Civic Development Group - Millenium Teleservices mistreatment of employees, wrongfull termination,injured on job,company did not pay Mayfield Kentucky

Well what i have to say for this, is the fact you reported that your office was in oshawa, it says u live in the U.S. First of all you have no health coverage like we do here in canada. I agree with you about the job, however it is not infact a scam at all, in knowing and being employed by this company you should have known calling in sick would get you fired because if youre not at work your useless to them, why would they keep you knowing you have a head injury and this probably won't be the last time out of work. Your manager shouldnt have treated you the way they did but the circumstances they did fire you under were legite. If you cannot by any means prove you were hurt at that specific office no file can be committed. the doctor you saw should have written you a letter. Also you can never just take somebodys word on a payment like this. When somebody tells you they are going to pay your hospital bills have them write it down and document that, talk is cheap. Now that you have already made this mistake you cannot fix it or take legal action, you cannot blame a company for an employee's action, weather or not he/she is a manager. Like it or not.

Do next time you trip and fall do make sure that somebody documents their words then you may be able to create a court case out of it. This accident happend at your own discretion and you went to the doctor on your own discretion, i guess you will think next time before you believe everything everyone tells you.

Re: This company is no scam, and a percent of donation are put through to charity.

Jebbi

First and foremost, just because the author of this thread has a hard time spelling, or maybe was in a rush, any number of reasons, doesn't mean his story has no credit or that he's lying. I've met more dis-honest educated people in my life than dis-honest un-educated ones.

Secondly, MTS does teach you to lie. "Sound like a policeman, sound like a fire fighter", I was told that daily while I worked there. I was also told how to mumble key disclosures like "the call may be recorded for quality purposes" or "although only 15% of the collected money will go to (association), they believe it's well worth the effort" so the donor wouldn't hear it, and would be more inclined to give money. The FTC you say? They would investigate?
Funny you should mention that. . . .
Turns out the FTC has come down on MTS, and it's parent group CDG, quite hard. Seems that an organization that they were fundraising for was so profitable, that they decided "Hey! Let's buy this charity, continue to sell it to clients, and now we can tell them that 100% of the monnies collected will go right to the organization", which technically wouldn't be a lie, since they own it, and all the money would be going to them. FTC said nuh-uh, and has ordered them to pay back all 300 million dollars collected for this fund. Of course, CDG isn't doing that, instead their moving all of their funds off-shore, and I'm sure soon they will be gone, CEO's in tropical locales with lots of money and all.

Of all the job's I have held, this is the scummiest, under-handed, fraudlent one of them all. They're not donations, they're sales. Old lady on a fixed income? Who cares, squeeze her while she's alive. I heard managers bragging about how they got a 25 dollar donation out of a woman on her death bed. There's an entire culture of taking money from those who don't have a lot and being proud of it. As I was told by my managers, these people are suckers. Rich people know better than to give their money to these groups, but the poor don't. If they knew how to manage their money, they wouldn't be poor.

My office, Office 43 in Oshawa, is a sess-pool. Most employees are criminals and ex-cons, sprinkled with a couple of students, the odd crack-head, and a couple of single mothers, who were sexually harrassed constantly. If you had a pair of t**s, you were hired, if you didn't put out, you were fired.

Anyone defending CDG or MTS has bought in totally to this culture, prehaps because they want to climb a ladder or because they're too dim-witted to notice whats really going on, but anyone with a heart will tell you, every phone call you made chipped off a piece of your soul forever.

I was employed by this company for four years and ran two of their call centres as senior management, CCM and ACCM.

First of all, when reading these complaints not a single one of these people has taken the time to check themselves for things like spelling, grammar, or sentence structure. I can imagine they took the same care and diligence when fundraising. I wouldn't expect someone who can't put a sentence together to understand how one of the largest private companies in North America works.

As for the argument that CDG solicits small charities for exploitation, show me a successful company that doesn't try to grow and aquire new business. Many of these charities are referred by other charities with existing contracts because of their positive experience. I have yet to see a group CDG is fundraising for that doesn't proudly boast that it is the largest association of it's kind in the state. They are real organizations and charities, I have met representatives from three of them, and seen their charity work in my town and others.

As for the mistreatment of seniors, both as employees and donors, this is false as well.

