] and Second Wind Consultants, LLC. Full refund including any and all fees incurred with the collection of the Promissory Notes. Business Response Firstly, before even making a response I want to make it clear that this complaint is directed at the wrong party. Second Wind Consultants is not involved with [redacted] Services, LLC, [redacted] or [redacted] who made this complaint. The complaint itself states that your intended relief is "seeking a full refund of the Promissory Notes signed by [redacted] Services LLC"- this is not our company and seems that this is the company you should be making a complaint against. I cannot even begin to try and provide any relief or resolution as our firm does not owe this money. Seems this individual lent money to [redacted] Services, LLC, so they should either contact [redacted] Services, LLC or seek legal council to protect their claim rather than making false complaints against unrelated entities. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Since [redacted] has copied your email address "[redacted] ," in an email to me in reference of a sale of [redacted] services to Second Wind Consultants, I find your confusion shocking. You are well aware of the status of both Second Wind Consultants and [redacted] Financial Services (which you have purchased). If you purchase a company, you purchase the debts. The fact that you state this as unrelated to your company is a very very weak attempt to side step an issue that you and your company are now responsible for. Again the outcome I would like is to have a debt repaid that was originally made by [redacted] Services, purchased by Second Wind Consultants as referenced in the email you were copied on.Now, that I have refreshed your memory, please respond to the previous complaint and the new information in this response.See the email below.[redacted] Apr 3 (13 days ago)to [redacted] As you represent [redacted] and [redacted] Services, LLC, I am forwarding you this communication.[redacted] Final Business Response Let me just straighten out a few facts. It's preposterous that you would believe that Second Wind Consultants is obligated to [redacted] because [redacted] was copied on some email correspondence related to a debt owed to you by [redacted] Services, LLC. [redacted] is a debt workout consultant and deals with hundreds of creditors, banks, attorneys related to debts owed by our clients. Second Wind is neither the borrower, guarantor, or obligor on any of the debts that it negotiates, including yours if we were even involved with your case. I cannot make this any more clear. Since when does the attorney of a debtor become liable for the claim they are defending? I just cannot agree with your logic and I'm sorry you had to take to the internet spreading false claims about our company. Also your claim that Second Wind Consultants purchased [redacted] Services is also completely untrue and I don't know where you have heard this or seen any documentation to indicate this. Perhaps you need to discuss your disagreement with Mr. [redacted] in more detail to simply understand who is obligated to you. It is not us. Lastly, Second Wind Consultants works hard for our clients and we effectively settle outstanding obligations with creditors for amounts drastically below what is owed. Often if the creditor is a private investor, individual, vendor, landlord etc...they take this very personally and often take to the internet to try and "shake us down." This is simply an unfair business practice to try and go after Second Wind for representing a debtor that may be unable to pay. All of our clients are insolvent and in a deeply difficult situation but many small creditors believe that they are being "burned" but they do not understand what it means to be a subordinate creditor or an unsecured creditor. When you lend money, there is ofter great risk and when a deal goes sour, many creditors act emotionally and come after us. This seems to be the case here and I hope anyone reading this understands that this is a false claim by an emotional creditor. I'm sorry we cannot help you [redacted] and we cannot pay the money that we do not owe. You really should discuss this with an attorney so you can identify who is truly obligated to you.

I have to thank Second Wind and their offshoot, Debt Relief Services, for guiding me through an SBA workout. My partners and I lost our business and were in default on a $125,000 SBA loan. I didn't have the first idea of how to go about dealing with this. The workout specialists I contacted required thousands of dollars to negotiate on my behalf. Second Wind is a for-profit company, however their Debt Relief Services department was set up for people like me, who simply don't have that kind of money. The trade off? I had to do the legwork, fill out all the paperwork and speak directly to the SBA. The DRS representative, in this case Adam [redacted], was available by phone and email and their system worked great for me.
Over a three-year period Adam worked with me on a course of action, helped shepherd me through the paperwork on two different Offers in Compromise and offered suggestions regarding hardship letters and how to approach the SBA with my offer.
