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Glenn Beck has said that Goldline is trustworthy. AP Photo Evan Agostini
This is the second part of a five part series entitled "Goldgate" focusing on Glenn Beck's potential conflict of interest in promoting gold on his television show.
For part one entitled "Goldgate part one: Gretchen Carlson and Glenn Beck have something in common at Fox News" click here.
Part two of this series will focus on Glenn Beck's association with Goldline.
Beck has not been bashful about his endorsement of Goldline on the radio and internet. The Goldline website prominently features Beck's face in two places. Goldline proudly announces that their company is recommended by Glenn Beck, Fred Thompson, Dennis Miller, Mark Levin, and Laura Ingraham. It seems that Goldline has nearly cornered the conservative media market.
In the Youtube video below Beck gives his full endorsement of Goldline. The video features Beck talking about the founding fathers with patriotic music playing in the background before transitioning to Beck talking about how the government may once again take people's gold except of course for antique coins. Beck then goes back to the founding fathers while promoting Goldline and urging his audience to "study it out" for themselves. At the end Beck tells his followers to "trust the people at Goldline."
A search on Ripoff Reports reveals that not everyone feels Goldine is as trustworthy as Beck claims. Numerous complaints have been made alleging unethical business practices by Goldline. The website allows for a rebuttal of all claims made by customers so Goldine has had an opportunity to respond to all these reports though the most recent complaint listed on top was just posted on December 12th, 2009. The highlights of the reports include the following:
(1) Mary in New Castle, Pennsylvania complains that she felt cheated after buying around $5,000 worth of gold coins from Goldline that she felt were overpriced. She explicitly states that she trusted the advice of Glenn Beck after hearing one of his advertisements promoting the company. Mary further claims that she was persuaded to buy Swiss Francs from a Goldline adviser because they had "just become available" and were "such a good deal." Later she claims to have found the same coins for a significantly cheaper price on the internet. Unfortunately for her she did her research too late to get a refund as Goldline would only allow for the "money back guarantee" if before the date of delivery.
(2) Another couple claiming to be retirees in their 80's report that they were persuaded to buy around $40,000 worth of "rare" coins from a Goldine representative. They too were disappointed to find that the coins were not rare and that they could be purchased for half the price in other places.
(3) A man named George from Santa Monica, California claims to have attempted to buy gold coins from Goldline after hearing a Glenn Beck advertisement. He states that he requested a brochure from Goldine but was pressured to buy gold right away or risk losing money if the price of gold continued to go up. In the end he decided not to purchase the gold after researching gold prices and (like the others) finding that Goldline prices included a 40% markup from the price of gold in other places.
Other reports end on a more positive note. For instance William from Asheville, North Carolina reports being satisfied with Goldines service and profiting from his transactions after initially complaining about their service. Dennis from Lewton, Idaho also reports of coming to a "fair deal" with Goldline after initially being upset about the markup referred to in complaints above.
Goldline has a B+ rating with the Better Business Bureau with 42 complaints listed against them. The highest rating a company can receive under the BBB rating system is an A+. Some of the competitors include A Mark Precious Metals, Inc. which has an A rating and Blanchard and Company, Inc. which has an A+ rating.
Goldline deals with thousands of customers so it is understandable how mistakes could be made when dealing in such large numbers. It appears that a consistent complaint is the "markup" price at which Goldline sells their coins. Goldline likely claims that such prices are necessary in order to pay commissions and other costs. As long as buyers are informed of such commissions and know how much their coins will have to increase in value to "break even" on the investment then no real issue is present. However if some of the complaints above are true then Glenn Beck is essentially steering his audience into a company that sells coins at a significant "markup" without knowing the risks involved.
Comments
Mormons have a special relationship with gold.
Who would trust this uneducated, greedy, narcissist? He loves his audience so much, he would rip them off with a 40% mark-up... When he says, "bad times are ahead.." he talking about those who are taking his investment advice.
Angel,
What does this have to do with Mormons in ANY WAY? You really want to go there?
I smell bigotry...
Doc
Ryan,
You sure have a lot of "if's" and "potentials", and innuendo. So here we are, back at the same spot as before...
You've got nothing, just speculation. You WANT there to be something there. You WANT a scandal, but you haven't got anything to prove it, so you stick to innuendo, and hypothetical scenarios.
Doc
Doc Navy - I don't know I think that is pretty substantive. Those are people explicitly saying they trusted Beck later saying they were disappointed in what they received from Goldline. To me that is a broken trust.
Oh and there is more coming. In my opinion it looks really bad for Beck but of course you will likely not see it the same. Stay tuned...
