[dOHd]

Mike, I am not trying to beat you up with this, its just you are looking at the whole pond building world with a set of blinders. When you take them off and really get the broad view of what you were missing, you will see what is really going on.

For example:

“photo of each step……….. with the 20th step showing lots of dollar bills being handed to the contractor for a completed job. Is this false advertising?”

Not false. But far from truthful. Don’t get me wrong. Some make a killing putting in pieces of shite. And the customer is tickled pink because it looks awesome. But its like the $295 paint job for your car. Looks great when you pick it up, but in two years or so, its over. Paint peeling, rust showing through. But at $295, what did you expect? Now, pay $2000 for that same paint job, and see how you feel. In many cases you can put in just as large a pond correctly for the same money, and have something that will not be a nightmare later on. Besides, think about it. Is that not the way just about all scams are presented. And make sure the photo of everyone smiling really big with a wheelbarrow of cash has more screen time than any of the other photos or steps. Hell, even repeat it several more times during the photo presentation.

Besides, who really pays many thousands of dollars in cash for major projects? Not any one I know. They either pay by check or credit card. So by the very context of all those smiling faces and the wad of cash, it is very dishonest and far from reality. But it makes a major impact on those watching it, as you have shown by your post.

“ADI's promotional photo's show LARGE Koi fish in their water gardens. The Koi even seem to be enjoying being fed water melon by hand”

Funny thing about Koi, you can put 20 in a 50 gallon aquarium, and they will literally eat themselves to death. Seen it happen too many times to rely on if the fish are eating or not to figure out that they are healthy or not. Koi are one of natures hardest to kill fish, so presenting a way to barely keep them alive is not my idea of a healthy fish.

“All of this Koi activity is being blessed by non other than Doc Eric Johnson from Georgia. I have met Doc Johnson several times and have even attended fish health seminars taught by him. He is at the ADI events. He sure is convincing, as he is the guy who wrote the book on fish health care.”

First off, he did not write THE book, he wrote a book. And for its time, it was very good. Problem is that the book was written way before he ever got involved with Greg et al. And the reload is nothing but an update on the old one. Problem with the update is that there is a lot of info that is no longer correct, but instead of fixing the problems, he just added different materiel to the book to quickly get it out. Over all, still not a bad book, but not THE book on Koi health. There are several out there much better and more accurate and a better value for the Koi keeper.

I have been around Doc many times over the last 6 or 8 years. He is funny, engaging and entertaining.

“When a landscaper who knows nothing about Koi or even fish,(other than the goldfish they had as a kid), Sees the guy who wrote the book on fish, het up there on stage and promote ADI's way of building ponds”

Yeppers. After two or three days of pumping up at the world cup of pond building, the landscaper is now a professional pond builder. Dig a hole, throw the dirt around the pond to build it up so you don’t have to dig as deep, throw a liner into it, add a skimmer and biofalls, thirty tons of rock, then add water and fish and you, in two days, have built a professionally built pond. And some of them really look pleasing to the eye at first glance.

“Who can blame the ADI pond builder for having tons of confidence that their way is the only right way to build ponds? ADI has thousands of ponds in the ground”

And each year, thousands come back up as well. After years of trouble and ugly looking crap, many ponds are ripped up and filled in by customers that cant stand the nasty hole in the ground. Many have flaws in them when they were built, things that they forgot or just didn’t do to get to step 20. After all, you need to be in and out in the same day or two to be able to make your millions. And many are cleaned out of gravel and stone, and rebuilt properly by someone that does know how to build ponds properly. But the customer has spent twice as much on getting what they really wanted in the first place. That is because at ADI, their ponds are the cookie cutter approach. Lots of rock and gravel for everyone. The stone and rock cover a lot of sins. And if you only present one option, what is a customer to choose from? Pond building is not like ordering the value meals at McDonalds.

“The literature shows Koi in these ponds, all backed up by a degreed Doctor”

How is the Koi in these ponds all backed up by the good doctor? Does the customer get a warranty from the good doctor that the fish will be healthy in his pond? And for how long? I have seen his ADI pond at KoiLand several times. Not my idea of what anyone would ever want. Sounds nice though if you don’t look at it.

Many people do things for many reasons. And money is a big motivator. Much of what is reported Doc says at ADI functions differs from what he says at other functions. So IMHO, Doc would make a wonderful politician as he will play to what ever crowd he is on stage to play to.

Don’t get me wrong, he is a wonderful guy and I have enjoyed the time listening and watching him over the years. We just have some vast differences on the philosophy of life, and Koi.

d