Adam advised that I look at every asset I had, including an IRA and anything I could possibly sell, to come up with an offer. He got back to me promptly when I left messages. With his help I crafted an initial offer and a second counter-offer that was eventually accepted. His help in crafting my explanatory letters allowed me to defend my offer with facts rather than emotional pleas and I believe this is why it was accepted.
If you're looking for shortcuts, hand-holding and sympathy you'll need to go elsewhere; they won't sugarcoat anything. However, if you're willing to do the work and have at least a portion of money to offer as a settlement, this company is a godsend.

I signed a contract with SWC agreeing to pay them 10% of money saved from [redacted] loan work out. Loan was transferred to treasury, no orkout no $ returnedSWC was hired to negotiate with [redacted] Bank in a loan my that was defaulted on by a company that I was half owner of. They were paid 20 thousand dollars.Their fee was to be 10% of loan value reduction.The file was transferred from [redacted] to Treasury department,they blame [redacted] bank, [redacted] bank blames them.They made attempts to get treasury to return the file to [redacted].They were unable to do so. I received an email saying that they were unable to get the file back from treasury and to call them for my options. I called and was told in so many words that they could not help me and to contact [redacted] credit to settle. I asked for them to return the money that had been paid to them and they refused.They said they would negotiate with Treasury through [redacted] Credit. I told them I didn't need them to negotiate with Treasury as Treasury doesn't negotiate, in the words of SWC representative "they are brutal" I also contacted [redacted] Credit and was told that having SWC or a lawyer represent me would not help me. I paid a lawyer to write a demand letter. Their lawyer answered the demand letter with multiple inaccurate statements including the money paid to them was from my former partners personal account so they asserted that I had no standing.They also said they could not return money to me as the company that paid them money was closed and any refund would have to go back to the company.As they said they would represent me with [redacted] Credit I contacted them to authorize them to proceed. They did not respond In short they were contracted to provide a service that they did not provide and now they expect to keep money that they are not entitled to under the contract.Desired SettlementThe twenty thousand dollars paid to Second Wind Consultants should be applied to the loan balance owed to Treasury by my former company. Second Wind did not achieve any loan value reduction and therefore is not entitled to any fee per our contract.Business Response We are currently in discussion with Mr. [redacted] to continue the services we were originally hired to perform. There were multiple issues with Mr. [redacted]'s situation that he was made was aware of. He owns a valuable asset, and has unreasonable expectations on settling a six figure debt, when his creditors have repeatedly stated they will not settle with him while he owns this asset. The long and short of it is, we cannot effectively do our jobs (obtain debt settlements) when our clients refuse to listen to us. In this case, Mr. [redacted] should have sold this asset and used the sales proceeds to pay off his creditor.As I mentioned earlier, Mr. [redacted] and our company are currently discussing a strategy for us to move forward as originally intended. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I was told by Second Wind Consultants that the Offer in Compromise process "mimic bankruptcy" and that in many cases they can achieve a better result than can be achieved in a bankruptcy without the stain on your credit. For that reason I consulted a bankruptcy attorney so I would have a baseline to access any OIC. The attorney I spoke to told me that while he could not state as a fact that I could keep my house ( the valuable asset referred to in their response) he would say with a "high degree of certainty" that I would be able to keep my house. I thus informed Second Wind that I would not agree to on OIC that included me loosing my house. As the process is supposed to mimic bankruptcy and I was informed that I would likely not loose the house in a bankruptcy proceeding I do not think that is an unreasonable position.Secondly the issue I brought up in my complaint has not been dealt with. Second Wind has been paid twenty thousand dollars to handle this case. When they told me that they were unable to get the case transferred back to [redacted] from treasury they basically told me that they would not be able to help me and that I was on my own. When I requested a refund they refused and said they would represent me. After lawyers got involved I was told that it would cost me more to get the money back in legal fees than it was worth.I than contacted Second Wind and gave them permission to negotiate on my behalf,7 days later I had not heard from them and filed this complaint. So while they are representing me again my main disagreement with them is that they have been paid twenty thousand dollars which should be returned to company creditors not kept by them if they do not achieve two hundred thousand in debt reduction, which they have basically told me I have no chance of achieving and through their lawyers response to the demand letter written on my behalf they have no intention of returning. I want to reiterate that I WILL agree to an OIC that mimics bankruptcy as I do NOT want this to ruin my credit and have paid back several company creditors and intend on continuing to do so. I only ask that Second Wind return unearned money (anything in excess of 10% of