Complaint Review: International Profit Associates - Buffalo Grove Illinois

I was a part of the Analyst training class of International Profit Associates also known as IPA. This is a company that claims to be a consulting company that caters to small to medium sized businesses. They contact these companies and for $300-$1500 they will have an analyst look at the books and observes and interview employees. I didn't know a lot about the company other than the names of the executives and the reported revenues.

The training class was from Aug 18-23, 2003. I answered an ad about 3 weeks prior and was called by a screener the same day. I was sold on the company with a hard close. I was told that the next training class was 3 weeks away and was told I has to purchase a plane ticket to training.

I asked questions about the company and the training. The guy rambled on about everything other than the company. He did say that there was a lot of travel involved.

I guess after being out of work for several months and needing an income, IPA sounded pretty good. I had a strong sales background and had years of business-to-business sales. I thought it would be a good match dealing with business owners.

I purchased a laptop, software and other accessories which ran me about $1,000. Keep in mind, I've been out of work. I really should not have purchased the laptop but I thought it was essential to have to do this job. When I arrived at the hotel where we were to stay and receive the training, the hotel clerk made a few comments regarding IPA's high turnover. The second night, I heard the bartender at the restaurant/sports bar in the hotel say that most people don't make it with IPA.

During the week of training which was fair, I did have concerns. The training was more of Managerial Accounting for an MBA program reduced to 1 week. Most of the 32 classmates were high-caliber executives or previously owned businesses. I heard my classmates grumbling about if this was a legitement opportunity.

The trainer was pretty good. She was an attractive female in her mid 40's. She was an Analyst brought in from the field. She was one of the more successful Analysts. Her whole presentation was to play mind games with the business owners.

She had phrases such as "drip, drip, drip", meaning to drop small comments to disburb the owner regarding his business. Another phrase she used was "to drop bombs", which was to use huge examples (usually the client's own numbers) to create a stressful situation so they will act immediately to hire IPA to fix their problems.

After the class was over, you are assigned a Senior Executive Analyst (called a SENEX). This is your supervisor. You are to call in before you go into the business, during the presentation and at the end of the day. SENEXs are very demanding and care nothing about the clients. You also receive your first assignment and a plane ticket.

It's up to the Analyst to make their own hotel and rental car accomadations. I thought that was strange and didn't show support for the Analyst.

My first assignment was a tire shop in the worst part of LA. The owner spoke Spanish as his first language and his English was okay, he had a hard time understanding the concepts. He wanted to cancel he appointment, but my SENEX forced me to go back and do the survey at no charge. Obviously, I didn't get the GO (authorization to call in the consultants).

My next assignment was in the Van Nuys area (San Fernando Valley area of LA), another horrible area. It was a small glass company owned by an elderly Black couple. The man was legally blind and the wife was very skeptical. She thought I was a real estate agent to help them sell their business. I was told by my SENEX that they were selling and they wanted an exit plan. The little lady said she had already listed the business on the market with a real estate company and she couldn't see paying $300. Well, the little lady was tough, she flat out said no and I called my SENEX and told him the situation. He didn't care, he wanted me to force the survey. I asked them again if they wanted a survey done and she said no. Finally, my SENEX said I was released from the assignment. So I drove back home to San Diego.

That evening my SENEX told me to be in Buellton, CA, 60 miles north of Santa Barbara. I drove up that night. It was an auto repair shop owned by a couple in the late 30s. They did have major problems. They were actually cooperative and wanted the survey.

During your conversations with your SENEX, you are to have a very pessimistic conversation about the situation of the business. You are saying this in front of the owner. Many times they would tell me what to say and they'd expect me to repeat word by word whatever they said, in front of the business owner.

An example of this conversation would go like this,"Hello council, I'm sitting here with Brian Smith, owner of Smith's Auto Body. He only makes $32,000 and he thinks he should make $100,000. He's leaking $68,000." The whole script deserves an Academy Award.

The SENEX has you fax in the client's Balance Sheets and Statment of Income. The SENEX only does it to verify that the client has some sort of cashflow and they can schedule consultants hours.

IPA actually overbills and charges the client for the airfare and hotel accomodations. A Project Management and one other consultant show up and gouge the client the next day.

I got the GO on that business in Buellton, but at that time is when I realized how crooked IPA is. They thought they couldn't afford it and my SENEX spoke to them via speaker phone and smooth talked them into it. Lord knows what happened to those poor people. I feel like calling them and apologizing. They needed help, but from a good ethical consulting company that will not gouge them.

I was sent to 4 assignments after that turned out to be bogus. The owners didn't want to see me. Three of them stated they tried to call to cancel. Many times my SENEX tried to make me feel that it was my fault that I had no-shows or hostile business owners.

The last assignment in Phoenix was bogus. The owner didn't want to talk to me and left the shop. So I hopped in the rental car (which IPA actually paid for) and drove home to San Diego. That was it, no more IPA.

They called me for one more assignment in San Bernardino, CA. I took the information down and never went to the assignment. That was my way of sticking back to IPA for sending me on bogus appointments.

It was always difficult to get in touch with your SENEX. They would always say,"Call back in 15 minutes". They actually toyed with us. They never supported us and got upset when we didn't get a GO.

My SENEX called later that day and asked if I opened the survey. I told him no and he asked where I was at and I told him I was at home looking for a new job. He asked, "Where does that leave the client?" I told him I didn't care and that I would fax him a letter of resignation.

IPA sets you up for failure. All of the appointments are bogus. Most of those appointments are set up by unskilled youngsters from Chicago. IPA has a "broiler-room" telemarketing area and they literally round up youngsters from the Southside of Chicago to set up the appointments.

The telemarketers say anything to get the analyst in the door (which is always the next day). The minute the analyst shows up, you're fighting an uphill battle. The business owner doesn't want to see us or simply isn't there for the appointment, which means you're out for the hotel and rental car. I don't blame the telemarketer directly, because he/she doesn't know any better and won't last but about 2-3 months.

I was in a bad situation by being out of work for several months. IPA helped me dig an even deeper hole. I wish I had ran into this site before I went to work for the scam company. If I had seen this, I would have never went to Chicago. For anyone who is considering working for IPA, drop anything and run and don't look back.

Angry and embarrassed IPA ex-employee

Somewhere in, California
U.S.A.