Complaint Review: Berkeley Inc.

I agree he did help me with lots of stuff. The thing that
really got to me at the end was he wanted me to help with the closing, it
wasn't even my office to begin with and he had never paid me. If he had of
payed me first i would have helped. But i still bet that if I had of helped out
with the entire closing he still wouldn't have paid me. In the end he doesn't
give a s**t EVERYONE IS ON A TIMER IN THIS BUSINESS. But whatever, Everything u
stated in your report is sooo true, I have chosen a new career path in security
sales. Great base with commission structure and advancement into a sales
manager role down the road. I found I can excel so quickly and am a great asset
to the team because of what I learned. Still though I like being self employed
the feeling is very enjoyable and good quality of life. This business however
is never your business. The product is not yours -- the client is not yours
your just the uy who runs around with your head cut off. This business model
belongs to Murrey ReinHart I believe he started ds max. Look on face book there
is a whole forum page dedicated to this direct sales max thousands of former
employees and owners. And Larry runs the whole s**t now.  If you do more
research in rip off report with these names you will soon realize what kind of
game yourre actually in. It way bigger than you think, actually world wide. I
still know people who work in this business. These people are amazing , I just
hope they take it as real life training. Kinda like school and learn the skills
and start your own company. Funny thing is you dont have to wait for keith or
laura to register you a company just go down to city hall lol. ITs A CRAPPY
BUSINESS MODEL people do 1 000 000 in gross sales and pay themselves 40 000.
They always promote low overhead but the margins are garbage compared to other
biz models, Low over head , try home based business. I was just curious what
industry you are currently in right now, still a form of direct sales or a
totally different industry? Anyways this will be my last post GOOD LUCK TO
ALL!!

I will make this quick....I was taught K.I.S.S. haha. Keith isnt who you have the beef with. Its all the people lying to him, who the real problem should be with. Keith is just like you, at one point he was looking for an oppty, he just happened to find the wrong one. I wasted 3 years of my life, but sir, can you imagine losing 12 years!! Youve heard the term "IN TOO DEEP", there it is. He cant quit now, all he has is that place. All his friends are former owners that blew. And some of them still talk to him. Hes not ANYWHERE NEAR a BAD GUY, he still believes as you once did, and who are we to tell people what to believe, I am merely telling you I WAS DOWN for that Business, and he was the one who sold me, because he was sold too, and still is. I havent talked to him since Feb 7th 2009. I left the biz the only way YOU CAN and not be dead broke when you do, most owners owe money all over their state when they go under.....NOT ME;-).

But heres the truth. I owe Keith Certo alot, he helped me out in some serious situations, he showed me how to pull the most out of people. Its just NOT A LONG TERM SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL. YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO HAVE REPEAT CUSTOMERS, and in that "BIZ", you dont have that. I don't know a singled soul that stood up and spoke at any conference that made the money they said they make. But WE GOT SOLD, and WE BELIEVED and laughed at the critics at one point too....I remember getting on this site, and thinking these people were nuts....But heres the deal, the habits and standards you learned, they are priceless. You can start any career with what you learned and be an amazing asset to a company, and grow professionally, faster than your counterparts. So be angry and bitter for a while, you deserve it. But just keep in mind, your business acumen and work ethic are where they are now, because of him. And in a few years, you might be like me. Posting on a site to say thanks to someone, who taught well, and literally wants nothing to do with you....haha....And keep in mind, there was a post on here about Keith bouncing your payroll checks, FYI these companies arent the only ones that do that, I have employees that work for me now, that were in that same situation. I mean at 35% commish, what were you owed, 200-300 bucks......when a company goes out of business, it normally because you dont have money.....the "OWNER" is broke, its not his company, just a "outside deal", its not his responsibility.  I really dont know how it works in CANADA, but in the states, I paid unemployment taxes, so when I went under they paid out all my employees, until there was no money left, so after I shut down, literally my people got paid over $6000.00. I know because I checked every month, because I wanted them to be taken care of. The only ones that didnt claim unemployment, were the poor kids who went to another one of these "companies". So just some info. but everything I learned there is so valuable. I encourage anyone to work there until they get to ASST MGMT. Thats all I will say, read into it what you want. But I run a rock solid company with 30 employees, I do all the bookkeeping, and amazingly......I make real money, working 37.5 hours a week, with weekends OFF always....haha....no road trips, no event issues, no 100% commission......oh yea and residuals........

