BEWARE I believe we have a predator in the Concrete Pumping Industry. In my opinion Abacus financial can not be trusted.

First of all these guys start by going to ConcretePumping.com and spamming the message board and after I tell them at least 4 times to stop and I delete all their posts I get a call from John Pacheco of Abacus Financial asking if we can meet. At the time I was heading out to Las Vegas to a ASME meeting and he was heading out to talk to a pump company so he asked if we could get together and talk about becoming a sponsor on ConcretePumping.com. I said for sure I would love to talk to him.

We met in the hotel and he seemed very slick, very cool. He asked me what it would cost to become sponsor of ConcretePumping.com and I told him $5,000 a year. He said done deal thats nothing. We plan on buying up pump companies around the USA and Canada and the 5k is nothing, in fact I will even give you an extra 2k for every company we buy up. I should of seen the slick willy when John started acting like such a big shot. Anyway we shook hands and he told me to go ahead and put up their banner and that the they would get the check sent out.

I called in two weeks to see were the check is at and John Pacheco tells me that it will be another few weeks before the check goes out so I wait. A month goes by and I get a call from this hotshot named Mitch Palmer VP Strategic Planning and after I explain everything to him and how I was unhappy with our history up to this point he tells me not to worry and that I would have the money with in 10 days. Well 12 days go by so I call and leave a few messages, next day I catch Mich Palmer in the office and he tells me everything is ok but he will check on it. Than I get an email saying they are pushing back our sponsorship. No call no money nothing. They have had their ad up for almost two months at this point.

I have all of this backed up in emails and invoice dates as wells as eye witnesses.

Mitch Palmer told me that he is from New York and that they do not do things the West Coast way, they do it the New York way.... what the heck does that mean anyway.

I always thought you do what you say your going to do and that is it.

If you deal with these guys make sure you get the money up front and protect yourself.

I personally feel like I have been scammed by Abacus Financial LLC. I would not trust them.

I think they are up to no good and have been very shady with me, stringing me along and did not even have the guts to call me and explain what is going on.

Todd I wonder how many Bridge's he has for sale, at least you didn't get shaffed to deep,I know there are shady things going on out West but you know about them watch these east coast guy's.

I just want our members to watch out.

Did you guys see this. I wonder if they used these numbers to Finance the deal?

They’re saying that the average cost of the boom pump in the fleet they acquired is “between $900,000 and $1,5000,00”

http://www.starpumping.com/star-concrete-houston-business-journal/

Am I hooked up with Google or what. Type in John Pacheco Abacus Financial into Google and see what you get. Google picked up on this post in just a few hours.

...yet, the ad still remains up?

Did you click on it.

Ok I took off the site Sponsors logo. You are right even if the link did not work it should not be up.

One of my good friends in the pumping industry should be calling me soon saying "I told you so" Well let me beat you to the punch. You were right.

I told you so!!!!!

ah i new it. I know I should of listened to you. Well I hope all the other stuff you said will not happen also. Sucks if it does.

You did not hear it from me but Todd Jr is wise about many things oh geesh I just typed that on here...lol

The name it's self should have been the 1st clue.. "Abacus"?

If you want to call and talk about Abacus, John Pacheco or Mitch Palmer let me know. I will keep all calls confidential. I will just tell you what I have heard and what has happen to me with this company and these guys.

I want to thank all those who have called already. You are doing our industry a very good service.

Call me at 805 659-3437

I just heard today that the repo man is at star right now. I dont know if its true or not but I just got the call a few min ago. The guy who called me is a strait up shooter. He told me they are hooking up 30 pumps.

I was just told the cops are there also. They are not even driiving the pumps away they are hooking them up to big tow trucks.

I have some pictures coming soon so do go far.

Man i feel reallly bad for the operators.

I dont think they have a great web site at all. If you look at all the pages all you end up is seeing a big red STAR all over the place. I love the Opportunities page.

Career Opportunities at STAR

STAR Concrete Pumping has many employment opportunity openings throughout Texas and the United States. If you are interested in joining one of the fastest growing companies in the concrete pumping field.

I think they need a new public relations guy.

