Marketsource Dont waste your time. No GAS or Travel time paid and they set and change your location on whim without notice Alpharetta, Georgia

I worked for this company over three years total. The job entails going to Best Buy and other retailers to represent HP by selling to customers, training sales reps, and doing inventory and admin reports. Do not be fooled; You only get gas and travel pay between stores that are on the weekend and they force you to go to your stores during the week for a one hour training session per store and you do not get gas or travel pay.

So here's how it goes; M-F you have to drive at least two different stores for one hour each without expense pay. Sat and Sun you have to spend now five hours at one store each day so they dont have to pay you gas pay since they will not let you work them on the same day. You make 14 per hour, used to be 15 till "the economy", and once you have paid gas you end up making near minimum wage because they decide where you work and they dont give preference to tenured employees. I was jerked around because I complained that I could have worked at stores that where 15 min from my house and there where two Best Buys in that distance, but instead was shuffled around to stores that where at least an hours distance one way. At one point I had three stores all of which where 45 min to one hour away so that makes six trips per week due to the one hour training per store so you can see how much unpaid time and gas makes this job worthless.

They love to change the schedule without notice and there where several times I went into a store and found another rep working and since they didn't provide notice and it was only posted for maybe six hours the rep didn't get paid and I had to be in the position to tell them they had to leave and were not getting paid for the three hours they had already worked.

Ok here is where it gets interesting. HP pays Marketsource to do training and the way they see the training is done is by online quiz completions called IACs. I was advised by Eric Maddox that if I had any more stores with 0 quiz completions I would lose my job. He advised me that I should take down the employees login information and do the quizzes for them so it would show up as complete and do the quizzes for them by logging in to hpinfolab and doing the IAC for them. Furthermore, I was to do anything necessary to get this done as my job depended on it and I'm sure his bonus too. This is fraud and I'm sure HP wouldn't appreciate the program being undermined in the manner. We should provide the info and if the rep doesn't do it it's on the store not the hp rep or in this case me.

Another shady thing was when I first started Eric did a store visit and took me to eat while I was on the clock and asked me about bars in the area and adult entertainment. He kept asking the same question over and over about clubs. I wonder what his wife would think of this. He was like his hotel was right down the street from all the clubs and wanted to know which ones to go to for the best time. I just dodged the conversation and tried to steer it back to work.

Office Max was off the HP visit list for some time and I was required to visit a store whose manager questioned me on why HP had abandoned the program with Office Max. I called Eric and explained what was said and wanted to know what I should say and he said he was documenting our conversation and that this was not the first time I had problems with a manager. He turned the problem back on me instead of helping with a manager that didn't want me in his store or taking to his employees. The other manager that he was referring to was Dustin Wiest to Best Buy in Alabaster Alabama who on my first day in the store after politely introducing myself told me not to piss off any of his employees. I reported this to Eric and he said he would have to make a visit to the store to try to repair HP's reputation because apparently the last rep had done something. Eric never did visit the store and only used this as a tool to document me having a problem with a manager. If you go to him for help he will turn it against you.

I was the only rep for several months because all the other reps quit when Eric was hired so I literally had to cover eight training only stores and the regular base events.  They quit because Eric came on and gave them ultimatems that they put Marketsource ahead of there full time jobs and since MS is only intended to be supplementry income the told Eric what he could do with the job. So I got paid 14 dollars per store but had to drive all over Birmingham taking 13 hours and only getting paid for eight and not getting gas or travel time. This was a total rip off and I calculated after expenses from gas alone I was only averaging eight dollars an hour and that not subtracting the travel time I was not getting paid to go between stores. I complained and asked to have it removed for my schedule as all hours are suppose to be voluntary, only to have Eric manually enter these stores on my schedule without allowing me to accept or deny them. After three weeks of being force fed hours I stopped going in and he finally removed them from my schedule.

