Complaint Review: The Ivins Group Champion Entertainment

So manyyy bad things to say about this place...I worked there for almost six months and there are endless things.
First off, when you go in for your first interview they don't tell you ANYTHING about what goes on in the job. If 95% of the people knew that on the second round interview they would be walking door to door cold calling people they wouldn't go, which is what you do all day! Also, for you to NOT get a second round interview you would have be legally retarded or just not show up. They take anyone for the second round interview as long as you show you want to be there.

2. You get paid ALL by commission and reimbursed for NOTHING. So if for some reason you decide you wanna work there expect to fill up your gas tank every 2 or 3 days and spend about $150 a week in gas at least cause all you do is drive. Yes, like they tell you, you CAN write off your miles you drive but that doesn't help in the short run when you are constantly barely making money to get by. Also, you work at least 12 hour days, and are you going door-door for 8 hours. That means that you have to work at least an additional 4 hours a day that there is no way for you to get paid.

A normal day is 7-7 mon-fri and around 9-5 on sat. They will try to tell you that on Saturday whenever you get done selling you can go home. This is half true. Sometimes they will let you and sometimes they make you help other people while not making money for it..So all in all you are working around 70 hours a week with no salary. Also there is in no way benefits of any kind. What kind of business doesn't have benefits for their employees?

3.The person who wrote how her daughter went to Duquesne and she lives in Hawaii is totally untrue. 1.there is NO parent that liked their son/daughter working here. 2.At the time it was written I worked there and there was no girl who even graduated/or was currently enrolled from Duquense. 3. I could bet that someone from the office wrote that so it would make them look good.

4. If for some reason you DO end up working there here is what is going to happen. You go throught training for 3 days..get paid $50-60 a day. Then you are on your own. How much money you make totally depends on what they give you to sell and where. People they aren't too fond of they would put in places like East Liberty where the people are poor and are not going to pay the item. YES most of the deals look like good deals but that doesn't always mean you can SELL them and make a lot of money of it.

5.They say you can go through the training program in 8-10 months and become an owner. BARELY ANYONE gets through it that fast. The latest person, Stan it took him well over a year. The worth part about it is that when you become owner it doesnt guarentee that you are going to make money! They had an owner go out to Columbus OH in November 2007 and was out of business by the end of May 2008. They try to say that you are going to make tons of money when you become an owner and it is notttt the truth at all.

6. When it comes to the owner he also is a total liar. At the beginning he seems like a good guy and would do anything for you but that isn't going to happen. After the first week or two NEVER expect to ask off. He will ignore you and be mad at you if you even think about taking off. Example - There was a guy working there that was in the business for over a year. He had a special dinner with his gf and family on a SATURDAY. He asked to leave an hour early - aka 4 pm on a saturday - to go to dinner and the owner would not let him. You are working 70 hours a week and you aren't allowed to take off an hour early on a saturday? real nice guy!

7. Now the Ivins Group is part of Smart Circle. Smart Circle is the bigger company and that is who the promotions come from. Champion Entertainment is pretty much the same company but even worse. The owner is a bum and dumb as hell. I've heard stories about how people try to leave during their second interview and they don't even let them leave. NEVER try to get an interview with these people.

8. Like I said the owner of The Ivins Group seems to be a nice guy at first, and he is, but the longer you go on the worse it gets. If for some reason you bring up any of the things I say in this and he tries to disagree with what I said he is TOTALLY wrong. A good question to ask him is what is the TURN OVER RATE in the company? They have more people come and go than you can imagine. The most people that were in the office when I was there was around 27. And the only people that are there that have been there more than 6 months is 2 or maybe 3. How many places can you go to that only has 3 people that have been there that long? And don't get any BS about how people have become owners within 8 months and have left. The Ivins Group has been there since May 2007 and has produced 2 owners.

9. There are so bad promotions you will get on. I was once on a minor league hockey team promotion and part way thru the season the team went under. I went out for two days selling the promotions and in the middle of the day found out the team went under. I had sold 5 or 6 that day and totally screwed the people out of their money. The only way they get their money back is if they call to get it back. Which might not even happen.
I had my dad get my mom one of the promotions for a spa. She tried to use it recently and the spa said that The Ivins Group was not allowed to be selling the promotion when they did and they would not take the spa promotion. My mom called Smart circle trying to get her money back and they won't give it back to her. They will only give her store credit My mom has constantly called and emailed them and they have just ignored her now. Smart circle is such a great company!

10 In number 11 I'm going to go over a normal day at the office and how much money you plan on making in a given week. Now the second step in the program is you becoming an Account manager. When you become an account manager you have to stay later and train more people. Now one thing you don't know is that you have to pay your trainees as well. Now the trainee is supposed to make $55-$60 a day. They are in training for 3 days. The first day the owner will pay for roughly, $30. The second day roughly $20. And the third day roughly $10 to help you out. So on top of you barely making any money you have no pay the people you hire. So out of three days you have to pay $30, $40 and $50 out of your pocket.
1. A normal day at TIG You get there at 730 or 7 if you are an Account manager. From 7-745 you prepare who is riding/driving with you and who is going out on what promotion.
745-830- practice pitching with other people.
830-9 you meetings with the account managers
9-930 The owner talks to you
930-10 driving and eating breakfast
10-6 you are out in the field selling but a lot of the time it takes a while to get where you are going and come back to the office which you have to be back by 6.
6-8 you stay at the office as an account manager settle up from the day and go over who did well that day.

So from 7-10 and roughly 535-8 you aren't getting paid and have no way of getting paid.
Why would you work roughly 5 and a half hours a day not getting paid.

The goal of the owner is to have his employees sell 10 promotions a day. And most promotions you made $10 a promotion. Doesn't sound too bad right?
Lets say you make $100 a day. That's $500 a week.
If you have a check or credit card you have to subtract a dollar from the promotion as a fee. So right there out of selling 50 promotions you are going to get at least 30 fees. So you can subtract $30 right there from your pay.
Then you can subtract at least $125 a week in gas.
Then subtract money out on the road to eat which is going to be at least $25 for a week.
Then you have to pay your trainee Lets say you only pay one trainee for three days. That is $50,$40,$30 which equals $120 in a week.
On top of all of this you have to pay taxes at the end of the year on everything you sell b/c you don't have to pay them right on the spot.

So if you bring in $500 a week. Subtract 125 for gas, 25 for food,120 for trainees, and 30 for feesThat leaves you with $200 profit!!! And this is not even counting the taxes you have to pay. Also looking at what you will be looking at per hour it looks like this
$200 profit by 70 hours. That is $2.85 per hour. Yes you do work on Saturday. But you make NOTHING on Saturdays. Any profit you make you have to split with the person you go out with. So you might make $45 on a Saturday.
12. DOES this look like a job you would want?

Terrible job
bloomfield, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.