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Report: #971855

Complaint Review: Wingspan Portfolio Advisors - Carrollton Texas

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  • Reported By: Bo — Texas United States of America
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  • Wingspan Portfolio Advisors 4100 midway Carrollton, Texas United States of America

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors Wingspan lending Discrimination and spying and illegal retailatio Carrollton, Texas

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: @Jack, I concur with your analysis

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: I am dumbfounded how folks Hired as entry level clerks can overnight be VP's..Again, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors is a FRAUD.. Nothing but a Master Deception..

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: I Just Think Wingspan is Such a Despicable Company; Steve Horne places loyalty over character and competency obviously

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

*UPDATE Employee: Try to LISTEN BO

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Dave in denial

*UPDATE Employee: Yes, Bo, still no infighting

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Sinking ship chasing after LanDesk ITIL administrator

*Consumer Comment: Jack,

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

*Author of original report: Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Wingspan Portfolio Advisors LIED About Their Growth Prospects and Padded Their Numbers..The Company is a FRAUD

*Consumer Comment: Bo,

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

*Consumer Comment: HGIT,

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: I Also Experienced Racial Discrimination and Abuse at the Hands of Wingspan Management who Forced Me to Lie to Bank of America Customers Forcing Them into Intentional Foreclosure...This Report is TRUE

*UPDATE Employee: Pure fantasy

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: @HGIT,

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Wingspan Portfolio Advisors Mgmt Pressured Their Employees to LIE to Bank of America Customers regarding Loan Documentation and acted in a illegal, unethical manner forcing people to lose their homes

*Consumer Comment: Carrollton-based company issues layoff warning for 459 Dallas employees

*UPDATE Employee: Wingspan Portfolio Advisors Engaged in Dirty, Illegal, Underhanded Tactics..Should be Sued "OUT OF EXISTENCE" to protect the Vulnerable Public

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Addendum to my original report

*Author of original report: Addendum to my original report

*Consumer Comment: Bo,

*Consumer Comment: So Apparently Nothing has changed at Wingspan...

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I worked in the Information Technology (IT) department at WingSpan primarily at the Midway (Headquarter) location and I can attest first hand that many if not most of the criticism towards the company is valid, justified and true. Their CEO Steve Horne is a lawyer by trade so they use money to try to hush anyone that comes out to reveal the dark side of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, but I will not be censored nor redacted nor silenced and I will give you a clearer picture of what its really like to work at Wingspan. This is a free country the last I checked and thank God we still have the freedom of speech. It aint libel, slander or defamation if its true! If they try any tricks on me I will counter-sue them for retaliation and conspiracy. The law works both ways.

Working as an IT guy at Wingspan I was in the unique position of seeing the entire company. I was a lowly helpdesk/servicedesk employee paid only $19 /hr but that meant unlike someone who was a network engineer or IT manager I actually got to do the daily grunt work of walking around the entire company and meeting and greeting the entire rank and file and getting to know everyone from the lowest paid $15/hr Bank of America mod contractor to the COO himself the millionaire Ed Delgado and every title and rank and department and position in-between. Wingspan doesnt have a system in place where any of this can be done remotely or automated so I had to do the footwork and manual labor every single day. The upside is I got to meet a lot of people and socialize a bit.

The first thing I noticed is that there is indeed a class and racial segregation at Wingspan. Any reasonable mind who was presented with the same evidence would come to the same conclusion, that it is self-evident Midway is where they kept all the Caucasians and personal friends of the CEO and the high class folks and Gramercy was basically the slave camp where they exploit all the lowly paid (underpaid) Hispanic, Muslim and African American workers. Like the Supreme Court likes to say, its one of those you just know it when you see it kind of situations. And if you were a good looking girl you were extradited from Gramercy to Midway and instantly made some Executive Assistant or given some bogus VP title. Im not sure how the company can do something like this and not get noticed by the EEOC, FTC, DOJ, FBI, etc... but this is one of the stronger instances of class and racial segregation that I have ever witnessed and its really sad and pathetic that we still have something like this going on in this day and age. Even one of the other IT employees at Gramercy commented on such....

They also have a junior network admin who sits in the cubicle right next to me whos job is to do nothing but monitor and spy on employees all day long. This is the digital equivalent of having the Hispanic Janitors spy on African American workers in the restrooms. He was tasked with installing hidden and secret cameras and monitors everywhere. He is worse than a spook, this is one of the most paranoid guys I ever met. He kept saying he was afraid Id report him to HR... and when the network went down he asked me directly if I had sabotaged it. My first week I tried to ask him to lunch just to be friendly and he accused me of trying to buy my way into a higher position at the company. The employees had their computer and internet locked down yet the IT admins made exceptions for themselves and were surfing on weapons and gun sites and other sketchy sites all day long.

He was racists to Asians as well and made fun of Chinese people every chance he got. He says he is exempt from discrimination liability since he traveled to China and married a Chinese wife. My first week on the job I had did a Google search for Wingspan to read up on the company, the very first page linked to a ripoff report about Wingspan so I was curious and clicked on it... within seconds he was telling all his coworkers that I was reading bad stuff about the company and that I cant be trusted. This is like something that came out of a Jason Bourne movie, youd have to literally be there to believe it. He even admitted to doing deep packet analysis and real time spying on his coworkers and thats when I started using SSL and https and then switched to 4G LTE on my personal phone for internet use. This guy said he was a CCIE but I checked out his LinkedIn profile and all he had was a CCENT.

Thats another thing, half the employees who are VPs and Directors at Wingspan lied their way into their positions and never managed nor directed a single person in their life... not to mention that Wingspan was extremely top-heavy to being with, almost anyone who is anything at all is given a title of VP if they know someone in power or played their cards right. They had some departments that only had two people, a VP and a Director... I wont name names, but at least two of the IT staff at Wingspan came straight from truck driving... and the service desk lead used to be a physical trainer before he broke his leg and got tired of that and decided to fake his way into the IT industry. Even the Senior Infrastructure / Server Admin only has a MCSA and was bragging about it all day long... he has some Microsoft Press Kit books on his desk and he thinks that makes him this super tech dude....

Every morning when he came in hed disparagingly say to us greetings programs... no doubt making reference to TRON and paying homage to the fact that he was our symbolic overlord and we were the punny lowly tier I service desk nobodies. Our VP of IT was a nobody working at JCpenney before he landed this job and started masquerading as the God of IT and always priding himself on cutting access to this guy or that guy like he got a kick or high from abusing his position or power. Wingspan IT is a mess, there is no integration, no efficiency, no precise roadmap and everyone pretends to be in charge but no one can execute and get things done and its nothing but a cobbled up inefficient mess. They got an old-school CIO who still uses AOL and cant figure out how to get his speakers working... that tells you all you need to know about Wingspan IT.

They recently and quietly canned their COO Mr. Ed Delgado and pretended it didnt even happen. Bank of America canceled Wingspans contract, no doubt because they caught on with what Wingspan was doing and realized it wasnt a healthy business relationship, so Horne had to find a scapegoat and a head had to roll... so they decided to can Delgado and blame it on him. This was right after they coerced him into giving a public company address assuring everyone that things were okay and dont panic speech. Then they threw him under the bus too. Horned was trying to get Chase on board so the political pressure of having to come up with someone to take the blame was irresistible. Horne had purchased Delgado strictly for his connections and was hoping he could buy his way into the industry. It was already out in the public news and 90% of the company didnt even know it happened. Talk about having your collective heads in the sand. Everyone was too busy doing Short Sales and scamming home owners to even take notice of what was happening to their own company.

