Syntechs, aka HDRepair.com, aka Synergy Technical Solutions Fails to pay for Tv service work Boca Raton Florida

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NEWS: A lawsuit was filed on 11-16-15 by the LARGEST CUSTOMER of HDRepair/Syntechs alledging among other things NONPAYMENT TO TECHNICIANS.  An Internet search will reaveal technician nonpayment complaints are widespread.  There are other contractual and criminal allegations listed in the lawsuit.  The full public document is on the forum.

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T-Con

Today 08/09/15 I have been going through the comments and have been amazed at what all of you are saying is very similar to what I experienced, especially out of a specific female representative mentioned in this string (you can go dig it out, I do not mention names in these). Wish I had gone through these before I had agreed to take up doing calls for them again after a 4 - 5 year hiatus.

I used to run my company full-time and one of the things I did to supplement the gaps was contract work. Syntechs was one of the 4 organizations that I accepted for contract work along with were Barrister (which I later fired), Prism Point Technologies (whose contract ran out on my specialty), and one other whose name is escaping me. Syntechs and Prism were the best two – good communication, great phone technical support, friendly, responsive. Until my recent experience with Syntechs, Barrister had been the worst: bad communication and support, slow payments, shorting funds on payments even when the call contract was clear to rate, etc. Syntechs did all of the above in in just 4 short months in what it took Barrister two years to accomplish.

Like indicated earlier, Syntechs was a good organization to run calls for up until 4 – 5 years ago, and I really can’t speak for the gap from 2010 – Winter 2015, but something obviously changed in their organization during this gap. Currently I have a full-time position and a stable of personal clients and really do not need to do contract work, but was called by Syntechs early this year to do some calls and so I – with reservation – accepted. Seems like now Syntechs mainly service TV’s and not workstations, so I had some hesitation on that. This should have been my first warning sign – no contract company that is strong in the industry accept contract on TV repairs as their primary focus due to the nature of the devices.

Second warning sign - afore mentioned representative, ‘The Enforcer’: Before I even started out on the first call I get a VM from this gravelly voiced woman, not asking, but demanding to know when I was going to be to the site. The parts had just arrived that day and I was in the process of fitting the call in the schedule. So I identified her as what we call in the industry “An Enforcer”. A person that drives the field support – contractor or direct hire – and has total autonomy to do what they personally think needs to do be done regardless of method or company policy. Remember you are a remote contractor, and also remember THAT is a two-way street - that decisions on these matters can flow both ways. Of the reasons I fired Syntechs, this representative's attitude and treatment being very unprofessional bordering on insulting and degrading, what head of the list. I can't imagine who her method of management would work on... for very long anyway (though, Syntechs may go through a lot of contract field techs).

Third warning sign - Lackluster and non-existent technical phone support: Syntechs technical phone support was extremely good and professional 5 to 6 years ago – the phone support was friendly, knowledgeable and very helpful. Not so any longer – be aware if you encounter an issue that you need support on, try Google first. If you contact Syntechs technical support and receive the (lack of) support I encountered, my advice is button up the unit and leave the site. My observation is the technical support is young, untrained, and/or reading from a support template. They rush you off the phone with little to no helpful technical input. The sad and unprofessional side of this is many times one is on speaker phone with tech support as you are trying to go through their ‘testing’ process (if you can even get them to testing) and the on-site client gets to hear this. Since Syntechs is all but invisible to the on-site client, this only reflects on the contracting company (Vizio, Walmart, whoever) and you. That point is probably how companies treating people like survive – they can remain anonymous / invisible.

My advice is if you are looking for a company to contract with, just be aware of the current issues with Synergy Technical Solutions. Look at all the boards and draw your own conclusion. Or if you want to give Syntechs a shot, just be aware of the bad press, and the reoccurring themes in them, and be watchful and tread lightly. Wish I had gone to these boards before accepting more calls in what turned out to be a colossal waste of time and resources.

Good Luck! 

I submitted my resume with Syntechs on June 5, 2015 at around 5:23am.

On June 11, 2015, I was sent a Non-disclosure agreement by Vendor Relations agent Michael Credidio.

