It's still happening.
I wrote about my experiences with Focus International being the worst company I had ever worked for. That was back in December. It is currently March. I am still trying to get them to actually do anything regarding any money they may or may not withholding from me (they can't even answer if there is any money).
I have been trying to get in contact since the middle of August. After being bounced around a lot I have finally focused on their Adelaide office instead of Perth (which has a habit of not answering the phone... which is stupid because I've seen their office. It's tiny. There's no way you couldn't be at any point in the office and not be close enough to answer it so I assume they simply don't care).
I've never been so disrespected in my life. They have a new reason every time I manage to reach them at a time when they have enough skill and bravery to figure out how the hell a phone works. Oh the accounts person is on holiday... they're sick... etc, etc, no one in the office can do the paperwork so it hasn't changed since you last rang, blah blah blah. They only have one person in accounts who is constantly unreliable, never answers their phone, and is frequently not working for weeks on end? Have they thought of getting a temp? Do they have any kind of organisational skills whatsoever? Maybe they should just fire her and replace her outright with someone with the basic office skill of "knowing how to operate a phone."
It's pathetic. It shouldn't take months of hounding a company with a simple question to only get so far as having confirmation you have the right phone number. They're dodgy and I know their dodgy.
And other people know their dodgy.
I have made it my mission to convince anyone I meet who works for them to quit. It is the best course of action after all. It is a pyramid scheme masquerading as a brilliant sales opportunity. I approach people peddling charity, I ask them what company they work for, if it Focus I tell them they need to run away before they're screwed over even more than they already are by simply falling for their trap, and then I walk away. If they're not from Focus International I drop the name and they recoil and go "oh no... we're not like them."
Everywhere I go - in the streets and job interviews alike - anyone who knows the name of Focus International knows that they are dodgy. They're the closest thing to a scam without being outright illegal (as far as I'm aware though their tactics are somewhat questionable... the redeeming feature is we were told not to get people on disability pensions to sign up because they won't be good at recurring donations). I thought I would have to try and convince people. Turns out people already know... except the poor suckers still working for them.
When I signed up I was amazed by the potential that it presented. They said I could easily earn $500+ a week and I didn't even have to work everyday. Uncapped earnings! How amazing! The way they sold it made it sound like a dream come true. The problem was when I got into the field I found that I had fallen for a sales pitch and an empty promise... none of my coworkers believed in the promises they'd signed up for and told me to leave if I could... and I see why. The job was bad enough as it was but dealing with this company has been even worse.
I can't find them on Google. There's no addresses available online, I don't know where their Adelaide office is, I don't know any emails, the website on their business cards isn't a website, if I wanted to I wouldn't know how to report them to anyone because they're so hard to find, and who would I report them to anyway? The only way to deal with them is internally which gives them all the power to screw me over the way they have. This has got to be deliberate. They're the closest thing to a scam I've ever had to deal with...
...except that time I was actually involved in an illegal money laundering scam (by accident). But that's a different story. At least I managed to sort that one out quickly instead of dragging it out for months.
When I hit publish I'm going to try and call them again and hope that I CAN JUST RESOLVE THIS. I JUST WANT A SIMPLE QUESTION ANSWERED. WHY HAS THIS TAKEN MONTHS? THIS ISN'T EVEN A BIG INVESTIGATION IT'S JUST ONE QUESTION!
Don't work for Focus International. Don't get suckered in. Don't click on those Seek ads. It will cause you nothing but pain.
I wrote about my experiences with Focus International being the worst company I had ever worked for. That was back in December. It is currently March. I am still trying to get them to actually do anything regarding any money they may or may not withholding from me (they can't even answer if there is any money).
I have been trying to get in contact since the middle of August. After being bounced around a lot I have finally focused on their Adelaide office instead of Perth (which has a habit of not answering the phone... which is stupid because I've seen their office. It's tiny. There's no way you couldn't be at any point in the office and not be close enough to answer it so I assume they simply don't care).
I've never been so disrespected in my life. They have a new reason every time I manage to reach them at a time when they have enough skill and bravery to figure out how the hell a phone works. Oh the accounts person is on holiday... they're sick... etc, etc, no one in the office can do the paperwork so it hasn't changed since you last rang, blah blah blah. They only have one person in accounts who is constantly unreliable, never answers their phone, and is frequently not working for weeks on end? Have they thought of getting a temp? Do they have any kind of organisational skills whatsoever? Maybe they should just fire her and replace her outright with someone with the basic office skill of "knowing how to operate a phone."
It's pathetic. It shouldn't take months of hounding a company with a simple question to only get so far as having confirmation you have the right phone number. They're dodgy and I know their dodgy.
And other people know their dodgy.
I have made it my mission to convince anyone I meet who works for them to quit. It is the best course of action after all. It is a pyramid scheme masquerading as a brilliant sales opportunity. I approach people peddling charity, I ask them what company they work for, if it Focus I tell them they need to run away before they're screwed over even more than they already are by simply falling for their trap, and then I walk away. If they're not from Focus International I drop the name and they recoil and go "oh no... we're not like them."
Everywhere I go - in the streets and job interviews alike - anyone who knows the name of Focus International knows that they are dodgy. They're the closest thing to a scam without being outright illegal (as far as I'm aware though their tactics are somewhat questionable... the redeeming feature is we were told not to get people on disability pensions to sign up because they won't be good at recurring donations). I thought I would have to try and convince people. Turns out people already know... except the poor suckers still working for them.
When I signed up I was amazed by the potential that it presented. They said I could easily earn $500+ a week and I didn't even have to work everyday. Uncapped earnings! How amazing! The way they sold it made it sound like a dream come true. The problem was when I got into the field I found that I had fallen for a sales pitch and an empty promise... none of my coworkers believed in the promises they'd signed up for and told me to leave if I could... and I see why. The job was bad enough as it was but dealing with this company has been even worse.
I can't find them on Google. There's no addresses available online, I don't know where their Adelaide office is, I don't know any emails, the website on their business cards isn't a website, if I wanted to I wouldn't know how to report them to anyone because they're so hard to find, and who would I report them to anyway? The only way to deal with them is internally which gives them all the power to screw me over the way they have. This has got to be deliberate. They're the closest thing to a scam I've ever had to deal with...
...except that time I was actually involved in an illegal money laundering scam (by accident). But that's a different story. At least I managed to sort that one out quickly instead of dragging it out for months.
When I hit publish I'm going to try and call them again and hope that I CAN JUST RESOLVE THIS. I JUST WANT A SIMPLE QUESTION ANSWERED. WHY HAS THIS TAKEN MONTHS? THIS ISN'T EVEN A BIG INVESTIGATION IT'S JUST ONE QUESTION!
Don't work for Focus International. Don't get suckered in. Don't click on those Seek ads. It will cause you nothing but pain.
