01782630200

Here it is: Public Service.co.uk. They are a genuine company who do produce extremely good quality journals (amongst other things) with some very high profile contributors - ministers etc. That can't be disputed BUT what turns them from being a ethical company into an unethical one (in my opinion) is their sales "pitch".

1. Call and speak only to a decision maker (MD/CEO level).
2. Tell them working on a very important project that has JUST come in. The editor has agreed to take the "proposed" editorial from (a minister who just happens to be writing about xxxxxxx. Note proposed - usually once you've agreed to contribute they then go and ask the person to write!
3. Gain the customers trust - get them to tell you about their business, how they work with public sector, plans to grow business in public sector etc.
4. Once a thorough "fact find" has been done (about 20mins minimum), then go on and "sell" the document. At no point so far do they mention that they want money for an advertorial.
5. "sell the document". Quality, credibility, show you the online version - get you really interested in it. (the quality and credibility is TRUE!). It's the way they sell that undermines it.
6. Next check you've "bought in". Ask if you can see how valuable it is to the Public Sector and that it's crucial you're included in the next edition.
7. Re- iterate these are the last two pages and the project is being closed NOW (this is a lie).
8. Tell you you will have full production assistance, will you use images etc so you visualise your inclusion etc then they'll tell you the cost.
9. Cost. £6k for 2 pages, £4k for one. Rarely are these prices paid. They'll discount immediately and tell you to keep it confidential.
10. All objections must be overcome there and then. Usually with a manager in the background feeding you what to say.
11. If you agree they ensure you fax the agreement back immediately (to prevent buyers remorse & keep up the "last 2 pages lie"
12. AT NO POINT CAN YOU BE SENT AN EMAIL,SPEAK TO ANYONE ELSE, HAVE A COPY SENT TO YOU. THEIR MOTTO "ALL BUYERS ARE LIARS, THEY JUST WANT YOU OFF THE PHONE"

the sales technique is very aggressive, at no point can an employee put the phone down on a decision maker, they have to push and push until the phone is put down on them!

Product - great. Hard Sell - awful.

Good post and all true apart from one thing.

The product is rubbish and no-one reads it. Fact.

Rebecca Wilkinson cal;led
pushy nasty salesy type. infers on first name terms with our MD. Which always gets our backs up. I've indicated actually if they are trying to sell then it's me they need to sell to. but continues to be rude can't understand why we wont put her through! - She must be thick as well then.
One of these days we will put her through to our well briefed MD and we will all sit in his office with the speaker on and have a laugh while he conducts the worst phone call of her life.!

I had the exact same experience as this.  The fact that she linked to lots of people I knew initially got my interest however she then was very difficult to get of the phone until I ended up just hanging up.  Truly awful sales technique and generally a total waste of time.  The person who I spoke to claimed to be called Becky Theobald.

This person using the name Becky Theobald is a totally unscrupulous and unethical person. This goes way beyond poor sales technique. She deliberately misleads you into thinking that you are providing a service to their 'customers', talking  to you for more than an hour about specific activities for which she needs expertise. Only after 80 minutes does she mention that there is a significant fee of up to £7k, and then changes her approach from the chatty consultant into a an aggressive sales person who doesn't take 'no' for an answer. I have discovered another business who have fallen victim to her as well, who have referred to her as an imposter, making cliams about the public sector finances, which are a complete fabrication.

Interesting thred, i had a call today and it was definitely the first 3 steps of the sales process outlined - called herself a project manager, had heard of me in a meeting she had just attended, i was innovative apparently, i did assure i wasnt.. then spent 10 minutes asking me random questions - i asked her what her company did on 5 seperate questions and why she had called me and what she wanted.. didnt want to hang up as i believe ts is very rude and i get alot of v useful inbound calls so always open to hear about other companies and products...

Excused myself for a meeting - asked her to email me but she couldnt - excused myself again so asked her for a number so i could call her back, she didnt know it - quite strange, but went and gotr it and left it with me, i then finished call, googled it and here i am

Glad i smelt a very bad sales person and not happy she wasted 10 minutes of my time under the pretense of being a potential client when actually selling a product. If you have a great product then you should be really proud of it and not waste people time it is irrelevant to.

This is a genuine issue AND grievenance: stop calling me!!!  And maybe tell Melody that she can stop calling me as well.  We are not interested in whatever so called European project she wants to discuss with my boss

Here are some more comments on your way of doing business:
http://www.andrewjaffe.net/blog/science/000475.html

And for all the UK-based companies (unfortunately, we are not UK-based):
The National Stalking Helpline:
0300 636 0300
www.stalkinghelpline.org – Practical advice and information to anyone who is currently or previously been effected by harassment or stalking.

‘Anthony Snag’ of ‘Public Services’ rang my company a little while ago and engaged a ‘decision maker’ (an executive) in conversation re a forthcoming conference.  The conversation progressed to a sales pitch where the executive was asked if they would like to mount an exhibit at the conference – the cost, £12,000.

