Elocal Listing, Zone Communications, Relevant Yellow, Search Initiatives scams and lies! DONT TRUST THEM!!! Temecula California

If you do some digging you will also find that the companies internal lawyer's (who is not licensed to practice law in California) son is also working in the production department in a position which several individuals were laid off from. I did do some digging on this and in the state of California it is illegal to lay-off a person from a position and refill this position within a 6 month period. The position must stay closed to anyone for nothing under 6 months when this position is considered a lay-off position (to be clear). Check with the Labor Board and know your rights as an employee. I will be filing a claim for harrasment and scare tactics (I have times and dates documented, also what has been said and any witnesses who heard what was said) and hopefully others will also too lump these claims together so they are not viewed as isolated incidents. With 5 or more people this can turn into a serious class action law suit as well as several hundreds or thousands of dollars in violations for eLocal to deal with. I think I hear that stock price dropping as I type.

I am an ex-employee of elocal listing. I was one of the many that got laid off in mid June. That day, they laid off a pretty good handful of people. Then I find out a couple of weeks later that they hired Tim Judd's 15 year old son to start working in production. WTF?

They just laid off a handful of people due to lack of work, then turn around and hire someone else, not to mention that he's 15 AND the CEO's son. OK, thats F'd up on a couple levels. 1) It's total BS that the CEO's son gets a special job just for him, solely because hes the CEO's son. and 2) I believe in the state of CA, 15 year old's can only work around 2-5 hours a day.

Pretty F'd up to me.

I worked for about a year and a half at elocal. The experience for me was mostly postive , I made good money and liked the people I worked with. Never expected much from the profit sharing, I've worked many sales jobs ,and they tend to never live up to the hype. I think that elocal left many broken hearts. They are really good at building the dream, which is a good and bad thing. It would work better if they had a product. Best of luck to all ex, present, and future employees. by the way ......... some of these blogs are so mean.....i didn't even need to know that sh*t!

I love how the facts are being slowly being diverted away from. The point of my statement is this,
If elocal cannot practice ethical employee relations how in the hell can they practice ethical customer relations? Greg's son was laid off by a manager who manages using feelings and not sound facts, seniority, or product knowledge. It's based on who do I dislike the most. This is a guy who says he knows something for a "fact" because someone else told him that it is a fact.

Marie has sexually harassed her own employees by bearing her upper body to them in public at a bar, how professional. The story has gone through the office time and time again including how she is pierced in both parts of her upper body. That is a personal thing and if this is not true how does the office know these things. The only way people would know something personal of that nature is if this act was done. I must say that in judging a companies performance the first step should be judging the people who are controlling the company.

I read allot of misdirection away from the fact that the companies main people are low down which makes the company itself, lowdown. The accounting manager and Greg R. have been working countless 12 hour days to stay caught up, doesn't sound like they are doing a good job or all the overtime would not be needed considering they fired their staff and kept only the people who are new and clueless to the companies past. They fired all the accounting staff who went to Greg or Ralph reporting something fishy in the SAP accounting system (translation = money is missing). Why don't we ask ourselves why these individuals were fired within 2 weeks after reporting the fishy things in SAP? As was the I.T. admin and Ms. Sauser who reported strange activities as well as manager/employee fraternization. It sounds to me like you are a person in a high position in the company and are claiming to be an ex-employee to confuse the facts. Bottom line: The company operates with extreme internal politics and anyone who voices themselves or questions things that are obviously underhanded are immediately removed from the company to preserve the false integrity the company claims to have. Way to go elocal, you say you're helping people. Here's an example of how elocal helps its employees. One of your original employees is going bankrupt working for you because you keep taking money away from their base pay and removing all managers from power. The company then places these people in the telemarketing room and forces them to take significant steps backwards causing adverse effects on their home life and finances. How many good people are you taking down from 1,000 a week base pay, to 500 a week base pay? And now starting to lower that number to 350 a week base pay. These were managers whose lively hood depends on the established pay the company set for them. Oh, these people are not being removed for any negative issues, just so the company can be "profitable". Elocal is really helping right. Helping people into the poor house.
As I stated, all employees wrongfully removed, laid off, or fired should contact the Southern California Civil Liberties Union and the California Labor Board. I am in contact with them now so be ready for an audit elocal. Wisdom is the key!

