I have a healthcare background and work with potentially contagious biological matter on a daily basis. I wanted to get into crime scene clean-up, and through a little searching found Bio-tec. Unfortunately, I did not do enough research, because now I am finding that they are rated "F" by the Better Business Bureau. Dustin at Bio-tec told me that I would be paid $100.00 per hour for each assignment, which seems like the going rate in this line of work.
Though leery, I paid the $300.00 for their "training", thinking that if it turned out to be a scam I could try to get my money back. The training is a powerpoint which amounts to a little commonsense crime scene preparation and then a review of my college science courses on contagious diseases, such as AIDS and hepatitis. I expressed my concerns to them about the training, but wanting to get my foot in the door, resigned to having to gain the knowledge while on-the-job.
The initial "training" experience really discouraged me, and being hesistant to invest another $500 in purchasing materials, it took me awhile before I accepted an assignment with them. Adam called me with my first assignment at the end of April, which was supposed to be a 2-hour mold cleanup in an attic for a house that needed to pass inspections for a quick sale. He gave me a list of materials, most of which I already had on hand, and ran through the simple instructions. This was not what I was looking to do with this company, but I wanted to get things going with them, so I accepted the assignment. It ended up being a much larger area than they had indicated and took me five and a half hours to complete.
I was told that they would get paid right away, and I would be sent a check within 30 days. This time came and went, but I didn't back down. I was calling Adam, and e-mailing Adam, Jen, and the owner, Mark over and over. The first story was that they didn't have my information correct in the system and that I was in one system, but not the other. Then, supposedly they sent out a check and it never arrived. Then, after some more e-mails, Adam told me that they only pay $25/hour for mold cleanups so they'd send out a new check which would not be in the amount that I had indicated. Finally after three months, I was able to e-mail the owner back and forth late one night questioning him about my check. He was trying to avoid directly answering my questions and finally had the nerve to write, and this is a direct quote from the OWNER of this company, very professional: "I honestly cant believe I am dealing with something like this at 1:30 in the morning." He was upset!? I didn't want to have to deal with this for three full months. After three months of countless phone calls and e-mails, I finally received a check for $125.00, nowhere near the $550.00 I was expecting for my time, and nowhere near recovering the time and money wasted in this.
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