Complaint Review: Clear Vision Communication - Independence Ohio

A girl I went to college with was actually working as the Clear Visions "Human Resource Manager" ... she was not a college graduate, had no former work experience in Human Resources, and she was basically a recruiter on social media websites. We connected on LinkedIn, and being a fresh college graduate, I thought I would contact her and see if I could land an interview. Of course I did, I went in three days later and was told I was being "bumped to the front of a very long line of people interviewing". That is when I met Stephen Kordella. He was very friendly and charming, told me all about the company and that he had never had any other job outside of Clear Visions, he loved it. 

I got called back for a second interview, and this time I went to Starbucks, off location, with this girl that worked for him who again explained to me that she made thousands of dollars every week on sales, got to be away from the office all day everyday, and loved the people she worked with like family. She gave me a paper that included all of the commission I would make for sales and told me if I worked hard I would be making nearly 100 grand per year. 

The next day, Steven called me and told me I got the job and would start in about 2 weeks. About 6 days later, I researched the position and found not only this article, but thousands of other ones too that explained that the company indeed was a pyramid scheme. I really hope no other young, desperate, college graduates fall for this scheme. This is the only reason I am writing this, is to hopefully spread awareness.

The best part of the story is when I called Steven to tell him I did not want to work for CVC, he proceeded to scream at me and tell me I did not have what it takes to be in sales and that it was a mistake that I even went to college. He then hungup on me. I'm going to work on reporting this place to as many people as I can, PLEASE do not fall for it! 

This web page SAVED my career and my life. Thank you. 

To the previous people who have listed complaints.  Please see the link below- Now I can see if there are one or two unhappy ex-employees but the amount that can be found on this person is alarming to say the least. Help bring the truth to light before anyone else we know is roped in.

 http://uscomplaints.com/miscellaneous/990841--the-real-truth-dont-be-mislead-by-the-lies.html

 You do not need to retract any statements unless what you have posted is libelous or untrue. Nothing reported thus far is by any means would be or is considered libelous.  If someone besides your son is attempting to silence you so that truths are not brought to light against a scam than that is another crime in order to deceive more people. You can only defame someones name if the statements you are making are false or untrue.

I have been kindly asked to retract anything I have written concerning Clear Vision Communications.  And so, that is what I am doing.  Please scratch from the record anything and everything I have written.   I am sure it is a wonderful company.

I am so sorry to hear about the situation your son went and is going through. I would rather not name people’s names on the site to save themselves from embarrassment but I believe I know your son from working there and the women with whom he slept with.

This type of behavior is not discouraged at the company.  The more they are all dependent on each other the better for Steve Kordella.  This way all the employees are talking the same lies constantly and it helps them to believe they are actually doing something that is not door to door commission sales.

You’re doing the best thing by reporting this company to your local government agencies.  The quickest way to get them out is to report them and put articles like this one out there.  Because once they cannot recruit new blood and the notices start coming in that they are being investigated they will be forced to close up shop and move to another city and state. 

I will say this- if your son is still there when they close the office he will be recruited to move to another state with the other sales people.  Ultimately it will be his decision but please try to discourage him from doing this.  Being in a new state trying to sell door to door could end worse than at least being close to home.

It is so sad to hear this story and the fact that a child is involved makes it even worse. It makes my situation seem a lot better than your sons. I am sure the manager Steve Kordella gave your daughter in law the cold shoulder because they do not want anyone getting to close to disrupt their pyramid scheme.

Do your part to report this company.  They are in violation of several states laws.  Misclassifying employees as contractors is false- they are avoiding state taxes and social security by doing this.

Not paying employees overtime pay for hours in excess of 40 hours is illegal as well since they are not salaried employees and categorized as contractors.

Not disclosing pertinent tax information at time of employment offering can also be considered a violation of state mandated laws also.

The way they get away with this is due to the fact that these young kids do not know any better.  The nightmare should be over soon now that articles like this are popping up.  And once the state looks into their company they will be forced to close and move or open up their books and be liable for a state audit.

Good luck and I hope you can eventually convince your son to get out.

Thank you to all of the ex-employees of Clear Vision Communications for these candid reports of what really goes on in that place.  My son is working there.  He needed a job fast and this is what he chose.  Right from the beginning his hours were and continue to be beyond insane.  My son began to live and breath Clear Vision Communications.  He fraternized only with other employees and began to ignore friends and family and the grand finale is when he began sleeping with an account executive and left his wife and new baby.  My husband and i are so broken and so sad.  This kid went to college, he was funny and a good person.  His wife is heart broken. 

I tried talking to this clear visions girl, if she would back off perhaps my son would have a chance to breath and rethink what the hell he is doing.  But I believe the lack of sleep, the team nights, the pump up sessions and the put downs (my son did tell me that he got ripped a new one for poor sales and was forced to come in on a saturday when he had plans) along with some other mind control tactics are messing with his judgement.  My son is in Nashville pounding the pavement this weekend.  Sure as I am standing here he is paying for his own gas hotel and food.  Honestly, I think it would be more honorable to deliver pizzas.

