AMERICAN BUSINESS SYSTEMS, LLC , ABS MEDICAL BILLING FRANCHISE ABS, NBDS, Chexpedite, American Billing, AB Systems, American Business, iTotalSolutions, ATS, Patrick Phillips, Anette Gardner Company operatiing under multiple names and scamming individuals Keller, Texas
I purchased a license from American Business Systems. Like most people who were in my training class we thought we would soon be on the road to riches after losing our positions in corporate America. Truth be told. My partner and myself feel we have been duped. The training was great but the ongoing support has been quite atrocious and non responsive.
We feel that we are victims of the issues pointed out by Smart Money magazines article
www.smartmoney.com/spending/rip-offs/5-work-at-home-scams-to-avoid
We thought that we were purchasing a legitimate billing business and have had no success. We came across this site and read the various posts and found out that other individuals are in the same situation. We did additional research and it seems like this same scam has been been perpetrated before. It looks like Mr Phillips had run this scam under a different name which was NDBS and then changed to Chexpedite. You can see video footage here: Its his picture, no doubt about that!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wasWsawJ_7w
Once you are done viewing that heart wrenching video of that person that was scammed you can go to the Better Business Bureau and see that NBDS and Chexpedite also have an F rating from the Better Business Bureau which should not come as a surprise to anyone. The scam of NDBS and Chexpedite has been modified to include Medical Billing. The Bank Drafting software that you receive in the ABS training is merely the old NDBS software in a new package.
Do not listen to their sales people where dreams are fulfilled by merely obtaining another billing account. To get one billing account is a true miracle . Annette Gardner likes to extoll how all her families dreams were acheived by merely finding another account. If you have a pulse she will try to sell this fantasy to you as well. If billing was such a wonderful proposition why would she be selling this program as opposed to working it. If billing was so wonderful for her family ask her to provide you with the clients she did billing for. Ask her to show you her current accounts and what revenue is really there. I do not believe after the research I performed that this individual has done any medical billing as she was an employee of NDBS and Chexpedite according to former licensees of that entity.
The head of training and support is Andrew King an in law of Patrick Phillips. If your village is missing an idiot call him up. He has provided me with a wealth of assistance. In order to implement the Patient Payment Plan I was told to first get a client in the landscaping business which would provide me with a reference for my services. I guess I should. Landscaping seems like the obvious route to obtain a medical billing client. As for Mr. Kings references, the registrar at your University, cannot confirm your degree?
As part of acquiring new suckers (licensees) they will put you in touch with the Corporate Shill of the week. Watch the standard rotation of the same old references and the same old licensees let you know just how great this whole business really is. Corie Dallas Marilyn Jim Lou Janet
Can we get a tax return for some of these six figure businesses? We had 25 attendees in our class alone where are they?
One thing about them is that they never run out of new material to get you to get past the Gatekeeper at the practice. They have tried and have failed in a telemarketing campaign that eventually was scrapped and I never got the promised five appointments for purchasing a license in the specified timeframe.
Products that have been offered have been dropped. I think it is an attempt for them to appease all the people who are unable to secure a Medical Billing Account. If the claims and projections are real would there have to be an offer or incentive to purchase by a specific date. Its not like the training is jam packed with attendees. I was told training is only provided by how many people attend, when in effect it is held year round for one week each month.
I showed a sample of the RAC Audits that are promoted by Amercian Business Systems ( or the subcontractor, iTotalSolutions) to a Doctor friend of mine. The provider laughed at me stating that the presentation is amateurish presentation and it would be a hard sell for anyone to use this tool to promote the service. I did not realize the sample report had "Veterans Administration 2003" on the report, they just copy and paste stuff. I have attempted without any success to have this individual assist me its no wonder she does not have any time to assist she is probably to busy working her real job at www.ats.com and really does not have time to assist the ABS licensees. Why would I work with her? Her goal obviously is to feed her OWN lead source and TAKE your business. Again her involvement is a MAJOR conflict of interest.
