About four months ago, I lost my job when the factory I had worked at for 15 years closed down. I have a wife and three kids. All I kept thinking on the drive home that day was, “How will I care for my family now?’’ We had known for a few weeks they were shutting down, but we were told it was going to happen in about 6 months, not 3 weeks later. I felt sick on the ride home that night. How was I going to break the news to my wife that we were flat broke, and I no longer had a job?
After looking for work for 2 months and having no luck landing a job, I had made the decision to go to trucking school, and then go on to work for P.A.M. Trucking. In the ad, they claimed I would receive free training, and since I had no money, that was exactly what I needed. However, what really happened was that after I completed their school, I was obligated by an employment contract to pay them back for the schooling I just finished. P.A.M. Trucking would be garnishing my wages for a year to
collect on my debt. How is that free? After I calculated their fees, I figured I would be making about 7 dollars and hour. How could my family live off of that? Also, if I quit working for P.A.M to work for someone else, the full $7000.00 dollars that my training had cost would be owed in full. My back was against the wall, so I had to stay on with P.A.M. Trucking.
I worked with P.A.M. Trucking about 2 weeks, and I could already see I had made a big mistake. They just were not delivering on the promises they made when I signed up. I was discouraged and still unable to pay my bills, so I started to look for work somewhere else. I ran across an ad from a real trucking school, so I gave them a call. They explained to me over the phone that there is no such thing as “free training”. The also told me that there are countless people that get taken by these scam artists every day. The difference was that at
a real school, I had options on how to finance my schooling fees. They were upfront and honest with me, and I really appreciated that. Overall, I would say that this place has delivered on all their promises, and I feel like they actually care about their students. As for P.A.M. Trucking; I will let that be my $7000.00 lesson in being scammed.
