jesseflemming wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Stephanie wrote:</div>
Hi there, my husband and I are going to Brisbane this weekend, to office for “appointment “.
Do you have any further info from your parents experience please?

My parents terminated the contract during the cooling off period. This was based on a few things. My mother after leaving the office and realising she had just signed a contract for allot of money without really independently thinking things through decided to do some research based on what she had been told at their “appointment”.

After doing some reading on online forums about PPW I discovered that they had undergone a change in business name recently in the last few years. Also I read a few posts about how they used to door knock using backpackers or other cheap labour to try and organise these “appointments” to sell their properties. One of the commenter’s used to actually work for them whilst they were backpacking in Australia and said that they were given scripted lines on how to draw their targets in. Ontop of this they are currently cold calling/targeting “empty nesters” who they know are looking for a fast tracked retirement and they know these people have more free capital to do so and are trying to cash in on them.

This was all very fishy to me so my mother an I started doing some research. We discovered the tax breaks described on the property offered to my parents were exactly the same as the tax benefits the government provides for owners of housing commission units.
I then had a drive past the units and sure enough they looked like most other housing commission units, all the same design and had a housing managers unit.
So then we did some more research and discovered that there were housing commission units planed for the area in which my parents had just bought.
My mother was now a little nervous about what she and dad had just done so the next morning she called PPW. She confronted them and asked them if the unit was indeed part of the housing commission and got put on hold and when the girl came back after some time and denied that they were. My mother told them what we had discovered about the tax benefits and the council plans and asked for a statement in writing to say the unit they had agreed to purchase was not apart of any housing commission or government housing scheme. They Denied to provide this. After more question by my mother, some things the lady on the phone said started to contradict what was verbally told to them at their “appointment”.
By this stage both my parents were now feeling a little uneasy and decided to make use of their cooling off period and end the contract. During the call to PPW to inform them of their decision to terminate the lady on the phone asked: “what is so bad about buying housing commission units anyway?”.

From what I have experienced through my parents dealing with PPW I would advise to not talk to them/attend one of their appointments. They are very convincing and good with their words and will put lots of time and effort in to try and make you feel safe so you sign the contract on the day E.g. they bought my parents lunch and then drove them back to their house in their private car.
Too me it just doesn’t add up; door-knocking, recent change of business name, cold calling/targeting with phone lists, providing a complete review of personal financials and all the other goodies like lunch and free taxi (and in the case of some people free flights!). Then at the end of the day putting a contract under the persons nose so they somewhat feel obliged to sign but also safe/confident enough at the time to do so.

They call themselves independent financial advisors who specialise in “wealth creation” but their tactics aren’t so. They are more salesman than anything else specialising in hocking off new developments to targeted demographics such as my parents for their wealthy developer mates.

Good on you Jess for doing the research and thankyou for sharing your story