Source: Rip-off Report Mars Venus move to the USA
Recently Mars Venus Coaching have begun recruiting new franchisees in the USA. I am not sure if they have changed their system, although they seem to have reduced their initial investment by 50%.
In response to the previous claim that Franchisors are not required to list all previous franchisees i have listed them here, so that future franchisees are able to due their due dilligence.
Company History: The company was formed into a franchise operation and since its inception has had a number of Franchisees with also a high number of drop outs.
It launched to the market with great success and Master Franchises in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and New Zealand.
In their attempt to grow the organisation they sponsored the St Kilda Footbal club and during the process had Robert Harvey as a coach. StKilda and Robert Harvey withdrew their support and involvement from Mars Venus early in 2006.
One of the first Master Franchisors for Victoria was Ross Clennet (now with Ingenius at www.ingenius.com.au) who operated the franchise for 12 months before taking Mars Venus to mediation for missrepresentation during the sales process. The action was settled out of court. During Ross Clennet operation of the franchise Susan Dean purchased a unit franchise.
Susan Dean and Michael Dean then purchased the Master Franchise from Mars Venus Coaching and during their time were very successful in bringing on franchisees growing the organisation from consisting of a few master franchisees up to 12 franchisees at one point.
The franchise list below includes both current franchisees and franchisees that have left the system. There are also a number of master franchisors who have left the system from both Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales.
Victorian Franchisees
Rowan Eagles, Daniel Eagleton, Bernhard Pethabridge, Bev Bradley and Liz Corbett, Ben Schuster, Ian Pollard, Toni Culph, Rob Hilliar and Anni Hilliar, Val Tragea, Ziggy Frankefeld, John Gearon, Craig McCarthy
QLD Franchisees, David Traylen
NSW Franchisees, Reich Webber-Montenegro
Western Australia Franchisees, Jill & John Raynor, Ed Wykman
Slovenia, Alex Gregoric
India: Dr. G. P. Kumar MD and Dr Niru Kumar
Singapore: James Yip – Master Licence for Singapore.
Before purchasing this franchise I would highly recomend you contact at least 10 former coaches on the list. You may be able to find some contact details on the mars venus coaching website archive below, or simply try googling some of the names. I hope you find this website before you have invested your hard earned dollars.
Ex mars venus coach Melbourne, Australia
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Veronica James,
I have been a franchisee in the Mars Venus Coaching system for over a year. And I can tell you that from my perspective it is definitely NOT a scam. Veronica, I take offense that you are disparaging my business and my franchise. Maybe you are a bit confused by what the word the word “scam” actually means, so let me provide you a dictionary definition.
scam definition:
[skæm] to swindle someone (to take someone’s money and not provide the agreed-to product or service); to deceive someone (to lie).
So based on this, I have a few direct questions for you. What was the scam? What did you not receive that you paid for?
1. Did you not receive the UFOC (now referred to as the FDD)? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
2. Did you not receive the training manuals? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
3. Did you not receive professional training? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
4. Did you not receive the workshop and seminar materials? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
5. Did you not receive on-going support and coaching? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
6. Did you not receive coaching tools to use? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
7. Did you not receive all the materials to do Life, Business and Executive coaching? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
8. Did you not receive sales and marketing processes to follow? I did and every other Mars Venus Coaching coach I know did.
Next on my list…what did Rich or Jim lie to you about? What
were you told specifically that did not end up being true? The reason I ask, is that I was very attuned throughout my investigative process to anything that smacked of dishonesty or overstatement. And I can tell you that Rich and Jim have been above board and honest in all of my dealings with them. They never once provided revenue or profit claims…after all that would be illegal per the FTC. I speak with both of them every week. They do not miss our appointments. They did not take my money and then abandon me. They truly appear to be vested in my success. Which if you think about it, is just good business. Why would they want coaches to fail? It just makes selling other franchises more difficult. The obvious and only answer is they don’t.
Buying a franchise does not guarantee anyone success. It just gives you a leg up on an independent operator. It gives you a brand name that has awareness, is recognizable and opens up doors and prompts some curiosity. All of which would take you millions of dollars to do yourself. A franchise gives you sound processes, systems and materials that take you years to
create yourself. This is what makes the franchise business model work.
It’s why Subway franchisees usually do better than Bob’s Deli? Do some Subway operators fail? Sure they do… mostly because they run a bad store or picked a bad location. Do some Mars Venus Coaching coaches fail? Sure they do…mostly because they don’t follow the systems or don’t make the prerequisite effort…or how about this…maybe coaching or owning their own business wasn’t right for them. Did you ever consider that this was the case for you?
