Tech Pro's Paid Internship - Beware

sromagazine

I've been seeing this ad all over Careerbuilder. I got an email from their recruiter and a very nice pdf. Once I saw their $95 application fee I got a bit suspicious.

This is their ad they are running. They're running it in every major city.

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?ipath=EXSH&siteid=cbsimplyhired&Job_DID=J8F77J63Q3XTGQQ7126

After googling this is what I found.

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=13218660


http://techprosgroupirvineca.googlepages.com/

Jammywanks

LOL, a $95 application FEE???

That is worse than Michael Buckenburger, master of sales at New Horizons.

Thanks for the heads up. Crooks show up in the least expected places these days.

moss12

This is so sick arrgh!

Netstudent

They they tried to "hook line and sinker" me. I read over thier brochure and was like YA FRIKIN RIGHT! MCSE in 6 weeks, nuh uh don;t think so. CCNA and CCNP composite in a 2week boot camp, nuh uh don't think so. I emailed the guy back and told him I he was a scam. I asked around about them and others confirmed it was scammy.

ThePistonDoctor

I have the both the VP and the recruitment manager's email addresses and phone numbers. I sent them both a link and asked them to explain it and why they haven't registered with the BPPVE. I will forward their response to the BBB.

I hate scumbag companies like this. Vector Marketing is another one that takes advantage of high school and college kids. My brother got sucked into that **** and my parents ended up suing Vector and running a state-wide news story on their scam. Needless to say we don't hear too much from them anymore.

anthcla

heh, I saw their spam on careerbuilder about a year ago(no application fee at that time). Sent in my info and all, got a package back from them explaining their "offer". You go through their training, they provide you with contacts to get the "30k-60k/year paid internship", only catch? You pay them a portion of your income until you've paid them back 30k or something like that.

Extra items they don't mention until you talk to the sales pitch guy:
-Housing must be paid for by you at their location, or can be rented from them for about $75/day. ~6 weeks or so
-Food is extra too
-Books & Materials are extra, figure an additional $200-300/course..~$2k
-Flight to/from to their training location

I forget what else there was, but I added it up and to do this it'd end up costing you over $7k+whatever you had to pay them from your salary. The sales guy kept calling me for about a month telling me to just put it on a credit card...

KGhaleon

http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27948

ThePistonDoctor

Oh man, this is great. Haha!

Here we go...after a long email chain with these guys (I will post it if anyone's interested) and deciding it was garbage, I sent them this yesterday evening:

RE: TPG - LAN/WAN Engineer Internship
From: ##### (######@hotmail.com) 
Sent:Thu 2/21/08 4:39 PM
Reply-to:####@rit.edu


To: ######### (####@****.com); #########@****.com





Mr. ######:
 
How do you explain this: [url]http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportExtensionPage.aspx?CompanyID=13218660&sm=[/url] ?
 
Why has someone not registered your company with the BPPVE? Please get back to me. 
 
Regards,
 
Chris Zielinski

I sent this to both Brian Kim (the recruitment manager) and Peter Frivaldi (the VP) to see what their explanation was. I didn't actually expect a reply. Surprisingly, I didn't get an email back; I got a phone call direct from the VP. He proceeded to compare the Better Business Bureau to the mafia, claiming that they have shady business practices and the only reason they gave his company an F rating is because they want him to pay their registration fee to register (they're not even a member of the BBB, according to him).

He also told me that Gateway computer, Mercedes Benz, and at least one other prominent company all have F ratings (they don't), and that 40 complaints of over 1200 clients (3.3%) is "not that bad." Obviously i have no idea how many clients they have, 40 complaints (15 of which are unanswered and 8 of which involve refusal to refund money) is ridiculous for only 1200 clients IMO.

Another interesting explanation he gave was for why they are not registered with the CA BPPVE. I told him that any school providing private post-secondary or vocational education in the state of CA needs to be registered with the BPPVE to protect students in the event that their school goes out of business or suffers a major financial loss which is transferred to them. He quickly replied that they "technically are not a school because we don't charge tuition" and so they don't need to register. I asked him what he considered the over $1000 up front cost and the payback percentage you need to shell out if you are placed in an internship and he didn't have a good answer. All he could tell me was that those are "required costs."

I literally sat and listened to him try to glorify his company for over 20 minutes, until finally I got sick of listening to him and told him I had to go. I told him that I wasn't trying to start an argument, but rather give him an idea of what the average consumer thinks about his company and what they're offering. I doubt he was really concerned, but if nothing else the outcome of the phone call is that they now know consumers literally have the balls to tell them they suck and that they should straighten their sh!t out before they go out of business. If I had more motivation I might pursue this further and make a huge stink about the whole thing, but honestly I just don't care. I will just make sure to tell everyone I know that they are a bunch of scum.

ThePistonDoctor

And on another note, it indicates the education level of the recruitment manager, considering he clicked a link from a completely unknown source just because I sounded annoyed. What a dumbass The VP also said Brian was going to send me an email that would "help me understand" - I never got it (big surprise )

bighusker

You should post the chain of e-mails on the Consumerist. I've never heard of this company, but I'd love to see them exposed.

x_Danny_x

man, i received a call from one of their recruiters. reading the blasted link from careerbuilder makes it look like a blasted job! and in reality all they are doing is promising to pay you if you SUCCESSFULLY pass certifications a big lump of money and good paying job,

BS meter was just ringing all out on this ad.

sinner88

after googling techpro ripoff mulder i got this listed as #1 hit. the guy indeed does advertise in every canadian city and hires techs for one time useage, collects his money, all of it with threats of charges of theft and is never to be heard from again. if you call him, he does not say a thing. he sits there with the phone while his children laugh at you. This guy belongs in jail! i was only out a few hundred dollars. some i suspect may have been out far more. he records all his calls, i suspect he is quite used to being threatened. too bad the only one causing harm to him, his family and his business is him himself.