At the end of July 2005 I received a call from Angie Harbinson of Milton, Chadwick, & Waters who had found my resume on monster.com. MCW had been hired by another company to hire, train, and pay a sales team on their behalf. Within three days I was working as a salesperson calling on car dealerships selling advertising.
The ad I responded to on monster.com advertised for a full time salesperson although MCW set me up as an independent contractor. Brad Cofield was held out to be the supervisor of Angie Harbinson. He has been accused as a con artist already on another report on this site.
MCW set up a quota of $12,000 a month in sales for me and I sold $18,000 my first month and was fired by Angie Harbinson two days later. My earnings came to about $5,000 and to this date they have only paid me $2,000 and have quit communicating with me.
My firing stemmed from a disagreement I had with MCW and how they were handling me as an independent contractor. The control they were exerting clearly indicated they were treating me as an employee. I won't go into too many details only to say that Angie Harbinson was reading my private e-mail without my permission.
At this point Brad Cofield who on their web site is described as Executive Vice President of World Wide Sales became involved. I had spoken with the owner of the company who hired MCW and let him know what happened.
Immediately after that he spoke with Brad and I was asked to call Brad to see about staying on with MCW with the understanding Angie Harbinson was out of the picture and I would work directly under Brad. I turned that down as it was plain to me that Brad wanted to treat me as an employee. I then began work with the company that hired MCW.
I had spoken to Brad a few times on the phone and was not impressed with his sales philosophy but when I spoke with him after I e-mailed him saying I would not work for him is when I realized I was dealing with a very unprofessional individual. In our conversation Brad tried to tell me I had not been fired but had actually quit and he had proof.
He threw out the statement that I didn't have a recording of Angie firing me. At that point I knew there would be problems. Brad had obviously forgotten he had spoken with the owner of the company who hired him specifically about Angie firing me.
At this point I decided to check up on Brad, Angie, and MCW. Here is the link to another report on this site accusing Brad of being less than honest. The company involved is spoken of in Brad's bio at MCW. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff111004.htm
I have found out a number of things about MCW that I will list. Before that, I should say that Brad removed all of the executive bios yesterday after I e-mailed him his address and told him he was committing a criminal act by refusing to pay me and cutting off communication with me. I had already printed off the whole web site as I suspected Brad would pull something like this.
Right now I still can't find an actual physical address for MCW. The address on their web site is simply a PO Box. Two other addresses I obtained do not pan out either.
I have reported MCW to the Labor Commission, IRS, and EDD concerning my wages and to get a ruling that although they hired me as an independent contractor I was legally an employee. The trick right now is tracking them down.
Also, there are no records anywhere that MCW actually exists so if Brad could provide that I'd be pleased. They did pay me $2,000 but they paid me with a bank check as opposed to a business check. The reason Angie gave me is they wanted me to be able to have my money available ASAP.
If you google their business name all you get is stuff about the movie with Al Pacino titled "the Devil's Advocate." The funny thing is in that movie their is a law firm with the same exact name as MCW and in the movie there is a character named John Milton who happens to be listed as the CEO/Executive Partner of Brad's company.
Not one thing can be verified on the MCW web site. That includes every bio they list which includes six people. Here is Brad's bio.
Brad Cofield is the head of worldwide sales for Milton, Chadwick & Waters. Mr. Cofield joined the team in 2005 with the acquisition of Salesbuzzard.com. Previously, Mr. Cofield held the Vice President of Sales and Business Development titles with Salesbuzzard.com, Eclipse Partners, The Excel Group and Just4fun.com. Mr. Cofield is also a respected expert in the successful launch and growth of startup companies, a process with which he has been involved no less than nine times.
Among his other accomplishments, he led a sales operation at Salesbuzzard.com that ramped up revenues more than 3500% in just three years. Mr. Cofield holds a BA in Theology from The American Institute of Theology. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife, daughter and his two pets. The family cat Charlie and the Japanese Akita Tora.
The only information I found was here when I did a search on salesbuzzard and I found two complaints against them. One listed Brad and another person who is listed as the Advisory Board Chairman for MCW as working a scam together. Of course, he denied it.
Right now I am out $3,000. I would warn anyone about doing business with MCW. To this day I can not verify even one other client in the history of MCW so I would welcome that here from anyone from MCW who cares to reply. Brad Cofield early on said his first priority was to pay me my earnings.
The owner of the company who hired Brad has long ago sent Brad the money with the expectation Brad would pay me immediately. MCW also earned a percentage based on my sales. Another thing worth noting is Brad Cfield himself took a month to sell for the company who hired him and he failed completely. Also, I was the only person to this day who has sold anything for them and they have chosen to keep my money. Beware of MCW and Brad Cofield.
Allan
Buena Park, California
U.S.A.