OMNI Financial Services review: Fraud/Scam 4

I am also a former employee of Omni and found myself immersed in one of the worst working environments I have ever seen in my life. The few individuals that actually hold a degree there are the 2 to 3 attorneys working for them because they haven't been able to pass or afford to take their Florida Bar. Hence these individuals are paid between $40, 000 to $80, 000 per year to work for Omni so I ask you: How many attorneys do you know that make that kind of salary and are any good? The main requirement to work there is to be willing to do whatever you are asked to do regardless of whether it is legal or not. In my time there, I witnessed the forgery and alteration of documents that were submitted to the IRS on a client's behalf, falsification of client's bills whenever the file was closing to ensure that the client would not have any refund due to them (as refunds come out of Senior Management's bonus, after all), Omni employees pretending to be employees of the IRS in an attempt to bully, intimidate, or harass people into signing up for their services.

The Federal Trade Commission proposed a law to make this type of company complete the work they promised before they are paid. However, the Federal Trade Commission seriously dropped the ball and made the ruling that this type of company can continue to operate in this manner and I have yet to hear about a single one of these places that are actually trying to do anything more than line their own pockets. I recommend that you file your complaints with the IRS, the Federal Trade Commission and any other government agency you can to put a stop to this kind of business or at least impose stricter guidelines and monitoring for their type of work. These people are dealing with the Federal Government and they should be regulated in the same manner as entities that bill Medicare for patient services.

Here is a run down of what happens in the first 10 days after you sign up. You pay an initial retainer of $1250.00 to as much as they can possibly convince you to give them, I have seen initial retainers as high as $20, 000.00 to $30, 000.00. Since they ask you all about your finances and situation, they have a pretty good idea how much they can rape from you. Your information is then rushed up to the production department and assigned to a team based on how much money is anticipated to be pulled from you. If you have a big business or have a large initial retainer your file will go to the Associates who are best at convincing you to give them more money later on. What they fail to tell you when you sign up is that if you have any missing returns or owe more than what you estimated to the salesperson, you can guarantee that they will be asking you for more of your money within the next two months, sooner if your retainer was the lowest amount they will sign you up for which I have seen as low as $1250.00. They bill against your retainer from the moment your paperwork is received by production. They will bill you a minimum of 1 hour at $125 to $175 per hour for the Associate (this person usually does not hold a degree of any kind and is not an attorney as their title might lead you to believe) and another $50 to $125 per hour for the assistant to sit in the office and write down everything you say during your initial conference call. Then they bill you 1/2 hour @ $50 to put your paperwork into a file folder, approximately another hour @ $50 to scan in your Federal and State Power of Attorney forms and Tax Information Authorization forms and send them off to the IRS, they will bill another hour @ $125 to call the IRS to find out how much you owe and the status of your account, another hour @ $125 if your account is in collections to confirm the information they already received from the previous call, and another hour @ $125 if they obtain a hold (aka a Stay of Enforced Collections), they bill you at .40 hours per page for every Introduction letter and the numerous other unnecessary letters they will send you. Every time they call and leave a message for you it will cost you a minimum of $20 and they will bill you for every minute and even round the amount up to the nearest .10 of an hour that they speak with you or anyone else. Additionally, if you don't provide them with the documentation they ask for in their Introductory letter within 5 to 10 calendar days they will ask for additional retainer and make you feel as if it is your fault that they have to ask you for more money. If you own one or more businesses then you can expect the above billing for you personally as well as each of your businesses. Basically, if you are one of those individuals who are at the lower end of the initial retainer, you can guarantee that nothing will be done, other than their billing you for phone calls and letters that do not even begin to resolve your situation. Do you really want to pay a company that kind of money just to sign you up for their services?

As an employee, they look for anything and everything they can to try to either 1 make you quit or 2 find an excuse to fire you if you have any honesty or integrity or question the legality of something they asked you to do. "Assistants" are paid a salary of $20, 500.00 per year to never more than $27, 500.00 per year and are required to bill a minimum of 1 and a half hours of phone time each day and 8 billable hours of work. (Keep in mind that you as the client are being billed for the work these "Assistants" do at a rate of $50 to $125 per hour). Employees attend morning meetings everyday for the first hour and take an hour lunch and two 15 minute breaks. So how do they manage to bill 8 hours a day when they are only actually working less than 6 hours a day? I will leave it up to you to figure that one out. I personally refused to work off the clock for them as they do not pay you for overtime and I refused to commit forgery as my Associate directed me to do. They responded by writing me up for having a poor attitude. When I came forward to report my Associate's request to forge a document to Senior Management, I was quickly shown to the exit. Truthfully, these people could not afford to have someone like me within their midst as it was only a matter of time before I found some way to report their actions to the appropriate authorities. The good things to come from my situation is the fact that I can sleep better at night with a clear conscience and I set a positive example for my children to ensure they will not find it convenient to lie, cheat, steal, commit forgery, or to take advantage of people so they can drive a new Mercedes or BMW every year. I only wish I could have found a way to let the good and honest people who came to Omni for help know exactly what was really going on.