Complaint Review: AMATransam Associates MT Professional opportunitysoftware.com - 3433 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. Suite 303 Valrico, Florida 33954 Florida

All the people who responded in favor of this company are probably working for the company and are trying to scam you!!!
If they aren't willing to let you work with other types of transcription software then they  probably aren't legit. I have been a medical transcriptionist for the past 5 years and I guarantee that this company is not legit!

The cost for this software is now $495.00. I was on line with a chat person and she said they had so much work that I would be so busy. I looked at Google to see what was out there and sure enough. If it seems to good to be true, then it probably is. I almost fell for it, but thank goodness did not. I am going to email the attorney general for Florida and see what the office has to say.

I've have been training with TransAm for a little over a year. I think that they are getting a bad rep from people who don't understand how difficult it is to be a medical transcriptionist. Doctors always have "foot in mouth" disease. They are in a hurry, have a lot to do, and often dictate while eating or other things. They tend to skip words and mispronounce a lot of them too. You also need to develop a working knowledge of medical/pharmaceutical terminology so you can research terms . .a lot of them sound alike! TransAm does not send tapes to you! All files are downloaded by you from their MT professional website. Yes the program costs money, but almost all internet transcription companies have a program that you are required to use and you pay for all of them. I called the BBB before I started training/working with them. There have been complaints, but from what I can tell, they are mostly from people who just assume that this is going to be easy and cost them no money or time. Don't jump to conclucions about a company that you haven't actually worked with. This is not an easy business and anyone who tells you it is has either been doing it for a very, very long time or lying through their teeth.

penny you mentioned you are still working for them.....i would like to do this but just cant afford the $450 or even $100 to start....is there any alternatives for me?

I just wanted to let you know...that I have gone through that very same process...and I am still working for them. It is a VERY legit company and they are actually getting me more money with my local Dr's because of how precise they expect documents. I have been using there system for a very long time and I use it with all the other Dr's that I work for. I am sorry that you were upset, but I just thought I would share that it worked out for me and I am still doing it and making money!! Signed, Mrs Transcriptionist

