Heated Controversy: Career Fair Mystery Solved
By Matt Coyne
Web Editor
The Center for Career Development warned students to stay away from Ambit Energy, one of the companies who attended the October 21 Career Fair.
Students, notified via email on October 23, were recommended to cut off communication with the company and come to the Center for Career Development’s office if they have been contacted by Ambit.
The problem the Center for Career Development had with the Dallas, Texas-based company is the company’s business model.
Ambit, which operates in Illinois and New York in addition to Texas, calls itself a “network marketing” company. Network marketing also goes by the name multi-level marketing, but is most commonly referred to as a pyramid scheme. The business model is not illegal, but it is not generally lucrative.
Essentially, the more people you sign up for Ambit Energy, the more money you make on commission. In order to make significant sums of money, though, you need to convince others to sell the product.
A marketing video called “The System” likens the Ambit Energy system to a fast food franchise.
The online marketing videos provided by Ambit bill the company as a “financial opportunity, not a job” and that “you’ll be your own boss, owning your own business.” Another video states that the job is “just asking if they would like to save money” and educating “people we know about their opportunity to save.”
But just like any “financial opportunity” you need to spend money in order to make money. Ambit charges a $429 one-time enrollment fee which includes access to training DVDs, sales support collateral, and access to Ambit’s web-based marketing suite called Power Zone. Then Marketing Consultants, your title once you enroll in the program, are charged a monthly fee of $24.95.
“Unless you are a super salesperson, I’m not sure how you would make up that $429,” Director of the Center for Career Development Marjorie Apel said.
One of the online marketing videos claimed you can make an extra $3,000 to $4,000 a month with earnings reaching more than $13,000 a month, but only if you reach the top of the “pyramid” and achieve what the video calls “six level residual income,” that is, your customers enroll into the program and enroll other customers six times over.
“We didn’t feel comfortable when they were there,” Apel said. “I don’t think they should be coming to colleges … you shouldn’t have to start working for a company where you have to start giving them money.
“My concern is that more of these companies will turn up when the economy is bad.”
Apel called their approach “too aggressive.”
Senior Marketing major Mike Gaffney approached Ambit at the career fair and was turned off by their approach.
“The first thing the guy said to me was ‘Well, I’m glad you found us, consider your Career Fair search over’ the way he did it was really sly and I didn’t like it,” Gaffney said. “He said was looking for 10 people to help him make multi-million dollar income.”
“Any student I have spoke with … none of them have taken up their offer,” said Marjorie Apel, Director of the Center for Career Development. “I was very proud of our students … they realized this is not the type of company they want to work for.”
Apel said that she was not sure that Ambit found out about MC’s career fair but said, “Next time we’ll be better at checking.”
“That’s the thing about it, it’s not a job,” said Nick LaVecchia Ambit’s director of marketing communication. “They understand from the beginning that it’s a network marketing opportunity.
“We certainly do apologize for any confusion caused by an independent consultant not following our policies or procedures.”
LaVecchia also said that the violators would be “counseled and warned.”
As stated, both the “offender” and team leader present at the event have been counseled on this particular incident. As you might guess, their story was entirely different than yours. While the team leader – an NYC firefighter – was unable to confirm any of the behaviors described, he also wanted to apologize to students for any confusion that was caused.
Ms. Apel’s reaction was surprising to him too. He claims that his contact at the Center, a gentleman he declined to name, expressed his wish that this group of Independent Consultants would return to future Center events.
The only other comment would be to Ms. Apel’s quote, “Unless you are a super salesperson, I’m not sure how you would make up that $429.” If Ms. Apel had bothered to review the web site that the reporter did, she would know it’s a matter of simple math.
The $429 is earned back by many, if not most, of our new consultants through a customer-gathering bonus program in their first 28 days. Many New Yorkers do it within 3 – 7 days. Interestingly, we’ve found that once a potential customer learns of our New York Savings Guarantee, he or she can’t wait to leave ConEd or National Grid and sign up with Ambit.
In fact, “super salesmen” don’t do well in network marketing generally. That’s not just at Ambit, that’s industry-wide. The best practitioners are students, housewives, teachers, blue-collar workers, etc. who just want to earn a little extra income in these difficult economic times.
I would think of far greater concern to Manhattan College students is a Center director who patently dismisses a viable marketing model without getting her facts straight first. Ignorance is certainly not a crime. Ignorance spouted as fact is dangerous.