On Wedneday July 7th, I was contacted by Peter Viento congratulating me on being a new hire by Avalon VIP Assistants. I was hired in as a part time work at home Personal Assistant/Shopper and my job was to complete assigned tasks given to me for executives, athletes and celebrities that seek the services of this company. My pay was outlined in the Employment Agreement contract that I was emailed, $1000 per two weeks, to be paid on a weekly basis with an annual salary of $26,000 which doesn't add up. $1000 for two weeks, is $2000 per month multiplied by 12 months in a year is $24,000, yet, my paper says $26,000 per year. They said they would pay me by check or direct deposit. I have recieved no pay, and have been working for this company for over a week now.
My probabtion period was two weeks and if I completed my tasks properly, then I would be asked to be in a 1 year contract and would be given a company card to make purchases that required it.
The first assignment I was given was to research limo companies in my local area and create a word document with pictures, pros and cons. I completed this assigment, and it seemed fine to me. My next assignment was to find a rare handmade sculpture for this "client" that purchased it for their partner. The sculpture was a handmade mother and child made of mammoth tusk and obsidien base and was purchased in Russia. The sculpture supposedly got dropped and broken in the airport on their way to Los Angeles, CA. Peter Viento, the supervisor emailed me all the information I needed, the email address of the art gallery and all the contact information along with instructions I needed to locate this sculpture for the "client" to purchase it ASAP. I completed all desired tasks. I emailed the art gallery in Russia and got all info needed.
Next, Peter sent me an email stating how estatic the "client" is and they want to make a purchsase right away. The catch was that the art gallery ONLY accepts Western Union payments. Peter wanted me to accept the amount of the sculpture which is $9200 plus $350 Western Union Fee into MY PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT and he would give me a bonus amount of $300 for completing this transaction. FRAUD is what automatically popped into my head. I refused to do it. I emailed Peter back and told him that I was offended, and this was tacky, unprofessional and unacceptable. I told him that if is your policy to give employees on their 1 year contract a company card, then perhaps it would make better sense to assign these particular tasks to the ones who can sucessfully complete the tasks. That is fraud and a set up.
Why would a company trust me, a total stranger to handle this large amount of cash to be deposited into my personal account? That makes no sense, what company operates like that? No one is that lazy and high profile to lose money.
The kicker is that while conducting research for this rare art piece, I found a report on this very wesite from a few people who were asked to do the same exact task back in February. The company name and all was different, but the task was exactly the same. Today is July 17th and I have not gotten paid a dime for the tasks I did complete.
Please watch out for companies like this that make employment promises. Although the company name is different, the position and tasks are exactly the same. Please be careful.
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