We had to cut his systems access so that is how our department was privy to that information. The next day they had Security walk him out the front door and publicly humiliated one of the most respected figures in the real estate and mortgage industries. Really it felt like working at the CIA or NSA Delgado and Betrayus was both canned the same week and ironically I could see the parallels... it was all political and everything is strictly on a need to know basis and compartmentalized and classified (confidential). Even something as big as the COO being fired was hushed up and pushed under the rug like it totally didnt happen and we were ordered and forbidden to talk about this secret from our respective Department heads. The next day they had this big HR meeting (I know because I was tasked with setting up the projectors and wireless ) with all the HR and Onboarding staff to talk about how to spin this and cover it up. There is a corporate culture of secrecy and non-transparency from the top-down.

One of the more attractive blonde white lady who obviously got her job not based on her smarts was bragging to another dominating white male about how the pie trick worked... pies for houses was her exact phrase and she said it was a good return on investment and she should be giving out more pies... she gave him a wink and commented on the sexual innuendo of pies for houses... that is another thing you see a lot of this kind of cliche workplace flirting going around and the females do favors for the males to gain in career. I was working on the guys computer and they were just carrying on this inappropriate conversation right in his office and was so brazen didnt even care that I could see and hear everything. Wingspan is a culture of bribes, kickbacks, buyouts and sexual favors and while they silence any external attempts at exposing them, internally they dont even care in the slightest what employees say or do as long as you are in the in group. One time this guy got a virus on his computer that pointed him to a Korean site and since I was Asian he called me down and asked if I had anything to do with it... that was almost as bad as the network admin cursing me out in Chinese.

I could go on and on but bottom line is this: unless you are in the in group or favored by the CEO or personally knows someone in power, Wingspan will overwork you and underpay you and discriminate against you and then throw you under the bus the moment Wingspan perceives you are not of value to them anymore. The vast majority of the so-called employees at the company are actually contractors of some form or another... and believe you me, even full-time employee health and benefit package absolutely is horrible and useless... You are constantly reminded that you are expendable, and that your employment is at will and that you can be canned at any time for any reason or without reason at all. And they make good on the threat too... Being in IT I see all the termination alerts and constantly run into the scenario where an employee being terminated was someone I had just spoken to or helped with an IT issue on the same day.... !! Its like working at the morgue or something! What a downer right? Employees have to wake up every morning worrying about if they will still have a job by the end of that work day. This is not a place that I recommend. It will stress you out, rob you of a life, and then throw you under the bus when you are worn out.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/20/2012 11:47 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/wingspan-portfolio-advisors/carrollton-texas-75007/wingspan-portfolio-advisors-wingspan-lending-discrimination-and-spying-and-illegal-retaila-971855. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#25 UPDATE EX-employee responds

I am dumbfounded how folks Hired as entry level clerks can overnight be VP's..Again, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors is a FRAUD.. Nothing but a Master Deception..

AUTHOR: Jack - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, November 26, 2012

Bo, if Steve Horne can run Wingspan with the idiots that he's placed in charge, anybody can run a company. There is no rhyme nor reason to the promotions. I am as you are, just absolutely dumbfounded how someone can get hired on as a clerk, a contractor, making a minimum entry level salary and overnight be given the title of VP, EVP, Director, etc. Especially someone with no experience in the field at all.

It's as you previously stated which is either Steve Horne wanted to aquire talent cheaply (although I am certain this is not the case because what he has is certainly not talent. It's bottom basement competence) or he wanted to build his core group quickly and give fancy titles to all these folks who would need assistance tying their own shoestrings and wiping their own a**. I wager it's the latter.

Melanie Pellegrino started at Wingspan making an entry level wage.. close to nothing. So did Justin Belter and Kevin Conn. They had no experience and no outstanding credentials for the job. There was nothing outstanding about them other than their ability to "skin and grin" and "s****.>

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#24 UPDATE EX-employee responds

@Jack, I concur with your analysis

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, November 26, 2012

Jack,

I concur with your analysis. It seems that a significant portion of upper management at Wingspan had a "fake it until you make it" mentality whereby they bootstrapped themselves into their current positions seemingly by magic. After working at Wingspan its given me a whole new perspective on the meaning of "CONfidence"... again, it is not what you know that will get you places at a company like Wingspan, but rather WHO you know combined with what you pretend to know... As long as you were in the favored "in group" you can b.s. about your work history all day long and pretend you had all this experience and no one would know the difference... because it sure seemed like everyone there was a phony to begin with and everyone was faking it... it was institutionalized fakery. 

Jason Thompson was working at a gym before he become Service Desk Lead... and he would have gotten the network position if it wasn't for Diego hiring on Dave Goodwin. And even then Diego had to teach Dave everything... Mr. Goodwin was previously teaching English to kids in China before he came back to the homeland and miraculously landed his current networking job. I guess between that and the alternative of a gym dude messing up your network Diego didn't really have much of a choice. Their VP of HR Corey Ellis used to be an admission clerk at UTD before she played her cards into Wingspan's deck and got an seemingly overnight promotion to VP of HR... For a company with about 300 real employees, why is there even a need for such an obviously pompous and inflated title is beyond my comprehension. EJ Kite, in my opinion, doesn't know the first thing about information technology yet he was made into CIO. They still got top brass using AOL and most of these Execs can't even figure out how to turn on a laptop (no joke, I worked a support ticket for him once when he was panicking that his system crashed, turned out his docking station was un-powered)...

Wingspan, what a company.... what a company indeed.  

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#23 UPDATE EX-employee responds

I Just Think Wingspan is Such a Despicable Company; Steve Horne places loyalty over character and competency obviously

AUTHOR: Jack - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, November 26, 2012

I have never worked for a company whose management engages in such a low down dirty underhanded cutthroat fashion..

Now the company is being slammed online for all of its misdeeds and the managers still don't get it. Steve Horne still doesn't get it. I realized a long time ago that Mr. Steve Horne places loyalty over competency and character. The folks being promoted into management at Wingspan were some of the most ridiculously stupid people I have ever seen. No wonder he has lost a major contract and is trying to put a nice spin on an ugly situation. 

I've lived and learned. Thank GOD I am no longer with that company.. I hope it sinks.. Dirty B**tards.

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#22 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, November 26, 2012

And will you please stop quoting dictionary definitions? I know you used to be an English teacher in mainland China and all, and I know you probably - yet once again - "can't help yourself"... but it is really getting old. I may be Chinese but I was never in ESL. I can comprehend language, context and meaning without the constant belittling and reminder that I am an outsider (ironically, Wingspan is particularly apt at doing this to all minority employees too!) I know full well the denotative and connotative meaning and interpretation of all the words and idioms in your vocabulary;and even if I did not, I am fully capable of looking them up myself without your assistance thank you very much. Instead of ad hominem attacks and straw man fallacies why dont you attempt to address the deeper issues and valid underlying criticisms that I have launched against the IT department and the company in general? You seem to have your hands bound behind your back (figuratively,  and literally too if we are making reference to what words you are allowed to type on the keyboard) and are powerless to do anything but write empty meaningless rhetoric upon rhetoric... piling up inane retorts with a mixture of childish outbursts in between for good measure. What happened? HR suppressed you with a gag order? Threat of termination if you talk? I gave you my name, why are you so afraid of telling us just who you are Mr. ITPro? Or is it because you really are Dave Goodwin and you know you will get sued out of existence if you perpetrate another employees identity? You gave yourself away from the very first post Dave... forget the fact that I could immediately identify from the tone of the post that it was none other than yourself... the plethora of clues and trail of breadcrumbs that you left invariably and inevitably lead to no one else but you. You are the guy with the temper, you are the guy who should take anger management lessons.... Projection has always been your forte hasn't it? You see all your faults in others so you can blame it on them and feel better about yourself. No wonder you are always so grumpy and angry at the world Dave... get some help, get it fast. And nice try, but attempting in vain to fallaciously, and discriminatorily miscategorize my report with prejudice and then trivializing the accounts by associating them to temper tantrums do little to help your cause or that of your company.