debt reduction) to the creditors I am trying to make wholeBusiness Response We are still in the process of negotiating with the Treasury for Mr. [redacted]. It's still very possible that when a settlement is reached, he will in fact owe us the full amount of the fee he's paid in. The bottom line is that the job is not done, and once a settlement is finalized we'll be in a better position to discuss a potential refund. Business Response I would like to put on record the fact that the offer that Second Wind Consultants Inc. presented to the US Treasury was accepted. In fact, it was one of our best settlements ever obtained, as dealing directly with the US Treasury often means that our clients have to pay more to achieve a resolution. In this case however, we were able to achieve a 10% settlement for our client, which is a new Second Wind record for Treasury settlements. Occasionally, things happen outside of our control with the lenders we work with. In this case, even though we were closely engaged and pursuing settlement options with our client's lender, the lender "charged off" the debt to a U.S. government office ([redacted] guaranteed loan). When this occurs, the settlement process is in fact slowed down considerably. Additionally, this client in particular owned valuable property that we believed would hinder our ability to achieve an aggressive settlement. We did express our concern over this piece of property, but in the end they were able to successfully maintain ownership and still achieve a very favorable settlement. We understand the stress and frustration of going through a debt workout. There's a significant amount of money on the line, and often things do not move as quickly as we would. In this situation, after a long battle, we were able to successfully settle a sizable amount of debt for pennies on the dollar.

I want to thank Second Wind Consultants for handling my case with a great outcome. I received a fax flyer from them, and decided to make a call. I really had low expectations that they would be legitimate. However, after a brief call, and a day to think about it, I signed an agreement with them to handle my SBA loan case. I had to front them some money (a small amount compared to the amount of my loan), and they would begin processing. 10 months later, a lot of paperwork later too, they arrived at a settlement with my SBA loan company. It was a significant reduction in the debt I would have to pay, and eliminated interest accrual. All told they saved me about 2/3 of the debt.
Adam and company are to be congratulated on doing what they said they would and could do, and being COMPLETELY legitimate. The process takes some time, a small investment (their fee), and a little legwork filling out the forms and providing the information they need to do their job. Cooperating with them fully will get you the best resolution.
I recommend them highly for businesses with SBA debt problems. You can't do better than these guys.

Company has spammed my email address saying that I contacted them about debt solutions, which is patently false. Falsely claims that I contacted them about debt solutions. Will not stop spamming email address after numerous requests to stop.Desired SettlementDo not contact me. Stop using deceptive practices to solicit customers.Business Response Second Wind Consultants does not spam potential clients emails. We utilize the broadly used Mail Chimp platform that has very strict opt-in policies. Anyone who ends up on our email newsletter or a subscriber to one of our free giveaways had opted-in at one point. I have found that this complaint was launched by someone who subscribed to our newsletter when they requested a consultation with our office. This individual voluntarily submitted their information, otherwise, we would have never emailed him. If their info was submitted by mistake, again they can unsubscribe. We never buy lists or spam anyone. When a subscriber decides they no longer wish to receive our emails, there is a very clear "unsubscribe from this" option at the bottom of our emails. Rather than writing this complaint, they could have easily clicked a few buttons to be removed from the list. I see that they are still part of the mailing list, so I will manually remove them on my own. This could have easily been avoided had they just followed the simple procedure for unsubscribing, but still, I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. I wish them the best of luck with their business. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)The two emails I received were not mass emails, they were direct from your "debt consultants" saying "Thank you for contacting Second Wind Consultants regarding your business debt situation. I would very much like to speak with you and explore how we may be of service to you.", and stated I should call their office to set up an appointment. [redacted] is the name attached. At no time did I seek any sort of service from your company, or any other debt relief services from ANY company. As such, the emails did not contain any "unsubscribe" information. This type of cold contact is SPAM, pure and simple. Please cease and desist using such marketing practices, as they are outside of the law regarding unsolicited email marketing communication.Final Business Response If this individual was emailed, it was certainly unintentional or they were signed up by someone else using their email address. We do not spam and we have a very strict opt-in policy as stated already. In either case, we apologize for any inconvenience and have never had a complaint of this type in our many years using email marketing. The individuals email had been removed from our system completely and we will investigate why this may have happened and try and prevent it going forward. We wish you the best of luck.

