Lets start from the beginning: You probably received a call saying something (if not exactly) like this: "Hi this is ***** from Red F, how are you today? Good, well, I'm just giving you a call today in regards to your resume, they had a chance to review it and they liked what they saw, and I was hoping to get you in for an interview. I actually have a two slots available for you tomorrow, wold you prefer 8:45 AM or 2PM?
Not to bash on your resume, but they will quite literally say this to anyone who sends in their resume. They like to empower you by stating that they liked what they saw on your resume, even if there is nothing outstanding there at all! The admin calling you to schedule your interview gets paid like $4/interview, so they will definitely try to get you in there.
They will also be sure to tell you that the only attire allowed in the office is business professional. You'll show up looking sharp, and after the admin greets you you will be sat in the office lobby where you will fill out an elementary questionnaire. When the manager brings you in to talk to you, he will gauge you by whats on your resume.
They divide different interviewees into different categories (ex: live at home, married w/ fam, outgoing, intellectual, ect) and interview them accordingly. The guy interviewing you will probably be the president of the firm, Derek Boyer. He has one goal while he is in that interview: to make you like him. He does this (and if you actually after reading this report are dumb enough to seek employment there you will have this explained to you by Derek himself first hand) by making you talk about yourself and by being nonchalant and laid back. "oh, so you used to work at so and so? Tell me what that was like..." and so on and so forth. Simple questions probing a response longer than one or two words under the impression that you must suck up to him a little because YOU'RE applying for the job. As he WOULD explain later, it is to "maintain control and make the interviewee like you." In fact, he gets a little power trip out of it, as when he is bragging about his position as president he will say jokes like, "now go fill out an application."
He also enjoys making it sound like it was a close call whether you got through the interview or not. He may say something like "Well I don't usually do this, but come in on **** and we'll get you started." or something along the lines of making you feel like you just barely made it. Your second interview, however, will be a little different then how you imagined it.
FIRST, let me tell you what you ALREADY don't know:
They have yet to tell you that you will be working 6 days a week!
They have yet to tell you that you will have to come in at 11 so you can be present for no reason! seriously, they just play games with plastic balls! they call it 2 ball, mafia, alot of different games that they take from their affiliate companies who they CLAIM to be seperate from.
They have yet to tell you that you will have to return to the office every night at 8:45 for a retarded ceremony where you run in circles and give each other high fives!
They have yet to tell you that they are a CYDCOR company, although they will claim that they are not and want to break free of them.
They have yet to tell you that your check will be COMMISSION ONLY!
They have yet to explain that "face to face marketing" means DOOR TO DOOR KNOCKING!
They have yet to explain that the commission you DO make will be made with UNETHICAL SALES PRACTICES!
and most importantly, they have yet to tell you that they will be prospering off your hard work, and putting it in your butt because they care that little about you.
The second interview will be you going out with whoever is "lucky" enough to have the top sales for that week. You will basically follow them around and see what they are doing all day! Normally, this alone would be enough proof to show you that this is not where you want to be, but they will cleverly engage in conversation with you and try to be your friend! Whoever is training you will be desperate to build a one on one relationship with you, desperate to the point that it will almost seem wierd! This is because they are trained to do so, that if they do not CPR (create personal relationships) with you then you will not start working there! Because they know if you remember it as what it was or should have been, (a lonely day of walking around in different neighborhoods, knocking on doors, and saying w/e it takes to get a sale) you'd never be dumb enough to start. So, they want you to remember it as "oh my gawd, i had so much fun with that rep! hes so cool and he wants to go drinking tomorrow? what an awesome job! yaaaaaaa---" get real.
If you do start, they will ask that you come in for an opportunity meeting soon, where they will explain the company and the goals for the future to you. Derek will encourage you to come, telling you that it is rare that you ever see an opportunity meeting, and that he hasn't done one in how ever many months. Yeah, thats bull too, because you will learn that they do one every single thursday. In fact, yours will be on a thursday too, unless they read this and decide to change it. The meeting itself, however, is more like a one man monologue that Derek has almost perfected. He could deliver that presentation in his sleep, and you will see how annoying it is when you are made to sit through it three times.
(NOTE: They like to make themselves look alot bigger than they are by claiming to work hand in hand with fortune 500 companies. They are just a door to door knocking firm who have a contract w/ Verizon. Alot of other REAL sales companies do too, 20/20 and such. Don't be fooled because they know how to TALK like they're badasses.)
Lets get down to pay, after all, thats the whole important thing about a job, right? ok, so lets talk pay. Now they will tell you that they will not discuss pay and advancement with you until lunch on your second interview, but why wait when I can tell you now? the pay is garbage. Lemme explain:
You will be working for a marketing firm that is doing work for Verizon. You will be doing whatever it takes to get these poor, unsuspecting homeowners to buy your product. Your product includes home phone service, internet service, and TV service. If you sell two of these, it is called a double. If you sell three of these, it is called a triple. If you don't sell anything in a day, they call that "rolling a doughnut." Oh, but don't worry, they will assure you that it is normal to have several days where you will make no money whatsoever but still have to exhaust yourself from morning to night with their nonsensical meetings and work.
ROUGHLY (because I don't remember it exactly)
TRIPLE (they say you can almost always count it as $100, but they range from under 90 to a little over 100.)
DOUBLE (about $50 usually)
SINGLE (almost never happens, but maybe $20?)
