Complaint Review: Buzz Telecom & Web Design - Merrillville Indiana

I had just made a major career change. I had been working in R&D in a bioTech lab and quit to do web development. I had taught myself and was already pretty good, but of course I wanted some corp experience. So I hopped on CraigsList and saw these guy were hiring. By email I inquired, and came in for an interview that day, which I thought was odd, but figured ok, they must really be looking hard. Came in for the interview and start working the next day............and the only day. Management told us (the owner and mark) we were they cause the old staff had "walked-off" and made crazy demands. (apprently were this post starts off) Mind you, I took the job for 6.50/hour. I still had 10K in the bank because i figured i would need a nice egg to sit on while I made my career transition so i didn't take the job for the money, but i could easily see how someone would walk out because of it. One the guys (from the old staff) there told us they didn't make crazy demand, but normal (better pay than 6.50/hour) more break time and better software. I don't find that crazy at all, but that just my opinion. Anyway, during this first day meeting we were told that they wanted each person to make 5-10 fully functional pages/day...which of course can be done, but its gonna be ultra-crappy (especially 10) and they were giving a commision for each page that was complete. Now, in most jobs, the only reason why you give a commision, is because the base pay is crap, which was the case. but ok, fine, thats part of the job. Also, the owner was pretty cool so I can't knock him personally! So, my reason of complaint is this. 5-10 pages a day is a monster load, so I was trying to get quit a bit done in a very short amount of time. When 12-noon came around, the supervisor (who told me herself she knew nothing about web development, but used to work for the telephone side of the company and had been there for a long while) said, hey its noon you might wanna break for lunch soon. My reply was "I was thinking about skipping lunch, or taking a late one" Her reply was........."You'll take lunch, when I tell you to take lunch" Now, this is was really ridiculous. What am I 10! I guess I had been spoiled at my previous places of employment and internships with a high level of professionalism, but oooooh not here. In addition to, most of the people there just looked run down. I didn't say much, I went ahead and took my break cause i didn't want any static....i mean dang, it was day 1! When I got home, I didn't some heavy research on the company and read about all the lawsuits and pending judgments etc. With that, and the thought of the previous web people who were all axed, in conjunction with the heinous supervisor, I was thought there's no way I can work for a place like that another day in my life. So I didn't go back. Technically, they still owe me a days pay, which I inquired about and got no response. In short, I would say this, stay away from this place. I'm not saying everyone is bad, but there a different levels of standards everywhere you go, and I think they have a low standard when it comes to employee's and the employee-management relationship. I think if you want to work for peanuts, then knock yourself out. This might be a good place for an internship just cause you'd be doing a lot of work, but as for a real job, like a career......no dang way. Anyway, thats my 2 cents. I worked there about......going on almost 3 years ago and I remember that day very very vividly.

and say, we we're not found guilty of the charges by Ryan Mack, but we are guilty of operating in the manner that this ex-employee stated. Oh yes, we were offered our jobs back, but only if we wanted to continue to help this company rip-off customers, not enforced through written or verbal contract, but more out of ignorance (that means we did not know it was happening until we worked there long enough to see the innerworkings of the business operations, as with any new job). I could work at McDonald's and help the obesity issue for that money. Why would I want to hurt other businesses that help our economy by stealing their money? And stealing is the word I felt best described what the company had been doing BEFORE I worked there, on que "was I hired for this? to make up for what they stole?" No amount of money would have kept me working for them. It's too easy for a business owner to simply let an employee go and never resolve the issues involved, especially when we have to explain things that happened, but have no way to prove them, short of infringing on the company's Privacy Policy. Nice fear implementation system. But it's even easier to implement a system in the workplace like this to new-hires... --This is the state of our business, we're on a down-hill slope because we have two years of web services paid for by all these customers and nothing to show for it. Help us dig ourselves out of this mess that is a result of bad business etiquette. In return you get paid minimum wage to do what good company's would pay a competent employee up to $30/hr to do. So to the owners of Buzz... Maybe you should just charge a little more for your services so you can pay someone who could help your company profit, enough so that he can provide for his/her family as well. And if you screwed up in the past, don't make your new-hires take over that burden. You should have canceled the services or refunded the money, but you were too greedy.

Buzz Telecom and Web Design was recently found innocent of all frivoulous and bogus legal claims filed against the company by Ryan Mack. Ryan was a former disgruntled employee of Buzz. In the summer of 2006 Ryan decided that he no longer wished to follow corporate management decisions and instead simply wanted to create his own company within the company. Ryan was apparently confused as to his status as an "employee". Ryan then organized a "non-union" strike over simple issues like scheduled break times and getting larger pc monitors and desks. Ryan was a web designer and low level supervisor for a short time at the company. The owners have been in business together since 1987 and normally operate with well over 100 staff. The funny part about this situation was that the company had just invested a large amount of cashflow in the design area beefing up the assetts and computers needed to deliver our products. Ryan and the other co-workers were terminated for walking out on the job and were also allowed to re-apply for their positions on a one-by-one basis. Some chose to re-apply and some did not. After further research into Ryan's employment, it was discovered that he should not have been hired or promoted as he did not have a solid resume or strong history of stability with other companies. His previous employment was working at a movie theatre. Also, it was found that Ryan had stolen company property - police reports were filed and charges will be made as necessary. If you or any others you know have any further concerns, doubts or questions as to the practices and work environment at Buzz Telecom and Web Design - feel free to contact us at www.buzzazz.com or [email protected] Sincerely - Department of Corporate Affairs

Mark Krajewski is the vice-president and Kurtis Kintzel is the executive director who authorized the terminations. One if not both knew of these discrepencies and blame it on not using their communication system correctly, hah. Letters to these people who refused to do anything about the above discrepencies is a proper way to communicate, especially face-to-face confrontation. These people don't care and will find any excuse to do things justified by their own terms, whether its legal or not.