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Tom Hess Music Corporation

Tom Hess Music Corporation

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What is your customer experience with Tom Hess Music Corporation?

Tom Hess Music Corporation Overview

The aggregated data is based on reviews and questionnaires provided by PissedConsumer.com users.

  • Tom Hess Music Corporation has 1.1 star rating based on 4 customer reviews. Consumers are mostly dissatisfied.

  • Rating Distribution
  • Pros: People on the forum are nice.
    Cons: Expensive, Empty promises, Low quality videos.

  • Most users ask Tom Hess Music Corporation for the refund as a solution to their issues.

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Anonymous
map-marker Hackney, Hackney

Terrible music lessons

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Tom Hess is a scam artist. He has only his own interest in mind.

The correspondence program is a sham.

He claim that the lessons are tailored to the specific needs of the player but in reality are cookie cutter *** you can freely find on youtube.

If you want to opt for music theory and rhythm go for Signals music theory and songwriting course. If you want to improve on speed check out Roy ziv.

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Aaron H Dmq

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website. Check our FAQ

Verified Reviewer

Horrible experience

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I knew this was a mistake two weeks after signing up. So I go through the very long and drawn out subscription cancellation process.

Once you get through the questions and press "submit" one would think you were done cancelling, but no. After getting billed two more months I reached out to them. Apparently, after you submit your cancellation request it takes you to another page that asks you to cancel again - and if you don't go through after submitting the first request - guess what? They keep charging you!!!!!!!

Huge SCAM!!! I would copy a snippet of the email I received regarding the situation but they have a little "PRIVACY STATEMENT" at the bottom of all of their emails letting you know they'll sue you if you share any info from inside emails. On top of that, Tom thinks he's the only thing on this earth that's good enough to teach guitar. He slams other players that may not "shred" the way he does.

He's *** and arrogant. It's very annoying to me. Some of my favorite blues players are "jokes" in Tom's very vocal opinions. A teacher should never slam other guitar players.

I don't care how good you think you are. It's just trashy. Anyways, I do not recommend Tom Hess for lessons. The forum is confusing and unless you spend countless hours scrolling through peoples daily guitar ritual posts to find good material it's a huge waste of time.

The videos he sends are so low quality. Imagine the home recordings that your grandma made of you running around in diapers from the 80's.

If you are a heavy metal shredder you are the only type I could see getting anything out of Tom. 10/10 will never waste $70 a month on this.

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Loss:
$201
Pros:
  • People on the forum are nice
Cons:
  • Expensive
  • Scam
  • Low quality videos
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Full refund

1 comment
Guest

I agree.

Anonymous

THMC is basically a cult.

Narcissistic Guru? Check.

Revolving door of inner circle members? Check. Love bombing? Check.

Promises life changing information? Check. Steals others' ideas and presents them as his own? Check.

Verbally abuses you and sends flying monkeys if you dare pursue anything he views as competitive (the entire Internet)? Check. Demands "loyalty" from paying clients with the threat of ostracism? Check.

Preys upon people who are desperate? Check. Grooms students to be his unquestioningly obedient underlings.? Check.

Revealing piecemeal information like degrees of initiation, under the pretense that you're not ready (ie, haven't steadily paid him for long enough)? Check. Claims to exclusively hold THE keys to success? Check.

Accuses former clients of "stealing" his information after paying regularly for years for that very information? Check.

Primarily obsessed with power and control. Avoid this little, mean-spirited, vindictive man at all costs.

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Reason of review:
Bad quality
2 comments
Guest

Wow.

I am a student of one if his protegees and I can relate a little.

Tom Hess. The name itself smell

Guest

Not to mention forced reading of certain no music books

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Kacey Ptl

Terrible experience

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Over two years I paid for, and worked hard to do the limitless assignments this program requires. Problem is, the assignments are ineffective and completely distract from the real goal and focus of developing a sustainable music career.

NO good information about online resources and how to monetize your music. I would have preferred to just read the (old and outdated) books he stole his info from. SO, over 2k later - on a limited budget - the least I can do is encourage you to look elsewhere for real help. This is a complete scam.

Embarrassed at myself for sticking with it despite seeing weird signs right off the bat (no student of this program is actually becoming successful - except for Hess & maybe his employees - who are useless when it comes to trying to get help - rudest emails ever.) May I learn from this one. If you want to be completely discouraged in your music career, sign up for this fraudulent ***.

This is especially sad to me cuz musicians tend to be broke and a bit naive already, so you really feel taken advantage of. Yuck.

View full review
Loss:
$2500
Cons:
  • Empty promises
  • Expensive
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Full refund

Anonymous
map-marker Willimantic, Connecticut

DO NOT ENROLL IN ANY OF TOM HESS'S PROGRAMS! COMPLETE GARBAGE!

