We were running across reports on this site and ran across a post by someone that had been fleeced by a man named Howard Brandwein. The name immediately caught our attention.
Our company was contacted last year by a company named UnionFriendly.com. This company stated that they had a referral program that will refer Union members to our office to utilize the discounts we offer. We bought into it, it sounded good and for $499.00 we thought it was worth a shot based on what the original rep told us.
Well, about 3 weeks later we received a call from their marketing director Howard Brandwein. He said he called to go over our listing to make sure it looked OK. Then he went into a pitch about how he was personally going to get us into the local Unions as a preferred provider if we upgraded to a banner on their card for $3,500.
He said that the site gets 3 million hits a month from union people and that he would market our company to other companies on the site. Lies, lies and more lies. He guaranteed us that we would get enough business in from the Union members and that we would recoup our costs within 6 months. All a lie.
After 8 months we called UnionFriendly.com and asked to speak to Howard Brandwein. We were informed by a rep at Unionfriendly.com that he left with the general manager to start up another Union referral site called Unitedworkforce.org. We then took upon ourselves to contact other companies their site and found out that not one of the companies that paid for a listing or expensive banner received one call. We then called the local Unions that were shown to us by Howard Brandwein to see if they really did have any type of relationship with Unionfriendly.com.
Well, as suspected they did not and they were receiving many complaints from the other companies that Mr. Howard Brandwein had coerced them into believing that they had an endorsement with the company. Other companies that were hit by Howard Brandwein are Allstate Insurance, Countrywide, Legend Group, Farmers Insurance and many others. This guy needs to be found dealt with by the proper authorities. We would be willing to pay a reward if anyone knows where Howard Brandwein is now working.
The whole concept of having an alliance with labor unions is all a lie. Labor unions are very careful who they consider a preferred provider. We were informed by some large Unions that many companies try to use them as an allied focus group. We are in the process of tracking down Howard Brandwein to find out where the other Union referral scam company is called Unitedworkforce.org.
If you get a call from a company that wants you to sponsor/advertise on their Union referral site, stay away. It's nothing but a scam to bilk companies out of monies needed for legitimate advertising. Its immoral people like Howard Brandwein that try to stay under the radar and move from company to company to continue their misleading and unethical business tactics.
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