Complaint Review: BluMarc Inc.

This is a modified pyramid scheme / MLM / scam.  The reason this is a scam is that you are promised:  good pay (80,000 - $110,000), a chance for rapid advancement, and a great work envirnoment.  What you really get is poor pay (minimum wage when you account for the insane 10 - 12 hours a day plus Saturday morning), no advancement past the first stage which isn't really a stage, and shitty work environment where you are abused but expected to wear a smile and be part of the team.

You are a W4 worker.   You are on 100% commission.  You have to drive your own car and pay for your own gas.  You use your own cell phone.  Nothing is reimbursed. There are no benefits whatsoever.

You do direct sales going door to door, selling products and services.  You walk down the street in your territory, knocking on every door and pitching (either office supplies, Verizon wireline services, etc.).  Yes you do work with fortune 500 companies (Quill which is a part of Staples and Verizon), but it's not glamorous at all.  You have 0 contact with these companies, unless you count calling customer support when things go wrong with an order contact.

The pay I was promised was 80k to 110k.  However, I quickly realized that this was not possible.  I was making less than $1000 dollars per week, even with the so called bonuses and retention.  That is less than 50k a year ... and a lot less considering gas and car wear due to driving around all day.  That being said I am good at direct sales and I was closing every opportunity ... there weren't many opportunities however.  

You are expected to work from 8am to 6pm minimum.  But often you come in early at 7:00 am and usually you get to leave the office at 7pm.  So you are really working 10 - 12 hour days.  You are also "encouraged" to come in on Saturday morning.  And by encouraged, I mean you will be working half the Saturdays at least.  You are also "encouraged" to attend Thursday social functions.  And by encouraged, I mean you better do it if you want to have any chance of moving up. 

The way you move up is by starting to hire and train other people - level 2.  You get to level 2 very fast which is encouraging, after less than 1 month.  The issue is that once you do that you have even less time to sell yourself, so you salary goes down (because you are interviewing people and training people as a major part of your day).  You don't earn anything from the hiring people or any money they make.  But you need to build a big team to move to the next level - level 3, where you earn a meager base salary.  

At first hiring people was awesome, but I quickly realized that my salary was dipping as a result.  Also, most people you hire will leave for the reasons I am writing here.  Only the most desparate will stay.  You are looking for desparate people who have no other options (limited education, bad credit, no experience, bad references - because they dont check references), yet can pass background check ... that is your sweet spot.

At level three they claim they might match your health insurance although not for sure.  

At level four, which is really really hard / impossible to get to (most of my colleagues were going on their 2nd year in level 2 even though we were told we can get to level 4 in 1 year) you are supposedly made a manager, given your own office, and you run the show.  

This is a great model for the people who own this small business (they try to make it out like they are big, that is not true at all.  It is a mom and pop operation.  Literally mom and pop, the owner brings in her child to the office and he crawls around and plays on the carpet).  They have 0 risk.  They don't pay salaries (except to the so call assistant managers, a level which no one seems to reach for some reason), and they get a piece of what you make.  THey have no expenses whatsoever.  

I don't know how they got their 2015 best places to work designation (these things can be bought actually), but it is not a good place to work.  You are expected, like in many MLM organizations to be constantly smiling, peppy, and excited.  You are part of the team.  The problem is that you make minimum wage (when you factor in the hours you are working and poor pay), with no benefits, and very little chance of advancement.  

I am not kidding about the minimum wage and this was extremely disheartening.  Even if you are desparate as I was, you are much better off working somewhere else, anywhere else.  Even a restaurante or retail store is better because you'll probably make as much, if not more, and not be stressed out.  And then you can keep looking for a real sales position.  

Don't do it.