Complaint Review: USA Card Services - National Business Advisers - Summit Marketing Institute - Start-up Essentials - Dallas Texas

Be very careful before you buy from this company. They have several names they go by and are not what they seem to be. They are constantly changing there tactics to be one-step ahead of legal challenges. The Tools that they say they provide to start a business are not worth the long-term lease contract that you will be getting into (over $6,000). Most of the pitch is truthful to a point, but it paints a picture that is not correct in the mind of the prospective home-based business-owner.

They have a team, The National Business Advisers (NBA), that calls fresh leads purchased from an Internet leads company and they pose as a "Business Match-making" Service - they only have one company to refer people to - USA Card Services; so the NBA group is a front to qualify good credit candidates to the "Closers" aka "Senior Business Analysts" at USACS who will try to "one-call" close you into signing a 4-year Non-cancelable lease for a credit card terminal that you do not need. They will pull your credit score with Transunion, then transfer you to a "closer".

They use the classic "Take-away" sale; i.e. "IF you qualify Mr. customer...". USACS is not in any way a subsidiary of JP Morgan/Chase Bank, although the pitch makes them sound VERY bank official. They are simply an agent (middle-man) for IPayment, IPayment is a Merchant processing service subsidiary of Chase Bank. The bank is in no way "Investing upfront" in your business. There is no "funding committee" from the bank; it is simply a lease approval for the credit card equipment that you do not need for a website. The majority of their profit comes from the A-1 Lease commissions.

ColonyOne (a seperate company) provides the web tools, but you can get these direct from the website company cheaper. The credit card terminal is not needed to take payment on a website - only a virtual terminal and a merchant account from any Credit Card processing company. They get you submitted to the top of the search engines at first, (asssuming you can get your site up) but you will need to invest much more money to get on-going advertising. Teh quality of the drop-shippers is questionable. The customer service team is made-up of 3 people.

The Start-up Essentials or Summit Marketing Institute team (aka "SMI") will then try to upsell you differnt marketing packages and training later, just as you are getting frustrated that you are not selling anything (about 3 months into it).

These "partner" companies ("SMI", "NBA", etc.) provide the support and training are all owned and located in the same office suite. Many of the employees literally believe they are helping people get their own business with "No money upfront". They make it seem like they are making a big "investment" into you when they are not. The reality is that those with good credit that do sign-up are stuck in a 4-year contract (NON-CANCELLABLE). Most fail within 6 months.

As an employee I felt like a liar everytime I went to work and initially was painted an incorrect picture of hours, pay, etc. I was told that I would make a minimum of $6,000 per month working M-F 9-5 as a decent sales person and top reps were making over $10k per month. This was deceptive as to make ANY money you have to work 1pm-9pm when most people are home. The vast majority of reps make less than $1,000/week and do not consistently make any $ - so most leave in less than 90 days. I felt so uncomforatble selling this product that I literally starved trying to do it - I thought something was wrong with me at first and was very conflicted while there. As a new rep you are told they are providing you leads from qualified people looking to start a business, but the people you call are mostly poor, broke, and desperate for money. Many on disability, social security, and poor that filled out a form on the Internet for a "No-money Upfront" business.

They pitch that they have "over 1,000 people applying each day" for consideration and no shortage of people wanting the chance to be approved, and that 98% of those that interview are NOT choosen for investment; that is only true as 98% of the people they talk to will not sign.

This is a very sneaky operation and they pump-up the sales team with promises of huge $$ and that they are impacting people for the good, but the vast majority of employees and clients are very disappointed shortly after the smoke clears. I wasted my time and put my family at financial risk working there. I can only imagine what happens to most of the clients. I am sorry to the few I did sign-up and hope that it does not cause you any troubles to your family or finances. I feel very foolish and taken advantage of...

I Was Hooked Too...Ex-employee

Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.