College of Automotive and Mangement (sales, transfer, schools)

[CAM2005]

I am writing this because of my level of frustration with the process at CAM. I feel that they definitely mis-represent their product. This is because they lead you to believe that you will receive a high-paying position, for a hefty price, and they do not assist you as they say they will.

I was verbally told, yes by a former salesman who sold me the class, that he wasn't supposed to say so but that he would guarantee that I would get a job in the industry after I graduated.

First of all, I don't even know of a university that will charge you $14,000.00 for a 5-week, full-time, class. Right now I'm working for a private arts college (as an administrative assistant because I could NOT get work in an F&I office after a few months of losing much money in sales at two different dealerships) and they charge $20,000 for an entire semester of full-time coursework that will at least count toward a greater degree. I cannot use what they gave me at CAM for anything of value, and I've tried!

Second, I was promised lifetime job placement. After I graduated I was informed that I would get only 1 year of job placement. During the two months after I left CAM I was placed in one internet sales department. I resigned from it due to family concerns, both of my parents ended up in the hospita. However, I decided to not go back there because I also wasn't making any decent money (I got one paycheck worth $500 for 2 weeks). I tried out another dealership and made barely over that. I was contacted by CAM to inquire about my status and when I informed them of the egregious pay scales that were made available to salespeople, Dave Gorman (the job placement manager at CAM) refused to shop me to anywhere in an F&I capacity because he said he was worried about being in two places. This was even after I explained to him that there was an extremely un-professional environment in the former placement that they'd garnered for me. This environment directly affected my ability to earn a good wage.

Thirdly, they tell you that you will learn all you need to know to go straight into F&I. While that is true on the surface, it certainly is not when you get down to the bare bones of the issue. I am an A student. I always have been. I learn very well.

CAM's program basically tells you what you need to know. However they essentially force you to memorize what you need for testing so that their scores, and yours, look good. We were told by our teacher that he expected 100% out of all of us. If we didn't get it we were required to fix our answers afterward so that we ALL got 100%. Also we were made to sign papers after each class that were his "CSI score." He specifically told us that he expected a perfect score and that if he didn't get one that he wanted to know why. We were coerced into this. I felt kind-of manipulated because I was worried I wouldn't get represented well, after the course was over, for job-placement. I was absolutely unable to retain all of the information I went to school for. I honestly couldn't recall most of what I learned when I went to work in the field. It caused me many problems. I had to re-learn what they taught me, on the job, and frankly what they taught me wasn't useful on an entry-level position!

Another thing that they don't tell you is that 99% of dealerships expect you to work your way up in to the F&I position. They don't care that you supposedly know what you need to go into that position. They want you to start the way that they all did, by working in the trenches, feast or famine (mostly the latter), and you don't easily get a break. When you do, that typically comes after many years of working your way up! Either that or you have some sort of "in" that doesn't come from your position and hard work; ie. family, friends, and transfers can get you in those positions when time invested isn't the ticket. So it's definitely wrong that CAM tells you that you CAN get into an F&I position. Especially when they DON'T get you qualified job leads like they promote that they can!

I cannot see how this is an ethical course. I know that schools pride themselves on ethics. I also know that they did misrepresent their courses. If you are asking for this stuff in writing, I know you'll find disclaimers that tell you that they don't promise anything. This is typical of schools. However, seriously, why are they providing coursework that preps you for a certain career goal that even seasoned salespeople cannot get into? Because they're only in it for the money and they don't care that they're selling you something you can't survive off of. I also cannot see how Sallie Mae could get behind this! How on earth are they surviving?

Finally, College of Automotive Mangement is the cheating school. Please don't ever trust this school. Don't even trust the role play they showed you while you are there to register.

[CAM2005]

I think so dude. same happened to me