Complaint Review: italk

From an upper-level representative of italk. He seemed very genuine; unlike some of the people I previously had conducting training.

He and i both explained our positions, and he was very understanding of my frustration with italk's hiring process and explained to me that things will be changed in the future.

I was told that the statistics I was given were inaccurate, by how much? Not exactly sure.

Anyways, I was told improvements would be made- If you have any involvement with italk and your story ends up similar to mine, be weary...

On the other hand:

If things are different for you: ie. actions have been taken to correct hiring/training processes, less standing around/doing nothing, accurate figures about business statistics, etc. In other words; if you find out what you should know about the job on day 1 instead of day 4, and things are much more organized...

...It would show a positive change. A change that actually may have kept me around a bit longer.

Saw an ad on Craigslist for a job with Verizon Wireless. Seemed legit at first, so I sent a resume, and got an interview. The interview lasted not more than 4 minutes for a salaried+commissioned position. Hell, I can sell well...so why not? I thought.

First day of training was canceled or just nonexistent, I drove there and was sent home because the other person who was training with me didn't show. Didn't bother me that much though...Free time!

2nd day... Got there, my training group, awkwardly, at times sat around for hours while a very busy, highly impersonal, man talked to us in between his very long phone calls having us study phones, company guidelines, rates, and plans. Again and again. Between phone calls. Ugh! But got through it.

3rd day... Trained by the store's "manager" who strangely wasn't present the day prior. This man was much more personable, funny, friendly, and laid back. Went through everything from the previous day, and learned some computer stuff. A smiling lady named Toni briefly walked in and out of the store. Turns out to be the "lioness" or head honcho, as they were calling her. She was at the "pointy top" of everything.

Day 4 (The day it all came together)... Went over opening procedures...Pretty standard, except for the cash deposit to the bank each morning! My red flag radar became activated. We then were redundantly trained on everything again due to the disorganization of the hiring/training process. After a few hours, it was time for lunch but before we left, Toni the "lioness", who seemed very friendly, told us that when we got back she was going to go over the stuff that we "should have went over on the first day." Its about d**n time!...for my time to figure out what this was all about. My time to hammer with the questions.

Here is where the real scam gets uncovered. We were earlier told that day that we had to activate 16 new lines a month to get any commission on our sales. In the meeting, Toni informed us that it was moved up to 18 for October. I found out that this goal for commission, was also a quota. This was being met by the 3 employees at this store, so I figured why not the store I'll be working at? Not! This "training" store accounts for 33% of the total business for the 9 stores they are currently running! Another store in Woodridge accounts for 28%! That's 61% of all business at these two stores alone! The employees working at these stores are obviously all making their quotas, and getting their commission. All us new hires were being put in new stores, all in a general vicinity to a real (corporate) Verizon store, in other words our competition, have no chance of getting commissioned. Corporate stores have much better item stock. Our stores have not more than 7 of the dozens of phones we had to learn about, even displayed in the store. We were told to sway the customer away from the phone they really wanted, to one we stocked. "Yeah I'd like a Droid 2", "sorry we don't have any in...how about a Blackberry." Ha!

Longer story short...Where was the "should be" commissioned money going? We had to hit 18 new lines, if we didn't, no commission. Where was that money going? Into the pockets of the higher ups! Why was such a small reseller/franchise adding roughly 7 new stores at once? Hiring on the spot so many so quickly? The cash deposits in the bank everyday? People above us were making money off of us.

Pyramid Scheme. Period.

Verizon is a reputable, real company. I don't understand why they allow their name to be put on those buildings. They aren't Verizon.