Cellular Sales of Knoxville (Brockport, NY location) Luke Fletcher, Regional Director Unethical, Infringement on labor laws, illegal actions, unsafe standards, lies Brockport, New York
I was a trainee in the Brockport, NY location, a new store built this year. It was advertised on CareerBuilder.com. Luke Fletcher is the regional director who hired me. I was sent on a paid trip via airlines to Knoxville, TN where reservations with Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Knoxville were made for me. All food and accomodations were paid for by Cellular Sales. I was trained at their main store in Knoxville for 4 days. My overall test grades were a B average. These facts illustrate the irrational and unethical behaviors from this company that came only 5 days later! Luke Fletcher omitted certain factors which significantly affected an agent's career:
1st lie: The advertisement states that there are no investments needed to begin working as a sales agent. FACT: There are no actual employees, but there are 1099 contractors. The term "sales agent" is misleading. The contractors are expected to maintain their own disposable cash in order to take cash payments for bills or phones. In other words, the "agent" has to bring $150 in change for handling cash payments each day. Also, if you do not have an LLC of your own, then you must file for one which does have a cost depending on your state. In my case, NY requires $200 application fee and requires you to advertise your new LLC within a certain timeframe in newspapers. Luke Fletcher did not tell me these details upon hire.
THERE ARE NO SAFES, CASH REGISTERS, OR SECURITY CAMERAS AVAILABLE FOR SAFETY. On my first day, the agent left the store with $600 which had to be deposited at Bank of America, the bank for Cellular Sales. All accessory-sales cash has to be compiled into a money transfer and sent to one person via postal mail located in Fayetteville, NY. Basically, the money is handled in a very poor fashion and puts the contractors at risk for burglary or robbery.
Also, all contractors are pressured into making extensive trips across territories to either train new reps or help new markets. Check this out: MY TRAINER, GLORIA, DROVE INTO BROCKPORT ALL THE WAY FROM FAYETTEVILLE JUST TO TRAIN ME FOR THREE DAYS! All of that car depriciation and mileage is only claimable on her taxes. She does not get reimbursed directly from Cellular.
2nd lie: The contractors usually make large salaries. Fact: The contractors split all of their commissions, and the leader boards posted on their intranet reflect Tier 3 numbers, not what the AGENTS MAY ACTUALLY BE GETTING PAID. So, if you interview with a director and he or she shows you the leader boards to impress you, then do not fall for the gimic! They do not accurately reflect the true payouts! Furthermore, your first paycheck will not arrive until two months after your first month of sales. Why? Because cellular customers have 30 days to return equipment and rescind the contract. However, the church rate still can hurt you if the customer leaves within 180 days of service.
3rd lie: THIS IS A BIG ONE! ALTHOUGH CONTRACTORS ARE STRICTLY THAT, CONTRACTORS, THE TEAM LEADERS MANAGE THE WORKPLACE AS IF CONTRACTORS WERE FULLY EMPLOYED, HOURLY EMPLOYEES. FOR EXAMPLE, I WAS TOLD THAT IF I EXPECTED TO TAKE AN HOUR LUNCH DURING A 9-HOUR SHIFT, THEN I WOULD GET "TALKED TO", OR MY "HOURS WOULD BE DECREASED ON THE SCHEDULE". During your training, you are paid an hourly rate of $10.00 by Snelling Staffing as a temporary employee. You are required to take a drug test out of their specified lab. In my case, I had to drive an hour away to Amherst to give a urine sample at their lab. There was nowhere else I was allowed to go! Imagine that! During my hourly training, I was scheduled to work 7-9 hour shifts. However, there was no organization of breaks or lunches. In fact, I was discouraged from taking traditional lunches. The team leader repeated that he never takes breaks or lunches and that he expects the same out of the other sales reps. When I challenged him by stating that these standards were direct violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, he passively looked down and asked twice if I would be in the next morning. I knew that he was up to something.
The very next day: Tamela Grant from Snelling calls and says that I was fired for poor performance, and that I was not allowed to contact Cellular Sales or its staff. I still called Luke repeatedly after he dodged my calls. He stated that to send my complaints to Tamela and refused to give details!
