{"id":1430,"date":"2025-04-02T06:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T06:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1430\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T06:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T06:59:18","slug":"experience-of-brand-builder-darren-campbells-company-has-destroyed-me-former-client-says-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1430\/","title":{"rendered":"Experience of \u2018brand builder\u2019 Darren Campbell\u2019s company has \u2018destroyed\u2019 me, former client says \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Co Antrim woman who lost more than \u00a38,000 after entering the FBA Brand Builder programme says her life has been \u201cdestroyed\u201d and is now struggling to pay off a loan she took out to enter it.<\/p>\n

The Ballymena company, owned by entrepreneur Darren Campbell, announced it was being liquidated on Monday<\/a> after more than 100 people signed up to a group legal action alleging they had lost thousands due to malpractice by the firm.<\/p>\n

Mr Campbell and the company have strenuously denied the claims and vowed to robustly defend them in court.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>Controversial \u2018brand builder\u2019 shuts down company and enters liquidation<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Darren<\/a>\"Experience<\/a><\/p>\n

Portglenone woman Nicola Graffin, 35, said she signed up to the FBA Brand Builder in August 2024. Months later after never getting to the launch stage of her business, she had borrowed \u00a38,500 which she says she is struggling to pay back every month.<\/p>\n

Ms Gaffin says she was \u201cnaive\u201d when she initially signed up to the programme and was very supportive of the company but was later removed after claims she had broken her contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started querying things myself, I was asking questions that anyone should have been entitled to know and where the money was going and how successful the success stories really are,\u201d she told The Irish News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had good relations with lots of people, I had spoken to some who had launched and were taken out for success dinners, but yet hadn\u2019t made a penny in profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it just wasn\u2019t making sense any more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI requested to have my mentoring calls which were recorded by the company sent to me and after a lot of back and forth I was kicked out, because I was told I broke their contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Gaffin described her experience as \u201csoul destroying\u201d and says it has knocked her self confidence. She is one of more than 100 who have agreed to pursue a civil case against the company and Mr Campbell.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nicola also says she suffers from alopecia, and believes the stress caused by her involvement with the company has led to further hair loss.<\/p>\n

\"TheNicola Griffen speaks to THE IRISH NEWS about The FBA Brand Builder. PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly it has destroyed me. I\u2019m a stay at home mum, I\u2019ve got lots of health issues and I was wanting to do something to make my kids proud of me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have that money to start with, I took a loan out for it and I\u2019m now having to pay that loan back every single month for the next five years. I don\u2019t have that money to be putting into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I have to strip back on everything else to pay that loan back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know how to put it into words but it has just destroyed me. It\u2019s knocked my self confidence completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told at the start that \u00a310,000 would have been enough to launch our business, I thought that included the programme fee. Nothing was explained properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were made to think that we could make a difference to our own lives, and the fact that we are in a worse off situation that we ever were, is soul destroying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another woman, from Co Fermanagh, says she signed up to the FBA Brand Builder after a friend had seen advertisements for the programme on social media.<\/p>\n

Anne Gunn (41), from Enniskillen, says after herself and a friend had a call with an employee of the company, they felt \u201cpressurised\u201d into paying the \u00a36,500 sign up fee. Seeking a refund weeks later she was told there was a \u201cstrict no refund policy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AnneAnne Gunne from Enniskillen spoke to The Irish News about her experience of the FBA Brand Builder <\/p>\n

\u201cI had seen stuff about him giving away holidays to Disneyland and all the success stories,\u201d Anne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a single mother of two children and working full time, I got a loan to pay for this and now I\u2019m obviously paying back a loan for something I have nothing to show for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told after the first \u00a36,500 that a further investment would be needed in the fourth month and that after six months we would be making money.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the hidden costs just kept coming. After we paid the money and received the contract, the contract didn\u2019t even really make sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that stage I started to think that something wasn\u2019t right. I got cold feet and felt it was too good to be true and that\u2019s how it turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anne added that she has had sleepless nights over her involvement with the company, and said she is \u201chappy\u201d it is no longer operating.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe FBA Brand Builder Premises near Ballymena. PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had all sorts of emotions, I\u2019ve been angry, I\u2019ve been sad, I\u2019ve been worried. I was doing this to make things better for myself and my family and now I\u2019m worse off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been stressful, there have been a lot of nights I haven\u2019t slept over it. But at the same time, when I look at a lot of other people and how much money they have lost I count myself lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Antrim woman who lost more than \u00a38,000 after entering the FBA Brand Builder programme says her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[958,51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-1430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ballymena","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114267079508714153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}