I just want to say I worked for Elocal and was laid off recently. I can't believe that someone would try and destroy other people this way. I am not happy about the fact that I was laid off but its life. I think some people on here need to really look at themselves and what they are causing. Look at the world around you for a minute. People are being laid of left and right and having thier salaries cut by 100's and 100's of companies right now.

The managers and directors you are trashing were doing thier jobs. If you had the same responsibility what would you do? I actually know a little about the VP controller and Finance Manager and H.R. Director. People they were doing thier job. I see that no one has brought up the fact that Greg's son got laid off. If there was this big cult that he had control of I think he could have stopped it, but that didn't happen. The manager of that department made that choice. I am sure he didn't agree with it but it's business. I am sure Ralph, Jeff, Tim and all the other Executives of this company just let these few people do what ever they would like. Come on no one is powerful!

As for the H.R. Director. She is doing her job. She gets paid to lay people off and fire them among a few other not so fun jobs. Marie is a good person and cares deeply for all of those around her. It really doesn't matter if you are her friend or not she always has time for you. I have always seen her smile a lot more than she has frowned or been mad. Once again she has a really tough job but she does it well.

As for the Finance Manager, she was brought in to do a job and she seems to be making it work. Amazing how she cut her staff in half and still the department runs smoothly and in a timely fashion. When you are told to make cuts you have to take your personal feelings out of it. I am sure no one saw her cry when she let Dennis go. Oh wait but she only kept her friends?

Todd well now there is a man I see that is trying to help as many people in this world that he can. Is he perfect no I don't think so but then again who in this world is. Yes, they have "EX" alcoholics and drug addicts working there. So you are telling me that once you have a problem you should never get a second or third chance?

I think it is a sad place and time when you are bringing up peoples sexual preference or practices that you think you know about, we really know nothing about it but you are bringing it into a forum that is suppose to be about being ripped off. I believe if you have actually seen it with your own two eyes then you still should have nothing to say about this. So are you saying that "gay" people shouldn't be employed? Are you saying that you have never done anything that was questionable to someone? I believe there has only been one person on this earth that was perfect. Oh and what happened to him he was hung up and crucified.

As for any racist comments give me a break. We live in a very diverse world and you are going to find people of every walk of life. It's about finding peace within yourself that really matters. I think all this bickering and humiliating people for no good reason is so sad. You may think these are only words but you are attacking peoples principles and life. Once again this has nothing to do with business.

On the topic of business, I look through all the businesses with complaints and I find it kind of funny that you have now placed Elocal Listing in the same realm as multi million dollar companies. Yes, even Verizon, At&t and 100's of others all have complaints on here. One diffrence the people who wrote those are not attacking specific individuals they are using this forum for what it is for, to complain about bad service.

Why don't we all play nice and if you have a problem with Elocal's business practices bring those up not this slander and lies that have nothing to back them up.

Sad and disappointed

I have read nothing in your response regarding the facts or validity of my statement. Only slanderous remarks targeting an individual who had nothing to do with my rebuttal. Once I find work else where I will post my real name and once again elocal will be forced to eat crow for slamming another person in the belief it is them writing this, not a fact that it is. Your company is going down, Rebuttal that! The fact is if the economy was not so bad I would be able to find employment with another company sooner, what intelligent person do you know that just quits a job without another one lined up. It sounds to me that your angry the truth is coming out about elocal and its "key players". I will find another job and until then milk elocal for all its worth, that is what you do to your work force right? An eye for an eye right. You like to retaliate so I expect another completely senseless and non explanation or refutal of the facts I have written about. Again, I read no rebuttal.

This is how you can tell the post is full of it. Anyone that disgusted with any place would just quit. Don't use your family as an excuse to be in a place where you get paid to be ABUSED . What kind of sick demented person do you have to be. Oh BTW SEIMENS is laying off 17 THOUSAND employees, GM is laying off 30 THOUSAND, I guess those companies suck too? Its called a Recession, but I know your pathetic 8th grade education cant help you comprehend what that means as it pertains to the general US economy. Oh did you forget to mention you never finished HS, you are not the only one who can get information. You need to grow up and put your efforts somewhere else, this is getting old and played out. The information your are offering is old and outdated without any merit or proof and sounds like a broken record. Come here with facts, but make sure they are not from Ronda, you are going to make her look really bad, because she would know that type of information about Mike and Keith and the other resellers right?
Well good job on the grammar on this post, at least you changed it a little bit, but your format is still the same. If you read at least 15 minutes a day, you just might make it to finishing the 8th grade.