Is this what happened to PumpCo?

Someone just sent me this picture. many more to come.

This is sad.

In this picture it shows 7 pumps lined up in the storage yard and one pump getting off loaded with the wrecker. There are 2 more wreckers waiting to unload 2 more pumps for a total of 10 so far in this yard.

Dear Trapper.

I know the operators are a bunch of good guys, many of them are my friends. I also heard that Star fired that old manager who was a fed ex guy or ups guy and I heard the new manager is a strait shooter who can be trusted.

I hope things work out for all you pumpers. I am sorry your all caught up in this.

Just keeping a positive attitude and we will get thru this.

I thought Abacus had tons of money and by their account if the pumps are worth between 900,000 and 1.500,000 each they must of took a big hit. If they lost 20 pumps that over 20mil they just let go. I heard 30 pumps are being repossessed so that has to be over 30 to 40 million by Abacus own numbers.

I wonder who will have to pay those personal guarantees.

Remember a promise means nothing to some people. Make sure you get it in writing.

Abacus, how to subtract with Abacus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaALOInvImk&playnext=1&list=PL963B5C0BA878A7C2

Well I got some more news. Wayne Bylsma of Cherokee Concrete Pumping went to work for Abacus.  Wayne is a good guy. In fact I really like Wayne. Wayne is one of those guys you can trust. I just hope Wayne does not get burned by Abacus.

I like the saying, "its not that I dont trust you, its that I dont trust anyone"

Well Good Luck Wayne

I just want to thank everyone who has called thanking me for Posting this story and those that support this web site.

Well Abacus first hired manager just called. Bill Avelar was the first manager to take over Star and boy does he have a story. Thanks for the call Bill and I look forward to your post. Stay tunned everyone.

BEWARE I am one of the victims of the Abacus/Star venture. I am the former operations director for Star Concrete Pumping. I was let go by the former vp general manager of Star. To this day i have not been told the reason why, all i was told was that he didnt have a good feeling about me. What the vp ment was that i was a threat to him in my position. He had no pump knoledge to my 25 years of pumping experience. From day one the CEO John Pacheo filled me with all kinds of storys for the direction in which Star concrete pumping was going. For the six weeks i was there i had started to turn things around. There were a lot of promises made by Abacus and i saw none of them come true. Maby it was a blessing that i am no longer there with all of this happening.  

Thanks Bill. I hope others will learn from our mistakes.

First Abacus hires and than fires Bill Avelar, and then they hire a Fed Ex guy and they fire him now they have Trapper running the show at Star. They just hired Wayne Bylsma which shocked everyone.

I hear one of the biggest problems Star is having in lack of money. Repo man done yet?

 Hey Abacus you ever heard of that joke?

 How do you make a million dollar company? You buy a billion dollar airline.

 Well I hope Abacus does right by you Trapper and Wayne. Let us know what happens will you?

The whole industry is watching and never was their a ill word spoken of Dewey. Dewey is a fine man. I hope soon Dewey will shed some light on what everyone is saying and what is happening. Are the stories we are hearing wrong Dewey or is Abacus to be trusted? This is important because Abacus is still at work in our industry.

For a man i had the most respect for in the business, he sure let me down(Dewey)........

This economy can bring a good man down.

to start off with trapper is over tomball operators  and  fed ex man still here his name is jason nice guy not pretending to be anything but who he is and trying to sort out a mess we are in .hi  bill i still dont belive you have 25 months much less 25 years that is a personal opion you tought me nothing in the six weeks you where here .all you did is try and push people around you tried to fire me on your frist day I am still here .as far as my trucks being picked up weather it was abacus or dewey it is just that abacus and dewey not all of us talking and assuming we know why this happened i would like to think a step backwards could lead into a great leap forward. we have not laid anyone off or turned down any work  we had alot of trucks I made sure they got the cream of the crop  i do not post often and  i will probaley  get banned agian for speaking my mind  dewey is still my hero thank you . guys fellow employes we need to keep our heads up the battle has just begun make em bleed abacus  as for you todd i can't say you where mislaed or not only you know how you where treated we where promised stuff too but i can't say why it has not happend maybe just maybe time will tale        

