Sometime during the 2009 calendar year, when Megan Fredrickson and James Arthur Ray’s many other minions were laying out his events for 2010, they scheduled a “Harmonic Weath” gathering for this coming weekend in San Francisco, at a “TBA” location.
The price: $750 per seat.
Now, with just days until that seminar was scheduled to begin, the people who paid Ray in advance for the event are finding themselves high & dry and with wallets that are hundreds of dollars lighter than they should be.
It’s as though James Arthur Ray has given them the ol’ single-finger salute.
One of those people – a man we’ll call Roman – attended one of Ray’s free gatherings, which are commonly used to recruit paying customers for high-dollar seminars.
Roman left the free meeting $1,500 poorer, having given Ray the funds up front for the San Francisco affair that would supposedly help him and his wife Create Harmonic Wealth.
“I Bought them in advance as it was ‘advertised’ as a one time deal during the mini-seminar in San Jose,” Roman tells The Rat.
Now he and presumably dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of others find themselves hitting dead ends as they try to get answers or refunds from Ray, his people, or his PR genius Mark “Master of Disaster” Fabiani.
“I started calling in late December or early January, leaving numerous messages on the main JRI line asking for a call back,” says Roman.
“After James Ray’s arrest… I called several times again asking to get a call back to receive a refund or confirmation of the event. None of my messages or emails were returned.”
He tells Rumor Rat: “I looked all over the web for the venue of the upcoming event, and there is nothing.”
The James Ray International 800 number has now apparently been disconnected, Roman says, and Ray’s e-mail link is broken.
“I’m over $1,500 in the hole for this event supposedly taking place on March 19-20 in SF, but no venue!” he says.
If there is an upside to this mess, perhaps it is that Roman and his wife won’t have to worry about the Harmonic Wealth weekend becoming a life ending rather than life changing event, as it did for Colleen Conaway last summer when she took a suicide dive from the second floor of building during the same seminar in San Diego.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s easy to go broke trying to get rich. I blog about it all the time.
Keep trying Roman. You might be notified of a location shortly before it starts. Ray doesn’t want any unwanted guests hanging around outside, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he even booked the venue under a false name.
If you do go, be aware that he is banned from leading exercises which are physically dangerous, but unfortunately not banned from doing things which are psychologically dangerous. Sleep deprivation, public humiliation and other exercises aimed at inducing “extreme” psycholgical can lead to psychosis, which can itself lead to physical danger.
You won’t be looked after. Staff member Greg Hartle saw Colleen Conaway die says he didn’t even know she was a participant. Then helped other staff members cover it up.
http://spiritualityisnoexcuse.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/hiding-behind-a-lie/
Those who died in the death lodge died because ray got them to push themselves into an “extreme” state and told them it was safe. Again people died before their eyes and they claim they didn’t realise what was happening.
Also, are you really sure you want to learn about “harmonic wealth” from someone who got bail for a triple manslaughter charge by saying he’s broke?
http://jamesray.com/help.php?section=refund
Excerpt from Billing Policy
Quote:
JAMES RAY INTERNATIONAL BILLING POLICY*
LIVE EVENT BILLING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
James Ray International, Inc. (JRI) sells event registrations and does not guarantee event dates, locations or presenters. All event dates, locations or presenters are subject to change due to logistical factors and attendance rate.
Refunds
You, the buyer, may cancel event transactions at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of the transaction. See the Notice of Cancellation Form for an explanation of this right. Due to administrative costs, salaries, coordination activities, materials printed, materials acquisitions, hotel contracts and all other business expenses incurred for a public event, following three business days, all event registration fees are a non-refundable purchase. No exceptions to the refund policy will be made after midnight of the third business day after the date of this transaction.
I hope these people challenge this policy – class action maybe? I think (hope) JR may have screwed himself when he stipulated specific reasons for this policy, which then became part of the contract, and which are not applicable in this instance. The event would not be canceled “due to logistical factors and attendance rate,” but because of court-ordered legal restrictions placed on JR, prohibiting him from delivering as promised … And since no event was ever scheduled, there would be no “administrative costs, salaries, coordination activities,” etc. If JR doesn’t come thru, it looks like a simple breach of contract to me. If I were a lawyer, I’d go for it.
In Megan’s interview with YCSO after getting the immunity deal, she was asked about the JRI refund policy. She replied that they effectively had none.
I’ve heard some people have been able to get their money back with the help of their banking institution. I mean, taking money for a weekend retreat that doesn’t exist is fraud. Although, I suspect the reason it isn’t happening has less to do with the court order and more to do with James Ray being unable to book a venue. He hasn’t actually canceled ANY of his events yet, he only said he canceled after venues canceled on *him*.
Nice point, Cassandra. I remember reading that people booked for Las Vegas event were notified by the venue (Green Valley Resort I think) that they were canceling the event; not JR. Bet their $$$ are sitting in JR’s attys bank acct right now. It would really burn me up to know that my registration fees for a non-existent event are now paying for JR’s murder defense…
If you paid for this sham via credit card, file a reversal of charges notice with your bank now. If that doesn’t work, try the Attorney General’s office.
I had paid for Quantum Leap this past Nov, at first Visa couldnt get my money because James was willing to render services. Well as soon as he was arrested I was back on with visa and with in one week had a refund. People need to keep pushing after the banks.
How much time needs to go by before a service is non rendered?
My wife and I had the exact same experience as Roman. We signed up to go to the event in San Diego on Feb 19 & 20th 2010. I wasn’t able to reach anyone about the event being cancelled or not. I haven’t been able to reach anyone about a refund except at one point I was able to reach his PR person Mark Fabiani who said “I will do my best…thanks”, but months later still haven’t heard anything. My bank will not reverse the charges b/c I bought the tickets 8/20/09 and they said that too much time had passed. What a pain in the ass. If anyone is interested in starting a class action let me know. I’ll talk with my lawyer to see what our options are. Also let me know if anyone has any other idea of how to get my $1,500 back. Small claims court? Thanks!!!
James, I’m in the same boat as you. Countless emails have gone unanswered. I went as far as to post on his Facebook ‘fan page’, only to have my post deleted. It’s beyond frustrating and there must be dozens more like us. Class action, small claims, whatever. I just want my $750 back.