Hello,
I am a current employee of elocal's. Presently I work day to day in fear due to the reduction of the companies staff by about 50% and this number seems to be climbing (that doesnt sound like a stable company to me). They say they are doing cutbacks to get the company profitable but this company was profitable before Search Initiatives aquired Zone communications Inc. and created eLocal Listing LLC.

I have read all the rip-off reports associated with elocal and I will concur that the company is without a doubt a scam, and gives hope to its employees using false promises of stock options and becoming a millionaire as Mr. Todd Johnson continually preaches in his weekly meetings/brainwashing seminars. I also have seen this company "layoff" employees almost a month ago for not enough room in the sales department and now they are hiring sales people again instead of contacting those individuals who have been layed off to re-fill their jobs, Im not sure but I believe this is illegal (I will have to look that up and see).

The company has really damaged other companies called "resellers" who were reselling the elocal product (or I should say lack of) under contract bases which were violated time and again.There was a reseller office being run by a known criminal ( identity stealing and check fraud, public information http://public-access.riverside.courts.ca.gov/OpenAccess/CRIMINAL/criminalnames.asp?deflastname=NELDER&bus=N&defmidname=&deffirstname=KEITH&defdob=&courtcode=C&filedatefrom=&filedateto=&limit=50&DSN= ) named Keith Nelder who was running this reseller under the money of Mike Ruter (Bad Man). Mike Ruter was in control of the finacials for all the resellers that elocal worked with including the one (Mike is the money man for this reseller, I smell conflict of interest) that Keith Nelder was operating for Mike Ruter and ecentially could doctor numbers for his own interests as he has money to lose. Conflict of Interest, you bet.

eLocal is also involved in several lawsuits with their customers as well as lawsuits taken up by the companies own resellers due to non payment or contract violations.

Point is that this company is no good, the people responsible for this company are no good, if my family could make it I would quit now but I am seeking another job quietly. And if you are not in the elocal click (bar hopping, manager to employee fraternizing, alcoholic management staff, funny because Mr. Todd Johnson is an alcohol and drug recovery advocate and 80% of the company he built is filled with drug users and alcoholics alike) then you are an outsider and are pushed out of the company as in the frame job this company did to Mr. Miguel V in accusing him of various deeds which have circulated through the office like every other bit of information that the high ups try to conceal. Its funny how 200,000 dollars is missing, where did it go, maybe it went to buy Jeff Einstoss his new Mercedes Benz? Did the accounting department (basicly 3 main people) spend it on booze? Did payroll make a mistake due to the red nosed (drunk who's always angry and hung over) Marie Defoor, or is it because Marie Defoor (human resource director), Greg Royse (vp controller) and Michelle Evanoff (accounting manager) and several other employees are all close friends outside of work and fraternize with each other sexually? Either way there is something illegal and lowdown going on in this company and I urge all who have been wronged by elocal to contact the Southern California Civil Liberties Union as well as the California Labor board.

I hope this adds WISDOM to the situation. Coming from the inside of the company this is 100% the correct information I know it.

De we resort to racial comments? Have we exhausted all forms of communication? I Dare ask when does it become ok to mock someones nationality or race? Especially to an ex employee! What kind of business ethics are these?
You speak as if you are the wise owl, but present yourself like an angry teenager.
I would refrain from using all those big words you might choke on them. Considering how stupid you have been. You continue to derail the topics at hand trying to change the focus point of this report. Accusing deniis and now miguel. After your racist comments your company's credibility just keeps falling away with all your inferior rebuttals.
By the way last weeks meeting was ridiculous, Todd admitted that "some" of the report is true. The odd part was he didn't say which part was true, How convenient.
Sounds like Todd only wants to tell you what you need to know, because he cares...
I wonder what your Hispanic clients would think if they where to see your racist comments.