On June 12, 2015, I was sent a "pre-contract" package which requires I hire one support technician, and that I agree to being forfieted $100 from my first check to pay for a background check and drug test.

On June 15, 2015, I was sent a notice asserting I had not sent in the required documents. I sent an apology, and sent the documents later that day.

On June 17, 2015, I uploaded various documents required for Syntechs to open their vendor profile with you on their website, and began receiving work orders later that day. I noticed the first calls which came in immediately were reassigned, and at least 7 days after the end user called for repair. I was informed by Michael Credidio that Holly Trott would be my "Vendor Administrator," but that if I had any issues I could call him as well. When I first spoke with Holly I noted she seemed eager to get off the phone with me as quick as possible. She seemed a little condescending in her responses to me, and her overall attitude towards me was as if I was a fool she was there to wipe the drool off of. I was contacted by Michael, and when he asked how my talk went with Holly, I told him se seemed rather rude and arrogant, and he replied that he agreed she was a little "rough around the edges," and that he would speak to her and try to get her to change her approach as she was used to dealing with problem technicians, and wasn't always able to drop that treatment for non-problem technicians. I informed him that none of the technicians were either her employees, nor those of Syntechs, and that we were each individual business owners, some with employees, and that she didn't have a right to treat anyone with anything other than respect, nor decide who was or wasn't a "problem" tech. He seemed receptive to my comments.

On June 18, 2015, I acknowledged departure of 4 sets of parts for work orders set to arrive at my home on June 22, 2015, and called the end users to set appointments for Tuesday, June 23, 2015 in times ranging from 9am- 8pm.

On June 22, 2015, I called to speak to Holly about some calls that had shown up on my queue as further along than should be, as I had not "accepted" the calls. I finished the conversation with Holly, and noted to myself I did not really wish to speak to her anymore. She sees any small issue as something to scold technicians about. I have 16 years experience repairing far more complex electronics. My issue isn't I don't know what I'm doing- my issue is is Syntechs has it's own policies, and it's own software that introduce problems a technician may be ignorant to. That does not merit condescension, rather simple explanation. In any case, this was not something I did not understand, rather something that should not happen. Calls should not be placed in a technician's queue as "waiting on parts" if the technician isn't even aware of the call.

Later on June 22, 2015, I received a set of parts from FedEx. I was expecting two from FedEx, and two from UPS. I called Holly to inform her I had a FedEx shipment that I could not match to any of my orders. Again, the condescension. I tried explaining to her I had done nothing wrong- a part arrived at my home, and I could not match it to any of my work orders. I'm not stupid- I don't have problems seeing the numbers. I received an extra box. She tells me she will call me back once she figures out where the parts go.

About half an hour later, UPS arrives with three boxes. I match two, and can't match the third. I call Holly, and Michael answers. I tell him, "Man, Holly is rude and condescending... I have a very small issue and I just need to know what you guys want me to do." He asks what my issue was. I explained about the first shipment from FedEx, and that now I had one from UPS. He goes into the system and sees that parts were sent to me without the calls ever being assigned to me, apologized, and placed the calls in my queue for scheduling.

On June 23, 2015, I proceeded to my appointments at 8:40am, and arrived at 9:10AM or so. User complained about the time it took to get a response to his complaint of repair, and I informed him that as soon as I was assigned the call I saw parts were on their way, and that I called him as soon as I could to set the earliest possible repair date and time. He said he wasn't referring to my response, rather the response he received prior to my contact. I explained it was my responsibility now, apologized for any prior inconvenience, and that I hoped to deliver adequate service (all this in Spanish doesn't sound so formal, but that's how we speak to each other here). Let's call this ticket HDC1. I logged into HDC1 at 9:22AM, replaced a part, and called to log out at 10:33AM.

At 10:59 I arrived at LMJ2, my second call. I called end user and she was at the hospital wtih her son. I asked if she would like to re-schedule, and told me that she did want to, but couldn't give me a date because she did not know when her son would be out of the hospital. I apologized to her, gave her my condolences and well wishes, and told her she could contact me any time she was available, and that someone at Syntechs should be trying to contact her soon. I called the log onsite number at 11:04AM. I informed the CSR this was a scheduled call canceled by the customer upon my arrival at the appointment. She asked a few questions about my conversation with the end user, and said I was "good" and could go to my next site.