I have no idea if this setup is a scam or not. I received an offer from this company, and almost went through with it. I stopped for two reasons: one, I can't afford the $495 initial investment for the software (which they require), and I lost confidence that this company could keep their promises (just my gut feeling after asking some questions and getting half answers). Below, I have a transcript (oh, the irony) of my "Live Chat" session with their representative. I think that anyone who is looking for answers about this company will find it to be a huge time-saver. It is not intended to sway public opinion in any direction, only to provide more information for interested parties. -Begin Transcript- Please wait for a site operator to respond. You are now chatting with 'Recruiter' *Recruiter: Hello! Thank you for contacting Transam's Live Support. How may I help you today? *Recruiter: I'd be happy to talk with you about this job opportunity. *Recruiter: Where are you in the application process? Did you transcribe a sample for us yet? And if so, have you heard back from the company? >Me: I have transcribed the sample, and I heard back. I've submitted the application, and read through the application agreement. *Recruiter: Great *Recruiter: This is a guaranteed job! You work for us. This is hard work. Tell me a little bit about your background. What working experience have you had? Did you go to school for this? >Me: No, I've had no formal training. I've done a little transcribing for a school project that involved interviews with people in China through Skype, but that's all. *Recruiter: We will train you and bring you up to speed to the way we transcribe. We assign you your own personal trainer to do that. The trainer designs a program specifically for you. Based on your background, experience, and previous training. That way you don't have to repeat what you already know. Here's the guarantee: as soon as you are accurate in your transcription we move you over to 'live' work and you start getting paid right away by us. We pick up all the cost for training, your only investment is in the software itself. >Me: About the software, I've seen the page for the MT Professional, and I can't really afford it. Is the software required for this position? I have my own software that I really like for this kind of thing. Would it be possible for me to use that, instead? *Recruiter: Let me briefly explain how this whole process works and then I will answer your questions. - In the agreement it talks about some special software, the MT Professional. Did you see that? - It's $495 and you will need that for both the training and for the actual 'paid live' work. - Are you in the position financially to purchase the software at this time? http://www.mtprofessional.com/HOP_Pricing.asp *Recruiter: That's okay. *Recruiter: We DO NOT expect you to have ALL the money right now. We will work with you. *Recruiter: You may be wondering if we are a credible organization. Is this for real? We are listed with the BBB and we are not just members of the Chamber of Commerce --- we are on the board of directors too. You can email the Chamber of Commerce. Chamber Email: [email protected] You can also know that the state of Florida has 'certified' Transam Associates as a valid legitimate corporation. Go to the Secretary of State for reassurance at this web site: http://sunbiz.org/corinam.html and search for Transam Associates We are celebrating our 11th year. You are in good hands with us. We have over 200 transcriptionists all over the country. From Hawaii, Alaska, Canada and sprinkled all across the USA. You are in good hands with us. *Recruiter: This limited opportunity of FREE training and a GUARANTEED JOB has been extended to 5:00 pm. EST on March 15, 2009...... - I don't want you to miss out on this opportunity. If you take advantage of this and sign up this month you won't miss out... - We need you to start in the next week or so... - Let me see what I can do. - Hold on... There are many options... This is one of them... *Recruiter: There are payment plans! You pay $260 and you can download the software and start today. The balance can be paid later ... at your convenience. The balance can be paid at your convenience in the next month or two..but as soon as possible. We will send you a reminder! Click on this link and take a look: http://www.mtprofessional.com/hop_210_pay.asp >Me: My budget is pretty tight right now. Can you guarantee that I'll make at least $500 dollars by the end of the month? My situation is such that I either pay for the software, or I pay rent. I'd like to do both, if possible, but I need to know that I can. If not, I assure you that the software I already have will work great. It has hotkeys that will stop, play, fastforward, and rewind, even while I'm in the Word Document's window. *Recruiter: Here's the guarantee: as soon as you are accurate in your transcription we move you over to 'live' work and you start getting paid right away by us. *Recruiter: Can you pay $100 and start training now? >Me: Let me rephrase that: is it possible, if I'm already accurate, to make back the money I've invested by the end of the month? I know you can't guarantee how fast I'll meet your standards, but hypothetically, if I already do, and I start working now, is it possible for me to still pay rent? *Recruiter: The training is not paid. You train at your own pace. It can take as little as one month from when you take your first two exams. It depends on how quickly you pick things up. We will train you and bring you up to speed to the way we transcribe. As soon as you complete your training and are accurate we put you into live work and you start getting paid by us right away. >Me: Okay. So, I can't afford to buy your software AND pay rent, so what about the software I already have? It's called Express Scribe. It can play back files really slow, if I need. So, if you can send me audio files (I don't care what format, I can convert almost any format into almost any other format), and I send you an accurate transcription, does that work for you? *Recruiter: In order to get started you will need the software, for both the training and live work. The MT Professional is the total communication link between you and us. That's how you receive your work. That's how you send your work back to us. And that's how you talk to your personal trainer 'live' right in the program. This is the software the doctors and clinics we are contracted with use. That is why our transcriptionist must also use it >Me: I see. So, you need me to invest first, and then, after at least a month of training, I start getting paid if I meet your standards of accuracy. Can you guarantee available work? And what about the sound quality of the files? If I can't understand what they're saying, do I still get paid? And as for you standards of accuracy, how would you define them? *Recruiter: They start you out slow and increase the volume as you are able to handle more. Work is guaranteed, you work for Transam Associates. However, Transam Associates cannot guarantee a certain number of lines at any given time. It is all based on accuracy and your availability. The more accurate and available you are the more work you will receive. *Recruiter: You only need training in so far as you must be accurate...that's all. >Me: How are we payed? Is it hourly? By page? *Recruiter: You don't get paid by the hour but by what you do...how much work you produce. However, I have had some of our professional MT's say that based on their production they seem to earn about $20 to $25 an hour. How do you get paid? You are paid from 5-11 cents per line on the first of each month by check. The rate you receive for pay is based first and foremost on what the doctor pays us. Then the next criteria is your accuracy, reliability and experience. You tell us what days you want to work. Then you transcribe anytime that day or night. It is very flexible. >Me: That's another thing, how many words per minute does one need to type to make more than minimum wage? I was guessing that with a mediocre audio file, I might be able to squeeze out a page every half hour. I think it's fair to say that an average page has about 4,000 characters (with spaces). And I read on one of your pages that a "line" is 65 characters. So, 4,000 divided by 65 is 61.54. There are 61.54 lines per page, then. That, multiplied by .05 (or five cents) is $3.08. Double that, and I'm making $6 an hour. Not really worth the time, you know? At $20 an hour, your people are cranking out a page about every 15 minutes. Is that fairly accurate? >Me: And that's if it's at 11 cents a line *Recruiter: I'm not sure about the monetary facts I just know what our transcriptionist say they seem to make *Recruiter: The pay is good. They start you out slow (they don't want to overwhelm you right from the start) and increase the volume as you are able to handle more. You don't get paid by the hour but by what you do...how much work you produce. However, I have had some of our professional MT's say that based on their production they seem to earn about $20 to $25 an hour. After completing the training program, people seem to do quite well and as they get more professional at this, people seem to earn $1,000 to $2,000 a month working part-time about 20-30 hours a week. Some make $3,000-$4,000 a month, full-time working 40-48 hours a week (this does not happen immediately). If you want to work more, you'll earn more. If you want to work less, you'll earn less. The choice is yours. >Me: Well, it seems like an awful lot of investment on what seems like a rather risky venture. I know most businesses who need a large monetary investment before you make any money are usually scams. How do I know this isn't a scam? *Recruiter: You may be wondering if we are a credible organization. Is this for real? We are listed with the BBB and we are not just members of the Chamber of Commerce --- we are on the board of directors too. You can email the Chamber of Commerce. Chamber Email: [email protected] You can also know that the state of Florida has 'certified' Transam Associates as a valid legitimate corporation. Go to the Secretary of State for reassurance at this web site: http://sunbiz.org/corinam.html and search for Transam Associates We are celebrating our 11th year. You are in good hands with us. We have over 200 transcriptionists all over the country. From Hawaii, Alaska, Canada and sprinkled all across the USA. You are in good hands with us. *Recruiter: This limited opportunity of FREE training and a GUARANTEED JOB has been extended to 5:00 pm. EST on March 15, 2009...... - I don't want you to miss out on this opportunity. If you take advantage of this and sign up this month you won't miss out... - We need you to start in the next week or so... - Let me see what I can do. - Hold on... There are many options... This is one of them... *Recruiter: There are payment plans! You pay $260 and you can download the software and start today. The balance can be paid later ... at your convenience. The balance can be paid at your convenience in the next month or two..but as soon as possible. We will send you a reminder! Click on this link and take a look: http://www.mtprofessional.com/hop_210_pay.asp >Me: You mentioned that you're listed with the BBB, but that's really the extent of it. They have no information about your company beyond your name and address. I can't even find a phone number for you folks. >Me: You do have a phone number, right? *Recruiter: Did you check with the State and the Chamber? >Me: Well, with all due respect, I know nothing of your state. Ohio is the farthest east I've been. I tend to trust the BBB, though, and if you were accredited, I'd feel a lot better off about this kind of investment. As things stand, I don't think I can make the investment, but I thank you for your time. *Recruiter: BBB accredited businesses PAY A FEE for accreditation to the Better Business Bureau. BBB accreditation does not mean that the business' products or services have been evaluated or endorsed by the BBB, or that the BBB has made a determination as to the business' product quality or competency in performing services. Businesses are under no obligation to seek BBB accreditation, and some businesses are not accredited because they have not PAID A FEE to the BBB. -End Transcript-