This world is full of people who portray themselves as victims…who never take the personal accountability to own the problem. For them, it is always someone else’s fault. Someone else had to be wrong, because their failure couldn’t actually be their fault…their responsibility. It seems to me that you needed coaching before you chose to own your own business. Mars Venus Success Coaching does its best to select franchisees who they think will represent the brand well and who have a strong likelihood of success. But again, it is a judgment call and there are no guarantees for either side. Starting any business has risks. History has shown that buying a franchise reduces those risks…but does not eliminate them entirely.
I can only speak for myself. If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely buy the Mars Venus Coaching franchise
My dear Pam,
I have a copy of a Money Order in the amount of $20,000.00 payable to Mars Venus Coaching, but NEVER recieved Franchise Documentation.
I paid the $20,000.00 for the Franchise and never got a Franchise!!!!!!!!
You can ask Rich Bernstein, although surely he would LIE about such things.
I have no issue with the $13,000.00 that I paid for the training, materials, etc., NOR do I have an issue with the $6000.00 that I paid for monthly support.
My issue is with the SCAM they run to get a fake Franchise purchased.
scam definition:
[skæm] to swindle someone (to take someone’s money and not provide the agreed-to product or service); to deceive someone (to lie).
Yes, Rich Bernstein and Mars Venus Coaching took my money, $20,000, and did NOT provide any Franchise Documentation. They lied and never returned my money! SCAM!!!!!
Anymore henchmen Rich??? I will tell the truth for the rest of my days.
Pam Lippett:
Since you are so good with definitions, perhaps you can explain the term "Master Franchisee."
Doesn't that mean a person who makes money off the sale of franchises? One who gets a cut of the franchise fee and a portion of the royalties for anyone they get to sign up as a franchisee?
Pam Lippett, you aren't a "Master Franchisee" are you? Because if you are really a commissioned salesperson pretending that you're just a regular franchisee giving a testimonial, wouldn't that fall under your definition of scam: " to deceive someone (to lie)."?
It must be a different Pamela Lippett on LinkedIn because HER profile reads: "Become a Coach -- As the Master Franchisee for the state of Colorado for MVC, I am seeking highly qualified professionals who wish to be coaches. "
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelalippittmarsvenus
btw Pam, what's the definition of "sleazy"?
@ Veronica: hm, I think there is a misunderstanding. Pam wrote that she was (!) a franchisee for over a year. So I understand it the way that she is no longer franchisee. But funny that you brought that up.
If a franchisee is in the MVC System for over a year. And decides that it is so good, that she will be a masterfranchisee, does that not mean that she was successful ? And that she earned so much money with coaching, that she could afford the Masterlicense?
My plan is to become also a masterfranchisee in 2011. Because since now everything is working better than my expectations.
I thank you for this post, because it is a great proof that the system works :-)
By the way: click on my name and you will find my contact-details. It works the way that you put in your homepage and it will guide anyone who clicks on your name to your website and contactinformation. I hope I could help you with this because it seems you did not know that:
(Veronica James: This site, and most others will not allow a post with anyones contact details for privacy reasons, otherwise yes, I would supply my email and phone #.)
Just try it. I hope I could help you with that.
And please answer the questions from Pam for getting this to a less emotional and more factual discussion. I am very interested in knowing what exactly you didn't got. Thank you for your clarity.
I wish you a great day.
Michael Kubina
MVC Franchisee in Germany
"Pam wrote that she was (!) a franchisee for over a year. So I understand it the way that she is no longer franchisee."
Both Pamela & her husband Scott are currently listed as Master Franchisees for Colorado.
"If a franchisee is in the MVC System for over a year. And decides that it is so good, that she will be a masterfranchisee, does that not mean that she was successful ?"
Definitely not. It could mean that he/she realized that the real money is in selling franchises and not operating one. That's the basis of MLM, pyramid schemes and lots of franchises. The people who make the big money are the ones who reel in suckers, I mean, investors, and that way they get paid whether the concept works on the consumer level or not.
Michael, don't you think Pamela was deceptive in not disclosing that she gets compensated for selling franchises and posting as a regular franchisee?
The responses above from the Mars Venus Coaches fail to address several issues which are instrumental in making an intelligent decision on investing in one of these Mars Venus Coaching Franchises.
The questions I suggest that one of the above Mars Venus Coaches answer or the corporate office are these.
1. Isn’t it true there are 2 pending ongoing fraud cases against Mars Venus Coaching and the CEO Rich Bernstein?
2. Isn’t it true that Bernsteins previous employer Actioncoach (another company selling business coaching franchise) sued him and obtained a judgment against him for theft against the company after he stole franchise fees from the company?
3. Isn’t is true their are several judgments filed in the state of Nevada against Mars Venus CEO Rich Bernstein?
4. Isn’t it true several Mars Venus Franchisee’s in the States have walked away from their Franchises after discovering the system does not work and several outside the US have done so as well?
