Living Foods Institute
6.2K
CLAIMED LOSSES
5
TOTAL REVIEWS
2.9K
PAGE VIEWS
Living Foods Institute Reviews
Anonymous
New Ownership
Dear concerned consumer or owner of this website, I am the new owner of The Living Foods Institute and am so sorry to read about your experience. I would love to talk with you personally. Please contact me at 404-308-****. Beth
Anonymous
Terrible People
I am copying the email I just sent to their local news station Good Afternoon, I was inquiring with your station to possibly get some help with a company I am having issues with. In mid September one of our employees ****** came to me in tears because he could not afford treatment for his mothers cancer, and had nowhere else to turn. After speaking with him about it all I offered $1,500.00 towards her treatment at "The Living Foods Institute" in Atlanta Georgia. Mrs. **** to date has not received the services due to being too sick to even go in for treatment. The $1,500.00 was supposed to pay for and they are refusing to refund the money or even answer my phone calls. I have called multiple times and left multiple messages with a number of people with no avail. Mrs. **** has to return to Israel for treatment at this point, and her son is distraught over the chain of events. Mrs.**** and her son **** are of the finest, most respectful, and grateful people I have known. I am reaching out in hopes that your station could help us with the situation at hand. I do not think that it is okay to not refund that money when the services were never rendered. These are people with very little money and limited options when it comes to saving Mrs.**** life. Please help.
Reason of review:
Return, Exchange or Cancellation Policy
1 comment
Anonymous
I Will Never Go Back There Again
School curriculum: Covered basic skills in sprouting and concepts of hands-on raw cuisine for 2 hours daily linked to health and nutrition for beginners. Recipes were modified and it was hard to find them in their book. The idea of introducing students to a whole approach to wellness is good. Water, dental, colonics, massage, nutritional products, etc. However, presentations were erratic. Excessive presentations on essential oils. No syllabus/agenda either, so you don’t know what to expect daily. Repetitious lectures upon arrival of new students. Each morning our group was advised to perform one enema followed by a wheatgrass implant in the morning and another one at night. My experience: Please consult your health care practitioner if so many enemas and wheatgrass implants are good for you. Also, before ingesting any recommended herbs or supplements be sure you are not allergic or reactive to any ingredient. You will feel shaken by the effects of the regimen which could be a normal reaction… or not. I participated on a 15-day program on July 2016. Five days for detoxing plus ten days for the program. Due to the enemas, I slowly lost my ability to rationalize or make educated decisions as my electrolytes were thrown out of balance. I collapsed (a syncope) on the floor in morning of the 11th day with a severe mineral deficiency/imbalance. An emergency ambulance needed to be called because I was unconscious. As evidenced by the institute, it all started with a heavy dizziness on the second day of the program and I wish they had reminded me to call my doctor. From the 2nd day all the way to the 11th, my mental and physical conditions gradually deteriorated. This was the first time in my life that I needed to be hospitalized. I stayed overnight and received five IV bags of electrolytes. Also, uncomfortable heart exams were performed. Due to my rehabilitation, I missed the final 5 days of the program including the morning I passed out. It took me three months to recover from this avoidable nightmare both physically and emotionally. So please take charge of your own health while at the institute. Back home, my doctor said that I should have never done all these enemas considering I am fit, healthy, exercise daily, 5’3” tall and weigh 108 pounds. Be well, choose wisely, and take care. Main Nutrition: Alkaline water, Energy Soup, veggie ***, wheatgrass juice, sprouts, mixed greens. I love all these foods and had no problems eating them. I had been mostly vegan for 6 months. The Energy Soup loses its appeal after drinking it so much. Adding different herbs and spices may be more palatable to some students. Facility: Humble and clean. Lectures and teaching occurred in the kitchen. The noise from the big refrigerators can be annoying and distracting. TVs sets old and outdated. Therapy rooms are small with assorted devices. One of them has a fabric curtain dividing the infrared sauna and the guided meditation chair. Instructors/Personnel: Two skillful ones, including our food prep teacher, no longer work there. Personnel is nice and courteous. One teacher had no instructional techniques. Colonics therapist was also good but no longer works there. Individualization: None. This is a one-size-fits-all program. It doesn’t matter if you are sick or healthy. Not even a self-monitoring plan was in place to help us follow our progress and be alert to our reactions. Buyer Beware Contract: Read the contract very well before you sign! Consult your lawyer if you have any doubts. No refunds for hospitalization or any circumstances. In addition, enemas and wheatgrass implants are not mentioned on the contract, but this is a big part of their program! We were dismissed at 3:30 instead of 4PM. Added expenses: Filtered water and wheatgrass, ***, veggies, etc. for the evening bought at market price at their store. Be careful with extra therapies and remember that if you are sick, you are vulnerable. Health Scope Scan: Please research before you buy it. Results showed lots of similarities among us who had a variety of health status and age. A representative from the institute interprets the results and prescribes herbs and oils from their store. Cost/Benefit: Not worth it. I will never set foot in this place again. Travelling, lodging and in my case hospital bills, all add up.
