Complaint Review: Phoneternet - PersonalMaestro - AskGod - InfoAngels - Dallas Texas

For two gentlemen who've seen the inside of a courtroom as much as the Alfia brothers have (don't believe me, check Dallas County open records), you'd think they'd be pretty smart of what's legal and what's not. The "contracts" were unenforceable under state law in Texas. Instead the use of the contract is a power play to attempt to manipulate a person into thinking they are bound by the terms. I will go to my grave making sure I let as many people in the world know what kind of men Adam and Kfir appear to be. They are centainly no one you should ever do business with. They are bullies. They just happened to not be so lucky the day they met me. My pay wasn't the only pay I helped fight to make them pay.

They are no longer Personal Maestro. They are now www.maestro.com Well, best of luck to Adam and Kfir. Just remember the warning the State of Texas gave you about not paying your employees (even though you make them think they're contractors). Hopefully, you've cleaned up your act. Hopefully.

Although I cannot prove wrong what others have documented I will share my personal story of my involvement with Maestro. I have read all the individual reports regarding Maestro and must say, in over a year of my involvment with Maestro I have not had any negative experiences. Past employees claim to have not recieved their wages wich they are entitled too, and some how Adam and KFIR Alfia seem to take excellent care of everyone associated with the organization to the best of my knowledge, as they have me. So what make my statements credible? I have an office for over a year now, worn almost every hat there is to wear with maestro, and work every day... I have earned little money with the organization but often find the owners, especially Adam, often giving me extra UNEARNED money (bonuses), and helping to keep my head held high. My response to the all of the following complaints and slander towards this organization, is that what you personally experienced is part of the roughest toughest game called "entrepreneurship". People fail, it's very difficult, tension and pressure is high, stress is prevelent like you have never experienced, and money is harder to rightfully earn than you ever expected... If anything Its difficult for the owners to relate and help individuals who think their personal skills are much greater than they actually are, when they both are far superior in intellegence and ambition. Every relationship, employer to employee, father to son, husband to wife is a two way street and takes cooperation and effort from all invovled. Adam and Kfir ARE entrepreneurs, well developed leaders, and mentors to many around the office. The pure and simple act of Adam to help me in my personal and professional life to the extent he has done is a prime example of this. Adam and Kfir both have personally helped me with graduate assignments late in the wee hours AND during office hours with real world application and have even allowed me the opportunity to make money from homework and projects!!! The company is thriving like never before, due to the correct chemistry (the most difficult thing in for any org) and every day excitment resinates with EVERY employee. It's unfortunate to hear the things people have to say regarding this organization when my personal experience has been so insightful and rich. READ WHAT YOU SIGN and if you disagree... argue and negotiate LOL Bryan C An MBA Graduate Student "No man was ever respected for anything he was given"

Unfortunately, despite my warnings to stay away from this company, they wrong another innocent victim. Andrea from Carrollton, you are incorrect in saying that me and my girlfriend were in fact contractors. The TWC has written a common law test to determine if an employment relationship exists or if someone is in fact a contractor. Terminology is symatecs when it comes to being termed as contractor, sub-contractor or contract laborer. Attached is a image file direct from the TWC's website. Image coming soon. It is my firm belief that Adam and Kfir Alfia have acted in bad faith regarding paying wages to employees. Having attempted to resolve the matter numerous (and I mean numerous) times for less than was owed, I was left with one option. I certainly hope that both of the Alfia's will read the attached image and begin working on ways to improve their product and not how to cheat people out of wages. The Texas Workforce Commission has been advised that this company deliberately has denied to pay wages earned under the Texas Statues Labor Code. We will let an impartial observer decide the final fate of this disagreement. Unless otherwise instructed by the TWC, I will update this site with what happened on or around 06/16/07.

To see the contract Robert signed, go to http://www.personalmaestro.com/Images/misc/robert_boynton_contract_lar.jpg

