I was told a fairy tale by the owner of the company that He needed a sales rep to sell inground pools for his company. That he had 10 yrs of construction industry experiance and that he was a reputable company that did things on time and was customer service oriented.
I thought the company was serious even though it operates out of his back yard in a trailer. He showed me the building that he was purchasing and that he was willing to get started in making a complete backyard service.
I was excited at first for the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and help this company start up as a sales rep with an agreement that I would get paid a certain percentage comission out of every sale I turned into the company. All I was going to do is strictly sales and that all he wanted me to do is to only concentrate on that part of the business, I which I was great at.
I was excited to hit the ground running so I started to call leads that he provided and I started to make some sales for him, so when I had a couple of signed contracts I come to find outhe does not Hav A CLUE on how to build a pool.
He did not have the proper knowledge or equipment to do any constrution for pools, all he knew how to do was tiki huts. I have always been a team player and since I had all of the right connections to build a pool and the knwoledge I decided to stick with him and help him out since he should me that he was good friend that I could also regard him as some what of a mentor.
Little did I know that later he would stab me in the back.
The product that he wanted to sell was at first a highend pool to the clients, but the ones he tried to build all by himself "under his so called supervision" with the help of shooty sub contractor rejects that have never built a pool before came out looking like a playdoe design that melted in the sun. I mean terrible. Not to mention that his prices were really high compared to the industry standard using the same components he was trying to use.
Unfortunately my loyalty was far greater than my better judgemnet because I should have ran out of their. While I could. Some of his own subs and even a future sales rep he hired a short while after tried to get me to go work for them or with them since they saw the vital knowledge that I had to build pools and sell them.
Well I gave him a list of subcontractors that basically could do all the work by them selves and not only make costructing pools idoit proof but also teach him the basics of pool contstruction.
I ended up being the adminstrater of the business over seeing the plan developement, and running all of the building permits and customer service "calming down the Irrate customers that were upset that things were taking so long" basically If did not do it he would not he would avoid all calls to him by all of the clients.
Week after week, month after month I kept hoping things were going to get better that he would eventually start getting the hang of things with all of the people who tried to help him, but he didnot want to do any of the work he would wait untill customers kept hounding him threatening to file a lawsuit so that he would finally start to slowly do the work, meanwhile I would have lie and come up with B.S. Excuses why he was not doing a damn thing my frustrations got bigger cause when I would try to help and do things to start getting the ball rolling he tell me not do it. And then a couple days later he would delegate it for me to do get it accomplished.
Meanwhile I was hired only to be a sales rep and ended up giving all of the keys necessary to have a pool company on the right track. I never once asked to get paid more, even though I was doing alot more than what I was hired to do. For all my hard work I would instead get checks with insufficient funds and that was only when he finally felt like paying me meanwhile he was purchasing highend cars just about every month. His excuse was that he was not seeing any profit from the pool business and that I was selling the pools to low when he should me the reciept of the subs, I found out that was actually paying the subcontractors more than what they should have been recieveing. So again I helped himout more. I really dont know what I was thinking now that I look back.
The customers that I had sold kept calling me day in day out and I had to keep calming them down and coming up with excuses to settle thier emotions and I was starting to feel very slimey now that I trully found out that I was dealing with a unreputable company that was handled by some self centered human being. I was tried of getting client calling me crying wanting to find out if he was ever going to finsh the work they hired him to do. I was really feeling like scum and he didnot care since I was the one putting my face and reputation on the line.
I had to go out of town for a week and before i went on my trip. I got everything ready before I did I got all of the necessary paper work delivered to the proper building departments and cordinated with his assistant / goon what had to be taken care in order to get the most irrate and delayed customers taken care of fist while I was gone.
When I get back to from my trip I come to findout that absolutly nothing was done, while I was out he he took a vacation so he would have to do anything.
What broke the camels back sort of speak is that I was becoming just like him by avoiding calls from the clients, since I didnot have any more excuses to give the clients. I was also 3 weeks with being able to collect a single dime from the company. I told Mr. Verrier that I no longer wanted to continue working for him and that I just wanted to get paid at least half of the money that was owed to me. He simply said not a problem and that I should give his assistant. My list of clients that I had not been paid on. Two days later I get a call from him saying that he was not going to pay me what he owed me because he was losing money and even though he had the money to pay me he was not going to pay until he was done with the construction of all the pools and then he would pay me whatever he felt like. He owes me about $18,000.00 and I would have settled with $8,000.00 if he could let at least get by while I looked for another job. But He does not respond now to any of my calls and I tried lookig for a lawyer to help me but they say that they will end charging more than whant he owes to try to recooperate the money that he owes me.
Not to mention he has a lawyer that does a lot lawsuits for him and he has alot money to spend on attorney fees.
In closing I konw I will never get the money he owes and I will never stop feeling like a scum bag because to lie to the clients in order to keep them calm.
To all of the cutomers that i sold them on this company, i appologize for that!
I ask any body interested in building a pool in south florida to find a company that can prove that they have built pools already and that you can speak to their previous customers before you end up in this type of nightmare.
I have also found out that who he hired as my supposed replacement is a person who use to build pools illegally with a fake license and that has numerous civil alwsuits, is also facing criminal charges. I hope this helps someone from making a huge mistake Because when the company go to home shows and trade shows they seem to be professional but if you ever go to their show room you will see that its an empty office with know one thei
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