Complaint Review: EXIM Strategies Corporation

I worked for exim strategies corporation for a short time and there is no pay (100% comission) no benefits, no salary, no sick time and employees were only paid when they sold large up front retianer fees, the employee usually gets $1000. I am not a disgruntled employee but i sure am sorry i wasted my time there. It sounded so good when i interveiwed. Fortunatly i found a good company when i left. When i was hired by patrick blake donnell he told me that i should be able to make millions. No way. Employees did not stay there long enough to make any significant money.

The business model is to get as many companys to pay as large up front retianer fee as possible and then send someone out and make presentations to overseas buyers who are comonly lined up at the last minute. The u s customer is told about 15 customers will have their products presented but from what i heard they would be willing to take any number. There were 20-25 customers on average per trip. Many times a customer would have numerous products, but usually only one sample item would be taken overseas depending on how many could be squeezed into one suitcase.

Employee turnover is huge. After a couple of weeks it becomes evidant what is going on there. The only money you make is money from potental u s customers who are willing to fork over anywhere from $1500 to $3200 depending on whether exim strategies corporation needs the money for current operating expenses. The only income they have seen in 2008, according to managment is from the retianer fees charged for overseas trips. I was told that they have not made a product sale yet. When an employee quits, then any of the accounts that were signed up by that employee are placed in limbo and not followed up on. Current employees do not want to get old accounts because their only source of income is newly collected retianer fees and current customers are usually upset from a lack of comunication. That is why it is hard to get a response along with not having good news to give the customer. Even if they make a single sale, one sale out of 25 clients is not very good odds.

Reps were hired strickly based on the ability to close retianer fees and no one according to the managment had any exporting experience except patrick which was back in 1994. The business model up until jan 2008 was email, fax and phone marketing. The trips did not start until early 2008 and trade experts were not sent overseas. Instead reps with no overseas exporting experience were sent and they are learning as they go. I was told the first two trips were a total bust and the reps never even followed up with the customers. When reps are hired they are told that they can travel if they want to, even without exporting experience. In many employees opinion, the sales trips were an attempt to make good on the promised presentation of the customers sample. If there is no guarantee then there is no expectations. If the product is so good and the exporter is so successful then why is a retianer required? Need references? There are no references to give according to the people i talked with except a reference from belarus which they never made a sale there. All export companys require a non disclosure agreement and still advertise the brands they represent on their websight. Dunn & bradstreet shows no trade experiences for exim strategies corporation and the classification of the type of company is listed wrong.

If you do some research on the internet you will see places showing yearly sales anywhere from 100,000 to 5 million yet the dunn & bradstreet says low 8 figures (unsubstantiated) which is $10,000,000+. If they were making any overseas sales, much less 10 million, it seems that each employee would have their own office or cubicle instead of doubling or tripling up employees in each of the small offices. The desks do not have computers. Most employees who works upstairs must go up and down steps to get to the computer room downstairs to do anything on the internet or to send emails. The computers are old, slow and problematic and there is no accounting software or databases to keep track of potential clients being called. As a result many customers are called numerous times.

Everyone who worked for exim strategies corproation or currently works for exim strategies corporation knows most of the truth.

From what i understand patrick had an employee meeting and explained his 2004 conviction, but i believe he failed to mention the 2000 arrest and later conviction for a much more serious charge. He is on high risk probation until 2010 and it just so happens that this is the same time he said he is opening up a office in amsterdam (what a coincidence). All of this can be referenced on the texas department of public safety-crime records service.

Any person going to work for exim strategies corporation or any company considering partnering with them should do research and verify as much information as possible. Is very easy to find past employees and u s customers, should you spend the time. Another place to research would be mugshots dot com. If potential customers or employees do the research and decide to partner with exim strategies corporation then at least they will have the information to make a informed decision.

Former Employee
Hurst, Texas
U.S.A.