As I said I ran two of their call centres and seniors are some of the best fundraisers around, they show up for work every day, they have a developed ethic and a level of maturity not shown in any of these complaints.

As for seniors donating, their donations are obviously smaller and represent a very small fraction of the actual amount raised. It simply doesn't make business sense to harass your least profitable demographic, let alone to arouse the indignation of younger sons and daughters. CDG also has numerous checks and balances to ensure that pledges are legitimate, the donor indeed wants (and this is what counts... WANTS) to pledge. I can say from experience that you cannot change an 80 year old person's mind, they tend to be set in their ways. So some fresh-faced 20-something-year-old fundraiser "pushing" a senior into donating in the space of a thirty second phone call is laughable.

Finally, in life and in business you reap what you sow. This company is established, growing and makes an honest effort to be fair. If they truly engendered such spite from all their ex-employees they would find themselves out of potential recruits for employees real quick. Many of these "complaints" have stated they target small-midsize towns with high unemployment (maybe because they need employees?) so wouldn't it stand to reason that word-of-mouth would be very important to their recruiting efforts in a small town?

These are but a few of the problems with the inane and childish arguments these jokers have presented here. I could go on and on pointing out the flawed logic of these people but it would be another fifteen minutes I'll never ever get back.

I have since moved on to other things so I'm completely impartial here, and I thank CDG for giving a guy with little education and a lot of talent a chance to shine and a leg up in life.

NS

I literally "fell back" into telemarketing. Having been a manager for a very unscrupulous outfit in the eighties and early nineties which was eventually disbanded, I found myself out of work this past fall and responded when CDG or as they bill themselves "Alabama State Fraternal Order of Police" came to town. I thought it odd that the starting pay was as high as it was but quite frankly needed the money and was glad to get it. At first things looked fine, until I started seeing the same old patterns from before, the lying, the numbers games, mistreatment of employees, etc. etc. Then made the mistake of investigating the company and seeing the FTC violations. Then I actually witnessed the violations going on under my nose and realized how times haven't changed, if anything it is more crooked now! This sleezy business should have been included in the federal do not call law, I knew the lobbyist for the law enforcements would fight it, what amazes me is that they are only getting appx 10% to use the organizations name! You would think police officers and firefighters would have more self respect? Oh well, took it as long as possible, my conscience got the better of me and after reading the postings on this board and seeing the caliber of employee CDG targets, am glad to say my headset (used to be handset) is permanantly HUNG UP ON and forever on the DO NOT CALL LIST!

I worked for this company for well over 4 years and I saw first hand the shady ways that they did business. There is seldom a charity that gets over 15% of the proceeds from the donations that we collected, and why would anyone want a credit card that has a $300 limit with $150 already charged on it in origination fees!!!!! This "SCOTT" that was spoken of is exactly the type of person that would do something like that, being that I know and worked with him personally as a member of the CDG management team as a 50 hour salary manager. This is not a scam, it's just an evil business. All of the organizations that they raise money for are legit and they agree to the small percentage that they get because it is 10 times more than they can raise by themselves standing at stop signs. For example a charity that will remain unnamed, requested that we run a 4 month campaign for them. The total we collected was $4.9 million, yes I said million, and they recieved $760,000 for their charity. This was a sight more than they collected the year before by themselves, which according to their financial record was $62,000. But think of the profit, over $4 million went into the pocket of the guys that own the company. I mean, c'mon, why do you think that they put their call centers in the places where the unemployment rate is so high? So they can keep a constantly rotating crew of people who need a job and are willing to work for $8-$11 per hour. They know what they are doing, and they are completely legit, they are just evil, and one day every one of them will pay a price for their deception. All we can do is complain. "Hire At Will, Fire At Will" is a horrible law that should be taken off the books and companies like this won't be able to get away with this kind of behavior any longer.

I to Was An Ex-employee Of Civic My Biggest gripe was them shutting the Corbin office down when the office was making them money,this took jobs away from about 90 people including myself which was the accm of this office, they just dont give a Sh-t about their people. Sure there was problems but what company doesn't.

Everyone missed the entire point here. This person hurt themself on the job and the Company did not follow the correct procedure for Workmans Comp to cover 100% of his medical bills.

