I am a former employee of Am Press. I worked for Brent Williams on crew 15. Most of you are expecting me to say this is some kind of rip off or scam. Well, what I can tell you is that the company itself is NOT a scam. The people who are at your door may or may NOT be a scam.
This is an easy way to tell you if you are being ripped off or not. When you order a magazine from one of these young people, and you receive a yellow copy, that means you have a remaining balance. That means you have to mail in the same amount of money in to the company within 2-10 days. Magazine price range from $24.95- $150.00. That is for one, they may be more.
You've probably had a young adult approach you and tell you that they are earning points for a savings bond to open a business or go to college. The fact is, if they stay in the sales game long enough, they DO get $15,000 to open a business, its called an independant marketing firm. Depending on how long they work at it, and how hard.
What they tell you at the door is called MARKETING, yea, they may not be going to college or even open up a business, but companies do it all the time to get you to buy a product.
If they have a good attitude and you order a magazine and they are honest, you are not being scammed. If they tell you they live in the town you are from, they may or may NOT be lying, that doesnt mean they are a bad person. Actually, their supervisor (Manager) dicourages them from telling people that.
I have read in other reports on this site of a young lady who actually ordered a magazine for $24.95 (she was NOT scammed) and paid the total up front, she had second thoughts afterwards and called the cops, the boy at her door said he was from the area and the police told her he was actually from Ohio, and had warrants. Well, let me tell you, I have been back home since December, and I have about 3 warrants. I am also a nurse. I am NOT a bad person. I have those 3 warrants because people ordered a magazine from me, (which I did NOT scam, I never did) called the police afterwards, and I was arrested for Soliciting. I am actually in the process of paying off those warrants.
I was going door to door for a little over a year, and I never scammed anyone, I made good money and advanced a few times. I still to this day have a clear conscious about the sales I made. HOWEVER the reason I left was because I noticed that SOME of the other employees were scamming. One of those people (Renee Ryan) was actually fired because she was scamming. I've seen her listed on here as one of the owners! Wrong! She was a scammer who couldnt write a good order if her life depended on it. Another, was a Junior Manager, she didnt have to sell magazines anymore, she had been there for 8 years. She was a good person when she wasnt scamming people, that may be hard for you to understand. She was like my best friend until I started noticing that she was a scammer. I never really worked with her to see it except once, I thought maybe I had just made a mistake.
THen other people came to me and said, "Can you believe a Junior scams people?" Everyone loves Janet because she helps them (i.E. Giving them orders, helping them have quota) But she was gving them scammed orders. A girl that was one of the main people complaining, but later on I saw HER scamming people. I couldnt believe it. Another girl was one of the BIGGEST scammers. She had a high quota, and was even in charge of people ('Car-Handler') she was very rude and was even arrested once for calling a mexican a spic once. Another kid who was hired right before me was also from Ohio. We were always competing, we both had very high quotas, mine was higher:) We were called "Highballs' (someone who writes teir quota consistantly) We even helped each other out when we needed it (which was rare) Later on I was his 'Carhandler' and I had to go out and help him, he was desparate, he tried to scam an order right in front of my eyes! I corrected him and saved the order (it was a nice elderly couple who were renewing 2 subscritpions). I was really let down by that. There was another young gentleman who was one of my best friends who I saw scam people.