I was in Tom's EGTIC program for about a year and while there was some decent material there was also some horrible advice that looked more like filler then anything else.

First off he has two levels. One for $147 which is basically useless. All you get is a couple monthly recordings and you don't even have access to the forum which by the way is not some secret formula or whatever he claims it to be. It's been a little while so I forget the exact claim. This is not in any stretch of the imagination worth $147 a month. Don't waste your money!!!

So for $197 you get the forum included.It's simply a forum just like anywhere else but it's full of other teachers. As with any forum it's good to be able to bounce things off of other like minded people but it's not anything special by any means.

You also get a few additional recording a month. It's basically Tom talking about some kind of subject. Again some material is good, useful info and some is just useless filler.

Now where the program really lacks is any kind of real mentoring. The only personal help you get from Tom is a thread on the forum where you can post your questions. If you are lucky he will answer your questions. Many times though they never get answered. Then he does a monthly call where he takes a student and reviews their business with them. This sounds great but you won't get your turn for months down the line and then no follow up except for waiting many months again for your turn to finally come up again.

I've been in three other different guitar teacher training programs and are still in two of them but all three had teacher mentors that were there personally mentoring you through every step. As many of these mentors would attest to I was contacting them almost every single day with questions and they all responded each and every time within 24 hrs. Two of these programs were a fraction of the cost of Tom's but leaps and bounds much better programs.

Also some of Tom's sleasy tactics turned me off. He would get the teachers to put bad reviews on the competitions products, bombard other sites with promoting his products and just simply unethical business tactics. Aside from coming to the conclusion that I was paying a good chunk of money for no results, Tom's way of doing business and using his teachers to do the dirty work convinced me to get out of there. I can't believe I actually stuck around for a whole year.

Now while I was in EGTIC I also joined the correspondence lesons course. What correspondence? There was none! Where I got at least a little value, maybe $20 a month worth as opposed to $200 that he charged, out of EGTIC the correspondence lessons were a complete joke. I would get a bunch of random lesson sheets on say scales for instance with absolutely no instruction at all. Great I have scales but how do I study them? I'm paying for lessons not a resource of scales and chords. I also got a few videos like ones you would see on youtube, actually they were youtube videos and then a couple testimonial videos. Why would he send me testimonial videos if I'm already a student? Didn't make any sense at all. Basically it looked like him or one of his workers spent about 5 minutes just picking some random stuff to send out. Nothing was even close to being tailored for me. It was a bunch of general ***! Worst waste of money I've ever spent. I would have been far better off just using Youtube to teach myself. Total garbage!

While a couple of his products are ok I ordered these books called The Beginning Guitarist Books level one and two which I was going to use with my students. Again complete garbage! They were just songs that you would get from any note reading book like Aura Lee, Irish Song, Happy Birthday etc... but what was worse it there was no notes, it was all in tab and there was no recordings at all. So while he accuses everyone else of stealing from him it looks as though he just picked up a Mel bay or Hal Leonard reading book, tabbed out the parts and called it his own. At least add in some recordings or something to play along with. What garbage! This just reinforces his whole way of doing business.

The most hilarious part of all this is some of the other teachers were ranting and raving about these books. The only conclusion I could come up with is that they were so brainwashed by Tom that they were actually convinced that the books were great. Anybody that has played for even 6 months could see these books were garbage!

So overall Tom's approach it to do the least amount of work, go overboard with hype and way under deliver when he had your money. You want Tom's best stuff? Stick with the free stuff. He uses this to bring you in although his articles are usually riddled with links and offers. If you have been thinking of trying out any of his programs I highly suggest to stay far away or you'll be very disappointed and a bit more broke at the same time. Don't waste your money! Shop around and find a real program with a real mentor that actually cares about your success! The only thing Tom cares about is his wallet!!!

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Reason of review:
Bad quality
8 comments
Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1109330

True that you seem to be learning fast at the beginning with his teachers. You get lessons with pretty cool technical stuff (like sweep picking) pretty early, and many people who are better players just don't know that technical stuff.

But from the second year on it started getting bad: lessons of stuff I already knew, instead of advancing on the technical stuff at least, or in song writing as I wanted.

Many of my questions I started having were not answered any more. You get lulled into a nice group feeling that makes you want to stay, you learn less, you are still waiting for some of the promises made in the advertizement, and the program gets more expensive for new students, while old ones get less value (like a switch from individual to group classes).

Guest

Hello my friend, what a good catch, they were trying to conviced me to enroll but i´m a experience flamenco player, ´ve just wanted to know his course i was curious about his playing fast methond but as you mention all of these things, i can´t imagine myself paying for something we´ve already known, so thank you for your review i put his email as a spam great :)

Guest

I’ve been in Tom’s programs for 5 years. It has turned into a straight up cult.

