My List of Known Deceptions Cydcor letter
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Wolfram My List of Known Deceptions Cydcor letter
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I recently resigned from a position with a marketing firm called Cambridge Communications, a subsidiary of Cydcor based out of Melville, NY. While employed with Cambridge I worked on a campaign for AT&T, marketing business to business. I was only employed with the company for approximately three weeks, but long enough to witness a number of odd business practices. Iād like to take this opportunity to bring these practices to your attention.
I feel that a company such as AT&T, being a common household name should be very prudent when it comes to outsourcing marketing teams. In this case, I feel that Cambridge is causing irreparable damage to the reputation of this fortune 500 company. In addition, I believe that the workers still employed with the company are being misled and taken advantage of. I support this belief with the knowledge that Cambridge only employs young individuals, usually between the ages of 19 and 25, that have little work experience.
There are a number of reasons for my writing this letter. First and foremost was the fact that important information was withheld from me over the course of the three weeks, beginning October 11th and ending on the 31st. Salary was strictly sales commission and I was promised $33 per line that I switched over to AT&T. During my stay with the company I switched 28 phone lines. I was informed only after my resignation that Cambridge operates on a pyramid scheme. A percentage of my commission was going to my trainer, and everyone else above her. Additionally, I was not informed until my final week of employment that there was a max pay of only 10 lines per location, meaning if one business had 20 phone lines I would only be paid commission for 10 of them. I was told I would be paid $200 for the 3 days I spent in training. On the day that I resigned I was informed that I was no longer entitled to that money.
I also incurred over $700 of expenses that will never be reimbursed. Upon being hired I was assured that all expenses would be taken care of, free of complications, by simply writing them off. I understand now that a write of is in no way equivalent to a reimbursement, and having no income I have nothing to write the expenses against. Had writing off expenses been fully explained I would not have accepted the position under those conditions. I incurred almost $600 worth of charges on my cell phone, $70 for gas, nearly 700 miles of wear and tear on my car, and lastly, a charge of $224 for a health insurance plan that I never wanted, asked for, or confirmed. Upon investigating the charge for Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance I discovered that I do not currently, nor have I ever held a policy with them under Cambridge. After confronting my employer about the charge he reluctantly agreed to credit my next paycheck. It is now a month and a half after the date of my resignation. Iāve finally collected all of my paychecks. I believe that Cambridge never intended to compensate me for the hours I put in. The checks were only sent to me because of my persistence in calling the office every payday.
Finally, total hours worked were inordinately long; often 13 hours per day. My days began at 7:00am for daily indoctrination and ended around 8:00pm after returning to the Melville office for another required de-briefing, regardless of where oneās final call took place. Failure to attend a meeting in the morning or evening would result in being callously reprimanded. I found the long hours and constant bombardment to be highly suspect and extremely unusual.
The reason Iāve decided to communicate my experiences to the Attorney General of New York is to ask for support. I would like to prevent this form happening to other individuals. Iāve also decided to inform the Better Business Bureau, reason being the odd business behavior that I witnessed at Cambridge on a daily basis. I feel that Cambridge was not only unfair to its employees, but the company it was representing, and its customers by promoting, at times, unwarranted changes in service simply to churn commissions; a practice that could ultimately result in damage to the reputation of AT&T and other potential clients in the future. In the end, the consumer will remember the name AT&T ö not Cambridge Communications.
I hope that you will take steps towards alleviating the damage that has been done and ensuring that others donāt fall victim to the same appalling experiences that I had with Cambridge Communications by making certain that the company follow fair employment and business practices in the future. Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
KC (Last Name Withheld upon request)