The Filter Queen Employment Scam
Centerville, OH 45459
United States of America
The speaker tells you this position is 30 hours per week in which you are sent to take air samples from businesses. These are not sales positions, but rather Indoor Air Quality Service Associates. In order to become an IAQS Associate, you must take a three-day training course, then have 20 hours of field certification in which you shadow another IAQS Associate. The company does not pay for training due to the high number of failures, but the company does pay you for certification. You are told several times that the company provides all leads; there is no cold calling. The speaker then continues to discuss other open positions, the next of which is the evil salesman. At the end of the presentation, the group is asked to complete an application with the desired position listed, and then told to call back at a certain time to schedule your interview. When you call back, you are congratulated and asked to come in the next day for training.
Day one. The franchise owner, also the speaker from the previous day, begins to tell you about his company. Environmental Air Solutions distributes Filter Queen air filtration systems, manufactured by Health-Mor Industries. He then begins to demonstrate the Filter Queen Indoor Air Quality System called the Defender. You are told some statistics about indoor pollution and then somehow you are on the subject of vacuum cleaners. Now you are being shown a "high-powered surface cleaner" that looks like a shop vac. After a disgusting presentation that not only makes you unable to breathe, but also makes you feel dirty and in a room full of viruses and bacteria, your group is sent home and told to return the next day for a second day of training.
Day two. The franchise owner introduces you to your new trainer, a gentleman that has only been with the company for two weeks but has outstanding potential. You, of course, can also be promoted that quickly if you have the people skills and dedication to succeed. The new trainer divides the room into small groups, passes out presentation binders, and tells everybody to practice demonstrations.
Day three. Your groups are now shown more about the Majestic, the high-powered surface cleaner. After practicing your presentations some more, the franchise owner returns to the room and reiterates your salary. Every associate is expected to work 30 hours per week. Environmental Air Solutions will pay you two hours for each demonstration, thus requiring you to run at least 15 appointments per week. You are paid bi-weekly. After three months, you are entitled to profit sharing. Profit sharing is obviously going to be better than being paid hourly. Once you are entitled to profit sharing, you will be paid whichever amount is higher, either hourly wages or profit sharing wages. He now goes over how much money you are paid for the number of systems sold. After everybody understands this, all new associates are given a sign-on packet including a statement that reads Environmental Air Solutions will pay you $900 every two weeks and that you are expected to demo 15 systems per week. For every appointment over 15, you will be paid $30 per demonstration. This job sounds great, but what about those who are unable to run 15 appointments during the first week due to other jobs or school? The trainer assures you and the rest of the class that you will be paid $15 per hour.
The franchise owner then tells the group that he knows everybody is going to suck at his for a while. So, what he is going to do to help you out is make you a deal. The deal is as follows:
· Do 10 demonstrations to your friends and family over the weekend.
· You will be paid $30 per demonstration.
· If you complete 10 demonstrations, he will put you in for profit sharing instead of making you wait three months. This is because you will sell systems and he wants you to make as much money as you can. This is for you, because he wants to have associates that are happy and live at the level of life they want to live.
· The first person to sell a system is given this wonderful fantastic prize. Which, by the way, the new trainer won out of his group a mere two weeks prior.
Fast forward to a couple weeks later. You drive all the way to the office every day for an 11:00 AM meeting. There is never a meeting. You are handed one or two leads and told to call before and after each demonstration. Have a great day!
Now for the truth. There was no certification period. You were conned into finding 10 of your own leads. One of the girls from my group asked when she was going to be paid for the initial demonstrations she gave to her family and friends and was told that she was not going to be paid for those. Who told her? The telemarketer. Why did the telemarketer have to tell her this? The franchise owner is mysteriously nowhere to be found. When I asked for clarification of why we were not going to be paid, I was informed that they were just for practice and it is completely absurd for Environmental Air Solutions to pay for us to practice on our family. At this point, I think that maybe I did misunderstand the franchise owner when he told us to practice on our family and friends. Although I was certain when I left after training that I was getting paid $30 per demonstration, I began to doubt myself. Okay, what about these past few weeks when I have not been given 15 appointments to run? Nope, no pay for those. Why? Obviously, I had not read my new-hire paperwork because it clearly states I must demonstrate at least 15 appointments per week to be paid.
To summarize, Environmental Air Solutions is a scam. It is also operated under the name Easter Enterprises. You are expected to find your own leads. You are not paid for running appointments because you cannot possibly receive 15 of their leads per week. In the beginning, you will be told appointments are set for 10:00 or 11:00 AM, noon, 3:00 or 4:00 PM, and 6:00 or 7:00 PM. Not true. The only appointments offered to the associates in my training group were 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM, or 8:00 PM. Obviously, if every appointment takes approximately two hours and you have to drive to each appointment, you can only have two appointments per day.
Indoor Air Quality Service Associates are salespeople. When you are sent on appointments, you are told to push the people, to convince them they need the systems and they need them now. The folder I was given with all the sales paperwork (receipts, credit applications, etc.) was a mess. Some of the receipts were printed for Easter Enterprises, and some of them were for Environmental Air Solutions. I had at least three different types of credit applications, none of which had Environmental Air Solutions printed anywhere on the page.
Finally, all associates are given used equipment to demonstrate. You will be told the customer can request a new system and you merely have to run back to the office to pick one up. However, once you are sent out on a lead, you are told to push the one you demonstrated, even if you have used it for the ten demonstrations before this one. The reason you are given for this is because most people want to purchase the system that they saw really works.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is! Do not take a job selling Filter Queen products unless you are a salesperson, you are prepared to not get paid unless you sell the product, and you can generate your own leads.
Published by T.W.