I started working for these heartless con-artists around the beginning of February in their Montreal Office located at 3700 Griffith Street, St-Laurent, Suite 353. The managers name is Nick Hearn and they go by Les promotions synergie. They have been there since september 2009 working with the Missing Childrens Network. In my time there I noticed a large pattern of people who quit not getting paid. I frequently asked Nick questions I knew the answers too and he was was one of the biggest liars I've ever met. He blasts music to "motivate you" but it's really so that you can't hear him lying in his office to your co-workers.

He claims to make 75k a year and when i asked what his weekly paycheck was he had no idea what to say, he stalled with really stupid answers like 500-1500 depending on what i save or spend and then he sat there and said well uh 75,000 divided by uhhh.... 52 is about um... i make 1300 a week....
Such a bad liar, everyone knows what their weekly pay is they dont have to do the math.
 He says his car is in his name, its in his moms. He tells us that he fires people when they really quit.

Now, what he's pulling is that your pay is for the week you did two weeks ago so you don't remember the commission you made and then he gives you a fraction of what you really earned. He gives you false hope with this phony 75K salary. I was keeping track of what i sold and he repeatedly told me not to so that i dont "lose motivation"

Nick Hearn is nothing but a petty con-artist, they only hire young naive students or single mothers. He told me that "Les Promotions Synergie" is a registered trademark, it isnt and when i asked how much it cost him to register it he had no idea....

The email says berkeley inc. is their sister company, this way when the s**t hits the fan in one office the company doesnt have to deal with it.
I saw through Nick since my first interview and the man is a terrible con-artist, i played him like a fiddle untili got enough information to realize that its a scam and it's not worth the long hours 6 days a week.

I fyou read this Nick, how can you sleep at night? taking advantage of desperate hardworking people who trust you. I feel bad for you, anyone with the morale conduct you have clearly has issues.

ALSO i was packing up with him one day at an event, a man asked if we worked out of the office on griffith street in st-laurent. I said yes, he asked if we knew a girl who's name i wont mention here. He said she didnt get paid for the month she worked even after going to the office twice to get it. Nick lied to the man saying he had no memory of this girl who was there just a month ago, he said he's been working there over a year and gets paid. I asked him after why he didn't just tell the guy that HE HIMSELF is the one who runs that office rents it. He laughed and didn't reply.

I learnt a lot in my experience and time there, that is one positive aspect. The pay is s**t though and there is NO future in this career, I'm going back to school. Keith Certo was always mentioned as if he were some legend. I met chrissy, one of the founders and she appeared to me to be nothing but a ruthless salesman who would do anything for money.

They scam their EMPLOYEES and use their charities as a cover, get out while you still can you're wasting your time and may not even get paid what you made if you get paid at all

To all those who commented on the structure of the company being a scam. The thing is you can make a paycheck with theses companies and learn some good sales and people skills. The structure of recruiting and the day of observation to show you the biz although not ordinary to other jobs thats not the real scam. You see I came into this thing in Jan 2008 shortley after theses american quantum guys came up from the states in april 2007. I was excited at first did the whole bell thing made it to leader ship worked every saturday ,ridiculous hours for little money. Hell id jump off a bridge at one point for this company. Put it all on the line, did what ever I had to do to make ends meet and make it to management. Finally I did after putting my life on hold focusing all my attention on this i made it. This is where it really begins I left to ottawa with some sharp people I grew my crew and pretty soon I was doing 10 000 - 15 000 a week. I even spoke at the conferences and promoted a guy. should be making good money right. Not at all. The money that comes back to the manager at the end of the night after misleading people about child find or what ever(totally different story). This money would go into my td bank account from their it would be moniterd by Laura the accountant getting into that later. The point is you really dont have free acsess to this money at all as a manager i was making 500 bucks a week. Thats all this business model can afford to pay you thats if your doing well. Think about it payroll-merch payment-admin cost-event cost-manager salary it doesnt leave you with much. When i first started I managed to profit every week unitl the point I had 20000 grand in my "head office" account. I never wanted a headoffice account or laura as a book keeper I never signed up for this. I started to not do as well and went down, hell i even opened a new office in winnipeg right before christmas dumb move their goes 7 grand. Let split my office down the middle and open a new one right before christmas f*king stupid.