Reason of review:
Bad quality
Nevah Dwy
Atlanta, Georgia
CAUTION! Don't pay for anything in advance!!
You need to ask some very important questions about why Living Foods Institute emphasizes their no refund policy so emphatically over and over again in their agreement. It's because they take no responsibility for poor or negative results of their one size fits all program. If your loved one is seriously ill and goes to Living Foods Institute and ends up getting violently ill and can not attend another class, they will not refund a penny. All the compassion expressed on their website evaporates the minute they are faced with less than ideal results. If their client dies shortly after attending a single class, Living Foods institute will stand by their "policy" rather than do the right thing. There is no compassion at all. This place is all about the money. I'm sure some people have had positive results but our experience was horrific and tragic. It did not have to be that way. They could have easily taken circumstances into consideration but instead they gave hope to a very sick person who was desperately seeking help, required payment in full, even for additional modalities that were never provided, and then said "sorry, not our problem" when she passed away shortly after getting horribly sick after her first and only class. Our family had a devastating experience and Living Foods took the money and ran. Not the compassionate organization they portray themselves to be. To add insult to injury, when they turned a deaf ear to our situation, I told them we would share our experience via social media. They responded by accusing me of making "terroristic threats" That pretty much sums up what these people are about... The best companies, those that have complete confidence in the quality of their product or service, offer money back guarantees. Living Foods Institute takes the opposite approach. They won't even talk to you about scheduling a consultation without requiring full payment UP FRONT. Zero confidence, zero compassion, zero credibility.
Loss:
$3200
Reason of review:
No refund polict despite death of their client who was negatively impacted by their "service"
Preferred solution: Full refund
Dennise Wav
Atlanta, Georgia
Heartless & greedy company preying on terminal cancer patients looking for alternative treatment
Living Foods Institute professes to believe in the holistic healing of body, mind, and spirit using an organic, vegan diet and education classes. My mom was fighting terminal cancer when we found Living Foods. Looking for anything that might help her gain even a few more months of life, we paid in full for my mom to attend their very expensive and immersive program. At the time of her registration, my mom was not feeling well but she showed no signs to serious decline. Soon after beginning their treatment program and detox plan, mom fell into an unimaginably severe detox that overwhelmed her weakened immune system. This was the beginning of the end. She never recovered, and it ultimately led to her passing. While her decline was in no way directly caused by her time at Living Foods, their program played a role. They claim to work with Stage 4 cancer patients, but their one-size-fits-all approach proves to be anything but knowledgeable in how to provide alternative care for such patients. This is something I will have to live with the rest of my life, but this is not the main reason I am writing this review. In the months following my mom's death, we have repeatedly tried to contact Living Foods Institute regarding a refund for the portion of the program my mother will never be able to now complete. She only attended ONE session. We have written letters, tried to respectfully speak to the founder Brenda Cobb, and requested audience with the Board, all to no avail. Their initial tone of compassion at registration immediately turned stony when they learned of my mom's death. They refuse to provide any portion of a refund. Our purpose is not vengeance; it is simply to recover some funds to help make final arrangements for my mother easier. The pain of losing her has been compounded by the callousness of this company. This institution in no way lives up to their claims of compassion. When faced with true pain and suffering, they chose to turn the other way. I fully believe in the healing power of raw, organic, and vegan diet, but I do not trust a company that shows such a lack of morality and common decency when someone experiences a less than perfect outcome from their program. On top of losing my mother, I now have to deal with the additional anguish this company has caused our family. Shame on you, Brenda Cobb.
Loss:
$3000
Cons:
- That they refuse to give refunds even if someone dies
Reason of review:
Poor customer service
Preferred solution: Full refund
Marisa,
I am sorry that you are so angry, however you do not have the facts correct. Your aunt’s son did not save up for months to pay 1500.00 for his mother.
The facts are that we gave your aunt a scholarship so she could attend our program. The total of the program tuition with therapies was 3920.00. We gave her a scholarship of 2420.00 so the total cost to her was 1500.00. The son and daughter contacted us and asked for our help and because we never turn anyone away because of money we gave them all that was in the scholarship fund for their mother.