I have worked in the trucking/transportation industry. I am now a first-time mother of one. I have two dogs. View profile
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22 Comments
Post a CommentThe company needs to do what it does to separate the dog-floggers from those that want to learn and earn. I was envovled with filter queen for 2 years full time and after the birth of kids and all that stuff I went back after 5 years to work part time. Not only was I welcomed back with open arms , I was making very good money , having fun and , because we have had ours for over 12 years at that point , I was getting people to see that they are INVESTING in a product that will never wear out if they do just a few bits of up-keep every few years. The big problem with the people that are saying this is a scam is that they want to get money for doing nothing. In essense , they are getting only what they deserve.
Incidentally, our filter queen , the one my daughter uses and the one in my son's house are all 35 years old.
How can this be a scam if the machine is really the best on the market ?
it is tough work but I will say this. the Filter Queen is the best on the market and the air purifyer is definitly head and shoulders above anything else on the market. It is not a job for someone who has no confidence or needs instant gratification. you must work with the homeowner/business owner just as you would with any product. And it is expensive, so stay out of "the hood". Most of the franchise owners also pay mileage, plus furnish all office equipment, and office workers, rent, heat, and the usual expenses associated with running a business, not to mention providing lunches during training. You can make a good living, but it is not a get rich quick thing that so many people seem to be looking for these days.
same thing happened to me. i went, filled out the app, and got the "congradulation" speech. i started the training the next day, pretty skeptical because i had read this. before we could start training we had to sign a registration paper (in the fine print it said if we didnt complete the training we would have to pay for ALL equipment used). i was lied to and they told me that it meant we could purchase it without doing the training and sell it ourselves. on the second day of training (today) i found out that each demo must last at least 2 hours to be qualified and may last 3-4 hours but you get paid for 2. not to mention you use your own gas to get there and once you sell it you have to drive back up to 30-45 miles and get them a new product if they wish. if you get kick out (which you probably will) before 2 hours you must use their house phone or their cell phone and call your boss to get them to try to buy it. you cant use yours because they have to know that you are really there.
My girlfriend recently applied, called and was accepted for a similar position in nearly the same way. She got home today, somewhat angry and confused about the first day of of seminar and handed me the small stack of papers, pleading "Read this and tell me I'm not crazy." Worried, I read over the papers and the first one I read destroyed my opinion of the rest of it. The "techniques" they teach you about made my stomach curdle, as I've had something similar done to me in the past. I'm never having her go back. Reading other scam reviews, this has "HAHA WE TRICKED YOU" written all over it. Selfish, deceiving, EVIL people to make people bust their butts to sell products marked triple and quadruple the price of the unit, and never pay the ones working anything. This stinks of an L&I lawsuit waiting to happen. I hope your caught and sued to bits.
regards to the fact that they promise to pay you for your efforts (hard work) as long as you make the quota of 15 a week. I was doing 20 at times, busted my tush, but again, the product was priced out of range of most people and had a 300% markup …unit cost 400 bucks and was sold for 1500….had to get permission from the “boss†to lower the price and it was never lowered under 1200.
So the scam isn’t a classic you pay me and you get this type thing, its I’ll give you this if you perform these tasks and when you do it, suuuucker……even if you sell one the commission rate is so disproportionate that its insulting. 100-150 bucks on 800? Prostitutes get more.
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With some notable exceptions, my experience was remarkably similar. And this was around 1989 – 1990. The differences are minor, there was no “certificationâ€, there were 2 or 3 “training†seminars where we would practice our pitch to the mark as well as practice the “Hi, My name is so and so from blah blah blah, would you like to enter a free drawing for $1000.00 worth of groceries ? Just fill out your name and number†then we turned those in and they would shortly get a “sorry, you didn’t win the “grand prize†but you did win a nice steak knife set, by the way, would you like a product demonstration?â€.
If they were stupid enough to say yes, then my experience on that was they didn’t have the money to spend 1200 bucks for a vacuum, nor was there credit sufficient enough to get it.
Not sure how many FQ’s I was able to “sell†that the deal fell through because they couldn’t finance the cost.
So Mark, in response to your slam, it’s a scam in rega
my husband just got offered a job opportunity and after I read this, he aint going back. If they offer you money n you dont get it, its a scam and if the job required you to sell in order to get paid, but they dont tell you that IT IS A SCAM!!!! thank you for writing this article because now we both know never to trust this company at all.
Airstream in florence pulled this same trick. They are full of it. Jerry Hall lied to me countless times. I worked for a couple days knowing I was not going to get paid that $300 he promised. I figured if i sell i can make money. I by the time I did my fifth demo I had three sold. Everytime I let them fill out the paperwork jerry came back with some sort of problem on how he cant get the machines to them today. So that night I decided I was not going to work for him anymore. The next day I ignored his phone calls all day. " in training he said he dont bother us when we are not scheduled to work and i was not scheduled so why he called me for times threatening me about some legal actions he could take if i dont call him back by ten. Another day went by i still have not answered his phone calls but still no legal actions. Finally i decided to bring it in and see what he had to say. Jerry saw me and walk to the back of the store and sent his assistant to talk to me. What a coward. Did the
Well, my father works for them and he makes $5000 a month. So whine all you want but if you work hard you make bank. Lazy people need not apply.
Well, My son just came home and told me he quit Filter Queen. I then googled filter queen and found this article and it read just as he told me. How can a company sleep at night knowing how they are scamming people into working for them. The lies told are too many to count. I tried to google info. about the co. but got 0 results....until I heard the words Filter Queen, Then the info appeared. Shame on you Filter Queen! If I am able to find a way to formally make a complaint about there employee hireing practices you can bet I will file one.