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  • Report:  #460217

Complaint Review: Sparta Marketing - PrimeTyme

Sparta Marketing - PrimeTyme Bait & Switch Job Posting Pyramid Scam West Palm Beach Florida

  • Reported By:
    Wellington Florida
  • Submitted:
    Wed, June 10, 2009
  • Updated:
    Wed, July 01, 2009
  • Sparta Marketing - PrimeTyme
    1000 Dixie Hwy Suite D
    West Palm Beach, Florida
    U.S.A.
  • Phone:
    561-653-3788
  • Category:

The short of this posting is that Sparta Marketing and Prime Tyme and whatever other BS name they call themselves are a pyramid scam. Do NOT buy into it! Don't even bother replying to their postings (there are a lot of them).

The long story:
I had replied to a job posting on careerbuilder for an entry level marketing position at a company called Prime Tyme Marketing. The lady on the phone seemed very nice and scheduled me for an interview appointment the next day. When I arrived at the building, there was no company called Prime Tyme but a company called Sparta Marketing. The receptionist informed me that "They share an office" which was BS.

While waiting in the sketchy reception area, the five other people in the waiting room who were there before me seemed very agitated. I found out that they had been there for at least 45 minutes just waiting. Also, the receptionist was making constant phone calls to career builder applicants while facebooking (unprofessional but not unusual) and sending them to offices all over south FL.

During my wait, I was searching for info on Sparta on my blackberry and came across Ripoff report #435229 which tipped me off to the scam.

After I had been there about 20 minutes, the first applicant was called in. She was in the interview room for no more than five minutes before leaving in a disappointed manner. The next name to be called was mine which I found odd because: a) there were people who had been waiting longer than me and b) the person calling me in was not the person who I had scheduled the appointment with (I scheduled with Jessica Bischoff, the Receptionist is Diana and the person who "interviewed me" was Patrick).

When I went in for the "interview" we started off with the usual stuff, a bit about you, why are you looking for a job, etc. Patrick proceeded to tell me about the company how "They were the premier direct and sports marketer," spitting out names like the Florida Panthers and DirecTV. I said, "That sounds great." He then pulled out a crappy looking business card for a company called C & C Auto Glass.

He said, "This is our newest acquisition. They came to us and their business was in the toilet and we raised their sales by 110% and we liked the company so much that we bought them," and he chuckled. He told me that the position he had me for was to go out and "direct market" aka "sell" windshields. He said they had a management training program and that once completed it, "I could be in his position and look for people to work under me." PYRAMID SCHEME

I told him that I was here for the Prime Tyme job which, from the website had to do with interactive marketing installations, not selling windshields. He said that was another one of his companies but he wanted me for windshields. I said I wasn't interested in that position and it wasn't what I had responded to. He said, "Everyone starts in the same place. We want you to coach a team. You have to know how to play all the positions if you want to be coach."

I asked, "So at what point in this process would I transition from windshields to the interactive marketing installations I was originally interested in?" He couldn't give me an answer other than that I'd have to work my way up through the process. I asked again, "What part of the process takes me from windshield sales to interactive marketing?" Again, he danced around the question.

This led me to believe that there was NO CONNECTION between Prime Tyme and Sparta Marketing other than that they were using Prime Tyme as bait.

I even asked, "If you do sports marketing and direct marketing for these big companies, how does selling windshields lead to that?" NO GOOD ANSWER.

Ok, so now I knew that this was BS, but I wanted to find out more info as to how they operate. So I inquired about pay.

Salary? "No, commission. But we expect you to sell 3 to 5 windshields a day."

So how do I find my clients? "We want you to go around town and find people with chipped windshields and offer to fix it for them for free. We file it with their insurance and they get a free windshield." (sounds like a scam to me)

So I'm basically cold calling people and walking around looking for busted windshields on my own time and dime? "Yeah, but eventually through our management trainee program you could manage you own team of "marketers" aka windshield salesmen."

At that point, I'd had enough. I expressed my disgust with the fact that they had duped me into coming in for an interview for a position that had nothing to do with what they wanted. If they had posted "Windshield Salesman Needed For Pyramid Scheme" that would have been an accurate, honest description. Instead, they bait unknowing job seekers, many of us who've been out of work for a while due to this poor economy, into coming in and pitching us a scam.