If your being harassed I would suggest speaking with a lawyer. Especially after those racist comments.

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -Plato

For Ex-Employee.

How many people have you helped get on their feet? How many people would you be able to get a job for regardless of what it was (you might want to help Miguel)? I might not agree with everything Todd does, but I can say ONE thing for sure. He has helped more people from their addictions than you and or I have. So whenever you can step up to the plate and do the same thing let me know. Please also understand that HELP is not 100% free, he does run a business and he may give off the wall lectures, but priest and pastors do it all the time to get their point across. So before you decide to throw some stones in your glass house, lets reflect on your thoughts and then voice them out.

Miguel, as much as you want to mock an education, because of your lack there of (I know 8th grade seems a lot to you) the fact of the matter is that it is very important. Sure point to my TYPOs, or do you even know what that means? It might be true that there are some issues at eLocal, but that is like any other company there is out there. You come here to bash the very same people you sat in front of crying, and saying thank you for the opportunities and then begging for your job back.

Why don't you do yourself a favor and put all these energies in doing something good for yourself instead of ruining your reputation any worse. Also please refrain from quoting famous philosophers, you try to draw some correlation from their(English 101 lesson- proper use of the word "thier") teachings into your illogical diatribe, come on we are not that stupid. They finished school at least till after the 8th grade.

So what is your latest scoop? Any new information you have been able to dig up illegally? I am interested on hearing all about it, I mean you try to pump yourself up to be something you can only dream of.
Let me give you a little insight on retention, cell phone providers loose thousands of customers daily. Why do you think there are so many cell shops promoting different carriers everywhere? Customers come and go, its part of the business cycle, oh but wait that's above an 8th grade education.
Oh, BTW how did the interview at Js go? Did you get the job?

Its not wise to assume, assuming makes you the a**!
The wetback comment above only proves how unprofessional the company is when the director of IT Micheal Dierickx is calling ex-employees wetbacks on rebuttals.

1) Your company continues to harass me accusing me of false actions.

2) Your company continues to defimate my character to current and ex employees.

3) Your company fired me for some reasons that are completely wrong and illegal.

and yet you continue to harass me! Are you stupid?

This is your fair warning elocal keep my name and personal life outta your F***** mouths, what I do isn't any of your business, I am not employed by you so stay out of my life I wasted enough time with your company and have moved on to more proficient and effective projects outside your so-called "market". There is more to the internet then one page profiles. If you would spend half the time and resources you do harassing ex-employees you might become successful. I don't care to harass your company, your reputation speaks for itself.

I am proud to be Mexican and a man of your caliber like you will never be an 1/8 of the man I am, regardless how much money you make. You can ask anyone who truly knows me, I've work hard and earned my respect the right way.

I hope all friends are doing well and that you become prosperous in your future. ^_^
Good Luck, Take care
Miguel V.

You have no customers left! This speaks for itself. Elocal cannot do what it claims. This is one of the ways you got yourselves in debt by having to do Google ad words and Yahoo sponsored! BECAUSE YOU CANNOT GET THEM UP IN THE LOCAL!! You must be fairly new to elocal, I can tell by the way your sticking up for them. How sweet you still have stars in your eyes. You have not caught on to all the BS yet. Anyways it does not matter you have no customers left! It seems the world is catching on to all your lies.

why do you keep calling and asking to be rehired? DR, RG and(log in-Blaine Mansfield), and MV have all called since they were fired and asked for their jobs back. Must be a terrible place to work. If you want to continue working for a company, you should probably not steal from them, nor threaten to "bring the company down" with your pretentious IT prowess.

Dominique

The more and more I read these posts, I understand completely why these people are spreading falsehoods and trying to hurt the people they used to work with. Most people, when they lose a job, get on with their lives. Normally, if they're talented enough, they can pick up with a similar job with similar benefits and salaries.

But ex-employees from eLocal who have been fired for cause (embezzlement in Blaine Mansfield's case (hope you enjoy prison), sheer incompetent idiocy in V's case (IT stand for Information Technology not Idiot's on Tap)) or who have quit do not get to keep that all-important benefit of equity in the company.

