Report: #525093

Complaint Review: Amalana

Amalana Raji Wahidy (owner) To Increase Membership To Their Facebook-Like Website Tactics Are Very Questionable -- Be cautious! Internet

Reported By:

Ren — Los Angeles California United States of America
Submitted:

Wed, November 18, 2009
Updated:

Fri, November 20, 2009

Amalana

3233 Promontory Circle San Ramon, California 94583

Internet

United States of America
Phone:

925-984-25
Web:

www.amalana.com
Category:

Advertising / Deceptive

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Re: Amalana Raji Wahidy (owner) To Increase Membership To Their Facebook-Like Website Tactics Are Very Questionable -- Be cautious! Internet

OK here's the scoop:
I contacted Amalana or the owner of http://www.amalana.com/ which is a global network website. I was responding to an ad he had placed for commissioned sales agents. I inquired via email about the specifics about the job and received a personal email response from the owner Raji Wahidy. I was excited of course because I would learn the company was only two months old and we all know new companies provide ground-breaking opportunities. However something just didn't set right with me. Let me explain why.
The email I sent to Raji told about my interest in the position and highlighted my work experience related to the position. I have included part of his very nice email to me:
" Should you be interested in discussing this opportunity further, then we would be happy to conduct an interview with you to get more of a feel about your background, experience, and achievements. Please do provide us with you contact information along with where you are based from?"

(Of course I'm interested! That's why I am sending you an email Raji! As you will see in the second email below the offer changes from "if I should be interested" to "should your profile be of interest to us we shall contact you." It wasn't my background, experience or achievements vocationally they were interested in but for me to create an on line profile for their network, then and only then would I possibly be considered for the position they were offering. Forget that I had even previously corresponded via email and received a very nice email from Raji. I question the real true motive of the supposed " job ad" as being more of a " we want more subscribers so we'll post a job ad" kind of motive. Prove me wrong.)
I sent my resume along with my contact information and the names and numbers of my professional references. Within one minute I receive an auto-generated generic message not from Raji Wahidy, as I did before and as I would completely expect, but from careers@amalan.com telling me something completely opposite than what Raji Wahidy had put in his personal email to me about conducting an interview to get more of a feel about my background, experience, and achievements.
The auto-generated email said:
"Thank you for applying to Amalana - Your Gateway to Global Networking Services . We have received your application. In order to be considered for this position , you must be an active registered member in Amalana and have knowledge of Amalana's Global Networking Services offering. Unfortunately, applicants who are not registered shall not qualify for the position. Finally, should your profile be of interest to us , we shall contact you directly to arrange for an interview. Thanks again for your interest in being part of our team." Best Regards, Amalana Careers
Okay, Raji Wahidy said nothing in his ad online or his email that a prerequesite to being considered for the position would require me to become a member of the website. Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem with going to a company website and creating a profile for the company itself and their employment opportunties. Many companies have this prerequesite. However I do have a problem with the condition of putting my profile on their networking website as a condition to being considered for employment. All things considered I needed to know information about the company by speaking with a hiring agent. What if this company wasn't the right one for me. Now I have my profile on their system forever just because I hoped to secure a job with them. Something about that practice is both unfair and very unethical in my opinion! They don't need to place me on a social website in order to consider me for a their employment position.
This practice sounds suspicious and deceptive to me. Here is my impression Ripoff.com. I believe this company is trying to increase the numbers of their subscribers. Why should I have to create a personal profile in their networking social website to be considered for an employment opportunity with their company?That's absurd!
I can understand once I'm employed that I might want to so that I can show promotion of the product I believe in. But I never put the cart before the horse!
F.Y.I : http://www.amalan.com/ is fairly new. In fact so new I couldn't really pull up much on the company except that they are hiring overseas for their online web development. They are not affiliated with the BBB, in fact the BBB has never even heard of this company. Upon further research I was able to dig up a number for them from an ad they placed tyring to hire a web designer in Delhi. The company is based out of San Ramon, CA. According to the owner a major radio/television company is behind them though they fail to mention just who. Who is this mysterious endorser of their social networking website?
I've asked the BBB to contact the owner to increase the likelihood that this company will have some honest web presence. I hope they do. I don't want any company to fail. But one that isn't doing things ethcially we'd be better off without them. I don't want a job badly enough with any company if I am forced to open an online account that is public in nature and has nothing to do with the HR aspects of the job process. Just be aware before sending vital personal information to any unknown online company who is hiring via email may take extra precautions. I've learned my lesson that it's best to either find a number for the company or submit via their HR link/career link.

Report Attachments:

1 Updates & Rebuttals

Amalana

San Ramon,
California,
United States of America

Re: Amalana Raji Wahidy (owner) To Increase Membership To Their Facebook-Like Website Tactics Are Very Questionable -- Be cautious! Internet

#2REBUTTAL Owner of company

Fri, November 20, 2009

Dear Melissa (with registered name Ren) and all fellow report readers,

We hope that this message finds you well.

First of all, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for raising your concerns about our company. We truly appreciate this and we believe that this is completely normal especially for a start-up organization that is attempting to build its own credibility. Therefore, issues of such do happen and we completely understand.

Allow us to address several key points which you have raised which were of your concern and others which are to our concern as well:

1- You registered on Ripoff Report website that you were based in Los Angeles, California, USA. In fact, your application to our company clearly states otherwise. We quote you here below:

"I live in Ohio about 5 minutes from downtown Dayton and 45 minutes from Cincinnati, Ohio."

