This is my story of my pre-hire and employment experience with the supposedly legitimate Home-Based Job Opportunity with TeleReach Corporate, Houston, TX. I have plenty of documentation to back it up, as do other former TRC employees.
If you have a story, please post your own complaint here on this site. Please do not rebut or comment on my report, until you have already filed yours.
We need everyone to file their own separate consumer complaints in order for this to get the national attention it needs and deserves.
If you have received no compensation or compensation less than what you expected, please document it in your report!
Please know also that you are not alone!
I was fired by this company, in retaliation, after sharing my payroll discrepancies and most of the issues included here with the President of TRC during a 2-hour conversation the afternoon of 2/8/10. She actually acted like she cared and said she would immediately investigate it. She led me to believe and have hope that she did not know any of this was going on, most of it shouldnt be going on, and that she would get in the trenches and figure out what was going on within her own company. She made a verbal contract with me that she would call me the next day with her findings and the resolutions. I was willing to work, as long as these were being resolved and
She did not keep that promise.in fact, she and her new apparent spokesperson say I resigned, although I did not. They are hiding under the fact that Texas is an At Will state.
I have since asked at least 2 TRC HR employees for the HR Policies & Procedures and Forms for Employee Complaints and a written copy of the Investigation of these very serious Employee Complaints I put in writing and/or discussed with Tracie Chancellor on 2/8/10. I have received nothing, and I am sure they do not exist.
There was no investigation of all of the witnesses. If you worked for them during the same period I was employed you are witnesses. If you worked for them since or prior you are witnesses. I urged her numerous times to speak to all of you. You need a voice. Please use it here, if nowhere else.
Unfortunately, I was led to this company by the good Tory Johnson, her ABC Good Morning America site & Women For Hire site. They have since kindly removed all reference to this company at the request of numerous TRC former employees. TRC still uses them as featured on in their Internet Job Postings everywhere and in their Referred By drop-down menu on www.TeleReachJobs.com.
They also have an A rating from the BBB in Houston, however they are a Member, probably pay their dues, and in my recent experience with the BBB they do not fight for consumers, let alone employees, and they seem to be slanted more to businesses who pay their dues.
From the moment I entered my information into the TRC Job site in December I began receiving emails and/or calls from 3 different recruiters at TRC. Their job recruitment process was long, grilling and grueling, even though I was later told by phone in my 1st real interview that I met all the requirements, they had more work than they could handle and I would be fast tracked.
It cost me more in out of pocket expenses in equipment, land-line and software services. Fortunately for me, my services were not on a contract. Others were not as fortunate and had to pay outrageous installation costs and/or sign 1-year contracts. This employment and employer has cost me more than I ever received from them for my 2 weeks of hard time, and I am not alone. Many of the things I was required to buy, install or use for employment (before and after) were not mentioned on their Job Requirements site, nor was the hype/reality vs. The fiction of this their Work at Home Job Opportunity.
One of their first requirements was an hour spent in a weekly Recruiting Phone Conference. I attempted to join this conference 2 times on 2 separate weeks and found out that my phone service had blocked the Free Conference Calling Service they used. A whole different story and companies involved that I am still fighting.
On the 3rd weekly call, I had finally contracted with another online phone service, Skype, to be present on this call. This call was conducted by the President of TRC and she went over the TRC Recruitment Deck that I had already been requested to read online by their website and by email. She told all of us they had more business they could handle and they also encouraged everyone to put in extra time if they wanted to.
After that I filled out all of their pre-interview paperwork, satisfying all of their pre-interview requirements. These included a recorded phone resume, a written resume, employment application, a written interview, references, reading the TRC Recruitment Deck of 24 pages and listening to 4 WAV files, and followed up by email to the Recruiter who had been emailing and calling me the most as he requested.
Next I get the call from the Recruiter and we discuss my completed, submitted application paperwork, etc., none of which he had apparently read or checked. During this conversation I am again told they have more business than they can handle and they are going to fast track me to start the next Monday, but the next step is a Technical Interview.
The Technical Interview was very long, held by GoToMeeting and phone, conducted by another Recruiter to take over my computer, walk me through and/or show me different things on her computer, including their Telemarketing database, how to write a letter, create and save a WAV file, add it to an account, to a letter and so on.
For the most part the Technical Interview went fine except she told me I must have more memory for my computer to handle their Telemarketing database requirements, and all before they could finish the Technical Interview process and before they could offer me a job. This ending up costing me more than twice what I would have normally paid for it, it could not be found locally, and since I thought they were in a hurry to fast track me and needed my help I took another leap of faith to get it here and installed. This was later to be found to be more wasted effort and money, since they again took their time to reschedule another Technical Interview and finish the rest of their apparent requirements.