The company that the son works for made a donation in the amount of 1500.00 so your aunt could attend the program as the son told us that he had no money and that his company had generously agreed that they would pay for the treatment and that this was a gift from them. The program your aunt wanted to take began on Sept. 8, 2017 and even though the son told us that the check was in the mail no check had arrived to us by that date. Instead of turning your aunt away we allowed her to come to the program without paying anything.
She checked in with us on Sept. 7, 2017 and she took several days of the program and received some therapies as well so your statement that she did not receive any services are treatments is inaccurate. Her daughter called us after her mother had been in the program for several days and said that her mother felt guilty about coming to the program since nothing had been paid to us and she said that she did not understand why her brother had not just brought the check to us since had had driven to Atlanta and he actually is the person who brought his mother to our program. He told us that the check had been mailed on Sept.
4, 2017 but could not provide any form of mailing proof or a tracking number. We did not let that interfere with allowing your aunt to begin our program. We told the daughter that her mother should not feel guilty that we had not received payment and that our biggest concern was helping her get well and we encouraged her to continue to come and finish out the program. The daughter then asked if her mother could continue our program in October and if we would allow her to start over and take the full program with all of the days even though she had already completed 4 of the days and we agreed that would be okay and that we would not charge any additional money for that consideration for her to come back Oct.
6-15, 2017 and receive those additional days. We also told her daughter that she could come in anytime and get therapies with us and she did not have to wait until the Oct. program to continue getting the help she needed. The daughter agreed that she would bring her in but she never did.
We called the daughter checking on her mother and asking her when she would bring her and she said that it was difficult with her job to bring her mother so that she would wait until the October 6, 2017 date to bring her back. We reminded her that she could bring her in on the weekends when she was not working, but she did not make that effort. When your aunt came to our program on September 7, 2017 with her son both she and he signed a contract agreement for payment of the 1500.00, which we still had not received on that date, with the understanding that when that check did arrive to us that we would deposit it and that it was a final sale and non-refundable under any conditions and that she would have a full 6 months to complete the program so that if she missed any days during her original Sept. 8-17, 2017 dates she would be able to make those up in any of our future programs which we hold every month.
On the contract it also states that if a person chooses not to attend our program that they may transfer their seat to another person of their choice, either a friend or family member and that person could benefit from our program. The check did not arrive to us until September 15, 2017 when we deposited it and called both the son and the daughter to let them know. They were both pleased that we had finally received the check and said they were grateful that we had allowed their mother to attend our program without payment and that the daughter would be bringing her back to the October 6-15, 2017 program and we registered their mother for those program dates. We received a call from the son on September 29, 2017 to tell us that the daughter would not be able to bring the mother because she had started a new job and it would be difficult to provide transportation even thought the daughter had previously told us that she had a friend that had agreed to help her with transportation to get the mother back and forth to the center.
We told him that was okay and that his mother would have 6 months to come back and complete the program. Then he changed his story and said that he wanted the money back because his mother was going on a trip to Israel and she needed the money for her travel expenses and we informed and reminded him that he had signed a contract with the understanding that it was a final sale and non-refundable under any circumstances. He became irate and very abusive to our director and threatened her that he was going to tell his company that his mother did not receive any services from us and that is completely false as we have all of the records of her checking in each of the days she attended and he brought her and even stayed at the center during those days while she was in our program. Your facts are all incorrect and the information that you state in your complaint is inaccurate.
We are not crooks and we do have morals. We are a healing center and have been helping people since 1999 to heal naturally and holistically if this is what they are seeking. We have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship assistance to those in need just as we did for your aunt. The son and daughter as well the mother all understood that the tuition paid for the program was non-refundable and they agreed to that with both the son and mother’s signatures on our program and services agreement.
We are completely transparent with anyone who wants to come to our programs and everyone understands before they ever register for our programs that tuition is a final sale and non-refundable and that if they choose not to come or not to complete the program that the no refund policy stands. The real truth here is that it was not convenient for the son and daughter to bring their mother to our center to complete her program and therapies and they are now, along with you, making up stories that continually change as to the real facts. It is sad that as much as we have done everything for this family that they have chosen to behave in such a negative way, however, we will never let the actions of one or two people prevent us from delivering on the expectations of our clients and continue to help as many people as we possibly can with a loving heart and much compassion. We do wish you and your family the very best and our doors are always open to you, your family,.
and your aunt to return and complete the program they registered for.
We are sending you love and blessings on your journey and are remembering your aunt in our healing prayers. With gratitude for being able to serve, Brenda Cobb, Founder Living Foods Institute