I just need to say that Elite Promotions is a total scam. They lure young people into their company with promises of money and growth. What they don't tell them is that they will be walking along the side of the road 99% of the time soliciting everything from makeup to coupons everywhere from gas stations to fast food restaurants. They ask you to solicit illegally without a permit and expect you to drive all over the state with your own gas money. i spent the day in Rainbow City, AL walking along hwy 77 for 8 hours. didn't sale a thing.
ya, just go in and tell them you want to work there. they really don't care who wants a job. it is a soliciting job. i went in for a 2nd interview or "observation day" and ended up in gadsden alabama walking up and down hwy 77 in heels and nice clothes toting a bag full of makeup soliciting sales. we were thrown out of at least 7 businesses and nobody bought a damn thing. total waste of my time and day. i wouldn't advise working for this company unless you have been a telemarketer or a jehovah witness.
worse thing about the entire experience is that i was tricked into going to the job interview. I was never told what we would be doing. I was promised 30K-40K salary a year and unlimited room for growth. it isn't what they say it is.
ANOTHER EXPERIENCE FROM AN EX "LEADER
You get $10 per coupon that you sell. I knew guys that worked there and only sold 3 or 4 a day, all week. Not to mention you have to take out your own tax and pay for your own gas, food and drinks. Not to mention they text you and call you ALL DAY LONG, so I hope you have a good phone plan!
They'd hire a card board box with a face on it. GOOGLE SMART CIRCLE SCAMS BEFORE YOU GO IN!!!! PLEASE DO NOT FALL INTO THIS PYRAMID SCHEME. THIS IS AN ILLEGAL COMPANY WITH UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for the office? It's a big empty room (seriously) where brainwashed kids with hopes of making big money gather to teach new people how to fool other people with fake stubs, and other lies. The first sign that you dont want to work there is that ten kids will be interviewing when you go in (no legitimate company EVER does that). They tell you that they will only hire the best two, but thats a lie. They'd hire a cardboard box with a face painted on it. You if you do not take our advice...CONGRATULATIONS...YOU GOT THE JOB!!!
GO RENT BOILER ROOM AND SEE THE SIMILARITY.
ANOTHER EXPERIENCE
Yeah, I worked there too. I fell for the crap. They told me they worked with the braves...bullsit. They sell coupons. I was just in need of a job and they made it sound good at first. They act like if you can stick it out for a few months, you'll be on the gravy train. They have one guy there that is very convincing, but I think he is in on the scam with the manager. Everything that is mentioned on this blog is true!!!!!! Do not fall for this scam!!! Its bullshit!!! My brother worked there too and said that a guy got the cops called on him more tan once for soliciting without a license. They never told us that we needed one and were going to let us take the fall. They didnt care because they have 10 people a day interviewing. They dont tell you at any time that you need to take out your own taxes. People out of high school like me dont know about that crap. They have a 99% turnover rate there too. They are all a bunch of brainwashed kids. The person running the place isnt even 30. They have these cult like bell parties every afternoon where they play this gay song and clap and give eachother high fives. They are a bunch of douche bags!!!!!!! NEVER WORK FOR ANYWHERE THAT IS A PART OF SMART CIRCLE or DS-MAX
14 comments:
Dear Ex-Leader,
This is Rachel, I own the company. I am not writing this to tell you that you are wrong about your opinion of us, only to apologize for your experience as I do not make a practice of deceiving anyone. As far as our company being a scam, that is completely untrue. We do work with the Braves, and have for a long time. In fact, we wouldn’t have 1/10th of the clients that we do if we were a scam, I am sure they would not stake their reputation on it. I could run down the list of our portfolio, but I am not so sure you care about that. It seems that you anonymously care about why certain things were/were not explained to you, and for that I do apologize. As for taking your concerns to the internet, I understand the need to vent your frustrations, but just because we did not meet your expectations, does not mean that we are incapable of meeting someone else’s. Opportunity happens all throughout our business, every day, and again, I do apologize for your experience, however, I do not think it’s fair to generalize your experience to be true for everyone. Unfortunately with your strong words and profane language, you ruin what could be a good opportunity for someone else, not to mention on-line defamation is considered to be libel, and in expressing your concerns, I don’t think that was your goal.
