I worked for the Infiniti Consulting Group from Febuary to about June of this year. I have worked for Fortune 500 companies like IKON and Lincare, and "smaller" companies like RJ Young. I have been in the Business to Business Sales and customer service industry for around 8 years.
Recently I had fallen on hard times in due to mistakes I had made. I used CareerBuilder.com to help me find job openings in my field for the first time. My hometown is not quite large enough to sustain many salesman of any type for long periods.
I ran across an ad that pricked my interest under Infinity Consulting Firm. It seemed to be right up my alley since it was a sales/marketing firm on behalf of AT&T. I sent my resume and was contacted fairly quickly. I will say that Sherri who sets the interviews and does admin work is probably one of the greatest human beings I have ever met, and anyone would be lucky to hire a woman like that.
Once I came in for an interview I was introduced to Shanara Anthony. This woman is well spoken and beautiful, but something never seemed right about her. The Bible states that Satan is the most beautiful angel... This story is similar.
My initial interview saw Shanara and I in her office with me answering vauge questions about my goals and what kind of person I was. She kept this smile on her face the whole time whick kinda freaked me out. Honestly she looked more like a losing pagent contestant than a boss, but I needed work and this seemed like I would be hired no problem. My second interview saw me ride to the field with a "Leader" or an experienced "Account Manager" I was shown the ropes which was going from small business to small business (I was told by Shanara that AT&T had large account executives that delt with corporations and they were off limits) "reviewing their phone bill to see if we could make "improvements". Now at first I am thinking this is great!!! I get to help people and make money. Thats where the part of "commission only" comes in.
You are not actually trying to help people. You are trying to add something to their already high phone bill, but I needed the work and it seemed as though I could find businesses that really needed help and I could lower their bill while I profited. I did just that for 3 months. I saw as many businesses as I could and I only altered their bill if I could lower it or they actually benefited from what I did.
While doing this I was sent to all corners of the state of Mississippi (using me own gas in a V-8 Tundra), several "business" trips that the company picked up the room tab, and several "meetings" that usually were on the weekends.
None of these saw me gettting ANY help with gas or food. The trip we took to Shreveport there was 5 men and when we arrived the rooms were 2,1 bed economy rooms. Imagine that. Cramming and Slamming is illegal on state and federal levels. We were told that if we were caught doing this we would be fired immediatly, but evertime I went to the field with another "leader" thats what they did. Talked in circles until a very confused business owner signed the monster stack of paperwork. I have on very good authority that PORTIA who still works there was recently caught completly faking a verification call (this is used as a failsafe so that Infinity Consullting employees can't lie about orders put in) and still has her job. This woman had been at the top of the sales chart every week I was there. How many businesses has she destroyed? How much money has she and Shanara made off others misery?
The reason that I am writing this is not to say poor me. I did decent there, but as I talked to people that I had "helped" it became apparent that the quotes that I was showing them DIRECTLY for AT&T were no where near correct. We were "trained" by Shanara that only the state tax would not show up on a quote, when in truth it was ALL federal, state, connection, hidden fees that AT&T puts on their bills.
I can't begin to tell you how horrible it feels to have to aplologize to people for their bill skyrocketing. AT&T is as much to blame as Infiniti. If they wanted to help the customers they would have let us give the customers contracts to lower the bill and given us $10 for it. We would actually get in trouble from AT&T if we gave them a contract and did nothing else (of thats what Shanara said). The goal of Infinity is to hire enough people in so that you can "own" your own business. I was blinded by that for a while. I actually interviewed and hired over 15 people into that company. They all experienced to same thing. I feel guilty because they lost money, time, and confidence due to working there.
I would like to apologize to them if they read this.infinity uses CareerBuilder to bait people. The ads on there aren't even true. This company has swindled so many businesses out of untold amounts of money and I am embarrassed to have worked for them. This is the only way I can make any kind of difference.
Jay
n/a, Mississippi
U.S.A.
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