Dave, you have also confused observation with inference. I will leave that as an exercise for the reader, you may choose to look that up yourself in the dictionary if you wish. Our IT room only has six desks including my own when I worked there. Robert Smith was only in there a week after I got there before he went into the IDF to make room for the new Citrix guy. You remarked that : At some point I've worked one-on-one with every member of the IT team, including with Mr. Tantrum... sorry but Ive never worked with Robert Smith. I hardly ever spoke two words with the guy. When he told me on the first day goooodd luuucckkk with that mean smirky smile I knew something was fishy at Wingspan.... My point is, the VP of IT doesnt write something like : "I've had guys go out of their way to help me with different problems...even if it wasn't their area of expertise."... that would simply be out-of-character. It also couldnt have been the new hire Nick Rowe, because remember you wrote: but I can speak to the BS regarding IT because I've been in Wingspan IT for a while now, unlike the long 4 week tenure that Mr. Tantrum was here getting to know every detail and every person at Wingspan. (btw I was here six weeks, not four, get your facts straight).... Nick was hired on after me and had even less of a tenure... Anthony Greer is the telephony expert at Wingspan and he is very well versed in what limited domain of work that he does... there is little to no cross-training in that area and the rest of IT would be asking him for his assistance in telecom related areas, not the other way around. That pretty much rules him out. Same with Michael Oehlert. Michael has the Senior title and you only have the Junior title for a reason (or are you going to start arguing with me and say that certs and titles both dont matter now?) While it is true that you were constantly asking him questions, to impugn or to imply that he would ever need the assistance of someone such as yourself is just patently laughable and absurd. That leaves just Jason Thompson. Ive probably spent more time working alongside Jason than anyone else at the company, and to be frank, weve shared more than a few lunches together where both he and I made fun of your incompetence as a junior network admin at Wingspan. Dave, lest you forget, you were originally brought on by Diego to cap Jasons ambitions... hes not on your side or in your TEAM dude....  Jasons not the type to lose his temper (oh but you are Dave, you really really are) and he would never type up rants at 1AM in the morning like the way you have done... Ironically, Im pretty sure you blocked all company access to the ripoffreport.com domain, no doubt censorship and spying is your forte... and yet you of all people continue to spread lies, misinformation, create diversions, distractions and inject disinformation as an attempt to smear campaign and trivialize away the valid criticisms of Wingspan, Wingspan IT and the highly dysfunctional group that the IT department has at Wingspan.  

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#21 UPDATE Employee

Try to LISTEN BO

AUTHOR: ITPro - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, November 25, 2012

Shall we add another log to the mental malfunction bonfire?  Yes, I think we shall....
 
Psychosis - refers to an abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving an "alternative or unusual conception of what is referred to as reality". Including;

 - Delusions (false personal beliefs based on incorrect inferences about reality which are inconsistent with culture and previous beliefs, and which are firmly sustained in spite of evidence or proof to the contrary)
 - Confused thinking or speech
 - Inability telling what is real from what is not
 
You dont like being told youre wrong, do ya, Bo. Even when Steve straightened you out, re; Ed, you were forced to relentbut you still felt the need to attack something else right after.  Well heres a news flash for yajust because you spew itIll say this nice and slow here.doesntmake.itso.  Its a hard truth, but you can handle it.  There IS an actual reality out here that you may want to look into.
 
And at the risk of telling you youre wrong again.once again, nice and slow..this.isnot.David. If youd spent any time with David youd know hes too nice a guy to even participate in this sorry little dramaI can hardly believe I am.  Problem ispeople like you get my blood pressure up; you want to be handed everything without earning it, patted on the head for every little thing you do even though you're supposed to do it anyway, plus you want to pick and choose what you will and won't do and you must be included in every aspect of everything.  Otherwise you throw your little hissy fit and run and tell your Mama.  Little kids do the same thing, and then they grow up.  Whats your excuse?

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#20 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Dave in denial

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, November 25, 2012

It doesn't take an expert in linguistic analysis to ascertain that username "ITPro" belongs to the identity of Dave Goodwin and that he is the author of the "Pure fantasy" outburst. 

Nice going with the plausible deniability, but we all know its you Dave. Stop projecting your own issues onto others. From the way you kept mentioning "tenure" (sorry if they didn't keep you longer in China teaching English, really...) to your references to "needs to be put down like a rabid dog" (how's that gun loving hobby going for you? still hunting and putting down wild animals? you know you should really stop surfing at gun websites at work before someone rats you out to HR, its only a matter of time...) to the fact that even Diego remarked you were always throwing a "temper tantrum" at work, ironically the precise words that you tried to nail on me (and that wasn't the only time you tried to nail someone on me, we both know you wanted to blame the wireless leak on me to cover your own behind) to your total despise of the fact that I am "fixated on certs" (and I've only ever talked about certs with you, no one else, so who else but you would even know that I was fixated on certs?) And you love the phrase "private Idaho, man"... that's one of your favorite phrases that you keep throwing around in the workplace. 

You can deny it all you want, but you know that I know that you know that you wrote the aforementioned rant. Maybe someone from HR got on your a-- for posting that and "but this time I just couldn't help myself." rant and know you are shaking in your boots and want to pretend it wasn't you? Nice try. 

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#19 UPDATE Employee

Yes, Bo, still no infighting

AUTHOR: ITPro - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, November 25, 2012
tantrum  [-noun]

A tantrum (or temper tantrum or tirade or hissy fit) is an emotional outburst, usually associated with children or those in emotional distress, that is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, yelling, shrieking, defiance, angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification and, in some cases, violence. Physical control may be lost, the person may be unable to remain still, and even if the "goal" of the person is met he or she may not be calmed.  A tantrum may be expressed in a tirade: a protracted, angry, or violent speech.

I rest my case.  

BTW: David?  Not even close.  I see your powers of observation and your ability to see reality have not improved since you left Wingspan.  Again, ironically, David was one of the guys who tried so hard to make you feel welcome. And in return you trash him.

You should be ashamed.  And whats most disturbing about this whole sad affair?  Youre not ashamed at all.  Get some help, Bo.  Get it soon.

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#18 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sinking ship chasing after LanDesk ITIL administrator

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, November 25, 2012

This company is a sinking ship and they are still looking for a LANDesk - ITIL Service Administrator. In fact they seem to now have given their in-house recruiters the boot on this after Mr. Eastus couldn't come up with some good leads for a NewHire LANDesk manager (Antoine... watch out for your job security dude) and have offshored this to someone called Reggie at The InSource Group...

Talk about getting the bigger direction wrong... Wingspan is about to layoff 500 contractors, Wingspan's growth numbers are padded and inflated... the company simply isn't growing. They don't need LANDesk at this scale and corporate structure... Now they posted an ad on careerbuilders offering $40.00 - $50.00 /Hour for a LanDesk manager for the new "call centers" they will be building... Call centers... funny... I would love to see how that ends up. 

But still no infighting huh Dave? How you think this news will make Jason feel? All warm and fuzzy inside? TEAMmate? 

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#17 Author of original report

Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

Dave, remember that day when Robert Smith called the emergency meeting telling us Delgado was departing Wingspan? You had remarked that the ~500 Bank of America mod contractors who were going to get canned before the end of the year didn't count almost like they weren't even people and you said something to the equivalent that real employees like yourself was not as expendable and had actual job security..