But for these vitriolic posters, alas, you are too incompetent to catch on anywhere else, and elocal was the best thing to happen to you. Now that it has been snatched away from you, the gall of bitterness appears to be too overwhelming. Perhaps RG and MV should hook up and commiserate together. Misery loves company!

Mojado Miguel, Ole! Ole!

To "V" and others brave enough to finally step forward and expose the truth: Elocal, and all the past businesses these people have been running, scam after scam. Finally the truth is coming out! I have seen the comments on Yahoo local get scrubbed away for months and months as Elocal tries to cover their butts. Just like they did when they were Zone Communications, IGN or iGetNet Keywords, Oh Golly, Netpage etc... What happened to all of these companies? They all go down like a sinking ship, just like Elocal is going to go down. Don't believe me? Just look em up! It won't be long until Todd Johnson and his crew are onto the next big scam. Looks like they have already started something with their new Elocal Video. Before you know it, they will be promoting only the video and calling themselves iGetVideo.... you get the point!

I commend you guys for speaking out and telling the TRUTH! Keep up the good work in letting future employees and future consumers know all of this!

P.S. I would like to see Elocal scrub this report away! Ha!

Pretty much everyone ( with the exception of a few) left at elocal are participating in a cult led by Todd Johnson. Beware, elocal employees YOU are being deceived as are the poor unsuspecting customers who sign up for your service. It is true company's are in fact laying off their employees everywhere BUT are they re hiring new one at minimum wage? With no stock benefits? What about the fact that you can search any of Todd Johnsons previous business's and all have been labeled as a scam!

The customers and the reviews on line by them speak for themselves. You are a scam and are only there fattening Todd Johnsons pockets! He is only using you! I actually am not mad at you just feel bad that it is taking you so much longer to realize the truth. Let me explain on your level, maybe I can help " set you free". Dont you notice Todd only hires broken people? People who are suffering from drug and alcohol addictions, your family has abandoned you and you have lost the respect of your friends. Todd Johnson lurks around AA and NA establishments only to be ' THE NIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR" he takes you in, cleans you up, tells you he loves you and if you listen and follow him everything will be ok. Normally this is called a PIMP! but lets keep going.... he invites the young girls to the gym, dinner, his jacuzzi parties.

For the boys he strokes your egos and puts designer suits on you. Sound familiar? He tells you stories about his sexual addictions, sexual abuse, and " gangster lifestyle". These are lies created to make you believe if you do EXACTLY as he says you will be filthy rich like him, only he does not tell you that he obtained these things by using people just like you. You sale the people, customer service re sales these people and Todd walks away a rich man! And you have nothing...just like when he first found you.

So my little puppet friends heed my warnings! Burn your Nike's, refuse to drink the cool aid, and run for your lives! Isnt it kind of ironic that the very tool Todd has used to scam people ( the internet) is now the tool bringing us together to bring him down? Oh and by the way the rebuttal saying Deniise was a mere billing clerk and not an accountant is absolutely beautiful, you see dumb a*s..everyone is reading and watching to see elocals reaction to these accusations and instead of dismantling any of the important issues you chose to argue over someones job title? So basically you are admitting that the other subjects are valid, is this correct? I cant help but think I smell a big fat rat by the name of Steve E!

P.S Deniise was one of the hardest working employees elocal ever saw and it was a pleasure working with her and do your homework before you start accusing people of leaving comments on here...Dumb A***

I couldnt have said it better myself. I also am an ex employee..
During my time there I was forced to sit through the "Church of Todd" once a week where I was subjected to stories of physical and sexual abuse of children, talk of suicide and the power of taking someones life, stories about drug filled rages where Todd Johnson spoke of sexually assaulting an animals. The days of our meetings were normally very somber and filled me with anxiety.. I often hoped my car would brake down for for a conjestion on the highway so I could miss the morning. Working in that enviroment changed/ scarred me for life. I do not trust that someone is who they pretend to be anymore. For all the employees they are hiring to replace us.. BE WARNED.. All isnt what it seems at eLocal.. Pay attention.. ask around.. Is it normal that a company with such a "long proven history" has only 6 of its original employees??

