Complaint Review: AutoMax - Falls Church Virginia

I was looking on careerbuilder.com and I found a job opportunity in auto sales with Koons Ford represented by AutoMax. I did not know what AutoMax was, but in the description, it sounded good because they were providing the training. It was an open house for two days so I walk into the interview with Jere Conover. He told me welcome to Koons just like he worked for him and starting to ask me interviewing questions. Concluding the interview, he said he wanted to bring me on board and start training immediately the next day. He told me what the base salary was and he would go over the commission pay plan the next day as if he hired me. So I quit my daytime job so that I could start immediately the next day I was already past my two week period so I was on a day to day until I found an opportunity. There was about seven of us in the room he said he picked us out of 25 applicants and felt that we were good for this dealership. His pitch started to switch and he started talking about AutoMax and the benefits that their company brought. He did go over the benefits and the pay plan of Koons Ford; but maybe for 10 minutes. He was giving the old speech in the car business you can make over 100k a year and it's a profession just like doctors, lawyers, and other professionals that work off commission. He was getting us excited thinking that you know were getting this excellent training to start a job next week. About midway through the class, he starts talking about cost of this three-day training. He first asks us how much did we pay to go to college if we went to and then asked look where we ended up right here in this room. Then he starts to say AutoMax sales training costs 499 dollars and an additional 89 dollars if you want job placement. Never did he say there was a cost to any of this training because we are all under belief the dealer is providing this training or we been hired by dealer to do training. He stops at nothing to get these 499 dollars from you; I for one did not have 500 dollars to give to this training company at the end of the week. I did not know why I had to pay 500 dollars for useless basic customer service training. He did not train us on knowledge about cars it was just basic customer service training. He tried to say this is an investment in yourself because you get this AutoMax certification and they are recognized at every dealership across the United States so you could go anywhere with it. That is a load of crap because most dealerships will hire you if they feel that they think you have what it takes to become a sales professional not a certification from AutoMax. He also tries to lead you on by letting you know at the end of training he gives you to two free airline tickets to anywhere in the country. He says those if you cannot get the money try getting money from your family members or friends and use this as collateral. One of the Sales managers walks in and he asked him if they refund the money back after 90 days and the sales manager just laughed and Jere had to cover that up saying that this is a commitment and dealerships know if you pay for sales training education they know that your applying yourself. The class starts to ask questions and my first question employed by the dealership and he says after a drug test and sales person license exam we will be. Not one Koons Ford employee has interviewed us let alone knows who we are; we did not have any papers sign showing what are salaries is going to be nor did we sign any other legal documents. So really we weren't hired we were just basically suckered into this meaningless training to pay 500 dollars to him and was just like any salesman he would take it anyway he could get it. I did not show up for class the next day because I told him I'm not paying 499 dollars for a class that's meaningless and I'm not even hired by the company that I applied for. He gave me the sales pitch on how it benefits me and I said I would go to a company and get real training done if an employer wants me to work for them they will have a training professional on-site or will pay for my training. I'm writing this report to tell you to stay away from AutoMax there training is just like getting training at any old retail store. After the fact, I have read and researched this company and many people had bad experiences like myself or was suckered to pay the 500 dollars to maybe work for that dealership. Most dealerships you can just interview with them, you start right away, and they train you or let you follow somebody else. You do not need 500 dollars for a certificate this is a SCAM they draw you in until you seem fully committed; and then tell you have to pay 500 dollars towards the end of class on Day one so they try to get you excited so that you are willing to pay 500 dollars. All of their sales trainers were once Auto Sales Professionals they know what to say to draw you in just please do not fall for the SCAM like I did and quit your job for it.

Kenny

Bristow, Virginia
U.S.A.