At 11:13AM I called the next end user on my list, and informed him I was running a little ahead of schedule, and asked if it would be ok to respond within the next half hour. He said he would go home to tend to the call. I arrived at end user's residence, and logged into the call at 11:29AM. The parts did not repair the problem, and so I called tech support. The guy told me to take voltage readings, and I asked him if he wanted the voltage readings with the old parts, or the new parts, and he said he just needed voltage readings, so I took them. I closed up the system, and at 13:33 I called to close out the call. It was Holly. I explained to her the TV was not repaired, but that I had replaced parts and was unsure if I should leave the new ones in, or take them out. She transferred me to tech support. When tech support got on the phone, I asked the guy what he wanted me to do with the parts. He asked me to read to him the voltage readings, and I did. I, again, asked him what he wanted me to do with the parts. He tells me "You have to be patient, I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with the TV." I tell him, "Look, I just need to know what to do with the parts." He tells me, "Don't 'look' me!"

I respond with, "Let me speak to a supervisor please." He says, "You can speak to whomever you like after you finish talking to me." I told him that speaking to him wasn't getting me out of the end user's home, nor repairing the system, and that I would call back to speak to someone else. I called back, and spoke to Victor. I explained the problem to him, and before I could explain the later parts he tells me there is no part we supply that can fix that error, and that I needed to take the new parts out because the TV was going to be replaced. I was shocked... why had I been sent the parts in the first place, and why did I waste two hours calling tech support only to be told this error is not field repairable? He apologized, said he would advise the other tech support reps, and he spoke to the end user explaining what would occur.

I completed two more calls on June 23, 2015.

When I arrived at home I noticed two of the calls were not closed- the very first call, and the second call where the customer was not home. I annotated the work orders with updates of what had occurred. In the morning I saw no update had occurred, and called to speak to someone about it. Holly Trott answered. On the first call, she explained they were missing an "apc" and that I shouldn't worry about it- it would be updated soon. My probem with this is we are paid according to following certain procedures, but Syntechs does not hold itself accountable for when they do not follow their own procedures. This makes technicians that would, otherwise, be more than efficient- inefficient. This makes the company think technicians are inefficient, when the truth is it is their own employees causing delays, software issues, lacks of updates, etc.

We moved onto the next call, and she immediately cut me off and told me I didn't follow the right procedure. I explained to her I had not told her the whole story, and did not understand how she could jump to that conclusion. Nevertheless, I asked her to explain to me what I should have done. She explains I should have contacted the end user, and then called the log onsite number to log in and out of the call. I begin telling her that that is exactly what I did, and she goes off on a monologue about how she's training me, and I'm new, and she's my administrator. I explain to her I'm not new- I've been repairing electronics for 16 years, and running my own business, and that she was a Syntechs employee, not my employer. I told her she was claiming to train me without listening to me, and that she was insisting I didn't follow a procedure without knowing what I had done. I tried to explain that the issue is I DID follow the procedure, but what I expected to happen had not. She continued to berate me, and I told her that when someone sensible at Syntechs wanted to talk to me I'd take their call and hung up. She called back, and asked why I'd hung up on her. I told her she wasn't listening to me, and she begins berating me again, so I hung up again.

I received another call, and this time it was David Narayan. I explained to him what happened, and he agreed I should not have been treated as such. He said he would look into the calls, and they would be updated, but explained that HDC1 was not closed because I didn't provide the firmware of the TV upon closing the call. I explained that that is understandable, however, this is not a technician training issue, nor is it something someone has to berate anybody else about- technicians cannot leave the site until told to by a CSR. I called after the repair, and was told to leave after the CSR spoke with the end user. If the firmware was required to close the call- it should have been pointed out then. David agreed, and explained to me what is required to close a call, and why. I then explained to him that he was, in fact, training me, but it didn't require the attitude of someone treating me like a fool who doesn't get it.

