Friday 23 May 2014

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I received an email saying that “the Board at Gulf Project Management Association (Gulf PMA) has directly approved you as a 'Project Management Expert (PME)”. They then sent me further follow-up emails encouraging me to join. They say that the fee to join is $399.

Do you think this is worth the money?


Please don’t waste your money on this.

As far as I can establish this organization, the so-called “Gulf Project Management Association” who also call themselves the “Global Commission of Project Management Executives”, are selling bogus professional memberships. Despite what they say, this has nothing to do with your qualifications or experience. They have no professional standing whatsoever. This is just about money.


I did some detective work and I could find absolutely no evidence that the “Gulf Project Management Association” even exists, other than having a web site that was created just a few days ago.


This organization is yet another peddler of fake qualifications and I now have evidence for this. On the same day that you received your email we received exactly the same email making us the same “membership” offer. The curious thing is that one came to the Consumer Watchdog email address (which isn’t an individual person) and another came to an entirely fake email identity we use for making enquiries to fake universities. If they’re offering their “membership” to people who don’t even exist then we can assume they’re bogus.

This is a move by the fake university industry to explore new opportunities to steal our money. Their web site certainly has many similarities to the web sites of many of these other fake establishments. When you use their online chat facility it even asks you if you are “an existing student”.

Please don’t waste your time or money buying fake qualifications and memberships. It could you end up costing you your job when your employer finds out you’ve been lying to them.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

In February 2013 I bought a 238 litre fridge worth P2,999 and the agreement was to pay in 4 months. I paid a deposit of P1,800 and the remaining P1,200 in the following 3 months. When they delivered the fridge it was not working so I agreed with their decision to send a technician to look at it. The technician fixed it and it worked till August 2013.

I went back to the store and they sent their technicians who took it to the workshop but it never functioned well so the store management took it to their store and gave me a 220 litre TEK fridge to use while they fix mine.

At the beginning of 2014 they said there has been an accident with my fridge so they’ll replace it with a new one. From February till last month I have been going to the store or calling consulting about the issue and all I get is we'll call you but they never do.

The thing is I was patient and now I cant take it anymore because it has been costly to me calling them and going to the store to get the we'll call you response all the time. I don’t have time to go that side at all so please I have been referred to you by a friend to ask for help.


Enough Is enough. You’ve had to live without the fridge you purchased for way too long now. The fact that they then broke your fridge while it was in their care surely makes this even simpler? They should either give you a replacement or pass over ownership of the one they lent you, assuming it’s roughly the same model.

We’ll get in touch with the store and see if they can’t see reason and finally fix this for you.

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