Automax Training? Auto Sales Industry ?

Q: While doing a job search, I ran across an advertisement for hiring "up to 30 new salespeople" at a local car dealership. What really got my attention was the promise that they'd do training themselves, and no experience was necessary. I sent my resume (via Monster.com), and got an auto-response email telling me their pre-screening software accepted me as a candidate, so I should report to the dealership (on Monday or Tuesday) for an interview. It turns out, the whole thing was actually being run by a training company called AutoMax (http://www.automaxtraining.com). They want you to pay $549 for 3 days of training (Wednesday through Friday), and claim that this fee is basically a "committment", which will be refunded to you by any car dealership that hires you after you pass and get "certified" by them. This sure smacks of being scam-like, but I'm not able to find any mention of these people on Internet newsgroup or web searches, other than copies of advertisements similar to the one I responded to - except at other car dealerships around the U.S. Right now, I'm tempted to pass this one over, because something strikes me as wrong that they're doing this training the same week as they pick through the applications, they want employees to pay instead of the car dealerships paying for the training, and there may well be hundreds of people showing up for training, despite the dealership in question only needing 20 or 30 new hires. (What happens if this dealership doesn't hire you after you spend your money and complete this training program? They say they can get you a job elsewhere, easily, once you're "AutoMax certified" - but is that just a load of B.S.?) Can someone put my mind at ease and tell me the true story about these people?

A:-what I'm really looking for is some more concrete information on these "AutoMax" people, preferrably from someone in the auto sales industry. Since AutoMax is obviously marketing their services to car dealerships all over the U.S. (and fairly successfully, it seems), I'm wondering if the dealerships themselves are aware of how these people really conduct business - or if they just like the end results they get? (EG. All I know is that I needed to hire a new person, and these AutoMax folks promised they'd weed through hundreds of candidates for us and get us just the person we needed, all for a really low price - so of course I let them use my dealership for a couple days to accept their applications and do interviews.) If this is the kind of thing that's going on, I think these "training" people need to be exposed for the deceptive practices they use. I may contact the local news media on this. While I was at this Dodge dealership waiting to be interviewed, there was a steady flow of about 1 person every 5 minutes coming in to "fill out an application". Over 2 days, that adds up to roughly 200 applicants, all for an advertised need for "up to 30 new salespeople" (which could really only be 1 new salesperson - since you're never told how many people the dealer *really* plans to hire). -I would go to several dealerships and ask them if they would refund your tuition, upon being hired. Talk to as many sales managers as you can. Sounds bogus to me. But you know what they say: If it sounds too good to be true, BUY TWO. Can 10,000 lemmings be all wrong? The fee is basically a committment. Yeah, right. And pearls come in sardine cans.

Discuss It!

Anonymous said:

It a scam I just wasted a day of my time at one of these horrible trainings. the trainer Mike Zigilla is huge bs artist. these trainers try to instill in your mind that you'll be rich if you sell toyota. his training wasn't worth 5cents. I've worked for many professional sales companies who invested in me, not invested paying the company $599 dollars plus a $89 lifetime placement fee.

greg said:

