Complaint Review: George S. May International Company - Park Ridge Illinois

I wish there was a way to tie the reports about this company into one place so a reply can be posted to all. But here is the issue folks, ONCE you SIGN the 56 form (contract) your on the hook for the fees and a letter of satisfaction to end the job. Once they have that letter you loose all hope of ever getting your money back or anything for your hard earned funds. The whole job revolves around running the bill up before you see there are no results. Then making you give them a letter that your happy with the work so far and that your stopping the job only because your out of money. Here is a PRIME example of how George S. May International uses the letter they demand to fend off clients that they harm. As reported in the The Topeka Capital-Journal on web page http://www.cjonline.com/stories/122000/bus_sirezras.shtml "Last modified at 1:28 a.m. on Wednesday, December 20, 2000 Restaurant's closing offers harsh lesson By MICHAEL HOOPER The Capital-Journal If you are thinking about opening a restaurant, you may want to consider the experience of Bernard Ezra Williams. On May 23, Williams and his wife, Lori Green, opened Sir Ezra's Steak House at 2833 S.W. Fairlawn Road. They closed it Nov. 30, after being charged $26,000 in fees from an Illinois consulting firm. The restaurant started off with a bang. Its best month was June, hitting $71,000 in revenue. But the new restaurant owners battled high overhead, maintenance bills and a lack of operating capital. "There was nothing wrong with the food; there was nothing wrong with the service -- I just didn't have enough operating capital," Williams said. "If I were to do it over again, I would get an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan right away." Williams, 43, is an accomplished chef who has worked in the restaurant business most of his life. He had been a chef at the Shawnee Country Club, Topeka Steak House, The Vintage and Laribee's Steak House. When Williams heard about the availability of the Fairlawn building last spring, he got excited. He always wanted to own his own business. When he stepped inside the site of the former Fairlawn Cafe, he said he recognized that it needed a lot of cleaning and repair. Williams worked more than 300 hours cleaning the building and fixing equipment to meet city code. A new sign was installed. He hired about 20 employees. The average meal in the former Denny's restaurant building was about $15. The steak house lacked a bar. In June, two consultants from George S. May International Co., of Park Ridge, Ill., came to the restaurant and told Williams they could help him increase sales. "I thought it was going to be a good thing in the beginning," Williams said. "But I didn't learn anymore from them than I already knew." The consultants spent 11 days with him, according to Israel Kushnir, managing director of the company. Williams said he became uncomfortable with the consultants and decided to end the relationship. Two more consultants returned and talked to his wife. "I asked them to leave my property," Williams said. For its consulting services, George S. May International billed Williams more than $26,000. Williams said he paid more than $10,000 to the consulting firm, but the company's collector continues to call him. Kushnir said Williams still owes the company $16,000 because Williams signed notes saying he would pay the money. "Being a cook doesn't make you a manager," Kushnir said. "The reason he hired us is because he needed help being a manager." Kushnir said the company received a letter from Williams that stated he was satisfied with the consultant's services. The same letter also said Williams had to stop using the services because of a lack of funds. Les Streit, director of the Small Business Development Center at Washburn University, said the fees George S. May International charged Williams seemed "astronomical." The small business center provides business counseling for free. The center helps clients write business plans. To reach the Small Business Development Center, call 231-1010, Ext. 1305, and set up an appointment. By nature, Williams said, he has had trouble saying no to people. He wears his heart on his sleeve and trusts people. In business, he said, you have to learn to say no. "You put your heart out there," Williams said, "and you get taken advantage of." Williams said he doesn't regret trying to open his own business. He said he is wiser today from the experience. "I would never feel satisfied if I never gave it a try," he said. "It's a like a ball player in the minor leagues who wants to experience the big league. You never know if you can make it unless you try." He said he is young enough to be able to re-enter the workforce and start over. "I will be back," he said. The building's owner, Kent Lindemuth, of Topeka, couldn't be reached Tuesday. Michael Hooper can be reached at (785) 295-1293 or [email protected]. "

