Originally Posted by
Twicewise
You're right Bryan. I didn't have anything good to say and so I have been quiet for a long time.
I joined in October of 2004. At that time PIPS was considered the premiere program on the internet and had been paying regularly for some time. So, even though I am not a man of means I scrounged up the minimum amount and sent it in.
I didn't send it in to get wealthy, or to live a rich man's dream. As a minister I do not make a substantial income, and I hoped that PIPS would create an opportunity for me to have a good salary and an excellent retirement.
During December of 2004 PicPay fell behind. In January payments fell to a snails pace. A few were being paid but most weren't. You told us to have faith, to hang in there and that within a few months everything would be better.
So I did. Not that I had any choice. Withdrawal requests weren't really being honored anyway. But I kept believing. Give Bryan a chance. He's a man with a vision. He's thinking outside the box. He's fighting the financial system that keeps rich people rich, and poor people poor. And so I waited.
During the spring of 2005 we were told that banks would not release PIPS funds in a timely manner, and because of that you had been unable to close on some very lucrative deals. We were told that the net worth of PIPS had gone over the 1 billion dollar mark and that we were closing in on 2 billion. But in spite of the fact that the company was worth Billions our payments still slowed. The staff could not process them quickly enough. But a new payment system was coming. Just wait a few more months until June or July. Everything would be fixed by then.
I felt personally betrayed. I had believed you when you said that the system would be fixed by spring. But June and July came and things weren't any better. But then a whole new cast of merchants came online. If we couldn't get the money out of PicPay then we could get a Wal-Mart card or a Visa pre-paid cash card. And I had hopes that I would see my money again. On paper it had grown to about 10 times what I had invested. It would certainly have been wonderful to at least get my money back. Even if I didn't see any profit I wouldn't have lost anything. And you said that it would only be a few more weeks. To keep having faith. VAT was going to join with PIPS and everything would be better.
But then, for no reason that I could understand, the Merchant Accounts were canceled. Rumors began to surface that this Billion dollar company was actually bankrupt and that funds hadn't been invested for months or maybe even years. And with shock I began to contemplate that PIPS was a ponzi scheme. And that much of what we had heard about PIPS success simply wasn't so.
Members began to fly to Malaysia in order to talk to you personally. For awhile you showed them your shiny offices and the Bistro. They never got to see anything really relevant like bank statements or accounting books. But most of the came back satisfied that PIPS really was a solid company, on solid financial ground. But I could never get rid of that queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was very wrong. Payments were months behind. The forum had been closed. updates were rare, and when they did come they were the same old tired line, "just hang in there, in a few more months everything was going to be wonderful."
But here we are a few more months and everything is not wonderful. Visitors who traveled to Malaysia were no longer allowed to have meetings with you. You cancelled appearances at conventions. Several states in the U.S. and other nations sent out cease and desist orders.
And now I hear you say that if we will just be patient something wonderful is just around the corner. You will pardon me for saying so sir, but I'm a little skeptical. I haven't joined the Talk Gold vitriol. I have held my tongue and kept my doubts to myself. But I must say that I have been disappointed once too often. The old saying, "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" seems relevant.
It may be that you are a good and generous man. I haven't met you and even if I had I don't have the capacity to read what's in your heart. All I can go by is the history of PIPS since I joined. And for this past year almost all the news from your organization has been heart wrenching. Payments delayed, Merchant accounts canceled, forum closed, Cease and Desist orders, Bank of Negara investigations, computers seized.
I don't know what or who to believe anymore. I wish you great success, but I wish I had the income that you promised me even more. I come here, and read that others are saying, "God bless Bryan," and, "I still have faith in him," and I wonder to myself, "why do they still have faith?" I wish I had reason to say that. But right now all I know for sure is that I sent money into your organization, and I may very well never see that money again. That one fact seems very clear to me.
I hope you do well. I hope you are able to come back from all of the setbacks. I hope that you can honor the promises you've made. I hope that you will be able to pay all of the members a return on the money they've invested with you. I hope all of these things. But you will pardon me if I don't say, "God bless Bryan" at this point in time.
- TwiceWise