Many of his long time and most successful students and even instructors are leaving. Tom Hess has a real retention problem on his hands and it’s due to his narcissism, hard sales tactics, and diminishing value over time. He doesn’t allow his students to read any books not recommended by him, he doesn’t allow his students to be friends with anyone who he says ‘competes’ with him...so any famous artist that has online lessons or live events and loads more success and credibility as a player and teacher...like Joe Satriani or Steve Vai, you are required to unfollow, unfriend immediately. Tom doesn’t have to spy on you to find this out because the most loyal butt lickers in the community will do it for him and call you out on the forum.

Any RAND is required reading as well. Tom bans anyone who disagrees with him or his philosophy’s. He targets the young, the inexperienced, those who are desperate for success, as well as foreigners who look up to the American dream and manipulates them by stroking their egos, giving them faint praise, but then humiliating them by highlighting their stupidity thus reminding them why they need him. He is a master manipulator and teaches you how to manipulate others.

He hasn’t no leadership skills whatsoever and it’s easy to see by the way he talks down to his students. He has a scarcity mindset rooted in fear which is why he is so afraid of his competitors. The group has to be closed for fear of others finding out he’s using and stealing their material and reselling it and passing it off as his own in events. I’m sure Tony Robins and many others could easily sue him for stealing and repackaging their material.

Tom has no new ideas...they are just repackaged ideas...and they certainly aren’t worth $200, $300 or even now $400 a month...none of his students know how to calculate an ROI to see if paying him $10,000 a year in events and programs cost is worth it. Some are struggling to get by living in their parents basement, yet making thousands a month from teaching because 60% of their income is obligated to THMC programs. It’s the worst economical decision ever...and they can’t see it. Half the reviews on his page are from people that have left or have been kicked out, but he gladly uses them to promote his business.

If you want to leave his program you have to write him an email explaining why, to which he’ll the. Make you post on the forum to be ridiculed and peer pressured to stay. He recordings you receive are outdated and filled wother rants by Hess demanding that they pay $3000 to buy a ticket right now to his event or they will never be allowed to come to another event again...ever. He makes up stories of offensives that others have done in order for the community to disavow them and not reach out and maintain friendships.

If you remain friends with that person...you are a traitor and banned. His own guitar teaching school failed last year when his best employee and former student left him. His school was already failing. He claims your success as his, and he blames you for your failures.

What a guy?! Bottom line...stay away from Tom Hess and any of his affiliates. He is not teaching anything new or different then others. But he will stretch out how long it takes you to learn it because you’re paying monthly.

His goal is to keep you for life and never advance you past an okay guitar player or teacher. Most people start to figure out his scam about 3 years in.

Many of his former members have left and formed a much better community...much like it was when THMC first started. I’m thinking about joining when I leave THMC for good this year.

Guest

This review was extremely helpful. It really gives an insight on how Tom is just a marketer and a scammer with no real value.

His playing is mediocre at best. From what I saw on you-tube, his focus is on technique and sounds too robot.

Guest

I basically agree with this review.

I took the correspondence lessons and what I got was a whole bunch of it was just guff. I don't doubt that, one on one, he is a great teacher.

Unfortunately, what you get is a set of three or four "lessons" every month (or three weeks, or whatever) that are generic.

Essentially, the movies are clips of him teaching someone else who might, if you are lucky, have a similar problem to yours.

Most often, the problem you have is not the one his pupil has and you are left scratching your head.

Often it vaguely relates to your problem but it deals with a completely different set of weaknesses (i.e. the actual pupils) rather than yours.

The advertising says that he deals with your specific problems. This is basically impossible to achieve because he has never seen me play. He has never seen what my picking hand is doing.

He has never seen whether I play with a lifted picking shoulder, for example (which is very bad, by the way, don't do it unless you like operations). He has never checked the tension in my fretting hand. If you seriously want to improve at guitar, get yourself a good one on one teacher with a proven track record.

Tom Hess is probably a fine example of that (if you can afford him) but I would steer clear of his correspondence lessons. Tom Hess is all about clever marketing.

Guest

IS this real? I am looking to take his music career mentoring program,i take lessons at a guitar school and the lead teacher is a student of toms and I can tell they model their business after eachother but the thing is I really have learned guitar wayyy faster than anyone I know. I have been playing drums for 11 years in bands and im learning things that fellow friends who play guitar since they were kids don't know and im learning at a rapid rate although having to steer clear of the nonsence that comes along with the teaching which I see the same thing when I read toms stuff so I know where he gets it

thanks

Guest

He should spend some of his scam $ on some fake hair.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1051748

You are one funny character dog!

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Anonymous
map-marker Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Bait-and-switch is just as bad with people claiming to be "mentored" by Tom Hess

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There seems to be so much bait-and-switch with these self-appointed guitar gurus. It's really sad because I was really spoiled by having a GREAT guitar teacher in FL but had to move. I keep thinking I might find someone like that but now just seems impossible.

