Elektro Smart/CTI review: BE CAREFUL 3

Dear Betsie,
I was notified last week of your comments posted on the complaints board website. Apparently it was posted quite a while ago.
I have to admit I am shocked at your accusations. Not only are they inaccurate but you have created grounds defamation of character which leaves me no choice but to take legal action for damages sustained to our group of companies and personal reputation.
But despite never being the person who hired you, I actual fact I have never even met you I am willing to address a response to your letter in order for the matter to be resolved.
I do believe you are a person of substance and will personally address a response to you unlike most other Managing directors who would get someone to do it on their behalf.
I would like to start by explaining the purpose of the programme you undertook.
Firstly I personally started the same way every one else has including you with the same opportunity.
You are screened by various tests (aptitude and personality type testing) to ensure you have what it takes to be trained successfully into management and sales.
I am sure you appreciate to have respect from your staff you need to be knowledgeable and establish a track record of communication skills. This is why you start by learning your communication skills first. The track record of sales procured is a reflection of that.
Life would be much easier for your boss who employed you, to start you as a manager. But how long would your staff respect you when you have no substance.
As you are aware you were chosen on ability not experience gained. You needed to be trained in people skills, product knowledge and self confidence for your initial four days. At no costs to yourself. Many short term courses done like ours people charge R550 a day.
I am sure you will even agree you have never received that amount of skills set built from any other company you have joined.
The choice of seeing customers is yours. Each different office which is independently owned not by me, gives you the three options.
The majority work the referral basis. Simply putting it when our customers refer 10 people who are also tired of over paying on their electricity consumption, and they invest too, then the client who referred the clients gets their product for free. This you are fully aware of as it was in your initial four day training.
The other method which is very popular is when our own friends and family refer customers and get referrals from adverts placed like for example in your magazines and shopping centre stands. The rest is from certain offices that have tele-sales ladies who make appointments on behalf of the consultants.
When I started as a consultant being trained up into management I enjoyed the referral basis and within 12 months I completed the management training programme and was rewarded by having my own office in Cape Town. The rest is history.
You had the same opportunity as me and many many others out there and are still with their office leaders 10 years plus later.
There are consultants like Preston Jonas and Kevin Peterson who only wanted to do sales and have been in the organization for over 14 years, also coming from your Kuilsriver office. You should remember them. They have both bought their own homes, drive nice cars, put their children through private schooling and provided well for their families. There are a hundred more positive examples of individuals who have experienced great success in our industry over the last 30 years. I am just sorry you were not one of them.
But sadly in all that we undertake, like rugby, a degree not everyone makes it.
Where your article is misleading is not only from some of the comments you have made but more on what you don’t say.
For example:
You don’t mention, you have the opportunity to work on a referral basis.
You imply all companies who market Electro Smart sell door to door, but the truth is only 5% do. As you fail to mention majority work through tele-sales ladies.
You say you worked monday to sunday from 8 am till 11pm. Another lie. As you state later in your same letter, you train from 8am till 4pm, then state again you work from 4pm till 11pm. Which is the truth?
You fail to mention being chosen to go on a business trip away from home is something you have to qualify for. You have the choice to go or not go. Reason being it’s a great expense for the company you worked for to send you on a business trip, as you failed to mention the costs of transport getting you there, the petrol, accommodation and food is all borne by the company you were hired by. There is an expectation of minimum production to be achieved. But in your case as you gave up, the company also lost thousands of rand they invested in you to be there in the first place. Be honest did you pay it back? We know the answer is no.
I take great exception to your lies about the product. You were fully trained about why our product is superior to any timer and does not operate the same as a timer. But you fail to mention this, in addition you are also fully aware that we are the only company in the world to have the following test reports of proven savings if the Electro Smart is used correctly.
For the record a timer turns off on time, it does not know the temperature of the water in a geyser, Electro Smart does not turn off on time but controls the geyser to turn off only at maximum temperature. Hence the reason why the product can prove savings and a timer cannot. In addition a timer has not one authentic test report proving savings, unlike us.
Our tests reports are as follows:
Namely:
1. The SABS (South African Bureau of Standards)
2. N.G.S ( Government Approved Authority)
3. Alan Shew (Independent PR Engineer)
All these tests reports are available for anyone to see.
For the record I have no ownership in any of the offices that employ anyone who relate to Electro Smart.
I merely supply the product as a manufacturer capacity to these offices. And CTI (who constitutes a board of directors) finance over 100 different companies with over 50 different type of products nationally.
Electro Smart is less than 3% of our total business sales.
Yes I own many other companies, like Alluvia Wine Estate and guests accommodation and Limousine Extreme, which rents out luxury cars such as the Ferrari you refer too and stretch Hummer limos, throughout Western Cape.
Property companies etc. So as you can see why Electro Smart is less than 3% of our total business but you imply otherwise.
I understand you may have been upset in the past but do you believe in your heart you consider it fair to imply I am ruthless, dangerous, manipulative and scamming people when we have never even met. I never employed you, deceived you, fired you, said anything derogatory about you, but for some unknown reason someone has made you cross enough to take it out on me and defame myself other companies unfairly.
I would kindly like to ask you to remove your comments on this web site and if you wish to meet me in person to air your views, lets do it face to face, in the event someone has been wrong I will deal with them accordingly.
No business can thrive and succeed for 30 years being unscrupulous. Lies and deceit will always cause a company to cease within a few years. If there is a bad apple out there that has made you unhappy come meet with me let me know whom they are so in can have the chance to fix it. If not for you for others that could have the same experience as yourself that can now be prevented.
Your earliest response would be appreciated.
Kind regards
Mike Russon

I have seen they tend to sell one product and then move over to the next product again when people start smelling a rat, normally a foot spa or something of that kind. They have gone back to the timer now, just changing the name from Electro Smart to Eco Tech, but all their "referral letters" have all of a sudden been changed from Elektro Smart to Eco Tech. And when you question them about the Elektro Smart, they just tell you it was the previous model and that with the technology that changes the product have to change to stay up to date with the technology as well. Even go have a closer look at their SABS certificate (which by the way has expired in 2014 and isn't in the companie's name) and the ISO certificate is to some company in China. A real bunch of crooks. And the people they "train" as sales people, they give them a nice contract covering themselves, to say they are only independent distributors, which means they cannot earn a salary and then also that they the "training" received will cost them R2 500 unless they sell 5 of these units when this will then cancel the training fee.

It is one big SCAM. Worked there, and Lana most probably got brained washed. Believe me, the guys recruiting the Sales people, they move so many times, to new locations, to keep the recruiting flow. As soon as people notice something fishy they move.