I have to thank Second Wind and their offshoot, Debt Relief Services, for guiding me through an SBA workout. My partners and I lost our business and were in default on a $125,000 SBA loan. I didn't have the first idea of how to go about dealing with this. The workout specialists I contacted required thousands of dollars to negotiate on my behalf. Second Wind is a for-profit company, however their Debt Relief Services department was set up for people like me, who simply don't have that kind of money. The trade off? I had to do the legwork, fill out all the paperwork and speak directly to the SBA. The DRS representative, in this case Adam [redacted], was available by phone and email and their system worked great for me.
Over a three-year period Adam worked with me on a course of action, helped shepherd me through the paperwork on two different Offers in Compromise and offered suggestions regarding hardship letters and how to approach the SBA with my offer.
Adam advised that I look at every asset I had, including an IRA and anything I could possibly sell, to come up with an offer. He got back to me promptly when I left messages. With his help I crafted an initial offer and a second counter-offer that was eventually accepted. His help in crafting my explanatory letters allowed me to defend my offer with facts rather than emotional pleas and I believe this is why it was accepted.
If you're looking for shortcuts, hand-holding and sympathy you'll need to go elsewhere; they won't sugarcoat anything. However, if you're willing to do the work and have at least a portion of money to offer as a settlement, this company is a godsend.

I signed a contract with SWC agreeing to pay them 10% of money saved from [redacted] loan work out. Loan was transferred to treasury, no orkout no $ returnedSWC was hired to negotiate with [redacted] Bank in a loan my that was defaulted on by a company that I was half owner of. They were paid 20 thousand dollars.Their fee was to be 10% of loan value reduction.The file was transferred from [redacted] to Treasury department,they blame [redacted] bank, [redacted] bank blames them.They made attempts to get treasury to return the file to [redacted].They were unable to do so. I received an email saying that they were unable to get the file back from treasury and to call them for my options. I called and was told in so many words that they could not help me and to contact [redacted] credit to settle. I asked for them to return the money that had been paid to them and they refused.They said they would negotiate with Treasury through [redacted] Credit. I told them I didn't need them to negotiate with Treasury as Treasury doesn't negotiate, in the words of SWC representative "they are brutal" I also contacted [redacted] Credit and was told that having SWC or a lawyer represent me would not help me. I paid a lawyer to write a demand letter. Their lawyer answered the demand letter with multiple inaccurate statements including the money paid to them was from my former partners personal account so they asserted that I had no standing.They also said they could not return money to me as the company that paid them money was closed and any refund would have to go back to the company.As they said they would represent me with [redacted] Credit I contacted them to authorize them to proceed. They did not respond In short they were contracted to provide a service that they did not provide and now they expect to keep money that they are not entitled to under the contract.Desired SettlementThe twenty thousand dollars paid to Second Wind Consultants should be applied to the loan balance owed to Treasury by my former company. Second Wind did not achieve any loan value reduction and therefore is not entitled to any fee per our contract.Business Response We are currently in discussion with Mr. [redacted] to continue the services we were originally hired to perform. There were multiple issues with Mr. [redacted]'s situation that he was made was aware of. He owns a valuable asset, and has unreasonable expectations on settling a six figure debt, when his creditors have repeatedly stated they will not settle with him while he owns this asset. The long and short of it is, we cannot effectively do our jobs (obtain debt settlements) when our clients refuse to listen to us. In this case, Mr. [redacted] should have sold this asset and used the sales proceeds to pay off his creditor.As I mentioned earlier, Mr. [redacted] and our company are currently discussing a strategy for us to move forward as originally intended. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I was told by Second Wind Consultants that the Offer in Compromise process "mimic bankruptcy" and that in many cases they can achieve a better result than can be achieved in a bankruptcy without the stain on your credit. For that reason I consulted a bankruptcy attorney so I would have a baseline to access any OIC. The attorney I spoke to told me that while he could not state as a fact that I could keep my house ( the valuable asset referred to in their response) he would say with a "high degree of certainty" that I would be able to keep my house. I thus informed Second Wind that I would not agree to on OIC that included me loosing my house. As the process is supposed to mimic bankruptcy and I was informed that I would likely not loose the house in a bankruptcy proceeding I do not think that is an unreasonable position.Secondly the issue I brought up in my complaint has not been dealt with. Second Wind has been paid twenty thousand dollars to handle this case. When they told me that they were unable to get the case transferred back to [redacted] from treasury they basically told me that they would not be able to help me and that I was on my own. When I requested a refund they refused and said they would represent me. After lawyers got involved I was told that it would cost me more to get the money back in legal fees than it was worth.I than contacted Second Wind and gave them permission to negotiate on my behalf,7 days later I had not heard from them and filed this complaint. So while they are representing me again my main disagreement with them is that they have been paid twenty thousand dollars which should be returned to company creditors not kept by them if they do not achieve two hundred thousand in debt reduction, which they have basically told me I have no chance of achieving and through their lawyers response to the demand letter written on my behalf they have no intention of returning. I want to reiterate that I WILL agree to an OIC that mimics bankruptcy as I do NOT want this to ruin my credit and have paid back several company creditors and intend on continuing to do so. I only ask that Second Wind return unearned money (anything in excess of 10% of debt reduction) to the creditors I am trying to make wholeBusiness Response We are still in the process of negotiating with the Treasury for Mr. [redacted]. It's still very possible that when a settlement is reached, he will in fact owe us the full amount of the fee he's paid in. The bottom line is that the job is not done, and once a settlement is finalized we'll be in a better position to discuss a potential refund. Business Response I would like to put on record the fact that the offer that Second Wind Consultants Inc. presented to the US Treasury was accepted. In fact, it was one of our best settlements ever obtained, as dealing directly with the US Treasury often means that our clients have to pay more to achieve a resolution. In this case however, we were able to achieve a 10% settlement for our client, which is a new Second Wind record for Treasury settlements. Occasionally, things happen outside of our control with the lenders we work with. In this case, even though we were closely engaged and pursuing settlement options with our client's lender, the lender "charged off" the debt to a U.S. government office ([redacted] guaranteed loan). When this occurs, the settlement process is in fact slowed down considerably. Additionally, this client in particular owned valuable property that we believed would hinder our ability to achieve an aggressive settlement. We did express our concern over this piece of property, but in the end they were able to successfully maintain ownership and still achieve a very favorable settlement. We understand the stress and frustration of going through a debt workout. There's a significant amount of money on the line, and often things do not move as quickly as we would. In this situation, after a long battle, we were able to successfully settle a sizable amount of debt for pennies on the dollar.

I want to thank Second Wind Consultants for handling my case with a great outcome. I received a fax flyer from them, and decided to make a call. I really had low expectations that they would be legitimate. However, after a brief call, and a day to think about it, I signed an agreement with them to handle my SBA loan case. I had to front them some money (a small amount compared to the amount of my loan), and they would begin processing. 10 months later, a lot of paperwork later too, they arrived at a settlement with my SBA loan company. It was a significant reduction in the debt I would have to pay, and eliminated interest accrual. All told they saved me about 2/3 of the debt.
Adam and company are to be congratulated on doing what they said they would and could do, and being COMPLETELY legitimate. The process takes some time, a small investment (their fee), and a little legwork filling out the forms and providing the information they need to do their job. Cooperating with them fully will get you the best resolution.
I recommend them highly for businesses with SBA debt problems. You can't do better than these guys.

