Certified Payment Processing Summit Merchant Solutions Bogus Leads, Non Payment, teach salespeople to lie, sleazy tactics Carrollton Texas

I saw an ad on Careerbuilder for a job, working for Certified Payment Processing.  Since it was on Careerbuilder, I trusted it.  It wasn't some Craigslist scam job, they have to pay for an employment ad on there, unlike Craigslist.  The ad said, 3-5 pre-set appointments per day, $800-1200 per week, weekly pay, $750 start up bonus.  Sounded good.  I have over a decade of sales experience, and figured this would be a breeze, especially with pre-set appointments.

I filled out the application and the guy who called me was actually very nice.  He asked me a few questions, and after 5 minutes, I was "hired" for the job.  I was to attend an online/phone training class tomorrow from 8-3pm.  Great, I thought.  

The training class was fairly well done, but it wasn't enough to send an agent out there.  I learned a little, but not much.  Didn't feel confident at all, but was told a "Team Leader" would help us close sales.  Fair enough.  I was turned over to my team leader.  The guy sounded like a professional voice-over actor.  Very slick, polished phone voice.  I didn't like him right off the bat.  There was something very sneaky about him.  But, I didn't read too much into it.  I was excited to start my new career.  I was to call him at 8am the next morning to get my "leads" for the day.

So, I call 8AM, and I get an "appointment" that's about a 25 minute drive from my house.  Not a big deal.  I expected to drive a bit.  I showed up at 9:30 like I was supposed to, and to my dismay, the business owner wasn't in.  Drove 20 miles for nothing, but I understand that happens sometimes in sales.  Things come up, people forget.  Not a huge deal.  I call my "Team Leader" when I get back to my car and he starts yelling at me for not putting an employee on the phone! Seriously, dude??  

He said he would let this one slide, and gives me my 2nd appointment.  A 25 minute drive in the complete opposite direction, for an hour and a half later.  Show up to the business, again, owner not in.  Ok.... kinda weird, but ok.  I asked the cashier to speak to my manager, and totally bewildered, the teenage kid goes on the phone and says his manager isn't there.  Totally weird thing to ask a kid employee to speak with my manager, but I was playing by the "rules".  

My next appointment, "Team Leader" says, is at 1PM.  Only 11 minutes away this time.  I show up, and guess what?  Owner isn't in.  This is starting to get really fishy now.  0 for 3 with appointments.  At this point, I think that either the appointment setters for CPP are terrible, or I am getting fake leads.  I ask TL what the story is, and he gives me the old line about business owners forgetting, etc.  Didn't buy it, but whatever, maybe bad luck.  Next appointment, 23 minutes away, 3pm.  Owner not there.  Final appointment, 4pm, owner not there.  0 for 5 first day.  

At this point, I wanted to quit.  I knew I had been lied to, and these "appointments" were totally bogus.  But, because I was in a bind for work, I figured I would try a 2nd day.  First two appointments of Day 2, not there.  Now 0 for 7.  My 8th appointment was a Nail Salon, and the woman seemed shocked when I walked in.  Said not only did she not get a call about an appointment, she doesn't even accept credit cards at her location.

So, as I was instructed to do, I put my team leader on the phone, and within 30 seconds, they were engaged in a shouting match.  She was yelling at him, he was yelling at her.  Classic.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  I left, called Team Leader again, and he said something to the effect of, "She was the rudest woman ever!".  Let me just say that she was probably one of the sweetest women I've ever come across in my life.  Soft spoken, polite, as sweet as could be. He pressed her buttons to the point of her getting angry.  More on that later...

At this point, I told my Team Leader that I know the appointments are fake, why do you guys lie to people about them? He sort of admitted to me that they're fake, but then quickly changed the subject.  Told me that I needed to start generating my own leads, walking into 25-30 businesses a day.  Which is cool and all, but it's not what I signed up for.  I was told in training, that I was getting 15-20 appointments per week, people expecting me to walk in.  I didn't expect in a million years that I would be getting totally fake appointments, and was expected to canvass all day long.

At this point, I said screw it.  I'll play the game.  I started walking into random businesses that were next to my fake appointments.  By the end of the week, on my 5th day, I got my first sale.  I sold the top of the line package.  The POS System with the iPad.  The most expensive, highest commission product CPP offered.  I was to be paid a $900 commission on that, a $395 commission on the visa/mc/amex/discover/ACH conversion, a $500 fast start bonus for a sale in my first week, and a $100 bonus for going on all of my appointments.  I thought, GREAT! $1,895 in my first week.  Not bad at all.  Well, I never got paid.  

Yes, you read that right.  I never got paid on the deal.  I got my $100 money for completing the first week, but never got a dime in commission beyond that.  The company stole $1795 from me.  I was lied to and strung along for 4 weeks about getting paid.  Every time I asked about it, I got things like, "Really?!? You haven't been paid on that yet?!", and "You should have it within 24-48 hours, definitely".  "That deal was approved, you still haven't been paid yet?!" Imagine hearing that for 3-4 weeks?  I stopped working after the 2nd week, after not getting paid on that deal.  I was going to resume working if and when I got paid, but that never happened.  

Certified Payment Processing/Summit Merchant Solutions are CROOKS.  They are liars, scam artists, give you fake appointments, are rude, unprofessional, and worst of all, they will screw you out of pay.  Google it.  I'm not the only one.  Plenty of people here on this site and other complaint boards are saying similar things.

I can't believe this company continues to operate.  They lie about their fees, say ANYTHING to get a deal, have ridiculous non-cancellable contracts and leases, and claim to "buy people out of their current contracts", but don't half the time.  

I have worked for a lot of companies in my day, but CPP/SMS is without question the worst I've ever dealt with.  This company needs to be shut down ASAP.  I can't believe such a crooked company can continue to operate.