My experience with College Pro Painters, and other life-changing experiences of the last two years
Submitted by darktremor on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 05:04
Tags:
- This is a very personal list for me...I've decided to outline every life-changing experience that's happened to me in the last 2 years of my life. It's not really intended to be read, but you can of course read it if you want. I'm sorry (to anyone who actually wants to read this) for the length of the College Pro story, but there were a lot of terrible things that happened, and I'm writing everything major about my last 2 years here (really, for my own purposes - sort of therapeutically, I'd say). In the beginning, I was different in many ways from who I am today due to these experiences:
- Found a meaningful long-term relationship, and made it last (it still lasts)
- Tried marijuana a few times - had some very funny experiences with it, and some interesting hallucinations.
- Long story: Ran a business under a terrifying corporate cult, that eventually caused my complete nervous breakdown. It began when I saw a flier saying "earn 18,000 dollars over the summer with College Pro Painters." Intrigued, I decided to go check it out (thinking it was painting). It turned out to be running a business franchise, which intrigued me further. I went through the interview process (some of which had multiple people in it, oddly): it took 5 interview before I was given a contract to sign. Throughout these interviews, I was always told "Don't worry, the only way you can fail is if you're lazy, stupid, and unmotivated. Everyone who has ever failed has been this." They also showed me a sheet of paper on which they said was "the data from last year" - which showed 90% of the businesses on it as succsesful. I was hooked after this process, I trusted them. Little did I know, I had been brainwashed by their interviews (I didn't realize this until I looked back, but the same ideas were drilled into me again and again and all of them were such that I would feel like an absolute loser if I didn't take the job). I was taken through the contract: the "laymen's copy", that is, which apparently perfectly linked to the "legalese copy" (it turned out it didn't). I trusted them enough by now that I signed anyway, and they gave me an "area."
- The first weirdness was afoot two weeks later, when I got a call about the "first meeting in Toronto." I was then told that I'd have to pay them for the conference, and pay for my own hotel room, food, and busing. Still under their influence, I spent what little money I had and did it anyway (forgoing all social events to afford it - or working around spending money). Throughout the conference, some things struck me as strange. For example, we would have little chants, where they would shout things like: "Why would you fail?" And we'd shout back "If you're lazy stupid and unmotivated!" - several times. They had all kinds of people coming in telling us how much money they made, and how rich they are now, and how only an idiot wouldn't do this, and only an idiot could fail. Whenever someone was mentioned that didn't succeed for whatever reason, it was always followed with (by one of them): "because he was a friggin' moron?" before the actual instructor followed with a laugh, and then well, the actual point is...(insert business tip here). This is only naming a few of these "exercises," but by the end of the conference, I belived everything they told me, believed College Pro wasn't important, because no one else seemed to find any of it weird - so I assumed something was wrong with me (this is how cult work). There were other scary things that didn't bug me at the time, like breaking contact with anyone who doesn't understand what you're doing with College Pro or thinks it's a scam, and hanging out mostly with the College Pro people (they had a "performance culture" of continuous parties that we were expected to attend - all of which contained more propaganda, chants, jokes about people who don't "believe in College Pro," painting talk, and talks about how much money we make - there were dozens of them). There were 8 conferences (many multi-day)throughout the year, and countless more parties.
- I was told during the interviews that when I started working, I would probably work about 20 hours a week, until April when it would be about 30, then I could expect 60-70 hours during the summer. That seemed reasonable to me. However, when I started working, it turned out that between doing estimates all day Saturday and Sunday (20 hours), cold-calling around 15 hours per week - which was needed to fill the weekend, doing their paperwork (5 hours/week), our various meetings (2 hours/week), working on hiring painters (3 hours/week) , and busing to my turf (3 hours) that it was almost 40 hours a week. This was unacceptable with my course load (which took up about 50 hours/week), and knowing it would get much worse, I e-mailed my boss and said that it wasn't for me. His reaction: "you can't. Read the contract. You're not allowed to leave." He then named three sections, far apart in the massive document. Upon deciphering the convoluted legalese, and grabbing the right definitions in each paragraph he pointed to (all intertwined with other clauses for maximum confusion), the sections boiled down to three things:
- 1)Fraud is a 10,000 dollar fine, plus royalties (that amounts to 20,000 dollars. That's reasonable, because fraud is normally several years of prison time).
