Mark
Wilton,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, July 25, 2012
FYOUWAY,
I worked for Darren back in 1999 when the company was called Direct Distributors of America. I was a young buck fresh out of college and highly impressionable. Darren was a rogue disciple of the DS MAX organization. My experience 13 years ago is amazingly similar to yours. I worked in an office in White Plains that mysteriously closed down. I was then sent to commute to Happhaugue (sp.) Long Island daily.
It was always clear to me that it was a house of cards but I was making such good money for my age that I stayed for about 2 years. I ended up making about $60K the first year. To put that in perspective, I went to work for Canon copiers after that and only made about $35K. The gig that he had going at that time was that he got a contract from an At&t reseller to send us out from business to business asking people for their phone bills under the guise of lowering their rates. As soon as they produced their bills, we would switch them from whatever provider they had to AT&T regardless of whether or not they were saving money.
Anyway, at a certain point that contract ended and so did the money. They switched over to selling cell phones on the street. Remember this was around 2000 when not everyone had one. The problem was that we had to do on the spot credit checks to qualify people for the deal. It turns out that the reason these people didn't have cell phones was because they had bad credit. I left the organization with a bitter taste in my mouth like you. In fact, I was part of a small class action lawsuit against the company that we ultimately won. I can't recall what the basis for the suit was but I remember getting a check for a couple of grand.
The interesting thing is that all these years later, in retrospect, I find Darren Matloff to be a fascinating figure. At the time he was presented to me as something of the Wizard of Oz, a larger than life man to be feared and respected and at the time I bought it hook, line and sinker. There is no question that this man is very intelligent. It is no easy feat to run an organization based on nothing but smoke and mirrors and to make people believe in it.
The sad part is that similar to your story, at the end of DDA, Darren was relegated to sleeping on the couch of one of the "managers" of the office. Ultimately it all comes down to the benjamins. With all of his intelligence and ability to deceive people, he never could seem to generate any real lasting income.
I am now very successful and have risen the ranks of sales and sales management. Ironically, I credit a lot of my success to my experience at DDA. It taught me a lot about hard work, ambition and most importantly, the basic algorithm of sales, the law of averages. God knows I had to see at least 100 potential customers to ring that d**n bell every day.
Anyway, I digress. The point of my story is to provide you with another vantage point from which to view your experience. I don't know how old you are but you probably have a whole career in front of you. I guarentee you will be recalling some of your experiences with Matloff in the future and using them to your benefit.
Juice by that!
PRcoverage
United States of America#3General Comment
Wed, June 01, 2011
It is sad when a company needs to reward those who "just show up" but this is a reality of the work ethic of many. Unfortunately, out of 100 individuals who answer a wanted ad for a sales job less then 5% stay the course. When asked to show up in professional attire, to attend training, to work and socialize whenever together to build a true sales "team," and to have all your expenses paid to travel to where ever the job is; often is asking too much of those who should really be working a check out counter rather then as a sales person
As for paying bills/rent, I'm not too sure "f you way" gossiping with someone who says he is the landlord is a reliable source. As for payroll, accounting issues happen all the time. The individual being refered to got paid.
I'd like to know how long "F you" actually worked and where he is today.
Darren Mattloff continues today as a successfully thriving international salesman and a leader in product development.