Anubhuti
Pune,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, February 09, 2009
I came across this site and have already been through most of the comments regarding Cobra Group. I have also been a part of this company. I am from India and Cobra has its Franchisees here as well. After completing my engineering and not getting a date of joining from the company i was placed in through campus i was disheartened and low on confidence. Also there were no opportunities for freshers in market and this is when i stumbled across the company called VELOCITY which is a franchisee of Cobra group in India. Responding to a mail i called them to schedule an interview. No questions asked i was called for an interview the next day. Dressed in my best formals i went there, only to find a shabby office above a cheap hotel, still excited, i was made to sit in a room (whose air conditioning was not working) and was given a dumb questionnaire to fill. It had five pages and they were probably trying to guess that whether we can speak english or not. Anyways having filled the questionnaire, the female working as an HR took our first round of interview (only later i came to know that female was actually a receptionist). The interview felt weird because three people were being interviewed at the same time. nothing was mentioned about the job profile we were only told it was a marketing firm and after a training of 6-8 months(depending on our capabilities) we would be promoted to become BDM and would then draw a PAY of 200000 Indian rupees per month. We were then told that we would be informed whether or not we were selected for the second round or not.2 days from then i got a call saying that i was shortlisted and i had to come for an interview the next day. Me being out of town could not make it for a week and they were more than happy to reschedule my interview for next week. i went back for the interview in the same shabby office and was interviewed by the owner who explained me about profile which was still not clear in my mind. I was then sent out for observation with a leader. she seemed to be really nice and friendly and paid for my coffee and sandwich as well. She took me to one of the most shabbiest buildings around and ended up conning the person she pitched. The job seemed different and profitable. we spent time talking to 2 more people and ended up having a cold drink and biscuits in one of the house. She dropped me back by 4 in the afternoon in office i was given another dumb questionnaire to answer where i had write abt my days experience and other s**t. Then the owner interviewed me again and he seemed like a very nice chap, a typical person to have crush on. i was told to go home and i would be informed through phone about my selection. just as i reached home i got a call from them saying that i was selected and had to start from the very next day. All excited i reached office at sharp 10:30 the next day and i heard some extremly loud party music being played. When asked i was told that the atmosphere in offc was very casual and the trainees, trainers and team leaders were getting charged up for the day. i was sent home at 12 in the afternoon after completing all the paper work. next day my first day at field i was sent with a female who seemed very friendly and nice and i got my first cheque. excitement levels were increaing. Till now commision based pay had not been mentioned i was only told that my sal would be decided after 6 days of my work evaluation. The female who seemed ultra nice when she first took me out suddenly became ultra mean when i started high rolling within a week's time without her help. Not talking to me and i realized that she deliberately ignored me and discouraged me infront of everybody. But, i still high rolled for three consecutive days and was promoted that was when i got the salary close, where the commission structure was mentioned, but having been brainwashed by then i was ready to work towards making my own business. that was when a new guy joined, from him i came to know he he was bored with his job and that is y he came here looking for a new job. And very cunningly he was told about the salary structure only after he resigned from his previous job. and that is when our relationship started. But kept it away from my owner's notice withing two weeks of my joining we went for an all india rally, where we got to meet the first indian VP (or as they claimed) At rally everything became clear and somehow me and my boyfriend we realized that this was not the place for us to be. Still back from rally we came back to work my BF called in sick and i after completing my target for the day, retraining a guy and recruiting an observation i went to meet my BF for 10 minutes before coming back to office. my boss came to know of it and ripped me infront of all sitting there at the moment. He used comments like "I would have arranged a meeting for u two if you both were so dying to see each other". "It doesn't matter what you two do after office hours but you can't meet him during office time" That was when i had enough of all the c**p and i decided to quit. so saturday i took two observations recruited both of them, sunday took one of my recruited guys for retraining and told him about the fact of COBRA and adviced him to leave and he ran away for good. I came back in the evening to hand over my badge and was literally emotionally blackmailed into staying back and was told things like i am leaving a life of luxury for a job where i'll keep working for some one else. But thankfully i left the company in 3 weeks because had i stayed there any longer i wouldn't have been capable of doing anything else besides door to door conning as i call it. me and my BF who quit 2 days after me were promised our bond money within three months its been 4 months now and we are still waiting but we won't let go of the money hard earned by both of us