Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Thrive Learning Institute
United States

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?