Thrive Learning Institute reviews and complaints

January 23, 2009 momentum marketing connected us, charles and wilma kaighen, to thrive learning institute which promised to coach and provide educational videos and training for an on-line business. They promised we would profit enough in 6 months time to pay off our debt. We were charged $15, 200.00 (Now I see that everyone was charged a different price!). We had good credit and had 2 credit cards with zero balance at the time. They took advantage of that for sure! I received very little coaching during the first 3 weeks, then... I was "on my own" to figure out what to do. With that much debt to pay off... I was in trouble! I was also paying $39.95 a month for their lightwave website builder. I began getting calls from other companies who told me that they could help my website be more professional for a fee. I was already drowning in the debt and felt so afraid. I studied the "agreement" and found that they would not give a refund and that I could not sue them for a refund! I felt trapped for sure! I focused my attention on working harder... To get this business to work... After 2 years of trying... I had only made 1 small sale to one of my sisters. This was a disaster! I decided to drop the website (That would save me at least $39.95 a month!) and then focused my energies on getting the huge debt paid off. I have often wished something could be done about this! I now see that many others have suffered as well. I am looking at the "agreement" right now... It says, warranty "we fully expect all of our clients to recoup their full initial investment inside of 6 months. If for some reason it is not recouped, we will continue to work with the user until they recoup their initial investment." that did not happen! I attempted to log in to my user account on thriveli.com to access the e-library... And I cannot log in. That was supposed to be available to me for the rest of my life! I was wanting to get some kind of benefit from this great debt! If there is any way of getting even a portion of my money back, I would be so grateful! 15 thousand dollars is a lot of money to pay for nothing! This all happened at a bad time... I was hoping to help my daughter with her college, but instead became so "strapped financially" that she was not able to do more than 1 year of college. I have the "agreement", but do not know how to send that to you all... Or if I need to... Let me know if there is anything more I need to provide.

Thrive Learning Institute is a scam. They used a highly skilled, trained and relentless sales agent that used all of the high pressure sales tactics to pressure me to make a deal with them.
They take advantage of people that have been financially hurt and are looking for answers to their money problems. They quickly put you through a "qualification" process to determine your available resources, primarily credit card related. They try and make you feel at ease by saying things like, "well it's not really your money, you are just using the credit system for a while and you will recoup all of the money from the great website you will have from Thrive.
The training is weak, production values poor and the information is generic, dated and available free around the internet. They refused to give me my money back. There is no real customer service, you can't reach people and there are hundreds of others just like me, betrayed, hurt and looking for help from the people that should be protecting us. Let's get organized and launch a group effort and put a stop to this. I'm in Virginia and have an agency who will help. Let me know if you are with me. [protected]

Greg (Alexandria, Virginia)

This Company advertises themselves as a business school offering a team atmosphere to guide you on building your own online company. They apparently charge everyone differently and scam as much money out of you as a start up price and then finance the rest with a company called Momentum Marketing making 18% interest themselves. They are suppossed to work with you and guarantee you will be able to pay off everything within 6 months or earlier if you work atleast 10 hours a week. I far excelled at 10 hours a week and everytime I spoke with my so called team coach I was given the run around so was never even successful with the basics. Once they no longer offered a coach to me I tried to figure their system out on my own and received no help except an offer for a "new" system that was only available for a short time for another feeof $500.00 seperate from the original $5, 000.00 fee. The original sign up connects numerous other web hosts, credit card charging company's like Imax Bankcard, and once three months is up you are automatically charged a monthly fee...while never making ANY money as promissed. This is so humiliating and has added a great deal of stress to me and my family. They come across as a very legitimate company but clearly are making millions off of poor everyday citizens trying to support their families from home. I can't spend anymore with nothing but debt to show for and my outstanding credit will suffer.

