Anonymous

Regenerative Leadership Institute has worst customer service ever!!

This company must be run by a juvenile male. When I recently purchased a product and then was mistakenly upsold by a landing page that I literally could not remove from my computer unless I purchased product or turned my computer off. I asked for a refund and was told as an act of good will they would give me one, despite the fact that they have a 30 day $$$ back guarantee. I was insulted by them and told I was in the wrong and that they are always in the right. So I guess they were right to cause my computer to be unusable unless I bought their product? Things that make you go hmmmm? Ironic that a person cannot give them a review on google. They know no one would buy from then, their practices are so shady.
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Reason of review:
Return, Exchange or Cancellation Policy
Anonymous
map-marker Minneapolis, Minnesota

Buyer beware of scammy, false advertising

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Hello fellow permies -

I recently purchased two online courses through the Regenerative Leadership Institute without first doing a thorough research. (See the 13 furious letters on the BBB complaints page, as well as other furious reviews you will find under "Open Permaculture Institute, Regenerative Learning Institute, Common Circle Education, Permaculture Design Training, which constitute the trail of "corporations" run by Vladislav Davidson. When my credit card started being automatically charged $9 per week, I emailed the "customer happiness team" to let them know there must be a mistake, and politely asked for a refund and a stop to the weekly subscription services. (When I signed up for the second course, it was on my mobile phone, and I absolutely did not see--more likely it wasn't there--that this company had automatically checked the extra "subscribe" button.) I then received an email from Vladislav Davidson himself saying that I was not deserving of a refund. I then emailed back with a direct quote from his advertising: “You won’t end up in one of those “hidden subscription programs” that charges your credit card every month or anything even remotely like that."

I called the man out on his blatant false advertising, then (due to the red flag and the fact that his course material was incredibly shallow and did not present me with any new material, on top of the fact that he aggressively advertises a 100% no-hassle, cancel-any-time-whatsoever, no-questions-asked song and dance) I asked to cancel the second course. Vladislav emailed back saying he would cancel the course but would have to blacklist my name and send my information around to other companies to make sure none of his “partners” ever sell anything to me again, “not even 10 years down the road,” he wrote. (Great! Please do blacklist me as I never want them to prey on my hard-earned dollars ever again!) I then Googled his name and found a LONG trail of extremely angry customers and people who felt they’d been scammed and defrauded. When I read the CEO’s responses to these people, and his trademark threats to sue and force them to pay $225 per hour for HIS attorney fees, it made my skin crawl. (Why create a culture where you breed pissed off customers in the first place? How about just showing “honesty and integrity” like you advertise all over your brand?)

Vladislav compares his company to Starbucks, but here’s the irony: Not only was permaculture never meant to be corporatized (much less employ deceitful marketing), but, unlike Starbucks, this company’s “customer happiness team” is horrendous, miserable and offensive to the highest order. For a company that devotes so much of its advertising efforts to convincing the customer that this is, in their own advertising words, "definitely not a scam, not even remotely close," it is remarkable that the program is ridden with gimmicks, false promises and hidden subscription fees. This is incredibly offensive to the permaculture and sustainability movement. When I called around and asked various permaculture teachers and leaders about this company and its so-called “leader,” I then find out that he is considered a scammer who has hijacked the permaculture movement for his own monetary gain. Anyone who confronts his shady business practices is automatically threatened with a lawsuit and labeled a “competitor” from another permaculture company. Absurd. Laughable. For the record, I am not a competitor permaculture teacher; I am one of many thousands of pissed off customers, a master’s student, and a concerned citizen who will not tolerate the abuse of innocent consumers.

Not only is Vladislav’s advertising heavily laced with deceitful gimmicks, but the toxic tone with which this individual runs his business (and previous businesses that also came under intense fire) distressingly misses the point of permaculture altogether. It's as destructive and poisonous as the chemical spills they claim to fight against. For a business that touts sustainability, what a very unsustainable business model it is, having to constantly change brands and names to flee from angry consumers and an ever-expanding bad reputation on Yelp and Google. How sad, how exhausting, of their energy and of so many innocent people. Whether they have 250,000 (which Vladislav continues to brag about) or 25 students means nothing to me. Anyone with an aggressive enough online marketing scheme can fool people into clicking buttons.