I hate to burst your bubble man but I think the irony was lost on you. Rob was trying to get rid of you from day one ever since you got here. Robs superiors were pressing him to can you too.. Diego was taking on a lot of flack for the bad hire and everyone was asking him Diego, why did you hire on this incompetent nobody?... Diego was covering for you and getting your back telling them to give you another chance... (truth is he was covering for himself too, since it would look bad on him if you got canned) and if it wasn't for him Wingspan would have told you goodbye long ago. Why do you think Wingspan recruiters are looking for another IT guy with network and linux experience right now? After Diego left the company you kept bragging about how you were the only one at the company who had Linux experience; and while that may have been true for a while, why do you think Wingspan is now looking for a new guy to replace you? Fact is, the company is keeping its options open, but are you? Or are you so blind to Wingspan and its propaganda that you actually believe what you have there in room 2050 is a TEAM? Do you even know WHY you were hired on in the first place? There is a lot of jealousy going around and not without reason. Let me tell you why... Jason Thompson was trying to work his way into network and Diego didnt approve of that. Diego didnt want that. To be blunt, Diego didnt feel that a guy who came from working in a gym should be allowed to work his way into a companys network, and he wanted Jason to stay put in the helpdesk group right where he was at.... so he hired you on to revoke Jasons access to VLANs, port security and that kind of stuff... You think Jason feels you and him are on the same TEAM? Why do you think Jason was pursuing VMWare? Because with you in the picture, that was a dead end to his networking ambitions.  You think Jason was jumping with joy when they decided to hire on the Senior Citrix Engineer after he had poured his hopes and aspirations into being the VMware / virtualization guy for the company? Yall were talking smack day and night about the new AutoCAD person they hired and Jason was complaining how Wingspan doesnt need to hire a dedicated SQL dude because he read some SQL books and he could do that stuff himself too.... So... there is no infighting in IT, huh? Ya think? You are the one living in fantasyland if you think your blind loyalty is being faithfully rewarded by the company. You gonna find that out the hard way soon enough yourself. Youll see what is reality and what is fantasy.

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#16 Consumer Comment

Jack,

AUTHOR: Karl - (USA)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

You mentioned another organization in your comment at #15 Ex-Employee that has destroyed the lives of millions of Americans, right? 

That organization is known to many people as the IRS. (Internal Revenue Service)

Feel free to 'Google' this- AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM, and watch that documentary on the web for important information about the IRS.

You'll hear from former IRS agents and even tax experts regarding the fact that there isn't a 'law' that requires an American who earns a 'salary' or a 'wage' on his or her 'labor' to pay Federal Income tax. It appears that Federal Income tax is a tax on 'profits' and 'gains' that are realized by companies, corporations, and sometimes even individuals, according to all of the information available on the web.

Here are three examples that might help people to understand better:

EXAMPLE 1: ABC Widget Corporation had annual sales in 2011 of $25,000,000.00 and realized a profit of $1,000,000.00 after all expenses. ABC Widget Corp. is required to pay Federal Income tax on the $1,000,000.00 profit.

EXAMPLE 2: Tom cleans windows for a living. He has no employees and does all of the work himself. Tom earned $45,000.00 in 2011 as a result of his 'labor' cleaning windows. Tom is not required to pay Federal Income tax on the $45,000.00 because there is no law that requires him to do so. He can 'voluntarily comply' and pay Federal Income tax, but there is no law that requires him to do so because the money he earned was a result of his 'labor'. It was an 'even exchange'. (Windows were cleaned and Tom received money for performing the work.)

EXAMPLE 3: Tom purchases one Powerball Ticket on Saturday November 24, 2012, with $2.00 from the money he earned cleaning windows and is the only winner of the $325,000,000.00 Powerball Jackpot. Tom is required to pay Federal Income tax on the $325,000,000.00 because that is considered a 'profit' or a 'gain'. (It wasn't an 'even exchange' and there was no 'labor' performed.)

*Just think, if all Americans truly understood how the tax system in the USA really worked, then millions upon millions of Americans would have more 'take-home pay' in their paychecks, right? They would be able to use that additional money for things like mortgage payments, car payments, college loan payments, credit card payments, gasoline, food, utility bills, donations to the Red Cross for the Hurricane Sandy Victims, Christmas gifts, etc., right?

You can also 'Google' this- IRS LOSES CHALLENGE TO PROVE TAX LIABILITY, and read the related articles on the web for additional information.

Thank You

"Knowledge is power."

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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#15 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

Dave, remember that day when Robert Smith called the emergency meeting telling us Delgado was departing Wingspan? You had remarked that the ~500 Bank of America mod contractors who were going to get canned before the end of the year  didn't count almost like they weren't even people and you said something to the equivalent that real employees like yourself was not as expendable and had actual job security..

I hate to burst your bubble man but I think the irony was lost on you. Rob was trying to get rid of you from day one ever since you got here. Robs superiors were pressing him to can you too.. Diego was taking on a lot of flack for the bad hire and everyone was asking him Diego, why did you hire on this incompetent nobody?... Diego was covering for you and getting your back telling them to give you another chance... (truth is he was covering for himself too, since it would look bad on him if you got canned) and if it wasn't for him Wingspan would have told you goodbye long ago. Why do you think Wingspan recruiters are looking for another IT guy with network and linux experience right now? After Diego left the company you kept bragging about how you were the only one at the company who had Linux experience; and while that may have been true for a while, why do you think Wingspan is now looking for a new guy to replace you? Fact is, the company is keeping its options open, but are you? Or are you so blind to Wingspan and its propaganda that you actually believe what you have there in room 2050 is a TEAM? Do you even know WHY you were hired on in the first place? There is a lot of jealousy going around and not without reason. Let me tell you why... Jason Thompson was trying to work his way into network and Diego didnt approve of that. Diego didnt want that. To be blunt, Diego didnt feel that a guy who came from working in a gym should be allowed to work his way into a companys network, and he wanted Jason to stay put in the helpdesk group right where he was at.... so he hired you on to revoke Jasons access to VLANs, port security and that kind of stuff... You think Jason feels you and him are on the same TEAM? Why do you think Jason was pursuing VMWare? Because with you in the picture, that was a dead end to his networking ambitions.  You think Jason was jumping with joy when they decided to hire on the Senior Citrix Engineer after he had poured his hopes and aspirations into being the VMware / virtualization guy for the company? Yall were talking smack day and night about the new AutoCAD person they hired and Jason was complaining how Wingspan doesnt need to hire a dedicated SQL dude because he read some SQL books and he could do that stuff himself too.... So... there is no infighting in IT, huh? Ya think? You are the one living in fantasyland if you think your blind loyalty is being faithfully rewarded by the company. You gonna find that out the hard way soon enough yourself. Youll see what is reality and what is fantasy.

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#14 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors LIED About Their Growth Prospects and Padded Their Numbers..The Company is a FRAUD

AUTHOR: Jack - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

I have read many of the SEO articles Wingspan Portfolio Advisors paid their Search Engine Optimization companies to put out and there really is not a grain of truth to any of them. They paid good money to have these companies put a sweet spin on an ugly situation.

The fact is this.. WINGSPAN PORTFOLIO ADVISORS HAS "TERRIBLE" GROWTH PROSPECTS. Point blank. Period.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors grew so rapidly because they entered the market during the height of the great recession when pretty much everyone knew someone who was losing their home. Bank of America was struggling with an oversupply of foreclosures and modification requests. Wingspan was a small company in 2009. A very small company. With less than 50 employees. Their building located at 4100 Midway in Carrollton, TX was practically empty.

That is why I knew something was strange to hear about Wingspan expanding to over 1,500 employees in 2012. This type of growth was phenonemal and the first question one would have to ask is what has made Wingspan Portfolio Advisors so attractive that all of a sudden it would be pulling in this much business? Overnight? The answer is...NOTHING.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors "pads" its employment numbers. It always has. When I worked for Wingspan I found it odd that the company would tell employees in a meeting it may have to layoff, but were rolling training class after training class during this same time frame. All of a sudden, the company would go on "firing sprees" and terminate half its workforce for frivolous reasons. Any reason. The company's management had start giving orders to write everyone up on any reason. A few of the team leads came out and told us about this. They warned us that they were suppose to meet "write up" quotas which were to be eventually used against employees when they would be "eventually" terminated. This was so Wingspan would be able to avoid paying Unemployment Insurance.

Wingspan would hire and fire large numbers of employees every few months, flipping their workforce essentially. However, for purposes of taxes, the tax man didn't consider the turnover nor did the City of Dallas, Frisco, Carrollton, etc. If Wingspan hired and fired 50 people every month, it would simply appear that the company was continuing to grow.. The various municipalities (who were on record praising Wingspan for its growth) nor the IRS would consider the fact that Wingspan essentially was not growing. It was replacing people.

