• The Barefoot Investor shut down its subscriber-only Blueprint program at the end of last financial year as founder Scott Pape gave up his financial licence.
• While members were told of the decision a year in advance, many have been left frustrated as years worth of paid content disappeared overnight.
• With the business shutting down within a couple of weeks, some claim the removal of the backcatalogue wasn’t communicated properly and has left them empty-handed, as they struggle to get answers from Pape.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

The Barefoot Investor is receiving a rare backlash from his fanbase after shutting down his subscriber-only advice program.

Founder Scott Pape sent out an email last year announcing his decision to close his Barefoot Blueprint business, which provided weekly stock tips, advice, and step-by-step video guides to members.

“As much as I love the Blueprint … next year I’m planning to launch my very own not-for-profit financial counselling service,” Pape wrote in an email sent in June 2019 seen by Business Insider Australia.

“To do that, legally, I have to surrender my financial licence. So that means this will be my last 12 months of writing this newsletter.”

While few subscribers could begrudge Pape’s higher purpose, there was an expectation that the content they had been paying for – in some cases for years – would be theirs to keep.

Pape himself did little to suggest otherwise.

“I’ve decided to go all-in and give you everything I’ve ever published at the Blueprint,” he said in the June email, asking members to continue subscribing with the promise the content would be “bundled up for you to download and keep forever” at the end of the year.

‘Utterly hopeless’

However, while thousands of Australians had subscribed to the program at a cost of nearly $300 a year, many have been left frustrated by the way Pape managed the shutdown.

“The way they’ve done it has just been utterly hopeless,” Peter Collins, a two-year subscriber, told Business Insider Australia.

“[The content was] certainly not easily ‘bundled up’ for any of us.”

The Barefoot Investor sent around a small reminder at the end of April as part of his regular email series. However, members could have been forgiven for missing it, buried halfway down a newsletter titled ‘How to survive the coming crisis’.

In fact, in Pape’s trademark staccato writing style, the link was to be found in the 103rd paragraph, more than 2,200 words down the page.

There was no other email reminder, Collins said, and given members can download their month’s PDF files directly, for many there is no other contact with Pape or the business.

It’s unsurprising then that plenty of subscribers missed the memo on the Barefoot Investor’s website.

On July 1, the Blueprint and its forums were taken offline completely.

Little help offered

After emailing a support contact and waiting for a few days, Collins and others received the same template email.

“As per our Terms & Conditions, members had until 30 June to download what they needed,” customer service said in an email seen by Business Insider Australia.

Despite that, some members were provided with a temporary link to access old PDFs.

“Even that was made so complicated,” Collins said.

“Instead of being able to download it as one bundle, there were at least 300 items and each required you to click through and individually download each one,” he added, saying it took him several nights to go through and get the majority of files.

“Then I tried to go back the next week and it had already been taken down again.”

Collins claims a complaint he lodged on the Barefoot Investor’s Facebook page was removed.

Others have had even less luck in getting their hands on the content or even getting their money back.

“Please note that as we’re shutting down the business, you’ll need to let us know by Friday 10th July via email if you have any issues receiving the refund,” one support email sent to a customer said.

Since then, some members have tried to get in touch with the business, but say they have gotten no response. Business Insider Australia has received only automated replies to several inquiries.

The affair has left plenty of customers disappointed over how they feel they’ve been treated.

“[Pape] promised he was going to put everything into the final year so it’s pretty rich he’d finish it like this,” Mike, a subscriber of two years, told Business Insider Australia.

“The only reason I didn’t cancel [my subscription] was because I thought getting access to the backlog would be worth it. Right now I don’t even have [that].”

Unable to get support, many have taken to online forums and unofficial Facebook groups to vent. Some claim they’ve been “ripped off” while others have sprung to Pape’s defence, saying he made it clear content would expire.

However, it’s little consolation to those who missed the boat. With some subscriber-only content being downloaded more than 6,000 times according to Collin, members had likely spent millions of dollars in total on the information.

“It’s something we’ve paid for, so to have it taken away and for everything to be made so needlessly difficult is really annoying,” he said.

A return to passive investing

The Blueprint program marked a stark divergence from The Barefoot Investor’s typical passive investment advice.

While normally Pape advises people to consider buying diversified ETFs that follow the broader share market, Blueprint subscribers were given specific stock tips.

With the closure of the Blueprint and the surrendering of a financial licence, it looks like The Barefoot Investor will take his own investment advice.

In winding down the Blueprint arm, Pape and collaborator Mike Kemp began returning to the ETF model, suggesting members who had relied on their tips were perhaps better off with a diversified long-term portfolio.

Meanwhile, Collins said he would simply miss the general advice, like how to get a better deal on your health insurance.

“I don’t begrudge Scott for shutting it down. It’s his business and he can do what he likes but he really dropped the ball on this,” he said.

“It’s a shame because I had thought it was quite useful and I’m sad to see it all go.”

Neither Pape nor a Barefoot Investor representative had responded to Business Insider Australia’s questions at the time of publication.

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