2- Amalana is a legitimate new start-up company which officially launched its operations on October 1st 2009. We were long registered before that with the City of San Ramon with Business License # 13009. Registration was made on the 26th of November 2008. We have taken all the appropriate measures to ensure the legality of our operations as we appreciate that our customers would only want to do business with an organization that is legitimate in its operations and cares about the global community and abides by the United States' rules and regulations.

3- Amalana is not a social networking website and we do not run our operations as you stated "Facebook-Like Website." We actually are a global networking website that offers services including online education, job search, online competitions, online photo sharing, free online forums, and much more. Social Networking is one aspect of the services which we offer as we appreciate that it is something that has been successful and popular among people of various generations. Therefore, we did not wish to take anything away from our customers. Having said that, we offer more to the community than Social Networking as we believe that we are on a mission to revolutionize the Social Networking aspect and introduce further added-value to the global community in which we live in. Consequently, Amalana prides in being "Your Gateway to Global Networking Services."

4- We have indeed sealed a long-term partnership agreement with one of the largest Radio & Television leaders in the world who supported Amalana's unique global networking services vision. Thanks for raising the point that we have not explicitly mentioned their name in our Press Release. That is a very good point. Our agreement with our partners prohibits us from using their name to our advantage in any media releases or in any public speech. Therefore, we respect our obligations towards our partners as we do with all our customers. Our partners and customers' privacy are of extreme importance to us and we will under no circumstance solicit or undermine the importance of such agreements. Having said that, our partners have placed numerous banners on our portal, and if you are familiar with the global media, you would probably pick-up instantly on the reference which we have made as "one of the largest Radio & Television leaders in the world." I urge you to visit us at http://www.amalana.com in order to figure out who our partners are. You will not need to register with us in order to figure that one out.

5- Amalana's URL is not http://www.amalan.com but rather http://www.amalana.com

6- You are right in stating that "Many companies have this prerequesite" in reference to registering as part of their own website in order to be considered for an offering. In fact, should you be familiar with this type of business, you will realize that most of our competition out there have a similar requirement. Therefore, our vision here is that we only hire "in-house" registered users with Amalana. However, that is not only our requirement, but rather, the applicant must also be familiar with our Global Networking Services offering and our type of business to allow him or her to succeed with Amalana and respectively have a very bright future with us.

7- We are not sure about how familiar are you with Marketing and Marketing strategies. However, please rest assured that the registrations made by interested applicants is surely not the way to increase Amalana's registered user base. On the contrary, experts would tell you that that does not even represent 0.1% of the complete registered user base. We would also pride in letting you know that the conversion factor was way lower than 0.1% for Amalana based on interested applicants. We have various Marketing Strategies which have been very successful.

8- As for your application to Amalana's post on Salespider.com for a "Commission-based Account Manager / Sales Representative" posting, please read through the following facts:

a- You have submitted your application to Amalana on the 16th of November 2009 at 5:03 PM PST mentioning your interest in the post

b- Your submission was sent to careers@amalana.com, which means that you have received the same message which you quoted pertaining to us requiring that all our interested applicants be part of the Amalana community. Therefore, you were familiar of the process

c- Although we have not received your resume with you initial submission, we valued you interest into Amalana and we responded back to you on the 17th of November 2009 at 12:27 AM PST with our interest to discuss your profile further and conduct a phone interview with you

d- Our response was sent out from careers@amalana.com

e- You responded back to our e-mail on the 17th of November 2009 at 10:52 AM PST noting your interest in the position once again, providing us with your contact information, along with references, and other information, which for your own privacy, we shall not share here as we respect your confidentiality. You also thanked us for our response as stated below:

"I look forward to hearing from you very soon. Thank you for your very timely response."

f- Your response was sent to careers@amalana.com

g- Based on the fact that you responded again to careers@amalana.com; similar to your initial interest, you received an automated message from our e-mail server restating the exact same message

h- Unfortunately, you filed a Ripoff Report on the same day and solicited our reputation online. This is unfortunate as you should have realized that Amalana was surely interested in your profile, however, due to the large number of applicants, we had to put a timetable to arrange for these interviews accordingly. We are not sure whether your expectations or experience have demonstrated that companies contact you instantly, conduct an interview, and hire you at the same time. Unfortunately, this is not how we operate, as we are always on the search for quality individuals to be part of the Amalana team. We encourage you to be more patient

i- Mr. Raji Wahidy has personally contacted you on the 19th of November to discuss the opportunity further and schedule an interview you with you on Monday, the 23rd of November 2009 at 1:00 PM PST to further discuss this opportunity. On that call, you have apologized for your wrong-doing and stated that you would rebuff your comments which you made on Ripoff Report

j- Note that all e-mails and legal documentation are available as further proof of the facts stated above and will be used accordingly to Amalana's benefit for any case which shall be pursued accordingly

9- You are correct that we intend to hire Commission-based Account Managers / Sales Representatives overseas. We are actually on the search globally (including the United States) as we continue to expand our operations and promote the value that Amalana brings to the global community

We hope that the above provides you and our dear readers with a good overview of the facts behind the falsification of your information and report accordingly.

We thank you once again for allowing us to present our case accordingly and we shall take the appropriate measures against any solicitation of our reputation.

We would also like to take this opportunity to encourage our global community to visit us at Amalana at http://www.amalana.com and feedback to us at support@amalana.com with your comments and ways to meet your Global Networking Services needs.