It never made sense to me why Wingspan Portfolio Advisors would engage in this type of Workforce Flipping until I read up on the tax code. For purposes of Tax Credits, this is what the IRS has stated..

About Qualified Employees

(06/01/10) QE1: Who are qualified employees?

A-QE1: Qualified employees are individuals who begin employment with a qualified employer after February 3, 2010, and before January 1, 2011, who have been unemployed or employed for 40 hours or less during the 60-day period ending on the date such employment begins, who are not employed by the qualified employer to replace another employee of that employer, UNLESS the other employee separated from employment voluntarily or was terminated for cause, and who are not family members of or related in certain other ways to the employer.

(So if you were terminated "For Cause" the company does not have to state you were "replaced".. Because by doing so they would lose out on the credit. They can list the new person as being hired to fill a previously unfilled job which is simply not the case)

(03/20/10) QE4: Does the payroll tax exemption apply to wages paid to an otherwise qualified employee hired to replace an existing worker whose employment terminated?

A-QE4: The payroll tax exemption does not apply to wages paid to an employee who is hired to replace an existing worker, UNLESS the existing worker terminated employment voluntarily or was terminated for cause.

(Again, if you terminated the employee "FOR CAUSE" you still get the tax credit. It is simply working the system. This is why Wingspan instructed its managers and team leads to "write up everyone for anything" and would go on firing sprees. Wingspan Management even denied employees work and then turned around and fired them for not turning in enough work. This company operated in a dirty, dirty fashion and its manages are nothing more than "YES MEN" who will do and say anything, w***e themselves out in any direction, to keep their jobs.. They have no regard to the lives they have destroyed)

Also, Wingspan did not have to factor the "terminated" employees into their growth numbers. They simply included these employees as well as every other employee who replaced them. A company in New York City was sued a few years back for cheating the IRS on New Hire Employee Tax Credits by doing this. If it hired 500 people, it would terminate them all in six months and rehire another 500 and was claiming tax credits for all of them. 

All in all, Wingspan certainly is guilty of padding its employment numbers.

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#13 Consumer Comment

Bo,

AUTHOR: Karl - (USA)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

Isn't it interesting that Wingspan Portfolio Advisors selected a fighter jet equipped with missiles as its trade mark?

That brings to mind another large segment of our economy in America that is ultimately based on destroying people's lives: The Defense Industry.

Did you know that the United States spends more in one year on defense than China, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan combined?

Feel free to 'Google' this- LIST OF COUNTRIES BY MILITARY EXPENDITURES- WIKIPEDIA, and go to that website for more information.

It's also interesting that the majority of the above countries, such as the USA, United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Japan have extreme debt and deficit problems, right? Maybe those countries should stop spending so much money on defense and start investing that money in order to help the people whose lives have been destroyed by a system that is based on 'debt', wouldn't you agree?

Thank You

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#12 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Dave Goodwin, stop being a hypocrite

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

@ ITPro,

Mr. David (Dave) Goodwin (aka Junior Network Administrator) lets dispense with the BS shall we? First of all, Ive never thrown a tantrum like you always seem to do in the workplace. Are you projecting, much? Lest we forget, the day when somehow the wireless key was leaked to a third party vendor (which had absolutely nothing to do with me) you started panicking and freaking out, frantically typing on the keyboard pages of text of perhaps only God knows what to cover your own behind and then rushing out the door to speak to Robert to explain away the situation... almost tripping on yourself... Everyone there in the room including Jason Thompson and Anthony Greer witnessed this incident... you even dared to try to nail it on me...asking me a string of rhetorical questions in a purposefully lawyerese and convoluted linguistic syntax perhaps hoping since I was Chinese I might fall for it by unwittingly admitting to something that I didnt do... When I showed you the documented procedures in OneNote that strictly forbid sharing keys with anything without VP approval, and informed you that I followed it by the letter, you immediately interjected oh, my a-- is covered, even though you admitted you never dabbled in OneNote and had no idea that wireless page ever even existed.... that is just one incident of many many examples I could give... you really want me to go into detail? (do you?)

I am an observant person by nature, the length of my so called tenure (I was contractor, and cut with the ex-teacher mentality, there is no tenure, everyone there is expendable, including you) has nothing to do with it. Four or five weeks was more than sufficient enough to see that the recruiter Ted Eastus lied to me by up selling me false prospects about Wingspans growth and LanDesk opportunities... I told him before signing on that my minimum salary requirement was going to be $40k assuming a 40 hour week. Then he gave me $39k with zero benefits and sold me on the LanDesk growth lie... Mr. Flemming promised during the interview that LanDesk was at most a month away, then I was told three month, now it seems like it going to be more than half a year. Bill Berg is leery about LanDesk and want to take on as few modules as possible... and with Wingspan sinking like a sinking ship... sharepoint works just fine at this scale, why the heck do they even need LanDesk if they aint gonna grow? Thats what Ive been trying to say to upper management and that was part of the truth that got me canned. Antoine shoves me Tier I crap and on top of that, I had interviewed to start at Gramercy... coming from Arlington that was already a heck of a drive, but I agreed to it... but then the very first day I was told NOPE you best start at Midway... Granted Midway and Gramercy arent that fall apart, but from where I was driving from it was more gas, more toll road and more traffic and more time and money that I would have to expend on Wingspans behalf, for Wingspans benefit with nothing in return... And I guess we all know why right? Yall ran the newhire Tier II LanDesk dude Mr. Barry Simpson away the first week.... he was interviewed on knowing full well the drive (so thats not an excuse, but I love it how you always make excuses Dave) and didnt even last more than one week.... what does that show about the IT TEAM that you guys have built at 4100 Midway Suite 2050? Hmmm?

And you are one to talk about TEAM.... dont get me started Dave. Im in communication with Diego Fierro on LinkedIn. He was the one who originally hired you on... and all of you talk nothing but trash about him all day long. Is that the way to treat a former TEAM member, especially one who gave you the opportunity to work at your job in the first place? You constantly trash talk him, making fun of his networking abilities (like you have any of your own, please?! you were dabbling around and couldnt even solve my port issues) and saying how after yall switched to the co-lo a mountain of dirt was uncovered and that Diego got scared and up and left and wasnt responsible and had basically scammed Wingspan IT, etc.... Ironically, even Jason Thompson (himself of Hispanic origins) was making fun of Diego and his accent... references to milligenaires and jigabytes... (you know what Im talking about). Everyone was poking fun at Diego, including the Senior Infrastructure Server Admin guy... Diego Fierro had years of service ( or tenure in your case) as Senior Network Engineer / Network Manager at Wingspan and had been there longer than most of you... is that the way to treat a former TEAM member? Huh buddy? No doubt you guys are trash talking me just as you had been trash talking Diego after he left and found something better.... but thats another story for another day.  

And to say Certs dont matter in the IT industry is just ridiculous. Certainly, Certs arent the only thing that matters. Experience and attitude matters as well. But without Certs youll be climbing an uphill matter competing against others who have both the experience and the Certs. Are you ever going to let Todd Hale touch a switch? Be honest now... I dont think so.... The phenomenal growth bs aside, unless both you and Michael suddenly up and leave (which I doubt will happen anytime soon) someone like Todd only has one realistic chance of moving up from Tier I Service Desk to something like networking for which he has been going to school for.... and thats with a CCNP or higher and finding an employer who actually has a junior networking position open and willing to give him a chance. We all know thats not going to be at Wingspan. No matter how hard he works at this current position (and ironically, both you and the Citrix guy heavily looks down on helpdesk team as if helpdesk was lowest life form on earth) he will never gain the exposure to grow into networking... the company aint gonna be looking out for his career advancement and neither will his co-workers... his best option is to self-learn via Cisco Press Kit .pdf books, watch CBTNuggets, Trainsignal and other video tutorials online, practice with GNS3, Cisco Packet Tracer, Configure Terminal command memorizers to build CLI muscle memory, build a small lab with rental equipment, etc to simulate the experience of administering a small to medium size company network and then go take the tests to valid his knowledge and learning and to show prospective employers that he has the certs and the ability to perform and function in the role of network admin with minimum on the job training and adjustments... maybe it doesnt matter since you already seem to be pretty cozy where you are, but dont put down people who are trying to improve themselves and move ahead in their careers. That is not very professional of you, Mr. Self Proclaimed IT PRO.

