WARNING

To my fellow computer techs in the Fresno-Clovis area:

I'm putting up this webpage to warn you away from Prism Pointe Technologies. Although we are competitors, I don't want anyone to have the same unpleasant experience with this company that I did.

Prism Pointe subcontracts out on-site tech work for larger companies. Many of us have done this type of work before but for those of you that haven't, here's an example of how this works. A large company - such as a bank with many branch offices - has their own IT Department and Help Desk at the Home Office. The branch locations don't have an on-site tech so sometimes the Home Office IT people need a local tech to go on-site and do a specific task for them so they don't need to send one of their own people to the branch. The Home Office IT people don't know who is locally available in the branch area so they contract with a company like Prism Pointe. Prism Pointe finds a local tech who will do the job, in effect acting as an extension of the Home Office IT Department.

Usually contractors like Prism Pointe will hire small firms like mine rather than larger ones. We tend to cost less, are eager to do what we perceive is a fairly easy job, don't have the resources to pursue action when we don't get paid, and the amounts involved are usually too small to warrant the expense of hiring an attorney. And that's exactly what happened to me - and it turns out, to many other techs.

I did two on-site jobs for Prism Pointe at a local bank, the first on February 24, 2009 and the second on March 4, 2009. The agreement was that I would get paid $75.00 for each job, net 30 days. Prism Pointe looks very reputable on the surface. They have a fancy website, a "partner portal", standard procedures for the tech to follow. Everything goes smoothly until they don't pay you. I have not received my $150.00 from Prism Pointe and have had no response to numerous phone calls and emails. I started using our favorite tool (Google!) to research Prism Pointe and much to my dismay found pages of complaints about these creeps. They have been shafting techs all over the country for years.

Here are links to pages on ComplaintsBoard.com and Ripoff Report about Prism Pointe Technologies:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/prism-pointe-technologies-a56624/page/1

http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q5=Prism+Pointe+Technologies&Search=Search&q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!

So I'm putting up this warning so others don't have to go through this. Times are tough enough without taking on trouble. If you aren't a computer tech and were just curious, if you work for a large company that uses a Prism Pointe sort of contractor, ask your IT Department/Help Desk who they use. If they use Prism Pointe, you might want to tell them that there is a strong probability that the subcontractor techs aren't getting paid. After all, we are your friends and neighbors who are being ripped off.

I will update this page if I ever get paid but based on what I read at the above links, I'm not hopeful. And of course I would never do work for Prism Pointe Technologies again.

Here is contact information about the company:

Prism Pointe Technologies
Corporate Headquarters
4605 Coates Dr.
Fairburn, GA 30213-2985
678-610-4900

Federal Sales & Logistics Center
209 Elden Street, Ste. 101
Herndon, VA 20170
703-796-9212

http://www.prismpoint.com or http://www.prismpointe.com (both resolve to the same website)

Aaron Scheller - Sr. Director Business Development
Cecil Payne - Vice President of Business Integration
Mitch Wright - Chief Financial Officer
Cliff King - Founder & CEO - cking@prismpointe.com
William Weithman - Sr. Vice President

New Capital Partners - apparently the owners of Prism Pointe - James Outland, Chairman (205) 939-8400, james@newcapitalpartners.com

If you also got burned by this company, what can you do? Not much if the amount owed is small and/or you can't afford an attorney. As I said, that's part of what makes small shops like mine (and yours?) attractive to these people. They know we can't really fight back. There are a few things you can do which might make you feel a little better. OK, it didn't make me feel as good as getting my $150 would, but I did these things anyway.

1. Call the company where you did the work. Assure them that this really isn't their problem, but ask them to have their Home Office put pressure on Prism Pointe to pay you. Let them know that the next tech who comes to them sent by Prism Pointe probably isn't going to get paid either.

2. You can file a complaint with the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. I called them and they felt this situation was covered by them. You can fax or snail-mail the complaint form, which you can download from:

http://www.georgia.gov/00/channel_title/0,2094,5426814_39102589,00.html

The link to the .pdf is at the bottom of that page.

3. You can also file a complaint with the appropriate agency from your own State government. California's Office of the Attorney General has an online form here:

http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL

4. Since Prism Pointe is in effect doing business across State lines, I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The link to start the Complaint Assistant is here:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

5.  You can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They cover business-to-business transactions as well as consumer-to-business complains. They say:

"Your complaint will be forwarded to the company within two business days. The company will be asked to respond within 14 days, and if a response is not received, a second request will be made. You will be notified of the company's response when we receive it (or notified that we received no response). Complaints are usually closed within 30 calendar days."

Prism Pointe isn't listed in the Better Business Bureau's database, but this means nothing. You have to pay to be listed and many companies don't do this.

The BBB that handles this complaint is:

BBB of Metro Atlanta, Athens & NE Georgia
503 Oak Place, #590
Atlanta, GA 30349
(404) 766-0875
info@atlanta.bbb.org
http://www.atlanta.bbb.org

Update - 4/26/09 - To date I have heard nothing back from Prism Pointe. And of course they haven't paid me. I got a response to my complaint from the Georgia Better Business Bureau telling me they couldn't handle this and I should contact a collection agency or sue Prism Pointe. The California State Attorney General's Office wrote back to say that regrettably this isn't the sort of thing over which they have jurisdiction. I haven't heard anything back from the Georgia State Office of Consumer Affairs or the FTC.

I have assigned the debt to a collection agency. If they can't collect I'll write this off as a bad debt and consider seeing what the folks down at the occult shop can do for me in the way of curses. ;-)

Update - 5/11/09 - I received a check from Prism Pointe Technologies for $150.00 today. Apparently after talking with the collection agent they "remembered" they owed me this money. The collection agency's fee in this case is very reasonable and it was definitely worth assigning this bad debt to them for collection. I believe firmly that I would have received nothing had I not turned the problem over to these good people (thanks and props):

Creditors Bureau USA
757 L Street
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 485-2500

And to Prism Pointe Technologies - sorry, but it's too late about the curses. I'd already been round to the occult shop and you can't call these things back. What goes around, my loves, comes around.