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  • Report:  #354268

Complaint Review: OC Marketing - Cydcor - O.C Marketing - DS Max - Direct Outsource Group - Orange California

Reported By:
- Irvine, California,
Submitted:
Updated:

OC Marketing - Cydcor - O.C Marketing - DS Max - Direct Outsource Group
marketoc.com Orange, California, U.S.A.
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
I worked for a company called O.C marketing for about 4 months after I graduated from college. I am writing this not because I have any malice towards Jason (owner of OC Marketing) but because I would like to do what I can to keep other young people from making the same mistake that I did. I found OC Marketing immediately after I had finished with college. I was searching on (((Redacted))) as well as(((Redacted))) and I found what I though was a wonderful opportunity for a management training program. I was surprised by how quickly they responded to my inquiry and my resume, to be quite frank it felt good to be wanted. They asked if I would like to set up a time for an interview and I agreed. I will not bore you with the interview process because this has been touched on by previous reviewers of Cydcor, DS Max and all of the other big pyramid schemes. Let's just say that it was exactly as they described it, quick and impersonal. Don't get me wrong, Jason is an incredibly charismatic character, a true BSer if there ever was one. I immediately liked him; his easy banter and his **** eating grin was pretty darn irresistible. In hindsight I basically joined OC marketing because Jason seemed like such a nice guy.

Here's the how it really breaks down: OC marketing is a branch of Cydcor (a textbook MLM scheme). The campaign that was working on was Quill. The most interesting thing about Quill is that it is actually owned by Staples, however if one is to mention that to a customer it is grounds for termination. Apparently it is part of Cydcor's contract with staples that its employees act as if Quill is a separate entity, which makes perfect sense from a business perspective because it increases staples market share. Every time an OC marketing employee makes a sale, we were forced to call the Quill corporate office on our own cell phones (you should have seen the bill) to place the order. More often than not the corporate office would attempt to disprove that the sale was legitimate. An OC marketing employee only gets paid if the customer has not made a purchase with Quill within the last 6 months. If I recall correctly, an OC marketing employee gets 12% of a successful order but the order caps out at $2000.00. Do the math; lets say you manage to make the sale of the year and you convince some poor sap that he needs a biometric hand scanner, 100 reams of paper (do you know how much paper that is) and a new printer, you get paid a total of $240.00 before taxes. Keep in mind that on most cases your considered a helluva salesman if you clear $60.00 a day with consistency. You make no base salary and you are expected to pay for your own gas and cell phone bills. The whole idea of building a relationship with customers is complete hogwash because you only get the opportunity to make any commission off of the deal once every six months. In most cases when you are given a territory that has already been burned by about 3 people in the last 6 months. This brings me to my next point, turnover rate. In the couple months that I worked for OC marketing I saw a content influx of new faces. Most of them got wise and saw that this so called marketing firm was a complete sham. It was my job as a leader to keep the energy in the room as high as possible and to sell the newcomers on the business. The goal of the business is to keep as many feet on the street as possible and to keep newcomers from getting realizing that the business is actually going nowhere. It was pretty amazing when people quit because nobody seemed to notice, it was taboo to even mention their name. If their name was mentioned it was in private and usually in a whisper. These were people that we had worked with OC marketing months before I even started and one day they just disappeared. One day I decided that it was my time to disappear, I doubt many people noticed with all the new faces coming in. The way the business model works is that for every sale an employee of OC Marketing makes, Jason, Cydcor and Quill all get a cut.

It is my understanding that Jason got a bigger cut of his employee's sales than the actual employee who's walking the streets of some ghetto neighborhood, cold calling every car dealership, business center preschool and church in the area. Everyday the entire team gathers goes over sales drills and tries to build energy for the day. After we are sent out into the field the office is empty and Jason starts another day of quasi-interviews. It's not unusual for him to interview up to 35 people a day. The only way that he will not call you back is if you're too over qualified and he doesn't have a shot of hiring you anyway. The only way for Jason to keep people in his office is to keep a constant flow of new employees. His turnover rate is so ridiculous that most people don't last more than a couple of weeks before they figure out what's going on. If you insist on going for an interview with OC marketing be sure to ask if this is a multi-level marketing business. He will answer no but it should be fun to watch him squirm when you bring up the information that I have mentioned above.