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#11 Consumer Comment

HGIT,

AUTHOR: Karl - (USA)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

A large segment of Corporate America makes its profits by destroying people's lives. The banking sector is just one example. Simply take a look at what has transpired in the last five or six years for proof. Millions of Americans have lost their homes because they were lured into taking out ARM's (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) and Interest Only Mortgages. People's lives were destroyed and the bankers, and others, became fabulously wealthy as a result, correct?

Here is another example: The Pharmaceutical Industry. Millions upon millions of people all over America are being manipulated into believing that prescription medication will help them. But in reality, these drugs do more damage in the end because of the side effects. However, the executives and the shareholders of these Pharmaceutical Companies make profits as a result of the destruction, right?

It basically comes down to this; much of our system in the USA is based on a foundation of lies, deception, fraud, manipulation, greed, trickery, deep corruption, and the constant pursuit to financially injure the innocent people living here and all over the world. 

Feel free to 'Google' the following videos and watch them on the web for proof-

1) FRONTLINE: MONEY, POWER AND WALL STREET
2) AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM
3) WHO OWNS THE FED BANK, WHO CONTROLS WHO VIDEO
4) FRONTLINE: THE WARNING
5) FRONTLINE: INSIDE THE MELTDOWN
6) FULL SHOW: HOW BIG BANKS ARE REWRITING THE RULES OF OUR ECONOMY
7) DID SPECULATION FUEL OIL PRICE SWINGS
8) INDYMAC BOYS GET SWEETHEART DEAL
9) WHO CONTROLS THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY BY MAJORITY 2010

Finally, make sure to 'Google' this- FRONTLINE: POOR KIDS, and watch that documentary on the web in order to see what the mainstream media in the USA doesn't want you and millions of others to see.

Thank You

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#10 UPDATE EX-employee responds

I Also Experienced Racial Discrimination and Abuse at the Hands of Wingspan Management who Forced Me to Lie to Bank of America Customers Forcing Them into Intentional Foreclosure...This Report is TRUE

AUTHOR: HGIT - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, November 24, 2012

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors is NOT the perfect angel in this: See Below:

Denny et al v. Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC
Plaintiffs:Roslyn Denny  and Bonita Winslow 
Defendant:Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC 
Case Number:3:2011cv01094
Filed:May 24, 2011 
Court:Texas Northern District Court
Office:Dallas OfficeCounty:Dallas
Presiding Judge:Sidney A Fitzwater 
Nature of Suit:Labor - Other Labor Litigation
Cause:28:1332 Diversity-Employment Discrimination
Jurisdiction:Federal QuestionJury
Demanded By:Plaintiff

And these are just the folks who are finally having their day in court. There have been MANY others who have filed EEOC reports. Wingspan has destroyed so many lives. Their management was horrendous. After I left Wingspan Portfolio Advisors I had nightmares FOR MONTHS. I have NEVER experienced anything like that. Everything this man has stated IS.....THE......TRUTH.

I found the management at Wingspan Portfolio Advisors to be sorely lacking.. VERY abusive.. VERY vindictive...cutthroat and ruthless. I saw managers set up people intentionally for termination. I saw managers spin anything into a write up offense or terminable offense if they didn't like you, while making incredible accommodations for those employees they liked but who could have cared less about their jobs.

I found out that blacks were getting paid LESS for doing the SAME JOB as white employees. Wingspan was full of nepotism and favoritism, racism and sexism.. and EVERY OTHER ISM YOU CAN THINK OF.

Bank of America did right for dropping Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. The company was going to NO DOUBT get Bank of America tied up in even more lawsuits than Bank of America is already involved in.

See Below:

MERCER et al v. WINGSPAN PORTFOLIO ADVISORS, LLC et al
Plaintiffs:LYNN MARIE MERCER and WILLIAM EDWARD MERCER
Defendants:REISENFELD & ASSOCIATES, LPA LLC and WINGSPAN PORTFOLIO ADVISORS, LLC 
Case Number:1:2012cv00327
Filed:March 14, 2012
Court:Indiana Southern District Court
Office:Indianapolis Office
Presiding Judge:William T. Lawrence
Referring Judge:Debra McVicker Lynch 
Nature of Suit:Other Statutes - Other Statutory Actions
Cause:15:1692 Fair Debt Collection Act
Jury Demanded By:Plaintiff

This is just the type of the iceberg. I'm sure many more lawsuits will follow.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors should be SUED OUT OF EXISTENCE to protect the vulnerable public.

I came across this blog with a lot of in-depth information on Wingspan Portfolio Advisors and how it has abused its employees throughout the years.

http://wingspanportfolioadvisors.blogspot.com/

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#9 UPDATE Employee

Pure fantasy

AUTHOR: ITPro - (United States of America)

POSTED: Friday, November 23, 2012

I rarely respond to these things but this time I just couldn't help myself. This travesty needs to be put down like a rabid dog. This little temper tantrum couldn't be further from the truth...pure fantasy, typed in the car in our parking lot right after he was let go, from a guy whose angry tirades (surprise) got him fired...plain and simple.

I wont even address the patently false, misleading and vicious vitriol spewed at the company in general but I can speak to the BS regarding IT because I've been in Wingspan IT for a while now, unlike the long 4 week tenure that Mr. Tantrum was here getting to know every detail and every person at Wingspan. At some point I've worked one-on-one with every member of the IT team, including with Mr. Tantrum, and I can tell you that my experience has been just the opposite. 

This is a great IT team; everyone gives their best, is very professional...but still knows how to have fun. And there is no infighting or back-stabbing or competing for each others jobs. I've had guys go out of their way to help me with different problems...even if it wasn't their area of expertise. How someone can take the tiniest insignificant incidents and twist them into completely paranoid and unrelated horror stories is not only disturbing...it's just sad.

Add to this the fact that everyone went out of their way to make Mr. Tantrum feel like a part of the team...and THIS is the thanks we get....nice. Want to hear ironic? The next guy will get the same inclusive treatment...because THAT's the kind of team this is.

One thing you seem to be fixated on, Mr. Tantrum, is certs. So what certs do you have?  I can guarantee you ain't certified in Anger Management. Get some help with that.  You're livin' in your own private Idaho, man.  Get some professional help with that anger before it eats you alive.

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#8 UPDATE EX-employee responds

@HGIT,

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

@HGIT,

Corporate structure is not scale-invariant. Size matters. Smaller companies tend to throw titles around as a bargaining chip at the negotiation table, though the majority of the time compensation is not commensurate with the inflated title. It's their way of acquiring or retaining talent at a discounted labor rate. Equity means different things to different people. If Wingspan could leverage that psychological fact to pay lower wages why wouldn't they? You are talking about after all a company that specializes in exactly that, ultimately that is what a "short sale" is... For example they hired on a Senior Virtualization Engineer... sounds like a great title but he is the ONLY virtualization engineer... and for a company that only has about 300 or so "real" employees, why do they need a VP of HR? A lot of it is way too superfluous. 

That doesn't mean though there isn't a lot of office politics, backstabbing, infighting and that sort of stuff... its basic human nature. There is invariably going to be structural tension in the employer vs employee dynamic... and the relationship is functionally adversarial by design... but man when I was working at Wingspan I literally felt the tension, it was thick and almost palatable... everyone was paranoid, territorial, and trying to encroach on one another's "turf"... it was fun to watch but sad and pathetic at the same time... 

