R&S Marketing Solutions - Red Square Direct - COBRA Group SCAM Brighton United Kingdom
Hello,
About 2 months ago I went for an interview at "Red Square Direct" after being told that I was just what they were looking for. I attended the first interview that was in a very grotty little office above a flower shop. The receptionist was dressed in very casual clothes and had very loud dance music playing.
I was invited into the office and the man interviewing me did not seem to be paying any attention at all and then just said I'd get a call if I got through to the second interview..and as good as pushed me out the door before answering the question of what they actually did.
Of course I then got to the second stage and was told to wear "comfy" shoes. So I arrived next morning and was introduced to a team leader who was going to take me out into the field to get a taste for the job. He was a nice lad but seemed so brainwashed and so did all the other employees. We got the bus to a train station and he then told me we were going to Portsmouth (about 2 hours away from the office in Brighton).
Now you are probably all going to think I'm stupid but i am only 18 years old and was desperate to leave my old job. We got on the train and he then told me I had to pay my own train fair (12 pounds!!!). He then got me to write these things down in a note book. The law of averages, and other things something about REHASH... if I wrote one word wrong he wuld say NO YOU HAVE TO WRITE IT WORD FOR WORD.
We got of the train and walked about selling make up for about 6 hours ( he only sold 2 all day). He kept on going on about how much money you can make but then on the train back to Brighton he said "you do know its commission only right? Its 5 pound a sale". ( so he had earned a tenner for 12 hours work including travel which you have to pay for out of your own pocket!. He made me memorize all these sayings and things and said you only get the job if you remember them 100%.
We got back to the office and I took the stupid test and of course I passed (like everyone else). The manager called me into the office and started spouting a load of crap about how I could be earning 60K in under a year and that the money I pay for the travel is "my investment for the company" HAHAHA. He left the room for a second and then came back in with the team leader and told me I had the job.
The team leader left the room with me and said "WOW what did you do? Hes so impressed with you, do you know how rare that is? He doesn't normally like anyone!" I have been told by other people that they say this to everyone.
I got sucked into this crap for about 12 hours but then my boyfriend talked sense into me and so I did some research and found out that this company is related COBRA group. I do not know whether this is an actual cult but it had many cult like qualities.
Please do not get duped by this. I felt so sick that I actually got sucked into this but as you see it really effects you as I only went for one day and am still thinking about it now!!
Scamhater
lala land, Connecticut
United Kingdom
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Scamhater90
N/A,Europe,
United Kingdom
A response
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, October 27, 2008
Oh my god. Those people must be robots or something; because I had pretty much the same awful experience.
I passed the interview all well and good, then went to the second one, told would be on my feet all day, comfy shoes etc.
So in I stride at 9am ready to show my skills in the office. But little did I know. 4 people were in the office, 2 male 2 female. Us guys were taken to a room were we were met by two mentors who would be 'looking after us' and assessing etc. we were split up 1 mentor each.
So we went in the battered up company car to a hole of a place about 2 hours from my home town brighton. There were two people in the back talking about the weekend and how they got ...intoxicated shall I say, with this one and that one from the office. Oh and the company director.
I didn't know untill I were out the door in the town with 2 bags strapped to my back that i'd be following him, literally nocking door to door to door to door, trying to sell these cheap cosmetics that noone ever heard of. To give credit to this guy, his tired old cheap sales line (which was the same for everyone) flattery and the like, did work a treat he did sell around 5 of them in 3 hours. After the 3rd hour I was watching my clock, bored out of my brain, wondering what to do; listening to him go on about the business and how much money I could make, how I could open an office bla bla bla... We went into a charity shop, and I have nothing against them, after his selling didn't work he ended up looking through the racks for socks or something...
3.5 hours... We walked into this SOLICITORS office and he tried selling his rubbish to them!! Oh and then it was the CLARINS shop, which I remember vividly, the womans expression when he tried selling the stuff to her... She looked at me ... i looked back as if to say, I know I'm so sorry, then quickly smiled and got my clarins lip balm out!
4 hours... Enough is enough I looked at the town map and realised that one of my best mates lived about 20mins on the train. I made a quick exit.
This company in my opinion is a traveling circus, again I'm only 18 so didn't know any better. I hope that anyone reading this will think again before going to the interview.