At least you'd be making money and delivering a good product.  I am planning to make complaints to the proper government agencies concerning this company.  I will not give up that easily, he was my son first and I want him back.  And if you are wondering, noone got fired for the office romance, and honestly I think the company may even like the idea because now my  son doesn't have a family to interfere with his tireless efforts of selling phones.  When my daughter-in-law had a chat with steve kordella she was told to move on and I do know that she was not very welcomed at their team night either. 

 Sounds like your friend is in deep right now. 

The quicker a person realizes they are involved in a scam and at a bad job that is wasting their time the better.

Clear Vision Communication is only alive and well right now because it is still relatively new- companies like these stay alive until the word gets out about them and when they cannot get energetic, young, hungry sales reps for nothing they close up shop and move to another city- change the name and website and do it all over again.

Now, I will say there was 1 person there that took a few people and moved to Florida to open a office or so I heard.  I will also say there was a sales person who had a office in Florida and it shut down because it failed. So there it is right there.  You open up these offices they work for a short period of time and then you move on and on and on.

There is no end in sight if you want to stay with the company or lack there of.

Again, there is nothing wrong with being a sales person.  But to all who come across this artile- there are so many sales jobs that will pay you a base salary plus commissions, and give you benefits, and a stable work environment. This is not a legit sales job.  This is simply being manipulated to think you are a sales rep.

The culture is meant to keep you away from your family and friends.  When you work at a place like this they want you to eat, sleep, and breathe the Cydcor mentality. This way your family and friends cannot talk you out of the job.

Working there I had the chance to see first hand how the owner Steven Scott/Kordella would play favorites, manipulate employees, and discourage employees to quit rather than allow him to actually fire them.  Why you ask?  Because if you force or advise someone to quit rather than fire them they cannot claim unemployment, which can tax your company.  This is another state tax that they are trying to not pay.

It was also normal for Steven to put employees down and make them feel horrible for not selling enough.  This is his horrible way of trying to motivate his staff to sell more.

You are told so many times that if you put in the time you will be promoted to get your own office.  But before you believe this lie- do the research and see just how many open, then close, and then open, then close.  This is why when you trace Steven as far back as you can all the previous offices are closed. 

These owners survive only by hiring 1,000 people a year because 990 will leave, so many people work 3 days or 5 days a get out.  How I made it several weeks was beyond me.  My car was worn out, my funds were almost gone, and I had gained no experience in the working world.

Again, the most alarming issue is misclassifying employees as contractors and not paying overtime pay to employees.

This is a serious offense that should not be taken lightly.  If you research cases in Ohio and other states employers who try to do this and not pay state taxes, social security taxes, and medicare now with the new ObamaCare intiative are liable for large tax liens.

I assume that companies like these dont really care about law suits because they move after 2 years and this was you cant sue them if they are out of business.

I urge anyone who comes across this to file a report with the Department of Labor or the Secretary of State for Ohio. This way they can research the company for themselves and investigate this for the wronged employees. This is why we elect officials to help us not be taken advantage of.

If you need links proving this is illegal please comment and I will provide them. There is no rebuttal to this issue.

 I agree as well with everything in the original report. My friend currently works for Clear Vision Communications in Independence, Ohio. It is Stephen Kordella's office not Steven Scott and if the owner is listing two different names that is definitely a red flag. My friend works ridiculous hours and is never home. If I have calculated correctly, he hypothetically is expected to work 7am-7pm, 5 days a week which is 60 hours. On top of that, he attends "Team Night" every Thursday for about 3 hours. He informed me that he makes $100 a sale and to hit "production" they have to make 5 sales a week. Making these sales, selling T-Mobile is tough though so he usually ends up working Saturday as well to hit his "goal".

So if you do the math, he makes $7.93 an hour which is so sad because he could be working a number of places earning minimum wage. I realize they tell their reps that they earn what they are worth but my friend is worth so much more and it is just so hard to watch him get used by this company. $7.93 is generous actually because CVC also assigns reps far flung territories and do not reimburse for gas. My friend was driving over an hour away to his territory which I found to be insane! So once you factor in gas, food and wear on your vehicle, the real amount is despicable. My friend is actually a college graduate with great work experience.

He just fell on some hard times and I believe this is why he took this job initially. This company seems to prey on fresh college graduates and those who a down on their luck. CVC claims they provide a valuable service to their "clients" and I'm sure T-Mobile and Cydcor couldn't be happier. They provide dirt cheap, face to face marketing and sales while exploiting hard working sales reps paying them next to nothing while they laugh all the way to the bank. I'm concerned for my friend because I have tried to be supportive but as I learn more and more about Cydcor I just really wish he would leave. CVC offers absolutely no benefits which I find to be shameful.

