Startup Essentials - Usa Card Services - James One Merchant Solutions
Startup essnentials rips off customers and employees yes thats right, the employees!

Everything you have read about startup Essentials is true. How do I know this? Because I worked for them. I am writing this to put any uncertainty or doubt about Startup essentials intentions to rest.

The company, which was part of James One merchant Solutions was indeed scamming people. And the biggest shocker... They cleverly scammed the employees as well. I was part of the company for about 10 months. I will start from the beginning.

I became an employee in july. I had no idea what to expect. The company was different than any I had ever worked for before. After making $7000 my first month of work, I was hooked and made to believe that the company was the greatest company in the world. We were "impacting peoples lives" on a daily basis... Why wouldnt anyone want to be part of this amazing "no upfront money prgram" we offered.

I started out working for the National Business advisors, as did most of the employees. The national business advisors were the telemarketers who "qualified" the customers for a shot to speak with a senior business analyst with Startup Essentials. We tricked people into thinking that we had no idea who the senior business analysts were that we got on the line...

HAHA. Man what a lie. The SBA'S were actually in the same room. And we all worked together so we always knew who was picking up the phone. Oh and by the way, to be qualified, the customer had to have above average credit. Half of which didnt even know we were actually pulling their credit.

They had to have good credit because a leasing company was involved. I will explain how they fit in a bit later. Now back to my invlolvement.

After dominating the sales floor on the National Business Advisors side, I was promoted to being a Senior Business analyst with Startup Essentials. This was very exciting, because I was being brainwashed into thinking that our company only helped people. Oh and i was excited about the chance at making $10,000 a month too.

Even though i questioned our sales methods, I still believed it was for the good of our customers. We made people believe that this"official interview" was their only shot at the program. This was not true. We also made people believe that we only accepted 2 out of 100. This was true, but not because we accepted them, but because only 2 out of 100 actually accepted us.

The truth is, anyone who was willing to sign on the dotted line at the end of the "interview" was accepted. Too our customers credit, it was not thier fault sometimes. We were trained by a professional scam artists, and an ex-cons... The Devoto Brothers... Check out the link below for info on our executives.

Http://www.nbc5i.com/news/1785188/detail.html

Our Vice president (Kevin) trained us to be proessional salesmen. The truth is, he taught us how to do what he did to be put in prison.

I am sorry to all those I made believe I had the answer to thier problems and the key to their successful future.

But back to the company... After being the with the company for about 6 months I ran into a few problems. And started questioning the integrity and honesty of our exec's.

We were all brainwashed into thinking that we were helping people... So folks, we told you that your life would be changed because most of us were stupid enough to actually believe we could do that for anyone on our phone.

We had personal development meetings everyday, and our leaders made us believe that we were "impacting" people. Robert harris the CEO even held special meetings in the morning for people who wanted to follow Jesus Christ. He invited me to the meetings and I felt like he actually cared. I soon realized the personal development meetings and the bible studies were just set up to blind us from what was really going on.

Now to the good stuff...

Heres how the business worked...

We made people think that this was a "No upfront money program" the only one of its kind. Well it was to our customers, but not to the company. Earlier I mentioned that I would specify how A-1 leasing was involved, well here it is.

When we closed a deal, or "impacted" someones life, A-1 would check the credit of the person (thats why it was necessary for the national business advisors to recieve back a credit score above 625).

If A-1 determined they had enough good established credit, they would then be approved for our program. You are probably asking.."what does that have to do with getting in the program?"

Well, again, it was no upfront money to our customers, but not to us. If A-1 approved the deal, they would purchase the deal from Startup Essentials and give us cash. About $6000.

The Senior business analyst, like myself, recieved $400 to $500 for every approved deal. We were averaging about 4 deals per person. The company was making approximately $700,000 per week.

Now to how the company was screwing its employees...

If you are reading this and you were or are a customer, then you know that you had 12-17 days to make your first payment to the leasing company. The employees were told that if the customer we "closed" did not make thier first payment, they would be charged back. Meaning, our commission earned would be taken back out of our next paycheck. We were told that the company had to pay back that money to A-1 leasing if our customer didnt make the first payment, which is supposedly why we had chargebacks.

No one questioned it, we just thought it was part of the business... Until one day, I got smart, or stupid, whichever, and called A-1 leasing to find out how the process works. I learned the process I explained above, but the shocker came, when one of A-1's employees said that Startup Essentials never had to pay back a dime if the customer did not pay up. A-1 hired a collection agency to come get that money.

Yep thats right, If all is true, then "chargebacks" should not exist. I researched further. I spoke to over 10 A-1 officials and they all told me the same thing, Startup essentials does not pay back a dime if our customer doesnt make thier first payment.

My trust for the company crumbled. Theyfound out I was looking into it. I did indeed tell my coworkers what I had found out. THe company seemed to spiral downward from this day one.

When the company found out what I had uncovered, they called a huge company wide meeting addressing how the process worked and tried to put to rest any doubts of whether chargebacks were real. They lied through their teeth, trying to salvage as many people's trust as possible. They also pretended to fire me, but kept me so Id keep my mouth shut.

Lots of changed were made, and I started to realize that the company was on the downfall, I tried to tell everyone that i worked with, but they were
brainwashed and thought I was full of crap.

The bad thing is, by the time I found out chargebacks werent real, it was too late. The company had a lawsuit for over $5,000, 000 againts them. I walked out before the crap hit the fan.

The company laid off all salary employees, and even with that, people still believed that the company had the best intentions.

The doors were officially shut and the company went bankrupt as of june 8.

To all those ex employees and existing customers, I am sorry for what happened and wish the best.

Some might say I wrote this because I had $7000 in chargebacks, but anyone I worked with knows I wrote this because I care about people, and now that the company hsa gone under, its time that everyone know the truth.

Company: Startup Essentials - Usa Card Services - James One Merchant Solutions
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: DALLAS
Address: 4455 LBJ FREEWAY SUITE 501
Phone: 8665528845

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