Freight Broker Institute Freight Agent School, Tom Mercer, Load & Go Logistics Too many inconsistencies for an experienced company! Milan Tennessee
Freight Broker Institute aka Freight Agent Training is a supposed training school for freight agents. Tom Mercer, provides this training over Skype. He boasts about being a business guy with business and logistics history, but hides his face. The first night we were suppose to meet, his "dog ate [my] microphone," so he couldn't do training. Training lasted two weeks, and for another $50, I had to take a Certification course. I completed 75% of the course before he changed the passwords and I no longer have access to the material.
Tom stated that I could take the Certification exam, but that the links were having issues. I have yet to take the Exam! Tom added me to his brokerage firm. Come to find out, it just opened two weeks ago. It is registered in Florida, so I am unsure where does this business (FBI aka FAS) actually exist. He uses the same phone number for three different business, including the brokerage firm going by the name of Load & Go Logistics Inc. This is also the name of a firm in Shrevepoprt LA as well as a defunct trucking company out of Hazlewood MO.
I paid Tom his subbroker franchise fee of $250 as well as $85 for his required use of his own software, Shipper Pro. After a few days, I find a client that offered me its transportation business. I contacted Tom; he was impressed: "this is a $100,00 client." I submitted the information to him for Credit Review and a day later, not the 30 minutes he states in the beginning, I am told the client doesn't meet credit review. It's a national pharmaceutical company! Why the delay? His electric was out (3/11/14)! I called Milan Public Utilities (Milan TN...Tom's listed city on his Skype profile) this morning (3/12/14).
The rep stated there were no outages yesterday (3/11/14). For a guy that is an experienced business man with businesses in the past, developing software for transportation, talks about his major financial contacts that he is working with, all his logistics experience, and the many students he has trained, his practice is shady. Your electric out and yet you have no smartphone to let anyone know? You run a business hiding behind Skype? Addresses don't match? And now I find that he operated under one name that obtained a bad reputation, so he changed it to keep scamming people?
4 Updates & Rebuttals
sammy
burtchville,Michigan,
freight broker institute is a scam artist
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, September 06, 2014
If he is such a good person why doesn't pay the carriers or pay commisons to the agents. I would say that makes him a scam artist . He should be out out of buisness. He doesn't return e-mails or return calls. Or answer skype. They need to go after his bond and put him out of buisness.
logistics student
chicago,Illinois,
a great school with honest employees
#5Consumer Comment
Thu, March 27, 2014
I have been trained as a broker before, however, the knowledge and experience that I received at Freight Broker Institute does not compare to any other logistics training program out there. I attended Freight Broker Institute for 2 weeks and I am extremely pleased with the information and knowledge I have received from Tom during classes. He goes above and beyond any other instructor I have ever had in order to ensure that his students get all the experience and knowledge that he can provide.
The skype sessions lasted 2 hours on the average and were amazing. He lectures and gives insider information regarding the industry that I have not received anywhere else. In addition to the lectures, Tom provides tons of additional information on the website with hours and hours of recordings of previous sessions, definitions, and documents. Even though the passwords to the system change regularly , Tom and his staff are very quick to email or skype new ones upon request.
I know Tom is a very professional and knowledgeable instructor who does logistics as a job, so he knows very well what he is talking about. He was never dishonest with me or anyone in the class.
Shippers , who do not meet the criteria of good credit, are not approved by the firm on the regular basis, and it does not depend on the size of the shipper's company or the product they offer. As a result, Andrew should move on as there are thousands of shippers in the field who would fit his criteria.
margarita
chicago,Illinois,
positive experience
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, March 24, 2014
I am writing to let you know that I have had a very positive experience with the Freight Broker Institute. The staff is extremely helpful and the instructor ( Tom) definitely knows the logistics industry.
For less than a couple of hundred dollars, we got a lot of valuable information in order for us to succeed in the business, as well as contact information of multiple brokerage firms looking for inexperienced agents. An additional $50 is needed in order to go through certification, which has hours and hours of additional lectures and supplemental information. The passwords for the certification do change due to the privacy concerns, however, Tom is very prompt to provide new passwords within minutes via email or skype.
I would definitely recommend Freight Broker Institute to anyone looking for proper training in logistics for a very reasonable price.
The transport queen
Lenox,Michigan,
Tom Mercer - A GOOD Guy
#5UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Mon, March 24, 2014
I work with Tom very closely everyday. This is not a fair report.
1st of all he does not hide his face, its all over Skype. I remember this night and his dog truly did eat his mic, things happen sometimes!
As Tom does own several aspects of this business, our brokerage firm, our training programs, our certification program, etc it only makes sense to use the same phone number for all businesses, they are all related.
He is well educated in the freight business and I personally hear much raving about his training programs from students who have attended other programs and did not learn anything.
I know Tom to have much integrity and a high moral standard. His work ethic cannot be beat..he is working all the time and always available to us for continued support.
When he created Freight Broker Institute, his heart was in the right place; to stop the scamming of all the pther programs out there written by peopple who probably never moved a load in their life. There is a lot of that in this industry. His vision was to create a school that was recognized as being "real" - so when you see the name FBI you know this is a good school with great training at a fair and reasonable price.
If you were having problems logging in, a simple email or phone call would have resolved the problem.
The size of the shipper does not matter. If a company does not pay its bills on time then they do not pass credit, which is not to say you cannot still do business with them. There are alternate ways.
In this day and age, a person can be anywhere and still work. Maybe Tom was not in Milan the day the electric went out. I know where he was and he was not lying about it.
I can state that Tom is 100% above board and does not scam people. You might have had a bad experience the first day of class when the dog ate the mic but sometimes we need to give people a break, just as we would like others to give us a break at times. You get what you give. I am truly sorry that you feel this way but if you made it 75% of the way through the training, I think I might be inclined to let it be water under the bridge, give him a call and finish the class. Its well worth it.