- 2)Breaking the contract is fraud.
- 3)Leaving College Pro is breaking the contract.
- I was trapped. And the workload only got worse, culminating in 70 hours of work per week by April, plus 50 hours of school. Some weeks were even more because of their parties and conferences. The work itself was miserable and unrewarding - it was a cold winter, sometimes going as low as -45 (celsius), during which the company still expected me to go out (or I'd miss my quotas). One potential customer actually picked me up and threw me off his porch. People would constantly cancel, book appointments and not show, then yell at me when I called back, make me do ridiculous activities at estimates, make me come back 10-11 times before tearing the contract up in front of me (because they found someone cheaper, and I'm a pricker for overcharging so much (I could only charge what the company told me to, or I'd make no money)), call me sleazy, stupid, and asshole, etc. - after all, I was being obtrusive - that's what I was expected to do (I'm not thin-skinned, but when that's 70 hours a week, it quickly gets very hard). Plus, it turned out the previous franchisee in my area ripped everyone he dealt with off, and pulled little scams on them (especailly taking deposits and running off) - so people were doubly mad in my area, and way less likely to book or make estiamtes. I mentioned it to the company numerous times, even providing evidence of the fraud, and their answer was anyways: "you're doing it wrong. Your cold-calling needs to improve, and so does your estimating. You can't externalize all you problems. You have to remember: everything is your fault. If you don't accept responsibility and work harder instead of lazing about, you will fail." Dealing with the company was nearly as bad as the customers: if I didn't meet all of their ridiculous and arbitrary expectations, they would take money out of my account, which they had direct access to. Sometimes their requirements were contradictory, and I would be reprimended and fined if I didn't meet them (ie: 10-12 estimates per weekend! 2 hours per estimate! And all numbers in by 8 O'clock Sunday night! um... add that to 2 half hour lunch breaks and 160 minutes of driving to and from the area, and an hour of data, and that's almost impossible - if anything at all went wrong, I'd miss the deadline - and it frequently did. I was often fined). The turf they gave me was a 20-40 minute (depending on traffic) drive away, and it was 1.5-2.5 hours across (again, traffic), because the useable areas were so spread out - something which I didn't agree to.
- Throughout all this time, I was working out a deal with an old friend to buy her production vehicle and equipment (I assumed that I could trust her - although she sounded off on the phone, as if something was wrong with her. She did the company the year before, and she was a person that recommended it to me during the interviews. I'd known her for 5 years, but hadn't talked to her since she did it.). The deal was for 4000 dollars for everything I'd need: equipment and vehicle. However, one day before production started, she said she "couldn't get it safetied and e-tested" (each test is over 100 dollars, and was part of the deal) the mechanics wouldn't do it" - even though she told me on the phone that it had already gotten this check. So, her dad stepped in, and said: new deal: 3000 dollars for the equipment only (value new: $2000). If I didn't buy it for his price, he'd pull out completely. Being one day before I started painting houses, I had to agree. Upon sorting the stuff that night (which I trusted my friend to do), I discovered there were no complete kits, and much of the equiment was damaged or broken. Upon calling them back, I got no answers, ever again.
