Cause Marketing Solutions, The JK Group misleading job ad, unethical practices, illegal soliciting, total scam Milwaukee Wisconsin
This company has many diff. branches that go by different names... all under parent company Cause Marketing Solutions among other names. Their employment ads state that this is a marketing related entry level manager in training position, or something similar... but, it is in reality hard core, cheesy, door-to door sales.
They use charities to boost their sales, when really they are pocketing the "donations", proceeds of sales do not go to the charity.
My experience: Responded to the employment ad and was immediately contacted by The JK Group. They explained that they do marketing and different promotions, but where very broad in explaining what their company actually does. The company seemed to go by a lot of diff. names as well, which was a little fishy. I went in for an interview with the owner. Went great. She never mentioned that it was dealing with door to door sales. I was then invited to go on a "day of observation". 11-8 (which really ended up being 11-9:30). Unpaid, of course. Participation is voluntary. But it was a day long interview in which I was to impress the manager and then she would give me a good recommendation. Only on the car ride to the neighboring city did I start to realize that we'd be selling coupon books door to door in a private apartment complex, residential areas, and local business people.
We pestered people with loud door knocks, cheesy sales lines, and pushy sales techniques. Potential customers were informed that the books were being sold for The National Wheelchair Basketball Assoc. for $30. In actuality, the seller received $15 for every sales, and the other $15 went to the Jk Group. If a person said "no thank you", she would then ask "Well can you at least help out with a donation of just $10". People would donate $10-20. She would just pocket this money. She told me that we weren't even allowed to accept donations. We were independent soliciters. Seemed the only connection they had with the Wheelchair Basketball team was their picture on the back of the book.
Unethical. They use these charities as a drop line to make sales in their pocket. Most of the employees have no college degree or a 2 yr. degree. They will hire anyone. When I asked what their turnover ratio was, she looked at me funny cause she didn't know what that meant. Not a good sign.
P.S. I was even hit on by one of the employees as I was leaving the office that night.
anonymous
milwaukee, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Kcarroll1
Milwaukee,Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
Good thing I did not take their offer
#3Consumer Comment
Tue, September 16, 2008
I was looking for a job after college in Milwaukee, and the JK Group promised a lot of good things, but when I was on a day long job shadow, it was more weirder than expected. The worse part was, it was torrentially raning, and you were in a car. The worse part was this is like some other marketing firms which look like cult organizations. The JK Group promised on its ads on CareerBuilder you can make a great salary and all that good stuff, but all it was just selling coupon books, asking for solicitations, and also working as an independent contractor.
I am glad I did not take the offer, and got a job in my other major as I graduated with a double major with business and poli sci. After seeing more from other people with their rebuttals of their deceptive techniques, someone needs to turn them into the Wisconsin Attorney General's office as from other postings they are blantaly violating State and Federal laws. There are some like shady firms like even those tied to Cydcor in Milwaukee.
The Voice
Akron,Ohio,
U.S.A.
one bad apple
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, July 11, 2008
as a former employee of the company that started the wis. office i can tell you that you need to open your eyes and look at the bigger picture behind what you saw. we'll tackle things one at a time.
illegal solicitation:
employees are instructed to get solicitation permits in order to legally go door to door. some do some don't and at times the company gets a blanket permit that covers the entire company from having to get individual permits.
taking donations:
while what your interviewer did was by all definitions wrong it is not an encouraged practice. employees are told not to accept donations. not saying people don't but it is a terminal offense. some of the offices have other products that if a person wishes to merely donate they can get, such as t shirts. and the donations are required to be turned in.
vague job descriptions:
be honest...would you have shown up if it said door to door sales...doubtful. though vague they don't lie about what they do they just don't tell you everything. it is a management training program but the bulk of the employees go nowhere with it.
unpaid day of observation:
of course it is unpaid you're an interview not an employee. they are up front on the unpaid part when you accept the day of observation. however if given the chance to sell something you are supposed to get the commission on it. if the interviewer doesn't pay you for what you sell then they are just a p***k.
not giving the donations for coupon book sales:
read the fine print...only a small, very very small portion goes to the charity, and yes it actually does go there. after the commission is paid the rest goes to the owner who then owes money to the charity. like you would know the inner workings of that as an interviewee. and 9 times out of 10 the interviewer doesn't know that much about how the business is run.
personal thoughts...i will name names:
all that being said i do want to point out that i do not recommend anyone work for this company or its affiliates. the hours are insane and at the lower levels s really not worth the time and effort. since most people don't get very far in the business you'll just sacrifice your time, gas money, and energy. the wisconsin office was a branch of a cleveland office run by a manager that actually cared about his employees. because of that he'll remain nameless. but in the cleveland office there is another office under the name 'Bentley Executive Group' or B.E.G. for short...get it...BEG. i know, totally perfect coincidence. B.E.G. owned by Justin Bentley. mr bentley is a highly unethical owner/manager. refuses to pay people for money earned, dating/living/sleeping with one of his employees and living with 3 other employees. totally blurring the line of personal and professional. mr bentley is a complete jerk to the people that work for him. berating them for things in front of the entire office. "build in public, break in private" it's not rocket science. again i don't recommend a person get involved with the company.