John Jamil Hill
Houston,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, May 10, 2008
I'm so sorry, some people are giving you bad feedback. Stay encouraged, I was always praying for you while I was their. I knew you weren't perfect,(know one is) But you too, was a such a sweet,motivational and inspiring person on the outside & inside. I saw your heart. And now that you have found your spiritual calling! That is awsome! I knew you would! You definately have a unique gift! Your previous company taught me alot back then. I've applied it to something outside of sales, but to a universal service that everyone uses. But, now on a Kingdom Minded knote, lets' move forward. Last I spoke to you, I was with cancer. I have not only been deliverd from that, I've grown even stronger spirtually and finacially. Funny thing about it, I'm just getting started! I've tapped into one of those wells on earth, that god spoke of in the bible. I kid you not, Corey and you have been on my spirit for some time now. (It was Quickend in my spirit so much today)That I passed by your old office just today. P.S. Remember to stay encuraged & keep your head up! Jesus says,"THE ENEMY IS THE ACCUSER OF THE BRETHEREN" You must always KNOW, that you are not only redeemed & forgiven: But you are who God says you are, no matter what our past was!
Jay
Cape Cod,#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, August 17, 2007
I'm happy that you are no longer running your company and that you are out of the business. One less office out there putting deceptive ads in all the job sites luring unsuspecting people to ultimate doom. The problem is that for every office that goes down, there are ten new ones that will open. I stay active on these sites because people need to know the truth about "the business." You can say that you were up front and said it was going to be hard and all that, but in the end you were trained by Raf and all his minions. Your ads are full of lies, you and every other office deceive eager job hunters and offer nothing more than empty promises of future wealth, happiness, and success. It is hard enough to find employment out there when you are just out of school so why should people have to waste their time going on interviews with all the shitty companies of Cydcor, DS MAX, Granton, Smart Circle, and whatever else they are calling themselves these days? That is why I am here "battling" as you put it. So that when the people whose interest was falsely peaked by your misleading ads come home and google your company or any other company associated with the business, all they find are these reports. So they can take all of the bs they have just seen in your ads, all the bs they have heard come out of your mouth in the first round interview, and if it gets that far...all of the bullshit they see on their day of O and have some sort of hope to get accurate information about who you all really are. A bunch of lying street peddlers who care nothing about the people you use to gain financially or otherwise. If they find the info and still want to take the job, whatever at least they were warned. You may have been a great and fair owner, but it dosn't matter. You were still pushing the same crappy opportunity. You were still selling the same crappy products and services. You were using the same cultlike mind control tactics to keep your little street peddlers in line. I don't need to go to your office to tell you pretty much down to the last detail how your office was run. I didn't get promoted to mgmt, but I didn't need to in order to know just how you and all the others out there run their deals. The Pro Marketing Group is run by Raf. The owners that have deals under him may fool themselves into thinking they run their own business and can run them any way they want, but in reality they all get run the way HE wants. I am not here for "sh**s and giggles" I am here so these companies don't slip through the cracks. So that people who need to know can find out who they really are. Thanks for responding and being so candid. Good luck in your future endeavors!
ICantu
Houston,#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, August 13, 2007
Hey Jay, This was my company - I closed it last year due to personal things going on in my life and if you want to know what they were - I was in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship - yes I am human just like you are, and I have problems just like you do but hell why can't you just leave these companies alone? I came on here just for shits & giggles and still you are battling after so many years. It amazes me Jay - I'm sorry to see that you are still on here trying to get these companies to have bad names. I guess you can say that I have found myself spiritually and the only way to move forward is to leave the past in the past. I think of myself as a person with high integrity and to be very kind, but yet without knowing me you put me down and say that I am this money hungry person - I never have been and never will be a money hungry, caniving person - I ran my business honestly and mainly to support my parents. I told people it was b2b sales, commission only, with long hours, and it wasn't easy but again you wouldn't know that because you never came to my office. Why can't you just stop? Oh, well - I have moved on to other things and I just wanted to leave you a little note! Take care, and God bless!! PS - Don't bother writing a rebuttal or anything back if it's going to be negative because for every negative you have I probably have a positive!!!
