I'm moving this up the board to give it more exposure (Posted by Nelson of LatinIntro in response to "My Factual Experiences with LAI in Bogota")
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Before I start I would like to make three things clear: 1. It was not my intention to make this statement publicly initially 2. I took my time and made sure that everything I write is supported with facts. 3. I hope somwhow this will turn into a learning experience so all this I spent time on,is not completely a waste of time.
Steve first came to us recommended by Tim around November of 2000. We discussed for 4 months prior to his trip all possible details. I have never in 6 years gone into so much detail with a client as I did with Steve: We exchanged about 60 emails and phone calls back and forth with Steve during those 4 months prior to his trip. I did not mind answering the same questions 10 times because I wanted to make sure Steve had a complete understanding of every single fact (he was one of my first clients since my rupture with LLM and I wanted to build up a happy database of extremely satisfied customers). Steve made the trip to Bogota on March. We even arranged prior to his trip to his request a stationary bike set up in his hotel room, a special soft mattress for his back problem, a newspaper add which run 3 times prior to his arrival, among other things.
Steve ended up staying in Bogota for 4 weeks. We had accomplished our mission with Steve, since he left with a very positive experience. Tim¡¦s recommendation was earned and hopefully Steve would send us more men. This is the letter I received from Steve a few days after his return:
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Hi Nelson, Thanks so much for writing. Everything is going wonderfully...I've spoken to Jenny and your mom many times, and I really miss everyone back in Bogota (including you, Lucas, Charlie, Alexandra, Elizabeth, etc.). Gary Bala and I talked at length over the telephone today, and I couldn't help going on and on about you..."Nelson has wonderful integrity"...."what a great, decent, moral, ethical kind of guy"..."in a business where probably many agencies from Latin America to Central America to Russia to everywhere around the world are phonies, Nelson stands out as the only one with warm, upstanding, ethical integrity, he is the best of the best".....yes, I'm "wearing out the phone lines" from New York to Pennsylvania!!!!! raving about how wonderful you are....also, I have been recommending you to EVERYONE within "earshot", so to speak, men, decent ones, that is, everywhere I possibly can....I hope to be a walking advertisement to you, and help you in any way I can...you are some terrific guy! NELSON, YOU ARE THE BEST, AND YOU DESERVE THE BEST, AND I HOPE YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL IN EVERY WAY IMAGINABLE BECAUSE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL AND GENUINE HEART...I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL TO YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS. As I say, though I speak to Jenny and Lucy regularly, I miss them, and miss everyone in Bogota...Colombians are so much nicer, warmer, more genuine and wonderful than my fellow Americans...I may be in New York, but in my heart, I feel like an "honorary Colombian"...thanks for everything, including the wonderful J&R hotdogs trip, and I look forward to speaking with you and perhaps seeing you again in the not-too-distant future. Warmly, Steve Wolf
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Steve had some very nice gestures with my staff: He bought a plane ticket for Lucy, and gave Lucas a car cradle for his baby daughter. I thought these where nice appreciation gestures, since Lucas and Lucy had really worked their tails off for Steve. Just to give you an idea: Steve met between 70 and 100 ladies during his visit. Lucas not only translated for most of them, but would sit with Steve afterwards and review every single interview. Something no other client has ever requested. These reviews would sometimes last an hour or more. Not only did Lucas do this, but he would stay after work hours to help with Steve. Lucas' wife even called me one time very upset, to ask me not to give their home phone number to clients, because she did not appreciate receiving phone calls for Lucas after midnight. I explained to her that Steve would probably be the only client to do such thing. I also thought that Steve's gesture with Lucy was a nice sign of appreciation since Jenny was living at Lucy's house, and Steve spent a lot of time thre, were not only was Lucy translating on her days off., but having them over for breakfast, lunch or dinner
Steve went back to the US, and he maintained communication with Jenny through Lucy and Lucas. Lucas approached me one day in June or July to tell me there was problem in Paradise. Lucas informed me that Steve was not happy with his relationship with Jenny. Steve was upset because he claimed the latest conversations with Jenny where only about money and additionally he was very upset because she was telling him that she was thinking to also spend some time with her mother, which lived close by to Steve (while travelling with a fiancée visa).
Steve is a very persuasive and compelling person when making a presentation (which is one of the reasons we asked him to help us with our video narration), I think he makes his living as a speech writer. After talking with Steve and afterwards with Jenny, Lucas decided that Steve was right; he made up his mind and informed me about the situation. I trust Lucas’ judgement 100% and agreed on whatever decision he made. Steve decided to end his relationship with Jenny and asked for ring back. He asked Lucas to please help him get the ring back. He told Lucas if he could sell the ring and send him the money he would offer him a commission. I was informed after some time that Jenny had not returned the ring back, which made Steve’s case even stronger regarding Jenny’s character. Lucas decided to take Jenny our of the agency and I backed his decision.
It took about 4-6 weeks to get the ring back from Jenny. We had the ring but now needed to get it back to Steve. We took the time to inquire with the different courier services: FedEx, DHL, Servientrega, Titan, etc. and we found out that they charged about $150 - $250 to ship the ring, and some would not even take such a package. Steve was informed of this and then called me directly. Up to this point I had not communicated with Steve directly since he left Colombia. We went over what happened briefly, and then he asked me to send the ring. I told him I would not pay for the shipping but would instead look for someone to take it back to the states and have the ring mailed form there... It took us about 6 weeks to find someone who would be willing to take upon the responsibility of taking the ring back to the US and sending it to Steve; it finally was received by Steve around October of 2001. Steve did call several times during those 6 weeks when we where trying to find someone, and I admit loosing my patience with him at one point where he insisted that I pay for the shipment of the ring with DHL.