I read the complaint filed by Doris in Abilene, Texas. It is obvious that she had no prior knowledge of medical transcription or what to expect. Before coming into contact with Transam, i had taken a college level set of courses from Penn Foster. Included was a large selection of files that were copies of actual previously transcribed files. They were exactly the same, and in fact, worse, then what Transam trains you with. Doctors, in general, do not speak plain English. They make their reports whenever they have a chance and thus are always hard to understand. Further, you must have a solid background in medical terminology and drugs in order to have any concept as to what is being said on the recording. My personal experience with them has been very positive. They have provided me with files to practice on, a resouce library to help me determine what is being said regarding medical and drug terms, a personal sponsor I can contact at any time ( and I have) and the challenge of making less than an error a page to qualify for reeal work. It takes a lot of time and practice, but is absolutely necessary because my transcription becomes the patient's permanent file, and any error in that file may cause that patient to be placed into a life-threatening situation that could have been avoided, but for the error in the patients medical file. The Scribe (the transcription softward, does have the ability to slow the recording down or speed it up to assist in understanding what is being said. That is the only file I use. As to the refund, I have no experience with that end of it, but the rest of the complaint is error in comparison with my experience.

I just wanted to say that I am an independent medical transcriptionist. I work from home, for two different companies. Both of which I need different software for. One company I had to buy the software, and the other I didn't. It is not uncommon to have to buy the software when you are working as an independent contractor. And the software usually runs between $200 to $600. Medical transcription is contract work. The only way to be an employee and not have to buy the software in most cases is to work in a medical facility where you are only doing in house doctor's dictation. I have looked into Transam Associates and working with them. They do provide you with the Chamber of Commerce number in Florida where they are certified as a legitimate and valid business. Secretary of State 850-245-6052 or email [email protected]. It is always great to hear from actual customers of a company, but try to get all sides of the story before making a decision. Best of luck!

