Prodigy Payment Systems AKA Encore Payment Systems Ex-employee- so many complaints, I could write a book Richardson Texas

I worked for this company from feb 07-oct. 07- and have enough stories about this company and their employees to make anyone stay away from this 'dream opportunity/'
I am VERY hard worker but also very honest- the first part, a hard worker, is what this company loves, but someone who is honest, they are scared of. I had just graduated from college a few months prior to their offer, which I should have been skeptical of from the start... I told the recruiter I needed two weeks so I could put in my two week notice to my current job, and some time to think and her response was "well I need to know right now whether you want this position bc it will be filled by someone else by the time you decide" (should have started running then).
I took the job to find out later, the girl was a liar who hired me- there were TWO training classes, via phone, EVERY week for this company. I was told that the turnover rate of employees was basically none- everyone who worked for the company made great money and loved it. WRONG WRONG WRONG.
I had to 'call in' from every appointment, wait on hold for about 10 minutes to get a hold of my 'sales manager' (who was a high school graduate, never even went to college, and had no skills in sales) so he could thank somebody for their time. This was their way of seeing if you were really at the appointment.
The people who call to 'set the appointments' will say ANYTHING to get the business owner to not hang up, and try to bug them until the owner either hangs up or says 'fine'. they will tell you- the owner is lying if they said they never set the appointment- this is a LIE. I asked for the recordings, towards the end of my employment, and it was a "coincidence" that all of the calls could not be found (though all phone calls are recorded).
I was lucky enough to do well at this for awhile- the leases were a ripoff, so I did a lot of reprograms, which I now regret setting up businesses for this company. This company is horrible and these business owners trusted me. To touch on the leases...they train us to say "well, the owner just writes them right off their taxes so its not like they will even really pay for it anyways" (ha, obviously a lie) and these machines cost anywhere from 50-150 dollars, so leasing these machines for $29-89/month for 48 months is UNREAL. Other fees that are unreal: their $95 annual fee. they will tell you 'everyone has this' when actually, not many do, and $95 is one of the highest I had seen. When i would call in to see if I could waive this for the merchant, they would say 'no, just try to avoid it and get around it bc I cant waive that.' basically saying 'trick the customer.' they love small businesses that dont know any better. a lot of the large businesses are too smart to fall for this company. If the owner does not want to switch, they make you 'call in to your sales manager for a 3rd party close' HA- this NEVER worked. They often pissed off the owner and called them idiots and told merchant (busines owner) that they would probably go out of business soon anyways bc they are horrible business owners for not switching to our company. in most cases, we couldnt even save them a few dollars a month, then added on $95 a year 'annual fee' and $10 a month monthly fee.
My sales manager, robert byrnes, never cared once about how much i was driving to these appointsments- these appointments were not confirmed (and sometimes, he would just pick places near by and tell you to go there), some businesses werent even there anymore, they didnt even know the real name of the owner- and they made you feel like an IDIOT if you couldnt close a deal. I was closing 1-2 a day (and sometimes, even 3 a day) but I did that from my own hard work and got a lot of referrals. When I learned the truth about this company- i felt bad for ever putting any of these businesses w/ prodigy.
When I was in dallas (Prodigy brought me out there for hitting my 50th account), my 'sales manager' was saying how they have 2 sales trainings via phone, every week and that I was actually one of the senior reps on his "team.' I had only been with the company for 6 months, and I was a SENIOR rep. Wow. I then got to see how they would just make up appointments on the fly for the reps when they "called in."
The owners of the company are very nice and honest- which makes it surprising to have this type of company come together from 3-4 owners. This whole thing, sad enough to say, is a ripoff. The whole 'high pressure sales' tactics, never work on these owners.... the leases are a ripoff, the customer service is awful, everyone is so dishonest- the company makes me sick. I, also, never made the money that they said and most, if not all, of what they ever said were lies.
To ANYONE thinking about this position, do not take it. I was a college graduate, who graduated top of my class, w/ sales experience and a natural talent- and now work as a pharmaceutical sales rep for a company that I LOVE. I hated working everyday for this company- working for such a dishonest company w/ a poor reputation was awful.
I even brought up this website to my manger bc when a customer of mine said "let me look into your company on google"- this is what came up, right after the prodigy website. This 'sales manager' ALWAYS had to get the last word in every conversation, but never responded to my email about this website. He too, im sure, was embarrassed.

I wrote this report out of pure anger when I found out, after all I did for this company, they cut my insurance off early (i worked til the first day or two into october) and put on my insurance that i was 'terminated' on sept. 14th. I still have emails for my "first appointments" for the day til the end of sept. and ran my own appts. in the beginning of october. My insurance was to continue til the last day of the month that I was terminated/quit- but they even lied on that. Wow, what a company.
I hope someone files a suit against this company, or that enough people look into what they are signing before deciding to go with this company- so that this company goes out of business.
If you take this position- beware, you have no idea what you are in for. Try waiting on the phone on hold for 10 minutes while you show up to a business that has been closed for years (yes, one of their 'confirmed appointments') or til you get kicked out of a place bc the telemarketer that called was so rude... or that the telemarketer lied to them and said we were their current provider and needed to come talk to them, or that "there was an emergency with their system and they would be sending someone out the next day to meet with them".
Wow- i could go on and on about this company, but ill stop there- hopefully, you all get the point. you picture some 'big successful company' when they talk to you about this position- but when I got there, all I found was a few rooms w/ a bunch of guys sitting around answering the phone for reps calling in from appointments.
Hope this helps anyone looking to work for this company OR any company thinking of doing business with this company.

Exemployee
pawleys island, South Carolina
U.S.A.

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