Chapter 128

By 7 we had the gym open and had sent one of the girls to get carry-out breakfast sandwiches. I noticed several hickeys on some of the girls; apparently Jeanna's girl friends didn't get the message. Wendy had already run several customers through the tanning booths by the time the food arrived. The refreshment center already had several pots on the machine. Apparently coffee was a big mover this early in the morning.

Marcy had sent out an email to the members that there may be a tour by KCC college staff this afternoon and had posted a sign in the lobby, just to cover all bases. There was certainly no difference this morning, there was heavy traffic coming in to use the gym just like any other Saturday morning.

The trainers were walking in the door at 8 right on the nose. The next two hours we spent in advanced training. The last two hours we started with a reservation using each other as a customer and followed the transaction all the way through in the training program and seeing the rental and the return process on the wall monitors. We then followed the money from cash and card transactions through the various processes to the bank account.

Jeanna and her secretaries filled in all the blanks on the bank routing and cost percentages in areas the trainers were lost. They also showed about some cases where the hidden transaction charges could occur to the unknowing.

They trained us on all the possible discounts that site managers were able to play around with for rentals, and how to find managers that were abusing the system to drive rental numbers at the expense of end profits. In some markets it was necessary to discount to be competitive. In most markets heavy discounting was unnecessary.

It was intended to be there as an employee bonus perk, but some were habitually abusing the process. The process had flagged some managers with as many as a dozen cars out every weekend on the family plan with as little 5 dollars a day return, and in some cases no return.

The programs also flagged mileage irregularities. It flagged vehicles from customer turn in, to next rental mileages or tickets with missing numbers. It was possible for employees to use the cars for personal use if the mileages were not recorded on the drop-off forms.

While we were running all the reports another potential fraud popped up at a big North Carolina airport rental site. Three year old cars with 20 to 30 thousand miles were averaging 3 to 5 hundred a month repair cost. That kind of expense was unheard of, maybe on a lemon car that you sent to the auction after several months of that kind of expense, but 25 cars at one location was a big problem. It was obvious that during the transition phase no one was watching anything and most likely didn't care.

The previous owners already had a fixed price; the attorneys and accounts were concerned only with legal affairs related to the ownership change.

Jeanna was livid. These kinds of things were being paid out of the escrow accounts. This was money out of our pockets. It may have been Saturday but lawyers and accountant's phones started ringing.

While all that was going on the trainers showed us how to track down the charges to the vehicles along with copies of the original invoices and approvals. Our printer started getting a workout and we saved everything electronic to a file. As I was looking over the printed invoices I noticed one dealer shop and one authorization signature to do the work, and the same person submitted the invoices and authorized the payments.

Marcy looked at me and said, "I think we need to add fraud investigation to your security division."

"Chief Head Hunter works for me," I replied. "I hate someone stealing from me."

It was noon when the trainers were satisfied that our skill level was where we needed to be at this time. They headed to the island airport to go back to Savannah in the G5 that had just returned from leaving the Moms and Dads in Naples FL.

We had a quick lunch. Jenny and I spent time in the gym checking up on the operations there. It was being run entirely with hired help for the first time on a Saturday. The North Six had a check-off list for each machine and gym area and were making progress. Four of them had several carts with cleaning products. They were in their normal tees and gym shorts. Abby was keeping them going in the right direction, giving them pointers and the safety things they needed to know about each machine.

The other two were in the store room working on the mountain of towels and clothes that were generated every day. In between they were cleaning the refreshment area, showers and bathrooms.

Marcy, Vicky, Lorrie and Ching Lee were putting finishing touches on the presentation for this afternoon's interview session and their appraisal session with their professors.

At 2:30 we all went over to the house, dressed in business attire, and returned to the gym. The girls went upstairs and I stayed in the customer office with Kristen. She was telling me that there were a couple of new EMS people that may be interested in working a part-time arrangement like they were. I told her that we were going through a restructuring of management responsibilities and that I would pass it on to Ching Lee and Vicky as they were now in charge of gym operations, but if there were any problems that could not be resolved Marcy or I would have final decision.