Overseas Businesses are not always reliable

I was looking for an overseas call center to carry out some work for me, and during my surfing found a solutions Inc, who appeared very promising, and I spoke to their CEO on Skype.

Despite his somwhat laidback picture - he had a custom website boasting of the art of telemarketing in outsourcing, and with the ease of VOIP I rang him and took the plunge. He told me that he had a 100 seat call center handling Inbound/Outbound Services for our clients in US,UK,AUS and SG - he sounded very impressive. He told me where they were located and he added that they were aiming for sustainability not the big paycheck. He went on and said he had started a US company. He then asked if I had heard of 123 Employee? Actually I hadn't, but he boasted of having put a smile on the owner Daven Michael's on that.

John told me he could supply me virtual assistants at $3 an hour - sounded very cheap to say the least, could prices be that cheap? He said that the VAs would work forty hours a week and he could schedule an audition and training for the launch in two weeks time. He said he would talk to his trainer and gather employee for audtion then he'd send me their names and schedule the audition.

I contacted James Pitt, our operations manager who is currently in London, and he got back to me a few days ago - it pays to have local knowledge. the solutions firm had a medical transcription service which didn't work. They didn't have a 100 seat call center, but more probably a 20 seater one. One thing they did have though is disgruntled employees, who were frustrated at their poor wages, and would say anything against their former employer.

It was enough to convince me that I would rather not do business with John.

What can I say though? Websites like shopfronts don't mean a thing do they? Nor being found on the top of google - business references rather say it all don't they?

Catch Friday Media Ltd, a British firm supplies virtual personal assistants. See their business references.