Complaint Review: N.M.E.(National Magazine Exchange - Clearwater Florida

I hope to travel to Clearwater soon and visit with old NME friends.

I hear the cheer is still "buyers are liars" and that NME moved into another location.

I haven't seen anything interesing in these postings for a long time.

I hope you Floridians are doing well - I probably don't wish the same for NME.

A C

There has GOT to be some fresh news/gossip out there somewhere??

Anything from Eileen Adams or Chuck Denova or Rusty Russel or Sam Salvo or SOMEONE?  There hasn't been anything interesting for a long time!

UPDATES PLEASE!  PRETTY PLEASE?  I think Sam Salvo is doing something in music/singing.

Elaine up in corporate office - are you still there, any news?

Chuck and Eileen I hope you have done well!

At least the weather is getting pretty nice!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: Special Data has finally changed they're name to Agora Marketing Solutions, Inc which is why their website is now down. Be aware of this new name change

Is the Special Data web site down? Is Brady gone? Is anyone else gone? Hey folks don't forget you can cancel and get your money back. There are several postings about what to say and how easy it is to do.

What is the details??? Is Brady gone?? Someone speak up!! Why is Scott Brady no longer listed on the website as CEO??? TELL TELL TELL Someone speak up!! Chuck you must still have contacts. Why is Brady no longer listed? Is he gone? This is a huge event. Did Willis Stein see a light? Many currently there and in the past have stated that Brady is a MONSTER, a PREDATOR and a BULLY!!!! Chuck maybe you didn't know Brady but you were certaninly one of his victim's. Speak up someone!!! We victims would like to hear!!

What is the details??? Is Brady gone?? Someone speak up!! Why is Scott Brady no longer listed on the website as CEO??? TELL TELL TELL Someone speak up!! Chuck you must still have contacts. Why is Brady no longer listed? Is he gone? This is a huge event. Did Willis Stein see a light? Many currently there and in the past have stated that Brady is a MONSTER, a PREDATOR and a BULLY!!!! Chuck maybe you didn't know Brady but you were certaninly one of his victim's. Speak up someone!!! We victims would like to hear!!

What is the details??? Is Brady gone?? Someone speak up!! Why is Scott Brady no longer listed on the website as CEO??? TELL TELL TELL Someone speak up!! Chuck you must still have contacts. Why is Brady no longer listed? Is he gone? This is a huge event. Did Willis Stein see a light? Many currently there and in the past have stated that Brady is a MONSTER, a PREDATOR and a BULLY!!!! Chuck maybe you didn't know Brady but you were certaninly one of his victim's. Speak up someone!!! We victims would like to hear!!

I worked at this place for a while and I think it's ridiculous. There are endless sales cheers that the "buyers are liars" and that the caller's have our money and that we need to get it from them. What a load of crap. I would never work there again but must admit I got a chuckle watching all the idiots and the way they behave. It's like working in a crappy high school of degenerates. Every negative posting I have read is just plain true. Employee turnover is very high. I could right about some of the class clowns at all levels up to the President but I think I'll withhold for now. It is definitely true that you can cancel and get your money back. There are several postings on how to do it and it works. It is the buyer's money and you can cancel if you don't really want all those crappy magazines that you aren't really going to read. Good luck to you callers. Be strong and resolute and CANCEL NOW.

NME still treats employees and customers like crap and they still chant "buyers are liars". Employee turnover is still high. How does this place stay in business? People DO NOT CALL AND IF YOU DO THEN DO NOT BUY THE MAGAZINES. Learn to HANG UP. If you bought the magzines and want your money back read these postings - you can cancel and get your money back.