Bottomline: Cellular Sales is a fraudulent and manipulative organization who is eventually going to get caught! Remember Enron, Sutherland Group, etc? This is how it starts!
12 Updates & Rebuttals
Realist
United States of AmericaLet the truth be told
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, July 27, 2012
@ whoever just wrote about how great Csoki is on 7/26......you have clearly drank the kool aid!!
-from ex employee who was always top 5 on my team for 2 years who left on own terms due to the unethical practice of Cellular Sales. The expenses of working for CS is outrageous.
P.S. I worked in multiple markets and it was the same thing in every one.
CSOKIIN
Fort wayne,Indiana,
United States of America
Cellular Sales is a great company
#13UPDATE Employee
Fri, July 27, 2012
I have worked for Cellular Sales of Knoxville (CSOKI) for over 6 months now and have never witnessed anything short of a great company. To give some backstory on a lot of the "fraudulent actions" taken by the company, I will begin listing practices:
-You are liable for what goes missing on your shift! If it was there at night, there in the morning, and gone at night, who took it? You or one of your customers? So who's fault is it? Pretty simple really.
-If I want to take an item for myself, I then check it out to myself! That means that I will be personally charged for it, not the people working. It will never show up as missing. Each person has a personal inventory that these checked out items go into.
-While in training, it's not just your test scores that get looked at! A guy was hired in my market that showed up to training in a t-shirt and shorts. It's business profession attire at all times. Needless to say, he was sent home and was not hired. That is why in training, Snelling does the hiring.
-Drug tests are done at Snelling approved sites! I drove 1:15 for mine, but EVERY company has certain sites they use.
-With the money you make from selling, you should make up for the money it costs to drive, eat, ect.! I feel terrible when I go home and I haven't made $300+ in a 7 hour shift. If I have to drive 2 hours a day to make over $42 per hour, I'm okay with that.
-You do NOT get paid (other than triaing wages) for up to 90 days of being hired on and out of training! This is probably the worst part of the job. The first three months SUCK because you're broke. This doesn't mean you work for free. What I never see people on here complaining about, is if you were here for at least 3 months, you have 2 if not 3 checks coming to you when you quit. To the cool guy working in GA, after reading your post, if you were making $10k per month, why did you quit? is $120k a year not good enough for you? Sounds like eveything has been fluffed a bit to me.
-When on the leaderboard, the top reps are actually hitting Tier, so therefore are ACTUALLY MAKING THAT MUCH.
-Who takes an hour lunch? You can come and go on the sales floor as you please, smoke when you want, and are expected to push hard to sell and make money.
-When in a team meeting for the first time, still in training (meaning you have been with the company less than 4 weeks and can't even sell yet) and you are more worried about your breaks than you are about getting better, this is not the job for you! Sorry bud, get used to it. Unions had their time and place, now they are just ruining the workplace. If you want that break, apply at GM, Ford, or wherever. I'm sure that's some nice job security as well......
-Team leads are as close to managers as you can get short of a regional director. They do all the scheduling, questions, help with issues, ect. Team leads push everyone to get better, not deligate meaningless tasks. Make sure you do NOT confuse a team lead with a manager. WORLDS different.
Bottom line: This is a GREAT company! I love my job, I like my coworkers, and I don't plan on going anywhere. If you want a simple 9-5, M-F job where you go home to your wife and little suzie and little billy at night and no care in the world and no obligations to speak of, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!!!! For people who like making rediculus amounts of money for the time they work (I work about 16 days a month and make $5k a month so far) and can handle stress, this job is perfect.
NBordeau
Ballston Spa,New York,
United States of America
Cellular Sales is a GREAT COMPANY!
#13UPDATE Employee
Sun, January 22, 2012
I have been working at Cellular Sales for over 6 months now and love it! In fact I think most companies should mimic Cellular Sales dedication to their employees. I know my team has a very relaxed work environment and a more than friendly team of sales professionals.