There are a TON of companies that do not follow the correct procedures, leaving the employee in limbo. In most cases the employee quits or gets termed in the middle of getting things corrected.

FYI the State of KY is an "at will" State, meaning they can hire and fire at will without having to have a reason unless they try to stop you from getting unemployment.

This sounds more like a case of a minor slip and fall that was handled wrong.

Civic Development Group - Millenium Teleservices

I use to work for these people in the Corbin Kentucky Branch. and i can tell you that this branch office is now Closed , came and gone in 5 years ... and speaking from experence with this office, they have(had) Serious Problems From the start. it was Telemarketing for Quest Communacations and Fun Raising. and YES the Fund Raising is a Scam !!!..

How Many People do you think would Donate if they Knew that LESS than 20% of their Donation went to the People they think they are supporting ?? ( Not Many ) and in this case it was for the "Fraternal Order of Police" ( Big Deal Right ? )

Anyway, Yes it did pay decent Money ( for this Area) But you had to put up with alot OF BS ( which is Beside the Point of this Topic) and i have Witnessed Sexual Harrasment in some Forms.
But as far as "Calvin" Getting hurt while at Work and on the Clock,It is Civic Development Group - Millenium Teleservices Responsibility to pay any Medical Bills that arrise from an Employee getting hurt on the Job.

And as For "Calvin" this website is the Place for you to start to get your medical Bills Paid.
http://labor.ky.gov/dwc/ombudspec.htm
OR if they remove the above link just Google "Kentucky Office of Workers Claims"
Good luck to you Calvin.

Listen Man
I have been with the company for 4 years and here is the reality you need to see.First off nobody is getting robbed the people we call agree to give the dnation and if it was lying or deceptive then the FTC would lock the doors.Ya alot of the less fortunate people are the ones that end up giving but did you read the script in front of you.Lets asumme you did and in that case the donor made the choice to give.If you lies to get it then your in the wrong not Civic.As far as the % ya it could be more but its better than none and thats what alot of them would have had.

I mean dude i have worked for several offices and have been a mgr abd caller and am a caller again in a new office so i have seen several sides of civic.I have my issues with the company but the guys on this site make it sound so bad and im sure that you see it that way but what i see guys and girls wanting to whine about something that does alot of good in alot of ways.
This company does go to underdeveloped towns but how will that hurt he town its a job for alot of people and the remark in one complaint about employing people that are to stupid to know the diference is a very nice comment. I find it great to tell people thay are stupid so whoever wrote that one pat yourself on the back.
Ya there is alot of drugs in the company but you find me any company where at some level certain employess dont use them. As far as the belitteling of people i have seen that myself but it was always people who were not foing there job.

I mean they chose not to do it,They could do it but wouldnt.

Bottomline people is this its a job for small communities and school kids and it does raise some money for great groups so quit the whining and let people make there own choice.

I am currently an employee of Millenium Teleservices. I have been an employee several times during the fundraising days, and I am now an employee at the Paintsville, KY office #38 trying to interest potential contacts into checking out the benefits of various Discover financial services offers. This IS, I will say, a job for professionals in the business.

All of the complaints that I have read so far on this website are written by individuals that can't even spell in good english, much less speak it. What I have to say is probably not what most people that visit this site want to read.

You want to read about scandals and rip-offs, then you're not going to get it here!! Millenium and CDG do bring jobs to communities that need heightened employment, just look at the location of the call centers. They are not located in New York City, Los Angeles, or any other locale where there are a million things to do other than being a telemarketer. They are usually located in a place outside the norm where people are looking, and need, a decent paying job without the fuss of commuting. There have been aspects of this company that I have personally questioned and been suspicious about, but have you ever had a job that you were 100% satisfied with? Things happen in every professional environment that might offend some people and that is why they have a grievance line, but don't think that you are not being payed attention to just because they do not kneel down when you call.

How many people do you think call that same line per day? Just because you think that you have been treated unjust? The company is HUGE!! Let's put this into numbers: Have you ever been written a Disciplinary Action for overtime (DA)?

Do you know why? If you were to calculate the figures at just 50 offices, 50 TSR's per office, all making seven dollars per hour (and these are underestimated figures), then if everyone were to work just 30 minutes of overtime per week, it would cost the company close to three-quarters of a MILLION dollars!!!! You do the math (It is more like 600 and some thousand, but who's counting)? They are!!!

