Unfortunatelly, or hopefully to avoid this people I met with them in Upstate New York; Buffalo. Let me start my story in a cronological way so you may have a better scope:
Week 1, Monday:
I find an Ad in the Buffalo News that says the following:
GENERAL HELP
Area: Buffalo/rochester areas
18-25 guys/gals needed for wild crazy office! No
experience necessary.
Call 716-825-9320
I am going to start my report day by day.
Week 1, Tuesday:
My appointment was at three o'clock; unfortunately I got lost so I called (it was 3:10) I finally found Smith Street, but was amazed of what un ugly place it was for an office; I said to my self "It is in this shitty warehouse?"
I stepped in, signed in and filled an application. The place suddenly crowded, we were five persons; there was a stereo with a loud hip-hop music (I mean, very loud!). After an hour of waiting A young woman, Cara Treglio, comes rushing saying that they have been really busy so she was going to interview all of us in a single room, single interview. Sounds curious if when you think of a recruiter, they expect you to be really sharp in time, very neat and "everything counts for an interview". We were told to call that same afternon toknow if we were accepted or not.
I came back home, and proceeded to call as todl by Cara. I was told to be ready for friday which was going to be the second interview for the job.By the way; at this point in time we were told that it was a management position, an entry level manager position, with benefits and that I was going to be earning 39K per year, managing a perfume office of them. Great! The idea sounded astonishing to me and beneficial for my family.
Week 1, Friday:
The so called interview began, Cara introduced Kevin and then she started to explain the facts of their industry, Her boss "Larry hahn", what a rendition was, why perfumes were so expensive and the fact that when you enter a retail store, the perfume sellers harrass you in an annoying fashion. She gave us her testimony which was that she had been dropped of high school, she was somewhat like a looser with nothing to loose but everything to win. Her language was mild to strong with phrases like "Are you gonna do some kick-#$%"? Her business was to "Learn about $%^*, to sell $%^* and to get money out of @#$%". She explained what we were going to do during the six week training, week by week, day by day, which if they do it, i would theoretically lead you to be the ultimate manager of this planet
My assumtion at this point is that she is so brainwashed that this is the only thing she can do, buy shit and sell shit.
She even challenged all of us saying that we were free to leave, reminding us that we would then regret the challenging opportunity to live a way better life, go to Las Vegas for their annual reunion, have fun and she even reminded us of the store we were going to manage.
The meeting was fast, we were out at around 3 and told to call back at five to know if we definitely were going to go assit their six week training.
Afther this initial brain washing session, we were all convinced of the job, so we met again on the next monday.
Week 2, Monday:
Cara enters and asks us to write down the names of our best friends, closest friends and family members. She exits the room.
Casual dress; Ken enters the room. He started his conference talking about the self discipline, the focus, the job Vs a career, I recall him saying that he hated nasty jobs like "flipping burgers", other phrases "Fake it, you make it, get motivated", "Come to the office, have fun and make some money", "nothing to loose, everything to gain", I remember his story that we had to be like racehroses that ran as fast as they can with their eyecaps and do not know what is in front. (Curious for me if I have been taught to think outside the box).
Ken then expalined the company policies, the 150% rule:
A. Attitude: 95%
B. Hard Work 5%
C. Blind Faith 1%
D. Luck or skill 1%
E. Honesty 48%
He even gave a phrase and made us repeat:
"I TOLD KEN I WILL HAVE A 95% GREAT ATTITUDE"
Ken explained the money acceptaces and checks and then he made a Jackpot contest. At the end of the day, his jackpot reached $900 he told us that if someone sold their product would get this jackpot
He then showed their statistical sales and commited each and everyone of us to sell at least 20 to 30 bottles of perfume. For the next day (it was four PM, I had to attend college and who should I call to sale this freakin' Bottles? I got really upset because I was expecting more managerial material but well, I said, that If I was to be a Manager, I would need to do some sales.
Ken was far from casual, the meeting was supposed to finish arouind 3 PM, we did three five minute breaks (and one was a need to move the cars for a truc to enter the warehouse), we did not have any lunch at all and the meeting eded at 4:30 pm
He even told us to call him between 6:00 -6:30 to see what was out outcome and for him to give us some advice.
Week 2, Tuedsay
From the initial group of 9 two women already flunked and did not showed up. I was doing my best effort to keep myself convinced that If I was going to be a manager I would need to "eat shit" as said by Cara. I even thought that something was fishy here and if this was the situation, for courtesy I would stay untill 12 and leave.
We met new faces, new people that the day before received some kind of instruction and left before nine AM. I was not so convinced of their modus operandi and thought to myself that If I was in a bunch of people and there were a bunch of people before me and another bunch of people after my group obviously we were all going to be flooding the market in Buffalo NY.
Ken started explaining his situation once again, then Cara did the same, and the "old dogs", as they tell them did the same, we were told to be the "new dogs". Their language was somewhat profane, with F*ckin words and so on.
Ken went looking for those who sold something. Out of 7, only two did the quota, and no one was "pushy" selling their products. I recall my face and my peer workers faces (new dogs) and most of us were dissapointed because they were yelling, screaming.
For mid-day Ken made four groups so we could go with the older ones and do some of their marketing. Cara already gave us some sample bottles and made us sign a paper explaining that it was their merchandise and so on.
Despite I signed, I had my second thoughts, I had the samples but before I was even out the door, I returned the bottles and said "sorry, this is not what I was lookign for. I appreciate your attention but I am leaving".
Downstairs I found that out of 7, only 2 did it for their sales crap and so on, the rest were dissapointed and exchanging phone numbers and emails to remain in contact if someone had the chance to find anything useful.
Group reactions from the ones that refused to continue:
We kept saying that their loud hip-hop music was totally umprofessional. We questioned their strong verbal language
I kept wondering why they did not set their office in a more commercial zone, and not in the middle of nowhere.
We also wondered why if ttheir boss had so much money their office was looking like a shithole The general aspect of their offices is a 1970's old fashion office not so clean. They only had one computer but it was for gaming (as said by cara) If they are such a huge company whay they dont give some professional corporate manuals with all the procedures and a "confidential" reminder?
Conclusion:
I met these people, after all the events, I researched more in the internet and I found only their website was excellent and was the "american dream"; the rest is the truth of dissapointed persons like myself who feel that all this crap and their mock perfumes is just a waste of time. I even found that they are doing the same scam in UK and Mexico. I want to state something clear: at no moment these two fellas were mean with me or whatsoever, what I really want to state is that they cheated on my integrity and trust towards them, making me belive one thing, with false promises and the truth of the facts was absolutely different.
I suppose that at this moment, if they remember me, I am a looser for them.
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