Isn’t the worst scam out there but they definitely misrepresent the facts to draw you in. The ad here in Northern Illinois was posted by one of the largest auto dealers in the area, Lou Bachrodt Motors, and said they were looking for ethical, honest sales people, offered free training and a guaranteed draw (less than minimum wage but still a paycheck). The ad does state that the “paid training” starts when hired but there is no indication that you'll have to pay to get hired. When you apply you’re interviewed by a guy from Automax who puts you through a battery of "personality testing", word association and other pointless shit that has nothing to do with your experience or abilities. If you're one of the lucky few, Dave “invites” to participate in the training, shakes your hand and tells you to you have to commit to showing up for three days of training starting tomorrow and don’t show up without a tie on (the ladies undoubtedly get some other fashion instructions). If you’ve got a job or appointments you’re out of luck. In my case I was free, but I could have spent my time far more productively than wasting it with this clown. At this point you are likely to assume that you’ve been selected for the “paid training” as advertised although you’d not have much of a case in a lawsuit. You have to show up with a bag lunch because there is purportedly too much information to cover in the time allotted (the first day ran a full 9 1/2 hours, mostly trainer Dave rambling on about his amazing exploits, real imagined or invented) so you’re basically in this guy’s control the whole time. This is classic indoctrination stuff, find a group of desperate people, deprive them of any outside influence and they’ll do exactly what they’re told and indeed we did. My trainer, Dave, was a classic example of a smarmy, arrogant high pressure car salesman and he pulled out all stops on the poor schmucks in the classroom. For 3 hours or so he describes the huge commissions, bonuses, spiffs etc. you can expect to earn if hired (no, you haven’t been hired yet but you haven't quite figured that out yet). He then gives you a little taste of “sales training” which basically revolves around manipulating people into buying cars they probably don’t need. The guy was so over the top it would have been amusing if it weren't for the fact that my back was aching from sitting in a chair for hours listening to his rants. Somewhere in the course of listening to Dave's fantasies about his Swiss bank accounts and his resort in the Bahamas (I kid you not) Our driver's licenses were collected for a DMV search. Seven or eight hours into this thing he informs you that, not only are you not being paid for this training, it’s gonna cost you the discounted price of only 399.00 to be paid if you get hired, but reimbursed if you stay on with Bachrodt for 90 days. Before leaving you have to fill out a form (the first of many) and agree to call him in the evening, in my case 8:30 now 11 hours into this sh*t, to state your intention to show up the next day. I talked to him that evening and challenged the ethics of some of his sales techniques. He assured me that they were only suggestions but if I followed the overall outline I’d be successful. Having just come out of real estate, and having sat through numerous sales seminars I can tell you no Realtor, at least in my state, would get away with what he was suggesting without getting sued. Still, against my better judgement, I agreed to show up the next day. Day 2 is much the same except he pulls out his guaranteed strategy to make 50k in your first year which is basically the same old crap about begging your friends and relatives to buy a car, sending out postcards, analyzing personality types, etc. If you’ve had any sales training at all you’ve heard all of this before. Again you eat lunch in the conference room but this time he buys, making a big show of giving the pizza guy 60 bucks, keep the change. Two slices of pizza amounted to my net pay for investing three days of my life in this proposition. The next day is interview day with the dealership manager so you gotta wear a suit, even though their salespeople wear business casual. You don’t get an appointment so you show up at 9:30 and wait your turn, I didn’t get out until 2:30. During the interview I made the mistake of telling the manager I’d love to sell cars but I’ve been in business for 25 years and I walked away from every deal with clean hands, I never scammed a client. That was the kiss of death. After the interviews you sit through another hour of this guy’s stories about the good old days scamming hapless buyers in the seventies. Then come the exit interviews and again you wait in line. When my turn finally came there was good news and bad news. The bad news was I didn’t get hired. But wait! For only 150.00 I could get my Automax Training Certificate I could hawk around town at the used car lots and maybe get a commission only job. Or we could shake hands and go our separate ways. I reached out my hand, probably too generous under the circumstances. Now to be perfectly honest, had I been offered the job I would have showed up ready able and willing to give it my best shot. And I really don’t blame management for subcontracting some of their hiring chores. But I could have spent 10 minutes with the manager, he could have told me I’m not what they’re looking for, and I’d still have almost three days left to find another job or mow my lawn or spend time with my wife and kids. At this point rest assured I will never buy a car from Bachrodt Motors and should the subject come up I would advise friends and family to avoid them as well because of their association with Automax. I wasted three days of my life on this crap but as always learned a couple things. Apparently the car business hasn’t changed much in the last 40 years, they still hire scumbags to sell cars or at least sales training. And jobseekers have become so desperate that they’ll endure any indignity just to get their face in front of a hiring manager. And I learned a bit about human nature. Most of my classmates, many of whom were intelligent and formerly successful people, were literally eating out of Dave's hand by day three. It was embarrassing to watch. Bottom line is, if you’ve got the time, do the Automax thing only if you’re guaranteed reimbursement if you get hired, the training by itself is crap and available for free. If you get hired with a guaranteed draw you’ll be working a week and a half to pay for it but if you’ve got no other prospects give it a shot, you can’t make money sitting on your ass. If you're burdened by ethical constaints car sales is not for you. And be aware going in, Automax doesn’t give a sh*t about your time and the dealership doesn’t either.

Kim said:

My son was also ripped-off by Automax and Westfield Ford of Countryside Illinois. I contacted the Illinois Attorney General's office, who said that we may have a case if enough people complain. So...flood their office with your complaints so that more people don't fall victim to these schemes!!

H. B. said:

Many peopel are getting conned across the country mostly those desperate for jobs. I am not familiar with AutoMax but the Manus Group based in Florida is running the sam esting across the country.

conan said:

AutoMax is the Manus Group. Yes, if you are unemployed they will steal your money.

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