Ds Max, D-s Max, D.s. max, Innovage, Cydcor, Granton Marketing, Granton
Ripoff the best magic show I have ever seen Worldwide

I can remember reading reports like these over a year ago when I was an owner and was shocked at how many people had complaints about the company I was very much involved in and recruiting others to. I am no longer in the business but not because I was so thoroughly disgusted and angry as many of you are but because I was ready to move on. I will give those of you who are reading this report because you are researching a company you are interested in, an honest evaluation from the stand point of someone who actually worked there for a quite a few years.

Depending on the division you interviewed with you are going to be working with some company who markets for other companies with what they call an ingenious marketing plan, it is door to door. They will not tell you that until you are on your second interview. The ads you read are all the same, they are looking for sharp young college grads or people that want to do a summer internship with a marketing company and this time of the year they call a "juicy" one because it is summer, and all of you are out of school.

I guarantee that if you are someone within 18yrs to 24yrs, you are the perfect target. They use alot of flash and dash tricks on you, they call it "impulsing" your day of observation. The way it works is this, you will sit down with someone young and seemingly smart, (most dropped out of school because like you they were on summer vacation) and they will praise the companies that they work with.

I will not use the companies names because they are actually receiving a good service even though the people they have "advertising/marketing" for them may not be the most honest. They tell you what you want to hear, how you will get to a management position in only 6 months, make a 6 figure income within your first year as an owner, get travel opportunities, work with fortune 500 companies, get the appreciation that you deserve, you don't have to worry about a glass ceiling, write your own paycheck, and everything they tell you you can pretty much be sure that they read from your resume.

Did you include your hobbies? They will "relate" to you on those as well. It is the answer to most of your prayers! Then you spend a "full day" knocking on doors. I actually had people hug me and thank me profusly for giving them this "oppportunity" to get everything out of life that they ever wanted. They even prepare you for "negatives" for when you go home that night and tell your family and friends what you are doing because "they won't understand, they didn't spend the full day with us like you did and see the oppportunity broken down and explained like you saw."

There are four to five levels you must go through, distributor, leader/trainer, account manager, assistant manager, manager. Most people never make it past leadership.

The sad part is that I have seen this business from all angles, I even had the opportunity to go overseas and work with their sister company. I had alot of fun and some of the people I met I am still friends with, some are even still with the company so I cannot agree with everyone on these complaints when they say that everyone is a liar and a cheat.

Most of the really honest people are not the ones who last very long, conscience or whatever gets the best of them and they must move on. I guess at first you don't realize that everything you are saying is a lie until you have been there for a while and see it first hand. The products in the advertising division are usually good ones, the companies you have probably heard of, it is the nature of the biz itself that is so corrupted.

Just like in other corporations there is a glass ceiling and there are boundries that you cannot cross, ex. It is forbidden to talk to ex-employees, leaders are told that their guys might get "negged out" by these lazy people. Most of the time people quit because they have families they never get to see any more (many a times have I heard the word divorce float around), they are not making enough money to pay bills (ask your "leader" if they have had to go without power yet because someone "forgot" to pay the bill), or because they have just been there too long and have not gotten promoted yet.

You are required to build a team they so graciously provide the interviews for you but you must buy them lunch with your money as a courtesy and when they are brought on you must make sure they make money or they will quit. It doesn't matter if you worked all day in the sun, or rain, or snow, it is your job to make sure they get something even if it means you go without.
D.S. Max: Direct Sales to the Maximum, is the head corporation, Granton (Advertising), Cydcor (Communications, they even have their own magazine Cydcor Times), Innovage (Clearance), and a few new additions, ask your manager, are all the same company. Regardless of whatever they say.

They had to split after they received too many complaints against certain divisions. Cydcor considers themselves the elitest of the group, King Brad and Queen Brandie felt they needed to keep the image clean away from all of the "gimmels" and non professionals in the other dividsions. But if you get the chance ask them this they know the story well, "which office was it exactally where the rep from one of your esteemed communications offices had the gentleman go into the office where there was only a secratary there, ask her if she was alone, went back out into the hall, stripped naked, and went back in and raped the poor girl? And with a history on his background that was found out only after the incident took place because that is when the background screening was done."