The fact about it is that you cannot blame the local office that you work or worked at; you can't even blame the corporate office because they have enough s**t to deal with. I have, and have met, a lot of good friends at these call centers and they are all just trying to make a living just like everyone else. If you you think you are getting screwed, take a job on Wall Street and see if the same bulls**t doesn't happen!!

If you are not happy, get a job somewhere else. Try shovelling fries and see if they they raise you to seven or eight dollars an hour after the first week. As far as ripping people off, people only do what they want to do, and you cannot make them do any different. You (by law) CANNOT lie to them, mislead them, or misrepresent yourself to them in any way.

What is so wrong about that? Yes, you get cussed out, threatened, and talk to a variety of impolite people, but what do you expect? Before you were a telemarketer, how did you treat people who were? In short, if you don't like the fact that you get payed pretty decent money to just answer a "beep", then quit and go cook somebody's burger for minimum wage!!

If you do have any personal comments about things, feel free to email me at strobelt895@yahoo.com. I work at the Paintsville, Ky office #38. My name is Tim Strobel, agent #910731, and if you are, have been, or are thinking of being a telephone sales representative, feel free to contact me and I will get back in touch with you by any means that you give me (even by voice phone if you like)!
Sincerely (with a lot more to tell),
Timothy Strobel

I worked for the company several years ago and witnessed the same thing that happened to you to other employees. The managers sexual harrass the the female employees that are pretty, ridicule employees of other sexual orientation, God forbid if you are a black person in West Virginia - you won't last at CDG, and if you old - you don't get hired or they fire you for just cause. The grievance line is a joke. No follow up or the company expects the uneducated employee to handle his or her own problem. CDG's philosphy is ignorance is a bliss. Drugs, sex, and abuse happens through out CDG excluding the corporate office. The corporate office is aware of the all these situations but does NOTHING about them. I question if anyone in HR is certified. I am thankful I worked for only three months!

I recommend anyone who has been fired or discriminated against, please contact the EEOC.

Calvin, you can sue the company and get your job back not that you would want it back. If you know anyone who witnessed or has information about what happened to you, please contact them.

I worked for the company several years ago and witnessed the same thing that happened to you to other employees. The managers sexual harrass the the female employees that are pretty, ridicule employees of other sexual orientation, God forbid if you are a black person in West Virginia - you won't last at CDG, and if you old - you don't get hired or they fire you for just cause. The grievance line is a joke. No follow up or the company expects the uneducated employee to handle his or her own problem. CDG's philosphy is ignorance is a bliss. Drugs, sex, and abuse happens through out CDG excluding the corporate office. The corporate office is aware of the all these situations but does NOTHING about them. I question if anyone in HR is certified. I am thankful I worked for only three months!

I recommend anyone who has been fired or discriminated against, please contact the EEOC.

Calvin, you can sue the company and get your job back not that you would want it back. If you know anyone who witnessed or has information about what happened to you, please contact them.

I worked for the company several years ago and witnessed the same thing that happened to you to other employees. The managers sexual harrass the the female employees that are pretty, ridicule employees of other sexual orientation, God forbid if you are a black person in West Virginia - you won't last at CDG, and if you old - you don't get hired or they fire you for just cause. The grievance line is a joke. No follow up or the company expects the uneducated employee to handle his or her own problem. CDG's philosphy is ignorance is a bliss. Drugs, sex, and abuse happens through out CDG excluding the corporate office. The corporate office is aware of the all these situations but does NOTHING about them. I question if anyone in HR is certified. I am thankful I worked for only three months!

I recommend anyone who has been fired or discriminated against, please contact the EEOC.

Calvin, you can sue the company and get your job back not that you would want it back. If you know anyone who witnessed or has information about what happened to you, please contact them.

I worked for the company several years ago and witnessed the same thing that happened to you to other employees. The managers sexual harrass the the female employees that are pretty, ridicule employees of other sexual orientation, God forbid if you are a black person in West Virginia - you won't last at CDG, and if you old - you don't get hired or they fire you for just cause. The grievance line is a joke. No follow up or the company expects the uneducated employee to handle his or her own problem. CDG's philosphy is ignorance is a bliss. Drugs, sex, and abuse happens through out CDG excluding the corporate office. The corporate office is aware of the all these situations but does NOTHING about them. I question if anyone in HR is certified. I am thankful I worked for only three months!