5. Isn’t it true the Mars Venus disclosure documents have expired in several states and therefore Mars Venus Coaching is not authorized to sell franchises in those states but continues to do so?
These are 5 simple questions that should be answered along with providing a current Franchise Disclosure Document that has been filed with the required state agencies.Not a bunch of dribble pointing fingers or side stepping the facts.
Current disclosure document of all franchises are available online at the Caleasi website. Here you can plainly see Mars Venus has not filed a current disclosure document in over a year in which they are not permitted to sell franchises. You can report them at:
1515 K Street, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95814-4052
(916) 445-7205
Rich Bernstein the CEO of this Mars Venus Coaching is all over the internet bragging about how successful he is on websites and in youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPirLCLNDdg&NR=1
http://www.ahbbs.net/play/PV8bkC9ljbY.htm
http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/bernstein
Public records available online show numerous judgments against Rich Bernstein that are filed in Nevada with the Clark County Recorders office for everything from Federal Tax Liens to even child support just to name a few.
This is the core of this establishments value and what they consider success.
Sorry but no thank you Mars Venus because in my book Reputation, Family, Truth, Values and a good honest clean way of life is success to me not the culture of Mars Venus Coaching that is defined by deception, lawsuits, judgments, and outright lies.
Hi again, I'm in Australia but I can very well believe that the answere to all those questions would be yes.
When Darren Stephens was doing it in Australia they had the same low ethical way of operating. They were forced to shut down there operation in Australia after leaving a path of distruction only to move it to the US for the new owners to do the same their. Unfortunatly it looks like the same culture and ethic level has continued with it.
Rowan.
JUSTTHEFACTS wrote "Current disclosure document of all franchises are available online at the Caleasi website. Here you can plainly see Mars Venus has not filed a current disclosure document in over a year in which they are not permitted to sell franchises."
To clarify, the Caleasi website only includes disclosure documents from franchisors registered in California. If they are not on there that probably means that they are not registered to sell franchises in CA, but doesn'y mean they aren't able to sell in all other states.
JUSTTHEFACTS: you should also check under the name of any CA master franchisee because they may be registered under their corporate name.
Micheal:
I paid the $20,000.00 for the Franchise and never got a Franchise!!!!!!!!
This means that I gave Rich Bernstein a payment of $20,000.00 and NEVER got any paperwork to suggest that I owned a Franchise.
How can one own a business without having the documentation to prove that there is a business?????
He stole my money and gave me nothing!!!!
Mars Venus Coaching Franchise is a SCAM!!!
Amazing!!!
Now Mars Venus admits above they are not registered to sell franchises in California but attempts to cover this fact by claiming it might secretly be hidden under a Master Franchisee's name.
The only Mars Venus Success Coaches listed in California are Jacob Roig and Dheeraj J. Singhal. Neither to my knowledge is a Master Licensee. Regardless the Disclosure document would have to be filed under the Franchise name.
I only mentioned California because these records can be verified online but truthfully they have not filed current Franchise Disclosure Documents in several states therefore the are violating franchise laws by continuing to sell franchises in those states.
In response to the above poster Veronica James maybe your money never was recorded with the company as an actual franchise sale and just embezzled by Rich Bernstein personally. I recommend you contact Actioncoach Bernstein's previous employer who sued him for stealing franchise fees for the sale of a franchise and not reporting it to the company.
Again I stick to my original request that either the corporate office, Pam Lippitt, Michael Kubina or any of the other Mars Venus Coaching Coaches answer the following five questions which are instrumental to anyone in making a competent decision to invest in a Mars Venus Coaching Franchise:
1. Isn’t it true there are 2 pending ongoing fraud cases against Mars Venus Coaching and the CEO Rich Bernstein?
2. Isn’t it true that Bernsteins previous employer Actioncoach (another company selling business coaching franchise) sued him and obtained a judgment against him for theft against the company after he stole franchise fees from the company?
3. Isn’t is true their are several judgments filed in the state of Nevada against Mars Venus CEO Rich Bernstein?
4. Isn’t it true several Mars Venus Franchisee’s in the States have walked away from their Franchises after discovering the system does not work and several outside the US have done so as well?
5. Isn’t it true the Mars Venus disclosure documents have expired in several states and therefore Mars Venus Coaching is not authorized to sell franchises in those states but continues unlawfully to do so?
LAST OF ALL TO EVERYONE OUT THERE CONSIDERING A MARS VENUS FRANCHISE DEMAND THAT YOU RECEIVE A CURRENT FRANCHISE DISCLOSURE DOCUMENT. THEY ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO GIVE YOU THIS AND MAKE SURE IT IS THE SAME COPY THAT HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE APPROPRIATE STATE AGENCIES GOVERNING THE SALE OF FRANCHISES IN YOUR STATE.