This is how the company work they register a "company" for you put all the sh* on your head taxes, fees, telephone, electricity, rent all that crap so that they "keith" doesnt have to deal with the sh* when it hits the fan which it always does. All innovage or these f**kers care about is the product being sold in volume. He doesnt put the offices up all the cost of that you do, and all the other idiots. 5 offices sell more product than 1 office right. Thats the biz. Until the business eats you alive they just send some other hack to your city then they will quit they always do.Heres the funny thing No One and I mean No one is really making good money doing this except probabley Larry. You c I have been to the meetings all over the place even in the states never saw a dime of good money. Not that money is everything but still u claim to be a "National Consultant" making lots of money. Its a joke Keith Certo is just your average fat a*s american. He lives in a average dumpy house outside of toronto, he has a ugly wife, average car average suits he is just average. Works a 12 hour day at the office then eats chips and watchs football. All these people are snakes Mike putnum & Keith. Just listen to how they talk they control conversations, manipulate, broken promissis, and just have a answer for everything. Look at the website its not professional so many holes they just sweep sh* under the rug. Now i did meet super amazing people in the last three years that are honest hard working people. I met some of the best sales people around really lots of great skill . My leader was the top owner in this whole thing. You know how much he walked away with in the end. Even after promoting 5 people. 0 and i pretty sure he owes money on taxes. there is another girl in oakville who was a fantastic owner manager but she really sells the dream. She hasbeen there since the start promoted like ten people. Everyone thinks she makes great money she doesnt maybe 50 000 a year take home working 7 days a week. Even if you made the claimed 100 000 a year take home which is f*king ridiculos and every manager reading this knows what im talking about. I still would not do this its not worth the headech.You c Im a sales champion have a great work ethic and all that nice stuff that i learned from this and u do learn a lot but there is way better oppourtunity out there. But your too focused on listning to keith blabber and finding events your just banging your head off the wall. It burns you up deep down inside you gotta get out ahhhhhhhh!! I ran a presentation in toronto didnt even have enough money to get back to ottawa, but here i am making good money. Total joke the organization is going down everyone has quit. This biz model doesnt work always finding new customers no repeat biz, all the hiring and fireing and misleading people. That grey zone of the charity. Keith why dont u just go back to the states man if u make sooo much money how come my payroll bounced running through your company and u never paid my reps and myself. Keith how come u just took all the merch outta vancouver and victoria and just ran away on the rent and didnt pay anything. U wanna do business with these guy. He will tell you to work on christmas day. Of course he will sweep it under the rug and continue going on. Its all over the internet. Anyways good luck to everyone. Dont worry you too will finally wake up, trust me u feel sooo much better. Just ask yourself when was the last time you did something really fun with your friends and family. Like a great vacation, u probabley answer ohh not since i joined berkely or what ever the hell its called. I hope you read this keith if that your real name ,you p***k go back to pittsburgh and stay there lol.

thought i'd add a few keywords for search engine optimization and extra information to help anyone trying to crush this scam; hopefully it'll also throw a wrench in their plans when prospective marks looking for some kind of marketing job in toronto/scarborough perform a search for "berkeley inc."

-416-282-7566: current phone number for the office, (at 1295 morningside ave. near sheppard, unit 18)
-"shelly"/michelle(?): the administrative assistant who personally does all their bookings with (unsuspecting) stores
-tamiko/bethany/beverlee/stacey/felicity/roseann/michelle/jennifer/susan: other email pseudonyms previously used in job postings, probably cross-posted by "shelly"
-jaclynn/"jacs": a manager of the office who is mythologized by the staff to own two houses and according to the promised salary range makes between $75K and $100K each year; of course she doesn't make half that and actually drives a piece of garbage toyota with a cracked windshield
-christina steele-kurtin: the other (older) manager, whose alleged sales ability is mythologized by employees but who seems to know precious little about business principles in conversation; she has done this same thing in multiple locations in the states, which is well-documented online
-aetorontogta@gmail.com: their current email address
-careers@berkeleyinc.ca: another email address used in a job posting
-keith certo: the man at the top, allegedly the CEO of the "company" which is sometimes called berkeley, sometimes not; he's large, middle-aged, wears a wrinkled tan suit with cuffed pants, and used to do the same thing in the states alongside christina (also well-documented online)
-shining tree international promotions: another name for the company in canada (there are many dozens of other names that have been used in the US by this cult/scam but the list is too exhaustive for me to include it here)

the above people named (keith, jaclynn, christina, and "shelly") must be fully complicit in the berkeley inc. scam in order for it to work, which is why their names are listed here; i have omitted certain identities of people who might not yet know what they're getting into, even though their "management trainees" have clearly already been trained to be really shady and deceptive.

they want you to join a "management training program". all the new "trainees" are at a crossroads at this point where it's "have a conscience" versus "get paid and have a tiny chance at promotion". this business will be gone in six months when paycheques start bouncing, but until then, it's a scarborough scam to be aware of. it scams the stores, it scams store patrons, and it scams its own employees, 100% of whom think they'll be managers within 5-10 months.