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  • Report:  #258409

Complaint Review: LE Concepts - Samantha Shoemaker - Sierra White - Kansas City Missouri

Reported By:
- Overland Park, Kansas,
Submitted:
Updated:

LE Concepts - Samantha Shoemaker - Sierra White
3101 Broadway Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.
Phone:
816-561-1887
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
If you are looking for a job in marketing, sports marketing, pr, customer service, advertising, or just about anything in the kansas city area, you are guranteed to come across TONS of job postings for LE Concepts. I was a recent grad from KU with a degree in marketing and looking for my first job right out of school. I saw their posting online and thought it sounded cool: *Entry Level in New KC Sports Marketing Firm!*

So I sent in my resume. I was still very skeptical because the posting did not. Less than 24 hours later I recieved an e-mail from a woman named Samantha Shoemaker saying I had been selected for a "one-on-one" preliminary interview. I had gotten a few e-mails that sounded EXACTLY like that one before so I decided to do some more research on the company and then respond to it. Later that day, I got a call from another woman named Sierra White telling me I had been selected for an interview with LE Concepts. I talked to her for a while on the phone, and she couldn't really tell me ANYTHING about the position. I asked her what I'd be doing on a day to day basis. She told me it would be covered in a second interview. I asked her what the pay range was. She told me it would be covered in a second interview. I asked her to just give me a job description and she said "we have several positions available ranging from promotional sales, to customer service, to pr, to marketing." She couldn't even tell me what position I was interviewing for. So I finally told her I'd have to think about it and call her back. I figured I'd have the number on caller ID but when I looked at it said it was a blocked number...weird huh? So she gave me the office number. I talked it over with my parents and they said to give it shot. I really had nothing to lose. So I called the number she gave me and asked for Sierra. The woman who answered said she was out of the office but wondered if she could help me. I told her no and left a message. After trying back 2 or 3 times over a couple of days, the woman who answered the phone told me that Sierra actually works out of their Denver office. Why didn't they just tell me that to begin with? Why lie and make me think I'd get a call back? It turns out, the woman who I'd been leaving messages with was Samantha Shoemaker. The same woman who sent me an e-mail. I talked to her and it was really strange. She had the EXACT same answers the other girl had. I finally decided to book an interview.

I came in for my interview and found 2 other people sitting in the lobby. My interview was for 1:30. A woman named Lauren was evidently doing the interviewing. I had never heard that name throughout the entire ordeal until just then. As I sat there, 3 more people showed up, all with interviews at 1:30. Apparently Ms. Shoemaker is retarded and doesn't know how to book appointments? Either way, we all sat there for about 20 minutes while the woman doing to interviewing checked her e-mail and joked around. Sounds professional huh? Apparently the girl she was joking around with was Ms. Shoemaker. I didn't actually walk into her office until 2:00. 30 minutes after my interview time. When I sat down with Lauren she told me they do direct marketing and regular forms of marketing were being phased out, etc etc. She just used a ton of marketing jargon that no one could possibly understand. Either way, she asked me back for a second interview right then and there. I was under pressure so I said yes. I told them I'd come back for an all day "job shadow" that next day.

The next day, I showed up to find 2 of the people in the lobby that had been there interviewing the day before. We all sat there and talked while we listeneed to a room full of nutjobs scream and yell about god knows what, and listened to uncensored rap...how unprofessional could you possibly get?? Finally about 10 guys walked out of a big room into Lauren's office. After about 10 minutes she started calling us 1 by 1 into her office. I was the last one called. I was introduced to a guy (I can't remember his name or I would put it in here) and she said hed be doing my evaluation. I thought we'd be in the office all day. Not the case. He walked me downstairs, and at this point I just figured we were going to a different office inside the building. But no, he actually took me outside. He was saying something and to be honest I was NOT paying attention. I decided to just bite my tongue and go with the flow. So we went out to this guys car with a couple of other guys in cheap suits. We all started driving and we drove out to the Lees Summit area. They had these cards with free royals tickets on them and they were all talking about merching and "slinging coups". We dropped the two other guys off, and then pulled into a strip mall. We got out of the car and walked into a nail salon. They threw him out and we proceeded to go to EVERY business in the strip mall, being thrown out of 3 or 4, never making a sale. It didn't take me long to figure out this was door to door sales. I lasted about an hour before I called my boyfriend to come pick me up.

Here's what makes me SOO MAD. I ASKED both Samantha and Sierra if this was door to door sales. I told them I didn't want to waste my time. I had already interviewed with a company that sold At&t service door to door and it was an awful experience. They both blatantly said NO it was not door to door sales. They LIED. They said there was pr and customer service positions. That was a lie too! There's ONE position open there, and that's a door to door sales position.

PLEASE if you're looking for a job, DO NOT apply with LE Concepts. They will do ANYTHING in their power to get you in the door. Samantha Sierra and Lauren apparently DO NOT have souls. They'll lie and cheat and tell you whatever they can because that company is just awful and is not based around any kind of morals.

If you get an e-mail from Samantha Shoemaker DO NOT respond. She WILL lie to you. She does not have a soul, and is just an awful person.

If you get a phone call from Sierra White HANG UP.

