[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] Marketing Company - YOU WILL NOT BE A MANAGER ONE DAY!!!

Tom223

zakk83 wrote: »

I think you are all Idiots! those are normal companies who make profits with a form of marketing called Direct, the brand pays the Marketing company , is the easiest way for a big company to sell a product, that's what you study in a normal marketing school!! Those companies work as a pyramid, you start from the bottom till you reach the management, they say clear that nobody promise you the management , you need to reach it just like a normal job 9 to 5, you need to put effort just like other companies, you can make it unless you give up, everything in your life it's up to you, remember that, if you don't success in something is not the company's fault, just like other companies!!

How can it not be a "scam" when you go and apply for "customer service" or graduate management role when they in actual fact only have self employed door to door sales.

Even if you do stumble across their website through several pages of scam and rip-off reports it is common place for their website to only briefly mention Direct Marketing. These companies do not MARKET anything, they sell sell sell. If you had any form of higher education other than A Level business studies you would understand there is a massive difference.

Another aspect that you dont seem to miss is the fact that these jobs arent even 9-5, more like 11am -10pm 6 days a week. If I worked 10 hours a day in proper employment my Director would be chuffed and my Line Manager would probably suspect there was something wrong with me.

I guess some people have and will make money from these types of companies. It very rare but they are so wraped up in their own little Cobra world that they dont realise they dont have a relationship, friends or any time for a hobby.

Becuase you are self employed how likely do you think these companys will support you when you need time off or not hitting targets? If something isnt going the company's way - you are self employed and guess what they will do. If you are doing well...congrats your manager, the office owner and people higher up the pyramid take a higher % cut of the work you just laboured for.

There is a reason why so many people consider these Companys to be cults; its becuase so many people are brainwashed into thinking Cobra and similar Direct Markting companies are the dog's b****ks when in actual fact people selling the big issue probably get more take home pay!

venus_in_furs

Nicely put DeeRam and Tom223. These companies are indeed scams...even if they manage to get around things legally. They make promises they cannot meet and the extremely high turnover of staff, the many, many unhappy ripped off people, and the rash of identikit ads spawning on every job website is testament to this. Yes, you CAN make money, but not very much- it is very hard and fruitless work aimed at desperate people hit by the recession. I have spoken to a lot of people- people who have even worked their way up to the top in these 'companies'. They even say it is very hard, almost impossible to earn a decent living...most people wont get anywhere near earning even a decent wage to even survive on. Those that do 'make it' do it by scamming innocent unaware people took in by all the promises made in the adverts. You have to be pretty ruthless and desperate to do this...and live at home with your parents since most people barely earn 100 quid in the first month!!

These are not proper jobs at all...most of the companies do not even last long enough for people to work for them for more than a year or so- even if £150 quid for nearly a months work was worth it!! Get your facts right zakk83.

thedicewoman

I've just moved down to Bristol and attended one of these 10 minutes interviews - they didn't even ask me for my CV! Has anyone had any experience with this comapny before? I'm supposed to go back tomorrow to meet the 'trainee managers' but after reading this thread I'm hugely skeptical. I can't believe I was taken in to begin with!

Total_Chunk

These companies are typical right across the country. A lot of them are affiliated with the Cobra group but many aren't and it's sometimes tough to weed them out.

When I was desperate for a job last year I stuck it out for three days in Bristol with something called 'The Empire Organisation' or something like that... It's an absolute con and I was severely out of pocket with travel expenses!

What I will say is that if the same company is posting on lots of different job websites under lots of categories promising an uncapped wage to those with no previous experience as training is given, proceed with caution!

tinkerbell85

I wouldn't even waste your time going! You will just get interviewed by some infant in a primark suit claiming to earn 50k a year! The whole thing is a shambles!

GRRRATPARKER

I’ve had a near identical experience with the firm Parker-Worldwide (not quite sure how they are worldwide, seemed to me like their only operations in Dorset and Hampshire) I attended a preliminary interview in Bournemouth maybe a month ago. It was very odd it lasted maybe 10 minutes during which I could barely speak over the manager as he spoke at 100 words per minute. Nonetheless, I got told I made it through to the next stage through a telephone call at 6pm by the extremely nice secretary (who wore the shortest skirt I’ve ever seen on a working woman) and was told that the manager was very impressed with me and that I should attend the next day at 12pm dressed just as nicely.

