Complaint Review: Appletree Answering Service

I worked for appletree for about a month. They have habits of trolling the orange county craigslist and posting in multiple sections.

The office is really small, its about as big as my apartment and as dark as a cave.

I was hired by a Kathryn Bourassa after replying to her posting. I took the simple test and was hired. The rate of pay starts at a low $9.00 per hour and the turn over rate is that compared to wal-mart and mcdonalds.
The program you have to use is called Startel. You recieve a minimum of training, usually 2 days, then they place you on a computer and expect the world from you. If you look up the manual for Startel, its about 1000+ pages long.

You get paid an extra .50 cents an hour if you know spanish, but that just makes your work go 300% more stressful. My recommendation: Pretend you dont know spanish. Its not worth it.

Now the bad part: Everybody in there gets sick, the place is like auschwitz when it comes to health concerns. They require a doctors note, yet dont give health insurance..But if you look at your paycheck, they take out for Medicare (So youre basically paying for someone else to stay healthy, but not you). Anyways, i spent what money i earned on a doctor, costed about 300.00, and i had no money left for bus fare and food. Payday was friday, it was wednesday. I called and said i could get a ride there on friday afternoon to pick up my check and get back to work as normal. They said sure no problem. Mmk, so i had to stay put.

Friday comes, i show up and they inform me that i was a no-call, no-show..Which is false. They knew that i wouldnt be back until friday...Whatever.

Oh, calling out! Thats the fun part! If you want to call out, be prepared to be transfered to no less then 3 people before getting the right person. His name is Mario (and apparently luigi is the one with all the professionalism, but somehow i never got through to him) I talked to other employees, they're all sick of that runaround that the company pulls.

Software piracy!! This'll getcha..Im familiar with picking up on when people like to put warez on their computer, but these guys made it blatently public. Looking at the tops of the computers, you could see the infamous FCKGW pirated windows xp key taped to the top of the box..How silly is that?

Anyway, the BSA is aware of their activity, ive spoken to microsoft and the BSA is activly persuing all charges. (If you're reading this, appletree, it WONT do you any good to make your computers legit overnight, you'll still have to account for before installing a legal xp version, and my testimony is holding a LOT of water)

Shame on you! If you use software, PAY FOR IT! You will be charged, fined, prosecuted and subject to future investigation.

Back to the subject: The shift leader Melissa is terrible. If you ever bump into her, dont stare into her eyes or you'll turn to stone. I showed up for work and there was a different keyboard i didnt know how to use, and she slammed her fists down and just demanded that i use it. Whoever hired you should have their heads examined..

I recommend a full boycott on this company for the following reasons:
1. Low wages. If you want to pay people horribly, move to india. This is orange county, the cost of living is astronomical here. STOP PRAYING ON PEOPLE!!
2. Software piracy. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for using software for commercial purposes with disregard to intellectual property laws.
3. Attempting to censor my honest review when i posted to craigslist warning people. I have just as much right to voice my opinion as anyone.
4. Terrible bosses. If i wanted that kind of service, id go work at mcdonalds.

Anyone else with similar experiances with this company should speak up. If you also have testimony, voice it.

Mr X
OC, California
U.S.A.