- So, I found a new vehicle at the last minute, with no time to do an extensive check (I had one day to do it, or I'd lose 1000s of dollars in lost jobs), and started the next day. 4 days later, the car broke down. On calling the seller back, no answer. I managed to get it fixed within 4 days (during which time 3 painters quit, because they were supposed to be working at that point), and started again. 2 days later, it broke down again. So, I got a ride to the man who sold me the car's house, and his neighbors said he'd gone to Europe for the summer - but they weren't sure...he might have moved there (in other words: he was a curbside dealer). The car was declared undrivable ever again by the mechanic 4 days later. However, 2 days in, I started using my parents car. One of my employees was belligerent and started stealing money from me (by lying on his budget sheets about how long was worked, and invented miscellaneous expenses), so I had to fire him (he felt entitled to this because he didn't get the work promised at the beginning). 2 weeks went by, and it was difficult, but manageable - although I had to work 130 hour weeks to keep up with the College Pro workload (which I had to meet or I'd get no money from them, I only get money past the "royalty break" or 75,000 dollars of revenue). This involved running 4 job sites at once (8AM-5PM 5 days a week), on top of cold-calling 20 hours per week, doing 10 hours of College Pro paperwork a week, 2 hours of talking to my boss, half an hour doing "time-sheets" in which I had to write everything I was doing at all times, even at home and on my spare time (breaking the sheet would = a fine) and doing 15 1.5 hour (now 1.5 hour - it always took me 2 hours because of the drive though, even with good planning - and only 10 were manageable) estimates on the weekend - on top of moving crew kits from site to site (10 hours per week including all the driving), managing payroll (one hour/week), managing business related things (2 hours per week), and meeting with customers for various reasons (10 hours per week). To stay awake all of this time, I started taking ADHD meds to keep myself awake - I began taking 2-3 per day, every day. My paranoia began here, delusions and hallucinations started creeping in (ie: I have to keep a pin stabbed the full way into my leg at all times when I drive, or I'll crash; the company is trying to steal my brain. Everyone everywhere hates me. That sort of thing. Although I managed to keep it all away when dealing with painters or customers)
- I came home one day, to find that insurance had pulled out on me, because they discovered an accident I'd had in March, which voided me for my parents vehicle. I was unable to work for 6 days while I found a new car, during which time 2 more painters quit. Upon returning to work with my meticulously chosen car, I went to one of the job sites, and found that the crew had dumped much of the paint on the side of the house, and destroyed the crew kit ($500). They were there, and they said they were quitting, and: "that if it were legal, we would slit your fucking throat, you fucking asshole. You promised us work 5 days a week, and that's 6 more days we've missed. So fuck you, and go to hell." And they stormed off, leaving me with a furious customer (who complained to the company, which fined me) and a massive mess to clean up. On top of the business, I had to hire 2 new painters, rearrange all of my work, and paint the entire damaged house myself (a 50 hour job).
- I brought the power washer over to another job site that day, where they needed it, and it set on fire. On close inspection (after putting it out), the power cord had been cut open, the wire switched, and then closed again. The furious crew has wired it to set on fire. I mentioned this during to one of their many calls to me for extra pay (or they'd sue), and they claimed it wasn't them, and to talk to the homeowner about that. The calls kept coming, day in day out, angry customers (mad that they'd been bumped up because of the smaller crew), company fines, customer complaints (because we were so late to start), and crews looking for solutions to problems (that only I carried to solutions to). I wasn't allowed to scale back operations to a manageable level, or the company wouldn't give me any money. Everyone in my life was angry at me for not spending enough time on them (from the customers, painters, to my old friends, parents, and friends. Only Lisa didn't get angry at me) But I managed. The weeks went up to about 140 hours of work now, but I survived. During every call, I was pushed to work harder (or I'd be lazy, stupid, and unmotivated) by the company, which I always tried to do.
- However, all of this was taxing: my delusions got worse and worse, I began suspecting that everyone was in a plot against me, and that Lisa was only there so I didn't full out lose it, and even she was part of it. I would have little mental breakdowns where I'd hurt myself badly, then sort of "wake up." I'd hallucinate; for example, at one point I saw myself on a rollercoaster that I couldn't stop, other times, I looked around the room and saw faces staring at me out of the walls, and glowing eyes everywhere. The nights doing paperwork were worse though, so I could still fake my way through the day - although mistakes appeared. For example, I accidentally didn't use a dropsheet in front of a customer - and several drips got on his driveway, and he screamed at me and demanded a refund of all of his money. I could only give him 50 dollars, so he slammed the door and said he'd tell everyone he knew never to use my idiotic company. In my self-loathing and paranoid delusion, I smashed my head with a wire brush until blood covered my face (luckily I didn't hit anywhere that anyone would see it - it was only my scalp that was bloodied). As long as I kept it clean it went unnoticed - and it did. I began having "petit-mal seizures" in which I'd go basicaly catatonic for a short period, then carry on again - scary for driving all of the time (I hit a pedestrian crossing sign in one of them, and dragged it 100 feet down the road before I noticed it. It's still in my garage today - a man across the street took down my license plate and threatened to call the city on me, but I never recieved the fine - thankfully).
