Long story short: save your money (over $1,300) and don't hire these people. Training might be good if everything goes smoothly - and I want to start by thanking our trainer (Hunter) for his work, dedication, and manners. But if problems arise, big bully Marvin with his disrespect and awful service will make it impossible to work it out, as the worst business owner I've ever seen. Let's dive into the awful journey with Marvin and his con way to do business.
Our training was going well, up until my puppy Mamba got a skin infection on his neck due to the training collar (things happen), right before moving to the group classes. In all fairness, and before Marvin tries to use it to dismiss my complaint, we even had a 6th individual class (because two of the previous sessions were about half of the scheduled time, I asked about it, and they granted it). Before he tries to use this too, I followed instructions with the collar and removed it more often and longer than the "1 hour, twice a day" recommended. So I reached out when the infection was diagnosed, and 3 weeks later when he was cleared off. Both times Marvin said he'll call me to talk about it. Never happened, though. My vet told me not to use the training collar again, so I wanted to discuss options. After 5 weeks total without hearing back from them, I reached out again, asking for a refund. In my attempt to being respectful, since normally I just found time late at night and during weekends, I was texting them and trying to set up times for a call.
That's when Marvin, with the manners of a frustrated real estate agent or car dealer, picked up the phone to give me training tips (great timing, over a month later) and then moved on to yell at me and disrespect me when I told him the same thing I said on my text: I only want to discuss a refund, even if partial as we had completed the individual part of the program. After having the business owner not caring about his collar giving my dog an infection, I thought that was fair, right? Mr. Marvin BIG BULLY Versteeg didn't think so.
Bringing some of Marvin's greatest hits in that phone call here, as a display of his business ownership skills:
- Customer service: with gems such as "you don't know how to dial or what" and "I've never given a refund, and I'm not giving you one" made it very clear that after getting your check (he's really fast for that) you're on your own.
- Lying and disrespecting: according to him and his alleged "notes", he had called me every time, and we even had a 30 min chat. None of that was true. In good faith, I assumed he had me mistaken for somebody else, and I told him that. He went on to call me a liar on that, repeatedly. Fortunately, my carrier's records (much more reliable than Marvin's notes) prove I'm right.
- Dispute resolution: the cherry on top was Marvin's cowardly throwing a tantrum as a farewell, showing once again his hot-headedness. While I was trying to talk to him, he hung up on me, didn't pick up the phone when I called him back and texted me saying he wouldn't talk to "you or anyone else who just wants to be slanderous". He never apologized either, at any point, being that the first thing that should have came out of his mouth for several reasons.
I hope this helps other people, not only to save money and avoid being robbed by Marvin in the future, but also to ditch an opportunity to be disrespected by a bully salesman who doesn't care about his customers.
Gorka Madariaga read more