Ambit Energy a Scam? Not Necessarily.
Kelly Shine
Asst. Op/Ed Editor
The October 21st career fair brought a slew of companies to MC. Among those companies was Ambit Energy, a corporation that claims to be a respected retail energy provider throughout the United States. An email sent out to students on October 23rd, however, revealed that the company was actually a scam.
The email sent via Jaspernet from the Center for Career Development stated that, “Some people have voiced concerns about Ambit Energy.” It went on to say that students who gave their resume or who have been contacted by the company should immediately report to the Center for Career Development to discuss the company and to cut off all communication with Ambit Energy.
My first thought after opening the email was, naturally, to question why this company was invited here if they weren’t credible. Surely, someone in Career Development is in charge of checking out all the companies that come to the career fair. My next thought was: who are these people? What are they trying to do?
Both questions were answered when I visited the Ambit Energy website. My first impression of the website was that it looked pretty legitimate. The homepage has pictures of the people who supposedly run the company, as well as a news section and, ironically, a Better Business Bureau (BBB) certification.
“I was surprised that Manhattan would invite a place like that to come to the career fair,” said Charlotte Murphy, a sophomore Chemical Engineering Major who gave her resume to Ambit Energy. “I feel like someone should have checked it out before they came.”
On their website, Ambit Energy states, “Our employees and Independent Consultants are the heart and soul of Ambit Energy. We treat them right, help them reach their personal goals, emphasize high standards of integrity and excellence, and obsessively keep our costs low.”
So what’s the big scam?
According to an Ezine article written by Steven Saliba, Ambit Energy is known as a multi-level company, also called a MLM. “Ambit Energy is not a scam, it is just the plain old MLM business model that is the problem,” Saliba said.
This model is based solely on commission. “In companies like Ambit Energy and other network marketing companies, they advise their new recruits to go out and recruit their friends and family,” Saliba said. This system results in spam emails, annoying phone calls and other irritating techniques that rarely bring in commission.
“These methods only work for about 5 percent of the population. The people that succeed with these methods have a large network of people and are very influential. Most people are not influential and don’t have large networks. That is why most people fail in MLM,” Saliba said.
So to label Ambit Energy a scam would be inaccurate. Perhaps the Center for Career Development is only looking out for MC students and their future incomes. Apparently, working for the now infamous Ambit Energy will not bring in much of said income.
On behalf of Ambit Energy, it’s important for your readers to know that Ambit Energy did not participate, nor were we even aware, of the career fair event at Manhattan College. You are correct. Labeling Ambit Energy – just named the fastest-growing privately-held company in Dallas for 2009 by the SMU/Cox School of Business – is definitely not a scam. We would certainly be interested to know who appeared at this event claiming to be us.
In addition to the SMU/Cox award, we were named one of the Top 100 Best Places to Work by both the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Business Journal. We are a legitimate employer in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We are also one of the fastest-growing ESCOs in the state of New York. However, we do not have a corporate employment center in the state of New York.
We can assure your readers that we are a legitimate company. We gather customers and build our sales teams through a network of Independent Consultants. Those Consultants that wish to be involved in career fairs must clearly identify themselves as Independent Consultants only. They are not authorized to use the Ambit Energy name nor are they allowed to forward the Ambit Opportunity as employment with the company. On behalf of the corporation, I apologize for the confusion that appears to have been caused.
Warmly,
Nick LaVecchia
Director of Marketing Communications
Ambit Energy
And given that this is a college-educated audience, please forgive for the misplaced modifier in the first sentence! It should probably have read, “On behalf of Ambit Energy, I want your readers to know…”
And thank you for allowing us to post the prior statement.
In addition, we would hope that your readers would also approach network marketing with an open mind as a legitimate model for almost any business to acquire customers. Your readers should also know that Mr. Saliba’s article is very misleading and almost entirely inaccurate.
Warmly,
Nick LaVecchia
Director of Marketing Communications
Ambit Energy