Doc Navy you need to take Glenn's advice and "pray on it". I prayed on it and the Lord told me that it was a good investment to make even though the Goldline premium is as high as 40%. The Lord and Glenn Beck work together in mysterious ways, but that's OK because they help make sense of the crazy world we live in.
Make Money 101: "Buy Low. Sell high." With Gold at record highs now is NOT the time to buy. I don't care who is promoting it buyig any commodity that is trading at record prices is a formula for disaster.
Had you bought gold say, 10 years ago you could sell today and make a decent profit. Nobody, not even Glen Back, can tell you what the price of Gold will be in a year, so how can anyone believe they have guaranteed their financial well being by spending money on gold.
scams-xposed.blogspot.com
Just for the fact that there are so many 'liberals' trying to silence/discredit Mr. Beck, I started listening to him. Is he crasy? Is he a nut? Yes, but in a good sort of way. He is putting the 'pieces together' and those pieces show a very scary picture.
Who in their right mind would believe we can 'spend' our way out of debt? Seriously?
Please keep up the good work here, the inane and stupid charge you are leveling at Mr. Beck do less to discredit him and more to prove how desperate you are to see him quite. The question is why you you wish to make him quit?
Norm, there's nothing wrong with Beck taking Goldline's advertising money - the difference is that the content of his shows tends to go right along with his advocacy. The fact that the Examiner takes Goldline's money and still criticizes it is a mark of integrity, not dishonesty.
Joe,
The Examiner is being critical of Glenn Beck. Goldline is just along for the (unwanted) ride.
Show me one link where The Examiner has criticized Goldline without mentioning Glenn Beck and I would be tempted to believe you.
If Ryan feels that Goldline’s profit margin is too high (at 5% to 35%), then he should do some research on other gold merchants and post their profit margins and SHOW US that Goldline’s margins are too high for the industry.
I willing to bet that they are all about the same, but that doesn’t seem to matter here; it’s just about slamming GB.
BTW, I don’t own investment gold or work for any gold merchant.
Norm - I can't speak for Ryan, but my reading of it is that, as you said, the main criticism is reserved for Beck's conflict of interest, but also a secondary implicit criticism that Goldline isn't really a great value for customers. I completely agree that other similar services probably have the exact same (or in the same ballpark) profit margin, but that isn't really the point. It's that services like Goldline, Midas, and the like are pretty sleazy; in my opinion, they're pretty much like Cash Advance places, except they target middle-aged to elderly white people. This is why you don't really see anyone reputable endorsing them - only talk show hosts.
Everybody keeps saying the same thing...thread after thread.
What ever happened to Do Your Own Due Diligence ??? Do that many people really buy something just because they hear it on a radio show? On the previous incarnation of this story ( What was that Yesterday??) One of the links was a guy saying he researched it and Gold Swiss Francs were 40% higher at Goldline!!!
That kinda proves my point....There are Choices out there and MOST people are savy enough to research. Gold ALWAYS sells at a premium by the way. 40% IS outragious...5 to 14% is more the norm. Goldline also was selling Rare coins that weren't "rare". Again a quick search will tell you that Opinions are VERY divided as to what is and is not Numismatic. However there ARE some classes of coins which fit the bill. So people could see that with research as well.
And once again Beck makes $$$ when his advertisers also make $$$. It's an OLD equation. Learn it Live it Love it.
But do keep theArticles coming Ryan.
Joe said: “This is why you don't really see anyone reputable endorsing them - only talk show hosts.”
I see Goldline and Rosland Capitol ads all over the air- just about every channel and is not particular to GB.
Take the Mary Castle example- “She explicitly states that she trusted the advice of Glenn Beck after hearing one of his advertisements promoting the company.”
Advice?! Really?! Did Glenn Beck call her and say “Mary, you need to buy from Goldline.”-probably not. She heard a commercial and acted on it.
I wish her all the luck on recollecting her money but did she get ripped-off or did she just buy under sales pressure? If it’s the later, she should have just hung up…I’ve done it many times.
I like GB, but I won’t spend thousands of $$$ just because he endorses something. I would do due diligence to see if I am getting a good price or not.
Should every person that has endorsed a drug that was later banned by the FDA be blamed because they gave “advice”?
I have a few tips for the people in the complaint examples.
(you’ll have to click on the links to understand some of these)
1. Doing the research right after making a bad financial decision is a very bad idea. Always wait at least a month, it'll give you more room to delude yourself that the information has changed and you didn't do anything wrong. Luckily if you spend every penny you have you'll never have to worry about it again.
2. putting more than 25K into things you heard on the radio is a bad idea. Investments of that size really should be put into super-aquatic transportation securities. I have some for sale.
3. After making bad decisions it’s nice to be saved by your failed attempt to spend 101% of your credit limit. This lets you complain about the price of gold going down half a percent, which could have lost you $50. But, if the charge had gone through you could have paid more than $100/month in interest for 20 years, and had so much more to complain about.
