Complaints?

Below you will find our answers to the Complaints that have been laid upon us. My dad has always said that “we are not going to reply to these complaints from these people on the web because most people will see the type of person who writes such things.” With each one of them, we have tried to remedy any situation, but you cannot remedy anything with irrational people. I say that truth is truth and these people need to be called on the carpet for what they have alleged so viciously against my family and the organization we have poured our heart and soul into!  

The one thing I would like to note in the beginning; if we had taken someone’s money without doing what we agreed to do in our Investigative Agreement, wouldn’t you think that at least one of these people would file a lawsuit against us? I know I would! Wouldn’t you think we would lose our license over it? But we have NEVER been sued and we have always maintained a clean license both in California and Texas for all of these years. The bottom line is, we have NEVER violated our Investigative Agreement with anyone! We have certainly considered filing suit for defamation of character and slander, but it’s just not worth it, we know the truth and all of our time is spent helping people, not suing people.  

One of my good friends is a trial lawyer and he has been on me to let him file suit on these people and he would even do it for free! That’s not me; I don’t care what they say because I know the absolute truth. 

But take a look below. This is our side of the story; you can judge for yourself if we are worthy of locating your birthparents or children or if you are likely to be “ripped off”. We absolutely know with all of our hearts that we are worthy of your business, but it is your decision. Please read on… 

A STORY SOUNDS GOOD UNTIL YOU HEAR THE OTHER SIDE…   Proverbs

 For 29 years we have maintained an excellent reputation. We’ve are extremely proud every time we have an opportunity to be on a television program like Oprah or MSNBC (as an expert witness for the Natalie Holloway case) and a host of others. When we helped establish the Missing Person Department for the Salvation Army in California some 20 years ago, we were proud and honored to have been asked to do such a project; of course we did it for free. Major Peacock, head of the California Salvation Army Missing Person has always been so kind to spread the word amongst all of the Salvation Army throughout the country where for over 20 years they have referred those cases to us that they were unable to solve. We have never been accused of being anything but having integrity and meeting the needs of their clients. Would they still be referring their customers to us if we were dishonest and unsuccessful? I would have to say no. 

But you can see on our website just a portion of the programs we have been on, the newspaper articles that have featured us and our successes that our clients have written the kindest words to us for what we have done for them and their families. This is a dream job! It has been for me, my father, my son, my adopted sister, 2 adopted brothers – 1 natural brother, my wife, my niece and my sister in law - all who have been involved in Worldwide Tracers at one time or another.  

But my father and I have been the longest running with dad at 29 years and me at 25 years. And the employees and volunteers that we have been blessed to have over the years have been and continue to be incredible. WE ARE A FAMILY BUSINESS! Not just our immediate family, but our extended family, employees and volunteers alike, who have blessed us with their time and who have been so dedicated to putting families together. That’s 29 years of my dad’s life, almost a third of a century; twenty five years of my life, that’s a quarter of a century – all of this time that we have put toward bringing happiness and joy to other families. 

Can you imagine when you have dedicated almost your entire life to doing something and then you come face to face with the Internet to find that a few people have posted such terrible lies about you. Those lies have done a great deal of damage to our lives because it hurts knowing that people think that we are the things that these people have posted about us. And they did meet a part of their goal; they have stolen business from us. Make no mistake about it; reuniting families is my family’s life. It is heartbreaking to see what these lies have done to all of us and our ability to help others.  

Try and put yourself in our place, what if someone spread lies about you and your family and your family’s business and you knew in your heart that you had done absolutely nothing wrong. Now you realize that your reputation has been tainted by these lies. And now, there are some people who will not take advantage of your services because they believe what they have read. How would you feel? But honestly, putting myself in your place, I too would have second thoughts about doing business with us if I read some of the things on the internet. That’s why it’s time to provide our side. 

Someone sent me a on May 27, 2009, that showed something posted by the “Rip-Off Report” (never heard of them before now). At first I was furious. But getting over the anger, I felt that I had no other option but to “swing away” at these people. This was actually what started me on this quest of telling the “other side”.  

I saw some complaints that have been on the internet for years. As I said above, one of the reasons we never responded until now was because we considered it all nonsense and felt that others reading it would see what we saw; people who had nothing more to do but complain when they didn’t get their way. They took their marbles and went home and decided to call names. I saw the same thing in grade school. People who, no matter what you do, can never be pleased and people whose goal was never to work anything out, just to try and ruin what we have taken so long to build up - more about that later.  

When you have been in business for 29 years and have completed almost 20 thousand cases, there are going to be complaints. However, there is a HUGE difference between a “complaint” that can be resolved if both parties are reasonable, and a “complaint” that is nothing more than a load of hateful and misleading ramblings that are never intended to be resolved. The only intent is to keep as many people as possible from doing business with us. Of course, these people always say the same thing in the beginning… “if you give our money back we won’t file a complaint”. I’m sorry; I have more pride than to yield to any attempts at blackmail.  We have been doing our job and have spent our time and money on the belief that our client’s would honor the agreement they signed. If I followed our Investigative Agreement and have done what we said we would do, why would it be fair to give their money back? It’s not, complaint or no complaint. 

