I do not work for or have i ever worked for Katin, Inc. I posted this because I am pissed at the fact that they wasted my time, that when I was looking for a job that was extremely valuable to me. I found this after it was mention During an Interview, that these companies are connected. I figure I will Save some people some time, unlike the wasted time I spent with this scam of an operation.
Repost of McKennedy Marketing Information Hence the same Company.
I have not worked and will not work for McKennedy Marketing, I did, however, work for the Brenar Group for a while. They are both part of the pure Pyramid Marketing scam that is CYDCOR, and I don't recommend it to anyone who doesn't feel like working their a$% off for 10 hour/day (a minimum day that only increases as you get promoted-with no relevant pay increase-the pay increase that you do get is null, because you begin sharing the profit with your 'trainees'), 6 days a week 2 years (not the one that they promise). Wrinardo, the owner is a great guy, but they are all deceitful. On his website, it says that he made it to 'management' after 1 year, I worked with him at the Brenar group, and know for a fact it took him over 2 years. Basically, behind a curtain of overglorified lies and deceit, aka impulses, is the worse job in America. You won't even make minimum wage if you do well...I don't feel like rewriting what others have written in the past, so I'll just cut and copy what a few people have said already...
'If you have come to this site its because you probably got a phone call from TBG wanting an interview. I am not going to re-write what everyone else has written from this company cause I already know its all true. I would have the same story. For some reason yet have I found out yet, TBG changed there name from The Brenar Group. Seems sort of odd that they have now moved 4 times in the last 1/2. With this move they have changed the name and phone number. I will let you know when I find out why this is. For now re-type The Brenar Group or Cydcor if you wish to find out the true story on this company.'
Natalie
Saint Louis, Missouri
U.S.A.
'i am the wife of someone who works for marketing sessions, which is a branch of cydcor....my marriage is about to wind up in a divorce because this company has promised my husband the world and it has not come true...they promise him checks that come maybe once a month, that might compile to $200.
the way he talks about it, it sounds like a cult...they gear each other up for their days of observation and go out and sell for twelve hours a day and at the end of two weeks you are not presented with a check because they either lost your sheet.. the accounting office is closed or they tell you on monday...
i know my husband does work hard at this job and believes he is going to make it and he is willing to sacrafice his family for it...
i think this company does not have the money they say and are using these people who believe in the quick fix...
we have a child and she suffers because this company can make you believe anything... especially if you do not have a college degree, they make you believe anyone without the right back round can run a business and scam people...
he has signed people up for office supplies and phones and people may buy but there are days he does not sign anyone up... it puts unnecessary miles on your car and they promise it is all worth it... and it only takes 6-8 months, but during that time if you do not have an extra job do not expect to get paid... there were months my husband did not get a check and the company keeps telling him it is coming and it never does.
now they have put him on a campaign that supposedly pays every two weeks and lost one of his pay slips so he did not get his whole check...
they suck you in to believe it is just going to take a little while and it winds up being longer than that...
please someone write me back i really do not want to lose my husband but i cannot take a financial burden of paying for my child all by myself and hoping for what ifs that never happen...'
alicia
Willingboro, New Jersey
'The Brenar Group is another branch of Cydcor. This is what you can expect from the Brenar Group:
You have probably already read one of those ads published on Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com or Yahoo! (you cant avoid them!). They make the jobs looks very attractive, especially for new grads. What they dont tell you is that this is actually a door-to-door sales position. When you get a first interview, you can be sure that they will want you back the next day for a second interview. They are so desperate they will hire anybody because they have such a high turnover of staff.
Your first interview will go very well. Indeed they make sure that you have a lot in common with them to make you want to come back. On your second interview, you will be assigned to a salesperson (who will become your Leader if you accept the job) that you will shadow all day. You are going to knock on 70+ doors a day and try to sell AT&T products. No fun. So to make you want the job, you will go to lunch with the salesperson and he/she will tell you how this job is the best opportunity of your life: how you will become a manager in less than a year and make a 6 figures salary! The presentation will be professional: it is a presentation that they have to learn to 'impulse' you and make you want the job.
In the same presentation, the salesperson will tell you that to become a manager, you have to train 5 people, and make a team of 10 people. So you can be sure that they will be nice with you because they need you to progress in the company! Inevitably there are a lot of fake people who you cant trust because they will tell you anything to make you stay.
If you accept the job, they will make you sign papers. Of course, they wont really go into details because one of those papers implies that you have to pay 34% of everything that you make in taxes!
A standard days work will look like the following: they will make you come at 9:30am and you will go to a session that is called 'Atmosphere'. There everybody gives 'high 5s' to everybody, they all look happy and excited. You will go through your goals of the day, play some stupid games, training stations (where they teach you some selling techniques) and announcements. They try to make everybody think they will have a great day and that every 'no' that they will hear that day makes you closer to becoming a manager. And they also talk about company 'success' to make you believe that you will make it too.
