One Word - Fraud.
If you are at all thinking of either investing in Elayaway, or using the service it claims to provide (layaway), please, at your own peril, do the following. Should take you 10-20 minutes.
1. Look at the company's Better Business Bureau website. Click specifically on the "Reviews" tab, and let your intuition guide you as to which reviews are from real people, and which reviews the company paid some marketing specialist to type up. Then look at the Complaints tab - 9 in recent time. Note that only 5 of the complaints was the BBB able to handle. Elayaway did not even respond to 4 of the complaints at all.
2. Call their corporate office - not the customer service hotline - their corporate office. See if anyone picks up...ever. Leave a message. See if anyone calls you back...ever. If you really want a laugh, drive by their 'corporate headquarters' in Tallahassee, FL, and knock on the door. See if anyone answers....ever.
3. Call the Securities and Exchange Commission 'Investor Information" hotline (800) 732-0330 and ask them about complaints against Elayaway, Inc. You might be shocked to learn that the company has been engaged in Microcap Securities Fraud for years.
4. Google the term "dump and dilute schemes". Wiki defines it: "Dump and dilute schemes, where companies repeatedly issue shares for no reason other than taking investors' money away. Companies using this kind of scheme tend to periodically reverse-split the stock." REVERSE-SPLIT THE STOCK. Now take a look at Elayaways financials and see how many times they've reverse split their own stock. Sergio Pinon and his band of cronies (some in Miami, others elsewhere) have over the past 5-7 years issued themselves hundreds of millions of shares of stock (no kidding) and then reverse split the remaining shares. The effect has been that a person who once owned millions of shares now finds themselves with numbers in the double digits. Guess who wins here? Not the shareholder. Think this doesn't translate into their business model? Think it won't affect you as the consumer? Think again - and again, I point you to the BBB's website.
5. Finally, and this is the best part, take a look at the write up the failed CEO of this failed company put for himself on Linked In. He touts his 4 years in the Air Force and business degree from nowhere University as key to his business acumen and 'visionary' status. I suspect the university, not to mention the US Air Force, would be embarrassed. No where in the Air Force does it advocate theft or dishonestly. He writes that he 'fined tuned' his leadership capability in the USAF before going to college - does the Air Force have a branch that teaches theft, deceipt, manipulation and dishonesty? Here's what Sergio Pinon wrote about himself:
"Visionary whose leadership and creativity is backed by over 25 years experience in the marketing, advertising and IT industries. He has a well-seasoned ability for strengthening business, marketing and communication strategies. His many years of experience provide him with powerful business insight and an uncanny intuition. Mr. Pinon is an expert at evaluating marketing needs and formulating cost effective business solutions. He fine-tuned his leadership abilities in the United States Air Force before graduating from American Intercontinental University with a degree in Business Administration."
Having lost thousands to this company, and having seen first hand the lies it disseminates daily, I say this in closing - Caveat Emptor, Buyer Beware. Good luck and God speed Sergio and Bruce. Jesus forgives, but people don't forget. read more