As a business owner, you find yourself hiring and working with many different types of employees and personalities. However, this is the first time I've ever encountered applicants with outright malice of intent and dishonesty. However, I will respond to the points mentioned accordingly, and let the reader be the judge. The contract that ALL of our employees sign is not ambiguous. It is quite detailed and no potential employee is forced to sign it. The new trainees were handed this contract on the first day of their employment, asked to read it, and if they had any questions they simply had to ask. This contract simply and clearly stated that the first 90 days they would be considered independent contractors, and would receive a 1099 at the end of the year for their first 90 days, and be responsible for paying their own taxes for these 90 days only. It also stated that, if they were terminated for any reason by the company, or terminated their employment on their own volition, within that 90 days, they would forfeit the pay for the first week, which is considered training. After the 90 day probationary period, they are given the amount held back for the first week of their training. The new hires are then asked, after they have read it, if they are clear on all the details. If they are, to sign and date it. There is no coercion or deceit, as we certainly don't have any interest in hiring employees under false pretenses. Robert (the gentleman in question) and Leah signed the agreement willingly. Click here to read actual scanned contract that Robert signed (with his signature) The detail in question has been highlighted. Robert's claim that we denied him access to a copy of this signed contract is outright false. The employee contracts are kept in the employee files, and are accessible at any time upon request. The claim that Robert "requested" a copy of this is false. If in fact he had requested a copy, he most certainly would have been given one with no resistance at all. We have nothing to hide when we have them sign the agreement, and we have no interest in keeping this document away from them after they sign it. So now let's get to the heart of the issue. Why were Robert and Leah fired? We spent approximately one week training Robert, Leah, and the other new hires. During the first day, one of the trainees quit, as he realized this position involved a little more intensive training and expertise than he was willing to put forth. He left amicably, and emailed us why he left, stating it just wasn't for him - totally understandable. We have a lot of material to absorb, as we provide an excellent service and demand excellence from our agents to ensure the growth of our company. It was quite clear that Robert as well as his girlfriend (there was absolutely no mention by either of them that they were boyfriend/girlfriend during the interviews) were not going to meet our performance standards or high expectations of quality service to our clients. The training mainly consists of following along with our online manual. However, the trainers and supervisors spent most of the training session separating them, as each time they were supposed to be reading, they were instead talking to each other, checking personal emails at their stations, and not paying attention. We had SEVERAL complaints from the agents working near them while they were training, witnessing all of this. Their training overlapped into the second shift as well, and we received reports from the agents and the supervisor on that shift that they were doing the same thing: not paying attention, talking to each other, goofing off, etc. It was at this point that the supervisors involved brought this to my attention, and I spent some time gathering all of the facts in order to make a decision on how to proceed. It was then that we made the decision to terminate Robert and Leah. They were clearly not going to make it through training and there was no point in continuing to invest time to train people who refused to learn, follow the rules, or take our business seriously. After we emailed them their termination notices, they politely asked us to reconsider, which we did. I spoke with all of the supervisors and agents involved in their training, and shared with them the details of Robert's request that we reconsider. The opinion to terminate them, again, was unanimous, and I let Robert and Leah know that we have reconsidered the situation and that the decision was final. This is when Robert decided to take the bizarre tactic of collecting background info on the owners and threatened to "expose" us. What was even more shocking was that soon after their termination, Robert illegally logged into our agent backend posing as a supervisor, and attempted to trick one of our Service Representatives to email him the owners' contact lists. Who knows what this embittered and angry applicant was planning to do with such information, but we caught him red-handed. We compiled a server log of his illegal access attempts and immediately placed a phone call to both of them demanding that they cease their illegal activity or that we would take legal action. Surprisingly, they actually admitted to attempting to break into our system, and promised not to do it again (this conversation was recorded). Maestro is a business. And our business lives and dies on the quality of our agents. Our recruiting and training program is stringent, and we cannot allow ourselves to be lax with our demand for excellence, and it shows in our customer service quality. The decision to terminate an employee is always difficult, and at that time we were very eager to hire agents to help fill our growing call volume. There is nothing we wanted more at that time than to hire intelligent and dedicated agents to be Maestro representatives, but in this case the two trainees, as it became evident during training, clearly did not fit the bill. As far as Robert's comments on his financial hardship, we can certainly sympathize with his situation, but that is in no way a claim on us or anyone else. And if Robert and Leah were "turning down so many job offers" why not simply try and contact one of these companies and gain employment? Robert and Leah knew what our employment terms were, and agreed to them. It is sad that they felt they had to make threats, slander our business, and try to break into our backend illegally in order to redress their grievances. And what this boils down to is folks trying to get a little "payback" and vengeance for being terminated due to their obvious incompetence and lack of respect for their fellow employees. We have since then hired almost 10 new Customer Service Representatives who went through our training without any problems. We stand by our decision regarding Robert and Leah, and we feel the quality of our service to our customers is better because of it. Kfir Alfia Owner, Maestro Personal Assistants email - [email protected] personalmaestro.com