- One day, in the middle of July, after being awake for 4 straight days (thanks to the continuous amphetamines), and having not eaten for 36 hours (no time), when going around a corner at 80 - in a 40 zone - a water bottle rolled under my pedal. I tried to break, but instead crashed into a tree full speed. The airbag didn't go off, but I was completely unhurt. My only worry was the company. I started calling customers, all while a mob gathered around and started screaming at me to "reattach my head" and "use more than 2 brain cells once and a while" (because I was walking around like nothing happened - a habit I'd picked up over the year). One even threw a rock at me, before the ambulance arrived. A cop showed up, and upon hearing my disconcern for my health, proceeded to scream at me about reckless driving, and slap me with the maximum fine. I spent the day in hospital (during which I was found physically unhurt, but was tested extensively regardless).
- I came up with a plan on getting out - I would sell my jobs to another franchisee. I worked out a deal for 15% revenue with one (which is supposedly half of profit, but in reality, it IS the profit - she didn't seem to realize this (as neither did I until I had time to do budget after the summer)), and in her desperation of being out of jobs, she agreed. Still, I had to call the company to transfer the jobs, because all of the information was stored on the company website. On calling them, I was told that I couldn't do that, that the process for getting in an accident was to have the jobs taken from you and given away to another franchise, after which I would have to pay full royalties on them, and get a 10,000 dollar fine.
- This put me over the edge. I had now not slept in 6 days, and I went right into a nervous breakdown/psychotic episode. I got lost in my own dark nightmare, and had to be put in a mental institution for 2 weeks to get out of it. It was a paranoid, self-destructive psychosis: I believed that everyone in the entire world was out to get me, that my whole life had been perfectly pre-ordained to maximize my misery. Everyone was involved in this grand Shakespearean drama involving the perfect destrction of my psyche, simply because I was the most pathetic, boring, useless person ever to live, and so I deserved this treatment. It got me in on my self-destruction: my girlfriend and mom forcibly dragged me to the hospital when I stabbed 15 pins the whole way into my leg, whacked my head with a wire brush (the same one I'd used before), threw myself against a wall, smashed several beloved possessions, puched myself in the face until I bled (and the legs), and ripped my skin off with my fingernails, everywhere that I could, in the final stage of the psychosis. All of them had before sort of ritualistic self-tortures, each one originally done for some illogical appeasement of some strange force in my surreal little world, but now just a barrage of self-destruction. Upon entering the hospital, I rejoined reality within 2 days, and was fully recovered in two weeks.
- However, just before discharge from the hospital, I had had another episode, when a nurse tried to kick Lisa out. We were just talking in my little alcove, with the blinds shut, sitting on my bed (she'd brought me some really nice presents - including the new Harry Potter book, the day it came out, and lots of food :D :D). At that point, an orderly stuck his head in, saying "you guys are in big trouble now" in his stereotypically accented (though forever spite-filled) Jamaican speech. We assumed he must have been joking, and we missed the joke, until he returned a few minutes later with 2 other nurses and 2 security gurads. Apparently sitting on my bed is against hospital rules: on hearing this, I agreed that we could sit somewhere else. They replied that it was too late for that, and that Lisa would now be escorted out. We both debated it, citing calm, logical arguments against it, and the nurse ordered the guards to seize and drag her out, which they did, and came up to me with restrainers and a hypodermic needle. At that point, I actually lost it, and thought I was back in College Pro, and that they were in on the plot, and went back into my despairing spiral, not even aware of reality (smashing my head against the wall over and over), until my mom showed up, and forced the curses to stop trying to restrain me (which she could do, being my legal guardian still). I was instead forced to take 2 pills of Haldol (I found out afterwards that I'd been given 20 grams). My psychiatrist (who was great) found out what had happened and thought it was ridiculous, and so arranged for my discharge the next day.