If you are working on your own and you don't have much experience in this kind of field, you will more than likely get burned. Even once you get the hang of it, you will most likely be doing 1 to 2 apps per GOOD day. NORMAL days is a 50% shot of getting 1 app. Some people WILL occasionally get multiple in a day, depending on how much Derek likes them and/or how good they are (Derek decides your area, btw). If you DO have experience in this kind of field, still you will come out with teh same numbers.
Now they will tell you if you can get a TRIPLE every day, you'll probably make about $500 - $700 a week! in reality, if you got one triple a day, and thats six/week, AND everything added to be 100 each, you would only get $600 before taxes. It is what it is, right? But they will have the audacity to rip you off on your check too!
It will come out to be incredibly small, and you will wonder why that is. It doesn't even tell you what you're getting paid for. It just says commission: $XXX.XX and there is a slot for bonus. Thats because Derek is the one who cuts the checks, and if he feels he can take advantage of you, he definitely will try! If you ask him about your check, he will assure you it will work itself out and next weeks will be better. Of course, it never works itself out and you find yourself spending incredible amounts of money on gas, food, and other things. "oh but you can write those off and save money.." But shouldn't you be working to MAKE more money rather than working to SPEND more than you make and hope the tax write offs even things out??
They also fill your head with promises of becoming a millionaire and the president of your own office. They want you to eventually build yourself a team of 10 people before you can get promoted to assistant manager, then 2 weeks where your team earns 4gs/week consistently. Of course, however, the chances of you making it become minimal because of the fact that most people quit eventually! Derek will say that they are quitters and losers and won't make it anywhere in life, but in reality its because the job is a scam and no one wants to work 80 hours a week for roughly $250 - $350/week!!!!
"oh, well you gotta work hard. This job is a serious opportunity, but it's not easy! Be positive and think positive, positive things will happe--" ect ect. Well, it's true that positive thinking is great and all, but in reality, they are trying to brainwash you into thinking that you are going to be the next owner of your own company after a year. Look around you! Everyone you see in that office is brainwashed! Yes, I know they seem like normal people but thats because they have internalized the future millionaire plot into their heads as reality, and therefore will keep coming back until that hope is violently shattered.
To anyone THINKING about working there, just look at their website! It's incredibly shady!! All it has is a little blurb about their company, some pictures of the staff, and then information about how they hire and how they train!! The website is trying to recruit people too! But the real funny part is their website, www.redfdc.com is just a copy of their mother company, who they will say until they are blue in the face is just an affiliated company. Their mother company is called CXN, you can find them on the web at www.CXNinc.com and it will be the EXACT SAME WEBSITE just flipped around. It will include Derek as a part of their team, despite Derek constantly telling the office that he's not.
actually, CXN has developed many complaints like the one I'm writing right now, so look them up too, considering both companies are doing the exact same thing in roughly the exact same way.
Oh, and if you have any questions, just rebuttal or w/e and I'll get it through email.
Hope I was of some assistance. In case you didn't get the message, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WORK FOR THESE PEOPLE. THEY WILL CHEAT YOU, THEY WILL LIE TO YOU, AND THEY ARE AS SHALLOW AND FLAKY AS A BOWL OF KELLOGS CEREAL. Just callin it like it is.
Ciao
DontScamMe!
United States of America#2General Comment
Mon, January 16, 2012
I completely see what ur saying and agree. this company is a small time company that doesnt appear to have its ducks all in line
theWAC
United States of America#3General Comment
Thu, January 05, 2012
Hello,
I had an interview with 1919 Inc. today. I had previously looked for reviews on them, but couldn't find anything. When I was waiting for the interview this morning, I heard someone answer the phone "Red F." I decided to write down the company name, and look it up later. The interview went pretty much exactly as described in your account. When I looked up Red F, I came across this. They have the same address (in Rockville) and work for Verizon as well.
Digging a little deeper, I checked the State of Maryland's records (http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/ucc-charter/CharterSearch_f.aspx) on the company Red F. Right now, their scanned documents aren't loading (this happens all the time with this site, stupid glitch with Maryland's sites).
Go to the link above, enter "Red F" in the charter search, click amendments, and look at the 6/21/2010 entry. "THIS AMENDMENT RECORD INDICATES THE NAME CHANGE
FROM:
CXN MARYLAND, INC.
TO:
RED F, INC."
So now you know the relationship between CXN and Red F. There is no name change dealing with 1919 inc, and they have different "executives" but I can assure you everything is the same as Red F (aka CXN).
Stephan Harring
United States of America#4Author of original report
Fri, September 16, 2011
sorry i haven't checked this, i've been busy with work... yeah where i actually DO make money.
my email is [email protected]
you're welcome to show me the emails, I would love to read them.
Ricky
arg,#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, August 18, 2011
These type of companies are the scourge of 21st century recent college grads. They prey on the unfamiliar and hard working. As many people need to be made aware of these types of companies as possible, but sadly enough, it seems like there will always be a healthy pool of candidates who are unaware of the scam and who accept the position.
I have written some pointed responses to the company in email form. If you would like to see them, just give me an email where I can reach you, possibly one that you dont use that often so that people on Ripoff Report dont start sending you crap.
Later,
RJ
Matt4477
Fredrerick,#6Consumer Comment
Fri, July 29, 2011
they wont let me do a rebuttal with my email address, but i am trying to get some suggenstions on how to have fun on this interview. what would make derek have a bad day?
Matt4477
Fredrerick,#7Consumer Comment
Fri, July 29, 2011
Hey, please contact me at [email protected] I have an interview set for these guys on monday, would love to pick your brain on how I can have some fun with it. I hope you get this very soon lol