Company promised that they could help us settle our [redacted] debt for less than we owe. They failed to do this, and cost us over $100,000. To anyone who has a business and [redacted] loan that has failed, please do not make the same mistake my wife and I did. Stay away from Second Wind Consultants. I'll never forget going to see these guys once we determined our business had to close. We were scared and desperate. We had a huge [redacted] business loan and we were guarantors. We found Second Wind on the internet and went to visit them. At first they were very sympathetic and reassuring. The promised they could help us with a workout and get the lender to accept an offer in compromise that would settle our debt. I rember my wife asking "what can you do that we can't do ourselves". Second Wind assured us that they had the secrets, tactics, and experience to succeed where we as individuals would surely fail. We contracted with these guys and started following their advice. Their first promise was that we would always have 2 consultants working on our case. That was the first promise broken. The only time we had any discussions with 2 consultants was when we specifially asked. But the biggest problem is that we relied on these guys to give us good, sound, ethical advise on settling our debt with the lender and [redacted] However, their advice all centered around hiding assets and restructuring our other business interests to confuse the banker and keep them from knowing what our assets were. When we started with Second Wind, we had over $100,000 cash in an investment account that could have been used to help satisfy the loan or pay down debt. Second Wind advised us to liquidate that capital by "paying bills in advance" including their own consulting fee! Next they advised us to close our other business that was also a guarantor on the [redacted] loan and reopen under as a new entity. They said any funds in the new entity would be hidden from the lender and protected. It would not impact our ability to settle the debt. Well all of this proved to be totally false. The lender quickly saw through the restructuring as nothing more than attempt to protect assets. They saw our beginning and ending bank balalnces and knew we had liquidated cash. They quickly rejected our OIC. Over the next 1 1/2 years, Second Wind kept putting together new settlement offers, each one more than the last. Again the lender could easily see through this tactic and rejected all offers. Finally the loan as turned over to the [redacted] for collection. At that point, our communication with Second Wind became very limited. We heard from them only when we made contact. They finally told us our case was better off being handled by the [redacted] because they would be more willing to accept and OIC. Well, shortly afere we received a letter from the [redacted] stating our loan would be turned over to treasury for collection if we didn't make arrangements to pay the full balance! And the [redacted] told us they will not negotiate an OIC that doesn't start with the lender! Completely opposite from what Second Wind told us. Today we're still paying on the full balance of the loan. We are going back ourselves to the lender to try to get them to accept an OIC. We are doing this on our own. The lender actually admitted that the reason they initially rejecteed our offers was becasue of the appearance of hiding assets. And this was due to the advise given to us by Second Wind. In the end, we still owe the full [redacted] debt. Second Wind has not done anything positive for our case. In fact, by folllowing their advice, we have lost $100,000 in case that could have been used to pay down the debt. We prepaid their fees and have nothing to show for it. Our case was made much worse by following their advise to try and "complicate' our case and protect assets. Be warned, theses guys left us in a worse situation than when we started with them. They cost us thousands of dollars and now we'll be paying the [redacted] until we are well into our 70's. And we have no recourse now.Desired SettlementWe would like for them to refund the $20,000 that we paid them to represent us. We feel like the advise they gave us was not only bad, but in fact hurt our case with the lender and [redacted] and needless caused us to liquidate over $100,000 of our personal funds with no benefit. If we had not contracted with Second Wind, we could have used that cash to lower our [redacted] debt, pay the lender, or pay down our mortgage. Today, we still owe the full [redacted] debt. By following the advise of Second Wind, the lender is suspicious of us and feels like we tried to mislead them. Today we are again working with the lender to rebuild our personal reputation and finally settle the debt. The advice of Second Wind cost us 2 years of negotiation with no benefit and cost us our reputation with the lender and over $100,000 in cash. We fell like they did not properly give our case the attention it deserved, and they did not do their duty in protecting us. We know there was no guarantee for their services, but we never expected that following their advice would leave us in worse shape than when we started.Business Response We are working on the consumer's behalf and we have resolved our issues with them. The client's situation has been difficult to resolve but we are overcoming all these difficulties found in their case and are committed to a successful resolution. We understand that the client is satisfied with our services and that they tried to withdrawal the complaint but we not able to per Revdex.com policies. We are happy to have satisfied the client needs at this point and will continue to work hard on their behalf.Business Response I wanted to submit the following update on this case:I am pleased to state that the clients debt has been successfully settled for a fraction of what is