Owner Connect, LLC Owner Connect, Joni Stuker, Joni Smith, Joni Smith Stuker, Joni Smith-Stuker Refused to pay final wages - did not reimburse travel expenses - a company to avoid Hoffman Estates, IL Illinois

I engaged with Owner Connect for 3 months as a Trainer/Coach/Facilitator. I accepted a salary of 1k per week with the understanding compensation would be re-assessed at 3 months. I made several attempts to facilitate a dialogue with the owner Joni Smith about this (who, by the way, is ghosting the name of her ex husband, Tom Stuker, the REAL name behind who Joni pretends to be -  to create a sense of success by association) and at 2.5 I tried to begin this conversation and was blown off each time. I could sense very quickly the old bait and switch, there was no more money coming, and even if there was, I didn’t want to be a part of this “company”.

I have no reason to believe my compensation would ever have been adjusted to properly compensate for the nature and scope of the position. Duties consisted of traveling nationwide to clients (dealership) locations throughout the US. A typical day would be spent training and coaching business development reps (appointment setters) on efforts to generate more show room traffic by fielding incoming phone calls from interested potential automotive customers, follow up calls and email handling as well as recruiting and interviewing potential new hires. The job itself was fun, if you're the kind of person who can lead a group and isn't afraid of public speaking like me it's a great opportunity.

The problems I experienced with this company, however, made this job not worth the commitment required. The travel is extensive and while I knew this going into the organization, they scheduled me in a way that made it all but impossible to have any (meaningful) life outside of work, meanwhile, the salary barely allows one to get by. A typical week would begin on Sunday morning heading to the airport and I wouldn't return until Thursday or Friday late evening. On the many weeks I returned on Thursday late evenings,  the company had me driving out first thing Friday morning to clients for Friday that

The problems I experienced with this company, however, made this job not worth the commitment required. The travel is extensive and while I knew this going into the organization, they scheduled me in a way that made it all but impossible to have any (meaningful) life outside of work, meanwhile, the salary barely allows one to get by. A typical week would begin on Sunday morning heading to the airport and I wouldn't return until Thursday or Friday late evening. On the many weeks I returned on Thursday late evenings,  the company had me driving out first thing Friday morning to clients for Friday that were several hours away. Many times it was near impossible to get enough sleep to be effective on these Fridays. It's a

Many times it was near impossible to get enough sleep to be effective on these Fridays. It's a fast-paced job, and after returning late on Thursday it seemed like my week should be over, but the company gets all they can out of you. The company initially told me that there would be many 4 day work weeks, but this never happened. To add insult to injury, the company often was petty when it came to reimbursing travel expenses. For example, on Sunday's I would catch a cab to the airport and when I arrived back to my home airport, would catch a cab home.  The owner made several remarks about how I should have someone "drop me off and pick me up" instead of taking a cab - and frowned on reimbursing me for this expense which is ridiculous. Keep in mind I could have driven to the airport and parked at airport parking - costing the company 10x's more than a cab fare for 4-5 days of parking. This made me reluctant to turn in other minor expenses I incurred fearing that it would cause more hassle than it was worth.

Another real headache was that the company would sometimes goof up hotel accommodations and I would be at the hotel check in counter after a day of air travel without a reservation and would have to call the owner or other personnel to have issues resolved because of poor travel planning. In all instances, I was required to use my personal credit card to secure the rooms at the hotels and this resulted in a high dollar amount of authorizations on my personal card. These eventually fall off, but keep in mind I was only making 1k/wk, and many times those authorizations over the course of a week would substantially exceed what I made. No company credit card is issued for lodging or expenses. No uber company account as one would expect for a position like this.

The real deal breaker for me is that they sent me to Alaska to a client by mistake. Yeah, you read correctly. Alaska isn’t exactly up the street from me being in the Midwest.  I don't know about you but I'm not an air travel lover, so spending two full days in airports and plans with 6 hour flights x2 because of miscommunication isn't my cup of tea and was hard to look past.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. I let the owner know that I wouldn't be able to work with them any more and resigned. They illegally held back wages ($500) I earned by deducting the cost of an airline ticket associated with future travel plans related to work travel. But wait -  it gets better…They didn't pay me my final expenses for the last week I worked. In case you're wondering this was over a year ago, so I gave them plenty of time to pay. In fact, I wrote them a letter several weeks back before writing this review by certified mail (which was received on 9/15/2016) demanding payment for my wages and final weeks expenses. I also emailed the same letter to the owner on 9/12/2016. I asked for these wages to be paid. Weeks later (over a year after I resigned) nada.

I’m still begging this company to pay me money I paid out of my pocket to work for them OVER A YEAR AGO. Don't make the same mistakes I did. By becoming an independent contractor for them you are forfeiting any opportunity for many rights including collecting on wages owed. You will not be offered insurance, time off, vacation, you will not be entitled to workers compensation if an issue required it, you won't be eligible to receive unemployment...the list goes on and on. Being an independent contractor at this pay rate working the hours you'll work here just doesn't make sense. In fact, it's worth noting that they actually are commuting a crime by classifying their trainers as independent contractors - it's called independent contractor misclassification and unfortunately, this is a common trend among smaller businesses looking to wash their hands of any responsibility related to their work force. This is probably the only recourse I have for collection which I am in the process of pursuing.