I personally have also been scammed by Thrive Learning Institute. I joined up with them through a company called Auction Profits at that particular time which was October 21, 2008. The convinced me that they would assist and teach me how to set up my own website, obtain a drop shipper for blind drop shipping and would double my investment within six months. I invested initially 5, 485.00 on my credit card of course. They always use that saying "Use other people's money" Well now I know exactly what they are talking about. They are getting rich off of poor suckers like me who falls for their scam! I was also referred to Innovative Tax Services as well for business planning etc. and that cost me another 1600.00 bucks. All Innovative tax services did was get a federal ID number for me for my so called business. I worked anywhere from 8-12 hours every single day of the week trying my best to learn everything I possibly could. I was determined I was going to be successful! NOT! I actually posted my unfinished website in December of 2008. Since that time to date I have only made three sales. Two leather hats and one leather pair of pants! I have only made 120.00 from those sales and have not had any sales since that time. I complained to Thrive almost everyday, cried many tears, was so stressed out about the money I have spent that I made myself sick quite literally! I filed a complaint with the BBB in Utah and got no answers for about a month. I filed against Thrive as well as Auction Profits who now call themselves E-commerce solutions. The original person Josh Bish whom I so called purchased this program from no longer works there and they have of course changed their names. The new manager or owner of Auction Profits otherwise now known is Kevin Handren. When I filed a complaint through the Utah BBB he responded after his time limit which was seven days with similar wording that I was offered additional coaching time by Thrive which at that time I refused and that all my complaint was for was buyer's remorse. I responded that after a year of begging and pleading for help and attempting to get answers I had simply given up and that I have a certificate that was provided me by Auction Profits for a written guarantee that I would double my money profits within six months, and it is a lifetime guarantee. The BBB didn't seem to care about that and suggested that I take what Thrive was offering which was four months of free website hosting and eight more weeks of personal coaching. So I have again given up. I plan to file this complaint with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection as well as the Federal Trade Commission and see where that gets me. I have spent upwards of ten thousand dollars paying hosting fees, the original charges from Thrive and Auction Profits and have made absolutely zero profit up to this point.

So in a nutshell my words of wisdom to anyone who is being called and conned into buying into any of their programs out there, STOP! Don't listen to their fake promises and don't spend one single penny! They are a bunch of crooks who prey on people who are simply looking for a way to make some extra money in an honest fashion and then they dump you like a hot potato when you start complaining! It's not worth the time of day! I hope that this complaint helps anyone out there who have been approached with their tactics!

Long story short - after the initial 4 weeks pro-active training (which was dismal at best) there is no further contact from these people other than an occasional email. All phone conversations cease. So I was defrauded out of $4, 500 for a webhosting company that takes your money and runs.

In August, I clicked to a Google business add ohline and was sent a cd/dvd in the mail to teach me how to make money by using the web. I no sooner received this item than I received a phone call from the Thrive Learning Institute based out of Utah. He made the whole concept of an online university to learn how to make money by the using the internet sound sooooo easy that a child could do it. After numerous phone conversations with them, I agreed over the phone to do this and consented to a $4, 500 checking account withdrawal with the hope that within 4-6 weeks I could recoup my investment.

After 4 weeks with basically no help from them, I emailed them to let them know that I wanted my money back. I soon thereafter filed a formal complaint with the Utah Attorney General's office and carbon copied by Pennsylvania Attorney General's office. Within a week, I received a terse phone call from their company attorney asking what my problem was and after a lengthy conversation I agreed to give them another 4 weeks to help me get my website up and running and he promised to NOT take out the $49.95 monthly website hosting fee. ha! for a website that was not completed in any way.

So with another 4 weeks gone by and still no website they started charging my account again and again I called to complain and again I received a terse phone call from their top people. Then the deal was for me to just start all over with another website with other products. So now I had to apply for two (2) domain names for websites that I don't even have. I receive spam emails and phone calls from other bogus companies to get me into more scams, etc.

So in the end, I have nothing - no website, no money and no help from the Utah Attorney General. So whoever is out there reading this, DO NOT accept any kind of false help from the Thrive Learning Institute because you will be screwed.