All of you owners who are reading this and trying to explain this one away to your new guys, be honest and show them copies of the background screenings you have done yourself on the guys in your office so your reps know they are safe. It is only fair as most in comm are women. Just ask Brandie.

A lot of owners run around and flash cash by buying everything when you go out with them, what they don't tell you is that it is your security money. Yes an account you can safely put your money in with them is called "security". Don't be surprised if you go to cash the check your manager wrote you and it bounces. Usually it is the only account you as an owner are a signer on.

Most won't tell you but when you open your account, your HUB manager is the only signer on your main account, where all the money is and you have no access to it. When you want your money, someone else has to cut you a check. And they always find a way to take some of it, when you quit. You always owe some kind of debt, missing merch, your outside deal failed, something. I was given that friendly piece of advice by an owner who left and whose office I was taking over and who the company dinged for a few thousand dollars. I used his advice, never told anyone I was a signer on both accounts and the only signer on the security account, and when I left I cleaned my main account put everything in the security account, wrote checks to everyone and hit the road.

The only thing you have to watch out for is the "Head Office Security" where you have to put money whether you want to or not. That is where you have to make sure you know how much is in there and make sure you get it all before you start moving your money around before you leave, they will get suspicious. Most people don't know that all the money you have is all moved around and put here or there for your own protection. Well if they don't trust you with your money, why did they let you open an office to begin with!

This is a lot longer than I had wanted it to be so I will end it on these notes: Ask a lot of questions and ask the same ones over again in different ways, you will be surprised at how many different ways it is answered. You are not a lazy person if you cannot make it, the hardest working people I have ever met left because they could not get promoted, or once they got promoted couldn't believe everything was fabricated. Refuse to pay for things out of your pocket like road trips, lunches, your guys, they are making the manager money, not you, not yet, the least the manager could do is take care of the people in the office, they are making 6 figures remember, and for them it is a tax write off, at least that is what they will tell you.

It is a very positive environment on the outside, things aren't always roses, the managers are usually balding from all of the stress. Weigh out the amount of time verses the amount of money. How long have you been with the company and are you where you thought you would be and if not, how many times is it going to take you to realize another day of o isn't going to fix all of your problems, if you are "working the system" and just not seeing it, it's not because you are a loser, they hand pick who is going to be promoted next, they call it "stacking your deck". Genuine "honesty and integrity" they always talk about does not come from having to "impulse" people into joining the club. They will do it because they can find good reports about the company, not bad ones.

You shouldn't have to defend what you do to others, if you have to, something is wrong. And all of those who are going to read all the way through this and try to explain it away to their new guy who now has doubts, ask yourself you leaders and managers, if it is the greatest opportunity in the world, how come the same people are still at the top and your nice guy promoting manager or someone you went through the field with has had to go on a retrain.

Truth is, since you use your money to pay for the office space and the supplies, the admin, ads (they get expensive, you run them every week in usually three places, hot jobs, monster and the paper, research the city you want and see how much your overhead is, not cheap) it doesn't take that long to spend everything you saved up as an assist. Man. And you are still required to go into the field until your crew is strong. I thought you got promoted so you wouldn't have to go in the field any more?

Hopefully you don't lose everything, be smart and have your own accounts outside and save your own money. I did and I was fine when I left but alot of my friends lost money, hundreds or thousands, and others are being audited by the IRS for unpaid taxes that were supposed to be "taken care of" and were not.

Oh well... I hope that this helped some of you some what, and I am sure that I will get some pretty interesting responses but like they say in the business "Juice by you" and your "Juiciness" all of you who defend the company tooth and nail, what have they really done for you, you should probably investigate. And if you are making that much money, go buy yourself something nice the V. P's do.

An old friend
your city
U.S.A.

Company: Ds Max, D-s Max, D.s. max, Innovage, Cydcor, Granton Marketing, Granton
Country: USA
State: Nationwide
Site: www.dsmax.com

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