Dale, Yes, it feels wonderful to be done with SDP. It was so horribly unethical and brutal to customers (and us employees) that I quit, happily, for a better job elsewhere. Being there a few years, I saw the decline of the place, and the good people all left. With them went morals, ethics and humane treatment. Now, what's left is greedy, aggressive tactics to force magazines on everyone..or else. They loved to threaten us verifiers with every punishment they could think of - infractions, write ups, violations, etc, etc. I did what I wanted, and ignored all the tough talk, being nice to my customers. The suits made it so we couldn't make any good money unless we hit up the broke, old and disadvantaged..I didn't. I was kind and nice. Good business thrive on empathy, customer needs and not aggression and threats. That's why my new job is for a company who is global and praised by everyone..while SDP slides down the slippery greed slope into sleazy magazine selling oblivion. That company made me so physically drained, by pushing so hard and making it hard to make a living by forcing us financially to sell more and more, work seven days/week,etc.. that it has taken awhile to regain normalcy and feel like a functioning human being again. The further away I get from it, the more energetic, happy and healthy I feel. Magazine sales detox! Good riddance to them, and I hope all the good people who left, got great jobs like I did, so that they too can get the last laugh. Glad you got out, too! Mary

I felt great when I left and so must you! I've heard management is called the Brady Bully Bunch and that Brady's nickname is TOAD! Are Parish and Margatondo and Moravick still there (sorry for spelling)? Can you tell us what the rebuttal is when callers mention the ripoffreport (I left before this started)? What are the free/bonus mags these days? To you Andy - best wishes and enjoy your new life. To Chuck and Eileen - are you still watching? - best wishes and I hope you are enjoying life! The same to Sam Salvo - you must have been poked pretty hard - hope you came out on top somwhere. NME/SDP/USA-PUBS, Bill Hood, S Brady,WillisStein, etal are slime in my opinion. Click..............2U.........

As an ex employee, my opinion about why everyone is leaving is because the company forgot the human element to business and is now solely based on greed. Greed because they gradually squeeze money from hard working and loyal employees by offering lousy insurance, constantly higher sales quotas and total disregard for the well-being of everyone except those higher level folks that make the rules. A few months ago, I quit in disgust over the disgustingly poor way they deal with their customers as well as employees. They made the employees read long, drawn out scripts of sleazy car-salesmanesque crap. They don't care, their mentality is that if they push their phone personnel hard enough, relentlessly with threats of termination and all sorts of horrible consequences, that they'll get them to sell to anyone. And, I do mean anyone. Those who teach don't care if the caller is someone sick or dying, they just look at them as potential buyers that need to be probed and rebuttaled until they buy or hang up. This is disgusting and inhumane. Anyone with a brain leaves jobs that are nothing more than sweat shops housed in glossy, fancy building with a Photoshopped photo of Bill Hood representing everyone (even if he's long gone from the place). A friend of mine, who quit due to increasing heart problems brought on by stress from this job (his doctor told him this) told me that Geraldo Rivera had at one time researched and went after the company. It blows my mind that they are still in business, despite it all. They only care for the bottom line, not about those who get the money for them, both customer and worker. Andy Tampa, FL

Let's make a list of who is gone little big Bill Hood original owner BIG DAN the man Blumenthal the Willis Stein rep Jeffery Fix vp marketing Thomas Lord the new cio Dawn Russo vp Chip Block vice chairman Jack Linder vp Leslie Stein a corporate attorney Jim Shalale OneSwitch GM and his group Sam Salvo an original vp Chuck D Union Crusader and Combatant of Evil Eileen Adams Union Crusader and Combatant of Evil Edna and the list team The cfo The controller Pat a Corporate Attorney Suzanne the original attorney Ginny VP Operations Cindy the original CIO Brady's numerous admin assistants Why are these people gone? I bet only little big Bill made the big bucks. Kathy Margatondo and Robert Moravek are you still there? Chris King are you still battling with elaine scanlon? Does sdp still turnover thousands 400 % of employees per year?