Greed! Greed has happened to many in this country. What was wrong with making a 10-15% profit and not cheating individuals for your own personal gain? Some people want more and will lie, cheat, and steal to get your money, so they can have more at your expense and you have less. You receive nothing in return but stress and have a harder time just trying to have the basic necessities of life—food, heat, medicine, but they don’t really care.

Welcome to Infusion Media, Thrive Learning Institute, and Capital One Credit Card Company where you are really taken for a ride. Hi Clint Arnell, Brandon Clark, Zach Bradshaw, and the Capital One Dispute and Fraud Investigation Departments.

At Thrive Learning Institute you pay a lot of money for a lot of nothing. Think you are getting a web site from them to start an online business. Think again. What you get is doing all of the work yourself because the only thing they provide is telling you where to go to access free things on the Internet for your web site. They also provide more ways for you to spend your money when you were told there were absolutely no more out of pocket expenses. You have to purchase a domain name, get a business license, a drop shipper, set up a merchant account through them, pay hosting fees, and so on.

Now this is the good part. I spent $4, 225 for all of this and what I actually got was this: Infusion Media had their phone number disconnected, so I thought it was a scam (it really is a scam) and filed a dispute with my credit card company. Brandon Clark and Zach Bradshaw said they had me on tape and I could not get my money back, so I worked very hard at making my $4, 225 really count. Here is where we find out what kind of a company Thrive really is. Sean from Thrive called to verify that I had, in fact, filed a dispute with the credit card company. When I verified I had filed a dispute, he said I needed to stop calling and e mailing them for help because they (Thrive) weren’t going to help me any more and I needed to call Zach Bradshaw.

So, I called Zach Bradshaw and he wanted to know why I filed the dispute. I explained why I filed the dispute and the concerns I have with Thrive Learning Institute. Zach said if I dropped the dispute, my concerns would be taken care of. Zach offered me 6 additional months of free hosting and to start my year training over again. Zach was to send a confirming e-mail regarding this, which I never received, so I didn’t drop the dispute. I talked with Zach again and told him I wanted my money back as I never received an email from him. Zach said why would I send you an email when I don’t know how you learn and I didn’t hear from you regarding dropping the dispute. I told him you know how I learn because I have been in contact with Thrive constantly trying to get this done. Zach used the communications I had with Thrive (verbal and written) against me for the dispute with the credit card company and Capital One fell for it. Zach said because I did not drop the dispute with the credit card company has caused Thrive a hit on their merchant account and also cost Thrive a considerable amount of money. I told him I was waiting for his confirming email before I dropped the dispute. Once again, I was getting nothing in return from Thrive for my $4, 225 investment. Zach offered me this: I could either continue with the training or forfeit my money.

I chose to file complaints with the FTC, Utah Attorney General’s Office, Attorney General’s Office in the state I live, and again file a dispute and fraud complaint regarding the charge with the credit card company, and the BBB of Utah.

So this is what I end up with. (1) An offer for $1, 000 from Thrive because I don’t want to continue their training because it doesn’t work, they are unprofessional, untruthful, etc., (2) Rejection from Capital One regarding the dispute and/or fraud complaint (you can prove their was misrepresentation, pay services and not receive them and still can’t get your money back), even though you provide documentation from agencies as the FTC, Utah Consumer Protection Division that there was wrong doing and nothing is done, and (3) you are unable to receive anything from Infusion Media. You would think the credit card company would agree with me, the consumer, as I did not receive the services promised and have sent the appropriate documentation. What I received was misrepresentation and deceptive sales practices of what Infusion Media and Thrive Learning Institute could and would do for you; when in reality what I received was misrepresentation of what they actually provide, when you actually receive much of nothing for your investment, but violating the Business Opportunities Act in Utah and in my resident state, and other violations. Does breaking the law no longer have consequences and full restitution for the victims?

