United Mortgage Group Labor Violations - Current Class Action Suit Found Online Labor law violations and possible consumer issues, see craigslist.org posting from another employee below! Concord California

Whomever posted the below posts on craigslist outlined much of my grievances and because the current class action suit is so small and the hassle of a lawsuit is more than what the outcome will be I am putting my brief note and these former employee's posts here to warn those looking for employment with this company. What is said is true including the stuff that consumers should know about too. In their online employment ads, you are sold on the six figure income only to find yourself in a telemarketing job at $8 per hour and this employer did not at any time offer to pay the California requirement of .50 cents per mile for all the gas used to drive myself and my SME (senior mortgage executive) to all the appointments scattered across over 22 counties in the Bay Area.

I was also not paid for the 5 days of training and was only granted employment after completing the unpaid training. The other issues in the class action lawsuit have to do with lunch breaks and legal rest breaks as well as hourly pay. At United Mortgage Group you are strongly urged to take your work home with you and call (unpaid) after hours from your home on evenings and weekends off of many times very old data lists (up to 10 years old or older according to a few people I called) that have people's phone numbers and loan information.
PS:they continue to wrongfully terminate and run ads on the internet, just go into google and put United Mortgage Group Concord, CA they post on all the major job sites and a few of the minor ones too such as craigslist and www.aftercollege.com preying on those of us who really don't know how much money is made from the constant turnover of people. Your first few loans you are paid minimally on and I only managed to do a small number for the sheer volume of calls and time there off of old data lists before everything really slowed down with the loan business.
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the craigslist postings and info. on the class action lawsuit

Rave! Class Action Suit: United Mortage Group & VanHattem Thank You! (walnut creek)

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Reply to: pers-712016912@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-06-08, 3:55AM PDT

More about this company that the public needs to know is free for the lookin' at ie:matter of public record as cut and pasted with links below this posting. Unfortunately, the 100+ employees who were fired or quit have no idea that this case exists but most certainly retain memory of the profligate actions of this company and are glad to be out of there! PS: Did'ja all know that in California your employer is supposed to pay a portion of the mileage you drive? I think it's .50cents per mile minimum along with all the other labor law provisions with respect to time keeping. When I was there we had no record keeping of hours and many times to keep up with stats we would work telemarketing right through the lunch hour eating at our desks and then staying after hours until Peter decided to close or no later than the legal limit for telemarketing. Thank you Rebecca VanHattem for gettin' the ball rolling on exposing a big part of the business model of this company so that maybe, just maybe the public at large can know about it!

I'm so glad I left that company shortly after Rebecca VanHattem filed. For the public at large, this is one of the companies that inevitably calls you because you have relatively OK credit and maybe applied for real estate or other large purchase financing generating a 'trigger' lead that mortgage companies and others like them such as banks or credit unions can purchase. What you don't know is that instead of the up to 2.75 points you are recommended as a maximum to pay on your mortgage per Money Magazine you end up paying a more 'maximum' amount. For example, if your loan is 250K and below, your United Mortgage Group representative can and will charge as high as 5% If your loan is above 250K then it's more like 3% and those extra fees of $3500+ that your rep. says goes to processing, lender fees and title, well, the amount that is supposed to go to the processing department is just so much extra profit pocketing by those in senior management-ha, ha, ha!

Oh, and the 'Good Faith Estimate' that you received in the mail, well yes it's extremely overinflated and you will be told as much by phone but by the time you have your appointment your representative will not give you another more to the minute one on the spot to give you a copy of begging off that you already got one. But they will probably show you the 'conversation package workup' if you demand it so you can see some sort of run down on the fees but you will not receive a copy of that and your rep. will do everything to disract you from it or flat out state that 'when I get back to the office' we'll make a copy after speaking with the manager.

The Department of Real Estate seriously needs to do a thorough investigation of companies like this, there was so much I saw there that I as a consumer realize that even my detailed identification in the form of social security numbers and credit reports could be in the trunk of some rep. who may eventually chuck it in the garbage for anyone to pick up. Oy!

