I joined Summit OSG as an employee in August. They are doingheavy employment advertising for call center reps. Their business model is to setappointments for a variety of companies so that the companies salesforce has pre-set warm leads. Most of these appointments are forsophisticated type sales. My job was to front for a sophisticated software company with a great niche product. It was one of the best projects they wereworking. Some of the projects they were working were terriblydifficult for a telemarketer to make an appointment, some were not sodifficult. Turnover was basically 100% on several projects and I saw alot of people come and go in just my short time there. Nobody made anywhere near the money that was claimed in their advertising for prospective contractors. The owners are charming, and smart, they seem like great guys. It was a major reason for my taking the position. They talked big numbers and they seemed highly principled.
Their business model was to only provide a very limited number of leadsat a time through Sales Force CRM which was probably the most efficientway to make sure a lead is never wasted, but much more difficult tomake a buck for the contracted employee. The pay was $100 perappointment. I made an appointment a day working a half day my first 4days on the phone. I only worked a half day because I had a second jobat the time. I needed to drop my second job and segue into workingfull time for Summit for a month, in order to go to a new company thathad a training class opening up. The next 8 days I went full time andonly made 5 appointments. There is a typical 30% no show rate on theappointments. I had to find something else. I let Charlie Beseckerand Townsend, two of the three owners know this. I continued to workfor a few days following up on appointments and trying to set a couplemore that I had almost closed prior to leaving. My last full day was8/28, but we had much correspondence after that date. I had a meetingscheduled on 8/31. Charlie gave me praises for the meeting saying ithad a possiblity to be a three quarter million dollar sale for thecompany and that the sales person was ecstatic about the meeting. Theywere supposed to pay me on the first. They did not. We are talking$100 here. It is the principal of the matter, though I can't say I couldn't use an extra $100 now.
Ve, I will saNow they are saying that I signed a document that said that any futureappointments I have after leaving that I do not get paid on. Only Idid not leave. I was working part time well past the first of Sept. Moreover; I cannot find the documentation they are referring to, and Ihave quite a bit of orientation documentation.
Why do they have that policy? Is my work diminished by the fact that Iam gone? By the way, they have a policy that you cannot scheduleappointments any sooner than three business days out. This of courseincreases the chance of a no-show markedly. You are not paid on noshows. Bottom line I worked 8 full days 4 half days and was paid$400. I am a much better than average phone rep as well. And rememberI had one of the two best projects. I have an appointment today (9/15/09) that I set almost three weeks ago. I am not even trying tobe compensated on that of course.
Anyone who goes to work there is probably hurting because it is a toughgig. You will do better if you are dialing for dollars with a companythat pays a small hourly plus bonuses.
This is not an admonishment of their services to their customers. Ifyou are a prospective customer that is considering using Summit theyprobably provide a great service to the right company. Sweat Shops inMalaysia provide a great service to Ralph Lauren as well. ProspectiveEmployees beware. I have a string of emails from the company withcorrespondence post the time I supposedly left. To post them now wouldbe non-productive them for a rebuttal if need be.
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