Complaint Review: Seccion Amarilla USA - Little Rock Arkansas

I came to Seccion Amarilla as apparently it was a local sales force in transition.
I had no other offers and I could understand the value of the product if indeed there was a real product that was being distributed.    However, after some sales success in the first 2 weeks...I found that the manager was telling me how to get leads..by saying I was anything but a yellow pages sales person..or anything but what I was..which that puzzled me because I think like a business person myself and if someone calls me I want to first their name..and who they represent and what was the purpose of the call.  I mean decision makers and business owners are busy..and if I just said advertising or marketing..I was going to get a second question...so I called on some few friends I had in town and was being scheduled to go to Atlanta for Training.     Everyone was so pleased with Shane..( Shame)  the trainer..and his knowledge of how to prospect and sell the product.  

Being a media person, (Which they try not to hire)  as having too much knowledge of media at this organization is disqualifying rather than an asset,  I asked questions and got put off on most answers.   Normal questions like..who is already sold?  When is the publication coming out?  what will we do after the book is sold.?  (answer sell internet listings) and package it..with printed ads)  .and since over 200,000 had been renewed by the manager, who was an excellent closer..and excellent at renewing about 30% of the good business they had from 2 years previous,  I could tell that we were starting to call on the same people over and over..and get the same answer.  I found out that Little Rock and Arkansas had special problems from previous 2 years.. 

I found the place to be totally dis organized by design and although the local manager was a hard worker and encouraging..when I asked for any sort of documentation of circulation, I got refered to Marketing.  One thing all the phone people have learned is to never let the sales department deal with complaints or billing issues..which allows sales people to say anything to make the sale.and then another department miles away deals with any complaints..so basically, you could not have a relationship with a client because by the very design, they only wanted you to prospect and sell and everything else was compartmentalized.   So this was 1 2 or 3 call closing sales.  It was not take someone to lunch and try to win over confidence.  You could not be honest because the company would not back you up.  after I had sold several ads, an collected the money as they wanted either all of 30% on large ads up front..I later found they only plublished a fraction of the 50,000 books they say they published.and I found that the people that distribute the book were related to one of the board of directors of Seccion amarilla..therefore..there was no documentation of any print order   of 50,000 books..nor any document that 50,000 were distributed.  What I found was true was that 234 books were printed and sent out..to residents in NW Arkansas.

50% of the book was Little Rock adverising and 50% was NW Arkansas advertising.

The real kicker was the sales training.  They trained you to be slick..and told you not to ever call on any Hispanic owned businesses.and later you found the reason was that there were no books..and most hispanics that have computers are just like Whites and use google and yahoo and search engines for on line information..so their On line business..was touted to be a place you sent the 'Surfer" to buy..and not a place to look up a business.  Why would somone go to a yellow page to find a number if the place they knew could be found on a search engine?   Why would anyone go to 2 steps to find a phone number or a location..when they could do it with one?

and later we found that there was never going to be a printed book.   The 234books that were used to create a 98% number to say what the circulation..was that of the 234 people who received the book last year...232 did indeed get the book.  There was no 50,000.  There was no mail out..no document of mail out no document of delivery and that part of the business was totally false..plus you had 4 or 5 different rate cards.  You had list price which was 5 to 6 times more than the going rate.   I found that less than 30% of the people renewed and those that did...just assumed they needed to be in the Mexican phone book..and that alone produced over 300,000 in sales..but far short of their projection.  The stupidity of the threats from stupid. non white non american oriented managers was something I only heard about. If someone threatened me, I would of possibly assulted them, however, I liked my manager and even though he ignored the dishonesty, he was trying to follow the protocal.  While in Atlanta training, I asked why the place operated so un professionally with rampant 400% turnover and so many unhappy clients and so little renewal and the answer was that the company is run by sales people for sales people and all they want is to hit a number to get their bonus..and as far as collections..or problems...or distribution or

fraud or anything like that...(it was discounted or hidden or you were considered to be too much of an investigator)  I was so disgusted at the Training that I left the 4th day as I read ahead the training material which stated..that even if they only printed 5 % of what they said they did...that the advertising would be beneficial... That lead me to believe..that this was a mass national scale scam by bust outs of Bell South and other crooked (what ever it takes to get a check sales people from previous slip shot smaller phone companies)  In other words..all the bust outs and promise anything sales people who were let go from ATT or Yellow Book had seemingly ended up..in this racket which was fundamentally dishonest and completely a fraud non product to begin with.  No one had been there longer than a year..and those that were there a year..had stayed because they got the majority of the renewal and access to it first. 
the place by design operates on both the cheap and dishonest.   They could care less whether the product is even used needed or that anyone ever got any value.   All complaints were sent to the Mirimar Florida where the english was very difficult to understand.    The place is only a typical  JOB SITE job...of which only desperate sales people..desperate for a couple of checks... and  a place to go in the morning and call "JOB"  could even stand for the normal 2 month tenure of any employee.   These people should be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission..but because they are owned by a wealthy investor..the accountability will never be levied, however, you are wise to stay clear of working for this place...and unless you have plenty of extra ad budget, this is basically another internet scam false advertising claim.  Most mexicans I see have a cell phone..and...most have a computer and..none of them ever got an Arkansas Seccion Amarilla book.  Those books were printed just enough..to give the next unsuspecting sales person..a guide to who bought in 2005 and 6 or 7 before..the end of easy advertising money. 

Certainly do not work here..if you have any moral fiber or golden rule christian do un to others morality.  It is not that kind of place.   It is more of how my Mexican amigos say.'Ching a ley' me..which I don't know the exact translation..but you can guess!