So, I'm a 20 year old, extremely intelligent college educated (well I'm in my 2nd year of college) girl, from a very affluent family. I just moved to Oklahoma over the summer, and was pretty bored. I thought maybe I should try and get a job. After all, I had all this free time, that I didn't know what to do with as I didn't know anybody. I also thought it might be a good way to meet people. However, I wasn't too interested in applying at food places. And even though I have the skills to perform at many jobs, with no job experience... It is hard to get a job. I mean even telemarketing companies and the stores at the mall wanted experience.
I filled out a resume on Yahoo Hot Jobs, and "applied" (it's simply clicking a button that auto fills out applications) for every job that required little to no experience. Considering I had applied to over 100 jobs, I was surprised when a few days later I got the response from Malika McBreen at Exclusive Advertising. After reading their email, and checking out there website I was so excited. I mean this looked like a great company. Public Relations and marketing is always interesting, and they have great big name clients (pizza hut, dominoes, okc blazers, etc), and are located in a nice building in downtown OKC.
I didn't think I would get the job but I figured why not give a shot? So I called and scheduled the interview. When I showed up, I was thrown off, because I saw the suite they were supposed to be in, and it said Kruger Marketing Group, there name was nowhere to be seen. I actually called to make sure before I walked into their office. I took a seat, as I immediately noticed that this was a tiny office and there were only like 6 seat in the "waiting room". I filled out the application (I have watched my friends fill out more complex ones at Quizno's or Kmart) and gave it back.
Me and another girl got called into the office for a double interview by a man who couldnt have been more than like 30. I mean he was very young. He launched into a speech about the company and went on to name drop all their big clients. He explained that basically sporting teams and such would use his company to fill their unused seats at a great discount (I think it was around 50% off).
He showed us, they had these this laminated paper cards, that basically had a bunch of coupons. Like if you bought one for the blazers you would get one free seat at a home game, and like 3 buy 2 get one free tickets. There would also be various discounts for a few dollars off different concessions and merchandise. And the price of one card would be like $30 and the discounts would be worth like more than $100. (my numbers arent exact here)
Still, it didn't seem that weird. I mean it made sense. As an avid sports fan, I do know a lot of seats go unfilled, and a lot of the food and souveniers are on huge mark up pricewise. He then asked us each a few simple questions, and said that he had to talk to his team when they got back. And if we were selected one of his top more senior members would take a whole day out of their busy schedule so they could teach us, and decide if we had what it takes to make it. I went home and got the call at 8pm which I thought was odd but ok, to come on the second interview that Friday at 10 or 11 am.
This friday happened to be the friday of the 4th of July weekend. So I had plans to go on vacation, with my flight leaving at 5:30. Considering the airport is 10 minutes away from their office, I thought I had more than enough time. That day after I show up and get handed off to my "person" to follow around, they tell me this interview goes untill at least 6pm. So I then scramble to get a later flight. I also noticed there ratio of girls to boys was like 1 to 10 or even worse.
So it turns out, they're going to a town about 50 miles away. During the ride their practicing their sales pitch, which goes pretty much like this. "Hello there. I know I'm overdressed for this hot weather (we were all in business attire—black slacks and collared shirts and it was a good 90 plus degrees outside) out here, but I want to assure you I'm not strange. Im just out here doing some work for (insert company name on card here... We'll say Frontier City) and we've lost a lot of our customers from the surrounding areas because of those insane gas prices. The gas prices are high huh? Well we were thinking if we gave you over $100 in discounts... Do you think you could make it out there at least one time this summer? Hand over the card. Show the great coupons. Talk about the great low prices"
We get there in the downtown of this city. And basically they went in door to door of every shop on the street and repeated the pitch. I think the guy I was with sold 1 or 2 cards. If people said there was no soliciting, they would simply say their not solicitors, they work for the public relations department of whatever company was on their cards for the day. They then ate lunch.
Where I was chided for not being very talkative (I'm normally a chatterbox and never am quiet), but how much are you going to talk with 4 other guys that are quite fraternity boy like in the attitude department? I mean there were fart jokes, chewing tobacco... Staring at some girls in a car, and yelling at them and stuff. Oh yeah, and you just met them and got thrust into a car with them. And the funny thing is I have no problem talking to strangers. All the people that work at the coffee shops, grocery stores, disneyland etc. Know my name because I always make it a point to say hi and have a short conversation with them while their checking me out or waiting or whatever.
After a short lunch, they then pick 2 neighborhoods and go door to door repeating that earlier pitch. I think my guy sold like 1 card this time in 3 hours and 50 houses. During this point, I mean I'm trying to carry on some kind of conversation and so is he, but there was just some kind of odd vibe going on and then finally comes the end of it. He asks me if I have a boyfriend because I look like the "type" of girl that always has to have a boyfriend. I said no I actually don't, (but in the effort to keep the conversation going) I do mention that before I moved I had just broken up with someone, because I didn't want to do the long distance thing. So to add the icing to the cake... He asks me how long were you 2 together? I mean you weren't just sex buddies were you? So, I calmly reply no... We were actually together on and off for about 3 years. I could be wrong or old fashioned or sheltered but is that really appropriate conversation with a girl you had just met a few hours ago, especially in a work environment?
After that I was pretty offended and never wanted to deal with the company again, but my dad being the professional polite person that he is, says I should write them a letter thanking them for the opportunity, and even though I wasn't particularly fond of the people go thru the motions of "I learned alot and met some great people blah blah blah thanks". Thankfully they never called me back and I didn't get the job.
After my day there, I realized this wasn't an interning job (as they had presented it) you can not intern at door to door sales. It had nothing to do with marketing... It was old fashioned door to door soliciting. No thanks!
So a few weeks ago I'm wathching TV, and up pops their office. With an expose on the 9 or 10 o'clock local news about the company they supposedly only office space shared with. Even though this other company was also a very similar multi level marketing company, that had nearly IDENTICAL ads in the job search engines and newspapers. Apparently Kruger Marketing was very misleading etc. And their owner had been accused of stabbing a few people in his college days, and at the reports time, the guy was moving his business to Houston.
Now also apparently, you can get your own franchise with exclusive advertisings parent company in less than a year! Apparently the owner of this office actually has a business law degree. How I don't know and since everybody has to start out in door to door sales, I don't know why any person that graduated law school and passed the bar would then go to door to door sales. They would normally be smart enough to know that when an opportunity sounds to good to be true, it normally is! And also apparently the owner of their parent company is a non college educated guy who now owns a mansion in Beverly Hills, and his neighbors are some celebrities like oh Kobe Bryant and someone else. Nice to know people still make millions scamming poor college kids.
The people that I interviewed with also said they never had to pay taxes on the money they made (highly suspicious). They paid for their own gas (which is a big deal when your driving 2 hours every day to go to these places). And their "travel opportunities" were going to other cities, staying in motel rooms, and going door to door there. What an oppotunity!
In case they say I'm just mad at them because I don't have what it takes to be successfull and all that jazz. Which is pretty common because destroy the victim is a common tactic used. I actually had interviewed with another company which is scarily similar to them. I interviewed with them the thursday after, and got that job on the spot, which I declined, because I wanted nothing to do with these scams. And I'm writing these report months after dealing with them. I'm actually in my 2nd year of college and hold a 3.9 gpa.
The best part is, I saw 2 of these kids walking around my neighborhood yesterday. Right off the bat I recognized the clothes and those oh so familiar cards in their hand. On closer look, I noticed this guy with another guy was doing his "shadowing or 2nd interview" and the funny thing is that in july they said they needed 15 interns and there positions were rapidly filling up. Oh well, hope this was helpfull to at least one person.
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