Comments on: Former Commercial Financial Services’ (CFS) Executive Owes Oklahoma Millions

By: Sam Burrus

Sam Burrus — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:50:19 +0000

My son Keath is exactly right. I worked for Bill for almost four years and loved every second of it. It was very hard work, very demanding, and sometimes frustrating. But the rewards more than compensated. He is a wonderful individual. He stops and talks to everyone, never too good to give a minute and listen to issues and problems. In fact, I’ve gone back to work for him again. I am very glad to be back in his employ and couldn’t ask for a better boss. The company is very ethical and gives each employee the utmost respect. The work is hard, the benefits are amazing. If you don’t mind some good old fashioned hard work, this is the place to be!

By: Michael Chisum

Michael Chisum — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:35:55 +0000

Carla, Tracey and Beth I’ve worked with and for Bill many years. even back in Muskogee. Hes very demanding and politically in-correct I’ll give you that. But he is a great man and a great friend. Until you have walked in his shoes and created an Ink 500 company you’ve got no room to talk about anything…….

By: Keath

Keath — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:35:16 +0000

I worked for Cafes at Citiplex (catering company for the FREE daycare) My mother worked for CFS and worked her butt off and was rewarded well. She also witnessed many slackers and users in the company. If you saw the bad side of Bill, you weren’t performing well. End of story. Yes, my mother lost her job, but had no ill feeling towards Bill. However, the people giving him his advice should be lynched. I personally met Bill and my family had dinner with them at their house (quite impressive house I might add). They are great people who got caught up in bad business decisions.

By: Carla Burling

Carla Burling — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 05:20:51 +0000

Kathy check your meds and your memory. Bill is textbook manic depressive. When he was fooling everyone and himself, life was good with trips to Vegas and Disney World. When he crashed, he had no problem cussing out the lowest employee that they were the reason he was failing. I personally met all my goals, and my teams’ goals, and was still witness to his tirades. Are you kidding me? Joans was his patsy and you know that down deep in your soul. Please rush the Koolaid you’ve been drinking to the nearest Poison Control Center. For your own sake, you need to know that the rest of the industry operates efficiently without all his highs and lows.

By: Kathy Carpenter

Kathy Carpenter — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 01:04:09 +0000

Tracy and Beth all I have to say is you must have not been hitting your monthly goals. I WAS NEVER TREATED BAD BY BILL. But I was a top performer at CFS. You worked your butt off but was rewarded well. Good pay great perks free daycare free insurance. A doctor onsight at no cost to you. And help alot of people in was you dont even know. The man is very smart give him his dues. I would work for him again anytime. And my employee number was in the 500 range. I was there for awhile. SEE YA SOON MR. Bartmann

By: Rebecca Wahl

Rebecca Wahl — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:27:05 +0000

Tracey and Beth are correct. This dude was completely unethical, unprofessional and insane. He called a meeting of his skip tracers (around 500 hundred of us) and told us that we were the reason the business was failing. He said that somehow all of us were falsifying locates, and that we were” like the Nazi’s shoving Jews into the pizza oven.“ He also said that we must have “rose colored glasses shoved up our a$$es!” He was over the top ranting and raving like a mad man. The meeting lasted at least an hour. I knew then that something was up and he had to be in on it. Acquittal or not, he is guilty as hell!

By: Beth Wallace

Beth Wallace — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:01:32 +0000

Tracy is exactly right! Bill is not an credible individual to say the very least – he is a wolf in sheeps clothing (just barely) – he is handicapped both mentally and physically. His lack of tact and management abilities only contributes to his ignorance.

By: Tracey Passmore

Tracey Passmore — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:33:23 +0000

I worked at CFS and in case you aren’t aware, Bill Bartmann is not professional, ethical, or successful. He is definitely not a guru unless you define guru as a business leader who takes the stage at a company meeting and says, “You are all a bunch of goats f***ing each other in the a**.” I attended this meeting and witnessed his depravity with my own eyes and ears.

CFS was located in a building formerly owned by Oral Roberts University. Bill Bartmann has never “created a university”. That endeavor requires integrity and Bill Bartmann has none.

By: Jay S. Fleischman

Jay S. Fleischman — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:22:36 +0000

CFS has interested me for years. Back in 2007, it was #6 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies. The CEO, Bill Bartmann, was chronicled in an Inc. cover story titled, “The Billionaire Nobody Knows.” His business partner was convicted of fraud, though Bartmann was acquitted.

The company’s bankruptcy was fascinating because the records revealed so many documents in connection with the debt buying industry and how it worked at the time. I, along with some of my colleagues, have pored over the court records for hundreds of hours and treated it as spectacular CLE.

Now he’s written a book about the bank bailouts, apparently created a university in Tulsa, and has remade himself into something of a financial guru.

It’s an interesting story that has gone on for a decade. Thanks for the post.