Second Wind Consultants, Inc.

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.

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.

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,