BIZZIBIZ Franchise, Youngevity & Dr. Joel Wallach
Bizzibiz, the new digital marketing franchise, has a new social media client: Multi-level marketing company Youngevity, run the controversial Dr. Joel Wallach.
In yesterday’s press release (included below), Youngevity’s VP of Marketing Vanessa Hunter is quoted as saying “BizziBiz has a great track record of success helping businesses increase their online visibility. We believe they are the perfect technology partner to bring us to the next level of engagement and beyond.”
What is the Bizzibiz “track record of success”?
We’re not sure what track record of success Ms. Hunter is referring to. Since the launch of the Bizzibiz franchise in January, 2011, Bizzibiz has done little to offset its own Internet public relations nightmare.
In February, 2011, the Arizona Corporations Commission announced that Bizzibiz founder & CEO Jim Piccolo and his previous business partners must pay nearly $6 million in restitution and fines for defrauding 105 investors. (Read: BIZZIBIZ Franchise Founder Jim Piccolo Defrauded 105 Investors, Says AZ )
In April, 2011, the company filed a lawsuit for legal malpractice against its own franchise attorney and Director of Franchising (Read: BIZZIBIZ Suing Mr. Franchise Kevin B Murphy and Franchise Foundations PC)
In June, 2011, TV huckster Don LaPre – who the company’s Extreme Franchise Marketing arm touted as Vice President, was indicted on 41 counts of conspiracy and fraud, and accused of defrauding 222,000 people of $52 million. LaPre was arrested after reportedly hiding out in a health club locker room for two days, where he allegedly stabbed himself repeatedly. (Read: BIZZIBIZ: VP Don LaPre 2nd Exec Indicted for Fraud)
How has Bizzibiz used social media to address these controversial happenings? Have they addressed or rebutted the critical assertions coursing through the blogosphere, on this site and others?
It appears that they have done nothing except tout their association with another controversial figure, Dr. Joel Wallach.
“A snake-oil sales pitch if there ever was one.”
Bizzibiz client Dr. Joel Wallach and Youngevity have already amassed lots of negative buzz on the Internet already. Here’s what the critics are saying:
“The lies of Wallach and Australian Longevity may do more harm than simply ripping people off. Several of Wallachs claims are potentially dangerous, and some of his products may be harmful.” Stuart Adams (Dr. Wallach Exposed)
“Wallach has a long history of involvement in dubious healthcare schemes, such laetrile treatment for cancer, as well as chelation and hydrogen peroxide therapies for coronary artery disease.” James Pontolillo
“Dr. Wallach is an engaging and entertaining speaker… but this is a snake-oil sales pitch if there ever was one.” NutriTeam Health Watch
Here’s the press release:
Youngevity®, Direct Marketer of Nutrition and Lifestyle Products, Takes the Leap into Digital Marketing
Consumer Cloud to Provide Vehicle for Greater Growth
“With our global network of distributors, we’re well-positioned to leverage social media marketing to our advantage."
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 01, 2011
Javalution Coffee Company (JCOF-PK), Youngevity Essential Life Sciences (http://www.youngevity.com), a direct marketer of lifestyle and nutritional products, including gourmet healthy coffee, has selected digital marketing specialists BizziBiz (http://www.BizziBiz.com) to significantly enhance its presence in the digital world. This commitment to social media marketing is central to the company’s growth strategy of mobilizing customers and distributors and their social reach or "network cloud."
According to Vanessa Hunter, vice president of Marketing at Youngevity, BizziBiz will work with Youngevity to help the company enhance its use of social media to grow its online visibility, strengthen its brand and reputation, and allow distributors and customers to more actively engage with the company.
“Word-of-mouth advertising, or referral marketing, is extraordinarily powerful in today’s social networking world,” said Hunter. “With our global network of distributors, we’re well-positioned to leverage social media marketing to our advantage. BizziBiz has a great track record of success helping businesses increase their online visibility. We believe they are the perfect technology partner to bring us to the next level of engagement and beyond.”
Zach Ferres, Tribal Leader at BizziBiz said, “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to work with Youngevity, because they have such a creative vision about the digital era and using online tools to attract distributors and customers. They are an innovative, fast-growing company with lots of energy. Our tool set is a great fit for them.”
About Youngevity
Youngevity Essential Life Sciences (http://www.youngevity.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AL Global Corporation, is a nutritional and coffee company dedicated to improving lifestyles through vibrant health and flourishing economics. Founded in 1997 by Drs. Joel Wallach, DVM, ND and Ma Lan, MD, Youngevity is the only network marketing company with an FDA-authorized health claim. CLR Roasters, a coffee roasting and distribution company, is a wholly owned subsidiary.