So, at this point, I am out my $4, 225 investment. I could get $1, 000 from Thrive and pay only $3, 225 for 2 months of the Thrive Learning Institute’s training and support, which really got me nothing because Thrive locked me out of their training web site and access to my web site/domain name, which I paid for. And, last but not least, what company provides a service that you paid handsomely for is allowed to decide they are no longer going to help you because you filed a credit card dispute against them. Just like many other victims of Infusion Media, Thrive Learning Institute, and the credit card companies, Capital One in my case, I have been taken for a ride. It is even harder to survive myself, let alone taking care of an elderly parent and provide financial assistance to a child that has a brain tumor. Thanks for your greed and taking from others who trusted you. No one deserves to be taken advantage in this manner because they want to take provide for their family. A personal thanks to Clint Arnell, Brandon Clark, Zach Bradshaw, and Capital One for taking food from my table, medicine from my daughter, and heat from my home.

Hi all,

Well, it seems that all predictions seem to be off with Thrive. Yea, they’re still within their first five years that it takes to really make a business operate (but still will probably end up failing). Utah’s Department of Consumer Protection don’t seem to care about the way, we the people, were hung out to dry by Thrive and their lying sales floors. Glen Minson, so called investigator for DCP knows who they are and what they do, but apparently having to contact and deal with Thrive’s PR person over and over again for so long, seems to have struck up quite a friendly relationship. Anyone who’s had to deal with this Glen character knows what’s being said here. Thanks Glen, for bending over, stringing along and throwing these innocent people under the bus while you were supposed be getting paid to protect them. The most recent news is that they've gotten out from under that Utah Business Opportunities Act by simply changing their contract and cutting a deal with the state (called "settling out of court"…Oh yea, that's right, the Utah Attorney General already took his donations, didn't he?)

Which means, outside of some embarrassment, Thrive gets to skate…and get back to the business of scamming people as usual. Of course, they can pay the best designers they can find to hawk their wares and a marketing division which does nothing but game the search engines…and top it all off with a complete lack of customer service(weak videos and worse coaching). They don't understand how real commerce works, only how to scam - so their promotion, marketing and delivery sucks because their customer service sucks (what a vicious circle).

What really sucks is that they seem to get away with it. Of course, this really means that when you get right down to it, it's only you and me and other people we know that can shut these crooks down - either they get out of the business (unlikely) or they have the sales floor and learning under the same roof where they have to take more responsibility for what they deliver. Customer service is number one in keeping a business alive…and they don’t have any of it.

In case you didn’t notice most all the people who had personal blogs have mostly disappeared from the scene. After some research it turns out they were made to sign a little note which probably doesn't have any real legal weight behind it - but no one has the money to take it to a real lawyer to check it out. Look what I just found…http://antifraudintl.org/showthread.php?p=77435#post77435

What are people doing to get back at Thrive(who don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to this) ? Simple, They just dig up the poop Thrive left lying around in public areas(forums and blogs) and then copy and post it to their blog. A lot of this information is actually in the forums. More can be found by simply looking up Google's cached copies (or checking with other people in the various forums to see if they downloaded those pages.)

Dave Rasumussen has tried to go nearly invisible by hiding his wife's blog. Eric Largin has similarly locked down his LinkedIn pages so that no one can actually network with him (so why does he have a LinkedIn page then?) Colton Moody still has his picture up on facebook with his wife. Zach Bradshaw has been either too busy or too embarrassed to put his real face or info up anywhere - and he'll never want to do this, unless he moves out of Utah or even the country (way to go, Zach - you just blew any chance to enjoy the Internet like the rest of us...)

But a lot of stuff has been exposed on these guys and there is still a lot more out there.

The reason these blogs disappeared is that they tied the personal lives of those scammers. Their actual family, friends, community (as well as the local Chamber of Commerce) don't know what they do. Just like sneaky politicians, they can't stand the spotlight. So, they easily buy off those complaining customers by refunding them - and think nothing about infringing on their First Amendment Rights and getting them to sign them away. Again, it was hard not to notice all the blogs and comments removed from forums and the rest of the internet in the last five months.