Patrick Phillips has come out with a new book Cash Crunch to Cash Flow. You can even buy the book at Amazon. Never in the book does it mention that Patrick Phillips has filed bankruptcy on two occasssions. So how does one promote Cash Flow from someone who has a cash flow problem of his own. This is public record, all you need to do is go to the Federal Court. I also found a lot of other interesting information on Intellius Report. You will need to pay for it, but it is WORTH the 75.00 I warn all consumers to steer clear of this opportunity as the money back guarantee that is promised never materializes and has anyone noticed how the price just keeps going up?? Hmm maybe at 30K he will shut his doors, just like he did with the other company. Im sure one or two good 30K months and he will be sitting pretty good!!!!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Adam p.
Keller,Texas,
U.S.A.
The facts
#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, December 24, 2009
ABS is constantly seeking ways to give our Licensees continuing education and support. We now offer lifetime support on any issue, be it marketing / technical, etc. We offer a live answer 800#, support through email, a private licensee website that provides a wealth of information, documents, recorded webinars, conference calls and more.
Some of our Licensees get clients in the first month and some, depending on whether they are working at a regular full-time job, take longer. If licensees will not give up, but continues to attend our weekly training webinars, and try all of the methods we teach to get clients, they, in fact, cannot fail. The only people who fail in this (or any business) are those who give up. We teach in our training class that if someone is having difficulty in obtaining a client, they should contact our support department and let us work with them. We cannot, unfortunately, make someone get out of bed and go out and market, they must have the desire and determination to be successful.
The companies NBDS and Chexpedite were founded by Patrick Phillips in 1995. ABS was never a part of these companies. These companies were purchased by a competitor in 2001 and there are still licensees of that company running successful businesses. The unfortunate woman in the YouTube video purchased her business in 2002, after the competitor had taken over the company.
NBDS / Chexpedite has a BBB rating of A, with no complaints: http://fortworth.bbb.org/codbrep.html?wlcl=y&id=94120057
ABS Sales Reps offer full disclosure on service pricing, revenue potential, etc. through a downloadable Due Diligence Report available to anyone. You may download it here: http://www.absystems.com/ABS_Due_Diligence_Report.pdf
Ms. Gardner was operating her own medical billing business when she met Mr. Phillips in 1993. She continued to build her medical billing business, integrated the additional services ABS provided and added new accounts continuously as she followed his advice. Eventually she became a consultant and trainer forABS while maintaining her business. Prior to moving to the Austin area she sold her billing accounts and became more involved with helping other ABS Licensees reach their goals. Today she is operating a successful billing company in the Austin area and continues to consult with ABS Licensees. She is available by phone for anyone needing more details.
ABS licensees are able to market to medical providers and to small business owners to help with their cash flow challenges. In our training workshop we teach Licensees to market to both, and sometimes landing a client in one industry leads to success in others.
Anyone wishing to view Mr. Kings diploma is welcome to stop by our office anytime and see it.
ABS will provide a prospective licensee with as many references needed in order to make an informed decision. Revenue being made by licensees can be approximated by how many accounts they have. It is inappropriate to request private tax return information.
ABS continues to test and develop new marketing strategies and marketing materials to get past the Gatekeeper. Some methods work, some dont. When ABS realized that the telemarketing company was not providing the level of service expected, it was discontinued and any licensees involved in the program were compensated either through equivalent marketing materials, or refunds for value of that service.
The training dates are given on each of the webinars, and are held every 4 to 5 weeks.
ABS utilizes some third party vendors to provide services to our Licensees. This is not a franchise, so Licensees are free to build their business by offering (or not offering) any of the services and providers we make available to them.
The founder of ABS, Patrick M. Phillips has never filed for bankruptcy. Public information is readily available from the public records in Tarrant County, Texas.
ABS offers a two-part money-back guarantee. In the Agreement, it states that a person can cancel the Agreement within 3 business days after signing the Agreement. This is standard in many states. The state of Texas does not require this, but ABS has included it as a sign of good faith on its part to assure purchasers that they are not being pressured into making a decision.
The second part of the guarantee is that, after attending the week-long training workshop, after seeing all the proprietary information and marketing information, someone still does not feel this business is right for them, they may ask for a full refund of the purchase price.
The one time ABS investment fee is increasing to $24,990 on January 1st to cover training and development cost for new services being released including Electronic Medical Records (EMR),
Certified Medical Coding Services, Web-based Document Management, 12-Week Mentoring Program, and more.
Please direct further inquires to ABS at 866-565-8413, or email Adam.Phillips@ABSystems.com.