After quitting this miserable job, it took me a few weeks to start to "come back to life" from all the abuse and aggression I used to have to deal with from management. I never followed their stupid rules or script, because I had compassion for my customers. They look at ethical, caring people as "weak and non-assertive". I call having a conscience, "kind, caring and real". Only at SDP, in my opinion, can you be punished relentlessly for being ethical to customers! It seems that all the good people that worked there left, and were replaced with aggressive, greedy and soul-less scum in suits. In training, they teach people to keep pushing the customer until they buy or hang up. A motto that they like to use is "Some will, some won't, who cares? Who's next?" and they tell those who don't want to pitch someone obviously very old, suffering or whatever, "It's your money they have, and you've got to get it out of their hands. Keep rebuttaling, and turn them into buyers". When I first started working there, a man was passing out literature about the company, about how unfair its practises were. I read it, and found out eventually, that what he wrote was true. I kept the job until a better employer was found, and am now with an ethical place, that doesn't screw employees and customers out of their money. My advice to anyone thinking of working there, is to RUN the other direction. There are other jobs out there and anything is better than this lousy paying place. The pay keeps getting cut, their explanations for everything are really lame and car-salesman slick, and they like to rely on long-winded explanations of things like pay rate, to keep everyone confused. It's not worth it. I'm free at last, and it feels glorious.

After quitting this miserable job, it took me a few weeks to start to "come back to life" from all the abuse and aggression I used to have to deal with from management. I never followed their stupid rules or script, because I had compassion for my customers. They look at ethical, caring people as "weak and non-assertive". I call having a conscience, "kind, caring and real". Only at SDP, in my opinion, can you be punished relentlessly for being ethical to customers! It seems that all the good people that worked there left, and were replaced with aggressive, greedy and soul-less scum in suits. In training, they teach people to keep pushing the customer until they buy or hang up. A motto that they like to use is "Some will, some won't, who cares? Who's next?" and they tell those who don't want to pitch someone obviously very old, suffering or whatever, "It's your money they have, and you've got to get it out of their hands. Keep rebuttaling, and turn them into buyers". When I first started working there, a man was passing out literature about the company, about how unfair its practises were. I read it, and found out eventually, that what he wrote was true. I kept the job until a better employer was found, and am now with an ethical place, that doesn't screw employees and customers out of their money. My advice to anyone thinking of working there, is to RUN the other direction. There are other jobs out there and anything is better than this lousy paying place. The pay keeps getting cut, their explanations for everything are really lame and car-salesman slick, and they like to rely on long-winded explanations of things like pay rate, to keep everyone confused. It's not worth it. I'm free at last, and it feels glorious.

Does anyone know why Thomas Lord the CIO and Jeffery Fix the VP of Marketing left the company? They don't seem to have a CIO. And Mr. Fix sure left pretty quickly. WOW this company seems to have a lot of management turnover.

Does anyone know why Thomas Lord the CIO and Jeffery Fix the VP of Marketing left the company? They don't seem to have a CIO. And Mr. Fix sure left pretty quickly. WOW this company seems to have a lot of management turnover.

Does anyone know why Thomas Lord the CIO and Jeffery Fix the VP of Marketing left the company? They don't seem to have a CIO. And Mr. Fix sure left pretty quickly. WOW this company seems to have a lot of management turnover.

Does anyone know why Thomas Lord the CIO and Jeffery Fix the VP of Marketing left the company? They don't seem to have a CIO. And Mr. Fix sure left pretty quickly. WOW this company seems to have a lot of management turnover.

NME is a very very miserable place to work for anyone with integrity.

I'm really glad I researched this company before calling. I met someone that fell for their sales pitch and wasted a lot of money. I now know several people that got the mailer and we all threw it away. If everyone tells somebody they know about these people maybe it will put them out business. Or at least slow them down. Reading this web site has saved me a lot of grief.

I stand corrected regarding Eileen's efforts. From what I saw on the inside Eileen was persecuted and fired for her union activities. I liked the old time management as much as I knew them. I have no use for current management. I didn't know Bill Hood but for sure Brady is the leader of the Barbarian Brady Bully Bunch. If you fell over Brady and current management Brady would be the one with the evil wicked foul stench. He is the one that stole everyone's cookies in kindergarten. Chuck, best of luck to both you and Eileen. I too will watch from a long distance.

