Complaint Review: AmeriBanc International

I was employed by AmeriBanc for one week. During my "training" of three days to teach me how to be an appointment setter, I started getting the feeling that things were fishy when my supervisor has only been there 6 months and is already a supervisor... That is never good about a company. Usually supervisors have to be at a company a lot longer than just six months, that's pretty much nothing.

Secondly, the training in and of itself. Day one was spent in a classroom setup with the director of Human Relations. Megan. I love this woman she is wonderful. She overloaded us with way too much information, but that was great I felt like I had retained a lot of the information she had provided us with.

Then, she did not go over the "script" with us she left that for the 6month old Supervisor who role played with us as a classroom about 10 times altogether. On day one we were sent out on the floor to attack the businesses we were soliciting.

I started asking around the office how long people had been working there and came to the conclusion that 3 weeks was about average. With a business that was supposed to be around since 1993 I felt like this was a bit odd... I ignored that and continued my cold calling. Day one I made zero appointments. Day two I made one. Day three I was sick with diabetes at home. (AmeriBanc provides no health benefits to their employees).

Day 5 I received a packet of leads to work on. (They give $8,000 processing machines away, but they cannot fix a dialer?). I start from the top phone number and after about 20 disconnected numbers, 10 not interested customers, and I kid you not THIRTY do not call's I wrote on the bottom of the lead sheet:

MANAGER: Please when you reprint these leads for tomorrow take off the Disconnected numbers, the Do Not Call numbers, and the Not Interested numbers.

Now, I'll be honest. I said it quite harshly. I stated I felt that we deserved better. This was after a business owner had the gall to blow a fog horn in my ear and another say explicit usage of the F word. Now, no this is not my first telemarketing job I'm quite used to the likings of people. I realize I'm calling business owners and interupting their work-week, however after a job like this I never want to shop at a Mom and Pop store again! Owners of a store wanting ME to buy something but when we offer THEM something they have to say explicit things?

So after about 3 hours of bad leads and a half of a packet later one of the owners approaches me and asks me to log off and follow him. He'd earlier told me that if we did not make 3 appointments that day we were fired. He told me that my employment has been terminated due to a negative attitude and lack of production.

Here's the situation: The leads were absolutely horrible. These leads had been called on for I kid you not THREE YEARS! (I did some research). Some of the owners listed in the businesses have DIED!

They do not bother to update their leads, weed out bad numbers, or take people off of their list that request it, therefore causing us to harass people, "but it's ok because that's what we pay you to do."

Hurricane Fran... We called a lot of Florida this day. Who wants to discuss a credit card processor when their business is in the dark with no power? They gave us newbies these types of leads, and then their top producers the newer leads, and then they expected us to match them...

So, after getting fired by the bald guy with a bad attitude HIMSELF, I start putting together the puzzle pieces. The puzzle pieces are ALL OVER forums, Google, Ripoff Report, the BBB, the list goes on and on.

What they do? -- They have 2 rows of telemarketers which they call, "appointment setters." The first row is their top producers, second and third rows are newbies and/or regulars. Then, they throw the newbies out there and expect us to match the top producers, (of which have only been there for three weeks, if that).

If they hire and fire people, only employing them each for a week, they treat their employees that bad then what are they doing to the merchants? How are they treating their reps?

For a rep: You're spending all of your gas money and all of your time to go to leads provided by newby telemarketers. BEWARE.

For an appointment setter: If you're checking out AmeriBanc because you just started working there, BEWARE. If you do not make your quota the third day after being out of training, (probably a Thursday), then the bald guy WILL fire you.

For a merchant: Do some RESEARCH about this company. You'd be surprised what a business will pay for to shut up the media so that it does not destroy their precious image. Know that the appointment setter barely knows what they're doing, the reps barely know themselves because it's all from script and memorization, and know you're putting your credit card transactions into these people's hands!

So what if it's state-of-the-art processing equipment. Who's to say it'll be free next year? Maybe it's a rent-to-own and the first year is fee-free. READ THE FINE PRINT!

The saddest thing of all is that I don't even think they'll pay me for the work I did invest, the time spent, etc. They made it sound like GOLD for a job. Like making commission is easy... It's only easy because they fire the middle appointment setters and force newbies to try to match those with a whole lot more experience...

I welcome any and all comments if you would like to know more information.

Now unemployed and wheelchair bound left with not a lot of other jobs to choose from,

Crystal
Moore, Oklahoma
U.S.A.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.