I wanted to believe that the overwhelming bad press was just disgruntled ex-employees who did not work hard; or customers who were'nt paying their bills.
I wanted to believe because I think it is a good concept in theory - that is if they live up to their advertising. But I wanted proof from them that they had "Good" References in the area.
I talked to 2 people on the phone; 1st phone interview: Bill answered all of my questions that I asked of him. But as I found out later not all of them truthfully... Bill told me there was noone else working for Prodigy in Grand Rapids. Another interesting thing Bill told me is I needed to get 5 business cards a day to give to the "team leaders"... He spun this in such a way to say that it isn't cold calling. I let this slide because all good sales people should and do cold calls. But I thought it added to the deceptive nature of the company.
2nd interview: Janine told me that there was another working in Grand Rapids... Hmmm
I asked Janine if there were some companies who are using "Prodigy Payment Systems" in the area that I could use as a reference. She said yes - but only the team leader new who they were. I said before hiring on I want to verify with some of their current customers that they were happy with your services. I wanted to confirm who I was going to work for (Prodigy) is a good company. Before I give my self a bad reputation for selling customers in my community a poor product/service I need to do my due diligence form my potential customers.
She said I had to go through training before I was assigned to a team leader. She said she had others waiting to sign on if I wasn't interested. Meaning she is not going to give me any references and If I want those she will go to the other candidates... I let her know that her statements were playing up the poor company reputation by not providing me with references and basically saying she will look into hiring the other candidates... Who knows maybe all of them were going to be hired anyways?
Having worked for outside sales organization for most of my career. We have zero problems listing/stating the companies who do business with us... in fact we were proud to tell our sales candidates of "happy" customers we already have.
So Janines excuse of we don't do that to look on their website for the references... Plays into the fact that they do not have to many "happy" customers.
Job seekers and potential customers beware and do your due diligence.
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