- I found out that College Pro legally couldn't touch me after having been hospitalized (you can't legally fine someone for being in the hospital, which is what it would have boiled down to if it had gone to court, as the car accident somewhat precipitated the hospitalization), and Lisa and my mom had tied up all the loose ends while I was inside. I lost over 4000 dollars: they drained my account of all money left when they found out what happened - to pay at least some of what I "owed." I closed my account the first day out.
- 2 days later, I started smiling for no reason. It kept going for several hours, getting more and more intense, and I thought I was just REALLY happy to be done with College Pro. However, at the 4 hour mark, it started getting painful. I called the hospital right away, and they said to come into ER with utmost urgency. I couldn't drive legally anymore, so Lisa drove me over. During the (half hour) ride, it became excruciating. My jaw started pulling to one side, pulling back and forth, until it literally dislocated, only to shove back into the socket, and dislocate again. I could feel my ear canal being distorted, and my eustacian tube being crushed by the muscles tightning. My teeth bit my cheeks and wouldn't let go. My jaw came in and out at least five times, and I could feel pulling and ripping of ligaments and muscles all over my face (I was screaming by this point). By the time we reached the hospital, I was thrashing about from all the pain - I felt like my jaw was going to break, and could feel massive strain on it. I knew the ligaments had torn in many places, and could feel the ripping of those left. 10 minutes later they gave me a shot (Cogentin) (I was screaming out - in all earnesty - to be killed if they couldn't stop it - it felt like having every bone in my face crushed at once), and it went down in 10 more.
- At that point, I was out, it was all over. There was virtually nothing left to deal with. However, none of my friends would talk to me. No one returned my calls, no one called me, no one came over anymore. 3 months later it was officially over between all of us, when one of them called me up after having promised to come over - 4 hours later, and told me that he'd found something better to do, and didn't feel like coming over. I asked him...you know, you could've just invited me over too, and he responded with "I just wanted my group of real friends to come." Me: "So the last 6 years meant absolutely nothing, none of you even like me anymore?" Him: "Look, I'm too high to talk about your self-esteem." I hung up on him. Most of my (old) friends felt I'd abandoned them, having not seen them for 10 months (even though they knew the reasons). So, it was over, I never saw about 14 of my friends ever again.
- Starting Zoloft, Trazedone, and Ativan. Apparently College Pro left me with major depression, sleep disturbances, Obsessive-compulsive traits, PTSD (strangely...), chronic stress syndrome, acute stress reaction, cyclothymic symptoms, acute insomnia (possibly chronic if it persisted long enough), and generalized anxiety disorder. However, taking these drugs made me feel like a whole new person, happier and more productive than I'd ever been.
- For a while. See the bottom for how this has panned out.
- Getting a job that I actually like: I now work at a psychology lab helping with research (along with school), and I'm paid very well. I'm also very respected and really genuiniely like my co-workers - who like me back quite a bit - I'm actually friends with the only two of them that are close to my age now; plus they're all really great, warm, friendly, and fun people. The policies are fantastic: work 10 hours a week, come in whenever you feel like it, leave whenever, take as many breaks as you want, just be productive during your actual time working. It brings a lovely atmosphere. This has taught me that it wasn't me, no matter what College Pro wanted me to think, that I really wasn't stupid, lazy, and unmotivated (which I truly believed until a few weeks ago - their brainwashing was very effective).
- Making dozens of new friends in only 3 months. After losing all of my old close friends to College Pro, I reconnected with other old friends (who were, now that I think of it, much better people), and began hanging around with dozens of people from university. For the first time ever, I actually had too many social events to go to. For the first time ever, I didn't feel like I wasn't really wanted, because of this.