On July 11, 2011 Youngevity merged with Javalution Coffee Company (PINKSHEETS: JCOF) (http://www.javalution.com), which owns and distributes Café La Rica and other brands, which are distributed to retailers. Javalution also roasts the JavaFit® brand of coffee with health benefits.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH BIZZIBIZ, YOUNGEVITY OR DR. JOEL WALLACH? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW?
The blog posts above underscore several issues about our company’s leadership and affiliations, and some challenges we’ve faced as a new company. Our Founder addressed each of the concerns in a letter submitted to unhappyfranchisee.com (“Contact Us”) on 8/19/11 and unfortunately, we haven’t received a response. Rather than add the lengthy document to this comment thread, we invite anyone who would like to discuss a particular issue to call or email us. 480.991.8888 bthebrand@bizzibiz.com. We’d like to take the “UN” out of “unhappyfranchisee…” :) Thanks for being open…
BizziBiz Marketing/PR
We didn’t receive your founders correspondence. Please resend to unhappyfranchisee@gmail.com and we’ll watch for it. Thanks, ADMIN
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I have been on this product for four months and have seen amazing results. I had fibromyalgia, no Dr has given any cure for this, just more medication with side affects was tired of no answers decided to try youngevity. Its amazing and I am on no medication anymore. TY youngevity
I’m so mad about the way I’ve been treated by Youngevity that I can’t sleep at night. I bet Dr. Wallach has no idea how bad his customer service department really is. When I call customer service, no one will ever let me speak to someone who can help me with my problems. I am rightfully not go to tell anyone I know about the Youngevity opportunity, because someday they might have to deal with the non-professional, kindergarten minded idiots who work in Youngevity’s customer service department.
I guess they forgot that the customer comes first, because all they did was argue with me. Their lack of respect for their customers is pathetic.
Approximately 3 weeks ago my wife came to me and plopped down four months worth of bank statements showing that she had been charged for products that she never received and I never received. I was told by a customer service rep to fax to them two sets of banks statements, both my wife’s and mine. Youngevity has taken out $462.82 from her checking account over four months.
During those four months, I received my products as usual so I never knew there was any problem until my wife brought me her bank statements.
I am disabled and I don’t have a fax machine, so I had to walk a half mile to the UPS store to send the fax to Youngevity. Total cost $10.
I faxed the documents to Youngevity last Friday, March 13, 2015. I never got a response from anyone at Youngevity. I had to call them on Tuesday, March 17, 2005 to find out what was going on. Customer service said they would have someone call me back. I told them it was extremely important that I speak to someone immediately. Guess what the customer service idiot did? They forwarded my call to a manager whose voice mail was full, so there was no way I could send them a voice mail. I was pissed and I immediately called back. The same thing happened again by a different customer service rep.
I called at Youngevity at 8AM on Wednesday and by I then I was steaming. I told them I would not hand up until I spoke to a manager. This time I called the auto-ship department. The girl who took my call said no manager was available and could I have someone call me back. All I wanted was to speak to a live person, so I said yes.
Twenty minutes later a manager called me and I explained my situation to her. She said she would look into it and she would call me back. She called me back and asked me to resend the document over to the attention of Katie.
I had to walk another half mile to the UPS store to send another fax. Total cost $10.
A while later I get a call back saying they won’t give my wife her money back. I was so pissed. I went online and found there are lots of other people who have similar stories about Youngevity’s customer service. There is no way anyone who has any integrity would put up with service like this.
Now my wife is out of money in her checking account, because she never knew anything out this and she is just an innocent third party. I never received and of the products I was charged for because they were never sent. It would have been so easy to just contact UPS about the four orders totaling $462.82, to ask them if they have a record of all four of those transactions, but that would have been the easy thing to do.
I hope that whoever receives this email will have the decency to forward this letter to as many people that you know in Youngevity as you can, so that no one else suffers as much as I did. This is NOT the first time I have had problems with their customer service department.
This kind of treatment is unacceptable, and I will not stop until everyone hears about this.
Keith Boynton
P.S. If Youngevity would have just done the right thing in the first place, and given my wife back the money you stole from her account, I wouldn’t have spent my whole weekend at my computer telling everyone I know about what a piss poor, un-professional company Youngevity really is.
Our family has spent the weekend without money, or food, thanks to your un-professional, kindergarten, Mickey Mouse company. We have no groceries, and believe me everybody is going to hear about how badly I’ve been mistreated. Just wait until Monday when the calls start pouring in.
That’s all for right now, or at least until I have the chance to tell more people about Youngevity’s rotten, piss-poor service customer. Think about it for a minute. If I was in the wrong what happened to me would I be spending so much time telling people about something I did that was fraudulent? I’m signing my name along with my contact information, so anyone can contact me. Why would I do that unless what I said was true? What would I gain from doing this if my accusations were false?
One of my daughters is detective for the Richmond Police Department. I’m going to ask her what she thinks I should do, when a company fraudulently takes money from a distributors account.