If you have any more OC marketing questions you can reach me at (((Redacted))). This is a service that I hope to provide in order to make up for all of the people whose time that wasted trying to convince them to join OC Marketing. There are tons of marketing companies out there that function exactly like OC Marketing; be careful because the road leads nowhere.

Unknown

Irvine, California

U.S.A.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.


1 Updates & Rebuttals

Pancho Via

Tampa,
Florida,
U.S.A.
An inside perspective from one who ran the distance.

#2UPDATE EX-employee responds

Wed, July 23, 2008

I came across this report while checking in on this former employer as I am currently applying for a job elsewhere after a layoff from my recent employer. I am no longer a part of Cydcor or Menchen's team and I speak on my own terms and with my own voice. I can vouch: This is NOT a pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme requires you to pay you own money for the benefit of being a part of things, to recieve supplies and the only way to increase profits is to get people underneath you and working for you. I will admit that this would set off internal alarms as the structure is close to, but is not, a pyramid scheme. This is a business that will return to you what you put into it. Not everyone will make it in this business. Cydcor is a legit company. They are an outsource specialist company, the largest in the US and run numerous campaigns with many fortune 500 clients, one of which is Quill. When I joined Jason Menchen's crew, we were the Direct Outsource Group, based in Tampa, FL. While I will testify that Jason is a unbelievably crazy and funny guy, his integrity is second to none. He genuinely cares and helps his people as long as they are willing to give him 100% in return. The Cydcor model basically teaches you the fundementals of how to replicate the business, a business model used all over the country and is very successful. If you manage it and succeed, this company GIVES (not a loan, GIVES. I have seen this happen) you the money to travel, purchase an office of your own and start a new business. Days start in a energetic learning environment. Real world marketing and sales techniques are taught at this time, techniques which I till use 2 years later and have earned me respect from my past employer. These are the same techniques that are taught in business and marketing courses provided by colleges. After revving up in this atmosphere, you are turned loose to your 'territories' to network and create contacts as well as refresh old ones. You pay your own gas, yes. Because from day one, you are expected to begin acting as if you are a business unto yourself. If you wish to use your phone, it's up to you. In nearly a year of being with these people, rare was the time I had to use my own phone to make the call to Quill. Quill makes the attempt to see if your call is legit as, yes, with over 800 employees nationwide doing the Quill campaign, a few bad apples have tried to pull some sneaky business. Afterwards, you come back, report the day's work and settle in for after work meetings, learning and more. Yes, weekend clinics are held because: how can you sell a product if you don't know how to sell it? The hours described by the person who filed this are the hours a typical business owner will put in if he/she is serious about his/her business. If someone is not prepared to work thier rear off for this, they will not make it. When I first started, at first, I made in one week what it took me 2 weeks to make in other jobs. After a few months of seriously pushing myself, I was making in one week what other jobs took a month to produce for me. What killed me was a confidence issue. Jason came to me with the offer to come to Orange, California to help start a new office. I was not ready and knew I was not ready, yet went along anyways. If I had stayed, I would have become part of another office that stayed in Tampa. It was a great adventure for me, a person that had never lived outside of Florida. However, the California mindset is different from Florida. One customer took me the wrong way and threatened me in a way that shattered my confidence. After that, I failed. The OC office, Jason Menchen and his crew... You couldn't ask for a more dedicated and hard working, sharp bunch of individuals anywhere. They may be unorthodox, Jason may love to be personal and warm, but they are dedicated to thier sucess and to help you in yours. A pyramid scheme fails if those below you do not work. This business model replaces you and does not look back. They will succeed. Whether you come along for the ride and eventually move forward or not, is up to you. Wear comfortable shoes. The road to success is long and hard but these people will teach and cheer you on. I am Eric Avila, "Pancho Via" to those of Jason Menchen's older crew (a story in and of itself). I have worked in close contact in one of Home Depot's customer call centers until a recent layoff. I was frequently number one on my team for quality and was the sole reason more than a few people continue to use Home Depot due to my commitment to customer satisfaction and to help people through thier problems, even if it ended in Home Depot taking the blame for something.

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