Uncle Rocky
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
In 2016 I needed a job so I called one of my best friends (over 30 years) and asked what if his company was hiring. I applied and was hired. I understood that the job was at $500 base + commission + bonus.
I needed to supply my own automobile as I would be traveling to clients homes in order to sell a service for their home. I would need to supply my own computer in order to present information. I was in training for three weeks before I set out on my own to client's homes.
There was no car allowance or gas allowance whatsoever. I bid jobs based on their existing training program. If I underbid, the first amounts underbid would be my commission. If I had a $10,000 sale and I underbid $800 - I would not be paid commission - on the flip side, if I overbid (and in the interest of negotiating, I was trained to insert a "pad" so I could discount a bit in order to close a sale) so if there was an overage on a sale, it was NOT applied against any underbid jobs.
I had a fairly decent first month (February) - but any commissions were paid only when the company was paid by the customer - in California a home improvement contractor can only take a $1000 or 10% deposit (whichever is lower) and the remaining payment of the job was collected in three increments spaced over a couple of months.
I had a decent March - but again, not a lot was collected yet. In addition, the company decided to "purchase" a sales training program from a company in Georgia which the company began to implement. The training program was labor intensive and in many ways at odds with the way the company's reps were originally trained.
This "training" ran all through the company - where they used to "scrub" leads in order to determine if there was a need prior to sending out a home rep - it changed to almost anyone who called the office - whether we actually did what the customer wanted or not - we were sent. The new training was almost confrontational with customers - to determine at the onset of the appointment whatever objection the customer had and press against it for the rest of the appointment. The company told us that this would require a transition of three months or so, so we weren't too worried.
Nevertheless I had a poor April in comparison to the prior two months. For what also happened in April, I must skip back to March.
**Back to March - after I had been there 90 days I was told the company would now offer health insurance - they would pay 50% of a certain HMO choice for me only, not my family. The paperwork they sent me had more options - I was hoping my income would increase, so I chose a PPO program for my family and I. On the paperwork, it stated that my weekly cost for me only would be $135. There was no mention of any more cost for my family. The dental and vision options showed an additional 90-100% over my individual cost for family - so I thought I would be on the hook for at most $300 - and since I was at $500 base plus commission, it wouldn't be a hardship.
Then in April, I got a message from the HR department stating that my insurance bill for just medical was over $2000 a month for my family - not including dental and vision. **There was nothing in any paperwork they sent me that could have prepared me for this figure. They asked me to cut them a check. I informed them I couldn't. At that point I spoke to my manager and asked about commissions - I found out that the "$500.00 base" was actually a draw against commissions ever since I started there. The monies I received during the three weeks of training were actually a draw. (The company still is advertising for sales reps with the promise of "base + commission + bonus" with only pre-requisite a drivers license - no mention of car, insurance or computer)
So I was actually still in debt to them at this time. Then I had a poor April and received pressure about my sales (no mention of the transition of the new system - that was gone) and I got the feeling they were going to let me go. (My May sales were tops in my little group of sales reps, so that did not occur) But what DID occur was my first May paycheck was net $0.00. The company took all monies not taxes, etc and paid themselves back toward my health insurance debt. I did not complain, but decided to work hard and make anything up by making sales. Then the next week the same thing happened - no net pay. I spoke to my manager and he lent me $500. I needed gas and food. The third week was the same thing - it was promised to me they would get it figured out by the next week. They would only take $100 a week until the medical bill was paid. The 4th payment did deposit into my pay - but less than I thought it should be. I looked at my payroll stub and saw that they lowered my weekly "base? or draw" to $400.00 without mentioning it to me. They had lowered it from the beginning of May - I didn't notice earlier as I never looked at the top line since the net line was $0.00.
My manager told me that they would fix payroll by the first June check - and when I looked Friday, nothing was deposited. They again paid themselves for my excess medical. (I had them cancel coverage after March and April) My manager talked to payroll and he had it "fixed" and I received the net from another $400 check on the following Monday. I have continued to work all this time - running miles on my vehicle to the tune of 1700 - 2000 miles a month. The first two months I worked 6 days, then I started working 5 days in mid-April.
They didn't get my check correct again the second payroll of June - no deposit - but my manager contacted the office and I got some money deposited Saturday morning.
So to date - I have never received more than $500 for any week I've worked - sold $200,000 in product (which would be $16,000 commission at 8%) and run up over 9,000 miles on my car. They still advertise Base + Commission + bonus. I've received maybe 18 weeks of $500 and 5 weeks of $400.
It is awfully tough to go into client's homes and sell "The greatest company in our industry" which is part of what I must do. The do nice work, but are family owned and employees are not treated well.
If I could get over the hump, top sales people do very well there - except the ones with clout have managed to switch to the old way of selling - but us new people have to work under the new way - even if it is an alien way of doing business - the company sank a couple of hundred thousand dollars in this sales program and won't admit that it doesn't work well in our market.
What do I do? I cannot live at this rate of pay - and I think I have been taken advantage of - with miles, with payroll, with medical billing with commission....
There are others who have left and not received the monies owed to them (any sale that the company hasn't received clients' money within a few weeks of leaving the company are not paid to the sales rep. The company keeps it.
