Complaint Review: AON Combined Sterling Life

One afternoon I got a call from a guy named Brian Weinberg. That's when the trouble began. He said he was a recruiter with Sterling Life. They are a subsidiary of Combined Insurance and AON Corp. He wanted to interview me. I figured what the Hell and set up an interview. A week later I was interviewed by Satan himself, Kent Myers out of Atlanta Georgia and his demonic minion, d**k Swoboda from Hanover Township.

They talked about a true ground floor opportunity and $300.00 per sale commission selling Medicare Advantage Plans, Supp's, etc and about some really innovative products. It looked and sounded great. Kent Myers, Regional VP actually said "You won't be selling..... you'll be enrolling!"

I told them I really wasn't interested in an agent position, but wanted to interview for the Field Sales Manager position. He agreed to "fast track" me so in 90 days, I'd be an FSM. I agreed and signed up.

I spent a week in Bellingham, Washington just outside Seattle in training. For 7 days straight it rained. It was probably an omen. The training was ok, but on the last day they showed us some dynamite TV commercials and told us we'd have nationwide marketing and advertising, "leads, leads, leads," and 3-day turnaround on applications.

It turned out to be lies, lies, lies! When the other agent and I returned home, we found no office. We worked out of the lobby of the local Hitlon Garden Inn Hotel for nearly two months, drinking their free coffee, conducting interviews and the like. Finally, we wore out our welcome. It was like we were street people!

Three months into the deal, after we returned from training and after weeks of hearing, "the office will be ready next week," we finally got an office. A month later, we got phones, they didn't work. A month later, we got a fax that didn't work and an admin who was d**k's personal flunky, who cursed like a drunken sailor, wore shots and a t-shirt to work as a receptionist and who couldn't even do a Microsoft mail merge!

Less than a month into the deal my colleague and I began asking where all of the "leads, leads, leads," were. They never materialized. Then, we found out that while we had signed captive agent agreements, direct sales was selling in our territory!!! They were getting all of the leads, leaving us with an occasional crumb! We complained to d**k and he vowed, "Heads will roll!" After nearly 5 months of telling us he was "working on the direct sales fiasco" and getting us more leads, we FINALLY realized he was worthless and had in fact done nothing!!!!

This guy was collecting a salary to be the "Market Manager" when in reality he was doing NOTHING. Only three small newspaper ads in 5 months, NO TV Commercials, no advertising at all to speak of!!!! We were competing with Humana, Aetna, BS/BS and our own direct sales department.

Our homes were near foreclosure, vehicles were repossessed, credit ratings were destroyed, utilities were shut off and he continued to tell us "he was working on it." The regional VP Kent Myers told us he was "Hot on the trail."

Finally, one day we asked for a concrete answer about when the direct sales activity would stop and when we would be compensated for the sales that were stolen from us. His response was to scream, yell and disrespect one of my colleagues in a very threatening manner! Real professional!

This is a guy who refused to hire a woman because she was Hispanic and had two small children. He openly boasted in the office, I'm not hiring any (((REDACTED FOUL LANGUAGE))) or (((REDACTED FOUL LANGUAGE)))! He brought a cooler of beer into the office, is on at least three anti-anxiety medications, drinks a fifth of Maker's Mark a day and openly brags about his anger management problems! Again, a real Sterling guy!

I decided I needed to report him to HR as is outlined in our employee manual. I felt threatened in the office. Between this guy's (d**k SWOBODA) temper, the fact that he had a survival knife in his desk drawer and his alcohol consumption I felt something really basd could happen here. I emailed HR and refused to go into such a hostile situation until something was done. For a week and a half I did not go into the office, but did send in daily reports.

My colleague reported his discriminatory hiring practices. To make a long story short, I was interviewed about the EEOC violations on May 9th. I was truthful, honest and spilled my guts to Janet Hoolihan from AON Corp's legal department. The result, two days later I was fired in retaliation. Apparently AON Corp approved of all of the things this scumbag was doing! Instead of firing him, they fired us!

Let me summarize: I was fired from the only job I ever had that sent me paychecks for $0.00, there is rampant racism, EEOC violations and there are no leads at all! Sterling Life's Wilkes-Barre Office (officially the Scranton, PA office) is nothing more than a churn and burn operation!!! The market manager we later found out is not paid for sales, but paid to recruit..PERIOD! He recruits, gets a bonus, keeps you for 90 days and then gets another bonus. Sales mean nothing. God help you if you blow the whistle on him. He has been set up in his own, private little fiefdom. He destroys lives, ruins people's credit and all the while claims he is concerned and he is your friend.

A word to the wise..if you see an ad in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Citizen's Voice, Scranton Times or on Career Builder, RUN!!!! Run as fast as you can as far as you can! Take it from three of his friends, The name d**k SWOBODA and the word EVIL are synonymous! If you want to see how fast you can lose everything you own, then work for Sterling in the Scranton PA market!

Walter Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.