A few hours later I get a call from Brian Lipiro. who introduces himself as the Vendor Relations Supervisor. This, right away, gives me the security that I'm speaking with someone who will address my concerns. He begins by introducing himself, and explains he's calling about my conversation with Holly. I begin to explain how Holly treated me, and he says "No she didn't. She didn't treat you that way."

My response was, "Wait... so what, exactly, is your intention in calling me? Because by your title my assumption was you came to 'repair' a misunderstanding, or correct some issue, but you start off by calling me a liar."

Brian proceeds to explain in grade school fashion that he never said "Mickey you're a liar." I tell him we're old enough to have a level of conversation where if you imply someone is not telling the truth, that person can assume you're at least implying they are untruthful. He starts telling me I don't know Holly, that she would never speak to me that way, and I explain that she did. He continues to push that she did not speak to me that way, and I raise my voice asking him what he wants, because if he's not calling to listen to me, I don't know what he's calling for. He tells me I can't speak to him that way, that I work for him, and that he has me under contract. I explain he has my company under contract, and that I am an employee of my company. He says, "Yes, and you're the owner of your company," to which I respond, "Exactly. I work for myself. I am my employer. I am who I answer to, and my company has a contract with you to render service to a third party under your administration. This doesn't require me to be disrespected by you, or anybody at your company"... at this point Brian begins telling me to shut up and listen to him... I lose it, cuss him out, and hang up.

He proceeded to call me 10 times from 561-716-7708, and every time I answered it was him yelling how he was going to sue me, and how I wasn't going to get away with cursing at him, etc.

Look, simply put, this business is NOT professional at all. Vizio, Samsung, and Sony have good TVs... that's probably why they're able to keep the contract. Even though it's a lot of customers to you, and me- to Vizio there are very few customers calling for warranty repairs. There are less for Costco's warranty administrator, and it is probably the same one used by Sam's, Best Buy, and WalMart. They don't care about irate employees, or perceived employees- they care about TV sales. Even the worse model TV does not just fail, and if they do, they will fail once in the life of your warranty. This gives Syntechs a perfect business model. They don't have to cultivate business relationships, customer satisfaction, and they don't have to worry about employee retention. The only employees they retain are the ones sitting behind their computers pissing off the business owners in the field contracted to represent them. We represent them well, and correct whatever issues the customer may have had with Syntechs up until then. It's sad, and it's ridiculous.

I am currently owed $330 for the calls I responded to yesterday. I spent $70 to make that money. I know I'm screwed, but at least it didn't take 3 months...

I started with syntechs on 2/19/2015 and the fiasco began. I read alot of bad reviews online on the Better Business Bureaus website, prior to starting with them, due to the fact that I wanted to make sure that I would get paid and that they were a well known company. Of course I saw alot of bad reviews saying that other employees had not gotten paid, they were a horrible place to work for... and so on. I figured, well I might as well give Syntechs a chance, since the job described, was something that I was interested in (the repair of flat screen TVs). Before I started I was told I would get paid monthly, but I would have to wait a month for the checks to start rolling in... So total that was 2 months of waiting. I was fine with this because I figured, hey 2 months, that's not a big deal... it was a bigger deal than I thought, especially working with these guys. Anyways, I was pulling in work quite fast, taking trips to NY State for work as well as all over MA for work as well. At the rate that I was pulling in work, I also needed funds to fulfill it. So, this in mind, around the end of the first month, I maxed out my credit card limit of $500, and pushed on, knowing that I would get paid soon. Later down the road... mid - end of the second month, I ran out of funds again. So I spent my last check from a previous employer and a friend of mine took out a loan so I could sustain my work. The 10th of the month comes around (the day they are supposed to send out checks) and I am told my check for $100 has been sent out. Of course, I was floored to find out that my check consisted of $100, after spending my last bit of money on these jobs. At this rate I had accumulated around $4,000 for all the work that I had done with Syntechs... $100 of it was given to me, the rest I am still owed. I emailed them and told them I could not work for them anymore due to the fact that I had spent all of my money, taken out loans, maxed credit cards, etc... They responded to me saying the checks are sent out based on the date that they were invoiced. I said fine but I can't work anymore, lets terminate the contract. Of course I got an email back saying I needed to give a 30 day notice and I would have to work during that 30 day period. I said whatever I will figure it out. The 30 days went by without any work and I was satisfied that I did not have to put myself any further in the hole than I already was. Of course the 10th of the month comes around, still no check... I sent them an email again and they responded saying my account was under audit (by them) and I would not be paid until that process was done. After my 30 day notice was given, I received an email stating what was going to happen from that point forward. It basically said that I would be paid after I returned all the packages, and finished up all of the jobs that were on my plate. It was also added on that during this audit period any jobs done would have to be manually reviewed by them and this may delay the payment process by "a couple of days". It is now 6/18/2015 and I still have not received ANY checks, let alone a well deserved big check containing the whole amount owed. Keep in mind my 30 day notice was given on 4/14/2015, nearly 2 months have gone by, since that date! I should have gotten paid my money "a few days" after the 15th of May! However, I did not. All I receive, is excuses upon excuses from them as to why I haven't gotten paid... I am so sick of it and just want my money. As of today I am owed $4,225 excluding the $100 they have already paid me... If they hadn't given me the $100, the total money owed would be $4,325. I have all of the Invoice screenshots and all of the paperwork from all of the clients. Syntechs composes of more than likely no more than 8 of the most unprofessional people I have ever talked to, the only one I liked was a guy named David, he was the one that made me so much money and always loved to deal with me.