Greetings, If your looking for a new job / career PLEASE do not look George S. May International Corporation, unless you do not have a problem with taking peoples hard earned money for no good reason. If you do want to go for it here is what to expect. Here is how the deal works. A) Mid career mid forties early fifties SALES people are recruited with a straight forward interview processes. As the RIP OFF REPORT other contributors point out. The help wanted ads never stop they are everywhere! Noting that the ads all have a great side benefit in that if your trying to find information on George S. May International Corporation all the ads cloud the searches for critical information like what is posted here on RIP OFF REPORT. B) If you have the look and you can fog a mirror you will be hired. Then you go to training either in Chicago with Ms. Gill or Las Vegas with another trainer (I was sent to HAM in Chicago even though I was WAM, got to love the jargon at GSM). George S. May International has an impressive recruiting package, base plus commissions plus health benefits, plus profit sharing, plus, plus, plus. BUT in real life you are not even paid enough to cover your expenses. You stay because you think you can make an X contract the holly grail at GSM or you need the health benefits or you are a masochist. C) Once you show up to training and you have your insurance checked out and you have your equipment ready to go. You are given a training class that is so basic I was laughing inside to how silly this was. But I needed a job and thought I could make a great living and contribution to the company and their clients. You are treated like a heard of children and then run ragged. I found it really interesting that the claims of great wealth being built at GSM not a car in the parking lot was worth over ten grand, except a three series BMW and a 2003 bottom of the line Jag. Another observation was that you pay for your plane ticket to class plus the taxicab to the hotel. You will be given a check to cover the expenses on the first day before lunch and told where the bank is. Every person in my class went to CASH the check. Sort of tells you that the people are picked because they need a job and buy into the scam. D) So back to class and your forms all the time your sales pitch is gone over. You are told how much to fill in your expense report and how to cope on the road. For a week you're run up and down mental exercises that really do nothing to help you analyze a business except to be able to spot the weakness that will get your GO AHEAD. Then your PITCH book is set up and your instructed how to make it LOOK like it is full of information when in fact it is full of fluff. E) On the last day your there you are rushed off to the airport in a big hurry with a goal of the fist ANALIST to get his or her go ahead you will receive $500.00 bonus. I was lucky (I think) I was sent to a JOB where the business was in such bad shape he signed on the fist day with no analyses done what so ever not one form. I was told I did a FANTASTIC job! I was instructed to stay away from the place of business and be ready for team to show up the next morning at 7am. They did show up on time we went to the business here the project director went through a script with a person on the phone that was more about did I represent the deal honestly and does the client know how they are going to pay for the work. Once the job is accepted by the project director off I went to the next job. This is how it went in my case for the next three months I played by the game at George S. May signing up a number of clients. Growing more and more un-convinced in the results I found myself growing to hate the deceptive FIRST CALL script. I went to the ADVANCED training in Los Vegas where nothing new was learned except the war stories of those who are also closing deals getting their go ahead. The isolation of the job makes you feel great at the advanced training where you get to see others who are in the field getting, go aheads. One lady in the training had a number of, go aheads in a row another was a former GSM sales rep who came back who also had a string of six goes in a row. WOW. But peal back the onion you will find out that the clients you have HELPED are worse off and some WILL be closing their doors due to GSM. I left GSM after a string of bad jobs that were either already former upset clients or they were re-surveys where I was thrown out just for showing up. What clinched it was finding out a client went under because of GSM. That I have to live with for the rest of my life, helping to put people out of work and good families in more stress. SHAME ON George S May and the SLEEZY methods of sales of a fourth rate service.

Potential employee will train with trainers of varied experience and own management styles that has been with GSMIC of less than four years. Most often, each speaker or lecturers are contradicting with each other. The first day is merely getting more information on the trainee, i.e. forcing them to call their insurance agent to change your car insurance liability to $500,000, bring their own laptop computer, and evidence of a four-year degree diploma. At the end of the second day, each trainee will be given a confusing assignment taken from the lectures of the different lecturers with conflicting information on how to handle the client. Beware of the assignment this is their excuse to cut you off from the training by telling you We decided you don't belong to this program since you did not understand the question of the assignment. We are not willing to let you bring your mediocre talent to our client. In retrospect, do not intimidate the main trainer or the one that gathers all the personal information by showing your degree in MBA because you will be the center of his ridicules that the position does not need an MBA to bring in to the clients. The trainer will specifically tell everybody that most of their clients have a third grade education of understanding who will be confused of textbooks recommendations. All the while, each lecturer is telling the trainees that GSMIC has its own business models to arrive to a solution to each of their client's problems. Instead of explaining the procedures of GSMIC, it seems the trainer is trying to impress himself to the trainees than go over with the manuals and procedures that the potential employee has to understand and carries with him to the client. This trainer have the audacity to tell everybody that he drops out of MBA school because he never understands the concepts of what the business schools were teaching. As he quotes, working with our clients is equivalent of MBA training. This is a quotation coming from the trainer who sounds and acts like a second hand car sales man and admits that most of their clients has a third grade understanding. Warning: Do not even bother to show up for training, you are wasting your time and ruin your reputation to show up to a client expecting you to bring in your talent and the best of procedures of the company. This company must need a very qualified training personnel and qualified consultants.

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to fully research a potential employee or any large purchase. Insist that you get written documentation to the question: What directly related experience the consultants sent to you have, as well as their personal success in your industry? The George S May Company employees are instructed to verbally assure you that they have experience in your industry, and have been successful consultants and businessmen. Let me assure you that they are not being truthful, and cannot and will not provide written proof. You must insist that the project will not continue, and you will not pay them, until they provide written proof of their experience and success.