Now with this being an election year, we can actually have some fun with the candidates by asking them the real questions about what their stand on the Utah scams are. Then post any response to the forums, where others can see, comment, and do their own emails and calls to these offices. Then ask their own questions like, “how they are going to act (or not) on the illegal activities that Utah is becoming known for. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is running against Bob Bennett in the primary. Be sure to give Bennett all the info you have about Shurtleff's campaign contributions...

These forums have been the most effective work in forcing Thrive to reform. These posts don't go away (except where they made taking down forum posts as part of their paper agreement/payoff deal) as long as they are factual. As long as they are true they won't be taken down by the moderators or administrators.

These forums are an open invitation to recover and post the data from those now-missing blogs. And so, people would then be able to simply have all the real, publicly-available information to quote and post on their own blogs.

The simplicity of setting up a blog is nearly as easy as creating a forum post. So it's a no-brainer that if we could simply get in touch with all these people who have given up on their refund and then had them scrape, copy, and post the information found (making sure to link back to where they got it, of course) - these people could get their refunds a lot faster.

Of course, nobody is saying we should organize or anything like that – (we don't want to stoop to racketeering like Colton Moody, Eric Largin, and Matt and Dave Rasmussen). This post is only bringing up ideas that should be made known to anyone who is posting in these forums.

If you want your money back fast, you start a blog and spill the beans. That's just a fact.

Now, what we on this forum and those few who still have blogs out there are really doing is trying to educate the public on how to use the Internet.
(Same thing the scammers are doing, but they cost a lot more for that education...)

So the suggestion here to anyone interested in stopping Thrive and getting their refund, is:
• Copy this post and repost on the forums from time to time(especially if it was removed)
• Contact everyone they can on the forums to see if they are interested in setting up blogs.
• Find people who have the publicly-accessible information on these individuals (which had been posted on blogs and forums before and now have disappeared)
• Get that info recovered and posted to the forums (all of them, if possible) so that this data will always be publicly-known and readily available.

That would mean that everyone has to get several other people blogging before they put up their own blog. Thrive didn't just get those informative blogs removed, they also made that data disappear on the forums. Their strategy was to pick off the hardest working and most dedicated, pay them, and force them to take down all their hard work…all vital public information.

Saundrak is still around and so is Kona - both of whom are willing to work with anyone on getting started with their refund cycles. (And if you want to help these two, visit their blogs and post comments there - it starts ranking them above Thriveli.com.

Thrive Learning Institute is set to go under if they have to start paying off too many refunds (they only make 10% out of every sale), and would have to pay back the rest (which they can’t get back from the sales floors). They've probably already spent the money they did get ...serves you right.
Their other option is to declare bankruptcy and start over. However, the same truthful yet negative information will still be in those forums when they surface again.

I'm asking everyone on this forum:

What do you think of that plan? Do you think it’s possible? Do you think the people in this forum (and others) will get behind this and get everyone blogging to get their refunds?
Personally, hopes are high…but, I don't think that it will actually get rid of scammers totally. PMI Inc and some others like Pacific Webworks have been around for some ten years. Nobody has ever shut them down and their scamming ways still continue. They are only a little better than Thrive…but only because they have a better business plan (mostly because they generate their own leads and cut out the middleman).
But… what we can do is start picking up people who have been discouraged into quitting and getting these guys to simply put up a blog so they can get their money back.

So, what do you think?!?