At the end of the day, they analyze your sales. You will come back to the office at around 7:30pm. A 10 hour working day when you start. But when you are a leader, you can add another 2 hours to that. If you are lucky, you might make $100 that day (the daily average is around $75). Deduct taxes, lunch and gas (which you have to pay for yourself), and you are left with less than $50, which is roughly $5.00 an hour. When you are a leader it can get worse because you have to share your profits with the people you are training, even sometimes pay for their lunch. And you have to work on Saturdays too (a six day week).
One of their rules is that new salespersons cannot hang-out with each other. Indeed, your leader will walk you out to make sure you dont talk with new recruits that might be skeptics and that you are still excited about the position. If you want to quit, your leader will do everything to persuade you to stay. The next day, your leader will tell the manager and other leaders everything you said and did the previous day.
When you become a leader, you have to become a liar like the others. You have to lie to new recruits and use psychological tactics to make them stay. Thats when you learn that you have been lied to as well. You dont make as much money as what they said you would make. You were yourself a victim of those psychological tactics. But still you want to believe that you can make it to a management position and that the other leaders are here to persuade you to stay too.
They also organize social events on Thursday and Friday nights. This is because they dont want you to interact with people in your entourage that can be skeptical about this huge 'opportunity'. Basically, you dont have ANY free time, except on Sundays, but after a week like this, all you want to do is to relax and sleep! The worst is that the leaders with children work so many hours, they think they will make big bucks in twelve months time and dont see their children growing up. At work they will hear things like 'You do it for your family', 'you will make your family proud', 'at 30 you will retire and you will have so much money!' It is outrageous that they use your own family to make you stay! So you can say goodbye to your friends and family when you take this job. Your family will be all the fake people in the company and the new recruits who are comparable to rabbits just before they become road-kill.
When you quit, you will have to chase after them for what they owe you since they always pay in arrears and when you leave you wont get all they owe you. You will have to wait two weeks or more before you can get your final checks, depending on the managers mood. You will have to go there in person and there they will make you feel like you are nothing because you quit and tell you not to talk to anybody from the company. This kind of organization wants to control anything that has to do with their employees like a cult.
The facts are that the manager herself is not making 6 figures. She is barely making 50k, if not less, and is working more than 12 hours a day. Also, the sales staff are very competitive because they want to be the first to become manager. As a result some leaders wont hesitate to discourage new recruits from other leaders. What a great environment! They use psychological tactics to make you stay and you don't even make minimum wage. You can add to this the deceptive selling techniques that they use and this company and other affiliates of Cydcor must be amongst the worst companies to work for if not the worst.
If you want more information about the affiliate of Cydcor/DSMax, look for a msn group called 'DSMax the aftermath' online.'
Rebignoz
St Louis, Missouri
U.S.A.
'I was in DSMax for years. I should have quit a while ago. I kept on thinking that I would get promoted. It never happened. DSMax seems nice but it just uses people.
You get brainwashed into believing that if you work hard and believe in your self and the marketing system that you will be financially independant. You pay for your own transportation, food, lodging on roadtrips and taxes. You pay new reps out of your own pocket when you train them. There are many days when you make no money.
They had me sell travel packages that turned out to be illegitimate. I was used as a vehicle to rip people off. It makes me sick. I started to hear complaints from customers about validity of trips. I would ask the managers if they were legitimate. I was assured that they were and then they were not. My immediate managers were all good people. I think that they must have been assured that the packages would be honored. This happened with 3 different campaigns.
Managers make money at the expense of leaders. Leaders train and pay new people out of their pocket. The amount of times I would spend a day with someone - work on their pitch, get to know them, quiz them - pay them some or ALL of the daily earnings - to not have them show up again. Leaders do this because they believe that if they follow the management plan, they will become a manager and attain financial independance. Very few make it. Very many suffer considerable financial loss for trying.
The company does not pay payroll taxes. They 1099 everyone. They cover next to nothing. Thus they can hire numerous sales reps to sell products and compete against a companies own sales force. A company can out source a sales force based on perfermance via dsmax.
The downside? The sales reps make s**t for money, have no benefits and few have loyalty to the company they represent. Why should they? They are in it for the fast buck so a percentage of them mis-represent the client and rip it and/or its customers off.
Also, the company can turn around and lay its people off. You don't need nafta to hire cheap labor in Mexico - or a good fiberoptic system to hook up to cheap labor in India. Contract DSMax. Who suffers? The company's sales reps, the distributers and the ripped off customers.
Most of the senior reps have integrity to the clients they represent. I sure did. The problem is that their is NO screening of applicants at all. The managers preach looking out for the client up and down and when they do find bad reps they fire them. (Especially if the rep is making the manager money. Some manager do hold on to such people.) But very often before this is done the rep has caused considerable damage.
In a way I'm relieved I'm not promoted now. I would not have taken time to look at the consequences of DSMAX. I would be an owner that would promote a business that in the long run, is financially devastating for the vast majority of people who want to try it out - especially leaders.
I would urge my sales crew to promote products that might rip people off. I would preach opportunity to people that I knew that few if any might attain.
That is my 2 cents. Do with it what you will.
please join our community if you have been victimized..all is anonymous..we realize that ds-max is like the mob and very powerful...'
xjuice
Los Angeles, California
'All i gotta say is before you work for any of these companies under Cydcor, Granton, or DSMaxx....DO YOUR RESEARCH!!