So, here it is, in all it's glory the United Mortgage Group class action which doesn't begin to scratch the surface of all that really goes on when an office of sales reps. who are unlicensed are free to operate under their company's CFL license and because most are too naive to know better are paid far less than even 50% of the gross brokerage fees for all those hours of telemarketing and driving as far as Tahoe (all that gas!) just to make a @!#$% presentation to a client who might not even bite because they can see through the BS!

http://www.nka.com/Cases%5CUnitedMortgageGroup.aspx?CaseRef=92

Here's the link to the actual .pdf Brief:

http://www.overtimecases.com/cases/DOCUMENTS/UnitedMortgageAmendedComplaint.pdf

Active Cases
VanHattem, et al. v. United Mortgage Group et al
On March 21, 2008, we filed our First Amended Complaint on behalf of Assistant Mortgage Executives and Mortgage Executives against United Mortgage Group, Parminder Johal, and Peter Johal. These employees seek
overtime compensation under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and compensation for missed meal and rest periods under California law.

NKA is working with Bruckner Burch PLLC and Lee & Braziel, LLP on this case. The following staff from Nichols Kaster & Anderson, PLLP are handling this case:

Staff
Brad Heitzinger
Melissa Honkanen

Attorneys
Matthew C. Helland
Paul J. Lukas
Donald H. Nichols

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 712016912
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SOMEONE'S REPLY:

R&Rave! Rebecca VanHattem vs. United Mortgage Group Labor Violations
(pittsburg / antioch)
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Reply to: pers-713162688@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-06-09, 4:56AM PDT

RE: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rnr/712016912.html

Good morning Rebecca and Gina! I hope all the employees and ex-employees join your class action and the department of real estate checks out the link above. When will a local news station get wind of this little story that's obviously just the tip of the iceberg.

As always, there's alot more to the story and geez, UMG et al really are getting away with alot-'had no idea they were raking in as much as $500K per year, but then again, 175 or so 1003 applications with social security numbers per day is bound to have some impact on a
broker's bottom line.

Uh, Pete I learned from another broker who searched you out on the CA licensing site that you're not even the broker, your sister Parm is.

What a fine pair you both made, while your sister conveniently hid behind the mostly closed door of your shared office to keep out the !@#$ing noise in your ergonomically !@^%ed hexagon cubicles and you
had your SME's holler memorized objections for your reps. your telemarketers/employees Junior Mortgage Executives were not even supplied headsets or the necessary ergonomics to prevent injury and @0$amn you guys did a helluva job keeping the pressure on. I remember a few of those who were there before I came on the scene who would eat their lunch and keep telemarketing through the lunch period and they
even stayed late in a mostly vain attempt to get more applications and appointments.

I'm glad I got a few decent job offers shortly after my training period and accepted because your environment, payscale and commission structure for new hires and beyond is truly pathetic for the kind of slave driving you do and the m0%^#rF^&*ing Money you're making.

I'm so glad I never had to stay and drone on with the hours of daily telemarketing necessary to become a Mortgage Executive, continue with more telemarketing and the screaming match that Jon (aka Vicenzio)or
George your most Senior VP's gave as a kind of quality check-WTF? Most of your staff hires are 20 somethings and needed confidence building, not morale demolition like military boot camp-they're !@#$ing civilians @ssmunch! Also, don't think our friends on the outside who were former SME's didn't let us know that what was really happening was a massive banking on attrition: ie: the crappy splits that were required for the first up to 5 transactions was designed with profitability in mind weighted grossly in your favor because you knew
that by the time transaction number 5 came up the month or 2 following was 'prime time' for culling so that you could hire the next crop of sheeple reps. to repeat the process. Do you really think the free ride on our mostly ignorant backs was going to go on forever?

Go !@ck yourselves and the horse you rode in on. Ah! Craigslist, thank you for letting me get that off my chest because I had never worked in such a crazy atmosphere as that office!

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 713162688

Condodweller
Martinez, California
U.S.A.