A representative from Thrive Learning Institute talked my 81-year-old mother into charging $6350 for a web-based business opportunity. She receives income only from social security and certainly can not afford to spend this money. For health reasons she is not able to follow through on the "training" they claim to provide or to conduct a business online. I was out of town when this initially transpired. When I returned, I spent a whole Sunday afternoon on the internet investigating this business. What I found out caused me to call John Waddlesworth at Thrive to get my mother released from this contract. I have talked to him twice and he says a refund is not possible and that from his conversations with my mother, he feels she is able to handle the business and I was not being "ethical" to speak for her. He did promise to stop the $39.95 monthly website fee being taken from her checking account but I don't know if that will happen. As it turns out, a second $39.95 was deducted from her checking account after I spoke with him. Fortunately, my mother's bank refunded all the charges made against her checking account and issued her a new debit card so that Thrive can no longer have access to it.
My mother's credit card company (Discover) from which the $6350 was taken has not been as helpful. They originally said they would be sending paperwork to us to fill out to try to get the money back, but now they say their hands are tied since she freely gave her credit card information to Thrive. I'm not even sure what the name of the company is. Thrive Institute? IDI? Focus? Thrive Learning? LVFG? Money Mastery? Every correspondence (email, phone, bank charge, USPS) uses a different name.
Incidentally, I found a report from the BBB in Utah giving an F rating to Thrive Learning LLC as part of LVFG, Inc.
I have written to the Utah Consumer Protection Agency and the Utah Attorney General. I'm sure that Thrive has covered all its bases but maybe if the powers that be get enough complaints, they'll do something about it.
We are considering hiring a lawyer to try to resolve this mess. I am angry that unscrupulous jerks can continue to use the internet to prey on those who are not able to fight back. From what I can tell from internet chatter this company has been getting away with this for a long time.
Has anybody been able to get a refund from this company?

During the course of my traumatizing experience with my Thrive Learning Institute process, I was also sucked in to a big mess with a merchant business account to be able to accept credit cards for orders online. I was contacted by a person with Thrive (or so that’s what I thought). She went on to talk about a merchant account (online credit card possessing) and that I should sign up to begin accepting credit cards for online orders. She told me they would wave the setup fee for a limited time and that the offer would not last long (more tricks of the trade).I signed up on 3/11/09 thinking that I could still get a website going and salvage this program. A 35$ per month charge was to be in effect after activation of my account (so I was told). To my delight, Kayla, asked if I needed an appointment with their web builder. I agreed and she informed me that they were busy right now and that the soonest available appointment would be 3/30/08(almost three weeks). I agreed, even though I was frustrated at having to wait so long. I tried to continue my progress and anxiously waited for the web builder’s call. On the 3/30, after waiting all day, I received no phone call. This was the last thing I was willing to stand. After trying to make a go of this so called system (again and again) and working to pay off my upward spiraling debt, I realized, it would be impossible to complete this business. In late May 09, I realized on my bank statements that this company has charged their $35 fee for the last two months even without activation. I called customer service and (without asking for the two months totaling $70) I asked to please cancel the account and they informed me there is a $250 cancellation fee (which was never discussed or mentioned before I signed the contract). I never used this account and in fact never even activated it. After the initial shock of this and expressing this verbally, He told me the fee is negotiable. After a brief break from our conversation so he could talk to his manager, he returned to the phone and informed me they would be willing to go down to $150. I told him I would call him back and hung up disgusted. They have, as of July 1 charged me for June as well. I called to cancel the account on July, 9, 2009 and refused to pay a cancellation fee. I called my bank to place these charges in dispute and ask for a charge back to my account. My bank informed me they can only do a charge back for no longer than 60 days. I could only get the month of June and May placed back on my account. I was willing to leave it at that and chalk this up to a business loss. On July 29, 2009, I received a letter from the merchant account collection dept. stating that I owe a balance of $120 due by 7/31/09 or face further collection action. In addition, a report of the past due amount will be reported to credit bureaus. I disputed the charge asking them to wave the amount due and refund what I was charged for in total from them. I sent them a brief explanation of my negative experience with Thrive along with my complaint and a copy of the State of Illinois cease and desist order against Online Data Institute/Thrive Learning Institute. I faxed all this info yesterday at 2:15pm. I received a call from the collections department rep. around 3:15pm telling me they received the info; they will look it over and call me back tomorrow.
They spoke and listened to me as an equal. They were punctual about their actions. They took the time to look over and understand my problem. The next day (just as they said) at 9:45am they informed me that not only were they waving the amount due, but they are going to refund my money in full. Now That’s Customer Service! Are you listening Thrive… That’s how you attain unsurpassed customer satisfaction!