Some of these companies include Amy Connelly @ MAC MARKETING INTL,Sarabeth King @ MIAMI MARKETING WORKS, Alex Ferero @ LEXERO INC., INNOVATIVE, DYNAMIC, JOHNSTON, etc.
Im not gonna completely trash these companies. However, I am warning you that you will be working long hours, with very little pay. The 9-5 that they say in the interview IS NOT TRUE. Its more like 7-6 and longer when you finally become a trainer...more like 7-8.
They dont reimburse you for gas even though you are going to be running around the city or STATE all day in YOUR OWN CAR. As a trainer, you will have to take out interviews and the company encourages you to buy them lunch knowing that you are broke.
The promise they give is that you will move into a management position in a few months, which can happen, IF YOU LIE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS, TO YOUR INTERVIEWEES, and TO THE PEOPLE YOU ARE TRAINING.....all of which i chose not to do.
Alot of these so called successful managers live in cramped apts with their employees because they themselves can barely afford to pay their bills....and all this crap is in the name of OPPORTUNITY. While this opportunity does exist, it is not worth all the s**t you will have to put up with while trying to attain it.
Unless you enjoy all of the aforementioned, RUN FAST. HERE ARE 15 TELL TALE SIGNS that the company you are about to interview/interviewing for is a division of Granton, Cydcor, or DSMaxx, Quantum....
1. you were found online at careerbuilder, monster, hotjobs, craigs list...some ICLs (name for divisions of the aforementioned companies) advertise in the newspaper as well.
2. you ask a question when contacted by the administrator and are given a vague description of what you would be doing which includes 'marketing for Fortune 100 companies'.
3. you ask detail about the position and they tell you the hiring manager would like to explain more in the interview.
4. you get to the 1st interview and there are 2 or 3 people in the lobby with you as long as an administrator who is there strictly to monitor and control your conversation.
5. you finally meet the 'c.e.o' and the interview is very brief (5-7 minutes) with little room for you to talk.
6. you are told by the 'c.e.o' that he/she will contact you later after all the interviews.
7. SURPRISE!! unless you are a complete moron, you are called back for a second interview. When you arrive for it, there are a million other people there as well due to such selective screening.
8. They tell you that you will be spending the day with an account manager....THIS IS WHERE YOU SHOULD RUN.
9. You are being walked out to their car.....FAKE AN ILLNESS OR SOMETHING. RUN!!
10. You are in their car riding out to an appointment....GO TO THE BATHROOM AND FAKE AN EMERGENCY PHONE CALL...YOUR MOMS IN THE HOSPITAL OR SOMETHING.
11. You are walking into some appointments in the morning maybe, and then going into random businesses who are not expecting you, or getting pissed at you, posisbly cursing or throwing you out.
12. If you make it to lunch, you did not pick on anything I have said. BOMBARD YOUR INTERVIEWER WITH QUESTIONS....and watch them squirm and dodge and possibly get pissed off.
13. The rest of the days goes like the morning.
14. You go back and will 'possibly' get a 3rd interview...after you fill out a QUESTIONNAIRE.
15. You meet with the 'c.e.o' and unless you were a total TOOL you are either hired with promises to make 400-600/wk or 600-900/wk depending on your city, and management within 6 months to a year...or you are told you will be called later with a decision. This is just a FEAR OF LOSS tactic b/c they will hire just about any sharp looking idiot.
IF YOU ARE CALLED/HIRED.....DECLINE! They might try to talk you into it anyway or ask what your concerns are.JUST TELL THEM YOU SAW MY REPORT ON RIPOFF.com. They wont have too much to say to you afterwards...unless they are desperate which alot of these ICLs seem to be. If you chose to take the job after everything I have written here....JUST BE PREPARED FOR A BIG FAT 'I TOLD YOU SO'. Trust this experienced leader. Good luck with journey into 'management' and I sincerely hope you are able to reap the benefits of this 'GREAT OPPORTUNITY'
P.S. Like I said, I wont trash everyone. There are a few honest people working under Cydcor, but they are few and far between. DONT TAKE THE CHANCE. I made some good friends from this experience but thats all about all i gained. But d**n!, I could have made friends at a nightclub.
DO NOT WORK FOR RAFAEL DIAZ, SARABETH KING...wolf in sheeps clothing, SHENARA ANTHONY, JULIE EDMONDS, JEANINE TEDESCO, homegirl in RHODE ISLAND, forgot her name..shes a b***h, JOHNSON in Pittsburgh, that blonde h*o in BALTIMORE(pretty sure she took a few rounds on the casting couch), HEATHER HERMAN, CONSULTANT JOHN 'i like em young' WIGGINS, ALEX FERERO, AMY CONNELLY...she really lies alot, I COULD GO ON AND ON. And once i remember more names I will, but I am getting too pissed right now just writing this.'
Dont Walk...RUN!!
Everywhere, Florida
U.S.A
Whatwhat?
Media, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
Sakisteve
Brookfield, Wisconsin
U.S.A.