OUR SIDE OF THE COMPLAINTS ONLINE -

 “MY EXPERIENCE WITH PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS” … You might know him because he has an email from me on his website that was not very nice. I meant every word of it. He didn’t post the transcript of our previous conversation when I tried to find out if we could work anything out. He absolutely had no intention to do anything but complain. But there was really nothing to work out. And of course he also did not post the emails he wrote to me before I responded with my email. This all happened right after my father had a stroke and he knew that my father had a stroke. You would not like your family to be talked about in the manner that he talked about our family. All of his details sound real good, but he forgot to mention that he was given instructions on updates, just like you will, but they just didn’t apply to him obviously. Or perhaps, even though he signed and agreed to it, “he didn’t read it”. I think he appears to be the type of person who would have read all of our instructions, signed that he read and understood it, but again, they certainly wouldn’t apply to him, just our other clients. 

There are two outstanding things that will tell you just the type of person we are dealing with here. First, you can actually see from the article he wrote THAT HE ADDRESSED EIGHT SEARCH COMPANIES, AND IT IS CLEARLY EVIDENT THAT HE COULD NOT GET ALONG WITH ANY OF THEM. It is written by him.

The second thing is what really gives you a good look into this man’s personality. He stated what follows before he even started his search; frankly, we should have known better than to take his case after this.  He says he became “confused” over our website and couldn’t tell what the charges were. We had never heard anything like this from any other client, but it seemed to be a real big issue for him since he started off COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS. This is what he said after telling my father that he couldn’t understand our website about prices, “I told Mr. Rutherford that until his company got its act together, and decided what they were going to charge me for their Full Search service, I wasn't going to bother with it.” Nothing else matters with this man, this tells it all. Angry, hateful and the type of person who prefers to complain than to work together with anyone in a kind and fruitful manner. That’s all I have to say about him, let’s move on. 

“RIP-OFF REPORT…Worldwide Tracers” … As I said above, May 27, 2009 is the first time I saw this. I have not heard of this woman, I’ve checked our files and database to no avail. Plus I do not know the situation. But this brings up an important matter. If you see a complaint, it is never because we did not do what we agreed to do in the Investigative Agreement. There are times when a client may think that we should have done something that we agreed to do and it didn’t get done. WE DO MAKE MISTAKES! But that’s when we have a professional conversation with our client and work out whatever needs to be worked out peacefully and to everyone’s satisfaction. But how can we know about this lady’s complaint if it was not told to us. Again, her allegation, if true, should have been taken to a court of law if she thought she was right and we wouldn’t respond.

 We are licensed investigators. If we were in the habit of taking money from people and not doing what we said we would, we would lose our license. That is not a possibility, it is a fact. I just recently had a situation where a client paid us $3,000 to use a “special” source to get information that was impossible to get otherwise. The client had to pay us the $3,000 up front and we hold on to the client’s money for a 90 day minimum. The source took over 6 months with hers. My promise was to pay the client back the $3,000 if the source could not produce and in this case they could not get the information. So, we gave the client’s money back just as we agreed to, again through our written agreement with her. This was in May 2009. Here are some emails from her:

Kirk,
Thank you so much for the update on my case.  I am sorry that it didn't work out with this source but things happen that way sometimes.  I really appreciated your honesty and integrity… 
Warmly,
Kirsten

 Hi Kirk!
I did receive the check on time but I just deposited it this morning.  Thanks so much for your time and efforts!
 Warmly,
Kirsten 

As you can see, we don’t keep money from clients when it belongs to them; I don't care if it's $3,000 or $100, IT IS NOT IN OUR NATURE. Whatever we both agree to is exactly what happens. I do not remember the “Rip  Off”  lady at all, however, I do know that no one here ever had a conversation with her about this “birth certificate”. I am almost positive that there is more to this story than what is being told. Just not following through with a case is not our style. I know that there would be a lot more to this if we took her money and did not do what we said we would do. There is no reason for this complaint. I know if someone just took my $600, I would be after it; I would not just write some complaint on some random website. I would hire an attorney. 

“I HAVE TAKEN WORLDWIDE TRACERS OFF OF my site because of complaints I have had.” TEN YEARS AGO or possibly more we found that a woman who was in the adoption movement had posted a notice on her website, “I have taken Worldwide Tracers off of my website because of the complaints I have had”. At that time, we were involved in a part of the adoption movement to get more states to open records, There were some things that this woman espoused about others, not us at this time, and we voiced our opinion about her statements. It was shortly after that when we noticed the “Complaint” comment on her website. 

 HOWEVER, the complaints that she received was not from ONE of our clients, the complaints came from those who backed her. If you have researched the Adoption Movement, you will know quite well the organization called, “The Bastard Nation”. Approximately 6 months after posting the slander on her website about us, she was fired from her position with the Bastard Nation after a very controversial matter that she was involved in. All of this can be verified on the internet if you would like to check it out. Additionally, while this part of a website still exists, it has not been changed or kept up for 5 years or more. The statement is just hanging out there in cyberspace. Aren’t we the lucky ones! J

 BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU – 

Maybe you will or will not agree with me. There are plenty of people who feel the way I do and you can find them online; reputable people and reputable companies.