- Starting my thesis - I've decided on the field of neural networking. This work is SO fascinating. Meeting with my thesis professor, I came up with a theory that he said was absolutely revolutionary, completely original, very logically sound, and truly brilliant (I won't post it here for obvious reasons, but if my experiments on the theory work, it will solve 4 long-standing problems in psychology: dendritic movement, the mental correlates to conditioning, how the brain wires itself at birth, and why neurotransmitter leak out of neurons at the synapse). I feel very comfortable with the rest of my life now, and for the first time, truly excited about the future. I'm losing my cynicism...finally. And thankfully.
- I tried psilocybin mushrooms (magic mushrooms). This story is too long to write right now, because I'm tired. I'll write it here later. It's really strange, and reading back on it, pretty interesting. But don't see it as a bad thing: it wasn't. I researched the drug heavily in advance; I was very interested in mushrooms after learning about them in my psychopharmacology course. There are literally no side-effects (except a possible bad trip), no negative long-term consequences, and no addictive properties (it's actually been shown to alleviate depression symptoms). It's safer than coffee: it's just intense.
- Lisa and I went clubbing at an EDM-based club (electro-house, minimal, deep house, and progressive house, mostly, which is great - it's called Heaven, it's in Ottawa) for the first time. It was actually great, better than I'd expected. I love dancing now, and we go whenever we can. It empties your mind of EVERYTHING until you leave, and you feel completely rejuvenated when you get out - it's like a primal release (unlike most mainstream clubs, where you feel like you have to perform for the people around you, and are mentally exhausted at the end of the night). It really changes the way you listen to dance music (for the better).
- Dealing with drug addiction: not to anything I've experimented with myself, but to the drug the psychiatrists made me take. SSRIs are very addictive (regardless of doctors will tell you), and I'm severely addicted to them. If I don't take them, I'll throw up, have paranoid delusions, talk to objects, the rooms will spin in 4 different directions, I won't be able to walk, I'll be furious at everyone and everything, I'll feel electric shocks, my head will pound, and all of my muscles will repeatedly tense up.
- To add to it, I now crave Ativan all the time. there's no physical addiction, but I have to stop myself from taking them constantly. This stuff is seriously dangerous. The only drug of the three that was safe was Trazodone.
- Got off of everything I had a chemical dependency on.
- Gotten engaged.
- Published a research paper in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Went to several raves.
Wow.(about the college pro painters thing) That's really quite something, so are they like one of these pyramid scheme companies? And they sound like absolute assholes, I'm glad you got out of it in the end!
Haha, you regarding the second to last post you might find this film trailer quite funny...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHhwiT6eedc
Yes, very insane. Being out is nice though :D Plus I can say I survived a cult.
HAHAHAHAHA, that trailer got it completely wrong. That's almost as funny as reefer madness.
I can only say I am much too happy for you it's all over. I hope everything falls back in order soon, if not already. The college pro experience sounds like the new hell ;)
Thanks! Everything is already back in place. I have straight-As again, a great new job as a research assistant, I got a thesis professor a year early, I have dozens of new friends, I'm still stable with my girlfriend, and now I'm starting to taper off my psychiatric meds. I'm pretty quick at rebuilding :D :D :D :D
It IS the new Hell. Don't let anyone do it ever.
The College Pro experience sounded horrible, I'm glad you got out of it and are doing something you like now :]
Thank you! :D
I found your article interesting. I was heavily involved in CPP 20+ years ago when I was an undergrad at the U of Calgary. Back then we barely heard from the head office (which I think was in Toronto at the time) and pretty much did whatever we wanted. Royalties were on an honour system and we paid $1.00 per man hour I think which seemed fair. I finished my summer with $11K cash in the bank and no debt (this was in early 80's) and it seemed unreal to me at the time.
I have heard over the past few years that the company has descended into a Cult like organization, using many of the techniques you describe (multiple meetings, heavy use of the "you are a failure unless...", encouraging a break from your existing friend and support network). Kind of sad really since the company started as a means for student entrepreneurs to
learn business skills and run their own business.
I guess increasing overheads combined with pretty ruthless company leadership has turned the organization into a kind of "Herbalife meets Don Lapre" scam (remember him? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mubCkCAEiDQ ) and has forced the techniques you describe to maximize profitability. By the way, CPP is part of a TSE listed public corp called "first service limited" which has a mountain of debt on its balance sheet to service.