I recommend anyone who has been fired or discriminated against, please contact the EEOC.

Calvin, you can sue the company and get your job back not that you would want it back. If you know anyone who witnessed or has information about what happened to you, please contact them.

Hello i have been an employee of CDG for 3 years now, and i have come to understand how things work. First of all, most of this report is too falsely stated. He claims that the company is a scam, yet it is the largest fundraising teleservice in the states. Civic in the past has had tangles with the government and all of these cases you can find online, at one time they even had employee's checks bounce before, but this was in the past, now the organization is heavily monitored by the FTC who regulates them thoroughly. The script by what we read follows a set of guidelines, any deviations from the script results in termination of job, for it is considered an FTC violation, and this costs the company money, last time i checked, every 2 violations is $10,000 the company is fined, when in actuality this is a small number to a company that makes more money than they know what to do with. Second of all he states that he is one of the top 12 fundraisers in his section, this is a load of crap, each section has roughly 10-15 people in it at a time calling, but generally they only have 12, but if u can be in the top of your whole group congrads, you want a cookie? I was listed in the top 30 callers for the company, not a section, the WHOLE company, wow, bet that shocks you eh? See the reason i am posting this is because civic gives jobs to a lot of people that most businesses won't hire. Believe it or not it takes a lot of work and determination to get money from an old lady in a nursing home, but yes i have done it, and i will continue to do it, it is my job. The point of the calls is because civic can make the organization more money than what they can on their own, which is important to such funds as childhood leukemia foundation, or the cancer fund of america. I do apolagize for your misfortune, yet people have bad days, there have been a lot of people fired over a manager having a bad day. Also if you have a complant with your manager, you should talk to the head manager of the office, if he tells you know, there is a 1-800 number posted all over the office that u can call with complaints, it isn't hard, u can call a number, u do it all day long. Also i am not a fundraiser, nor do i want to be referred to as this, i am a paid professional solicitor and my job is to sale my charity i am calling for and get people involved to help out and give donations. Also when you are sick you make a better caller, a deeper voice provides a lot of sales when calling for a police or fire fighter association, but leaving without permission, even if you are ill, will get u fired, i don't care where you work. So i say to you, you screwed up, you should've called the corporate offices, and if u didn't do this, i am sorry but you have some mental degeneration for not being smart enough to do so.

I worked at Civic for little over a year. I don't know why you say they teach you to lie, because they don't. If you lie to somebody that is a FTC and you cost the company big bucks. Also a co-worker spilled coffee on his hand and went to the hospital. He got workers compensation, why wouldnt you? You said you where on the top 12 best callers. I dont know about that. Because if you are good caller they respect you, and listen to any problems you have and work with you. And you would have no problems making up your hours. I think they just wanted to fire you.

sincerely,
Alex Malinajdovski
canton, ohio
office 25

I worked for this company for three years. I have performed vertually every program they have to offer. A company that operates this way would simply not be able to make it.

I can't even believe you when you say the manager Scott said you would get workmans comp. Where you even a full time employee? I mean, you didn't have insurance in which they offer to full time employees, and you chose not to have it I assume. Nothing in this life is free. I am so tired of hearing people like you complain that a company ripped you off, and accuse them of ripping elderly people off.

I have lots of elderly family that will contirbute to this company any time they call and ask. There may only be a small portion of donations given to the acctuall organization, but they are getting that portion. If they weren't, don' you think the Federal Trade Commision would step in. I mean, give me a freakin' break. You just sound like a whinny 16 year old who got his frist job, got fired because he has a smart mouth and can't handle it.

Sincerely,

Every State has a Workers Compensation Bureau that deals with these types of complaints also known as OSHA. It is also on a Federal level. If you were injured on the job then your employer MUST pay for the medical bills himself if he does not have Workers Compensation Insurance. Contact the Bureau immediately about your situation. All accidents must be reported. If your employer employs more than 15 employees then the EEOC in Washington DC can handle your case for termination with out cause. I hope this helps you out.

Someone who cares.