To add insult to injury, this company advertises having an “A+” BBB rating. What? Due to all the furious customers, the score has fallen to A- and will continue to fall as more customers muster up the balls to speak out. In their own words, “We want to leave you delighted, thrilled and in awe by our courses! We fully believe that the skills and knowledge you will gain from this program will change your life. If there is absolutely anything we can do to help, please do e-mail us and one of our Customer Happiness Team members will assist you." How about apologize for your poor treatment of customers, your exploitation of the permaculture community, the scammy marketing designed to deceive, and expedite my refund immediately, Vladislav?

My friends, social circle, nor I will ever spend a dime with your company. So please keep my name on your blacklist even after you shut down this company and start a new one (yet again) as you run from your ever-growing bad reputation.

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Loss:
$250
Reason of review:
False advertising and horrendous customer service

Preferred solution: Full refund

2 comments
Guest

I had a more expensive experience with Common Circle and the individual described. 6 years later, i still have 2 collection companies on my credit report that cannot be erased due to his slimy misleading cancellation policies. No services were rendered whatsoever and I got charged large sums of money before I was able to convince my credit card company to stop letting him charge me.

Guest

I was going to order but I always read the terms and privacy statements. I thought the terms had some ridiculous statements so I decided to see what kind of reviews this company had.

I want to thank you for sharing your experience. This company has bad reviews all over the internet so I've decided NOT to buy AND I blocked them from ever advertising on my Facebook page again.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It helped me make a better and informed decision

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Anonymous
map-marker Abingdon, Maryland

Scammy

Found a 24 hour deal to get a course for $9. When purchasing it automatically has checked an option for $39 to get 3 more discounted courses. Normally I'd just unclick it, but I looked them up a bit and it actually seemed like a good deal. The website seemed legit, and the first search of reviews indicated it was as well. On the website the courses were all listed for $200 each. So I get them for $50 total. only to find there is almost no content to the three bundled $39 course package. 10 sections to each course, each section seemingly only around two paragraphs. Blatant typos, a quiz for each section which has ~4 questions. Half the answers for questions for the quiz clearly not at all provided within the course. The first quiz for instance asks about what Borax is and how to make a natural shoe polish. Neither shoe polish nor Borax were mentioned whatsoever in the course material. The other sections are the same, 2 paragraphs of information easy to find free online, followed by quiz questions on information not provided. What I got for $39 seems to actually be worth ~$5. I feel ripped off having paid $50 total. Unpleasant imagining how it would feel to have paid the full price of $200.
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Loss:
$40
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Full refund

Samantha Ooy
map-marker Glendale, Arizona

I look forward to do a certification course

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I appreciate that very much. I absolutely loved the DVD and I’m thoroughly enjoying the course when I can get to it. I now have David Holmgren’s book Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability and I’m looking forward to reading that. I would love to use Permaculture on our land and I’m not sure how to go about it. So I’m watching the course over and over as well as the DVD. I’m not sure what I will be able to do here as it’s part of the National Park and so I’m going to start small with a herb spiral and a pot of strawberries. Sparkly rainbow blessings. I wanted to become a part of the student body to learn first hand how to implement and to go on the site visits and work on some sites. Everything looked wonderful. I’m still enjoying the course material and the programme. Thank you for the e-book. I found it inspiring, thought provoking and utterly enjoyable. What I don’t understand is that with something as simple and eco-friendly as Permaculture, why haven’t all the governments in the world climbed aboard. I guess greed has a strangle-hold on them, either that or they are not ready to see what is in front of them. I look forward to being able to do a certification course one day. Sparkly rainbow blessings.
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Reason of review:
Problems with payment

Preferred solution: Price reduction

Florencio Wcr
map-marker Beaverton, Oregon

Summary of PDC manual first three chapters

I like the simple packaging you have it somehow reflects the consciousness of the whole issue of the environment. I would say it is good please keep up the good work. To some of us Africans it is not easy to get access to the right information. The only thing I noticed that can be improved is the video quality. But overall I appreciate the initiative. I cant remember really how the marketing was done. I was in the middle of reading and watching quiet a number of videos from Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, and other you tube videos and did signed up to several sites so I just wanted to get the DVD since it was cheap. But the content is worth a million bucks really. It a phenomenal summary of PDC manual first three chapters. I also liked the comments which she made about other resources for further information. I haven’t started actively doing permaculture yet but I have been reading extensively about it. I thought that was really a good summary.
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Reason of review:
Pricing issue

Preferred solution: Price reduction

Javel Vzq

Permaculture is a lifestyle

Updated by user Nov 12, 2016

To be honest, I am usually a little suspicious of “free” products as sometimes they are followed by a barrage of emails trying to sell you other things/programs. I am extremely grateful and really appreciate that this was not the case with this CD!