I can't say I'd recommend the program to anyone these days,...you're better off starting your own company.
It's good to hear someone who's experienced both in business and the company to agree about that - it lends more legitimacy to my story, and further drives out the last indoctrinated vestige of belief that in fact I was a failure. Thank you, I mean it.
It's interesting, the College Pro company you describe from 20 years ago is similar to what I was told the job would be like at the first "interviews." Of course, the legal details of the contract contradicted that...
That's very interesting but...if they were really making you work 140-hour weeks, surely you could have contacted a lawyer? I realize what they were threatening to do but if they're making you work more than half the hours in a week I doubt any court would hold that up.
Anyways...what happened with your jaw? What caused it? I have never heard anything like it...
The issue was that I wasn't being told or forced to work 140 hour weeks - it was that I was given a set of requirements that had to be completed or the company would (they threatened) bring severe legal and monetary consequences (they had direct access to my bank account, for example, as per the contract). Not every franchisee had my experience - the territory I was given was particularly bad - it was 2 hours across and sparsely populated (most were about 20 minutes and quite dense), 30 minutes from my house, and the previous franchisee had committed a great deal of fraud in the area (which effectively doubled my marketing time - fraud meaning things running off with customers' 10% deposits and never delivering the product) - although very few of them made any money. I'm not sure if they were legally allowed to bring such threats as they did (although they were all cleverly worded into the contract - still, a few people I showed it to with legal experience agreed that I would probably win if I brought it to court), but I was so burned out by the end of the summer that the last thing I wanted to deal with was a lengthy legal battle with a company that had been doing this for over 30 years.
As for the jaw, it was an "extrapyramidal side effect" of haloperidol, and the extreme reaction was an adverse reaction to such a high dose. Those sorts of symptoms are quite common with 1st generation antipsychotics, and apparently far worse occurs for patients who have been on them for a long time.
Still, I would think that any court would see that you shouldn't be punished for not doing a job that's forcing you to stab pins through your leg. That's pretty intense. Good to hear you're out of it...
haha wow if your a total lazy bitch then yes college pro is Not for you. i have had many good experiances with CPP and am in my 3rd year as franchise manager with about 50k in the bank. work hard and be motivated and its a great company. if you dont want to work hard and better at book work then stick to that...i dont get on here and bitch about doing math because its tooooooo hard.
Yeah...College Pro is a great company if you're lucky enough to get a decent area, which is a significant minority. I knew far more managers who failed than were successful - and I knew every manager in my city, as does every franchise manager. The vast majority were still touted by the company as "profitable" (since you can view everyone's revenue's on CPOWER), including me. In my entire city (of around 30 managers), 4 made money, and all were in incredibly rich neighborhoods. So maybe you were lucky enough to get a good area, but whatever - you still got screwed. You would've made mounds more doing the exact same work if you hadn't been with the College Pro. Even if you lay that "but it let me learn business" argument on me, tell me, why the hell are you still with them after 3 years? Why didn't you leave after the first year after you knew how to do everything? And don't tell me it's because you're honest, because I know franchise managers enough to know that you're not.
Where do I attack it for being toooooo hard? My criticism is that it is essentially a scam, inches away from being a multi-level marketing company. It's not like I have anything against business - I've run a couple of successful small businesses since, and I'd run another before. My attack is on their exorbitant royalties, deceptive contracts, cult-like business training, and nasty little fines for piddling non-offenses - which is borderline illegal (IE: "Your estimate ran long so you had to call us 5 minutes late? Too bad, $80 fine.").
Either way, it pisses me off that you'd read my description and get "lazy" out of it. Honestly, if you want to try to insult my actions that summer, why not something like "disorganized" or "stupid"? OK, maybe it was stupid to trust my "friend" without checking into it, and maybe it was idiotic to take an area without doing more research, those would be reasonable things to level at me. But lazy? Did you even fucking read it? Like what, I should have worked 7 straight days wired on stimulants without sleeping or taking any breaks rather than 6? Fuck you.
I've heard this exact rhetoric dozens of times from the company anyway.