I am unbiased in this article, dont get me wrong. If it wasnt for the people who were scamming, I can assure you I wouldnt be sitting in Ohio right now. I would be out knocking on doors, I miss it alot. There were lots of good times, like staying in the Florida Keys, going to theme parks, and watching movies. The people on the crew were like my family. Brent, the manager is not really a bad person, either. I think the reason why he is keeping some of these scammers on the crew is because they have no where else to go. For some people, being on the road was their escape, they were former drug addicts, etc. Brent actually has a wonderful girlfriend, and two kids. (I'm not including their names because they have done nothing wrong). Brent paid for courtfines, tickets, etc. The reason why I have warrants is because I didnt make arrangements to take care of my court dates. I've seen him actually pay for a girl to fly to Florida and give her spending money, just so she could take care of a courtdate when we were in Texas. Yea, its true we were arrested because we were going door-to-door working for him, but most of the time it was our faults!!! Brent wanted the person in charge in a certain town to get permits/register the town. If the car handler didnt take care of it, it wasnt Brent's fault. Another good memory I had was receiving 'thousands' (jewely for a certain sales goal: $1000 production in a week= diamond ring, $1500 production in a week=gold bracelet, $2000 production in a week= gold diamond necklace) I was actually the only one to receive all 3 pieces of jewelry, which I wear to this day. Before I left I do admit to causing a little uproar... It was eating at me that all these people were scamming, and making dirty money off innocent people. I started complaining to my friends, and caused a trend. I started trying to collect all paid in fulls, meaning it was a guaranteed good order. Other people that I knew scammed before started collecting lots of paid in fulls. I hope they still are. One person who was actually my trainer was one of the people who dont scam. She was actually my trainer. Also another girl who I have seen repeatedly on this site's complaints (Rosa Estrada) didnt scam people anymore. The stories about her on here dont say anything about her scamming, just a customer that ordered magazines, checked on the internet, and cancelled the order. I will agree, the office works SLOW it may take longer than 90-120 days for you to get your magazine, if you have paid in full / mailed in your balance WITHIN 2-10 DAYS they WILL come. You may have heard this story before, but I was sending magazines to my family all the time (we get about 25 right now) and they have ALL came in the mail.
Another thing I want to address: COUPON BOOKS if you ordered a coupon book and didnt get what you expected (i.E. Online offers when you were informed it was $1000 worth of free grocerys) It isnt the company NOR the person at your doors fault, its was amis communication, the contracts the company gets for coupon books change all the time, the person at your door may be misinformed. I know I felt really bad when I found out that the coupon books were actually internet offers when I told people they were blank vouchers. It was because the contracts with the company changed. You were doing it just to help them because they had a good attitude, right? If you got a coupon book and didnt ask for it, then the person just added it on to your order, an extra $24.95, they were doing it for an extra sale, which counted you as 2 sales for them.
TO ALL CONCERNED PARENTS OF MAGAGENTS: Your child / family member is NOT being abused! They arent starved, (I've actually LOST alot of weight since my return home) One time I had lost $105.00 from orders which was more than my pay that day because I didnt have quota, so Brent's girlfriend actually gave me money for the next day and told me to forget about the money I owed them and have a better day the next day. They arent being beaten up for not having quota, and they are NOT on drugs, that is, if they work for AM PRESS, I cant vouge for other companies. I had a good friend who actually kicked his Meth addiction by coming on the road. I, sadly, was the biggest pothead/cokehead before I joined this crew. We werent even allowed to talk about drugs. You may be saying, 'Wait a miniute, you werent ALLOWED to talk about something?' Yes, and it helped alot of us get through it. We also werent allowed to talk about negative things (i.E. Getting arrested, fights, and other people behind their back) So rest assured, your child is not being tortured.in fact, like I said earlier, if it wasnt for the dishonest people on the crew now, I would still be traveling, if its so bad, why would I want to go back? I hope in reading this you further understand that this particular company is not the culprit, its the independant contractors working for it. Not all of them are bad, and most of the complaints on here dont make sense. Although, there are some bad companies, 'Trip Kids' theyre the ones saying they are winning a trip. Most customers are scammed by these kids, and are NOT affiliated with AM PRESS. Those are the ones you hear about raping people, scamming, doing drugs, being beaten up for not writing quota. I only sympathize with the people who helped someone out of the kindness of their heart and were REALLY scammed.
I can tell you some of the people I have never witnessed scam anyone in case they just came to your door, and you are curious:
Matt Schacter
Joey (Joseph) Heflin
Corey (Mathew) Winthrop
Anthony Herrick
Beau (Micheal) Beauchamp
Micheal Lathan
Jay (Jason) Lewis
Rosa Estrada
Jena (Genevieve) Smith
Jessy (Jessica) Williams
Luis Rios
(If a certain name wasnt mentioned, it doesnt mean they are bad, they may be too new for me to now them)
If you still work for this crew and are wondering why Im selling out, I am actually trying to improve the publicity of Roadrunners, Everyone knows nost of the info I've put in here, Im just clarifying.
So you know I am now back in Ohio working on going back to college so I can be an RN. I still miss the people I used to work with, they were like my family, and I miss some of them dearly. If some things were different I would go back in a heartbeat, because I've had a chance to see things from another perspective...
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