Yosef’s model relies on handling a large number of phone calls; and having somewhere which is outside of US jurisdiction is no doubt helpful to him. To service this need one of his American phone operators (Andy Walkington) set up a call center specifically for PHS in Mandaue City, Cebu, the Philippines by the name of “Exelcius“. They handled calls made directly to PHS as well as those which the consumer believes are directed to a local business which they’ve found through Google Maps.
Although Exelcius presented itself as a simple third party contractor, a manager at the company confirmed that Premium Home Service was their one and only customer, and that Exelcius was created to service PHS. He confirmed that Exelcius knows about the fake Google businesses that PHS uses to ensnare customers who think that they’re talking to a local company; after all, the Exelcius operator needs to know which business name to use when they answer the phone.
After the death of Andy Walkington a new company was set up by one of his managers, Ryan Reagan, to continue supporting the scams.
PHS initially contracted with a company in Jamaica for customer support services; however, their performance was inadequate, and this led to the partnership with Exelcius.
Andrew (Andy) Charles Walkington
The top man in the Philippines was Andy Walkington, Managing Director of Exelcius, who provide the third-party call center service to PHS. Born on February 25th, 1964 in western Illinois, he is a long term Philippines resident since 2009. He died in early 2023.
His LinkedIn states that he has been with Exelcius since April of 2019, although the company only celebrated its second anniversary in March of 2022. Andy founded the company; he originally started working with PHS as a phone operator, but soon proposed that he set up a full-fledged call center business to service them. Exelcius was set up specifically and exclusively to work for PHS.
He was not willing to talk to us; a company rep stated via their Facebook page that “Andy knows you are trying to get in touch with him and he is ignoring you“.
Ryan Reagan
The main man day-to-day with Exelcius in the Philippines was, until the start of 2023, Director of Operations Ryan Reagan. Ryan is an American who moved to the Philippines in 2020.
In February 2023 Ryan contacted us by email to let us know that he has resigned from Excelcius, stating his discomfort with what he felt certain are illegal acts by PHS, and Excelcius’s being complicit with these potential crimes.
Not long afterwards Ryan was back, running a new call center after the death of Andy Walkington.
Ryan heard about our investigation, and gave us a call. He was friendly and personable, and was keen to know how we had connected Exelcius to PHS. He confirmed that Exelcius supplies third-party services to PHS. He encouraged any customers with problems to reach out to him. He seemed genuine, and stated that he has no direct contact with Yosef Bernath; that’s apparently all managed by Andy.
Ryan was the only PHS-related individual that we spoke to who seemed to be uneasy with the way that things were run, and who would be willing to help a customer who has lost money or encountered other issues.
BPO Seats
PHS’s call center leases office space from a call center provider by the name of “BPO Seats“. This business is run by an American expat, Graham Cvinar, and his wife Amanda Aworuwa.
Graham and Amanda are aware of the activities of PHS and Exelcius; although the contract between them includes an agreement that no scam-related activities are permitted, they have no plans to take any action unless forced to by authorities.
The organizational setup of Exelcius
Exelcius had multiple teams set up to support the activities of PHS, which makes up almost the entirety of their business. It is clear that they are responsible for almost every element of PHS’s business, with more than 80 people busy on PHS activities.
Dispatching Main Ring Group – This is the group of people dedicated to taking inbound calls from customers needing something done at their home or business (Residential or Commercial). They book jobs, offer memberships, sometimes get follow up calls for jobs and make outbound calls to customers as needed. There are about 16 personnel in the Philippines and 10 in the USA making up this team.
Secondary Ring Group – This group gets the bulk of the follow up calls and complaints. Their job is to assist the customers as best they can or escalate the issue to the appropriate person or persons. There are about 8 personnel assigned to this team.
Monitoring Group – This group monitors all calls that come in to ensure calls are being answered, to identify any call problems with the system, internet or personnel. When a call is missed or dropped they check why and if it is due to personnel they lower them in the ring group until they determine the cause. They also will check/call the caller back to determine if it was a legitimate caller and if so assist them as needed or determine if it was just a hang up, wrong number, spam and etc. There are about 4 personnel working this.
Unassigned Group – This group handles booked jobs that techs have rejected or jobs that may currently not have a tech assigned to due to lack of techs, techs unavailable for various reasons or already fully booked. They then try to secure another tech possibly through new techs that have just been hired, or inform the Recruitment Group to look for a new tech or reschedule the job for another day when a tech is available. There are about 6 personnel working this.
Recruitment Group – This group is constantly looking for new techs via placing ads online, searching online and cold calling, checking database of callers looking for work and any other way they can find them. They then go over how PHS does business with the prospects and if they agree then they have them sign the contractor agreement, provide a W9 and submit to a background check. So far, insurance has not been a requirement. Once all has been completed/received they are turned over to the Tech Management Group to get them setup and started receiving jobs. There are about 8 personnel working this in Cebu and 2 in the USA (Brittany & Hailey).
Tech Management Group – This group covers Management of Techs that are under the management of Ryan White (Ryan Reagan) as opposed to those under other managers like Sholom Vinitsky, Sholom Reindorp, Simcha Andrew/David Wallach, Ovadia/Edy and Moshe Kulek. Currently they manage about 140 techs. Management consists of assisting techs with anything they need and monitoring techs to ensure they are doing things correctly. There are about 9 personnel working this. Unlike the other technician managers, Exelcius don’t get a cut of these technician’s income.
Manager’s Assistants Group – This group is assigned as individual assistants for the other managers listed above and does the same thing as above for their assigned managers. They do not participate in the Main or Secondary Ring Groups so they are always available to support their Managers and the techs under those managers. There are about 5 personnel working this.
Purchase Approval Group – This group takes incoming calls from technicians purchasing parts for jobs that are paid for by the company. They approve purchases based on criteria provided by the techs manager or escalate the request to the manager if it is outside the criteria, enter the info into a spreadsheet and on the job record and work with the vendors to make payment by credit card over the phone. There are about 5 personnel working this.
Quality Control Group – This group monitors calls, job bookings and memberships checking to ensure jobs and memberships are booked correctly and dispatchers are talking correctly with customers. 2 personnel working this. 1 in Cebu and 1 in the USA.
Follow Up Group – This group makes follow up calls to completed jobs customers to enquire about how they liked our service and offer the membership again if they are not currently a member. There are 2 personnel working this; 1 in Cebu and 1 in the USA.
Messaging Group – This group handles all text messages that come into the system from customers. There are 2 personnel working this.
Marketing – There is one person doing this. This person (Rochelle) handles/develops websites, social media, ads, flyers, videos and email marketing.
Management:
Andy – Manages and monitors all the above, works with Levi (Software), Moshe (Finance), all managers and techs and assists Yosef with any and all things as needed.
Ryan – Assists Andy with all the above as needed with a focus on all things financial such as chargebacks, disputes, refunds, escalated customer issues etc.
Mae – Andy’s Executive Assistant. Also manages the Monitoring and Purchase Approval Groups.