Eric Friedman is the founder of Mediation First NJ LLC, based in Livingston, New Jersey. He can be reached at [email protected]. Please contact Eric if you have also had substantial difficulties with Mediation.com, Innovative Marketing or other entities connected to Thomas Pronesti.
When my New Jersey mediation practice decided to stop using services associated with Mediation.com, Innovative Marketing, and related entities connected to Thomas Pronesti, I expected an ordinary vendor transition.
Before going further, please be sure to note that none of these listed problematic entities are in any way associated with Mediate.com – for whom I have the great respect and appreciation for publishing this article in the best interest of the mediation field.
What followed from Mediation.com and Thomas Pronesti instead included disputed charges, escalating demands for payment, online conflict, reputational concerns, and ultimately a police report filed with the Livingston Police Department in New Jersey.
As background, I own Mediation First NJ LLC (www.mediationfirstnjllc.com), a Livingston based family and divorce mediation practice. Like many small professional firms, my business depends heavily on the digital ecosystem: website hosting, search engine optimization, Google Business visibility, and online reputation management.
For approximately eighteen months, my company utilized online marketing and hosting services connected to these entities. The arrangement was informal and operated monthto-month through recurring credit card billing. During most of that period, I had no direct interaction with Thomas Pronesti himself and primarily communicated with sales and support personnel.
The issues began after I informed the company that we intended to move our business to another provider.
According to a statement I later provided to law enforcement, shortly after giving notice of the transition, multiple disputed charges were suddenly attempted against my credit cards through affiliated entities. The volume of the charges caused one card issuer to shut the card down.
After discussions with Mr. Pronesti, I agreed to what I believed was a final settlement payment. A written release agreement was executed, payment was made, and I believed the matter had been resolved.
It was not and Mr. Pronesti became flat-out abusive.
According to my police report, additional demands for payment followed, along with repeated emails and what I viewed as retaliatory online conduct, including a negative Google Business review targeting my mediation practice.
As someone whose professional life revolves around conflict resolution, I found the experience deeply unsettling, not simply because of the dispute itself, but because of the broader imbalance of power that increasingly exists between small professional practices and the digital vendors who control portions of their online visibility and reputation.
In today’s economy, many professionals effectively rent their visibility from third parties.
Attorneys, mediators, therapists, consultants, physicians, and small business owners now rely upon outside companies for:
Those systems can become extraordinarily influential over a business’s survival.
A negative review campaign, search suppression issue, disputed billing escalation, or disruption of online infrastructure can materially affect referrals, client trust, and revenue almost immediately.
What troubled me further was discovering that my experience did not appear isolated.
While researching publicly available materials, I found years of online complaints, archived Better Business Bureau references, litigation references, and regulatory history involving Thomas Pronesti and related entities.
Publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck records over multiple decades reflect historical securities-industry disclosure events involving Thomas Pronesti, including regulatory actions and customer disputes containing allegations involving fraud, false statements, unauthorized trading, supervisory failures, misrepresentations and significant, repeated fines.
Importantly, those are public records and disclosures. I make no independent adjudication regarding the merits of those historical matters. However, the existence of repeated disputes across different industries and time periods raises broader questions about accountability, transparency, and consumer protection in businesses centered around online influence and reputation management.
I also discovered archived articles and complaint compilations publicly discussing disputes involving Mediation.com and multiple related entities dating back many years.
At minimum, these materials suggest a pattern of conflict that deserves scrutiny.
The larger issue here extends beyond any one individual dispute.
Small professional practices increasingly operate in a world where reputation can be materially influenced by vendors possessing significant technical and digital leverage. Once integrated into a company’s website infrastructure, hosting, SEO environment, or online reputation systems, those relationships can become difficult, expensive, and sometimes intimidating to unwind.
For many professionals, the issue is not merely financial. It is existential.
A damaged online reputation can affect:
As a mediator, I believe deeply in dialogue, transparency, negotiated resolution, and goodfaith conduct. My purpose in writing this article is not sensationalism. Nor is it to prejudge legal outcomes.
Rather, it is to raise awareness about an increasingly important issue affecting small professional businesses operating in the digital economy.
I have since spoken with attorneys in both Florida and elsewhere regarding these matters, including counsel previously involved in litigation concerning related entities.
If other professionals, business owners, or consumers believe they may have experienced similar issues within the last 5 years involving disputed billing practices, online reputational pressure, retaliatory review activity, or related conduct associated with these entities or individuals, I invite them to confidentially share their experiences with me directly so that we may look to address them together.
Patterns matter. Transparency matters.
And in an economy increasingly governed by digital reputation, accountability matters more than ever.
Eric Friedman is the founder of Mediation First NJ LLC, based in Livingston, New Jersey. He can be reached at [email protected]. Please contact Eric if you have also had substantial difficulties with Mediation.com, Innovative Marketing or other entities connected to Thomas Pronesti.
Editors Note:
Additional historic articles about problems with Mediation.com are here:
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