What I think is funny about this Tom Hess *** is that I know teachers who claim he has "mentored" and they are completely full of ***. What's even funnier is that they all CLAIM to do exactly what my teacher was doing but couldn't deliver if you put a gun to their heads.

There is a big difference between saying the right things and doing them and Tom Hess and his "followers" are all talk.

View full review
Cons:
  • Fraud
Reason of review:
Bad quality
1 comment
Guest

Same experience. To a beginner maybe his elite guitar teachers seem good.

But soon you realize you are paying more than for other teachers (in some cases you are paying twice as much for group classes with random topics as for an individually tailored class with a qualified teacher). When you dig deeper you realize the Tom Hess teachers don't know the basics of music - better choose someone who studied music.

Anonymous
map-marker Saint Thomas, Ontario

Tom Hess is a thief

Tom Hess is THIEF. Here is my story.!!!

I was a student of tom Hess. I was signed up to his mentor program,everything he offered I signed up for.I registered for his up and coming hess fest and other seminar in August 2016.My brother died in an unfortunate boating accident.He drowned.This obviously is a very difficult time in my life and because of my brothers death my circumstances have changed.i asked for a refund from tom hess , 4000.00 dollars to be exact, and he refused .Remember, I was a student of his up to this point,and participating in his mentor program!!! MENTOR??? Are you *** kidding me?

A mentor who refuses a refund to his loyal student, even in the face of such a tragedy as my brothers death. I repeat.MENTOR?? More like an unsympathetic greedy ***!!!scam,after scam,after scam!!!

do more research on this piece of *** before he robs you too!! he has me cut off from all avenues except this one,and i don't know how much longer this will be able to be done.*** you tom hess ,i want my stolen money back.now i will be in touch with bbb,as well as the irs and have this *** checked out.He is akin to Kevin Trudeau ,who is now in jail for similar scams. For further information email me at randycarville@***.com

View full review
Reason of review:
Problems with payment
6 comments
Guest

This story really got me pissed off. Hess is a money grubbing ***. Sorry for your loss.

Guest

Honest question: please explain the reasoning behind giving you a refund? did you pay $4k up front?

Or were they lessons you had already taken? Does his policy say "no refunds for any reason" or does his policy say, "here are the criteria for refund and you didn't meet them?" I'm really curious.

Guest

Honestly, I know it's harsh with your brother but you still took the lessons right?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1363069

So Lori, is your real name Tom Hess?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1363069

You are a moron

Guest

I have been studying under Tom Hess for almost a decade. I am very happy with the service I have received and have gotten an extreme amount of value from the lessons, programs, and events that Tom Hess offers.

I would not still be a client of his if I wasn't happy and wasn't getting the results I expect from his programs.

I ran across this pissed consumers site while actually researching something else and felt compelled to respond to this.

First of all, I don't think anyone who reads your complaint will feel anything but sympathy/empathy for what happened to your brother. Yes, it is a tragedy. I'm very sorry this happened and am sure this was something very hard for you and your family to deal with.

However, in response to your claims that Tom Hess is a scam artist, I have to strongly offer my 2 cents. I WAS at the August 2016 event that you are referring to because I have been to EVERY event since 2009 except for ONE that was held overseas in 2010.

I KNOW that Tom Hess specifically states in EVERY marketing and sales and order page for these events that refunds will only be given under one condition. This condition is clearly stated on the sales/order page. If you failed to meet this condition (and based on your comments here I believe you did fail to meet the condition), then I don't see how you can justify that Tom Hess "scammed" you or "robbed" you out of any money. Obviously you were very angry at the circumstances and angry that Tom Hess didn't refund your money.

However, coming on a public website and trashing Tom Hess's reputation because of a pre-stated procedure YOU failed to follow sounds a little unethical on your part does it not? If you didn't agree to Tom Hess's policies that he outlined clearly then maybe you should not have submitted the order form or paid him the money in the first place. That was completely your choice.

"But my brother died. He should understand.

He is my Mentor. This is a tragedy". Again, yes this is a tragedy and I am definitely not trying to make light of your situation. I would be very devastated if something happened to my own brother.

Let's be honest though... you wrote your comments here in March of 2016. The events weren't until August of 2016. I understand sometimes things like this take longer periods of grief for some people than others, but don't you think you could have still attended the events 5 months later if you were truly committed to attending the events?

Is your refund really about your brother's death or is the refund about you just wanting a refund? Just curious. Either way, whether or not you decided to attend the events was your choice.

Let's look at this in a little more detail. Let's say for all practical purposes Tom Hess DOES refund your money.

Meanwhile another person emails Tom Hess wanting a refund because his aunt that he's never met died. Another person's dog died. Another person is in the hospital after a car wreck and won't be able to attend the event. Another person is now out of the hospital and is physically able to attend, but emotionally is still not feeling well enough to attend.

Another person is in a band and now has a major upcoming performance that now interferes with the upcoming Tom Hess events. Another person's house just got severely damaged during a hurricane. As a side note, I should mention that some of these scenarios have actually happened with people in the past. Some of the people were not able to attend the events.

Some of the people did whatever it took to attend the events anyway. But how in the *** is Tom Hess supposed to write up a clarifying document over which scenarios qualify for a refund and which ones don't? Is one person's tragedy more devastating or heart rendering than another person's? See how subjective and time-consuming this can become?

You try writing a policy. Think about all of the circumstances people could possibly ask about and you now have to make a decision over whether that person deserves a refund. Ok, so before you start thinking "let's just give anyone a refund if they ask for one ahead of the events", let's throw this out there... Why is it fair that you submit an order form with your payment to reserve your spot, someone else TRIES to reserve a spot but the event sells out, now you decide you can't go and now this other person still can't go to the event because you already reserved that spot?

Ok, so Tom Hess writes a policy that says anyone who submits a request for a refund before a certain date can have the refund. Ok, what's the date? Even if the other person was to be put on a waiting list (assuming there is one and I don't know if there is), how much time does he/she need in order to make arrangements or cancel other obligations to go to an event when he/she wasn't even sure his/her name would come up on the waiting list? Ok, so we push the date up.

What if your brother died the day before the event started? Should you get the refund? You missed the deadline, didn't you? What about all of the other people who had serious circumstances the day before the event?

A week before the event? A month before the event? What about all of the people who seemingly have great excuses for why they want a refund, but in actuality it's because either they (a) wanted a refund because they didn't budget their money properly and "need" their money back or (b) have other priorities and are making a choice that those priorities take precedence over the Tom Hess event. You have to wonder whether they were really committed in the first place.

What about Tom Hess? He makes the commitment to attend the events at the time he scheduled them and to deliver what he promises. What about all of the preliminary work and EXPENSE that goes into organizing these events? What about Tom Hess's staff?

They make a commitment to not only do preliminary work but to then attend and make sure they are doing what is necessary to run a successful event. You mention "scam,after scam,after scam!!!". What are you talking about??? You say "do more research".

How many other angry people have posted inflammatory comments about Tom Hess and conveniently left out other details that consumers needed to know in order to make a rational decision about whether a scam or fraudulent act had even been committed? You also mention Kevin Trudeau going to prison for "similar scams". So what did Tom Hess do that you think misled or hurt or defrauded people? What specifically did Tom Hess promise that he did not deliver?

If you want to make a claim such as this, then please be ready to back it up. Otherwise you have absolutely no ground to stand on.

View more comments (5)
Anonymous
map-marker San Bruno, California

Tom Hess is an *** Avoid at all costs

I had similar experience with Tom Hess. Once i saw the lesson he provided, I realized this wasn't for me. I reached out immediately, told him why this didn't meet my expectations or needs, and got a barrage of "others love this. Why don't you?"

He wrote two emails that were pages in length about why I just didn't get the value of his product, that others loved his stuff and there must be something wrong with me. This is exactly what narcissists do when you approach them with a problem or issue.

When I asked Tom point blank if he was going to refund my purchase, he launched into another littany of personal attacks.

View full review
Loss:
$75
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Full refund

1 comment
Guest

I couldn't get in contact with tom or any other representatives i had spoken too after i paid the first time so i just stopped reading his long drawn out emails.

Anonymous

Lessons not as advertised, aggressively refused refund, had to file for fraud

At first, the online articles on the website made it seem like this was THE PLACE to go for lessons/guitar private lessons. I've taken lessons at some great places, purchased from the staples online (justinguitar, truefire, etc) so I'm no stranger to the online format and enjoy it.

Tom Hess' system is BEYOND complex and it's a joke to think you're actually going to follow this confusing system. Additionally, it is NOT customized, it's automated *** and half of it is full of marketing material that's a repeat from the same propaganda you get emailed. The actual musical/lesson content is very weak. The practice generator is basically a *** excel spreadsheet and you have to input all the work.

SO, Tom Hess basically makes you jump through hoops, 99.9% of which is not related to music. The only individualized attention I got was when I asked for a refund and I got an aggressive diatribe back.

He's definitely a bully and this was the worst customer service I've received. I'm going back to the other online services that focus on actual music and guitar playing versus constant self-promotion.

View full review
Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised
Anonymous
map-marker Waltham, England

Point blank refused refund.

I have known about Tom Hess for a couple of years. Nearly 2 week ago I decided to see if his claims were legitimate and contacted an ex student of his based in the UK.

He assured me he was genuine, and went from 14 to just under 60 student's in a year. I thought ok, let's see what this is all about. (A bit about me) I have 34 a week at the moment, studied at a renowned Music school, have been teaching for 9 years and have a degree. so I purchased the eBook you get plus you get 45 days free in the Elite Teachers Inner Circle, where he mentors you on how to maximise, get and retain x amount of students.

Soon after reading the eBook, I realised there was nothing within it that I didn't already know or wasn't already implementing. I cancelled my membership within a matter of hours. One more thing, it became apparent quite quickly that the forum access you get with the 45 days plays a key role in accumulating more student's. You also get to download mp3's of him talking and guiding you.

I submitted my form and gave the reason as quitting as I felt scammed, (which I did and do). He sent me a personal reply saying I was arrogant, and had no clue about business and should implement what is in the book and use the forum. I replied with a polite email, pointing out I already do the things he mentions, how long I have been teaching etc etc. He fires back saying I don't know what I am talking about, and is completely ignoring my calls for a refund.

Emails bounce back and forth with him still trying to get me to say. (After the 45 days you can sign up to the ETIC thing but have to pay $197 per month) I reply back and he ignores me. I leave it over the weekend, then email him on Monday 10th December, again telling him I don't think the program is for me, I am already doing the things he states in the book, and if he don't refund me within 48 hours, I shall be reporting him and the company, plus give the eBook away for free and write about my experiences online. He fires back with "whatever dude" I deal with thousands of transactions a year.

There will be no refund as you have not implemented what is within the book! If I find that eBook anywhere online I will sue you and com after you with everything I have got. I fire one back, telling him if he refunds me, I will not talk about what has happend. He ignores me, so I start telling people on forums, he THEN messages me saying it has been bought to his attention that I have been bad mouthing him on the net, and I will regret me actions.

This guy is a total *** He is completely arrogant and is to be avoided.

I have only just started with this guy. I hope he visits the UK sometime.

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37 comments
Guest

Thank you for posting. I actually recognize the style of the page (font, graphic style, paragraphs on end (indicating a goal is in mind, yet nothing is achived).

Tom Hess is hiding.

Sorry Tom, I know you didn't do anything to me, but this style of advertising really takes advantage of people.

Steve

Guest

Thanks for posting this - I am sure you have helped a whole bunch of folk from getting snared by Hess. I have a similar background to you and was curious about the course but was put off by the marketing and the lack of transparency about the cost.

It is very similar to the marketing used for (universally useless) forex courses. Good luck with extricating yourself and your money from this guy.

Guest

Tom Hess lessons in one picture :

https://www.noelshack.com/2017-10-****888486-tomhess-compil.png

Don't let this scammer take your money!

Guest

I signed up for this a few years back. Was contacted by one of his assistants and was given some *** material I could find anywhere on the net.

Now I thought I was going to be taught by Hess, not some "Assistant" The whole program was a complete joke and he never replied to my emails. I quit within a couple weeks. Huge waste of money and time. His assistant asked me for a sample of playing, I sent him some scale runs because he never specified what he actually wanted?

I never got a response.. Just the usual snake oil salesman gimmicks.

Guest

Tom Hess is not even licensed to operate a business, much less to teach music. He’s a scammer through and through. I hope the Tom Hess Music Corporation goes down soon because this sort of dishonest enterprise shouldn't have any place in our society today.

Guest

Thank you as I was thinking about his program but before I buy anything because I am on disability and all I can do is music and write songs so I don't have money to waste, I need to know if its legit or not. I am 56 years old, people cannot believe when I do an open mic night etc.

and do am original it is actually mine they ask is that the new artist on the radio? I tell them no that is my song so that makes me feel good.

So I appreciate your post. Also in closing a lot of the information I read on his advertisement I already know.....take care anonymous

Guest

He's also a pretty average - to poor and very limited guitarist .

He only really knows about basic shred rock - generic '80s power rock .

Poor choice of teacher !

Guest

Dude I had a similar thing happen to me. I told him that I was moving and wanted to save money and would like to cancel for the time being (i also quit my day job).

And he completely blew up and told me i was making a huge mistake! Ranted on about me thinking "I know everything about the music industry" and that I "should never half *** things in life." It was quite insulting! After a couple more charges to my account, i kindly asked him to quit charging me and he finally did.

but godam what a ***. Guy needs to get off his high hoarse

Guest

Hi

Guest

How did you quit? How did you cancel the payments?

Guest

Can you send me the materials?

Guest

I was in Tom's EGTIC program for about a year and while there was some decent material there was also some horrible advice that looked more like filler then anything else.

First off he has two levels.

One for $147 which is basically useless. All you get is a couple monthly recordings and you don't even have access to the forum which by the way is not some secret formula or whatever he claims it to be. It's been a little while so I forget the exact claim. This is not in any stretch of the imagination worth $147 a month.

Don't waste your money!!!

So for $197 you get the forum included.It's simply a forum just like anywhere else but it's full of other teachers. As with any forum it's good to be able to bounce things off of other like minded people but it's not anything special by any means.

You also get a few additional recording a month. It's basically Tom talking about some kind of subject.

Again some material is good, useful info and some is just useless filler.

Now where the program really lacks is any kind of real mentoring. The only personal help you get from Tom is a thread on the forum where you can post your questions. If you are lucky he will answer your questions.

Many times though they never get answered. Then he does a monthly call where he takes a student and reviews their business with them. This sounds great but you won't get your turn for months down the line and then no follow up except for waiting many months again for your turn to finally come up again.

I've been in three other different guitar teacher training programs and are still in two of them but all three had teacher mentors that were there personally mentoring you through every step.

As many of these mentors would attest to I was contacting them almost every single day with questions and they all responded each and every time within 24 hrs. Two of these programs were a fraction of the cost of Tom's but leaps and bounds much better programs. Also some of Tom's sleasy tactics turned me off. He would get the teachers to put bad reviews on the competitions products, bombard other sites with promoting his products and just simply unethical business tactics.

Aside from coming to the conclusion that I was paying a good chunk of money for no results, Tom's way of doing business and using his teachers to do the dirty work convinced me to get out of there. I can't believe I actually stuck around for a whole year. Now while I was in EGTIC I also joined the correspondence lesons course. What correspondence?

There was none! Where I got at least a little value, maybe $20 a month worth as opposed to $200 that he charged, out of EGTIC the correspondence lessons were a complete joke. I would get a bunch of random lesson sheets on say scales for instance with absolutely no instruction at all. Great I have scales but how do I study them?

I'm paying for lessons not a resource of scales and chords. I also got a few videos like ones you would see on youtube, actually they were youtube videos and then a couple testimonial videos. Why would he send me testimonial videos if I'm already a student? Didn't make any sense at all.

Basically it looked like him or one of his workers spent about 5 minutes just picking some random stuff to send out. Nothing was even close to being tailored for me. It was a bunch of general ***! Worst waste of money I've ever spent.

I would have been far better off just using Youtube to teach myself. Total garbage! While a couple of his products are ok I ordered these books called The Beginning Guitarist Books level one and two which I was going to use with my students. Again complete garbage!

They were just songs that you would get from any note reading book like Aura Lee, Irish Song, Happy Birthday etc... but what was worse it there was no notes, it was all in tab and there was no recordings at all. So while he accuses everyone else of stealing from him it looks as though he just picked up a Mel bay or Hal Leonard reading book, tabbed out the parts and called it his own. At least add in some recordings or something to play along with.

What garbage! This just reinforces his whole way of doing business. The most hilarious part of all this is some of the other teachers were ranting and raving about these books. The only conclusion I could come up with is that they were so brainwashed by Tom that they were actually convinced that the books were great.

Anybody that has played for even 6 months could see these books were garbage! So overall Tom's approach it to do the least amount of work, go overboard with hype and way under deliver when he had your money. You want Tom's best stuff? Stick with the free stuff.

He uses this to bring you in although his articles are usually riddled with links and offers. If you have been thinking of trying out any of his programs I highly suggest to stay far away or you'll be very disappointed and a bit more broke at the same time. Don't waste your money!

Shop around and find a real program with a real mentor that actually cares about your success! The only thing Tom cares about is his wallet!!!

Guest

Signed up for Tom Hess's lessons even though I got a distinct "Car Salesman" vibe from him. He does provide a bit of value, but nothing great and definitely not worth the money.

His business model is that he has created a set of lessons and some software to automatically send these canned lessons to you. It doesn't matter if you tell him that you want to learn "X", he just puts you on the lesson plan that is closest on his software, so that he doesn't have to deal with you personally.

Just look for a local teacher to get a tailored lesson plan. This guy is a tool.

Guest

Tom is above all a businessman and marketeer. He uses psychology and marketing tricks to generate his business.

He is only secondarily a guitar teacher. He does provide some value so is not a total scam merchant but he definitely operates on the borderline.

The products he produces are mediocre at best. He relies on convincing his students that they are the best thing since sliced bread.

His students treat him like a religious guru and repeat his words and beliefs parrot fashion. Sample quote from his forum: "if Tom sold *** in a box I would buy it!" That quote is not actually far from the truth.

He is an incredibly manipulative individual and uses his status to influence people to do what he wants - mainly give him lots of money and agree with his extremely right wing political views.

Guest

So basically you weren't happy with the product and tried to get a refund. Did you follow the refund policy?

No, it seems like you went out of your way to try and extort and blackmail the company. Now you are upset because the company didn't cave in under pressure from you?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-953499

PS, I put that I was from Flag Az in the location line. Where is lisbon wisconson???

Shred on, Steve

Guest

1) The OP has not established that Tom was obliged to provide a refund.

2) The OP requires us to rely on his conclusion that Tom was rude and OP was polite. Although...

threatening to leak copyrighted material online is hardly a civil tactic.

3) Tom doesn't generally do refunds, and he doesn't have to. He's a serious dude who offers incredible value and does staggering business. If he can't be bothered dealing with refunds or playing nice with every potential customer, that's his business. His success has given him the freedom to make choices like that.

4) Tom's business practices have been called aggressive by haters across the internet, but they only work because they are backed up by the immense quality of the services he provides.

The man has students for guitar, guitar teaching, and music career development, and he's managed to keep many of them for years. Some of these students were always musicians, others were able to leave high posts in the private sector or academia to start music careers they hadn't previously thought possible. ('Esquire,' in his comment, advises Tom and his friends not to quit their day jobs. Too late!) He commands that sort of loyalty because he's earned it.

My name is Leo Smith.

Yes, I am one of Tom's students. I made more progress on guitar in the first few months I studied with him than I had in all the previous years of struggling with self-teaching and ineffective local teachers.

Perhaps the OP has a genuine beef with Tom, and has simply done a poor job of stating his case. Even in that event, however, the overwhelming majority of Tom's students are incredibly pleased to have crossed his path. I've invested thousands of dollars, and I don't regret a dime.

Ah, and as long as I'm bringing up Esquire's advice... "2) stay with your garage band and play for your friends on the block." Tom toured the world with Rhapsody of Fire and HolyHell. Many of his students, across a range of genres, are making quite respectable livings in the music business. Esquire...

did you neglect to do your homework on Tom before posting?

That's as far as I will venture down the rabbit hole of responding to internet haters. :P

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-949525

Leo Smith = Tom Hess. Tom Hess is a legit nutcase.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-949525

How much is he paying you to say this ***?

Helina Svg
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-949525

"Leo Smith" is absolutely Tom Hess. Anyone that has been on the THMC forum can easily spot Tom's writing style and tone. The dead give away is the use of apostrophes as quotation marks.

Heres a list of your nonsense, Tom:

1) Everyone on your forum has to use their real name. They can't hide in anonymity. On the forum and in your courses, you often speak of "owning the ground you stand on" but when faced with dissent, you don't put your name on it. You hide in anonymity. You do this all over the internet when someone has anything remotely negative to say (or if someone releases a competing product on Amazon...like Donnie S. did)

If you want to know why I'm being an anonymous, after calling you out for it, it's because I'm both a paying customer of yours AND a competitor. I buy from you to keep tabs on what you are doing, what you are offering, so that I can grab market share. This makes me laugh because I know that you are going to have you or your employees waste countless hours scouring your client list trying to find the mole....and you are not going to...and that's hilarious!

2) Your no compete rules. Do you even listen to your MCMP sessions? You have a whole lesson on creating instructional products and how that would be good for one's music career...but you also forbid your students from selling their own products online because they then would be competing with you. This includes everything from guitar lessons or other instrument lessons, guitar teacher training, etc...So...you want to help your students/clients further their careers by creating products...but they just can't sell them online. What would they use then? The Sears catalog??

3) Perception is reality. You say that very often in your courses on the forum. The perception of yourself is that you've done these amazing things in your music career, but that is all that it is...a perception. You were in Holy ***. Good for you. For how long? How many tours? You got into Rhapsody. Good for you. How long did that last? Why are you not with them any more? They were your DREAM band. I know that you have said "those guys don't know what the *** they are doing. They don't know anything about running a business or making money." Hmmm...could it be that they just don't like the way that YOU do business?? That maybe their integrity or the respect of their fans is worth MORE to them? You market yourself as a music industry expert but the reality is that you haven't done nearly as much as you lead on. You just did something more than what others have done. Hows the HESS band doing by the way? How many albums have you sold? How many tours have you done with HESS? How big is the mailing list for fans of HESS? Yep. That's what I thought. Nada. 4) How many students in MCMP have gone on to do anything worthwhile in their music careers? Uidl is in a decent size band, but he's also not very active on your forum. Who else? Where are they and what have they really done? Releasing an album isn't an accomplishment. There are millions of jackoffs who release albums every single day. How many albums have your students sold? That's the question. Can they make a living off of writing and performing? That's the question. How many have done that? 4? 5? 10? How many students have you taught in the MCMP? That's not a good success rate. 5) I've been on the forum for multiple years. One of the most astounding things I've seen is how a lot of students who were with you in the early days have left or have been banned. I reached out to a few of them recently, and while the specific reasons vary, they all have essentially the same thing to say about you: They don't like the way that you people at all. For all the money and time they spent with you, they left your services with an unfavorable opinion of you. Ouch. That's all for now. I'll 'see' you on the forum. Unless of course, you find out who I am beforehand. Happy hunting!

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