So if you see a Sparta, Prime Tyme or any other ad that had you come in for an interview immediately for a marketing job. BE WARNED. It's a scam.

CaveatEmptor
Wellington, Florida
U.S.A.

4 Updates & Rebuttals


Iworkhard

Orlando,
Florida,
U.S.A.

Go Figure...

#5Consumer Comment

Wed, July 01, 2009

From my search on other BS companies as well as my search on my "job opportunity", the rebuttal from ex-employees or current employees typically sound the exact same, if not "copy-paste" comments.

Anyway, a couple other names for these "job opportunities" would include:

New York Business Solutions (NYBS)
Prestige Solutions
Ample Opportunity
American Events


Don't be a sucker...


John Owens

Wellington,
Florida,
U.S.A.

Former Employee

#5UPDATE EX-employee responds

Fri, June 19, 2009

In response to the whole scam comment, I am a former employee of the company and I can vouch for it. The company is indeed real and although it was not what I was looking for at the time, it is indeed legit. I have seen two people get promoted to a management position over the course of the time I worked there. The job is definitely not for everyone but it is a great opportunity to learn entry level management skills and help your overall social skills as well. I skill keep in contact with the owners of the company and they work very hard at what they do. If your looking to get your foot into the industry and get great experience in sales/marketing then I would definitely recommend this company. The people who usually write these reports are people who probably don't even make it past the first round interview.


Iworkhard

Orlando,
Florida,
U.S.A.

New Info

#5Consumer Comment

Mon, June 15, 2009

These are usually the keywords found in the job postings/emails

-PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCE
-GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE
-GOOD MORALS AND WORK ETHIC
-MUST LOVE PEOPLE
-STUDENT MENTALITY
-GOOD ATTITUDE
-TRUSTWORTHY
-SOME EXPERIENCE BUT NOT NECESSARY

**reliable transportation is a must**

Also, the company is called American Events, but the website given is southeasteventgroup.com - it is all the same as the aforementioned.


Iworkhard

Orlando,
Florida,
U.S.A.

A New Name in 7 days.

#5Consumer Comment

Mon, June 15, 2009

So, you ever get the feeling that something is too good to be true?
Yeah...had that feeling and took great notes on the 2nd interview, which pretty much seemed too easy - in fact, all of the processes seemed too east.

Let me start over - I actually responded to the company called "Prospect Advertising". While waiting for the 1st interview, i noticed too that people were coming and going so soon. Also noticed behind a cracked door a sign for a product called FW1...didnt' know what it was but had seen that emblem before online but wasn't too sure about it. My guess was that the 'marketing company' had that product as another client.While in the "office", which was much like your experience, I sat in the 2-min interview and was set up for a 2nd interview.


Much like the first interview, it seemed all to easy: prior to the actual interview, went to 2 or 3 doors in a particular neighborhood to speak on windshield replacements, which seemed like a good deal in my eyes:
"Why not get something done that you can qualify for? We pay all this insurance money anyway - we should get something out of it" were my thoughts so telling people about this seemed like a win-win...still seemed all too easy to do.

Got back to the office for the actual interview after seeing what the account manager actually did and had another 2 min interview, which focused more on making money (which everybody wants) as well as the management training program.

At the end of the final interview, of course I was selected but still felt uneasy - "Prospect Advertising" couldn't be found anywhere online, the receptionist (who looked like she was facebooking too - lol) answered the phone in the office using another company name, seemed way too easy to enter the company, and the 'account managers' spoke too much of their money made and their vacation splurges all from working this job...

If you Google the following terms, you're sure to get some answers:

FW1 pyramid
windshield replacement scam
no fault windshield replacement

Also, on this site, Olympus Marketing and fw1 wax pull up a report much similar to the scenario explained to me in the interviews for the actual work and job.

Fortunately, I took a moment to look on google and ripoff report before giving them any more personal information.

In a nutshell, Prospect Advertising and...American Marketing (?) are the exact same thing.

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