DO NOT let these people fool you into coming in. They are SO good at it. All they do is recruit young college kids to do door to door sales and they LIE to get them to do it!

Anonymous

Overland Park, Kansas

U.S.A.


3 Updates & Rebuttals

Jacob Thomas

Columbia,
Missouri,
U.S.A.
It's not for everyone, but I had a blast, made some money, and learned more about myself than I ever thought possible..

#2UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sun, February 24, 2008

Give me a break people. You went for an interview and it wasn't for you, big deal. I have been on plenty of interviews and knew within minutes that it wasn't for me, but I gave it my honest effort while I was there anyway, if nothing else for the experience. Truth is that I went to work for Lauren at L.E. Concepts back in February 2007 after finishing my MBA at Mizzou the previous December. I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into but honestly I didn't know what I wanted to do with my career either. What I did know was that everyone was mostly my age, came to work clean cut, and most of all seemed genuinly happy to be there. Obviously I was not too keen on working for straight commissions either, but I figured it was time to actually test my grain a little, in the REAL world. I still had an apartment in Columbia and could not afford another place in KC so the guy that recruited me and took me out my first day actually offered me to stay at their place until I got settled. Sleeping on someones couch for a month wasn't exactly the great life after college start I had in mind but these people REALLY CARED about helping me out. So as you already know you start out as a trainee so to speak. You go out with an experienced salesman(woman) and you market whatever products you have been given. How the system works is that you are paid straight out of the pocket of your trainer. It is in their best interests to make you successful! If you totally suck and it is not for you then you would not be asked back anyway! Chances are that you really sucked, had a crappy attitude, and would have never made it out in the real world. Therefore, you would not have been asked back and they were glad your boyfriend came to pick you up so that your negative energy did not take away from the great interactions they had with people that day. After a week or two of going out day to day with various people in the office and getting a good feel for how everyone else does things you start to see how the system works. It really is very simple: have a great attitude, and have fun for the love of God. You are too young to be worried about the corporate ladder and money and all that other crap that will never make you happy. Not that walking in 200 doors a day is always a walk in the park, you will probably get 150 no's right off the bat, even if you don't suck. I had people slam doors in my face, people yelled at me, I almost was stabbed with a #2 pencil, and then I had people that listened to what I had to say, sometimes I would talk to one person and suddenly I was surrounded by people all wanting to see what the deal was about. I had people call their sons and nephews and neighbors and pastors and everyone else to see if they could all go out to see a ball game together. On my way out the door they thanked me for taking the time to walk through their door, ask them as a total stranger if they or anyone they knew liked baseball, and give them an opportunity to get the whole family out together. I met all kinds of people, people that you will never meet in your life because you were scared, scared to reach out of your comfort zone, to try something new, something you never thought you would or could do. I learned more about myself and the people that share this world with me than I could have learned in a lifetime sitting at a desk. I should know, thats what I do now. I worked for Lauren for only a few months, but I will never forget that time. It was the scariest experience of my life because that was as close to the REAL world as I ever got. I did the daily grind, and I did it well. I learned about people, and different ways of doing things, and I learned that sometimes you just have to sneak in the back door.. whats the worst that can happen? I left L.E. Concepts and Kansas City completely and moved back to NY. I lived at home for a while and searched CareerBuilder and finally got an interview with Bear Stearns. I got the job that week, without a single day of industry experience. When I sat down with the company COO in my interview I looked him straight in the eye and told him that I know what it takes and I am prepared to make that committment. I told him this is where I want to be and I am absolutely ready to work my a*s off because I know that is what will put me ahead of the crowd. He saw truthfulness in my confidence and I attribute that to my time at L.E. concepts when I was able to figure myself out. I was only slangin' coups, but it was so much more than that. It is not for everyone, but I would never discourage anyone from the experience. It may not make you rich, although if you are the right kind of person it most certainly can.. However I promise if you put yourself out like that, out of your comfort zone, and figure out a way to make it work you will be better for it for the rest of your life. I promise you that the people who make it at L.E. Concepts or any other shop of that nature are the most socially developed people you will ever meet. It was worth it for me, I learned a lot and now I work for one of the most well respected banks on Wall Street, with L.E. Concepts as the only other line on my resume. It may have worked for you as well, given you a better perspective on life, changed your attitude, but you were scared. It is ok though, because you suck and probably always will. Jacob


Bill

Overland Park,
Kansas,
U.S.A.
"A Little Too Desperate"

#3Consumer Comment

Tue, November 06, 2007

Thanks for the info on LE Concepts. I answered their vague ad late last week. Since that time they've called me twice and sent me two emails for setting up a job interview. I was a little weary about this since they seemed a little too desperate to see me. I have a great resume but not THAT great. I have an interview set up with them for tomorrow morning but I certainly will cancel now. Thanks again for the heads up on this company.


Megan

Overland Park,
Kansas,
U.S.A.
they said it was salary plus commission...NOT TRUE

#4Author of original report

Tue, July 03, 2007

I forgot to add, the door to sales position is COMMISSION ONLY. I asked them if it was commission or hourly or salary, and they said it was salary plus commission...NOT TRUE. Once again, LIARS

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