I signed up for Internet training on eBay and was sold a bill of goods. The problem is in their aggressive sales techniques - and they are responsible for the call centers they contract to sell for them. Thrive Learning promises you can make your money back in 2-3 months, but in fact they have a success rate which is about 1 in 10, 000 actually doing so - and that's ever, not just within 3 months.

I complained after the training was complete, because I didn't actually learn anything that I hadn't already known. Their training at that time mostly consisted of how to set up their proprietary sitebuilding software - which can take you weeks or months to actually build your site on a part-time basis. You are charged additional monthly fees for site hosting and programs - but can't actually move your site without rebuilding it again. There are several free programs that come with most web hosts that you can use for site building - much better than Thrive's version.

As well, all of the training that Thrive offers can be found on the Internet for free. So being charged several thousand to be "coached" and another $40 per month for site hosting is excessive.

The scam continues as they sell you add-on programs and "services" such as credit-card processing, site marketing reviews, and PPC advertising. Some have even been offered the creation of a Montana S-corporation. I've read of people going into $30-$50, 000 in debt with nothing to show for it. (I was "lucky" in this regard.)

They do not have their refund policy stated on their website and it is not covered in their telemarketing pitch. This is an FTC violation. As well, Thrive Learning is a "fulfillment center" for at least 20 other scams - and so could be investigated under RICO statutes for racketeering.

Utah call centers contributed around 1/4 of the Utah Attorney General's election campaign - but are not being prosecuted for known complaints. The manager for Thrive Learning is also associated with these other Utah call centers.

All of this is publically available information.

Another tactic they use is to string you along until your credit card company is unwilling to do a charge-back (usually about two months). While Utah requires any company to refund within a 3-day period, often your training doesn't start until after that time, so you won't find out you're scammed until the State can no longer enforce that statute.

If anyone is approached by Thrive Learning, the best thing to do is to hang up immediately.

I GOT A REFUND AND YOU CAN TOO!

I have gotten a refund even after almost completing my web site! So it does not matter if you are a week or several months into it, you can get a refund too.

BEN THERE has already given you all the information you need to get a refund, but I wanted to reconfirm to everybody that the information he has posted will work as well as tell you my story, so that when you go through the process yourself you wont be tricked by their lies into accepting anything less than a full refund!

The two most important places to complain to are: 1) The Attorney General of Utah and 2) the Department of Commerce, Division of Consumer Protection.

It is also very important to send your complaints to the BBB in Utah, the FTC, the IC3, your credit card company and even the Attorney General of the United States to ensure these people are shut down for good and the laws that allow these scam artists to stay in business, are changed.

Please pay close attention to what I tell you next as the following info is very important for you to understand the inner workings of thrive and their associates' methods in dealing with your refund.

1) After your complaint has been received by the Attorney General's office, you will get a call from whatever company sold you the program, offering you half your money back. They will tell you this is their final offer...THIS IS A LIE. Do not believe this no matter what they say, and believe me, they will sound very convincing! They will tell you that any contract you have with them, be it verbal or written is legal and binding...this is NOT TRUE! Do not accept this offer.

2) The Attorney General will defer your complaint to the Division of Consumer Protection to be investigated. Once they have received your complaint, you will get another call from the company you purchased the program from, this time offering you 2/3 of your money back. You will go through the same procedure again and they will tell you that is the ceiling of what they are willing to offer. I cannot stress enough for you to not believe what they tell you...REMEBER, THEY ARE SMOOTH TALKERS! They will not offer you a full refund as their hope is that you will cave and sign on a lesser amount before they are forced to pay you in full by the division of consumer protection.

3) After this you need to contact the division of consumer protection (by phone preferably) again and let them know what has transpired and that you know your rights and be firm that you know these companies are committing FRAUD!
Do not be nasty about it, just stay firm in your conviction.
They will tell you that there is a possibility that your contract was legal and tell you that they will look deeper into your contract. Do not worry about this or let it get you down. They are just covering all their bases...after all their boss is the AG ! So stay calm and thank them for looking into your case personally and taking the time to talk to you.
I happen to know for a fact that they are currently swamped with complaints against Thrive and have entered into an agreement with most, if not all of the companies who have sold thrive's services.
This agreement is that they have to refund complaining clients in full or face the consequences.