I was very happy with this product. It was a lot of helpful information presented in an organized fashion with good use of appropriate examples.

It was clear and seemed well-planned! Great job!

Original review Nov 12, 2016
Permaculture is truly understanding nature and working with it not against it. It offers solutions for agriculture, energy and social organization that would make this world an enjoyable place for everyone. Permaculture is a lifestyle and a mindset, not just a way to grow your food, and that is why it is so revolutionary. This course enables you to learn everything about acquiring this lifestyle and mindset in your own time form wonderful instructors and free of charge. I just can’t say enough about how much I love this course, how helpful it’s been and how thankful I am. I really recommend this course to everyone who is willing to be the change that we want to see in the world.
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Reason of review:
Pricing issue
Brennyn Gli

Its really not something I can put into words

I originally joined this bike tour on behalf of my sister threatening my mother that she was going to go across country by herself. I sucked it up and biked like crazy and ate all this vegan food and for the first couple of days I wanted to leave. What I needed was time to adjust, by the end of the tour I was in tears and I never wanted to return home. Not only did this Regenerative Leadership Institute tour education show me a whole other world that I didn't find possible, it introduced me to an environment and a lifestyle my body had so much been craving ever since birth, it is when exercising and eating right and working together in an environment such as the west cost that brought about so much positive energy I felt that I was truly alive and now I long for the day that I have no strings attached in order to move to the west cost and become more involved in this amazing way of living and I thank Regenerative Leadership Institute for such motivation, upon returning home to Long Island I even kept up the biking because on the first day of the tour I biked for 10 hours without dieing so anything physical activity that took less then that felt like a piece of cake to me which was such a beautiful thing. You learn allot on this tour but its really not something I can put into words for you to understand, its a feeling, an experience that one must have themselves and I highly recommend it because in all reality we all thrive to feel alive some just search forever or look in all the wrong places to feel this way.
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Reason of review:
Good quality
Sury Vzg
map-marker Los Angeles, California

Inspired and deeply appreciative

I was inspired and deeply appreciative of the level of quality in he instruction and the level of personal engagement with the instructors who were all clearly moved and motivated by the material at hand. The site visits were really interesting and informative. I especially enjoyed meeting Harry and visiting Sun-bow farms. All of the sites were unique in there own way and it was inspiring to see how the ideal of permaculture could be implemented in such a variety of ways and scales. I do wish that the service projects could have been more intentionally instructive in teaching us skills related to creating permacultured environments (ie: caring for chickens, building natural structures, harvesting and planting edible landscapes). However, the inclusion of service projects are in and of themselves fantastic in showing gratitude to our hosts and getting a feel for their daily lives. I loved the course site and our hosts. The straw-bale classroom was welcoming and comfortable. The composting toilets were a life changing, perception altering experience, and the natural environment / native ecosystem was extraordinarily nurturing. The experience was definitely impactful. I am still processing all that I learned during the course and figuring out how it will manifest changes within my life and community. In future incarnations of this course, I would like to see even more emphasis placed on meditation and internal processes.
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Reason of review:
Good quality
Selvin Gdp
map-marker Manassas, Virginia

Site was a perfect location for our course

The classroom had no walls, it wasn't a single place or persons. I learned and shared with peers in an open community atmosphere. each and every person gave to me a special gift - and my life has changed! I miss everyone. The site visits were very thought provoking and a true treat. Each place different and special in its own right - it was an important factor in the journey to see so many examples of change. I think the site was a perfect location for our course - very beautiful! Steve and I really enjoyed camping under the pear tree. it was inspiring to be camping out in a transformed urban backyard - it made to content of the course a lived in reality.
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Kele Qny
map-marker Wilmington, Delaware

This tour gave us the experience

"I went on the cycling tour with Regenerative Leadership Institute last summer, and if I lived on the West Coast I would go every year. Maybe it is because I'm from New York, but on the tour were the thirty nicest folks I've ever met. Vladislav got us interacting in the rewarding, personal way from the very beginning, for in our first group activity we each looked into the eyes of a few of our new traveling companions. And so we jumped right into the world of sublime, complex, healthy, uniquely human happiness from the more popular world of base, simple, unhealthy, animalistic happiness from which we had come, and to which we would sadly have to return...for now. Singing, talking, and sharing our stories, we turned activities from fun to thrilling through the use of the love connection that week, rather than the use of drugs such as alcohol. On our travels we found very few if any biting insects, a result of the dry summer; but we did find many profuse growths of wild blackberries, and included them in our vegan meal preparations. We enjoyed in those meals not a simple mixture of fat and sugar, but a complex mixture of spices and vegetables, inducing another aspect of that complex and healthy sort of happiness. This tour gave us the requisite experience to empathize with those who might share with us their dreams of getting people together, for the power of those dreams lies not in facts and figures, but in the sublime experience they aim to bring to us the whole year round. And its positive reinforcement to form deep connections with people made us more likely to care about those dreams, for dreams travel fastest over the love connection."
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Reason of review:
Good quality
Mieka Ven