Well, clearly, the people mentioned in Ryan's post bear the responsibility for choosing a bad vendor, if not a bad investment.
And just because you see/hear ads all over the place, Norm, you never see them endorsed by anyone who isn't a conservative talk radio person, which is telling in my eyes.
To me, they're just another commercial.
a company with a budget big enough to pay for constant nation wide radio and tv commercials has a total of 42 complaints? big deal! most of the complaints are folks that haven't checked the prices. that's like buying a mid range sedan from Ford then complaining that KIA has cheaper prices.
If Beck were smart he would sever his relations with Goldline. Because A. It appears to be a conflict of interest and B. Goldline takes advantage of novice collectors (whether they have done their due dilligence or not.) If Beck really cared about the people who watch him and take his advice. Appearances are important.. I'm just saying....
The issue is Beck has a commercial interest in a company and is giving investment adivce on his show steering people to that company I worked for Investment Rarities in Bloomington, MN in the early 1980s and bullion is virtually unregulated as an investment which is why it's such a great place for scammer companies. If Beck were doing the same thing with stocks or mutual funds with a firm advertising with him he would be in jail. The really funny part? IRI was a boiler room of telemarkerters and 25 years ago the story about 'coins' was still the same, in 1984 everyone was certain the government was going to confiscate gold so buy numismatics. Every 10 days another secret horde of rare coins was found, etc It was a SCAM then and it is a scam now! Buyer beware that a fraud like Beck is involved is No surprise. If you bought gold and silver in 1980 it took you 25 years to break even! 40% is the min spread between buy and sell that is how much the price of gold has to move to break even!
Personal accountability. That's what it boils down to. I agree with the comments from Jamie. When are people going to grow up and take responsibility for themselves? Yes Glenn Beck endorses Goldline and so do many others. But what do they tell the listeners after their speech? "Don't take my word for it. Do the research." That tells volumes right there. Do the research BEFORE you go off on a tangent and buy just because you heard someone say it was worth doing. If everyone was really that ignorant not to do the work and look around then that is their own fault. Everyone always wants to blame everyone ELSE for their own shortcomings. Learn from it and move on!!!!
I didn't do my research I just trusted beck. i should of done my research on gold line when i found out they marked up the swiss france almost sixty six percent and told them cancel my order i want my money back they yelled at me. theres nothing i can do. fox news silences dissedents. gold line is on all fox news shows. beck should be embarrased and ashamed. ive done business with other gold dealers since then and i have experienced nothing even close to gold line. they are like vulchers and a thousand times worse than a car salesman. i wish there were more complaints against this fraudulent company but people are like me get screwed and dont do a damn thing this is the first time ive said anything because im embarrased. as for you people who say do your research you dont understand the commercial entices you to call right away thats what i did i din't have time to reasea
You can buy gold just by buying the stock called GLD on the stock exchange. There's a broker's commission of maybe 1 cent per stock if it's a super cheap online broker (like IB). You can keep it forever or sell it one minute latter. They don't send you the gold - but the stock exactly follows the price of gold. Go to Google finance and type in GLD to see the price.
The bigger story with this is that NY Congressman Weiner is attempting to use the notoriously overpriced and abusive Goldline as a reason to introduce regulations on all precious metals dealers. Google "bankster report weiner" to get a good story on that topic.
Goldline is well-known by long-time metal-heads to be overpriced and high-pressure. It just horrible that Beck recommends them to his audience: the only ones who will actually listen to him are those who are new to metals, and therefore don't know about Goldline's tactics. You must, must, must research anything and everything you intend to invest in, and metals are no different. Also, please remember that you might think you have a relationship with people you like on the radio or television, but they don't know you, they don't care about you, and their job is to entertain you so their boss can sell advertisements. Endorsements are WORTHLESS from unqualified people...like Beck.
People can say all they want - 'do your research' - but the endorsements of leading conservatives (I'm a staunch conservative) of a group that uses detrimental, high pressure sales tactics to rip people off is unconscienable.
Goldline should either be run out of town, or forced to bring their HUGE front end commission more in line with the rest of the gold world.
Shame on these conservative spokespeople who speak all the time of personal responsiblity, but don't take that message personally when it comes to endorsing these fraudulent high pressure sales tactics that are separating trusting souls from their money.
I did a little survey of metal companies and priced U.S. silver eagles 1oz coins. I did this survey about an hour before this comment was entered.
Company BBB rating
Blanchard and Company A+
Goldline A+
Kitco A-
Bullion Direct C-
Monex F
Blanchard, Kitco, Bullion Direct, and Monex had prices from 18.41 to 20.19 and Goldline was 29.95. Relative to the price of silver which was at 17.40 on the Kitco graph, that's an enormous markup.