I couldnt have said it better myself. I also am an ex employee..
During my time there I was forced to sit through the "Church of Todd" once a week where I was subjected to stories of physical and sexual abuse of children, talk of suicide and the power of taking someones life, stories about drug filled rages where Todd Johnson spoke of sexually assaulting an animals. The days of our meetings were normally very somber and filled me with anxiety.. I often hoped my car would brake down for for a conjestion on the highway so I could miss the morning. Working in that enviroment changed/ scarred me for life. I do not trust that someone is who they pretend to be anymore. For all the employees they are hiring to replace us.. BE WARNED.. All isnt what it seems at eLocal.. Pay attention.. ask around.. Is it normal that a company with such a "long proven history" has only 6 of its original employees??

I couldnt have said it better myself. I also am an ex employee..
During my time there I was forced to sit through the "Church of Todd" once a week where I was subjected to stories of physical and sexual abuse of children, talk of suicide and the power of taking someones life, stories about drug filled rages where Todd Johnson spoke of sexually assaulting an animals. The days of our meetings were normally very somber and filled me with anxiety.. I often hoped my car would brake down for for a conjestion on the highway so I could miss the morning. Working in that enviroment changed/ scarred me for life. I do not trust that someone is who they pretend to be anymore. For all the employees they are hiring to replace us.. BE WARNED.. All isnt what it seems at eLocal.. Pay attention.. ask around.. Is it normal that a company with such a "long proven history" has only 6 of its original employees??

First of all Deniis, you were not an "accountant"...just a mere Billing Clerk, and second, if you were good at your job then you would still have it.

Nice try to belittle me using English grammar as your weapon, unfortunately your company has nothing to do on the subject so please stay on the subject at hand and stop trying to derail the topic, changing the focus point from Scamming to English 2B.

My only goal in this is to prove your sinister business practices, which believe it or not takes almost little to no effort. As most of the evidence is already on the net.

Once again there is nothing on your rebbutal to refute the stated facts only a cheap and sloppy attack that I am sure you and your team spent all night working on.

go to the www.bbb.com and search "elocal listing"
go to any search engine and type "elocal listing" "elocal scams" "elocal listing scams"

The truth is out there, too bad you cant lie to the rest of the world! Or remove any reviews outside of your own.
And yes your company is filled with disgruntled employees because of your business practices and your deceptions. Which even they have noticed.
Its OK, I am sure we will have another brainwashing this Thursday like the last.
so you can tell us how "Profitable" we supposedly are or are going to be.

By the way is your customer cancellation rate part of the "fat trimming"? or is it part of the projection?

"You might want to look at a 3rd grade dictionary, it might have some pictures to help you understand to differences."
- nice context and command of the English language Dr. English

Good Luck Trying to hide the truth.

Well based on your grammar and various misspellings and lack of command of the English language, it is not difficult to tell which disgruntled ex-employee you are. It is very sad to see that, because you have a grievance with a few employees of the company, that you take it out on the entire Company, especially those that have sheltered and taken care of you at one point. So now with your post, what do you expect to gain? Sometimes I really wish you would act more like a man, that you have the potential to be, instead of basing your actions on pure emotions. You look like a little boy trying to seek attention and have no other avenues to express himself. If you were to focus these negative energies into achieving a positive goal, you actually might succeed in life one day. Look where it has gotten you in your personal relationships and your career. Nowhere. So next time before you post, please have someone proof read it, because you look more like an oaf and a cry baby. Do you have anything in writing to substantiate, your claims that upper management was ever notified? I doubt it. Everything you allege thus far is based on gossip/hearsay, come on you're smarter than that. Right? (I could be wrong). Please post facts that you were actually a part of, or have seen, not what someone else has told you. Also you speak of layoffs, do you not read the news or at least watch it if you have difficulty reading. Most if not all companies have been trimming off their workforce in order to maintain profitability, all companies are doing it and it is a very sound business decision to trim off the fat instead of paying out salaries that can decrease your bottom line. Once again this is a simple business concept, I doubt that you would really understand. Good luck in your future endeavors you are really going to need it.

BTW please look up the differences between Their and There, that's how I can tell which post are all yours. You might want to look at a 3rd grade dictionary, it might have some pictures to help you understand to differences.