My friend has a beautiful family and has no time for them and it breaks my heart. Often times even if he hits his goal for the week, he is expected in the office on Saturday for trainings, etc. Just ridiculous. CVC touts itself as being "family oriented" but when do they expect these people to actually see their families?! My friend is convinced though that if he puts in the time, it will pay off. That he will have his own office and the money will come. I realize it does work for some people as yes, some actually do make money but at what cost? Losing friends and abandoning your family? It does seem to be "cult-like" and I would like to know more specifically how they lead people away. My friend does spend time outside the office with other CVC employees frequently and I wondered that myself. Thank you for posting your report.

To the mother who responded.

It is a cult like mentality to the point where they want to alienate you from your current friends and family so that you continue to stay the course- sell, sell, and sell to make more money to keep the business going. So yes it may come to a point were as your son runs out of money

There are numerous terms that they use there to down play the actual workers to make them seem professional.

9-5 stiffs- basically means they are jealous of the people who have a stable work environment with things like 401k, pensions, and medical and dental benefits. 

These offices never last long- once the word gets around that it is a 100% commission and it’s a scam they normally shut down and move to another state and change their name.

Again, as I stated previously the most alarming thing was that they misclassify their employees in order to not pay state taxes.  This is a serious offense. And I encourage you as well as your family members to file a complaint with the Ohio Secretary of State. Please see below the link to the US Department of Labor website that clearly spells out why this is illegal. As well as a case from 2011 in which a company was forcing employees to work over 40 hours a week and they never received overtime pay.  When the manager is telling the employees to be at the office at 830am-and then back at the office to end the day at 6pm and then work Saturdays as well all did, and not be paid for the extra time worked it is ILLEGAL.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/workers/misclassification/

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/whd/WHD20111425.htm

The people telling your son he is only worth the pay check he receives are the management level employees their and the manager himself. They believe that if you are not making enough money than you are not working hard enough.  Even though your percentage of a sale is so minimal it is impossible to make any money.

They will defend themselves and try to say it is not a pyramid scheme but by definition it is.

Cydcor receives the top line percentage of sales based on their contractual agreement with the Service provider.

The regional managers make a percentage of what their regional sales offices make.

The manager of the office makes a percentage of what the employees sell.

And the sales rep make a small percentage of what they are selling for all of the above.

I have done a lot of research since leaving the company and read many articles regarding this process. 

Cydcor is not a publicly traded company, it has been successful in farming out their dirty work and letting managers open up offices hire as many people as they can draw in and by letting the managers think they are business owners it removes legal ramifications from Cydcor itself.  The legality of the wrong doing is soley on the shoulders of the manager.  This I am sure is new to the manager that they are responsible, but worst case scenario if someone sues just close the office and move out of state and open a new one with a brand new name. See the article below if you would like more insight.

http://wolfram.org/scam/ds_max/6.html

Companies and Managers like the one your son and I dealt with are all over- eventually they will be aged out.  When I say aged out I mean that after the age of 35 you are a dinosaur in that field. Everyone is between the age of 20-25 fresh out of school and ready to make their way in the world.

The only problem is that they will be thrown even further back after working there, In all likelihood they will lose money and not gain any experience, since this is not a real job.  The job of these sales reps is to make a little money for the manager, and Cydcor until the word gets out that it’s a scam and the office shuts down and moves to another city.

To put a funny spin on it.  It is like the movie Independence Day “ they are like locust.  They come in try to eat and destroy what they can while they are alive and then move on.”

Try to educate your son not only on the tax ramifications that he will face soon to both the state and federal government come tax time as well as the fact that by all accounts this office will be closed with 2 years.

Trust me working for a company like this adds no depth to a resume.  I personally just left it off when I went for my next job and just said I took some time off after college.

This is not exactly a "rebuttal" but simply a response to the person complaining about Clear vision communications.  I am the mother of a person who works there. It is hard for me to believe that my son has fallen for something that to me is reminiscint of the airport hari krishnas of the 60's or of the mindless scientologists of today's culture.  My son seems to think that if he only makes 50.00 on his paycheck then that is all he is worth.  Who the "F" is telling him that????  We have figured out that most of the time he is only making about 2.00 an hour.  We are done giving him gas money and we hope that when his car finally falls apart then he will have to quit this stupid job by force.  Watching my son become an idiot door to door salesman has been sickening. He has been going around making fun of the "9 to 5" crowd and thinks he is better than others because he is willing to work like a dog for literally no pay.  He used to like money and was always willing to work hard for it but now he is working hard and has nothing to show for it.   I am really glad for all of the information I have been able to gather online....it makes me feel like I am not alone.  This company is nothing but a cult that preys on people and the bosses seem to know exactly what to say to people to keep them coming back everyday.