My wife received an email from a job site from these scammers. I did some research online and found a lot of unfavorable information, including responses that the software is provided by a separate company. I did some research on the domain for the "seperate company," MT Professional System at mtprofessional.com, that sells the software they are pushing, and found that it's registered to: Registrant: Transam Associates, Inc. 3433 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. Suite 303 Valrico, Florida 33594 United States Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: MTPROFESSIONAL.COM Created on: 22-Feb-05 Expires on: 22-Feb-09 Last Updated on: 17-Jan-07 Administrative Contact: Loehr, Alan [email protected] Transam Associates, Inc. 3433 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. Suite 303 Valrico, Florida 33594 United States (813) 657-4130 Technical Contact: Loehr, Alan [email protected] Transam Associates, Inc. 3433 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. Suite 303 Valrico, Florida 33594 United States (813) 657-4130 That's a conflict of interest at best. It appears that this "company" is roping inexperienced people in and ripping them off by charging for substandard software of their own creation (if it's their software, why would they charge employees for it?), when there are plenty of software suites that are professionally accepted and used by people in the industry for a much lower price. Not to mention the ancient technology in the substandard foot pedal that they are selling, current technology uses a USB connection. By all appearances this company is scamming people out of money and not producing work for them aside from poorly recorded dictation in the form of a "test". I wonder if they're charging customers for the "test" dictations. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. Never accept "employment" that requires you to pay for the privilege of working. Reputable companies don't charge outrageous prices for software and hardware.

I would be happy to address your concerns regarding the ripoffreport.com site. The report you are seeing was posted by Delores from Abilene, Texas on 3/3/2005. This person purchased our software on 12/31/2004 and was assigned to a trainer on 1/6/2005 in order to begin training for Live Work with our company. As of today, in the year 2007, Delores has never started the training, and has never turned in any practice files to her trainer. Delores states that you receive tapes which is incorrect. We do not use tapes in our training program nor do any of the doctors we service use tapes. All files are downloaded from the internet for training and in Live Work. Contrary to what Delores says many people have qualified for Live Work in our training and are presently working for us as transcriptionists. In Live Work a transcriptionist will be exposed to many different doctors who may have accents, talk slow, talk fast, etc. This is the real world of transcription. If every doctor talked in a slow, measured voice, and enunciated perfectly there would be no need for any specialists in this field as any good typist could do the work. The foot pedal is optional and always has been. The player can be controlled via the mouse. That being said, many people do prefer to use a foot pedal but it is not mandatory. Delores goes on to say that the software did not work and yet we have no emails from her to our Tech Support department (which is available by email 7 days a week) requesting any assistance with any problems. We cannot assist if we are not contacted. She goes on to state circumstances in her life changed and she would not be able to continue the training. This is not an issue caused by our company. This is life. If someone has personal issues, we do everything we can to assist and we always allow a return to the training within our activity policy. Even today, if Delores wanted to return to the training we would welcome her back. While we appreciate that consumers need to have outlets by which their concerns with a purchase or a company can be addressed, we would hope that everyone would keep what they read in context to the real world. Just because one consumer is not happy with a company or changes their mind about their commitment to the program, this does not make that company a scam. If you go to the bottom of the Home Page for RipoffReport.com you will find a list of their top ripoff reports which include businesses such as AARP, ADT Security, the AFL-CIO, AOL, BB&T Bank, Circuit City, Cingular, T-Mobile, and Wachovia Bank. We all know these are legitimate businesses, but it is nearly impossible for any business to make every single consumer happy 100% of the time as evidenced by this list. You can make some of the people happy all of the time and all of the people happy some of the time but...it is impossible to make all the people happy all of the time.