Having said all that, I do want to address a few of your concerns you posted in your blog. Not necessarily for your benefit as your mind seems made up, but for the benefit of those people reading this “blog” researching a company (as they should before they apply) and coming across your opinion while they are looking for a job in a bad economy, or working for a company that they fear will fold. To answer your questions regarding permits/licenses etc, we do business to business promotional advertising (as well as in-store marketing and event marketing). Some cities consider what we do "soliciting" some do not. So as far as getting permits/licenses, it is a city by city case. So to answer your concern, we do, on very rare occasions have an incident where we do need to acquire a permit mid-day, and I ALWAYS finance that. As far as someone "having to take the fall for us"; it’s never happened, nor will it. To answer your question about taxes, you should take out your own taxes, but you also have write offs like mileage, food, gas, cell phones etc. A lot of professions file taxes this way, Doctors, Lawyers, Real Estate… they all file some sort of a 10-99 every year. This should have been explained to you, I apologize if not. I can only imagine that you didn’t work long enough to have that conversation because you were still on paid training. We do have a few different pay scales, so again, I would hate for your concerns to become someone else's. We do not have a 99% turnover rate,that would be awful! Sales is sales, however you try to dissect it, not everyone likes it. So the truth is a lot of people like the idea of sales... unlimited income, freedom etc, but not everyone wants to/can do it. So yes, people do quit. As far as my car and my apartment, although I have no idea why this matters to YOUR work experience, I travel far too often to have a house to worry about. I would rather spend money taking care of the business and of the people that work with me and replace my hubcaps (not a donut) later. Again, I do apologize that you feel as though you were scammed. I can only imagine you weren’t here too long, or we didn’t accurately answer your questions at first. I just would rather not be made out to be a liar when I am not. As far as prospective applicants, I understand you have read our anonymous "ex-leaders" blogs, and you have probably googled smart circle... but you replied or were interested in our ad in the first place. All I can say, in a time where companies that were considered “secure” are folding, we are opening branches, so there must be something good happening here. I can only hope that you judge for yourself.
Sincerely,
Rachel
President, Elite Promotions Group
Uh, I think libel is the written form of false statements made.
Everything that Ex-Leader said is true! Therefore what he written is not libel because I too had to go through the same thing with Elite Promotions. The same scenario happened to me so everyone who is thinking about going to the interview, DON'T!!!! It wasted my time and gas money! The account manager that trained me told me to lie my way into selling their products. She kept telling people that we are not salespeople but a marketing firm. We got caught without a license on my first training day. Rachel just said it herself that they are in fact SALES!!!! Fake ids were made for their Direct T.v. campaign. Even the account manager said so himself! It is a waste of time. I am backing Ex-leader up all the way! Rachel, you might as well be selling Kirby vacuums! People want a real job not a salesperson who sells packages for a living.
Ex-Leader, I am so glad that you put this blog up so that we all who went through the same thing can express how we feel. I, too, had to go through a second interview with Elite Promotions after the long line of interviews they had prior to interviewing me. They claim that they only have three positions available. The second interview was not even an interview. I had to walk in heels all day long from 730am to 6pm trying to sell coupons. The account manager basically trained me to lie to businesses about Elite Promotions having an employee appreciation month just so that they can buy the coupons. The funny thing was that people can purchase these same coupon packages online for the same price or even cheaper and you don't even have to be an "employee". I didn't like the idea of bothering people at work at all. After my second day of training, I found myself stranded in the middle of downtown Birmingham lost and confused. I had no car because the account manager decided to drop me off while she take care of the other side of town. Weird! When she picked me up, I simply told her that I didn' want to waste my time so she dropped me off. Not to mention this girl was so full of herself that all she cared is scamming others to get her "dinero". I wished that I had looked them up before I even wasted my time. Oh yea, to everyone else who is reading this, this is a sales position based on commission only. They do not issue licenses making it illegal to solicit. They asked me to solicit in a plaza which had "No Soliciting" signs everywhere! I feel cheated and disgusted! Don't go to the interview!
I read your blog before my interview. I honestly have no opinion on the matter, but I did notice that war eagle's website that they gave the link to is not for the same company you are talking about, so that is a bit misleading, infact the company is not even in alabama, and has a different name. Just thought that should be said!
Before I posted that link I knew it was a report from out of AL and I knew the company name was slightly different but I was just posting what results I had found when I was researching the company online. Plus, I saw on another business review website that some of these companies change their name or move locations after they've been discovered as being a "scam". So it may not be the same company, but the name is very much like this one and also the way the article talked about that company's "businesses practices" sounded very much like the same practices that Elite Promotion's in Birmingham has been accused of in reviews.
Elite in Birmingham has even been brought up in some of my college classes at Auburn University as a company to stay away from, I was only posting what information I had found when researching them.
I'll just take the link off.
I am so glad I decided to look up information about this company before deciding to go through with interviewing with them!! I cant believe there are actually companies out there like this that like to use college grads and exploit them like this. We didnt get a 4 year degree from a renown University to graduate and then go walk around to local businesses trying to sell coupons. They must have a very high employee turnover rate since they are always interviewing.
I also found this company's name on many other websites listed among numerous other marketing firms as being a scam. First of all, you've got to wonder why this company isnt among the lists of companies in the Better Business Bureau.
Heres another website with reviews of this company:
http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/Elite-Promotions-Group/Elite-Promotions-Group-News-Gossip/t57853
hmmmm...bad word of mouth seems to spread fast.
Smart Circle, Cydcor, Innovage etc are just tentacles of the global direct sales cult known to some as Devilcorp. If you go to thedevilcorp.wordpress.com you will find a plethora of links to news reports, government rulings, lawsuits and video footage showing how these people do business.
If you go to http://thedevilcorp.wordpress.com/ you will find plenty of info on this company.
This one might be worth a look. http://entryleveljobscam.blogspot.com/
I worked there what is y'all's names? I hated it worked there in 07-08
Smart Circle's Ashley Martin strikes again. http://entryleveljobscam.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment