Coaches confront DASH founder to demand refunds

by Ken Winston Caine

A group of life coaches, who paid between $495 and $895 for guaranteed referrals of paying clients that they say they never received, are scheduled to meet today with the man who set up the referral scheme.

Fellow coaches, said California coach Veronica Raya, are to meet via teleconference with Eric Aronson, a self-styled, self-help guru who served time in prison for securities fraud. Aronson called the meeting, Raya said.

Aronson created DASH Systems, a Long Island, New York-based company, which offers inspirational self-help materials and coaching. The DASH System was promoted via a 28-minute television commercial last fall that was developed and sponsored by infomercial giant, Mercury Media. Aronson had predicted the infomercial would generate millions of dollars in sales and a flood of coaching referrals for DASH coaches. He said that once it was tested and tweaked that Mercury Media would run it nationwide at saturation level for six months.

The commercial, Aronson said, would funnel paying clients into his DASH Coaching System for which his company was recruiting certified coaches. The coaches were required to pay a sign-on fee that ranged from $495 to $895 and were guaranteed that they would earn that back in referrals in 90 days, or their fee would be refunded.

In fact, says Raya, coaches with whom she has been in contact who have asked for refunds in recent months from DASH have not received them.

“Bottom line for me,” said Raya, “is I want my money.”

The infomercial did not produce expected sales, according to a DASH memo, and was pulled by Mercury Media in December, coaches say. A DASH company memo said the infomercial is being reworked and will again be tested. And, says Raya and another coach recruited by DASH, the referral program never got off the ground and coaches received no client referrals. At least 40 coaches have resigned and requested refunds that have not been forthcoming, they said.

The DASH employee in charge of the coaching recruiting effort, Barry Laub, sent a memo to 40-some of his recruits on May 8 announcing, “I regret to inform you of my resignation from Dash Systems, LLC and its
division Dash Coaching.”

AbBout a week ago another DASH enmployee that the coaches had frequent contact with, Lisa Rosenthal, was fired by DASH, said Raya and former DASH coach, Jeannine Kaiser.

In his resignation memo, Laub included the email addresses of about 40 other recruited coaches in the cc: box. Those coaches since have been communicating via email, phone and teleconference, said Raya.

She is not sure how many coaches in total were recruited by DASH. In a September memo, Rosenthal said 85 had signed on and that DASH was seeking another 100.

Raya said, “We don’t know the factual numbers … We’re thinking that the batch (of coaches) that we’ve been in contact with are only one batch and that Barry probably sent the memo out in batches. We’re thinking there are probably between 80 and 120 coaches” in all.

Kaiser said that DASH coaches who resigned before the end of December 2005 recieved refunds without any question.

The group of 40 coaches with whom Raya has been in contact, are infuriated that DASH now is insisting that they sign what she characterizes as “a gag order,” which would prohibit the coaches from taking any legal action or discussing their DASH experience.

“Eric is asking us to send back all emails and any documentation we have of any conversations with DASH and to return all materials” in exchange for refunds.

Coaches made no such agreement with DASH when they signed on, said Kaiser, and “are uncomfortable about signing such a release agreement.”

DASH did present coaches with an extensive contract that required confidentiality and which called for return of materials upon termination of the agreement. It also had a provision which said DASH would own any intellectual property created by the coaches. However, said Raya, a number of coaches, including herself, refused to sign the contract.

And Kaiser said some coaches have consulted legal counsel. She said it is her belief that “we have no contract with DASH from a legal standpoint. There has to be performance of the contract. DASH failed to perform their end of the contract.”

Contract or not, Laub and other DASH representatives made public guarantees to coaches that they were recruiting. In one flyer that Laub sent, the company states:

“There is absolutely no risk to the coach. If you do not get at least three paying clients in three months DASH Systems will refund the $895 certification fee.”

Coaches today expect to press Aronson for immediate refunds, said Raya, and will offer to negotiate terms of the release. But not all the coaches she has been in contact with are willing to wait.

One has distributed to others the procedure for filing a complaint with the New York Attorney General and a couple have already done so, she said.

The coaches met yesterday in a conference call and many expressed concern that if they spoke with Mind Body Spirit Journal or other media about this, that Aronson might refuse to issue refunds.

Regardless, said Raya, “Instinctively, I don’t think we are going to get our money back.”

Laub, Raya said, sent coaches an email telling them he would be on the teleconference call today. He did not say why or who he would be representing, she said.

Some coaches who had been open-minded about Aronson’s turnaround since leaving prision are now questioning their judgment, said Kaiser and Raya. Some are feeling they were misled and others are wondering if they might have been party to an effort to mislead Mercury Media regarding sales numbers during its test marketing of the infomercial.

In an email then, Laub asked coaches to purchase copies on a specific day of the $89 product that was being promoted on the infomercial.

Laub presented the suggestion as a gift from DASH. He wrote, “As our thank you for supporting the DASH System, you will be reimbursed the full purchase price.”

Kaiser said that DASH did write reimbursement checks to coaches who made the purchases. She said, “I did not purchase the package. … I wanted to find out if the infomercial could stand on its own. If not, we had nowhere to go. Our success was based on the true success of the infomercial, not some bogus, trumped up number.”

She and Raya said that as part of the “release” that coaches are being asked to sign before DASH will process their refund requests, they are being told they must return the $89 product they purchased that day at Laub’s urging.

DASH founder Aronson served three years in prison on a securities fraud conviction related to his having misled investors while developing his 1998 invention, the Satellite Recovery Network, which he said later became the Chevrolet On-Star™ system.