Vanguard Institute/Vanguard Academy
Complaint 249956 Details

VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY is in California, but operates worldwide. This organization purports to be an "institution of higher learning" in the "highly lucrative" and "immensely profitable" internet business in and with internet marketing. There is NO phone or fax number on their website. As well, there is not an e-mail address or "Contact" button with a form...only a physical address at 8605 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. Vanguard Institute/Academy performs telemarketing for the vast majority of their clientele. This is the same address as VANGUARD INSTITUTE and the website address and format, so far, remain mostly the same at: http://vanguardinstitute.net/ . Information in several areas on the site reflect the new name of VANGUARD ACADEMY as recent as a month ago, but the web address remains the same. The “Client Relations” Manager, Steve Gunn, did not provide me with an official Vanguard Institute e-mail address….instead I was given an obscure address for him that appears to have NOTHING to do with VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY. He claims he receives messages to this address, but I have never received a response from him from this address. Mr. Gunn is very allusive! That address is: [email protected] . Interestingly enough, you will not find any information on the internet about what “Sterling Corporations.com” is or does either.

They operate in conjunction with other organizations from which they obtain your personal information with which to telemarket their “service” to you. One such organization is Rapid Fire Commissions based out of the UK. I believe there are other "lead" organizations. Additional affiliates and/or associations that conduct business in conjunction with VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY are: Daeus Financial, Premier Mentoring, Daeus Entity Solutions, Your Entity Solutions, Daeus Tax Services, Strategic Tax Services, Daeus Credit Services and the International Coach Federation (perhaps more...these are what I had to deal with). That's a whole LOT of businesses to support...don't you think???
Collectively, they will send you through all of these organizations, take every amount they can get from you and purportedly provide you with their "necessary services". These services are for functions you do NOT initially need or may NEVER need on the scale for which they're designed... if you would EVER need them! This is my personal story:
Several months ago, I was "snagged and reeled" into the internet marketing program of VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY entitled Advertiser 360 and was, consequently, ripped off to the tune of just under $15,000 by them and a large majority of the other organizations I mentioned above.
They called me after I backed out of a hard, tricky and manipulative website sell from Rapid Fire Commissions who then forwarded my information to VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY. It's my belief part of their ploy is to make you feel somehow a more exceptional individual than "the average Joe" because THEY are calling YOU to make the determination whether or not you fit in with THEIR program! This is their justification for NO CONTACT information on their website. They claim they don't want just "ANYONE off the street" to contact them for their expertise! Their claim is that because they call you, that you are special to them!

