What happened to the Essential Classics of Catholic Spirituality?

Okay, so I've been rather reluctant to post on this because I wanted to gather as many facts as possible first.

Way, way back in November of last year, I ordered some books online called the Essential Classics of Catholic Spirituality. It looked like a great collection of books, and although I already owned some of them I thought that they would make great gifts. The group selling them, ProLife Search was publishing these books as a way to raise funds for various pro-life organizations, which they had listed on their website. The group was founded by Jack Manhire and Joe Hanley, both lawyers from Chicago.

At first things seems to be going well. I paid for and received the e-books, and pre-paid for the leather-bound copies which were to be printed in January. Then I forgot about it all until March. I emailed PLS at that time and got response that there had been a printing problem, but that the books should be arriving in a few weeks.

Then I forgot about the books again, until May. I emailed PLS again, and received response from their secretary saying that there was a printing problem, which would most likely not be resolved and that I should try to get my money back from my credit card company.

I was not satisfied with that answer and after a little searching, found an email address for Jack Manhire. I emailed him and received no response. I also emailed the Couple to Couple League to see if they had received any money from ProLife Search. I was told that CCL's records were unclear as to whether or not they had received funds; they may have or may have only been contacted by PLS regarding possible contributions to be made.

At this time I went on the blog for the "Hardbound Classics," which at the time was linked from the PLS homepage. I left a comment on the most recent posting there in hopes that Jack would respond, or that others looking for answers would contact me. Jack did not respond to this comment.

Around this time I located this site, for Tax Defenders, a company founded by Joe Hanley. I sent an email to the general contact email account, asking for a response from Joe Hanley. Finally, I received a response.

Here is the actual wording of the email:

"I'm very sorry for the long delay, but we are still working on either getting a refund from the Chinese printer or on getting the books. I am glad to give you a refund if you would like, please just let me know. "

Joe had responded using this email account: jrhanley@thetaxdefenders.com

The Tax Defenders site also contained a phone number for the business and an address.

This is the contact information as it is listed on the site now:

The Tax Defenders
200 W. Adams
Suite 2610
Chicago, IL 60606
info@thetaxdefenders.com

800.341.0411

(The address had changed since the day I first found the site)

After emailing Joe back and asking how to get a refund I got this response:

"I will send you a check. Where would you like to receive that? Also, yes, of course on anyone else who is wanting a refund, have them email me.

We will update the site and w/ email but have been putting off hoping for a resolution."

On May 27th, I sent him my address and how much I paid for the books. That same day I received this response from Joe:

"I will do that. Got your note "around the horn" that I was not responding to you because it took me a full day to get to your email. Please be advised that it might take me 48 hours to send your check out.

Please understand it may take me hours or even days to respond to your email and contact me directly with any issues you have that concern me in the future."

This was the last contact that I had with Joe Hanley.

On June 8 I responded to his email explaining that the most direct way I had of contacting him was though email. I also explained that it had been two weeks and I still had not received my refund.

After this I went on vacation hoping to find something waiting for me when I came back. I really wanted a check to appear and all the hassle to be over. No luck. To this day I still have not received anything from Joe, not an email and certainly not a refund. I even called his work number on Friday and left a message. No response yet.

I filed a complaint on with the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance using the address for PLS that I found at the bottom of the emails they sent and a phone number that I had found on an old press release.

Here is the address and phone number that I used:

ProLife Search
542 N. Ashbury Ave.
Bolingbrook, IL 60440

312-924-1890

(I believe that the phone number it not active anymore, and I really don't know about the address either.)

I got confirmation from the BBB that the complaint was filed, but I don't know if anyone at ProLife Search actually received it.

Shortly after I filed the complaint (I filed around June 28), the ProLife Search site stopped working. For a long time it didn't come up at all, and now it redirects to a site for a band.

After the site went down, someone else who pre-ordered the books let me know that she was receiving emails from Jack about other "great" stuff. The first was about Christian MySpace. The first part of this link is www.askataxattorney.net. So I checked that out. It redirected me to this, a site for TaxAid.net. It doesn't say anything about Jack on the site, but there is an email address listed under "contact us." This email may or may not be read by Jack; I really don't know, maybe someone could check it out.

In any case I emailed Jack at the address on the bulk mail asking about the Essential Classics of Catholic Spirituality, and viola! got myself added to their mailings. (I did have to confirm that I wanted to be added to the mailing list, so it wasn't totally automatic) No response from Jack. The next couple of emails from Jack, or really the automated email generator, were about homeschooling resources. The most recent of these was sent on August 9.

I have been in contact with others who have not received the books. Several of these people have also tried to contact Joe Hanley or Jack Manhire and have either not received responses or were promised a refund which they never received. I have also been in contact with their volunteer secretary. I have actually spoken with her on the phone several times. She has not spoken with either of the men in months. They do not return her phone calls or emails.

She gave me Joe Hanley's cell phone number. I will not post it here. If anyone would like to try and contact him, email me and I will give it to you.

(Joe gave the secretary permisson to give out his cell number to anyone who wanted a refund. I have not yet tried to contact him, as I just received the number on Friday, so I don't know if it actually is still a valid number.)

I am hoping that by posting all of this information we may get the attention of Jack and Joe. I don't care about money. I just want an explanation of what happened. All the information listed above I found doing various Google searches. If we all start trying to contact the men then maybe this whole thing will be resolved.