Worked for the company for six months as a Senior Sales Manager and made just $13, 500; incurred expenses that they did not pay; ABS pays just $0.25 per mile when traveling for them for the privilege of working for them; promised a bonus with written contract (that never came) for training but then company started having financial problems and then withdrew the bonus structure that they identified as $20-50, 000 per year depending upon hitting sales figures; ABS/GPS claims may top reps make over $100, 000 per year when in fact they are lucky to make $20, 000. In fact one of their top 10 reps in cash collect in one year made just under $13, 000 for the entire year. ABS/GPS just hired forty new analysts because of the high attrition rate (August 2010), no one is making any money and accordingly jobs I had scheduled they did not send an analyst to complete the sale so that I could make back end money from consulting. Company run by the Peter Principal; most in management are incompetent without experience at managing people or problem solving. Managers are promoted for simply attendance, longevity, being friends with Tyler Burgess (son of the owner) or related to top management, and going with the flow and by not making waves. Management typically hires High School educated people so that they do not question the way they do business which is crazy because they advise other businesses on what they should do when they cannot manage themselves or be profitable and pay a decent commission for their employees. Complaints? They view that as your "attitude problem", not as a management failure for lack of accountability, process control or failure to communicate on their part. You work with a Business Consultant, a "BC" that makes $8 an hour and is under pressure to write so many leads a day, regardless if they are good leads or frankly fictitious. Nobody cares in management, and your Zone Manager doesn't care about your gas money or time, and they don't think you are sincere unless you are willing to run all over town to satisfy them that you have "commitment" to succeed; all from people without any history of success or achievement, frankly they are losers if you ask them what they have done in their careers, lifers with IPA-ABS. The BC's are young, uneducated and told to get you in front of someone as their only criteria for success. If you didn't make it happen, the BC has done their job even if the contact was generated by false pretense: "I have fleet work I can bring to your company", or "can you take on more work at this time?" When the business owner figures out the rouse, they are infuriated. And what if you sell a job? Management is tied into sales and sales numbers, regardless if the job actually sells or if it goes to consulting, they could care less if you get paid. No one pushes the jobs to go to consulting unless the analyst pressures the client and there isn't anyone watching over the jobs because management isn't incentivized to care. If you say you aren't making money working for the company and are thinking about making a change, they tell you that you need to follow-up to make sure the job is scheduled with an analyst through your SENEX (Senior Manager of Sales, aka "Snake Oil Sales Manager") or perhaps you did not do enough to merchandize the need to the client which is your fault, not management. The company has no interest whatsoever in seeing that you succeed or can make a wage to sustain yourself, they don't care. Company management/leadership cannot tell the truth about numbers, accountability, compensation, or anything. Terribly run sales organization and I cannot image worse leadership or management. If the truth fit, they would tell a lie just out of habit. Worst experience of my life in the workforce for over 25 years!

MADIGAN FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST INTERNATIONAL PROFIT ASSOCIATES FOR CHEATING HUNDREDS OF SMALL BUSINESSES OUT OF THOUSANDS

Attorney General Says Buffalo Grove Consulting Firm
Practiced Wide-Scale Fraud

Chicago—Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against International Profit Associates, Inc. (IPA), a Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based management consulting firm, and its owner John R. Burgess. The suit alleges that the defendants use wide-ranging deceptive practices to ensnare hundreds of small-business clients into consulting service contracts that fail to fulfill the defendants' promises to boost their clients' bottom lines.

"International Profit Associates takes advantage of small businesses by painting an inaccurate and dismal picture of their financial condition and then conning the business owners into hiring IPA consultants who promise to turn things around, " Madigan said. "It is an unfair and deceptive scheme that has played out hundreds of times as reflected in the considerable number of complaints that my office has received from small businesses that lost tens of thousands of dollars to IPA."

"Small businesses are vital to our state's economy and are already struggling to weather the current difficult economic conditions. The last thing small business owners need is to be targeted for consulting services that simply will not benefit their operations, " Madigan said.

The suit also names as defendants: International Tax Advisors, Inc., Integrated Business Analysis, Inc., and Accountancy Associates, LLC, all based in Buffalo Grove, Ill. Burgess is the majority owner of all of the defendant companies.

Madigan's lawsuit alleges that IPA employs deceptive, high-pressure sales tactics to trap small businesses into management consulting contracts by falsely promising that the businesses will earn increased profits as a result of IPA's consulting services. Contrary to these promises, IPA typically charges the small businesses tens of thousands of dollars for services that fail to provide any constructive or useful information and do not result in any increased profits.

The complaint describes IPA's business practices in detail. IPA allegedly targets businesses through telemarketing, offering an initial evaluation of a prospective client's business for a nominal fee ranging from $300 to $2, 500. Once on site for the initial analysis, IPA sales associates allegedly convince small business owners that their companies are in serious financial trouble if they do not immediately retain IPA for consulting services.

IPA allegedly promises to prepare specialized, industry-specific recommendations that will help to improve a company's performance. The sales associates often promise that the businesses will see a three-to-one return on their investment in IPA consulting services and allegedly assure business owners that they will be able to afford the IPA services as a result of increased profits in the future. However, according to Madigan's lawsuit, the small business owners rarely realize an increase in profits and often are left in worse financial condition as a result of IPA's costly consulting services. One small business owner cited in Madigan's complaint paid IPA nearly $70, 000 in fees for consulting services that provided no meaningful advice to optimize business operations and, thus, failed to improve the company's profits.

As Madigan's lawsuit details, after a small business agrees to a consulting project, IPA consultants arrive, usually in pairs, and bill the small business at $275 each per hour, plus travel, hotel and per diem expenses. The consultants often produce reports and charts that appear to be based on boilerplate or generic data and do not provide specialized recommendations for the small business client as originally promised.

The complaint further alleges that IPA sales associates promise that business owners will not have to pay for consulting services if they are unsatisfied with the results. However, IPA allegedly uses aggressive collection practices to compel clients to pay for unsatisfactory service. Madigan's suit alleges that IPA demands immediate payments and, if a business owner does not make immediate payment, IPA consultants allegedly are trained to refuse to leave the business premises until their demand for a post-dated check is honored.

Since 2004, 215 consumers have filed complaints with Madigan's Consumer Fraud Bureau. During that time, more than 400 consumers have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau.

Madigan's lawsuit asks the court to permanently enjoin the defendants from engaging in this conduct. The suit also asks the court to order the defendants to pay restitution for the small business owners, civil penalties of $50, 000 for violations of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, an additional $50, 000 for each violation committed with the intent to defraud, and the costs of the investigation and prosecution of the case.

Consumer Fraud Bureau Chief James Kole, Special Consumer Counsel Charles G. Fergus and Assistant Attorneys General Anshuman Vaidya, Katrina Wanzer Derhake and Joshua Orenstein are handling the case for Madigan's Consumer Fraud Bureau