Based on my experience, they don't care whether or not you're suited for their program...from my dealings with them it's your money they want and THAT'S ALL!!! Amongst all the faux warm friendliness and personal and financial questions, VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY will soon have you agreeing to much, if not all, of what they say and soon have YOU telling them why they should allow you into the program THEY are trying to sell you!
This is an ego playing, mind-bending and reverse psychology tactic and is designed to turn the tables so you end up being the one selling yourself to THEM rather than the other way around and thus, make you more committed to them. IMO this makes it much more difficult to back out...the guilt card is played upon you! Other tactics used on me were questioning me about my credit score, credit history, my credit card limits and how much debt I had on each one so VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY could "help" me determine which of my card(s) to put THEIR charges on! Yes, they will "help you" and "allow you" to split the charges amongst cards if necessary! I didn't experience this, but if you don't have credit cards, I'm willing to bet they would ask what you have in your bank account!
When I was lured in, I chose their mid-range option of $7,800 which was to provide me with something in the neighborhood of hundreds of thousands of "auto responder" e-mails (which, apparently, was a BIG deal to them) instead of the measly hundreds of them from the program for about $900 less than what I paid. (Incidentally, I didn't get the benefit of ANY "auto responder" e-mails and was NEVER reimbursed either...I was told "my funds had already been allocated"). For about $600 MORE...you could get "unlimited" auto responder e-mails! What a great deal...IF you needed them and/or went with their expensive hosting on top of it! There’s more info about THAT below.
I was then led from VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY to the next "coach" for my (unnecessary) business set-up which is Daeus Financial/Your Entity Solutions who happily offered me ONLY 2 business entity options which were both LLC's (the most expensive, complicated and time-consuming options available) for not less than $3,790! FYI - There is NO requirement to get an official "business" set up...either immediately nor in the future...your business volume will determine that! Plus, the decision of which of the many business entities should be made AFTER your business is operating, if you even will ever NEED a "business entity"! This was a TOTAL waste of money! I was led to believe I HAD to get this done before anything else "to be in compliance" with my state. There is so much to do and everything is rushed so you don't have time to think about researching anything for yourself or backing out of the deal. NOTE: Every transaction is subject to a 72-hour (3-day) "buyer's remorse" period that allows you the 72-hours to cancel the deal and get your money refunded to you IN FULL!!! Be stern with them...they will not give your money up without a fight!
From there you're sent to your "tax coach" of Daeus Financial's Strategic Tax Services who convinces you to sign on with their services at the rate of up to $2,990, then, just pay $9.99 per month after the first year. There were 3 choices there, but the lower options are less money up front, but have a MUCH higher monthly fee...so you think your best deal is to take the top one and be paying only $9.99 after the first year. Again, this is a fallacy...you don't NEED an accuntant of any sort until or IF you begin generating income. THEN...you’re "credit coach" of Daeus Financial's Credit Services calls you. He will manage your “business credit” to the tune of $6,000!!! This is where I drew the line in allowing them to charge any more on my credit cards as VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY and these other orgs had already maxed out my credit limits!
I was conned into believing that I would "get a website" from VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY and that I could easily be making at least $3,000 within my first 3 months and $10,000 by the time I reached 6 months and they would show me how. Phrases like, "We will walk you through the whole process" and "We'll hold your hand all the way", were common phrases they used to get me hyped up and lead me to believe they would BE THERE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY UNTIL my business was performing before they left me on my own. My salesman went as far as to tell me, "We worked with 1 guy for about a year before his business was profitable." Here's another good quote from him..."You know it TAKES money to MAKE money, don't you?"
They will provide you with a web building platform (Web Builder), but YOU are required to build your own site and get your hosting through them for another $39.99 per month. VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY is now referring to this $39.99 as a "membership fee". If you don't go with their Web Builder platform and their hosting, which I didn't, your support is VERY limited. Going with their platform wasn't conducive to what I needed for the type of business I selected…which is another decision you'll be rushed into making within the first 2 weeks of receiving your materials! If you don't already have an awesome product...or know what you'd like to sell...in my experience, I was pushed into selecting SOMETHING with little guidance on what that could, would or should be for my own desired outcome. IMO and from my experience, their goal is to get you in and out as quickly as possible. The more people they cram through their program and the quickest...nets them the biggest profit and THAT folks is ALL THEY CARE ABOUT!!!
This course is supposed to be not more than a 6-month deal from what I understand. VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY gives you a "coach" for only 1/2 hour a week and for only the first 13 weeks...which comes to about 3 months...when they lead you to believe you will have the coach for not less than the 6 (or more) months of the program. I also expected that my coach would work with me for longer than 1/2 hour per week!
When you have problems and try to locate help, which they claim is ALWAYS available, they will refer you back to your coach who is really not much more than a personal cheerleader. First of all, 1/2 hour a week is nowhere NEAR the amount of time one would need to spend with someone trying to learn the multitude of things that need to be learned! VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY takes a course that, IMO, should take not less than 2 years to learn and condense it down to a 6-month course! The amount of information and work that goes into learning about and operating a business is PHENOMENAL compared to how it is presented!
I personally, wasn't near prepared for what I was getting myself into and DIDN'T WANT a business that was going to consume my life! I'm an older woman in my mid-fifties and on disability and desperate to get off of the government's apron strings! VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY preyed upon that desperation and didn't prepare me in the least for the intensity of the course and what it took to run a business...even a "simple" home based internet business! Collectively, I was conned me into believing I needed a business I didn't need from the start and tax services I would NEVER use!
It's not so much what VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY tells you about their course and these other organizations tell you about their services...it's what they DON'T tell you! They hold back large amounts of information because they know that if you knew the things I've noted in this complaint up front...MOST people would never sign on with their overpriced and (IMO) overrated program! So my business failed within the first 5 months as I had no more money to use in which to pay regular business costs, but mostly for advertising...which is EXTREMELY expensive and time-consuming!
I'm, by far, not the only one this has happened to...I found a complaint from a woman in her late 70's that was conned out of $6,000 and when she found out what the course was truly about and wanted her money back...VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY told her it was already "spent"...which is essentially what they told me...that it had been allocated and therefore, no longer available for refund! I found complaints from several past employees on one forum that confirmed all that I've written in this complaint and also, said that they specifically target "senior citizens".
I'd like to ask you if you can warn senior citizens, your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers about VANGUARD INSTITUTE/VANGUARD ACADEMY and their associates that work together to keep one another gainfully in business at the expense of those of us trying to eek out a better life for ourselves in this tragic economy! I suspect they may be owned by the same person or run under the same ntity...but have no proof of that. My simple message: BEWARE!!!