I would be happy to address your concerns regarding the ripoffreport.com site. The report you are seeing was posted by Delores from Abilene, Texas on 3/3/2005. This person purchased our software on 12/31/2004 and was assigned to a trainer on 1/6/2005 in order to begin training for Live Work with our company. As of today, in the year 2007, Delores has never started the training, and has never turned in any practice files to her trainer. Delores states that you receive tapes which is incorrect. We do not use tapes in our training program nor do any of the doctors we service use tapes. All files are downloaded from the internet for training and in Live Work. Contrary to what Delores says many people have qualified for Live Work in our training and are presently working for us as transcriptionists. In Live Work a transcriptionist will be exposed to many different doctors who may have accents, talk slow, talk fast, etc. This is the real world of transcription. If every doctor talked in a slow, measured voice, and enunciated perfectly there would be no need for any specialists in this field as any good typist could do the work. The foot pedal is optional and always has been. The player can be controlled via the mouse. That being said, many people do prefer to use a foot pedal but it is not mandatory. Delores goes on to say that the software did not work and yet we have no emails from her to our Tech Support department (which is available by email 7 days a week) requesting any assistance with any problems. We cannot assist if we are not contacted. She goes on to state circumstances in her life changed and she would not be able to continue the training. This is not an issue caused by our company. This is life. If someone has personal issues, we do everything we can to assist and we always allow a return to the training within our activity policy. Even today, if Delores wanted to return to the training we would welcome her back. While we appreciate that consumers need to have outlets by which their concerns with a purchase or a company can be addressed, we would hope that everyone would keep what they read in context to the real world. Just because one consumer is not happy with a company or changes their mind about their commitment to the program, this does not make that company a scam. If you go to the bottom of the Home Page for RipoffReport.com you will find a list of their top ripoff reports which include businesses such as AARP, ADT Security, the AFL-CIO, AOL, BB&T Bank, Circuit City, Cingular, T-Mobile, and Wachovia Bank. We all know these are legitimate businesses, but it is nearly impossible for any business to make every single consumer happy 100% of the time as evidenced by this list. You can make some of the people happy all of the time and all of the people happy some of the time but...it is impossible to make all the people happy all of the time.

I would be happy to address your concerns regarding the ripoffreport.com site. The report you are seeing was posted by Delores from Abilene, Texas on 3/3/2005. This person purchased our software on 12/31/2004 and was assigned to a trainer on 1/6/2005 in order to begin training for Live Work with our company. As of today, in the year 2007, Delores has never started the training, and has never turned in any practice files to her trainer. Delores states that you receive tapes which is incorrect. We do not use tapes in our training program nor do any of the doctors we service use tapes. All files are downloaded from the internet for training and in Live Work. Contrary to what Delores says many people have qualified for Live Work in our training and are presently working for us as transcriptionists. In Live Work a transcriptionist will be exposed to many different doctors who may have accents, talk slow, talk fast, etc. This is the real world of transcription. If every doctor talked in a slow, measured voice, and enunciated perfectly there would be no need for any specialists in this field as any good typist could do the work. The foot pedal is optional and always has been. The player can be controlled via the mouse. That being said, many people do prefer to use a foot pedal but it is not mandatory. Delores goes on to say that the software did not work and yet we have no emails from her to our Tech Support department (which is available by email 7 days a week) requesting any assistance with any problems. We cannot assist if we are not contacted. She goes on to state circumstances in her life changed and she would not be able to continue the training. This is not an issue caused by our company. This is life. If someone has personal issues, we do everything we can to assist and we always allow a return to the training within our activity policy. Even today, if Delores wanted to return to the training we would welcome her back. While we appreciate that consumers need to have outlets by which their concerns with a purchase or a company can be addressed, we would hope that everyone would keep what they read in context to the real world. Just because one consumer is not happy with a company or changes their mind about their commitment to the program, this does not make that company a scam. If you go to the bottom of the Home Page for RipoffReport.com you will find a list of their top ripoff reports which include businesses such as AARP, ADT Security, the AFL-CIO, AOL, BB&T Bank, Circuit City, Cingular, T-Mobile, and Wachovia Bank. We all know these are legitimate businesses, but it is nearly impossible for any business to make every single consumer happy 100% of the time as evidenced by this list. You can make some of the people happy all of the time and all of the people happy some of the time but...it is impossible to make all the people happy all of the time.

Delores, I am sorry to see that you are having problems with this software. I admit that the woman sounds awful and does not pronounce her words properly when she doesn't sound like she has a mouth full of mush. I believe though, that the person you talked to was not from the software company at all, but another company that does medical transcribing for doctors offices. They are two separate companies. I believe that they do this deliberately to get you used to listening to different doctor's voices and the way they pronounce different words. For example one doctor will say "Low motil" another will say "Low matill" for lomotil. And they frequently mumble when they are dictating. There is a lot of guess work in doing dictation from several different people. If you know your drugs, anatomy, and different tests and etc. then you can pretty much decipher what they are saying. "The device does not slow down slow" The sound and speed of the dictation can be adjusted by clicking on the little box with the check marks in it under the "minimize" box on the upper right hand side of the window. If you go to school to learn Medical Transcribing it usually takes you 2 plus years to learn this. I really think you should have gotten your money back if you are not going to do the course. I don't know how they would make you delete it from your computer or cause it not to work once you have installed it. The medical transcription course it's self is free. I am only a customer. I have nothing to do with either company.