The junior Network Admin was afraid that one of the Tier I, IT Service Desk guys who was going to school for networking was trying to take his job... and he was afraid for good reason too... he just bought a new house (or trying to build one in Autocad) and wants to start a family, so he can't afford to get canned or get replaced by some truck driver turned IT dude... on the other hand the truck driver turned IT dude had been going to school for years trying to make it into networking and the junior network admin wouldn't even let him do a "shut/no shut" on one of the switches... so it was going to be a cold day in hell before he ever got the chance to administrate a network. The Tier II Service Desk employee was always walking around with an attitude like he should have been made Service Desk Lead instead of the other guy... and the Service Desk Lead himself wasn't content and wanted to get into VMware and something less generic and useless as helpdesk support... lo and behold the company changes direction and brings on a Citrix Engineer and all of a sudden everyone in IT starts getting paranoid again. Helpdesk manager was watching out for the Service Desk Lead and the Lead was no doubt eyeing the manager's position... someone there was probably hoping the VP of IT would leave and find a new job so they could jump into that seat. The server admin was trying to pry the passwords out of the network admin so he can gain more access and control and blah blah blah ... I sat right next to these people too and had to deal with these personalities everyday, and let me tell you coming to work was like being forced to watch a soap opera unfold... just so much friction and drama... and this is IT where its not supposed to be so political... I can't imagine the crap that goes on at higher levels in the company. 

The ironic thing is, the corporation wants to induce this kind of "infighting"... because at the end of the day, no matter which employee gets ahead, its still good for the company... by pitting the employees against themselves and letting them fight it out with the strongest coming out on top, the company itself benefits just as the individual winners... it's natural selection at the corporate level... 

But I'm glad I got out of that place. I see the bigger picture and its a sinking ship whether they admit to it or not. "Phenomenal growth", yeah right. 





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#7 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors Mgmt Pressured Their Employees to LIE to Bank of America Customers regarding Loan Documentation and acted in a illegal, unethical manner forcing people to lose their homes

AUTHOR: HGIT - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

We all know that many people are getting laid off Wingspan.That news report of 459 people losing their job has been out for a while and is well known.

However, the question I am asking is "WHY" did Wingspan Lose the Bank of America contract. It is directly related to their managers, Melanie Pellegrino, Kevin Conn, Justin Belter and others forcing employees to act in a deceitful, unethical and illegal manner with Bank of America customers regarding their loan documentation.. This forced GOOD PEOPLE from their Homes.

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#6 Consumer Comment

Carrollton-based company issues layoff warning for 459 Dallas employees

AUTHOR: HUMINT - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

You are just the first of many about to get laid off....

Check out this news: http://www.wfaa.com/news/business/Dallas-company-issues-layoff-warning-letter-for-459-employees-178917881.html

-----

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a Carrollton-based loan servicing company, will layoff more than a quarter of its workforce at the end of the year. 

Wingspan issued a Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) letter on Nov. 5 to the Texas Workforce Commission informing them all 459 employees at the Dallas location will be terminated effective December 31, 2012.

The layoffs are the direct result of the cancellation of a client contract, according to the WARN letter. The company said the terminations are permanent.


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#5 UPDATE Employee

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors Engaged in Dirty, Illegal, Underhanded Tactics..Should be Sued "OUT OF EXISTENCE" to protect the Vulnerable Public

AUTHOR: HGIT - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

The only thing Wingspan Portfolio Advisors seems to be particularly good at is treating its employees AWFUL. When I worked for the company its management was absolutely terrible. There is a definite Class System in Wingspan. If you are in cahoots with management, I don't care if you were wiping tables in your last job, you would be made into a V.P. or Director. This company awarded "Titles" like "Candy" to its favored employees. Those that sucked up. No matter what kind of job they did.

It wasn't about work ethic at all. It was if you were inside the "clique". Everyone I know who has worked for Wingspan either HATES the company or say it was a TERRIBLE experience. 

Steve Horne is on overdrive trying to clean up the mess his managers have made.. I doubt he will succeed. It's a shame the CEO has such piss poor skills in picking management in the first place. Hopefully Wingspan will continue to lose contracts and will get back to the size it should have been which is a small start up with an ambitious chief and piss poor, top down, management.

Kevin Conn, Melanie Pellegrino, Justin Belter all cutthroat as they are clueless. The dirtiest bunch of people I have ever seen. They aren't the only ones. The discrimination, lies, forcing employees to lie to Bank of America Customers and others, are just a few examples of what the employees endured while working at Wingspan Portfolio Advisors.



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#4 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Addendum to my original report

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

I am the author of Report: #971855 and this is an addendum to my original report. After posting report: #971855 I have since been in communication with the CEO of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, Mr. Steven Horne. In this communication Mr. Horne has expressed to me unequivocally and under no uncertain terms that Wingspans ex-COO Mr. Ed Delgados employment with Wingspan was not forcibly terminated but rather that he voluntarily resigned. He also stated that Mr. Delgado received an extremely generous offer from Five Star to return as their CEO.

Unbeknownst to me at the time of the posting, Ripoff report does not have a mechanism (insofar as I am aware) that would allow me to remove/edit/or redact certain portions of the aforementioned report. In my reply I responded to Mr. Horne stating that : You must understand however that the veil of secrecy and lack of transparency naturally engenders curiosity leading to speculation and may inadvertently lead to rumors and incorrect assumptions. Lawyers and business people aren't exactly known for their candidness and honesty - and for good reason. It would not have been unreasonable for me to assume the "news" of Mr. Delgado's departure was heavily PR spinned. The seemingly "cover up" just added fuel to fire. I want to state for the official record that in light of the new information afforded to me, I now believe and have reason to believe that I may have inadvertently miscategorized the precise nature of Mr. Delgados departure from Wingspan. I have rendered a tentative and preliminary apology to the CEO and extended the same to Mr. Delgado and any other pertinent third parties.

Other portions of the original report are my own opinions cumulated through my empirical and anecdotal experiences that I have had while under the employment of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC.

I wish to now take the opportunity to offer a full-disclosure to what I believe lead to my termination at Wingspan. In short, my experience with Wingspan has been an unpleasant one and an experience that I never wish to repeat again.

The corporate recruiter (Ted Eastus) seemed and felt like a snake-oil salesman who up selled me lies about Wingspans prospects. The growth numbers he gave me were simply not factual, and the projected ones were even more outrageously fictitious. Wingspans Senior Citrix Engineer who was hired on just a week after me also noted that Recruiter Eastus promised things that were never materialized. This Virtualization Engineer stated that Wingspan cheated him on health and benefits and as a result he effectively had to take a $15,000 USD pay cut by leaving his previous job and coming to work at Wingspan. So if you thought a military recruiter was bad, well wait until you have to get sales pitched by Wingspans recruiters.

The IT Helpdesk/Service Desk manager ran the whole show like a military operation. I was hired on by this individual and reported to him. He seemed like a nice person at first until later on I actually got down to being on the job I realized he was treating me like I was enlisted and gave me marching orders (figuratively speaking) left and right. During my interview Recruiter Eastus informed me that the IT Service Desk manager used to be a Captain in the US Army (though I have to take with a grain of salt anything this recruiter says) and later it certainly felt like the Service Desk manager was treating me as if I was in boot camp and constantly criticizing me for the tiniest things. This is just my opinion, but it sure did feel like he had a sense of entitlement and that if you grew a brain and started asking questions or started challenging the blind status quo that was a huge No-no... If indeed he came from governmental bureaucracy and entitlement that would explain his seemingly power-hungry stature and the craving for that kind of unquestioned military respect... He had a hurry up and wait mentality and in my opinion would manage the Service Desk to the ground.