Hank
Houston,#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, August 10, 2007
In your report you speak of the Aurora Marketing Group. I worked for them in Houston, and it was extremely rough, but I learned volumes during my 3 month term. I was only there 3 months because the techniques and rules they taught me in door to door presentation actually landed me a good paying job. I walked into a business using Aurora's techniques, and they were so impressed that I was offered a job on the spot. As far as whether Aurora's system works, it does for some, and here's how I know. After about 2 months working for Aurora, our Boss was giving us a motivational speech early in the morning. She was telling us of her experience when she first started out. She said she had started out in Chicago selling X product door to door. That's when something in my mind clicked. I said "wait a minute!", did you visit such and such a business? She couldn't exactly remember but the address was on her typical route. And that's when it hit me that she had actually sold ME a product 1 or 2 years earlier! It was definitely her! And there she was now a full owner making a tremendous amount of money. But it's not for everyone. You have to have nerves of steel. Every minute of the day counts and if you get down, you slow down, and that can stop your earnings fast. I caught myself crying on a curb several times after being thrown out of businesses, but that happens. You're there to start your own company and that's not easy. Have you ever done it? Did it succeed? If yes, great! If not, then either you should keep trying, or go work for someone else. People seem to forget that what you're doing there is learning to start your own company, so if it seems rough or unfair, go out and try to start your own company on your own, and spew your negativity at yourself when it gets rough. The way most companies evolve is one or a couple people work day and night for years to lay the ground work. The only way you can possibly maintain a pace of that sort is by keeping a positive attitude. If someone's around bringing you down all the time, you'll quit! Once the company gets going, then other people jump on board and have no idea what it took to get it started. They get angry at the CEO for not giving them more time off, better insurance, better bonuses, nicer computers, better chairs...etc. Go start your own company and stop whining. The reason I'm on this site right now writing is because I was going through some old papers and came across a pay stub from Aurora. From 9/29/03 to 10/10/03 I made close to $600.00. Not much, I know, but I wouldn't trade the experience I gained for anything in the world. I find myself constantly reaching back to that time for guidance in my present day. For the people of Aurora Marketing, thank you, you made an incredible difference in my life. I think several weeks of door to door training of that type should be mandatory in every type of training program in the world and part of University curriculums too. This is how I got involved with Aurora (I got that same email you did with all the instructions and directions...etc.) In the Fall of 2003, I went through that whole process you speak of, interviewing, re-interviewing, and then I "shadowed" a person for a day as they went door to door selling water (they also sold office supplies, but I was in the water sales division). There was a lot of secrecy and I didn't end up making nearly as much as I had expected, but one thing I did learn was an incredible set of life rules. The main rule is to "Never Neg Out!" In other words, don't be negative. It doesn't get you and your peers anywhere but down. I don't know if any of you remember, but at the end of 2003 the job market was so bad that even the Temp Agencies weren't hiring. I went to Aurora and they paid $200.00 to train for the first 3 days - maybe that wasn't the case when you went there, because due to financial restraints they had to stop it later on. It was really rough, and yes there was a large turn over and yes it seemed like it didn't really matter when people came and went, but what I realized was one simple rule, if you followed their techniques it worked. People had the toughest time following their techniques (myself included) but they honestly worked. One day I'd make 6 sales, the next zero, but it always averaged out to what they claimed it should, if you followed their rules. I haven't Googled them and I don't know what's going on with them now, but I do know that what they were doing was an incredible learning experience for me.
Jay
Cape Cod,#6UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, May 23, 2007
Jan, You focused your response to the original post mostly on the names of the company and more of the usual bs rebuttal tactics like referring to the original poster as "stupid and illiterate. Truly not necessary to get personal here, I mean you must be the stupid one who has fallen for the bullshit career opportunity they shove down your throat every minute of every day. Also are you the illiterate one who can't even google her potential employer to see what a mess she is about to get involved with. Sorry to get personal there. Whatever... The facts are as follows: Your boss (Irma) is another of the demon spawn of the RAF DIAZ (Google him) organization. PMG Affiliates, Pro Marketing Group, Universal Online Promotions, Apex Marketing(a*****e STEFAN MAINHART), Victory Marketing, Universal Promotional Marketing, Xtreme Promotions(Poor little Bruno), etc etc...there are a ton of offices running under his stinky little thumb. www.pmg7.com / old web site: www.pmg-affiliates.com All you need to do is google any of these assholes to see what they truly are! You spoke of: "Those bitter/jaded about the whole marketing thing probably just didn't make it or were dying to write something on your website." That is going to be you once you realize just how bad these people are f**king you over. I bet you don't make more than a few hundred bucks a week at best. Take out whatever you pay for gas, tolls, lunches for you and whoever your training, and all the other expenses must have you are most likely living a s**t life. Making it even worse is you probably live in the owners shitty apartment/rental house with 9 other zombies. How many people do you have on your team? I bet you only need one or two more solid guys until you "make it". How many weeks/months until you accomplish your goal? What happens when you don't hit the goal? Are you gonna stick it out for just a little while longer? Not going to happen! What a crock of s**t! You are in denial...wake up and get a real career/job/whatever. Flipping burgers at Mc D's is more respectful than lying to every potential new hire that comes through the door. Basically I want to say that there is no reason to defend these assholes. Your fearless leader Irma, the one that: "I know her personally and she's a very nice person, an awesome boss and one of the best motivators I've ever heard speak." All of that "speak" you speak of is called brain washing, and you are in deep! She is motivating you to slump around in all kinds of shitty areas and weather just to put an extra dollar in HER pocket. She dosn't give a s**t about you. If you left right now and never came back she would not care one d**n bit. You know why? You mentioned it in your post... "First off, in the couple of months I've been working there, we see at least 5 hopefuls A DAY in the lobby. There are three rounds of interviews that Serina seemed dense enough to screw up." See, 5 a day is more than enough to replace your a*s once you realize them for who they are. If you think these people are your friends you are severly misled. I wanted this to be short, but this stuff makes me angry. Get the hell out of there, there are so many legitimate opportunities out there. So so so very many more ways to make an honest dollar and then some. That's it.