Meaningful Interactions & Coursework

My experience with the Permaculture course offered in Eugene, OR was ideal, and I do, and will continue to recommend it to my friends. I impulsively signed up at their website without reading all of their rules/polices (which was foolish, but I said it was impulsive, right?). I have no regrets as everything worked well for me, the travel, accommodations, food, group experience, faculty and guest presenters, curriculum, pace, the trips to farms and other experiences were exactly what I needed to get my 'head right' on the impact I would like to make in my communities. It provided a wonderful opportunity to broaden my idea of what is possible in a cooperative community. Upon arrival, honestly, I did not know what to expect other than I was ripe and ready to learn a new way of approaching the same problems. (Being from a large mid-western city that is stuck into the ""what's in it for me"" attitude.) The course was a refreshing way to refocus on what is important to me and shift away from a stagnant mind-set. I can recommend their course, sure, it was a wonderful program with wonderful people, meaningful interactions, awesome coursework, a very hands on experiential adventure. For that, I am grateful. Thank you.
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Reason of review:
Pricing issue
Norville Mre
map-marker Providence, Utah

I would suggest expanding

The content you talk about it great! This is just my personal opinion, probably because I am a visualizer, my way of really taking the concepts you talk about in the video is to see some more examples (visual examples). It is great how you outline the key points from each chapter and expand on those throughout the presentation, but if you really want the people you are presenting to, to really absorb the context, then I would suggest expanding on those explanations and describe these concepts with visual examples/pictures. As I outlined in #6 the context and material was great! My recommendation would be to add visuals and provide more examples of permaculture so you can really give people ideas to expand their creativity and how each of us can live sustain-ably and be more self-sufficient individuals within our locale.
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Reason of review:
Pricing issue

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

Charla Jju
map-marker Wilmington, Delaware

Spent the time learning

First time to spend so many days in Fort Mason. A beautiful site. Historical buildings with high ceiling. Natural lights and air circulation created a pleasant learning location. Excellent instructors sharing their knowledge. Non traditional educational style, less on the lectures and more on the sharing and interactive exercises. I consider these 5 days well spent. Since I didn't have any expectation about the course, everything is a learning experience for me. Fellow classmates were all dynamic community pro activists. Great to spent the time learning and connecting with various instructors and participants. I think i will be with Regenerative Leadership Institute again in the near future for sure.
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Reason of review:
Good quality
Francie Kik

Good experience

The experiences I have had and people I have met has been life changing. On these trips, a community is created and everyone's individuality is honored, welcomed and celebrated as you work together each day to prepare meals, confront issues large and small and discover how each and every one of us can be the change that we wish to see in the world. The programs offered are exciting, intellectual and mind expanding! Be prepared to meet awesome people, eat lovingly prepared healthy food and connect truthfully and completely with yourself, your fellow travelers and the world around you, It was good experience.
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Reason of review:
Good quality
Anonymous

Total scam

I have nothing but bad feelings about this company. I signed up for a "free course", and then got dunned with emails asking e to pay for a "certificate". Then I found a review of professional permaculture teachers who said the course was not recognized by anyone.

When I wrote Vlad, asking why it was not "free" he sent me abusive and threatening emails, and threatened to take me to court and sue me for damages. He said he had thousands of students all over the world, and that his "school" was the largest permaculture school in the world.

I took the "course", which was nothing more than some videos, which were very low in information.

I ended up taking a REAL permaculture design course in Belize, and it was amazing, nothing like this fake course being promoted by "Open Permaculture School".

Do yourself a favor and avoid this scam.

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Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised
1 comment
Guest

I got ripped off too, and I can see other complaints online. I signed up for the $9, got charged $38 and told I’d signed up for another one too.

I’m luckier than the lady who got charged $500!

Then he says you can only get your money back if you complete the course! I don’t have time to do a course I didn’t sign up for!!