The 2nd Technical Interview finally gets scheduled, comes, and my computer passes all of their requirements, but I am then informed that I just missed their next step by 10 minutes. Their next step, an online "Orientation Class" would not be held till Thursday afternoon at 2 PM CT. I was told that after that class I would receive a Quiz and if I passed the Quiz, they could then offer me a job, and that I could start on 1/25/10 if I had all of their necessary steps done by end of day Friday.
Orientation Class comes with the National Trainer, another hour on phone and GoToMeeting, it is mostly over the same online Recruiting Deck I had already read and gone over in their Recruiting Conference Call with the President. But I take 5 more pages of notes, and we are told we will receive the Quiz via email in 15 minutes. I get an email an hour later with no Quiz attached. I let them know, finally get the Quiz, complete it and email it. I am then told to email it again in another email format so I do that. Later, by email at 7:45 PM, I am finally told I passed and that I would be hearing again next from the HR Administrator/Recruiter with a job offer, depending on her schedule.
The next day at 8:18 AM I finally get the Job Offer with an Expected Start Date of 2/1/10. I accept it, noting several changes, as requested, in requirements already met and/or pending, noting when they will be completed (that day) and I again respectfully request the latest Expected Start Date I was promised of 1/25/10.
Next I get the employment paperwork at 12:38 PM, complete, fax, email or mail it, depending on what it was and the instructions provided, and all before 5 PM CT. My Unlimited Everything land-line phone was installed that morning, another big leap of faith on my part, especially with 3 days advance notice, when I still hadnt recd a job offer yet.
While I waited more for them, I set up all of the new business-like email and chat email addresses they required, tested them, set up and tested my digital recorder and software, and made sure that all of their Internet system requirements were met to use their database and I notify them of this via email.
When I finally find out then paperwork has been received and is OK, I begin looking for someone to help me with recording a WAV script file that is also required, before I make the run to get the phone recording device they suggested and required. While doing this the HR Administrator/Recruiter calls me, tells me she will help me with this, go to RadioShack and spend the money. So I did, then came back and installed it, called her, tweaked it with my system, and finally recorded another test WAV using their required script. I was instructed to immediately email it for approval.
After that I was told we needed to make a 3-way phone call to the Trainer, using my new land-line service, to let her know I had completed all of my requirements, was ready to start, and that she could schedule me for the next Employee Training Class. We attempted to make the call and my 3-way is non-functional or non-existent.
I call my new land-line service provider and find out it isn't in my package, it is another $3.50 per month, it can be added but won't be provisioned till 5 PM the next Monday. I beg him to find a way to add it now because I was told I had to have it to make this 3-way call with my HR/Recruiter and Trainer tonight, or I couldn't start on Monday, and I was told I would need it beginning on Monday for training with Senior Callers. He talks to someone else and immediately it is done.
I call the HR Administrator/Recruiter back and we make the required 3-way call to the Trainer, who doesn't answer, so she leaves leave a message that we are both on the phone, I am ready to start, and please schedule me for training.
At 7:39 PM CT that evening I finally get cced on the official email that I have passed all the requirements for Employment with TeleReach and can be scheduled for Training with a Start Date of 1/25/10. This is my 1st and only notification that I was starting on the latest promised start date. Now I just needed the Trainer to confirm this in the Scheduled Training email I was told I would be receiving next.
In the meantime, on the same day, and before my Start Date of 1/25/10, I was instructed in writing to immediately set up numerous Corporate emails, download and install Yahoo Chat, set up and invite 5 TRC Employees for Chat and then send them an invitation to accept me into their Chat world. I did this yet that evening and waited for acceptance by all. I had received acceptance by everyone except for the President of TRC by the end of the day on Monday, 1/25/10. The President has never responded.
At 10:02 PM the next evening I finally get the email from the Trainer that I am scheduled to attend the next Employee Training Class beginning on 1/25/10.
In some respects you might think this was a lot to be put through to get a job, but it also made it seem like they really cared. They wanted to make sure you had everything you needed to start with them and be successful. It seemed very professional, and as we later found out, it was not only professional, but very crafty and deceitful, we feel by design.
Employment Requirements: We were told in the pre-hire Orientation GoToMeeting and conference call that we would report to the Training Manager for the 1st 90 days of employment, then we would be turned over to the Production Manager, and that we would be in training for the 1st 2 weeks. We were required to be available and on Chat, email and phone from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. We were required to attend a Production Meeting every Monday morning, from 8:30 AM CT to 9:30 AM CT and roll call was 1st, so be on time. We were required to attend a 1/2 hour mandatory Lunch-n-Learn Meeting every day beginning at 12:30 PM CT. We were required to attend 3 other Mini-Meetings every day at 10:30 AM, 2:30 PM, and 4:30 PM CT. At each Mini-Meeting we were to bring and pre-email our call stats for the preceding hours up to these meetings.
