There are quite a few complaints about Money Map Press that you should probably know about beforehand. The company isn't the most reputable by any means, and a lot of subscribers end up cancelling their subscriptions and taking to the internet to voice their disappointments and complaints.
We've done a lot of digging around, through different online complaint boards and whatnot, and in this article we'll be looking at 8 complaints that you should definitely be aware of.
But let's begin by going over what the company is and what they do.
What Is Money Map Press?
Money Map Press (moneymappress.com) is a Baltimore-based investment advisory firm that provides newsletter-style advisory services via subscription memberships, for which they employ a handful of investment strategists to manage.
In a nutshell, what they provide are follow-along investment newsletter services where subscribers are told what to invest in and when to invest.
Sounds pretty good right? Not needing any knowledge/experience and being able to follow professional investment advice?
Yeah... well... you might want to read these complaints over before you buy into anything.
8 Complaints You Should Hear
#1) Losing Recommendations
First up, there are plenty of people complaining about losing money, which is understandable. After all, investing has inherent risk and if you just lost some hard-earned money then you might be upset too.
However, we aren't just taking about losing trades every once in a while here. It seems that with some of the advisory services that MMP provides the losses are pretty high.
And this even goes for the more expensive services. One complaint on Pissed Consumer is from a subscriber who ended up losing money on one of their subscriptions (The 1450 Club), and this costed him over $3k including the mentoring add-on.
[Source: Pissed Consumer]
And then this is this subscriber who complained on HighYa that "80% of their recommendations are completely wrong"...
[Source: HighYa]
And there's plenty more where that came from.
This person compares the outcome of the recommendations given to "flipping a coin"...
[Source: HighYa]
And then there's another review we found on Trustpilot from a subscriber who joined V3 Trader, Money Calendar Pro, and Fast Fortune Club... which is quite the expense... and claims that "trade recommendations are 70% losers"...
[Source: Trustpilot]
#2) Misleading/False Profits
The marketing material behind the different subscription services is pretty slick. They have the uncanny ability of twisting words and making profits appear almost guaranteed if you join... but of course they definitely are not (as you just saw) and this is misleading.
In the review below, a subscriber was led to believe that they were "guaranteed 350% weekly profit on average" and that money would flow into stocks... but this wasn't exactly very straightforward or honest...
[Source: HighYa]
And then we have another review below from the BBB, which mentions that the company promotes opportunities of massive profits, which are "blatantly false"... and the reviewer also mentions that the majority of recommendations were losers (this was for a service they offer called Alpha-9 Trader)...
[Source: BBB]
We even came across a review on Pissed Consumer that mentioned how one of the editors (AK, or Andrew Keene) claimed to have a 68-70% win-rate, yet this didn't seem to actually be true and, according to the subscriber, the win-rate was under 50%...
[Source: Pissed Consumer]
#3) Misleading Marketing
This goes along with the complaint above, but it's important to touch on it a bit more because it's a big problem and the reason for many additional complaints.
Money Map Press, along with other not-so-honest investment newsletter publishers like Agora Financial, St. Paul Research, RagingBull, etc., is heavily engaged in misleading teasers.
They often lure in new subscribers by promoting some new opportunity to make money that sounds incredibly easy and pretty-much guaranteed. An example of one of these teasers would be Michael Robinson's (one of the editors at MMP) "American Patients First" promotion.
The real opportunities behind the teasers are almost never what they seem to be... which is why we do our best here at LegendaryWallet.com to alert the public of what's really going on.
#4) Pushy Up-sells
Usually what seems to happen is they lure subscribers in through their lower-cost subscription services and then push them into more expensive ones, which makes sense and is what most companies would do.
But, as you can imagine, this can be annoying and overly "salesy" at times. The comment below is from someone who was pushed to upgrade their subscription for an additional $2,400 before they even made any profits with the recommendations from the present subscription they had...
[Source: Pissed Consumer]
And you should also prepare your email inbox for the promotions. Brace yourself... they will be coming.
#5) Not Delivering Recommendations
This seems to be a rare occurrence, but it's still worth mentioning that some people haven't been receiving the recommendations they were told they would get.
Who knows... this could be some sort of technical error or something like this where emails aren't being sent or received, but the complaint shown below is from someone who claims to have missed many promised recommendations... as in they just weren't getting delivered...
[Source: BBB]
But again, this seems to be a rarity.
#6) Hard to Get Into Trades In Time
There is also the problem of getting into trades at the right time... which has led to some subscribers complaining. This is particularly a problem when it comes to investing in options...
[Source: Pissed Consumer]
Timing is everything, and a good trade can become a bad trade if you get in too late.