I have personally worked with two of the ex-employees that have filled rebuttals below and can say that their contracts were terminated for reasons that any company on Earth would see fit. One of the employees consistently under-performed, and could not meet goals that were stated at the beginning of the hiring process for each contractor. The other ex-employee was very shy and did not fit in with our outgoing team mentality.
It is one thing to be angry that you were "let go" from a company because of YOUR performance, but to try to sabotage a company's reputation that does truly take an active part of improving each and every contractor they work with. I mean how many other companies can you call the state director and actually have him listen to your ideas on a daily basis?
Just my opinion though.
ranman99
NET,New York,
USA
Re:
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, December 22, 2011
Stumpy: Please send your name and contact information and details sorrounding your termination to cellularsalessuit@hotmail.com and someone will contact you soon.
Thanks
stumpy
malone,New York,
United States of America
stumpy
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, December 22, 2011
dave when those benefits cost 600 a month you will not bring alot home no matter what you do for this company
stumpy
malone,New York,
United States of America
cellular sales
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, December 21, 2011
ranman99 i worked in malone store two of us got the same call on dec 16 out of nowhere. how do we get in class action suit
stumpy
malone,New York,
United States of America
class action
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, December 21, 2011
ranman99 how do i get in class action on dec 16 same thing happened to my self and another sales person just got a phone call saying my sales were not satisfactory you cant do sales and trobleshoot phone problems when no one else working with you know 0.
stumpy
malone,New York,
United States of America
stumpy
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, December 21, 2011
ranman99 I worked in malone store and the same thing happened to me on the 16th dec. also along with another employee how do we get in the class action
t
David
boaz,Alabama,
U.S.A.
Why are you guys so mad?
#13UPDATE Employee
Wed, December 21, 2011
I'm currently a rep for cellular sales. Just so you know CSOKI is hiring all independent contractors to be full time employees with full benefits.
It sounds like you guys ruined a very good opportunity.
ranman99
Norfolk,New York,
United States of America
Legal Action Against Cellular Sales
#13UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, December 17, 2011
I learned from another forum that there will be a class action suit filed the first week of January against Cellular Sales of NY LLC. (Luke F. and Tim B.) A few Independent Contractors (Employees by law) from far upstate NY were treated badly by the organization and obtained legal council. More details will be forthcoming. The plaintiffs intent to involve the IRS as Friends of the Court (Amicus curiae) in order to bring CSOKI labor practices to a hult. Could this finally be the end of Cellular Sales INC. Lets pray this goes through. From what it sounds like the Plaintiffs want to get ALOT of media attention to this issue.
concerned
Vernon,New York,
United States of America
New York State investigation into misclassification of workers-may be of interest
#13Consumer Comment
Sat, December 25, 2010
It may be of interest to you and to other trainees and employees of Cellular Sales to know that New York State has an ongoing investigation into misclassification of workers (particularly relevant here: illegal manipulation of the term "independent contractor")--for more information, see NY State Department of Labor, "Misclassification of Workers," at http://www.labor.state.ny.us/ui/MisclassificationofWorkers.shtm
GA
Rochester,New York,
United States of America
Brockport Celluar Sales
#13General Comment
Sun, November 07, 2010
I also put in a online application thinking I was being called by Verizon Wireless. I was asked to travel one hour away for a drug test, but said there has got to be a place closer. They did find one; this sounded weird in the beginning to me. I sent Luke a few emails, he did not reply. While in the arrangement stages of the hiring talking to Annette I found this by mistake! I started to ask allot of questions to my tax man etc. about the terms of a 1099 in this situation. No one told me about the bank you would have to hold either. I found it by reading this. I was not told about the LLC until the night before I was going to get the times dates to shadow in store after that the next week I would go out of state to train. It was then I was also sent a email telling me about the weekly meetings to that you were expected to travel to with no pay. I received a email with the links for the LLC, my father-in-law died that night. I sent a email stating that, and I got the same phone message " Do not contact anyone from Cellular Sales until you call this number first. I called, and they took back their job offer. I knew that was reason for the call after reading this report.
The whole thing is very weird.