Well truth hurts, the truth does hurt. You could'nt learn anything anyway. You know it all and no one can tell you anything. The one thing you said is right. I don't have 25 years experience, I have 27 years. As far as trying to fire you, if it wasn't for Jason you would have been gone. I don't beleave in having any employee that dodges a drug screening and is aloud back to work. I know for a fact that you have never taken one in the time that you have worked there. In the short time that I was there all I tryed to do was take a company that was sinking and save it. As far as trying to push people around that is your opinion, ( oh yeah you spell opinion this way and believe this way also ) no wonder you you could'nt learn anything in 6 weeks, you could'nt learn how to spell in 12 years of schooling. I never tried to push anyone around. My job was to come in and sort through all that was going on and find areas that needed improvement. In the short time that I was there, I was able to bring in new work, new operators and clean up the shop and operations. By the way those are Abacus/Star pumps not yours. The bank or finance company determines which pumps leave not you. You better start looking over your shoulder. Your time is coming, I have always believed, (WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND) and your day will come.

I dont know why you guys dont sign your names. Nobody has anything to hide. If you want to save face to do it by using your name on your post.

don't be mad because i have a job bill. i work my ass off everday trust me when its over i won't go as long as you with out a job. i won't go three days that has to say somthing as fars as me and drug testing. i am  dot certified and hold current medical card you know nothing about me sir go find a job. todd my name is matt and iam the company bitch and yes bill those where my trucks and every body else that works for stars trucks we are a family you just didn't fit.  todd i will not post anymore about this i understand if you ban me again. bill you have my # and i think i have yours you noticed i hav'ent called you thats because i do not know you and you do not know me lets keep it that way    

I see no reason to ban you Matt. I don't know why you keep bringing that up

Lets not lose track of why this post is even here. It is not hear so we can fight back and forth. It is here as a warning to those who might on blind faith believe in Abacus's leaders.

the phone calls I am getting are unreal. I am so glad I am so well trusted. I will also keep up with the good fight and bring you all the info you should know as soon as I can.

Well no news is good news, I hear the deal with Cherokee Concrete Pumping is almost done and with Wayne confessing that he is going to work for Abacus sounds like a good and solid rummor. Wyane is a smart guy and very well known. I would love to hear from Dewey Adkinon (past owner of Star)

I would love to see one of these deals on paper. I love the saying that the devil is in the details or maybe in the lack of details.

Big news about star concrete pumping, I am waiting on conformation before I post it. Check back tonight or in the morning.

Ok I just got conformation from two sources, Star Concrete pumping is looking to file bankruptcy or what they are telling their people is that its time to “reorganizing”.

I also heard that Abacus might back out of Star or should I say that Dewey is getting rid of Abacus, don’t know if that is true or not but that is what I heard.

I was told today that Trapper got fired today and so did the Fed Ex guy. I was also told that many things were promised and many things just did not happen.

Trapper the Manager who was just fired called me and was strait up with me telling me how messed up things were with Abacus. Trapper said he would post the info as soon as he could.

I have a lot of respect for Trapper and he cares for this industry.

I personally believe Abacus made a bad situation 100 times worse for Dewey and the guys who work for Star.

I sure hope that wayne sees all of this and takes note.

Well Abacus didn't work for me guys. I was let go today by Dewey telling me that Star no longer is in need of my services.  I really feel I didn't do anything wrong.  I hope the best for my operators. There a great bunch of people that supported me well.  I hope the best for everyone. In my opinion Abacus is not involved with Star much now since they didn't know what they wee getting them selfs into.   As for my really good friend Bill I wish it worked out for us, Abacus told us that Dewey was not to be much involved and it was going to be run by you and Jason.  Which could have been done by both of you easily since you both have very good strong points.  That Star needs.  And I know Bill, you and Matt didn't see eye to eye, but I didn't want you to get rid of him because he has some unique qualities that I don't see to often in the concrete pumping buisness.   And Matt it was great working with ya, I know walking the ditches for hours in 100 degree weather looking for a remote box last week together proved to me we can easily work even though we have some differences. Im going to move on to better things and use what I learned for the future.  And to let other companies know my opinion is, Abacus is a crafty group so watch out.  And to everyone have a safe day tomorrow and use your primer.