It was about this time, when someone inquired about Jenny, regardless of the fact that Jenny showed up as engaged (This happens pretty often: clients inquiring about women appearing as engaged. We simplify the process of taking someone out of our program by marking them as engaged). We explained to our client what had happened with jenny but he insisted in meeting with her. We proceeded to contact Jenny, one situation led to the other, and I got to talk to Jenny again. I had never spoken with Jenny personally during the entire incident with Steve. I had left Lucas to handle the situation and as I stated before, trusted his decision. After my conversation with her I was shocked.
I will try to simplify the story as much as possible: When Jenny met Steve, she had an excellent job working for an Art Gallery in Bogota. The art gallery was renewing Jenny’s contract for 8 months, and Steve asked Jenny to quit the job because he was planning to have Jenny up in the states with the fiancée visa process in 2 or 3 months. He told Jenny he would support her in the meantime. She quit her job. Steve sent her money for the first two months, and then encountered financial difficulties the third month and could not send her money. He states this financial difficulty in his letters to Jenny, told the same thing to Lucy and Lucas, and I am pretty sure that Gary Bala was told the same. Jenny had expenses to cover, specially the phone bill. She used to call Steve about twice a week for 20 minutes during those 3 months, and used money that Steve sent her to pay for the phone calls. Making calls from Colombia to the states is not cheap. This is why the later conversations where revolving about money.
I was getting a clear picture of the situation, but then Jenny shocked me when she said that money had very little to do with the ending of the relationship. It turns out that Jenny came into knowledge of certain facts that made her think twice of her relationship with Steve. Summarizing this is what Jenny told me:
1. She got disgusted when Steve asked her to go and request from Lucy to take into account the money he had given her for the plane ticket and not charge Jenny for her expenses. (Jenny was renting a room at Lucy’s house)
2. She got extremely upset when Steve then called her mother in the States, and asked her to chip in with Jenny’s living expenses.
3. She did not appreciate the fact that Steve was not honest to her about his physical appearance, when honesty was something both discussed at length. (Steve wears a toupee and Jenny found out about it)
4. Jenny’s mother met Steve, and had some reservations about him which she communicated to Jenny. It seems that Steve got upset when Jenny’s mother insisted in taking him home (Steve took the train instead) and Jenny’s mother did not like the way that Steve stared at Jenny’s younger sister.
5. The compelling factor, said Jenny, was regarding Steve’s previous wife. Now Steve told me that his wife had suffered from a mental illness which resulted in a divorce. It turns out he told Tim that she had died of a terminal disease, and he told Jenny that his ex had left him and disappeared. I have to admit that this also spooked me. What kind of person had we been dealing with.
I asked Jenny about the ring. Why didn’t she return it when asked to. Her answer was very simple. She said, I had no interest in the ring whatsoever, but I had to find a way to pay the phone bill and Lucy’s rent and I decided to borrow money on the ring to pay my bills until I could find a job. She also left Lucy’s house to live with a friend for free in the meantime. Finding a job in Colombia is not easy. But she was able to gather the money to get the ring back and bring it to us so we could send it to Steve.
I decided to resign Jenny with the agency with the conviction that she was not at fault in her relationship with Steve. But the story does not end here:
I was wondering what triggered Steve’s posting this past week. It turns out he called Jenny’s family about 7 weeks ago inquiring about jenny. (1 year after the relationship had ended). Jenny’s was surprised by the call but even more surprised when Steven asked her out. Jenny’s sister told Steve she was not interested in him and neither was her sister since she was not engaged to a good man from Tennessee.
I finally have lost any confidence in Steve. I received the following letter a day after Steve’s posting to my email account:
Dear Mr. Nelson,
I am a dermatologist, and along with my brother, who is a medical student and some of his friends, we have been thinking about coming to your agency. I have been studying material about South America, from various tour operators and the kind of women one can find. Here in the midwest, a few of us have been planning a trip to your continent.
I'm a bit concerned, though, about something I read on one of the discussion forums. It sounds as though one of your visitors was very generous to you and your family, and yet you did not do the right by him. I'm rather hesitant, now, to come to your agency because of what I read. If someone is so kind to you and your mother and staff, shouldn't he be treated with frienship and respect, and consistency of promises? From my culture (originally from Mumbai, India), we look upon lack of respect, appreciation, continuation of good faith and such as a major flaw. Was it really worth letting that girl back in the agency when it was so very wrong, and have people like me and my friends doing an about face about visiting you? Is it really worth hurting your own reputation? We cannot be visitors to your agency being suspicious of character, for this is too, too important, trying to find the right female.
Dr. Rajesh Muhkerjee
This letter was originated from the following IP [208.242.192.253]. I looked up Steve’s previous letter and funny enough it is the same IP. I am betting if his IP is logged on this site, it will be the same one. Isn’t impersonating a doctor a federal crime? Anyhow, this just convinces me of the type of character we have been dealing with.
Nelson.