But don't you just have to jump on the recommendations given right away? You would think so, but there have been complaints with similar services from people who claim to act within minutes of getting recommendations and were still too late to get in at the right price.
In some cases this is due to all the other subscribers getting into the recommended trades first and driving up the price.
#7) Trouble Getting Refunds
If you don't like the subscription service you signed up for then you can simply request a refund. Easy enough.
Or is it?
Here is a review from Pissed Consumer from a subscriber who, basically, claims that MMP gave an excuse not to refund, which seems to happen....
[Source: Pissed Consumer]
And then here is another review from someone who claims to have been promised a refund, but this refund never came through...
[Source: HighYa]
The good news: Well, it seems that if you are having trouble getting a refund and complain about it on one of the online complaint boards, they will be more likely to answer and provide a refund.
#8) Bad Customer Service
Going along with the difficulty obtaining refunds is the number of complaints about the poor customer service they provide, some describing it as "horrible"...
[Source: HighYa]
The complaint from the BBB's website shown below mentions that "refunds are NOT promptly processed in a timely manner", as they are in absolutely no hurry to give anyone's money back...
[Source: BBB]
Here is another complaint, this one a bit different, from a subscriber who tried to cancel a subscription and was refused help by one of the staff members and told "in no uncertain terms" to "get lost"... (without the refund of course)
[Source: Trustpilot]
Come on now Money Map Press? With all the money you're making can't you hire some better customer support staff members? Or is this lousy support one of the reasons you're making so much money?
If you are a subscriber trying to request a refund you can do so by contacting them at:
- customerservice@moneymappress.com OR
- 888-384-8339 between 8am and 5pm EDT
*Tip: If you don't get a reply then we suggest that you file a complaint with the BBB. They usually respond better when you do this.
Overall Ratings
As you might be imagining right about now, the overall ratings for Money Map Press aren't too good.
On Pissed Consumer they have well over 100 reviews with an overall rating of under 3 out of 5...
[Source: Pissed Consumer]
On HighYa there are over 50 reviews and it's even worse... under 2 out of 5...
[Source: HighYa]
And there are well over 100 complaints with the BBB, with an overall customer review rating of 1 out of 5 stars... worse yet.
HOWEVER, you must keep in mind that many of these sites people go to only to complain... so a low rating is often not quite as bad as it may seem. After all, a website called Pissed Consumer is naturally going to attract a bunch of people who are pissed off and are looking to vent their anger.
We don't want to give you the wrong impression here. The point of this article was to cover the complaints that you should be aware of, but you should also be aware that there are some subscribers who are more than happy with the services offered, such as here:
[Source: HighYa]
Some Last Words
There are quite a bit of bad reviews about Money Map Press. Now you know.
This is the reason we don't recommend their services. There are people who have had good experiences and made money, and the complaints shown above don't exactly paint a full picture, but overall there are better and much more trustworthy options if you are looking for investment advisory services.
Motley Fool's Stock Advisor is something we actually do recommend. It has a proven track-record, the company is trustworthy, and it's good for both beginners and veteran investors alike.
We hope you enjoyed this article and found it helpful. Leave any comments/questions below and be sure to let us know if you've had an experience with Money Map Press.
Kyle
Thanks for this review and taking the time to expose these yo – yo’s. Im into this mess by $2,000.00. Reminds me of another scheme I got involved with bout 10 years ago. Rich Dad Poor Dad. In any case I think Im gonna cut my losses and move on. Generally what Ive found is they are not “straight forward at all. There is a constant urgency and sensationalism that they sustain which results in confusion. Unfortunately a very common Business style method.
What Im really wondering is this?
Is this service the Motley Fools Stock Advisor somewhere that I could get decent stock recommendations that I could act on? Protecting the downside with “Stop Sells?”
Once again thank you for the review. William Kelley
I paid membership fees to Money Map Press and received their welcome package with a silver metal colored card.
Later, I subscribed to an offshoot of Money Map Press called NICI, National Institute for Cannabis Investors which provides
specialized knowledge from marijuana experts. I joined in 2020 and once again received their welcome package including a
gold colored metal card and another package confirming that I am an "Elite" member of NICI after paying MORE FEES.
Last April, I got a final email from NICI informing me that they "are tired" and will shut down their website and no further emails
will be sent to us subscribers. If I recall, that so-called elite membership cost me about $3000.
I need to know IF there is any talk among former subscribers and/or legal experts about a class action LAW SUIT against
Money Map Press. Is such a class action law suit in the makings?
I need to know so that I can join and sue them for a refund of fees!
A. Bianco