owed with the lender to the client's satisfaction.Sometimes the debt settlement process takes longer than originally expected, especially when it is a complex case with many assets and complicated tax returns. This was the case with this client and after the second offer in compromise was rejected, they felt the matter would never be settled and they filed a complaint against us. This is unfortunate because in the end they because satisfied clients. After the second offer was rejected, we stuck with it and worked with them until the matter was settled as we originally promised. It is unfortunate that this complaint was filed, but we understand that in debt settlement, people are often put under much pressure and the mental drain can be difficult if the process takes longer than anticipated. We try and avoid these situations, but sometimes in a difficult debt workout, these things do happen, but we do everything we can to make things right. With the Revdex.com, the client does not have the ability to retract a complaint as they intended. Here is an email from the client a few weeks after the complaint was filed where they attempted to retract the complaint:I'll contact the Revdex.com today and retract the complaint. We've appreciated the response from Second Wind over the last couple weeks.In the end, it was a difficult journey, but we fulfilled our mission and helped this client through a difficult debt settlement. Business Response I wanted to submit the following update on this case:I am pleased to state that the clients debt has been successfully settled for a fraction of what is owed with the lender to the client's satisfaction.Sometimes the debt settlement process takes longer than originally expected, especially when it is a complex case with many assets and complicated tax returns. This was the case with this client and after the second offer in compromise was rejected, they felt the matter would never be settled and they filed a complaint against us. This is unfortunate because in the end they because satisfied clients. After the second offer was rejected, we stuck with it and worked with them until the matter was settled as we originally promised. It is unfortunate that this complaint was filed, but we understand that in debt settlement, people are often put under much pressure and the mental drain can be difficult if the process takes longer than anticipated. We try and avoid these situations, but sometimes in a difficult debt workout, these things do happen, but we do everything we can to make things right. With the Revdex.com, the client does not have the ability to retract a complaint as they intended. Here is an email from the client a few weeks after the complaint was filed where they attempted to retract the complaint:I'll contact the Revdex.com today and retract the complaint. We've appreciated the response from Second Wind over the last couple weeks.In the end, it was a difficult journey, but we fulfilled our mission and helped this client through a difficult debt settlement.

Company has spammed my email address saying that I contacted them about debt solutions, which is patently false. Falsely claims that I contacted them about debt solutions. Will not stop spamming email address after numerous requests to stop.Desired SettlementDo not contact me. Stop using deceptive practices to solicit customers.Business Response Second Wind Consultants does not spam potential clients emails. We utilize the broadly used Mail Chimp platform that has very strict opt-in policies. Anyone who ends up on our email newsletter or a subscriber to one of our free giveaways had opted-in at one point. I have found that this complaint was launched by someone who subscribed to our newsletter when they requested a consultation with our office. This individual voluntarily submitted their information, otherwise, we would have never emailed him. If their info was submitted by mistake, again they can unsubscribe. We never buy lists or spam anyone. When a subscriber decides they no longer wish to receive our emails, there is a very clear "unsubscribe from this" option at the bottom of our emails. Rather than writing this complaint, they could have easily clicked a few buttons to be removed from the list. I see that they are still part of the mailing list, so I will manually remove them on my own. This could have easily been avoided had they just followed the simple procedure for unsubscribing, but still, I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. I wish them the best of luck with their business. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)The two emails I received were not mass emails, they were direct from your "debt consultants" saying "Thank you for contacting Second Wind Consultants regarding your business debt situation. I would very much like to speak with you and explore how we may be of service to you.", and stated I should call their office to set up an appointment. [redacted] is the name attached. At no time did I seek any sort of service from your company, or any other debt relief services from ANY company. As such, the emails did not contain any "unsubscribe" information. This type of cold contact is SPAM, pure and simple. Please cease and desist using such marketing practices, as they are outside of the law regarding unsolicited email marketing communication.Final Business Response If this individual was emailed, it was certainly unintentional or they were signed up by someone else using their email address. We do not spam and we have a very strict opt-in policy as stated already. In either case, we apologize for any inconvenience and have never had a complaint of this type in our many years using email marketing. The individuals email had been removed from our system completely and we will investigate why this may have happened and try and prevent it going forward. We wish you the best of luck.