The next day I attended the second round interview whereby I was made to sit in the office for an hour reading the 2-3 month old magazines they had probably stolen from the dentist beneath. The room I was in was beyond plain and the secretary with the nice legs had the music blaring. In the rooms adjacent odd sounds were made as employees of the firm were shouting and laughing in unison. We were told by the secretary with the nice legs that it was a team building exercise.

Anyway, after an hour’s wait the manager introduced to the account’s manager (who claimed he had given up his 40k a year job at Shell to work at the firm) and we were driven around Bournemouth’s less affluent areas trying sell Talk Talk door to door. Worryingly one of the salesmen in the car told me that recently he had recently hit rock bottom and was forced to live in a crackhouse. I assume he wasn’t getting the commission he so deeply needed. I don’t need to type too much here as jonboy69 has given a near mirror example of what happened to me but you get the idea: walking around Bournemouth telling lies to kind old people in attempt to earn commission with other salespeople who all dreamed of managerial positions (no university graduates though)

For lunch we went to a pub, the salesperson who had recently had financial difficulties didn’t want to order anything to eat but the account’s manager told him to eat something. And he did. After lunch I was told of the company’s structure. Where an employee spent stage 1 doing door to door sales (annoying people) earning maybe 300 a week, where upon the creation of 12 sales a week maintained for 2 weeks he gets a promotion to stage 2, where he trains up stage 1s. The next stage, stage 3 is where you learn how to handle accounts and this period lasts for about 3-4 months after which you become a manager and earn 1500/week + bonus. It sounded almost too good be true!

After lunch we were back on the road, and this time it was serious business as this was the time working mothers were at home. One person we sold to was a perfect doppelganger (who lived in a bloody scary neighbourhood) for Bianca from Eastenders. She had maybe 3-4 children and her house was a state! Also, her dog terrified me. By the end of the night we had made 3 sales each one worth ~£30 each. We met up with the other salespeople, including the salesperson with the financial difficulties who seemed to be looking rather down, I guess he didn’t make the sales he needed to eat that night... I would say more but Johnboy69 summed it all up much more eloquently than I could ever manage (and I would simply be copying/pasting his stuff anyway)

I was made to remember the 5 steps for sales (1. Introduction, 2. Short story, 3. Presentation, 4. Closure, 5. Consolidation) and the 8 steps to success, which I probably can’t remember correctly but roughly: (1. Stay positive, 2. Be on time, 3. Be prepared, 4. Work all your hours, 5. Work territory correctly, 6. Maintain great attitude, 7. Know what you’re doing and why, 8. Take control) and also the law of averages which was just the expected value of number of achievable sales, which they claimed 1/10 in the long – run but from my 6 hours of roaming seemed more like 1/20 or even lower. Anyway, they claimed it was how they stayed positive during harsh times.

After all that nonsense we returned to the office and the accounts manager told me he wished me well. I filled out a questionnaire where I had to recite the above nonsense. And I was interviewed (after a bit of a wait) by the main manager. And of course, I got a stunning recommendation by the accounts manager and a very strong stroking of my ego (intelligent, articulate, good looking etc) and was given the job. And was told to start immediately the next day. Success! I got the job!

When I got home and told my parents that I got the job and upon hearing the details they seemed a bit iffy about it. I went online to reassure myself and found some forums claiming Parker Worldwide were a scam. After reading through the (many) horror stories people have had with Parker Worldwide, I chose not to go in the next day. I got a phone call about 10mins after I was supposed to get to work but declined and went back to sleep.

It was very depressing as I thought I had finally found a good job after university, even though it was door-to-door crap, which I certainly did not want to do, I thought I would progress quickly and get out of the crap bits quickly, as I have the personality and the acting ability to mould myself into any situation and be a success. I thought I had got a respectable job with decent prospects. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so blind to the fakery and the deception had I not needed a job so badly out of university. I mean I was willing to put an ____ in my ____ for a graduate job! I needed a job so desperately that was willing to _____ a _____ and smile the entire time!

Normally I wouldn’t have typed up my story but since I don’t want anyone to get fooled and accept the position and am so glad I was able to find these forums before putting my name to anything. I hope that people realize what a HUGE mistake they could be letting themselves in for and avoid the all the !!!!!!!! and fake promises.

