Job hunters beware!
The ad read - Do you like to have fun? Do you love music? Can you be crazy? We are looking for office managers in the Inland Empire area. Call 909-369-1069 to set up an interview!
So, I called. The secretary answered the phone, and set me up for a same day interview. So, I go at 3pm, and meet with CHRIS WESTPHAL, the manager of "Empire Wholesale". The interview took place in his office. It was him, another girl, and I. He asked us both a few simple questions, asked us to rate ourselves on a scale of 1-10, and asked if we had positive attitudes. At the end of the interview, he told us that we would have to call back later on in the day to see if we were "selected" for the position. He gave the girl a time to call back, and she left. He told me that he never did this, but he wasn't going to have me call back in, that I was selected, and to be there on Friday at 12:00.
So, that Friday, I show up along with about 30 or so other people. We go through an "informational meeting" where barely any information about what we were going to be doing, or anything about the company was discussed. Chris asked that there be no questions, if we were chosen, we would learn more next week. At the end of this meeting, Chris called off names, and gave people a time to call back yet again. A group of about 10 of us was asked to stay. After everyone else left, we were told that he kept us because we were the "cream of the crop". He told us to be there Monday at 11am.
Monday we show up, and are again taken to the meeting room. This time the crowd is a bit smaller. Rather they didn't get chosen, or they knew it was a scam, I will never know. So, we are instructed to take notes. WE are told that to get out of the training program, we would have to sell 55 bottles of this perfume. 55 isn't so much over a 3 month period, so I went with it. We were given the 4 steps to the training program, and told that our attitude would speed the process up a bit. We were also told that in training, we would be getting paid office time, overrides and satellites as well as the comission on what we sold. The first night, we were told to sell to our friends and family. There was a contest, who ever sold the most would win $500.2nd place would win $300 and 3rd place $200. So, we sold to our friends and family.
DAY 2- Tuesday, we go back to the office at 11am. Everyone is excited because they sold to their friends and family, and wanted to win the cash! We go to the meeting room, and go over how much everyone sold. As a group we sold about 75 units. Not bad for our first day in my opinion. WRONG! Chris tells us that he will not be giving out the reward money because we didn't hit our group target of 195!! Nobody gets anything. The orders that were handed in that day were not there, and we would have to wait till Wednesday to get them from DOUG's (divisional manager) office in SanDiego. (To this day, OVER 1 WEEK LATER, my friend still has not gotten all of her orders filled!!!)
Tuesday, we go into the office again. Antother day of note taking. More motivational speeches. Thats all we got. Motivational speeches. NEVER anything about the company. What we did get about the company was:
Founder/president: larry hahn
divisional manager: doug zerbel
regional manager: richard greenley
office managers: christ westphal and kat cook
Wednesday, we go into the office at 7am. We have to go to Dougs office in San Diego, about an hour and a half trip. People used their own cars and own gas money! We were told we were going to meet the Divisional Manager, and talk with him. We met him alright, but then he sent us out in the field in our dress clothes to sell perfume on the street. But before that, he handed out a sheet outlining the training program. It wasn't sell only 55 for the training program, it was sell 55 PER WEEK while in the training program. This is not the office manager position I applied for.
So, my friend (who I met at this place and instantly bonded with) went into the field with a few other trainees and tried to sell business to business. Finally we gave up. We figured it out.
So, the next day we walk into the office and ask to see Chris in private. We asked him up front, what the deal was. Were we getting paid if we didn't sell?"If you ahve the attitude you're not going to sell, you won't sell" He gave us the run around.
Thats all this company is is a run around. A WASTE OF TIME! I could have had another job that was going to pay me at the end of the week.instead, I got nothing.
So just a warning for all of you job seekers out there. If they don't give you information on the first day, ask. If they don't tell you LEAVE!
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