I am posting the letter that Haverhill sent out to its student-employees. As students passed coursework, they were to be hired full-time. The evidence is piling up showing that Haverhill's business model was set up as a scam from the start.
Many qualified students were deemed "ineligible" by Haverhill for a variety of bogus reasons, which prevented them from being hired. Now, it seems, even the students that were hired had a short lived run with the company as far as any return on their investment in tuition to Haverhill.
October 2009
Dear Haverhill Home Stager,
We are writing to provide an update on Haverhill’s business strategy and, in particular, its retail staging business.
As you may be aware, Haverhill was purchased by a group of private investors in July. At the time of the transaction, it was anticipated that additional funding would be provided as the business required more working capital to develop a robust coast-to-coast retail staging presence. Given the current market environment, this additional round of funding has not yet been secured.
Despite the difficult economic climate, we continue to have discussions from various sources relating to obtaining financing. While we are making every effort to rectify this situation, at this time we cannot provide a firm date as to when we will be able to satisfy any obligations which may be owed.
Our recent cash flow issues have required us to restructure the business so that we can be in a position to fulfill on our obligations. We have changed our current offering to provide new students with a “business-in-a-box” offering – providing the Haverhill award-winning course together with a personalized website, domain name and one-year web hosting. Haverhill will continue to honor the previously contracted terms for existing students.
In lieu of making the outstanding payment, we are prepared to offer you a personalized 5-page website, your choice of available domain name and one-year of web hosting. Please let us know whether you wish to accept this offer as a final settlement of our obligations.
In addition, as we wait to see whether outside funding will be obtained, we intend on passing along all leads for staging work we generate. Each stager may contract directly with the agent or homeowner for the staging work and to collect and retain the full amount.
We will continue to keep you informed of our situation, and appreciate your understanding during this challenging period.
Sincerely,
Haverhill Home Staging Services, Inc.
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I bought the course and was very disappointed by the material I received. It was mostly "work books" and almost no instruction or direction. I tried in vain to find a realtor that would allow me to stage a clients home - for free - so I could take pictures for the course. Shortly after I received the course in spring of 2009 my Father was diagnosed with Leukemia. I called Haverhill and asked for an "extension" of the time allotted to finish the course and was told If I didn't have the materials back when due I would not be "eligible" for a diploma and therefore would not be considered to work for them. The course materials are in the original box basically untouched. My Dad passed away in September 2009 and I know that the amount of work/time I would have had to commit to Haverhill during his last few months, for very little if anything in return, was more than I was willing to do at that time. I have always felt the material was poorly put together, the advertising was very misleading, and pretty much chalked it up to the old "If it seems to good to be true it probably is" rule! The woman I dealt with at Haverhill was, in my opinion, very rude and uncaring, of anything once you paid for the course. I will never sign up for anything like this again and if anyone out there is still considering them... DONT! That's a lot of money to loose and they are not well known enough for the certificate you get to mean anything. At least not in Tennessee where I live. .I don't know if I would be eligible to join a class action suit but certainly will try if one is filed.
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