Jan
Houston,#7UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, March 31, 2007
Timothy - So I looked up Protege to see how they've been doing and stumbled upon the retort I gave one and a half years ago. First of all... did you work at Protege? I don't see how my dismissal was without substance. I actually had experience at Protege and I find your dismissal to be hasty and slightly asinine. You asked how I'm doing: very well, thanks. I worked at Protege over the summer, built up some very good work experience, and went back to school to my Top 20-ranked university, from which I graduated. I am currently getting my MBA from a similarly-ranked private institution and working in tax consulting. My lowest grade so far in b-school has been a B+, and there's only one of those. The experience at Protege was truly beneficial and has helped me with many aspects of my life. I'll grant that the terms of work are definitely skewed to benefit the owners and not the employees; however, there's no misrepresentation of anything that occurs there. So now I guess I'm the first "pyramid scheme defender" to respond and apparently it's going alright for me. Never say never, right Timmy?
Timothy
Valparaiso,#8Consumer Comment
Fri, September 16, 2005
And I bet those MBAs and JDs are just delighted to be doing door-to-door sales. Let me guess: they didn't exactly finish in the tops of their classes? Your dismissal of the original report is without substance and, therefore, without merit. Nothing more than the typical pyramid scheme drivel we see here on a daily basis. Here's an invitation that's been extended dozens of times, and NOT A SINGLE pyramid scheme defender has EVER taken us up on it: come back in a year and let us know how it's going for you.
Jan
Houston,#9UPDATE Employee
Thu, September 15, 2005
Let's see here...Serina wrote "add" instead of "ad". She made other writing errors. Maybe she's stupid. If not, let's look at how wrong she is about the company known as Protege Marketing Group. First off, in the couple of months I've been working there, we see at least 5 hopefuls A DAY in the lobby. There are three rounds of interviews that Serina seemed dense enough to screw up. I can assure you that it's a real company with real paychecks. They explain the details of how it works after the second interview, IF they think you're a viable candidate. Serina's dumb act worked, apparently. You don't pay them squat. The training in management is only beneficial, and FREE. The only thing of your own that you invest is hard work and lots of time, and getting your own office is the end result...assuming you don't want to go farther. Those that burn out or quit are the ones who don't advance. It's not an easy job to do. You go around to various businesses and (in this office's case) sell office supplies. It's an ICL (go look it up if you don't know what it stands for, Serina; you probably wouldn't know how to spell "Independent Corporate Licensee" anyhow) of Cydcor. Go look them up. The same people who got a start at ICL's like Protege are now making more than Serina could even count to...and let me assure you it's more than 20, it's more like hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Those bitter/jaded about the whole marketing thing probably just didn't make it or were dying to write something on your website. The business card Serina refers to says "Irma Cantu" because she's the f&*$@ng owner. I know her personally and she's a very nice person, an awesome boss and one of the best motivators I've ever heard speak. The different names (UPM and PMG...and it's Protege Marketing, not Pro-Marketing. Is Serina illiterate? Was she even writing about the right company?!) come from the "heirarchy" of offices; to loosely explain it, a manager promotes somebody out of their office to start one of their own. We have people with MBA's and JD's working at Protege. Serina probably doesn't know what those acronyms stand for, either. Get that report off your website ASAP. You guys are seriously mistaken.