To give you an example, in my last Weekly Report I had remarked that once initiatives like Citrix and LanDesk come online and given the reality that Wingspan is obviously not growing at the pace it originally had hope and had expected, that eventually the six or seven helpdesk/servicedesk personnel (myself included in the headcount at the time) could be reduced significantly to two or three. The implication was that in the long term (next few months to few years) we would all lose job security. But that is the reality of IT in the first place regardless of company or industry, as I foresee helpdesk jobs in general to be obsolete in the next five years or less. It felt like the Service Desk Manager took this as a personal insult and found my insights unacceptable. Wingspan has a the emperor has no clothes culture and mentality. And if you ever dared to go against the groupthink, HR will find a way to get you canned.

The whole place was top heavy anyway. Too many Chiefs for the amount of Indians they had. The organizational structure could be flatten a whole lot to cut costs. And if Wingspan stops growing, I predict that is exactly whats gonna start happening anyway. The Service Desk Lead had a fake it until you make it persona but he was the only one there that had any potential at all. In my opinion, if Wingspan doesnt grow at the pace they wished, and once automation is streamlined, they can save some money by getting rid of the superfluous and redundant Service Desk manager and make the current Lead into Manager role. And like any new upstart, they have created the totally artificial label and distinction of Tier I and Tier II... as if it actually had any categorical difference or functional distinction. It just seemed silly, but I guess thats what happens when you let the anticipated phenomenon growth get to your head. There is a lot of infighting for nothing. Everyone is constantly in these POW-WOW meetings patting each other on the back and congratulating one another on being masters of the universe but never getting anything done. For a company this size and scale, thats surprising!
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#3 Author of original report

Addendum to my original report

AUTHOR: Bo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

Addendum to my original report

I am the author of Report: #971855 and this is an addendum to my original report. After posting report: #971855 I have since been in communication with the CEO of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, Mr. Steven Horne. In this communication Mr. Horne has expressed to me unequivocally and under no uncertain terms that Wingspans ex-COO Mr. Ed Delgados employment with Wingspan was not forcibly terminated but rather that he voluntarily resigned. He also stated that Mr. Delgado received an extremely generous offer from Five Star to return as their CEO.

Unbeknownst to me at the time of the posting, Ripoff report does not have a mechanism (insofar as I am aware) that would allow me to remove/edit/or redact certain portions of the aforementioned report. In my reply I responded to Mr. Horne stating that : You must understand however that the veil of secrecy and lack of transparency naturally engenders curiosity leading to speculation and may inadvertently lead to rumors and incorrect assumptions. Lawyers and business people aren't exactly known for their candidness and honesty - and for good reason. It would not have been unreasonable for me to assume the "news" of Mr. Delgado's departure was heavily PR spinned. The seemingly "cover up" just added fuel to fire. I want to state for the official record that in light of the new information afforded to me, I now believe and have reason to believe that I may have inadvertently miscategorized the precise nature of Mr. Delgados departure from Wingspan. I have rendered a tentative and preliminary apology to the CEO and extended the same to Mr. Delgado and any other pertinent third parties.

Other portions of the original report are my own opinions cumulated through my empirical and anecdotal experiences that I have had while under the employment of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC.

I wish to now take the opportunity to offer a full-disclosure to what I believe lead to my termination at Wingspan. In short, my experience with Wingspan has been an unpleasant one and an experience that I never wish to repeat again.

The corporate recruiter (Ted Eastus) seemed and felt like a snake-oil salesman who up selled me lies about Wingspans prospects. The growth numbers he gave me were simply not factual, and the projected ones were even more outrageously fictitious. Wingspans Senior Citrix Engineer who was hired on just a week after me also noted that Recruiter Eastus promised things that were never materialized. This Virtualization Engineer stated that Wingspan cheated him on health and benefits and as a result he effectively had to take a $15,000 USD pay cut by leaving his previous job and coming to work at Wingspan. So if you thought a military recruiter was bad, well wait until you have to get sales pitched by Wingspans recruiters.

The IT Helpdesk/Service Desk manager ran the whole show like a military operation. I was hired on by this individual and reported to him. He seemed like a nice person at first until later on I actually got down to being on the job I realized he was treating me like I was enlisted and gave me marching orders (figuratively speaking) left and right. During my interview Recruiter Eastus informed me that the IT Service Desk manager used to be a Captain in the US Army (though I have to take with a grain of salt anything this recruiter says) and later it certainly felt like the Service Desk manager was treating me as if I was in boot camp and constantly criticizing me for the tiniest things. This is just my opinion, but it sure did feel like he had a sense of entitlement and that if you grew a brain and started asking questions or started challenging the blind status quo that was a huge No-no... If indeed he came from governmental bureaucracy and entitlement that would explain his seemingly power-hungry stature and the craving for that kind of unquestioned military respect... He had a hurry up and wait mentality and in my opinion would manage the Service Desk to the ground.

To give you an example, in my last Weekly Report I had remarked that once initiatives like Citrix and LanDesk come online and given the reality that Wingspan is obviously not growing at the pace it originally had hope and had expected, that eventually the six or seven helpdesk/servicedesk personnel (myself included in the headcount at the time) could be reduced significantly to two or three. The implication was that in the long term (next few months to few years) we would all lose job security. But that is the reality of IT in the first place regardless of company or industry, as I foresee helpdesk jobs in general to be obsolete in the next five years or less. It felt like the Service Desk Manager took this as a personal insult and found my insights unacceptable. Wingspan has a the emperor has no clothes culture and mentality. And if you ever dared to go against the groupthink, HR will find a way to get you canned.

The whole place was top heavy anyway. Too many Chiefs for the amount of Indians they had. The organizational structure could be flatten a whole lot to cut costs. And if Wingspan stops growing, I predict that is exactly whats gonna start happening anyway. The Service Desk Lead had a fake it until you make it persona but he was the only one there that had any potential at all. In my opinion, if Wingspan doesnt grow at the pace they wished, and once automation is streamlined, they can save some money by getting rid of the superfluous and redundant Service Desk manager and make the current Lead into Manager role. And like any new upstart, they have created the totally artificial label and distinction of Tier I and Tier II... as if it actually had any categorical difference or functional distinction. It just seemed silly, but I guess thats what happens when you let the anticipated phenomenon growth get to your head. There is a lot of infighting for nothing. Everyone is constantly in these POW-WOW meetings patting each other on the back and congratulating one another on being masters of the universe but never getting anything done. For a company this size and scale, thats surprising!

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#2 Consumer Comment

Bo,

AUTHOR: Karl - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Wingspan seems to operate much in the same way that our government and Wall Street operates, wouldn't you agree?

Feel free to 'Google' this- FRONTLINE: TOP SECRET AMERICA, and watch that documentary on the web for important information.

It appears that the U.S. government has approximately one million people employed and they are working in about 17,000 secret locations all over America. These government employees, who are being paid with taxpayer's money, are 'spying' on Americans and others all over the world in order to keep us safe.

Your Ripoff Report adds more proof that the banking sector is ultimately in control of our government and Wall Street, in my opinion.

Make sure to 'Google' the following nine videos and watch them on the web for further proof that the U.S. government and Wall Street are ultimately being controlled by a cartel of corrupt, greedy, and inept bankers who even control the price of oil-

1) FRONTLINE: MONEY, POWER AND WALL STREET
2) AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM
3) FULL SHOW: HOW BIG BANKS ARE REWRITING THE RULES OF OUR ECONOMY
4) FRONTLINE: THE WARNING
5) WHO OWNS THE FED BANK, WHO CONTROLS WHO VIDEO
6) FRONTLINE: INSIDE THE MELTDOWN
7) YOUTUBE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
8) INDYMAC BOYS GET SWEETHEART DEAL
9) DID SPECULATION FUEL OIL PRICE SWINGS

Happy Thanksgiving!

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#1 Consumer Comment

So Apparently Nothing has changed at Wingspan...

AUTHOR: HGIT - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

http://wingspanportfolioadvisors.blogspot.com/2012/11/ed-delgado-was-fired-from-wingspan.html

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