Resources: (stupid site not allowing my hyperlinks)

parker-worldwide.co.uk/index.html
tomcat4.prospects.ac.uk:8080/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3954
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1261101

jonboy69

I have found something interesting which shows how shady these companies are, they are constantly changing their name to avoid being detected by friends and family of people getting interviews with these companies.

JPK advertising was previously known as KPJ enterprises, but had to change names last year when it was exposed on this site. That many people searched and left comments what happened was whenever a potential interviewee typed in KPJ enterprises on google, the 1st thing that came up was this forum of how dodgy it is with dozens of comments from ex-employees. This detered alot of people from even turning up for the interview.

So, They changed their name to JPK advertising. ( This is confirmed on companieshouse.gov). However, the same thing happened with an even larger response!

I am not aware that they have changed their name recently and they have started to get wise and in the job adverts, the name or address of the company is not listed tp avoid being identified!

KPJ or JPK's parent company TH Nationwide has obviously felt the effects of people raising awareness and has now changed its name.

It is now called AMM Direct Ltd.
The address is obviously still the same on the 4th floor of Premier house, Darlington Street, Wolverhampton WV1 4ND. tel 01902 716233.

What most of the companies have started to do is answer the phone saying "hello, marketing" instead of giving away their name as they are so scared of anyone knowing it.

If anyone has had an interview with this company KPJ or JPK in Liverpool, and knows if they have changed names again and what the new name is, please post their name on this forum.

The address is:

JKevin O'neill.

Business advertising Ltd
Cotton Exchange building
Bixteth Street
Liverpool
L3 9LQ


:money:

GRRRATPARKER

There’s a lot of information about firms which hire people for door to door sales [1] and obviously it is important to increase awareness so that the young and impressionable do not suffer. Business models which exploit recent graduates and provide false promises so readily are immoral and should be banned. But under EU law, are not. [2] Thankfully, through sites such as this one there are growing movements and increases of awareness online.

The Wikipedia article on how these firms operate is excellent [3] As is UK’s direct marketing [4] and I strongly recommend you check out the footnotes for both. I would like to see these firms made illegal either through domestic law or through EU law. Their history seems to suggest that they were a success in the Americas and the idea was exported to the UK and Europe. I would also like to see the firm’s which practice these immoral and deceitful practices named and shamed. With their details fully available with all of their previous names listed. [5]

[1] wolfram.org/scam/ds_max/index.html (this site is very good, and probably the best explanation of the problem on the internet. And it is worthwhile spending some time on it.
[2] ec.europa.eu/consumers/rights/index_en.htm
[3] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing
[4] ukdirectmarketing.webs.com/
[5]consumerfraudreporting.org/MLM_listofnames.php (similar to this one, just being more explicit that Parker-Worldwide IS a scam, JPK marketing IS a scam)

Really take your time to read through these links. See how these apply to the firm you are “working” for. Realize that the promises promised to you are nowhere near fruition. Remember the job you applied for, did it say 100% commission? Did it mention a graduate job? Realize you are working with losers, people who can barely afford to feed and clothe themselves, people who probably lied to you and lie to themselves. Don’t fool yourselves. Don’t let yourself be taken in as a fool, you are not a fool, move on to the next job, a real job, not a “job” where you are self employed, that’s not a job, that’s a lie.

jonboy69

found some info on the parent company of JPK, which is also operating under several different names!

Kevin oneil and Tai Hussein are a couple of names that pop up interestingly!!!!

happy reading!

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/marchant-marketing-c238993.html#c458003

Kevin O'neill.

Business advertising Ltd
Cotton Exchange building
Bixteth Street
Liverpool
L3 9LQ

terra_ferma

terra_ferma wrote: »

Hello
I've just seen it, and got particularly interested when you said they work for charities.
I think if you want to ensure these companies cannot run their scams, this needs to be publicised as much as possible.

Charities depend on their image to raise funds, in many cases they patrons and sponsors are very high profile individuals, including royals. The charity's reputation needs to be 100% clean, and they would have to withdraw from employing any company that uses the methods you have mentioned.
What you described above, pressuring old ladies etc would mean very bad publicity for these charities and they could easily lose a lot of money.

I wrote this in another thread, relevant to this as well.