I worked for a company under the name Ocean Promotions, Inc this past summer it is located in Riverside (East Providence) Rhode Island. Come to find out after it was previously named as Tradewind Promotions, MPS Marketing, Kjp Advertising Partners, Maximum Impact Advertising. I wish I had searched this website for these reports before I went to work for this company because I definitely would have run the other direction to say the least. I was a junior and was looking for a good summer job in marketing that would be a good experience and look good on my resume. I applied for the job that advertised:
Immediate Hire! HIGH PROFILE EVENTS, PROMOTIONAL STAFF, & PUBLIC RELATIONS ENTRY LEVEL, MARKETING, MANAGEMENT, CUSTOMER SERVICE, MANAGEMENT, PUBLIC RELATIONS, EVENTS Ocean Promotions, INC., is Rhode Island's fastest growing promotional advertising firm. We have just signed 2 new national accounts launching this year. We are opening several new locations throughout the South and Northeast areas! Due to our expanding client base, we are looking for ambitious, hardworking individuals with great attitudes to join our team of professionals. Our advertising and marketing firm is the leader in the event marketing industry. We represent our clients at sporting events, festivals, fairs, trade shows, malls, car shows, major retail locations, and department stores.
I wanted to research the company to find out about it before the interview and figure out what the company was about since that is what I like to do before interviews. Their website www.oceanpromotionsinc.com says NOTHING basically. It is a website created from some sort of flash template that says where it is located but has no details on what the company actually does: which is go to grocery stores, coffee shops, bookstores, etc. Set up tables and sell items to 'support' the DARE program (only 20% actually goes to the program). They make it seem like it will be a great career opportunity making $30,000-$45,000 per year.
Sounded like a great opportunity right? Making good money marketing entry level... I call the number they left on my voicemail a lady answers and asks me which company I am interviewing for Ocean Promotions or AMP Distributions. I get confused how is this number 2 different companies? So i ask well what are the 2 companies. The lady answers by asking me what day I want to come in for an interview I tell her a day (don't remember) and she says well Ocean Promotions has interviews that day. So basically she ignored my question. I figure it's 20 minutes away why not go in and see what it is about. I get to the interview and there were about 5 people in this waiting area. They had no sign on the building it was written on a piece of paper taped to the door. Both of these companies were located in that same suite. Weird. Go in and the lady asks me who I am interviewing with I tell her and she has me wait. And wait. For an hour I had to wait because apparently she was on some kind of conference call. Why would someone schedule an interview when she had a conference call going on. So i finally get in there and the lady is about my age and she tells me that they promote programs like DARE, Toys for Tots and racing companies at events. She draws for me a diagrams saying after 1-3 weeks what I will make ($400-$500 per week) after 4-6 weeks I will be promoted to a team leader will be making more I believe it was $600-$800 then I would be promoted again to an assistant manager and eventually I could be a manager of my own business if I was willing to work hard enough. Sounded great. I asked her why there was a range $400-$500 she said that it depended on if I chose to work Saturdays. I figured that was good I had an opportunity to work Saturdays but it wasn't necessary if I had something going on. She also said they only hired within and that everyone who works there goes through the program.
To make a long story short. I worked 12 hrs a day and my paycheck only came out to $50. Upon opening this they told me not to be discouraged at the low number cause i missed a days pay from not starting at the beginning of the week. How am i suppose to pay bills with $50?
The men who worked there as the leaders were also very disespectful towards the females. Our assistant manager would make disturbing comments and would consistently approach females employees asking to take us out for dinner and show us his appartment sometime.
Believe it or not more people came and went throughout my time there for a few weeks. I ended up leaving Ocean Promotions because my pay wasnt getting any better. This company scams people completely and needs to be shut down. Research from a students parent showed that the manager filled in how much we got paid AFTER we signed the contract. Somthing needs to be done and this company needs to be shut down. Apparently they have changed their name to Capital Events... BEWARE
The reason why I am writing this now, 6 months later is because i was going through a rough family matter throughout this year. I have recently filed for tdi and needed to find ocean promotions address online. I stumbled upon another complaint for this company which made me furious that this was happening to other people. LIke I previously stated... Something needs to be done!
The manager's name was Sequoia Livingston
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