This problem isn't limited to Glenn Beck, but also Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Mike Huckabee. It is disappointing that these people pitch an overly expensive company. Since this issue has been brought to their attention and they are all still endorsing Goldline and they haven't explained their rationale, I think its going to hurt their reputations as well it should.
I don't believe Goldline is doing anything illegal, but I think it is stupid to buy from them
You Redumblicans are all the same. You fall for these scams because you believe someone you think has your best interest in mind. They play on your many fears and exploit your religious beliefs. All the while they are picking your pockets. It is the same with their public policy positions. They fool you into believing that you are a good American because you believe in what they believe. All the while they and their friends are sitting back and counting their millions because they made you believe that by giving them a tax break will help them make more jobs. LOL. They sit on their money. They don't spend it. If you knew really rich people they are the tightest of wads while you are told to be good Americans and spend, spend, spend. You are good Walmart Republicans. They make you believe that you just aren't as smart as they are or industrious enough to make it like they did. They made their money by inheritance, which they talked you into letting go tax free.
Buy up the gold, idiots! Be good Glenn Beck followers and make him rich because he is a "good guy" and "he is trusworthy" because he believes in all the conspiracy theories you do. He even talks to God!! He has to be trustworthy if he talks to God!! Buy up all the gold you want. Lose all the money you want. Just please don't procreate.
YOu people are idiots.
As in any commercial transaction you have to evaluate what you recieve for what you pay for. I personally think that people who pay $20 for a t-shirt at Macy's are being ripped off. T-shirts of equal quality are readily available elsewhere for $7.99. Call me crazy, but I have learned to shop around. The folks who are being "ripped off" by Goldline failed to shop around.
Some of Goldline’s business practices may be questionable, but the “losses” by their customers pale in comparison to the losses sustained by those who invested in Enron, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, General Motors, AIG, Wachovia Bank, Washington Mutual, Chrysler, the other 200+ US banks that have failed in the past three years. Are not Weiner and all his cronies in Washington who supported the legislation that allowed that to happen guilty of ripping off the American people?
I have heard of so many people falling victim to Goldline and their sales team. I feel bad that so many Americans have been sucked in to Glenn Beck and Goldline's bait and switch marketing tools. They put fear in Americans to sell them over priced precious metals and rare coins. Most people want to invest in Bullion and then they convince them to buy the rare coins they can mark-up to ridiculous amounts. I have been investing in Regal Assets to diversify my portfolio and hedge against inflation. I have only had great experiences and I my portfolio is turning out to be a strong investment. I hope that Goldline doesn't ruin it for all/most Americans when they are trying to invest accordingly.
Not real hard to understand. Today is November. If I bought silver 6 months ago and sold it today, I would have made 60%. If you bought "antique" silver coins through Goldline during the same period you would not even break even. How can it be? Silver is up 60%. I feel bad for the older generation cause usually it is their life and retirement savings that will suffer the most.
Goldline hyped up some silver coins for me and four years later, I am under around 35-40% LESS. When I was being sold these coins I was told how "special" and "rare" they are and now look...I STILL have less in my portfolio than when I started.
They take high commissions and give terrible "investing" advice. Then, when you complain they ignore you (until you say something that gets their attention).
They appear to be investment "advisors" to be with you during the whole way thru your investment but leave you once it's over. They are only salesmen.
You can make up your own minds about this company. Beck or not, they are not good for investors.
Goldlines mark up is 54%. You buy at 100 and they buy back at 65. Your gold has to go up 54 percent for you to make profit to sell to them. Also, they sell bullion coins as numismatic when they are not. Swiss Franks are bullion, minted by the millions as restrikes. Worthless beyond the bullion cost. But they sell them at 480 when the gold content and other companies sell them at 290. What's the mark up there, Goldline.
Woirse thing about Goldline is working there. Main guy's initials are RF. All the calls from rich areas and wires and such are given to his friends. All the other AE's are treated like crap. RF is a millionaire by luck and treats people that he supervises by luck like crap. He knows they are desperate for jobs and money so he uses that to torture them and bully them and get off by abusing them. Hey Bob, you were lucky to latch on to this company and make money, why torture the rest of us. ? And how about spreading the love around? Stop coddling your buddies and give the money calls to the rest of us? why do you thnk we're all going to Merit and Lear? If Mark Albrian knew what you were doing he would fire your ass. Giving the best calls and wires to your friend, mistreating account executives and bullying them, etc.
Why is it that AE's barely making 4K at Goldline quit and go to Merit and make 30K a month? ROBERT FAZiO ! That's who.
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