Total Merchant Services And Ameribanc National This company is totally a ripoff. What they do is hire the masses of sales reps to run the previous BAD set appts and close what they can. They advertise "great support and training" which is a lie. T Bloomingdale, Illinois

I have only worked here for about 3 weeks, but I will let the facts speak for themselves.

1. All training is online, but don't expect anyone to tell you where to look, you will have to locate it yourself.

2. You will get 2-3 set appointments a day, but don't expect them to have the correct address.  1/3 of my appointments are to the wrong address and you are not provided a phone number to double check before you get there.

3. Signing someone up is not complicated, but everyone of the people I have followed up with for referrals have had a complaint of some kind.  I have yet to get 1 referral.

4. (THIS IS THE ONLY ONE THAT REALLY MATTERS.)  I HAVE NOT BEEN PAID MY COMMISION.  Everyday it's something new as to why they can't pay me today.  Thank God I hadn't quit my old job or I would be completely screwed.  In my opinion, nothing else really matters to me if I can't get paid for my work. 

(I will not be listing my city and state in the outside chance that I actually do get paid someday, AND if I do, I will edit my comment to reflect if and when that happened)

Although this complaint is old and obviously not applicable to AmeriBanc National today, let me say as a current employee that the company today is nothing like the situation mentioned in the Ripoff Report to which I am responding.

The company has excellent training materials - an AmeriBanc National University online with plenty of instructional videos - more than most people ever take the time to watch and learn.  The company also as two training meetings a week for all sales personnel - a webinar and a conference call. The executives of the company are extremely skilled in what they do.

As for the company's performance in the market - just look at their business model: free equipment, no contract (cancel any day you want), no cancellation fee and the promise of lowest rates possible.  Now answer this question - how can a company with zero hooks in their customers keep growing month after month unless they keep their customers VERY happy?  If AmeriBanc does not offer the lowest rates, the next rate-slinger to walk in next week will easily steal the account.  But no, that doesn't happen.  The rates are low, and people stay.

As for lead quality, only one who is unfamiliar with the task of a telemarketer can complain about phone-set appointments.  This is the most difficult job on the planet.  It is amazing that even 1 of 2 people who agree to an appointment even show up.  A seasoned sales person should know full well that telemarketed appointments are sketchy at best.  I for one and thankful that more than half are good quality people whom I enjoy meeting with - and the others usually hide to avoid having to say "no, I don't want to save several hundred dollars a year, and no, I don't want to grow my sales and profits."  

A grain of salt, please.  Complaints about AmeriBanc need a grain of salt.

We are not aware of any commissions due that have not been paid, as a professional and ethical commitment, we feel it is urgently important that we always pay all commission due to an Independent Merchant Consultant. Please simply contact the manager or trainer or owner via email and let us know any/all commissions/bonuses earned and not paid and we will take care of that right away.

This era of the blogosphere and even this site make it difficult to maintain a "perfect" perception out in the world wide web, but we obviously do strive to do what we can. AmeriBanc has an A rating with the BBB, which is not easy to do. This site has an F rating with the BBB. This site has a policy of never removing a complaint even if it is determined to be unfounded.... unfortunately.

I would request this site to remove completely or at least edit out the accusations that our company is comprised of horrible people without morals. We do work so diligently to give candidates realistic expectations, great support and good assistance. The old adage that you "can't please everyone" I suppose is true but it's unforturnate that we must constantly defend against the extreme "fringe" of the sales world who accuse us of poor practices. There are so many good employees and managers that just don't deserve to be called names and referred to so poorly.

Each prospect is filtered before selection then further filtered before contacting to set up a sales appointment, then called, then confirmed to be the owner, have interest and agree to a time to see our consultants. We average a 85-90% "show-rate" meaning the owners are there and confirm to be the owners and participate in either a partial(short) presentation or a full presentation. We also average a closure rate of 25% of all appts set with a range of 10% to 75% per rep.

We provide Free Placement of equipment to our merchants so we simply cannot afford to "not care" about the customers as that would result in prohibitive costs. Additionally we could not afford to pay for a Call Center to set appointments that didn't result in a good percentage of interested prospects since we do not charge the sales representatives for that support as well. Additionally, we have support staff to process applications and do merchant training and ongoing support while the sales representative only has to "sell" new accounts. Not that selling is trivial, but we work hard to keep great salespeople freed up to focus on just selling, networking and developing their skills and ultimately, if they wish, to start their own agent relationship resulting in lifetime residuals.

I regret that this person feels that she or you "don't learn nothing" "training was boring" and that we "don't care" and are "horrible". Please check us out and apply your own critical thinking skills to our opportunity. Yes, it is a challenging job. Yes, it is not for just anyone. But the opportunity is terrific if you are a skilled sales person and have internal drive as well as being open to ongoing coaching and training. We will try extra hard not to bore you... :)

Again, I do not know who posted this, but if they read this, please let us know if there are any commissions/bonuses earned that were not paid - we never want that to happen regardless of your opinion and the way you chose to express it.

ABN Corporate