I'm an independent contractor that has also been with "Syntechs" since October of 2012.  I have been in the field service computer repair industry for 20 years and have worked for some of the world's largest IT companies.  I signed a contract with Syntechs in October of 2012 that stated I was to be paid on the 10th business day of the month following work that had been completed.  December of that year was when they first did not honor that contract and from that point it just got worse.  I did quite a bit of work for them in the first part of 2013 and at one time had over $4000 in invoices that had not been paid per the contract.  In speaking with them, I was told that they were having problems getting paid from their venders and in turn it was causing them to be late in paying us for the work we had done.  Well, now that I've read what others have experienced, that was obviously  lie.  I did eventually get paid but the delay of the checks at the time kept getting worse to a point where some were as much as four months behind.  So, I stopped taking calls.  Then in June and July of last year (2014) I was needing work so I started bidding and getting work from them again.  Mind you, I only did work in June and July.  I am still waiting on pay for work that I did in July and it's already the middle of Feb. 2015.  Yes, I to have gone beyond being nice to them on the phone and, like the original poster, I too contacted my attorney and was told basically the same thing therefore I haven't persued that avenue.  They have now sent me my 1099 from last year with the wrong info on it. Per them, I have made more that three times what I actually made. They also had the wrong recipient ID on the form.  In speaking with them, one representative actually said "this is what we have on file for you.  What do you want me to do?".  To me, this just shows the inconsistencies in the company.  It's like no one there can give a dircect (or correct) answer.  I've been told they would look into it.  I'm no holding my breath.

I have read the bad reveiws and the good ones trying to save face for their company and I also saw where the Better Business Bureau had revoked there status with them.  Syntechs (HD Repair) as a whole is a very dishonest company.  I was actually told by one of their former employees that he/she (no need to dislose) was leaving specifically because of this reason.  I have noticed that other employees have also left and although I can not  verify for what reason, they're simply not there anymore. 

I too feel like contacting Samsung, Vizio, LG, etc. to find out if they know what is going on with their service provider but I'm not really sure it would do any good.

I personally worked for the company for 3 months and never received any payment. After having enough with waiting around on hold doing nothing for 30 minutes to get permision to replace a part I told them they broke their contract for not having payed and I would no longer run any calls. They responded by saying they were charging me 100 per call and more for every call in my area for 30 days. Let's not let this company get away with what they are doing, they do everything in their power not to pay techs and it is not right. 

I would like to start a class action lawsuit against this company. If you are an ex employee, have received payment late or anything such as being misled on the expenses (or were charged fees without them documenting each of their expenses.) please email me with the details and first and last name. I wish to get as many people as possible and as much documentation as possible before bringing it before a law firm. (emails and recorded phone calls would be great) Nick@frankensteintech.com