Complaint Review: Apex Inc.

*The follow statements are my opinion of the facts as I see them and I express them because Freedom of Speech exists in the United States of America and is protected by the constitution of the United States of America and by Oregon law. I have recieved a cease and disist letter from Apex's lawyer, accusing me of "deformation of character" after recieving a voicemail threatening me that if I spoke out on this matter I would be sued for Liable and Slander. Unfortunately for Apex the definition of liable, slander, and deformation of character do not include facts, truthful information, or opinions believed to be true by the party expressing them. See Oregon bar for more info.**

Apex Inc. is owned by Sean and Rebecca Strickland. They are a troubled married couple that constantly fights on the clock in the work place yelling and screaming and cussing at each other while people are on the phone with their customers. I have PTSD and anxiety. It was a terrible place to work. Every day I would be on the phone with customers trying to hear them over them screaming at each other. I worked in constant fear that Sean or Rebecca would snap at me or on me, which they did a few times, simply because they were upset with each other and that anger frequently spilled over to their treatment of their employees. It is my opinion that this couple needs to spend some time away from their business in marriage counceling or just get a divorce instead of subjecting their employees to this kind of constant unprofessionalism and abuse. As a Customer Loyalty Representative it was almost impossible for me to convince clients to stay with us with this kind of unprofessional yelling going on in the background. 

Before you assume that I am just some disgruntled employee I would like to add that there are reasons I'm writing this today and they are listed below. Yes, I was fired, however I was fired after raising concerns about how we treat our clients and was fired without reason, without warning, without so much as a write up or being warned or brought into anyone's office. In fact, until I was fired I was told I was doing an excellent job. I was being told I was going to get paid more and receive a raise. I even wrote training material and helped train a new employee and was told to prepare to train more employees when the company expanded. These were of course lies. Here are the reasons I am writing this and other reviews and filing complaints with the BBB, Google, the Labor Board, etc.:

1. Apex Inc. refused to pay me a bonus check I was suppose to recieve. They fired me a day before bonus paycheck day and then pretended that since I was in Customer Loyalty I was not able to earn said bonus checks. The truth of the matter is their employees Josh and Jessica worked in the back as well and recieved bonuses. Rebecca Strickland, the boss of my side, HR, payroll, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Collections, and Sales Verification was well aware of each time I earned a bonus. The company wrote down the bonuses. Every time I retained a client without giving them a discount or gift I was given a spin on a wheel like that in Wheel of Fortune. Whatever number it landed on I was promised. This bonus check should have been a little over $100 after taxes. A small amount but it is the principle and legality of the matter that counts. If you own a business you pay what you promise you will pay your employees.

2. My paystub was not mailed to me until Feb 23rd despite numerous requests for my paystub. I wanted my paystub to verify they paid me the right amount. 

3. They didn't pay me on time by Oregon law. Oregon law states that you are to pay a fired employee the next business day. They may have dated the check 2/2 a day after I was fired but I did not recieve the check in the mail until 2/10. The check was postmarked 2/8. This means it was a full week and two days before I recieved my check. I asked to come get the check and was told they would call the cops on me for harassment if I didn't stop asking about it and if I showed up to get my check. Again, one business day is the law not one week. 

4. I asked politely, professionaly, and repeatedly if my bonus check would be included with my paycheck and when they would mail those and my paystub and the response I got was they weren't talking to me about that, that they would call the cops on me for harassment if I kept asking. 

5. During my employment with Apex Inc. I discovered that often they would pay very low amounts for customers ads to be up. Some ads I saw were $10-$20 a month (what they were paying Google to advertise the client). However here they were charging people $220 per month per ad and more for "nationwide coverage" and "statewide coverage", something they do not tell their clients when they sell the ad to them. The ads have a 40 mile radius. This is crap and bad business. I've worked for other companies that did nationwide coverage for far less. 

6. I have reported Apex Inc. to Google's third party seller complaint department for numerous infractions like not disclosing to customers asking what they pay for the ads, doctoring the click reports and impression reports. Josh is the one that does that btw. I know because numerous customers started complaining to me about how their Google analytics didn't match the email we sent or their results. The list goes on and on and I hope that Google takes it seriously. 

7. Oregon has strict laws against using an auto dialer. Apex uses a computer loophole to get around this law. Linktech used this same or a similar loophole to get around this law and got in trouble. 

8. I feel bad about working for this company. I really do. I didn't like being forced to email and call employees several times a day to harass them into staying with the company. I wanted to do more for the customers and was not allowed to. 

9. It isn't right that while Rebecca Strickland and Sean Strickland ride around in a helicopter and eat fancy food and spend all kinds of money on having a lavish life they stiff their employees and their customers. 

10. The whole trying to shut me up with a sloppily written cease and disist letter that won't hold up in court really got under my skin. I'm a political activist. I'm constantly standing up for the rights of Americans. The fact that they tried to intimidate me from filing a BBB report, reporting them to Google for numerous partnership infractions, and silence my voice on review boards where I am legally allowed to write about my experience as long as I keep it truthful and as long as I'm expressing my opinion about the company frankly pissed me off. I will be bringing this to everyone I can until I am paid what I am owed or the company learns to treat people better. 

11. I noticed several nationwide real estate companies started blocking our IP address. 

DO NOT WORK FOR OR STAFF THIS CORRUPT COMPANY! THANK YOU! YOUR MONEY AND REPUTATION ARE ON THE LINE!

Sincerely,

Brett Harper

Have a problem with the way you were treated as a customer by this Google third party vendor? Report them: 

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Not sure if they are in violation of Google Third Party Vendor rules and regulations? Check: 

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