Davis Direct Marketing
Deceptive, Misleading, Rediculous

I am so terribly upset that I didn't read the other reports on this website about DDM before accepting a position with them as an "intern." DON'T make this mistake!!! I turned down another truely great position for this one because it sounded so much better than what it really was. They made it sound like a true priveledge to be working for DDM and to have been "selected" from all of the applications that they had received.

The day of my second interview, I got into a car with two girls and we went to a local grocery store to sell child ID kits, t-shirts, and other random junk for a charity involving missing children. This poor charity is only receiving 20% of the donations and of that, only 5% is going to actually help continue searches for these missing children.

Throughout this bogus 9 hour interview, I was "interviewed" in the car on the way to the location, I was asked to walk around the grocery store and make observations, I was given a book to read and take notes on, and I was also given a questionaire that took an hour to fill out. When I wasn't doing that I had to observe what they were doing and ask questions on what I saw. All of these things led me to believe that this was a very competitive position that I would be "lucky" to have. Turns out it was the complete opposite of lucky.

It all seemed pretty easy... Get donations from people to help keep searches going for missing children. Then they get into the differences of a donation and a contribution and they do not take donations at DDM. DDM takes contributions because only PART of the money goes toward the charity. At the end of the interview they brought me into the office for a third interview, which I was told only 10% of the 2nd interviewers are brought back for the 3rd interview. So now I felt really great and was really excited for this opportunity to help others and do an internship at the same time...

After the offered me the position I was told that most interns get a $500 bonus at the end of the summer. I should have paid more attention to the MOST because to get it you have to train 3 people under you and get them out of the entry level phase of the company. Goodluck with that one... I don't know how you'll ever find even one person to do that. I was also not aware that this job would entail 10.5 hours of my day 6 days per week, or about 63hours/week. That's not the kicker... It's the $350 they get away with paying their "interns" (who do the same job as everyone else) because interns don't always have to get paid. Is anyone in that company aware of what minimum wage is set at these days???

Day one... When I first got there they had a crazy meeting where everyone was chanting and they all seemed totally brainwashed by their 23 year old owner/manager. She stood in the front telling tales of success and also giving us her income figure of $90,000/year and blah blah blah... Be prepared to practice selling (or "pitching" as they would say) all of their products for long periods of time over and over and over.

I was then sent off to my location feeling very lost but still believing that this was somhow a good thing to be involved in.

Day two... This would be when I realized how terrible this job really was. I was standing outside of a Wal-Mart all day trying to sell things for this missing children's charity. They claim it isn't "selling" but if 80% of the profits go towards paying off the merchandise and employees, I think it can be classified as selling. I was told that it wasn't sales, yet these employees have every trick up their sleeves to try and sell as much as possible. If it truely was a "charity" people would give because they wanted to, not because someone persuaded them to do so.

Of this day, the one thing that really bothered me was that a piece of defective merchandise was sold to a customer with the employee knowing of this defect. It is completely dishonest and it really tipped me over the edge. As if the rest of the business wasn't somehow dishonest, she was going to knowlingly sell someone a defective product? About half way through the day I had felt like I had been there for 4 days and all I wanted to do was go home!

Overall, this company doesn't tell you the details of anything and as they gradually unfolded I was out of there. The worst part... I turned down another job for this one. Again, DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE!!! Don't work for this company and don't give a "contribution" to this company! If you see the CPEA out and about, don't be fooled! If you feel the need to help a missing childrens organization, donate to one that will give 100% of their donations to the organization itself... Not some pyrmid schemed marketing company.

If I encounter any of the payroll or tax issues that the others have I will be taking it up with the Better Business Bureau or a similar authoritative role. As far as the others who have gone through this, what have been your results thusfar?

Company: Davis Direct Marketing
Country: USA
State: Wisconsin
City: Brookfield
Phone: 2614398146

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