In 2016 I needed a job so I called one of my best friends (over 30 years) and asked what if his company was hiring. I applied and was hired. I understood that the job was at $500 base + commission + bonus.
I needed to supply my own automobile as I would be traveling to clients homes in order to sell a service for their home. I would need to supply my own computer in order to present information. I was in training for three weeks before I set out on my own to client's homes.
There was no car allowance or gas allowance whatsoever. I bid jobs based on their existing training program. If I underbid, the first amounts underbid would be my commission. If I had a $10,000 sale and I underbid $800 - I would not be paid commission - on the flip side, if I overbid (and in the interest of negotiating, I was trained to insert a "pad" so I could discount a bit in order to close a sale) so if there was an overage on a sale, it was NOT applied against any underbid jobs.
I had a fairly decent first month (February) - but any commissions were paid only when the company was paid by the customer - in California a home improvement contractor can only take a $1000 or 10% deposit (whichever is lower) and the remaining payment of the job was collected in three increments spaced over a couple of months.
I had a decent March - but again, not a lot was collected yet. In addition, the company decided to "purchase" a sales training program from a company in Georgia which the company began to implement. The training program was labor intensive and in many ways at odds with the way the company's reps were originally trained.
This "training" ran all through the company - where they used to "scrub" leads in order to determine if there was a need prior to sending out a home rep - it changed to almost anyone who called the office - whether we actually did what the customer wanted or not - we were sent. The new training was almost confrontational with customers - to determine at the onset of the appointment whatever objection the customer had and press against it for the rest of the appointment. The company told us that this would require a transition of three months or so, so we weren't too worried.
Nevertheless I had a poor April in comparison to the prior two months. For what also happened in April, I must skip back to March.
**Back to March - after I had been there 90 days I was told the company would now offer health insurance - they would pay 50% of a certain HMO choice for me only, not my family. The paperwork they sent me had more options - I was hoping my income would increase, so I chose a PPO program for my family and I. On the paperwork, it stated that my weekly cost for me only would be $135. There was no mention of any more cost for my family. The dental and vision options showed an additional 90-100% over my individual cost for family - so I thought I would be on the hook for at most $300 - and since I was at $500 base plus commission, it wouldn't be a hardship.
Then in April, I got a message from the HR department stating that my insurance bill for just medical was over $2000 a month for my family - not including dental and vision. **There was nothing in any paperwork they sent me that could have prepared me for this figure. They asked me to cut them a check. I informed them I couldn't. At that point I spoke to my manager and asked about commissions - I found out that the "$500.00 base" was actually a draw against commissions ever since I started there. The monies I received during the three weeks of training were actually a draw. (The company still is advertising for sales reps with the promise of "base + commission + bonus" with only pre-requisite a drivers license - no mention of car, insurance or computer)
So I was actually still in debt to them at this time. Then I had a poor April and received pressure about my sales (no mention of the transition of the new system - that was gone) and I got the feeling they were going to let me go. (My May sales were tops in my little group of sales reps, so that did not occur) But what DID occur was my first May paycheck was net $0.00. The company took all monies not taxes, etc and paid themselves back toward my health insurance debt. I did not complain, but decided to work hard and make anything up by making sales. Then the next week the same thing happened - no net pay. I spoke to my manager and he lent me $500. I needed gas and food. The third week was the same thing - it was promised to me they would get it figured out by the next week. They would only take $100 a week until the medical bill was paid. The 4th payment did deposit into my pay - but less than I thought it should be. I looked at my payroll stub and saw that they lowered my weekly "base? or draw" to $400.00 without mentioning it to me. They had lowered it from the beginning of May - I didn't notice earlier as I never looked at the top line since the net line was $0.00.
My manager told me that they would fix payroll by the first June check - and when I looked Friday, nothing was deposited. They again paid themselves for my excess medical. (I had them cancel coverage after March and April) My manager talked to payroll and he had it "fixed" and I received the net from another $400 check on the following Monday. I have continued to work all this time - running miles on my vehicle to the tune of 1700 - 2000 miles a month. The first two months I worked 6 days, then I started working 5 days in mid-April.
They didn't get my check correct again the second payroll of June - no deposit - but my manager contacted the office and I got some money deposited Saturday morning.
So to date - I have never received more than $500 for any week I've worked - sold $200,000 in product (which would be $16,000 commission at 8%) and run up over 9,000 miles on my car. They still advertise Base + Commission + bonus. I've received maybe 18 weeks of $500 and 5 weeks of $400.
It is awfully tough to go into client's homes and sell "The greatest company in our industry" which is part of what I must do. The do nice work, but are family owned and employees are not treated well.
If I could get over the hump, top sales people do very well there - except the ones with clout have managed to switch to the old way of selling - but us new people have to work under the new way - even if it is an alien way of doing business - the company sank a couple of hundred thousand dollars in this sales program and won't admit that it doesn't work well in our market.
What do I do? I cannot live at this rate of pay - and I think I have been taken advantage of - with miles, with payroll, with medical billing with commission....
There are others who have left and not received the monies owed to them (any sale that the company hasn't received clients' money within a few weeks of leaving the company are not paid to the sales rep. The company keeps it.
