International Profit Associates IPA I'll Promise Anything, a company built on lies ripoff Buffalo Grove Illinois

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*UPDATE: Rip-off Report Investigation - International Profit Associates recognized by Rip-off Report as a safe business service - IPA pledges to resolve all complaints, 100% commitment to customer service and satisfaction, feel confident and secure when doing business with IPA

I am a former "Senior Area Manager" or local sales rep. I have no problem with the title and was never ashamed to call myself a sales rep engaged in selling business services. I have been selling business services to small local businesses for the past twenty years and when I was recruited by IPA, it sounded like a great deal. I would be offerring business consulting to small businesses that would help their companies become more profitable.

I knew from experience that many small business owners are overwhelmed with the "business" operations of running a small business and looked upon this as a great oportunity to help local businesses, including some clients and former clients.

I was told that after attending a one week training school in Chicago that I would go into the field and be supplied with three to five 'appointments" a day set by their telemarketing department (known as "business consultants", but really telemarketers). I would then see those businesses and sell them the consulting services. My job was to get a business analyst in to conduct a thorough analysis of the business and at the conclusion, they would provide solutions and suggestions for the business.

All I had to do was to get the analyst in there and I would be paid a commission from the analyst fee. That sounded like shooting fish in a barrel compared to what I had been doing previously. I was also told that they had a "quick pay" program at the beginning so new reps would have early cash flow.

My first red flag was then the quick pay program that was explained in training was not the same one that was told to me over the phone when I was recruited. Not only was the percentage much less, but the program wasn't as "quick" as it was initially presented. I thought that perhaps I was misinterpreting it, but when just about everyone else in the training class had the same experience, we were all mislead. I think that if we weren't already in Chicago for training, we would have bolted then.

When I got into the field, reality hit the first day. I am not naive enough to know that a few of those "appointments" would be clinkers, but the first day, ALL my appointments were with businesses that were closed - not closed for the day, but closed up for good. Shut down. Out of business. The next day I had only one "appointment", but it was not with a decision maker, but a branch manager with no authority to enter into a consulting agreement.

I was told that I should gather business cards and send them in so the "business consultants" could call them to get me some appointments. I did that religiously and in the process, I also set some appointments on my own. Those self generated appointments were sold and I felt that I was on my way. I was promised I would have a dedicated telemarketer (a "BC matchup") so we could work as a team to generate quality "appointments".

However that never occured. I continued to receive "appointments" that were crap. The business owner greeted me with "I thought I told that guy on the phone I wasn't interested, so why are here?" or "no one from your company called us". I was told that I had to be strong enough "to break their door down" and get the owner to allow me to give a presentation.

Their spin on this was that those business owners are lying and that they really agreed to see me. However I find it hard to believe that ALL those business owners were lying. I was given 800 AM "appointments" when the business didn't open until 900 AM. I was given "appointments" where the business wasn't at the address listed (or even the phone number). I was given "appointments" for a business that where the address was a residence and the phone didn't answer to a business at all.

I was given "appointments" at a business where the owner was very hostile and had actually thrown out an analyst earlier. My "terrirtory" was an hour's drive from my residence so in the process of all this I was burning three tanks of $3.00 a gallon gasoline a day. In the meantime, I was still setting my own appointments and selling a high percentage of them.

However I learned that many of those projects never "ran" or that IPA never sent an analyst out like promised so I wasn't paid on those cases. The company also has an "inside sales" unit that can be best called a pack of sharks. Thanks to those sharks, I lost at least three good prospects that I couldn't meet right away since it was their busy season, but they liked me enough to want to meet later. The capper came when those inside sales sharks ruined a deal I had pending with a 10 million dollar manufacturing company with a $1800 commission with their high pressure and unprofessional tactics. Owners of 10 million dollar companies do not "one call close".

I had been complaining about those lousy "appointments" for two months and I may as well have been talking to the walls. I told them I could do better generating my own appointments without chasing that BS from the "BCs". Then the quality of the "appointments" got worse (if there was anything worse). I was receiving recycled leads. I was getting "appointments" with businesses I had previously seen and even some I had sold. One day all the "appointments" I received were exactly the same I had one day two months earlier. That was enough. That is when I decided to leave this company.

In the course of my prospecting where I turned in more than 500 business cards in a two month period, I ran into a few businesses that told me that they had an IPA analyst come in and the analyst made off with their payroll records. That is not only a breach of trust, but I believe is also an illegal confiscation of private confidential information. There were some companies where I was informed that if I showed up, I would be arrested since they had complained to local law enforcement that they were harrassed by IPA.

IPA should be called "I'll Promise Anything". They are a company that is built on a foundation of lies and deception. While they may provide some good consulting services to some businesses, the company's performance is uneven at best and very often incompetent. For a company that promises to take a small business "on the cutting edge of technology", they are woefully behind the times. They don't even have direct deposit of payroll and their method of accounting of commissions is strictly from the 1980s.

I am still owed about $1000 from sales made when I was working for IPA amd "ran" while I was still with them. The company has not yet heard the last from me. Oh, BTW, I do remember those businesses where the analyst made off with their payroll records and I do know an investigative reporter.

Disillusioned
Cleveland, Ohio
U.S.A.