Complaint Review: Echo Business Solutions - Charleston South Carolina

I am writing this review in hopes that I can save another honest person from wasting his or her time interviewing, or worse, working for Echo Business Solutions. Here is my experience and what I have learned about this company:

Like many, I saw the "client relations manager" position open on multiple websites such as: careerbuilder, jobsradar, indeed, etc. And, like many, I was dazzled by the potential of being hired into a management position and gaining managerial experience while I was still working on my bachelor degree in management. This is the exact description of the job on careerbuilder.com: 

"Echo Business Solutions is currently hiring Entry Level individuals with a self motivated and competitive mentality.  Echo Business Solutions representatives specialize in areas of customer renewal and acquisition.  This requires that potential candidates have the ability to confidently interact with all types of people.

 Our clients are Fortune 500 companies who rely on us as experts to represent them to their customers. We have five main objectives that we promise to provide for all our clients:

- Professional Presentation with a Focus on Integrity

- Long Lasting Customer Acquisition and Retention

- Follow Through on our Commitments with Yearly Goals and Targets

- Expansion Future Markets by the End of 2014."

I applied to the position and sent in my resume and was contacted within two days. My first interview was only about fifteen minutes long with a woman named Perisa. There were about four other people waiting to interview before I went into the office with her and when I came out there were a few more people waiting to go in for an interview. She told me that she would contact me later that evening to let me know either way. At 5pm she called to schedule my second interview. 

When I arrived the following day for my second interview, again there were multiple people waiting to be interviewed, a few I recognized from the day prior. We were called in two at a time and the interviewer gave us a breakdown of her daily routine. It is here that I discovered the nature of work I'd be doing: door-to-door sales. She threw large numbers at me and explained the rank system of the company without actually explaining what we would be doing other than going door to door. 

The structure went as follows:

Entry: 2-4 weeks. $200-400 per week

Corporate Trainer: 8-14 months. $600-800 per week (100% commission)

Asst. Manager: 3-6 months. $1200-1600 per week (200% commission)

Manager/President: six figure salary. This is where you are able to open your own location, with its own name (i found this odd), but still still under the "parent company".

After the interview I was told I'd be contacted that evening to find out whether or not I got the job. Like clockwork, at 5pm I got the call. Perisa said that the "management team" debated and my name came up often, and they wanted to hire me. It was then that I went in search of more information on this company.

If you visit their site, there is more information on how to obtain employment with them than there is about what Echo actually does or who they actually provide services for. It is all very vague. Digging further, I cam across a few negative reviews, and all of them mentioned a parent company called Cydcor. In the second interview, she mentioned a "broker" or "parent company" being in charge of payroll and legality of the company. When they called back and wanted me to start the very next morning, I also found that odd.

I asked her who the parent company was. She told me that she was unable to give me that information until I was either an employee through AT&T or through Echo Business Solutions. Before she hung up I asked her if the parent company was Cydcor, she replied "yes" before abruptly hanging up the phone.