D-B, I couldn't allow your heartfelt comments to go unanswered. I am still out here, but frankly I have said everything that could be said about SDP. As long as people are out there willing to crawl on their bellies in the mud for a few miserable bucks at the expense of their dignity and integrity, companies like this will continue to flourish. As long as a brain dead public driven by greed and stupidity of epic proportions thinks it can get something for nothing, companies like this will continue to flourish. Willis/Stein have an outlet for their magazine publishers, it is good business for them. I wouldn't know Scott Brady if I fell over him, so really cannot comment on him. It was the previous owner who I was trying to goad into reclaiming his soul. Sam Salvo? A friend of the former management (and of mine) whose loyalty was not returned and was thrown under the bus not once, but TWICE. Most of the old timers you mentioned left when they could no longer ignore the poor way the company was being managed and the poor way the employees were treated. Old news. One small correction though, for the sake of historical accuracy. The Union movement there was begun and directed by Eileen Adams, not me, although I participated as an outside supporter for the pure joy of driving management insane. When Eileen was set up and unjustly fired for her union activities, the baton was picked up by the courageous Karen Bryant who finally got so disgusted with the company and the spineless weaklings who worked for it, she decided to get her life back in the real world. So there it is D-B, the thing which I find absolutely the MOST hilarious though is that the company will probably have to end up raising the pay if the federal government raises the minimum wage!! Best of luck to you. Chuck - Palm Harbor

Can I build on this posting? Why is NME management turnover so high? Why are the following SDP/NME managers gone? Jim Shalale - OneSwitch GM - gone Cindy the CIO - gone Ginny - VP Operations - gone Pat the Corporate Attorney - gone Leslie Stein the new Corporate Attorney - gone Suzanne - the other/original attorney - gone (whoops 2007 update, did Suzanne come back?) Sam Salvo - gone The CFO - gone The Controller - gone Edna and her team in lists - gone Chip Block - Vice Chairman - gone Dawn Russo - VP - gone Jack Linder - VP - gone Palm Harbor Chuck - Combatant of EVIL and Union crusader - gone Brady's numerous admin assistants repeatedly gone Why are all these people gone? Rumor is most were either terminated or forced out by Scott Brady, Leader of the Brady Bully Bunch. ChuckD - is the biggest evil enemy Scott Brady? Some say it was Brady and Willis Stein that wanted Chuck gone. ChuckD where are you?? CathyM - do you have any dignity left? Suzanne - ???? - what the frenchtoast? PS - thanks to ripoffreport.

Good thing you researched NME before you gave your credit card number. NME was fined $535,000 by the FTC Federal Trade Commission because they sold memberships and people got ripped off. The employees will whine it wasn't NME's script but that is outrageous baloney, NME used the script and NME sold the rip off. Read through these postings and see that NME is an evil, aggressive, predatory sales company. Their creed in sales training is "Buyers Are Liars". They have motivational cheer sessions where the employees shout and chant "Buyers Are Liars". Doesn't that sound like an evil rip off company? They sell mostly magazines but also push memberships to things like travel clubs at $10 to $20 per month, and lots of other crap that changes from month to month. Those three magazines for 9 months would have turned into 4 years at $1.29 per week or $268.32. They would have given you several free magazines but you would never read the titles they give you. NME gets a publisher bonus to give the free ones away and the publisher makes big money from the advertisers. Also, not all the mags will last 4 years so you can count on lots of calls to renew them, even if you are on the no call list they are allowed to call you. Of course they will also aggressively try to sell you all the latest crappy memberships and other junk. Those watches cost $1 dollar from Asia and the diamond is a speck of dust. You can guess that the address book is also a piece of junk. Then they put your name on a LIST and sell it to other marketing companies. Whoopee isn't that fun. There will probably be an employee rebuttal that babbles that I am a disgruntled ex-employee that couldn't make it and babbling that the magazines are really a fantastic deal. OUTRAGEOUS BALONEY! BTW, half the sales trainees quit and run for the door. The other half usually lasts only a few weeks. NME has over 400% employee turnover per year. Have a crappy day NME. CLICK............