I responded to a random ad on craigslist that went something like "Respectable company is looking for account reps/customer service reps." They didn't say who they were and they didn't say where they were, except for the fact that they were in brooklyn.
So later on in the day, I got a call from "JJ Marketing" in brooklyn and I set up an appointment for an interview the next day.
First off, the fact that this place is located above a automotive repair shop should have tipped me off that it wasn't a legitimate business. Check out their address on google maps if you don't believe me! There are no signs on this building whatsoever to let you know that "JJ Marketing" is on the second floor.
Inside the 'office', it's like a desolate wasteland. Hardly any furniture, everyone has to share one phone and there's not even any cheap, crappy artwork on the wall to give it a lived-in feeling. The place looked like it hadn't been cleaned in ages. It's like they can just take themselves up at any time and leave and nobody would know they were even there.
They call themselves a marketing company, but they're not clear at all about what they're marketing. Even in the job interview, I had no idea what I would be doing if I actually got the job. Everything was so vague and the person that interviewed me just kept saying "It will all be explained in the training."
By the way, you have to pay them $100 for them to 'train' you. But at the same time, it's supposed to be 'paid training' so you supposedly get the money back, plus more at the end of the training. I figured "Hey, what the hell, I'll give this a shot! I'll be getting the money back anyway."
So the Monday of the very next week, I began 'training' along with about six other people. We just sat in the office of the "President" (Mr. James), while he babbled nonsense and occasionally scribbled some stuff on a miniscule dry erase board. He didn't dress like a professional and he didn't talk like a professional. If I randomly saw him on the streets I would never have known that he was the 'president' of such an 'important, respectable company.'
He said they deal with helping people find lawyers and jobs and they help big companies like Verizon and Sprint. With what? I don't know and when I asked, nobody could give me a straight answer. He also claimed to promote entertainment and help schedule events and find venues for said events to be held. Mind you, for a company that claims to do all this and have contact with such big important companies, you'd think they'd have some flyers or posters or a brochure or something.
So after the first week of 'classroom training, ' my skeptical colleagues and I were put to 'work' for the first week of 'field training.' What did we have to do? We had to recruit people for the same exact job that we were doing. We had a list of 10 people (some got 8 for some reason) and we had to call them in for an interview them and make THEM pay $100 for 'training'. Our 'quota' was that we would have to recruit 5 or more people by the end of the week.
It was then that we realized that it was just a scam. We weren't dealing with lawyers or phone companies. We just had to make people pay money for some bootleg training and by the time they're done with training, we'd have already left the job without being able to tell them that it was a scam. On top of that, Mr. James said that if we had any friends or family that needed jobs, we should recruit them. One girl suckered a few of her cousins and most of her friends in there because she refused to believe that it was a scam. I feel bad for them.
We also noticed that the people who had interviewed us were no longer there. When we confronted Mr. James to ask him where these people had went, he couldn't come up with a proper response. He simply said "Umm. They went away. They went on vacation! You know how it's that time of the year where people go away." Mind you, about 3 people had left since we were all first interviewed. 3 people on vacation at the same time? No, no. They left because they didn't get paid.
We also asked him why the offices were not properly furnished (and dirty as hell) and he made an excuse saying that the people who had previously rented the offices hadn't moved all their stuff out yet and they still had the keys. He said that he didn't want to invest a cent into the office until all of the previous renter's stuff was removed. Of course, that was all a lie. We also asked why his 'office' was in such a crappy location and he made the excuse that he put the office in the middle of a terrible neighborhood to give the people around the area a chance to succeed. Once again, all lies.
So, training was over, nobody actually got paid and everyone realized they got scammed. Unfortunately, everyone signed a contract saying that the $100 they paid is non-refundable. Nowhere in the contract did it say anything about us actually getting paid, so it's hard to dispute that.
So in short. I'm writing this because I tried to do research on the company before I went to the interview to see if it was even worth my time and I found anothing. Since I couldn't find any reports against the company, I figured that they were legit. So this is a heads-up to anyone who received a call from JJ Marketing for an interview. IT'S A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!
I hope this was helpful. I sure could have used it three weeks ago.
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