4) Within a week, the division of consumer protection should be calling you back to tell you that you are being refunded all your money!

I would encourage everybody to visit this website: http://stop-telemarketers.midwestjournalpress.com/
This website contains all the information you need to know about the laws that Thrive and their sales floors' have broken. This site also has blogs almost daily against Thrive...very encouraging and inspiring !

Also, the article "Called Into Question" will give you ammunition when pleading your case to the Division of Consumer Protection.
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-7772-called-into-question.html

If you any questions regarding the information I have provided, please do not hesitate to send me a message on here. I will check in periodically and get back to you as soon as possible.
The fight is not over with these scammers until they are shut down and the laws changed, otherwise if the individuals responsible are not held personally accountable, they will just keep going with a new company name and a new scam.
On the "stop telemarketers midwest journal" web site, you will find a legal petition to Shut down Thrive and change the laws. Please take the time to sign this as this is the only way we are going to slow down the vast ammount of scams that are taking over the internet.
I personally have found that I see a new scam everyday and it takes a lot of time, energy and knowledge to sort them out. There will always be scam artists out there, but maybe we can make a big difference in weeding them out!

Good luck to all of you and I know if you are persistent, YOU WILL GET YOUR MONEY BACK!

I am very disgusted with Thrive Learning. I did everything faithfully for the first 3 weeks. There were problems with the videos, which I had to bring t0 their attention. When I asked a question, even though there were 4 people on my so-called team, their answers were far from professional. There was a time I asked 3 different questions and when they responded, after a day and a half, she said I received all of your questions, but I am only answering one of them. There were always problems with videos. After spending 4000.00 dollars, my feeling was this so-called professional help wasn't worth 40 cents. Then when I talked to Mr. Zach Bradshaw, he was an all out a**hole. What a joke!

I was scammed by a company using 2 names-Thrive Learning Institute and Infusion Media. They are the same company. They will contact you by e-mail offering to sell you a Google kit to start an online business. They will use your credit card numbers to debit your account for S&H as well as other unheard of charges. Then they will call for your other credit card numbers so they can take money from all of your credit card companies and start a home computer business. Brandon Clark, who seems to be the leader's name in this business will seem to be a very nice guy until you tell him of your intent to retrieve your stolen funds. Then he will call you at 10:15 at night and wake you from a sound sleep and discredit your claims towards retribution of your funds. Please beware of this company. Guard yourself from similar torture.

Thrive has done nothing that they have promised. I am so disgusted that I spent over 14 grand with them plus all the fees associated with it like e-bay etc. My web site has never been built and I was told it would be built for me...not true. The only thing they do is have web hosting classes which I could not participate in if I wanted to. I have told them already that you need a mike and a headphones which I do not have.
I have since hired another company to build my web site for me and they have given me a list of dropshippers already...all for 2500. I am sending a letter to the better business of Utah as I feel that is all I can do at this point. The name of my web site is being changed with the new company and they seem to know what they are doing for a much lower price. I only wish I had found out about them before becoming involved with the scamming company known as Thrive.

On november 1, 2008 I was contacted by internet auction solutions to start a business online. They kept me on the phone for about two and a half hours and every time I tried to get out of it; the man kept insisting that I could do this. That was a lie. He got 6, 236.00 from me and I was not able to get my business going. The coaches from thrive learning instatitute would keep giving me the run around. Giving me more and more nonsence. I know now that they would do this to wear me down so I would break down and give in and give up. This is an online scam and all they do is give false hope and take your money. Be aware of there tactics.
They are experts at taking your money and if you try to get your money from them, they tell you you signed a contract. There is no way out of it. I just wish the government would get involved and shut them down. Seems like someone could do something? They have hurt to many individuals