The office in Tukwila isn't to blame as much as its affiliate in Bellevue. I should re-phrase that to former affiliate Eastern Filtration technologies. I saw an ad in the paper that said 17.98 per hour no experience necessary. The only description of the job in the ad was customer service so I thought why not? I went in to be interviewed with about 8 other people, and they told me to call back in a few hours. When I called the manager told me I was one of the few that actually qualified for the job.
I went in for training a couple days later and to my surprise everyone that applied and interviewed the day I did also were there (one of the few that qualified must not be the distinction I initially thought it was) a manager came in and started teaching us the tricks of the con artist trade. Such as don't make eye contact and wipe feet on mat when person opens door rather than ask if you can come in. If you get in the door which normally you do compliment them at least once and try to establish common ground etc etc etc.
The day progressed like this and we got to see the defender air cleaner. The next day out of 8 there were three of us, the smart ones got out quickly, but i was still none the wiser so I went on with the training. Finally after three days of learning how to trick people into buying a 2400 dollar vacuum they released us to prey upon our close friends and family.
Initially I was enthusiastic about the job I thought I'd be making at least 2000 a month which was a step up from my last job and demonstrating the products a few times a day didn't seem to tough. I sold twice on my friends and family weekend for full price, which I have apologized for doing so to my parents and the parents of a friend of mine (keep in mind you buy this things used for like 200 dollars) I also got a list of 40 referrals from my parents so they could win a cruise, what the company failed to tell me was that if you don't run the quota of shows to win the prize in a two week span they don't get the trip but the company gets to pester all my relatives and send reps out to try to sell them. Not to mention I later found out that if you schedule your appointments you get a $100 bonus well the majority of the appointments I would have scheduled myself I conveniantly already finished.
Soon after I finished training I was out working on my quota of 54 appointments so I could get my check for $2650, and my manager said if you cant finish 54 appointments in a month your just being lazy. He failed to mention that I would only be doing one or two shows a day and not nearly enough to ever get any guaranteed salary although he claimed that he had seen it done in 17 days, yeah right. So I went on running shows for a while when the business I worked for went broke so the 1000 miles of wear and tear not to mention 2.25 a gallon for gas and the twenty or so shows I ran I didnt get paid a dime for. The money I got out of them was for a sale that I scheduled myself and sold, and the sales from friends and family weekend.
So basically for around 120 hours of work and three sales, I had four other sales that canceled (good move by those who did) I got paid 4 hundred dollars. Subtract cost of living, gas, and time I could have been earning money elsewhere and I paid significanlty out of my pocket to demo vacuums for these #%$@heads. The money i did get out of them wasn't easy to collect either even though the money from my sales go directly to the CEO's checking account and I only get a fraction of that, it took me over a month of harassing him, his friends and the people that are above him in the company to get it. Finally I bluffed them and said I was going to take them to court (for three hundred dollars, heh) and they managed to cut me a check.
The bottom line is I wasted time and money as well as scammed people close to me into wasting their hard earned money on overpriced merchandise. The products are top of the line but they are overpriced, and the offices are poorly managed. There sales tactics are dishonest, and made me sick to my stomach. I actually got yelled at on more than one occasion for simply giving people honest answers to their questions.
My advice is to not waste anytime with anyone affiliated with this scam. They are dishonest and only out to rip people off including their employees. Its amazing to me anyone sticks around long enough to open their own office. But some people have a knack for being a sleazeball con artist. I guess that line of work wasn't for me.
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