Complaint Review: American Association Of Labor

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Hello, my name is Dennis Price and I am the owner of American Association of Labor, LC. First, I started this company over 12 years ago while working at a local bank. During that time, some people were asking me to help them get a job at the bank. I realized that there are people who can use assistance in obtaining employment. I then created a package of material that specifically pertains to various government employment. The package contains a book that is copyrighted and is NOT available for free anywhere. Then I researched when and where certain government agencies were hiring and placed ads in those areas for my employment service. Certain pieces of information in our book can be found in some sources, however, most cannot. Therefore, it is wrong to simply say this information is available for free elsewhere, this is not true, again, the book that is part of our package is copyrighted and is NOT available for free anywhere.

It is critical to note that all of our ads state, "call American Association of Labor" and either the words or the abbreviation of "employment service". We are clearly NOT trying to represent ourselves as any government agency. In the case of newspaper ads, we actually PAY for the ad space to state this. However, there are companies in this type of business who intentionally try to deceive people into thinking the ad is from a certain government agency, clearly by stating the above in ALL of our ads, we are NOT doing that. For example, some companies place ads both in newspapers and online that state, "Post Office Now Hiring" and they do not give a company name in the ad. These companies are clearly trying to deceive people into thinking they are calling the actual government agency. Some of these companies further attempt to deceive people by showing pictures of Postal workers and the actual Post Office on their job postings online, clearly they are trying to make people beleive they are connected to or they are the Post Office. This is clearly deceptive on their part.

Secondly, my company only advertises when we determine that job openings exist for certain government agencies. I go through very exhaustive and time consuming measures to research this information. Once the hiring locations are determined, ads may be placed in those areas. There are other companies in this type of business who have complete disregard for actual job openings. There are several other companies who are advertising on both careerbuilder and in newspapers who are NOT determining job openings for their ads. For example, the Postal Service is NOT hiring all across the country, however, there are several companies who are advertising in a bogus way that they are, by posting NATIONWIDE job postings on careerbuilder.com for the Postal Service. This is extremely inaccurate, the Postal Service is only hiring in certain areas across the country. During the summer of 2008 we placed nationwide ads, HOWEVER, we went through our orders and determined for each order if hiring existed in that person's area. If they weren't we called the customer and told them the government was not hiring and did NOT process their order. However, after doing this for a few months, we decided that some customers were upset when we told them the government was not hiring and we decided to delete our nationwide postings and cancel our contract with careerbuilder. This was done at great expense to us, but it was the right thing to do for customer service. We decided to stay with our individual city postings online, as we can verify the job openings by city and place our ads appropriately. All of our ads both on careerbuilder and in newspapers are there, because we have determined that a particular government agency is hiring in that area. We have documented proof of the job openings showing that they exist in the area we are advertising in. This applies for all of our ads both online and in newspapers.

It is also important to note that in the almost 13 years in business, we have only raised the price of our employment package 1 time. The cost of our package is $38.25 plus shipping and handling. However, we offer a full refund plus $35 if someone does not become employed with our package. We have documented proof of the refunds that we have issued to these customers. Also, other companies who offer the same type of package charge far more, most charge $100 or more plus shipping and handling. I beleive that this employment package is very useful to job seekers, but they certainly should not be charged an outrageous amount for the material and information.

Over the past almost 13 years in business, we have had some customers who were not satisfied with our employment package. However, it is absolutely critical to note that EVERY single person who has made a complaint to us, for any reason even if we disagreed with their complaint, was given a full refund and in some cases told to keep the package too. This has been done because, like every other legitimate company, we want to have the people that purchase our package be satisfied. From approximately March of 2008 until mid to late September of 2008, customer service and certain other duties of my company were being handled by another individual, I determined in mid to late September of 2008 that these duties were not being handled correctly. I immediately terminated this person from these duties and I personally took back these duties upon myself. Furthermore, I have actually gone back through our records and corrected mistakes that may have been made with some customers during that time frame. Even though I am the owner, I have personally reassumed the handling of all customer service duties along with the other aspects of the business that were handled by this individual during that time frame.

In closing, the facts are this: the United States government is the largest employer in the country employing more people than any corporation. There are job seekers who are seeking employment. My company works to help these individuals gain employment. We identify ourselves as American Association of Labor in every ad. We identify ourselves as an employment service in every ad. We spend an enormous amount of time researching actual job openings by certain government agencies and place ads for our employment service in those areas. If a customer has a concern we address that concern with them to correct the situation.