You were almost always kept waiting for the host of any TRC meetings, Production Manager or Training Manager. There was never any learning at the Lunch-n-Learns, just rants by the Production Manager or they were cancelled, but stats were expected anyway. The same thing happened with their Mini-Meetings. Stats or cancelled, but send your stats. Or we werent told they were cancelled and showed up waiting.
The same goes for a hour volunteer Mad Skills Workshop that was scheduled on 2 different Wednesdays of the 1st 2 weeks at 5:05 PM. The 1st week it was cancelled without notice. I was left waiting for 10 minutes before I chatted with the Production Manager and was then told it was cancelled. The 2nd week it was cancelled again.
While we thought we were supposed to be reporting to the Training Manager, who was often not there or not available, the Production Manager at any time could harass us by email, chat, phone or conference call, and sometimes email and chat at the same time so you couldnt keep up with what you should be responding to, and sometimes for hours at a time she would keep this up, relentlessly, when you had already asked her. She was demeaning and demoralizing. You were stupid and not a good fit for the job although in her words We were the Cream of the Crop and we were! We were all vetted very carefully as you can see, we had a lot invested, and we were all seasoned professionals and high achievers with plenty of track records on our resumes to prove it.
Telemarketing Database: We didnt get our Logins and Passwords until start time on Day 2, so we had no chance to make sure they worked, get in and play around and figure things out before we had to get on the phone and dial. It also turned out there were numerous databases, most of which were slow and sometimes non-responding, and most of the time you had to have more than one open, one for data and one to check the calendar for open appointment times. None of this was covered or tested in the pre-hire Technical Interview.
Any database issues we had, and there were many, were always blamed on us, either user error, our Internet IP service was at fault, we hadnt set up the right Internet parameters, we werent clearing our browsers, history or caches often enough, we werent saving the client record often enough, we didnt know what we were doing, something other than their database. And it was always just you. They said no one else was ever having these problems, especially not the senior callers They neglected to tell us in advance that certain fields were character limited, so you were redoing work over and over because it wouldnt save it, without knowing any of this.
Equipment and Services Requirements: These differed depending on who you talked to and when. We were and werent required to have a back-up phone.in writing they said it was required, but we also were told that as long as our land-line service had voice mail, that was OK. My backup number was never used. My Voice Mail was never used. We were and werent required to have a fax machine. The President said no, the HR Administrator/Recruiter later said yes, thats how she wanted most of our confidential employment docs, so that had to be set up and ready. We were or werent required to have 3-way calling. It was used once in my 2 week period of employment, for less than a hour, and never for training with a Senior Caller as promised, even though we asked about this. We were required to have the ability to disable Call Waiting, although I was told afterwards that it wasnt necessary to use it. We were told we couldnt have digital non-VOIP phone service, but were later told we could. We were told we couldnt use our computer for recording, but later told we could. However many callers appointments were not approved, supposedly because they couldnt hear the prospect.
Training: This was virtually non-existent. We got training off and on the 1st day after the 8:30 AM Production Meeting, and in between hours breaks the Trainer took to attend to something else. We were left waiting on the Trainer at just about every scheduled training or meeting. The 1st accounts my class was assigned to, the Trainer had never had any experience with, so it was like the blind leading the blind. There was virtually no database training or reports training, so good luck with the every 2 hour reporting requirements, which were never clear or in writing up front. We were supposed to have additional training on Day 2 and were advised that we had hour with the Trainer before she had to do something else.
Timesheet/Paysheet Training: If you were still there My class finally received Timesheet/Paysheet Training on Day 9. The prior weeks class was attending this as well, and this was their 3rd week. The current weekly class was also invited. This is when we also began to find out how much we had been deceived about a lot of things regarding what we would really be paid for, especially during the 1st 2 weeks of training, and that if we were still there, we had pretty much been working for free in this very hostile work environment where you literally were terrorized constantly, afraid to take a break, go to the bathroom, eat lunch, a snack or dinner, for fear you missed a chat, email, call, or had low dials, decision maker contacts, or were not touching or updating contact records.
We were promised by our Trainer on Day 1 that she would be keeping track of all of our training time and she would provide this to us before we had to complete our Paysheets which had to be in no later than 10:30 AM each Saturday. This promise was reiterated in the Paysheet Training at the same time she told us she was taking vacation the entire following week and taking Friday afternoon off.
