In October I received an email response to my indication of employment interest with Red Zone international, a promotional marketing firm in Hawthorne, NY. Red Zone International represents Innovative Merchant Solutions, an Intuit company and credit card processor for Mastercard/Visa). The opportunity was an Account Executive position. I went in for the interview. I have worked hard throughout my career as a Sr. Product Development Engineer, business owner, teacher, mentor and coach. I was downsized from my engineering job in 2006 after over two decades. Committed to being happily employed and working hard to avoid collecting unemployment benefits, I altered the range of industries that I would consider transitioning to in order to take my career to another level. I believe in hard work and taking action toward one's goals, but not at the expense of people to whom I am serving.
Although the website I was provided was very cryptic and, in hindsight, a pure marketing piece that only loosely characterized the company with which I finally connected, I agreed to receive the training after learning that this Account Exectutive position was 100% commission only for the first two of four phases to reach the account executive position and diametrically opposed to the Careerbuilder.com advertising that described it. The second and final interview day was an exploratory view of the field which involved door-to-door sales of merchant services to small businesses in the surrounding counties. The trainer I was assigned to observe for a full day in the field was a graduate in marketing and was very good in the sales process.
I was on unemployment insurance at that time and agreed to the training although concerned that if I was hired and the opportunity is not a good fit to my background, skills and interest, it could interfere with these benefits while searching for more suitable employment. So, I asked many questions, including compensation and transitioning from unemployment to an income level to support my family's needs. My trainer explained the four phases and compensation levels associated with them over lunch, outlining them on a blank sheet of paper. Why couldn't this be in a pre-printed more readable and understandable form so that I and others have no confusion with the terms and conditions of their business? This is when I learned that phase one was 100% commission-only field sales with a one-time $200.00 training bonus. This bonus would later be denied with an added condition that was never stated on interview day two or at any other time during my training. The stipulation was you must complete 10 full business days in the field alone (without a trainer accompanying you) following five full business days of training plus one day of in-house training. The ONLY requirement for the training bonus as I understood was to complete the five days of field training, one day of in-house training and complete and sign the required paperwork at the end of each training day.
I was hired at the end of the second interview day. My finances were quite fragile at the time due to a recent divorce and loss of income following a layoff. Therefore, I was tentative regarding committment to a sales position which I knew would require hard work in the beginning. Every every 2-3 days, I continued to ask for direction on unemployment insurance. My primary trainer and team leader continued to reply that he was waiting for a response. I waited and waited for this information from Human Resources as well as the business owner and never received any feedback until three weeks into the process when I decided that I had enough of the misleading sales practices I had witnessed from the trainers that I accompanied and was expected to emulate. During my last week, I asked for this information once again and my trainer called human resources directly from his car as we traveled out to the field. The HR manager replied that I should continue to claim unemployment benefits during the training phase which I did. I believe this lack of responsiveness was intentional to lead me along through the process to get me trained and working as another rep without any concern for my financial situation. I also believe that there was no action on my numerous requests for this information until that day - my pleas for help in this area were ignored. The fact that I started near the thanksgiving holiday season, those 2 weeks were interrupted with holiday time off (the office was closed) and therefore I lost a block of contiguous time in training, spanning over several weeks, longer than the time advised to continue collecting unemployment insurance.
In my experience, Red Zone International is a crafty and unethical firm and I would caution anyone seriously considering a promotional marketing firm to run as fast as you can away from Red Zone International. I have nothing against Innovative Merchant Solutions, an Intuit company. I believe these are world classs businesses. But when you have people pretending to be your friend, smiling as though they care (when all they really care about, ultimately, is how their own pockets will be lined), ignore your correspondence when you leave and then stab you in the back as a foe, you learn what they are really made of.
While in training, I witnessed Red Zone International trainers (on behalf of IMF) literally lie and tell businesses that they will have one flat rate for all card types (including rewards and business cards which typically carry higher discount rates and transaction fees) and with my recent training knowledge, I knew that there was no way the business would qualify for the special pricing given their monthly volume and predominance of certain card types. While in the field, I encountered so many irrate IMF customers whose representative sold them equipment they never received and were getting billed for it. Representatives are trained to use the KISS approach (Keep it Short and Simple) and gain the sale by avoiding too many details in the conversation, details that would uncover the rates that the business would actually pay. If these businesses entered into these month-to-month contracts, it would only hurt them and negatively impact their bottom line. I am simply not one that would ever associate my name with a firm that engages in such unethical business practices. The market the contracts as month-to-month, but that benefit is often negated by the unstated machine equipment lease termination fees. Represenatives avoid discussing this fact (even though there is a document that they are required but fail to give to the client) with a KISS to the merchant. When I left the firm to return to my employment and business search, they filed a protest with the Department of Labor, resulting in a denial of unemployment insurance benefits.
If you are on unemployment benefits or want to work in an industry in which you are a valued and respected participant, please consider all aspects of Red Zone International before you join them. They will likely KISS the dialogue with you to bring you on board, so be very careful!
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