We’ve had several complaints from clients on the BBB. AGAIN, none of the complaints have anything to do with our Investigative Agreement. Some of them wanted their money back because the case was not going as fast as they wanted it to. I’m sorry, but from the very beginning, we tell our clients that we cannot guarantee the amount of time it takes. But that doesn’t seem to matter, they want their money back. Like I said above, we’ve spent our time and money searching on their case, and we have done EXACTLY WHAT WE AGREED TO DO. Why is it fair for us to give their money back? 

Another popular complaint is that we will not call them back when they call. It has to be on their time. We disclose the update process in our Adoption Instructions and Missing Person Instructions. But this does not seem to be good enough for a few; they would like to have theirs sooner. Believe me when I say, these are instances when we absolutely try and work these situations out with them but most of them do not want anything but their money back. We’ve done everything we said we would do and it is agreed to and signed by the client. Again, if we had violated our Investigative Agreement, should we not be sued? I admit that we cannot always be timely with updates, sometimes time does not allow. But this is disclosed in the Adoption Instructions that they read and sign that they understood. 

Last thing about the BBB and this is a classic. I did an adoption for a gentleman who thought he had enough information to solve his case quickly. I told him from the beginning, after looking at his information that the case was not going to be near as easy as he thought. I won’t go into details, it’s too lengthy. But after about 3 months, he felt that we had gone long enough, we should have solved his case by then. Forget about the Investigation Agreement. He then filed his complaint with the BBB. Keep in mind; he got the same paperwork as all of our clients get. We cannot guarantee how long it takes to finish a search, and we have never guaranteed when a case would be solved. He got his updates, but again, didn’t like to hear that it was a tough case.  

During the search he told me that he believed his daughter (who we were looking for) had contacted him about 10 years ago. He had the phone number from caller ID and wanted me to find his daughter using that phone number. I told him over and over that there was no such way to get the owner of a phone number from 10 years ago. To make him happy, I even called the telephone company when he was in the office one day and of course they said there was no way to get information on that number because there was no longer any information to reference. I then ran the number through one of our License Only databases just to prove to him that there was no such way to get that information. 

Well, I got the complaint and his chief complaint was that I refused to use the information about a phone number that he gave me that he said, “would have solved the case”. Of course, he wanted his money back. Ridiculous, but it is online for all of our potential clients to see.

In the client's complaint above he stated that we currently have a “B- rating” with the BBB. How do they come up with that? The fact is, we did over 700 cases last year, 2008. It appears that we had around 5 complaints last year… I don’t know off the top of my head. But let’s say there were 7 to make the math easy. I know that there were not more than that. That means that we had 1 % complaints last year. I would say that is an A+! 

I have a number of other issues that happened with the BBB. In fairness to the BBB, I will make sure that everything is documented before we post it.  This entire page is centered around the truth, therefore anything I say about anyone on this page, especially the BBB must be the total and complete truth.

IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT OTHERS WHO HAVE COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE BBB, CHECK OUT THIS BLOG FROM 'SMALL BUSINESS NEWS'.  Go Here: BBB

CONCLUSION - 

We are certainly not perfect; we make mistakes like everyone else. But we own up to our mistakes. If a client is having a problem with anything, we’re here to help… ALWAYS. But there are those, the ones I addressed above, who, no matter what you do, do not want help. They want to complain and they want their money back regardless of the fact that we did everything we said we would do! They didn’t want to talk with us about any problem they had in order to attempt to remedy it. The fact is, they knew they had no “right” to file a legitimate complaint. The goal was to chase away clients and unfortunately, with some people, it has worked. 

Please call us today; we’re good people who have done well for others for a long time. We will do exactly what we say we will do. If we have a problem with your search or how we did something with your search, we will talk it out like mature people and make sure that everything is done correctly. We have paid money back before if we felt it was the right thing to do and there is no way to remedy it but to do so. Those situations are rare though.  

If you have any questions, please call me; I am here to answer any and all of your questions. I hope this information has helped you understand who we are and why we believe with our hearts that we deserve the good reputation expressed through the vast majority of our clients. And we feel we deserve the opportunities to be on the programs we have been on and to get the referrals from the Salvation Army and American Red Cross. And we believe that we can serve you better than anyone else, in spite of those who have placed a smear on our good names.  

A Story Sounds Good Until You Hear The Other Side. I’ve never heard a statement so true. It’s not surprising that it comes from the book of Proverbs in the Bible. It is truth, and it is the only sound way to determine truth. We have stated the truth as we see it from our side. Maybe you see it as 'we protest too much'. But we just feel that we need to address these things. Keep in mind, this is over a 29 year period, we truly do not have that many complaints. But I am just tired of not addressing them.

We are the first to admit that we are not perfect, but we try to do our best for everyone we serve.  Please call us with any questions you may have about this response or anything else you may have heard or seen. Thank you for taking the time to hear "the other side".

Warmest Regards,

Pat Rutherford - Founder

Kirk Rutherford – Director

Kirk Rutherford & Pat Rutherford    

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