Thanks Todd,  But also Jason aka the Fedex guy I know he didn't know a whole lot about pumps but he tried to learn what he could about them in the short time he was with Star.  And this guy knows how to work with people very well.  He knows how to manage. This is what Star needed. He was let go on Friday at 530pm after I came back to the yard after getting some sleep from being on a pour that Thursday night Friday morning granted I worked all day Thursday too.  He was also let go for really no reason other than the excuse of he didn't know enough about the pumping industry, Ya just had to give him some time. He would have done it.  Just like all of us that are commited to making a pay check to support our families.

Does anyone see a pattern here??? I personally think that if your talking to Abacus, John Pacheco or anyone who represents Abacus make sure you look at past behavior because it is one of the best indications of future behavior. At this point I have not heard one good story from anyone who has dealt with Abacus in the the concrete pumping industry. I know from personal experience that Abacus treated me very poorly.

Well Trapper I hope you find a good job, thanks for the heads up, very nice and I love the way you handled all this. We can all see you love this industry and I love how you reached out to others who have been hurt by all this.

Many I don't know who they are but they did what to Todd what they did to us.  Show up in there nice suits and rolex's talking about saving the company with money, and how ther going to change the industry. All we had to do is what we should have done all along was raise our price per yardage and get rid of the low flat rates.  It's hurt the area completly,  I want to thank all my fellow operators and friends in the buis for the support and encouragement too.(you guys know who you are)  I can admit I have my good days and bad days too.  Never look down on a man unless your helping them up.

It looks like Star filed for chapter 11 protection on July 27th 2011.

Payrol tax, insurance and other issues... and what I hear Abacus still has not infused the company with money.

At this point it would be really nice to get a statement from Dewey letting us know what he thinks of Abacus.

Ok I just called Dewey and left a message for him to call me back asking for a comment or statement concerning Abacus. Personaly I am not expecting a call back but I think we all have enough respect for Dewey that what he has to say is important for our industry.

Ok so in the middle of June Star reports in the Houston Business Journal that and I quote “ Star has about 90 employees in the area and operates 65 pumping trucks, but both of those numbers should increase in the coming months.” well I heard that the banks took over 20 pumps. So what the heck is going on here?

I also quote Star as saying “This deal gives us the financial wherewithal to be a powerhouse in the concrete pumping industry” Smith Said. “we're the largest in Texas, but we'll be the biggest in the country before it;s all said and done”

The funniest thing printed in this news story is a quote by Martin of Abacus, and I quote “The barrier to entry is so high Someone Doesn't just wake up one day and say. I'm gonna pump some concrete” the story goes on to say and I quote the story “They have to have tremendous amount of experience”

What the hell, does Abacus hear what they are saying? Does Abacus have any experience at all in the concrete pumping industry??????? none that I know of.

Ok one last thing what the heck is up with that picture, are they in lollypop land or what? Somebody must be on a sugar high.

If you want to read the whole story go to stars web site and read it, funny stuff (well not really funny at all) Here is the link. http://www.starpumping.com/wp-content/uploads/HoustonChronicleSTAR.jpg

Dear "heyyou" the reason your posts keep getting deleted is because you are slandering two people in the concrete pumping industry and you are not even posting your name, you cant hid behind a user name and try to discredit people in this industry.

If you have something to say about this issue and you want to post it at least man up and identify yourself. Both Bill and Trapper went on record and that takes a lot of guts.

If you have something to ad of value pro or con than post your name and be somewhat mature about it ok.

If you feel that Bill and Trapper were not qualified to manage Star Concrete Pumping than that says more about Abacus ability to own a Pumping Company than anything.

I personally can tell you that I would recommend Bill and Trapper for any position in our industry and just so you know both of them have jobs already.

Ok everybody knows me......Rex aka Dollabill...........

Your name really should be WILDMAN, Rex

Ok Trapper whats up man? Tell me about it. 318-294-6306

Well no news is good news.