Complaint Review: Impala Ltd. - Dublin Nationwide

These companies 'trade' under various different names. The one I was involved with was called 'Impala Direct Ltd.'. I now understand from my internet research that this 'company' is also linked to 'D7 Marketing Solutions' (they might even be the same company) and now more recently 'Mahon Enterprises'.

They place job advertisements everyday on jobs.ie. This is how today's advert has been worded: "Cosmetics Representatives - No Experience Necessary". They also use titles such as "sales advisor" to attract those seeking employment in retail. The use of 'sales advisor' is very misleading as this is an alternative to 'shop assistant', this is actually a lie, the job at hand is door to door sales and there is no mention of this in the job advertisement.

The jobs are solely commission based which means if you sell nothing, you make nothing. And you
might have difficulty selling the products due to the fact that they have earned themselves a bad reputation over the past number of years. My research has uncovered that despite claims that these products are a new venture for the company that in fact they have been on the go since 2005.

There's always the promise that the product will end up in Debenhams or Brown Thomas, however this has failed to materialize since the products apparent 'launch' somewhere between the years 2005-2012.

So with tough working conditions for the people who are actually 'not employed' by the company, they are just agents or something along those lines (this is actually stressed to you upon your hiring). The sales people are fed a pack of lies in order to sell the products i.e. Victoria Jackson make-up sponsored the Rose of Tralee last year. A list of sponsors on the Rose of Tralee's website sadly failed to reveal Victoria Jackson as one of the very generous sponsors of one of
Ireland's renowned cultural events. The other ones which I couldn't find out but would be very interested to know were it has been featured on Xpos and Off the Rails as well as outselling both MAC AND Clinique in sales last year. None of this I suspect is true.

Other claims include 'tell them Victoria Jackson is some big make-up artist' and she has done the make-up for the cast of Desperate Housewives and Sarah Jessica Parker. They teach you to openly lie in the training referencing the 'Jones Effect', encouraging you to tell the unsuspecting citizen that the people over there bought loads (said in very enthusiastic voice). Skills for manipulation because the product simply does not sell itself. 

The other classic ones which I witnessed during my time there were, I only have a few left and The offer is only on now!. The offer is something like 120 worth of make-up for 30 and they employ some spiel that begins with I have a surprise for you today. They go on to demonstrate gimmicky products that are free and this one if free too. The customer thinks fantastic all this free stuff, well in that case thank you very much. And the sales person has to calmly interject that in order to get the free stuff hand us over 30 in cash and its all yours for free of course.

Quite frankly once I realised I was lying through my teeth in order to sell these ridiculous gimmicks; I left. I am shocked and appalled that customers are allowed to be taken in like this and to hand over their hard-earned cash (some on the dole as they targeted under-privileged areas opposed to the more wealthier counter-parts of Dublin). Not only that but my own time was wasted. Had I known what I knew now, I would never have applied to such a job.

When I received a phone call from them I honestly asked the girl on the phone what clients would I be working with and she replied pertly that the company is involved with MANY clients so she couldnt possibly be sure. Well I can tell you now that as far as my eye could see, which was pretty far compared to the brainwashed tax-evading sales advisors that I encountered along my way, they only have two clients: Airtricity and Victoria Jackson.

So from the job advertisement, to the phone call to the interview, to the second interview to my two days of work there and the training: I was deceived. I only feel sorry for the poor consumers who were also deceived from my naivet in working for such a place and the other sellers who enthusiastically continue to pursue such an "career".

Laws broken:
Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980- Goods must be as described (including Salesperson)
Consumer Protection Act 2007-  A seller cannot tell lies about a product or service among others most likely