One important thing to note, there is no job security. If a manager like at Best Buy or one of the other stores doesnt like you all he has to do is ask you to leave. There is not code of conduct or any rules to violate. I called Best Buy corporate and they stated that in the agreement any vender is there at the discretion of the managers and there doesn't have to be legal cause for not allowing a rep to visit the store or any code of conduct violation. So you are not protected by EEOC or anything and youre not covered if you are injured in the store by the stores insurance. I complained on a Best Buy LP rep who upon entering the store yelled at me and said to use the other door because it trips their customer counter. He then said to another employee about me that "there goes the HMFIC." Tylor and the 280 Best Buy store 383 then explained to the other employee he was speaking to that HMFIC meant head m f in charge, of course not abbreviating. That was my last week in that store because I was taken off the schedule apparently for complaining and I was replaced by a school teacher that didn't know anything about computers and was following the Best Buy reps around to learn her job.  This is retaliation and Marketsource didn't back me because it would make waves.  I wonder what HP would think of this.

There were several times where a new rep would only work a day in the store before being removed from the schedule because the manager didnt like the reps personality. Tad was a rep that was supposed to replace me at one of the stores and because he was on the 0 list I had to go back to the store and replace him within two weeks. He was placed on reserve status meaning they dont want to fire anyone due to the risk of unemployment insurance claims so they simply take away your hours. This would be understandable if you where coached and given a chance to correct whatever issues my be hurting your performance, but time and time again with the two employees that I referred and where hired on and the reps I replaced on a consistent basis no warning or even a indication of a problem was given to the rep before action against them was taken.

I missed one of the weekly conference calls once and was told that missing three calls would result in termination. Well an email was sent out about do the infractions drop off and the answer was after 90 days. Well Eric sent me a message because I called several times and was getting the run around about why one of my stores had been taken off my schedule without any notice resulting in my car being repoed due to the sudden shift of expected income. He finally told me that I was on the removal list and that he had some documentation. I copied the email about the 90 removal of offences and asked what my standing was and if there was a tracker. Two days later my email account was deleted with all my documentation and reset and no response was given to my email. I was removed from the store and lied to by Christen Sposa who said that it was due to a black out period which is where you may not have work for two weeks due to HP not having any sales or what not, so dont expect stable work or adequate notice.

The new hybrid model only makes Christen Sposas job easier and everyone elses hell. You used to be able to set your own schedule and hours. Now you can only work 12-5 sat and sun and you have to schedule two weeks in advance your one hour training visits per store. She is rude and will lie and yell at you for catching her at a lie, i.e. the Blackout lie. She yelled at Tad for working his normal schedule even though she changed the schedule the previous night and did not notify either of us resulting in him working for three hours without pay. This also gives them ammunition for terminating people who ask questions like can I work stores that are closer to my house by saying they were late or off schedule regardless if its due to traffic or your full time job.

I called off maybe four times in the three years of service and each was a very unpleasant experience because now you get a call from the support team, your manager, and if your unlucky Christen Sposas rude self. Each wanting to know why you called of and supporting documentation and if you try to schedule off they want at least a months notice before you can deny the event in Partnersource the scheduling program. Pay attention to this part. Your bonus is based on how many events you complete vs accepted. You are required to accept everything that is sent to you and them email and call to work your way out of it which means it still affects your bonus. So when youre being force fed hours you dont want or cannot work and even if you can get out of them you bonus is screwed! And yes they will put events on your schedule manually so you dont have the chance to accept or deny them so watch out cause they can term you for no call no show by dumping an event on your schedule that you miss and never accepted in the first place.

I loved HP and truly do see value in their products. I hope they will change to another company and retain the reps because it is not their fault that they are not giving coaching or advice and walk into the situation blind and quickly realize when they are put on schedule standby after a week that they didnt do something right. My recommendation is not to take this job if you are offered it. I worked seven days a week for two years and spent more time and grief with Marketsource that I ever did for my fulltime job. They are rude including the emails and especially Christen Sposa whose defense is to yell at the employees for her mistakes and flat out lie. Dont waste your time and health with the job. Its just not worth it!