The next day, Friday, we got an email that she would send us our Training time before she left, but if not, that evening or the next morning, Saturday, but if we didnt get it, do our best and she would correct it. She had always told us we would probably do the sheets, makes mistakes and then we would go back and forth on them until they were approved. We never got anything.
My timesheet was in before 10:30 AM on Saturday with my best guesstimates, for which I recd a scalding email from the Production Manager with the hour. The Trainers revised and approved Paysheet finally came in at 2:43 PM Saturday afternoon and she approved only 10 hours of training for these 1st 2 weeks. None of the other guarantees for required meetings, dialing time, admin work, reporting, so-called training, one on ones, time we were left on hold waiting for them to give us work, or anything else were included anywhere. She took off one of the accounts I had been working on the 2nd week and it wasnt included in her approved sheet at all.in fact she was only approving my appointments for minimal payment and 10 hours of training, and passing the buck to the contentious Production Manager for me to follow-up with on Monday, unless I called her ASAP on Saturday. Apparently we were on call for the weekends as well, especially if we cared to be paid anything for our time.
Appointments: We were told to send a chat message to the Trainer when we got our 1st appointment, and after we uploaded the WAV file and had followed all of the instructions and sent it to TRC for approval. She would then train us on the remaining follow-up requirements. They neglected to tell anyone there were severe limitations on the size of the WAV files that could be uploaded to their system, and that sometimes they had to be split.
More software to buy, however we were also led to believe that they shouldnt ever be that long, forget that the prospect is telling you something the client needs to know about their needs in advance of the appointment you were setting. Forget being friendly or establishing any kind of relationship with this decision maker you have tried to reach umpteen times, updated the database umpteen times, possibly sent information to already, have their interest, and are finally getting an appointment and a clear picture of what they need to accomplish in their appointment.
Over Quota or Bonus Pay: Forget this promise, you will never see it. You will never be on a client account long enough to use the hard earned warm pipeline/scrubbed database you have worked long and hard to build. You wont know this until week 2 at the earliest though. TRC says they do not have long term contracts with their clients, another fact they forget to mention in pre-hire recruiting and something you may never be told. They do minis that apparently can be cancelled in the middle of the night, without notice, or forewarning, and they claim there is nothing they can do.
My 1st week I was assigned to 2 client accounts, but was told by my Trainer to work only 1 of them, same as everyone else in my class. She divvied them up between the employees in the class so we werent tripping over each other in the database as much. I worked it hard on this client account as requested to by my Trainer. Made some appointments that were whales, found a lot of DMs, sent info, scrubbed that database and built my warm pipeline, so that the next week I could start hitting pay dirt. The Agenda for the weekly Monday Production Meeting and your weekly assignments comes by email each Sunday evening. You are to review it before the meeting to find out what you are assigned to the following week and what additional client meetings you may also have to attend. I was assigned the same 2 accounts, yeah!
During the Production Meeting on Monday we were told this client had pulled the account in the middle of the night, Sunday, through no fault of TRC, and that if only those 2 client accounts were assigned to us, we were to take a hour break after the meeting to await a decision on our new assignments and further instructions.
I did this, went downstairs to my kitchen, took my primary contact land-line phone with me and heard nothing in this hour, no surprise. I returned to my upstairs office to find via chat that a phone meeting had already taken place, a new client was assigned to my class, and we were being instructed to go to the client folder and download all the client files including a WAV training file of at least 50 minutes. We were to review all of these items on our own and meet back at 11 AM for additional client training. At that meeting we were given additional instructions and told we would have additional training at 3 PM. Pretty much an entire day left on hold.
Before the day was over I asked for another account that I could work on during the times I couldnt work on the new client. It was PT, I was CT, and it was calling mostly retail who werent available or open till 10 or even 11 AM every day. I told her I would be willing to work till 7 or 8 PM each evening on the PT account because it was retail and they were open still at 6 PM.
I finally got a few details on an additional new CT assignment at 5:14 PM that evening, no training. Following those details I was out of contacts to call by the next morning and alerted my Trainer. Over an hour later she responded with a few more details and leads. On the same day I began running out of leads on the 1st PT account too. I got additional scant info an hour later on more leads to follow up on.
Before my 3rd week started, I got the Agenda and my weekly assignments on Sunday evening at 5:41 PM. As I suspected, I was removed from the CT client account I had been working on since Tuesday that I had built yet another warm pipeline on, had sent info and had callbacks scheduled for although it was assigned to others and was still active. On the PT account I was going to be allowed to make 1 more appointment and that was it. More wasted time on building another warm pipeline, sending info and scheduling callbacks. And I was assigned 2 new client accounts, totally different and unrelated to anything I had received before and we no longer had a Trainer.
It was time for drastic action, so the next morning I sent an email to the President of the TRC, letting her know that I was suspending my services to TRC until I had the payroll discrepancies resolved and an audience with her. You already know what happened after that.
Beware - Here Are Some of the Other Advertised Promises That Are Made & Not Kept, or Will Never Be Kept:
Qualified Leads: They advertise that you will be calling on qualified leads. While there are always problems with lead lists, you get what you pay for. Most lead lists we were provided there was no contact, you started from scratch and waded your way through voice menus, fax tones, bad numbers I know from experience that the selection criteria can be honed in on the people that you should be marketing to. You will also be tripping over any other callers assigned to that client at the exact same time for the minute, hour, day or week, so it may take a while to get to an untouched client you can work on.
We Promote From Within Whenever Possible: Dont believe it. Dont count on being there long enough to be promoted. They will chase you off or fire you long before then, especially if you have a brain and know how to use it. That is not allowed at TRC, at least with Newbies as they affectionately called us. To question the process or anything was not allowed.
We Encourage Team Interaction and Provide a Variety of Incentives, including Bonuses and Contests: To put it lightly, Team Interaction was summarily discouraged. We were told we couldnt even exchange emails because it would distract from our dialing. As the Trainees, we were never even exposed to the Senior Callers, except during a quick roll call on the Production Meetings. They had separate Meetings at 10 AM, 12 AM, 2 PM & 4 PM every day, or at least that was what the weekly TRC Agendas said. The total lack of support and training was discouraging to say the least.
We have come to understand this is all by design and a part of their plan, as so many things are looking back on this experience. Keep us apart and we cant make friends, share notes, or find out the real truth.
We Offer Group Medical Insurance and Vacation Pay for Full Time Employees: After 90 days. Dont count on ever making it that far.
All Callers Work on More than one Program to Avoid Burnout: We thought this sounded good until we found out that its not about burnout. Its about bad scheduling, mini-contracts, and moving your warm leads to the Senior Callers so they can rack up appointments and look good on paper to new recruits and Trainees.
TeleReach Offers Performance Based (Quota) Hourly Pay: Dont believe it. Dont believe it when they say there is a guaranteed dialing pay, pay for any meetings or trainings, any other type of admin work, reporting, or even survey pay. You wont get survey pay unless you achieve quota and you are not given an opportunity to achieve quota with constantly revolving client accounts. And dont even think about questioning this, it will fall on deaf ears.
Earnings Range from $12-$28/hour: If you achieve quota, but you will never get this chance. Dont believe it when they say there is a guaranteed dialing pay, even during training, pay for any meetings or trainings, any other type of admin work, reporting, or even survey pay. See all of the above and more below.
Our Top FT Callers Earn 60K a year: They have 2 full timers, and maybe this is the case, but they will earn it off of your backs, using the Callbacks and warm pipeline you have built and that were summarily taken away from you, or that you were forced to walk away from. And, they will not be sharing any of their secrets with you, count on it.
Benchmarking: TRCs fair way of setting quotas is to benchmark them, or so we are told. That means that a caller takes the lead list, starts making calls, and however long it takes them to make their 1st appointment is how you must perform to meet their quota. If it takes them 1 hour to make that 1st appointment, that is the criteria they user to benchmark all others against that client forever after. It is the expectation set for everyone.
Sounds fair and unreasonable, but what you wont realize until it is too late is that these are senior experienced callers, they have a clean list without any other distractions in that database to overcome, and they can cherry pick it all they want. You are not a senior experienced caller, dont know the database, wont get any training, and therefore you are doomed to fail as a trainee against these senior callers expectations and quotas.
TRC Hires in All States Except For: AK, CA, CT, FL, HI, IL, MA, MD, MI, MT, ND, NH, NV, PA and WA. They have hundreds of ads posted on the Internet, and hundreds of websites saying they are legitimate without any personal vetting of their own. They are all profiting from this as well.
Ask yourself, why does any legitimate company need this many ads and consistently run them? Why are they running through so many qualified, seasoned professionals that they rigorously vetted so quickly? During the 3 week period ended 2/5/10 there were 3 Training classes, one for each week. 15 new employees were brought on during this period. As of 2/8/10 they had maybe 6 left!?!?! It was not because they were not a good fit; it was because TRC thinks employees are disposable, and does not care about them or the promises they made to them.
Please add your own voice on the complaint. Save others from our fate. There is strength in numbers!
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