Public Services (PS) www.publicservices.co.uk is a publishing company that has a variety of other services (including running exhibitions and conferences).  www.publicserviceevents.co.uk.

Thankfully, the executive took some advice before progressing and this gave some time to check out A. Snag.  I ran a brief background check on the company and it took very little time to uncover some unsavoury details.

Firstly, I wanted to find out what other people had experienced with the company and entered the telephone number into ‘Google’ hoping to get a hit on ‘Who Calls Me’ – I did.

More information came from Telepest www.telepest.co.uk

0121 456 3336     0131 555 3970     0161 832 7387     0178 266 7340

Telepest also gave some other names used by PS including
PSCA
PSCA International / Public Service
Public Service Review Journal
Public Service

Progressing to Companies House website and later Companies in the UK www.companiesintheuk.co.uk
which gave the address, phone, fax and company number (a match for the company website)

The company has previous names – PSCA International Limited (changed 8 March 2011)
Public Service Communication Agency Limited (changed 25 April 2003)
Ever 1887 Limited (changed 20 December 2002)
Also,  PSCA Holdings Limited www.companiesintheuk/ltd/psca-holdings
PSCA Holdings Limited also has a previous name – INHOCO 3458 Limited
Chief Executive – Gordon Warrender.

A business sale report of 4 June 2008 states that PSCA International, the magazine publisher with offices in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh has undergone a management buy-out supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland.  PSCA International has a turnover of £12 million.  http://www.business-sale.com/acquisitions/art ... lish-29608.html

Go to Google search and enter PSCA International (with a space following) and one of the options that will appear is ‘scam’.  This will take you to http://psca-international.blogspot.com

Where a link will take you to the ASA website where a complaint against PSCA international was upheld www.asa.org.uk/Asa-Action/Adjudications/2005/ ... d/CS_39449.aspx

A simple search for people who have worked at PSCA raised numerous hits – the common link to almost all of them was the word ‘sales’ in connection with their employment at PSCA.  Mr Snag however, was not found online.

Conditions for staff working at PSCA have been described as ‘a sweatshop’.  An ex-employee claims that top salesmen earn £15,000 a week (Gordon Warrender denies this and says that the top salesman only earns £11,000 a week).

In our case, we did not take up Mr Snag’s kind offer.  

Given the above, would you have done?

A Becky Theobald called me out of the blue today; claimed she had been at a conference, heard about our work etc; very pushy so I pushed back. I was suspicious, googled her and the company and found this thread - glad to know it's a waste of time.

Contact their Company Secretary, Jeff Turner,  jturner@publicservice.co.uk   requesting that they remove your organisation from their database completely.  Advise that you are copying in your Legal Department as evidence of the request.  It works for a year or so before they add you back on their list.

After numerous calls from this company which went to voicemail, we decided to answer one. The voicemails had said that we had been identified as the only provider of a certain technology in the UK and they urgently needed to talk to us in relation to an MoD contract.

Despite thinking it was unrealistic that we'd be called out the blue, I forwarded the call on to our Managing Director (who's a very busy chap). He spent nearly an hour on the phone to this company, who wanted £6000 in return for a small advert on this website for 6 months - http://www.defencemanagement.com/. He tells me he was first taken through giving lengthy descriptions of what we do, thinking that we might get a contract out of it, before the hard sales tactics evenutally hit.

Apparently, £6000 was reduced to £4000, and then to £2500 (still extortionate).

Our MD transferred the call back to me at this point, as he needed to talk to a customer, and I got the sales pitch as well. The person on the end of the line simply wouldn't give up; I asked if we could call them back once we'd made a decision, and they said 'no'. Eventually, needing to get on with some work, I said I urgently had to go, and the salesperson simply hung up on me.

The end of the call got quite heated and I was getting a lot of abuse and rudeness from the publicservice.co.uk salesperson.

We've done some more research between us and publicservice.co.uk Ltd. appear to have a very bad reputation for this.

We have therefore decided to post our account on these forums so that others don't fall for the same tactics. These are obviously hard-selling tactics, but can seem real when they're placed directly in the context of your particular business. Our advice would be to avoid at all costs.

We are also registered with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (http://www.tpsonline.org.uk) and so will be issuing a complaint about this particular organisation. As they've wasted a significant amount of our time, we are also considering persuing them for a fee commensurate with this.

We would recommend that others reading this post their experiences here (the larger the volume of text, the more likely others will be informed about this outift), and follow the same steps as we have done if they have the time available.

They claimed to be Public Sector Services researching telephony and unified communications solutions for the public sector. Actually they were just trying to get me to buy an entry into their publication. I offered to callthem  back after doing some background checks. They were offended that I wanted to do that. I didn't call back after searcing on the number they gave me although they witheld it on dialing me.

Yep, just had a Sara Richards call from 01782 630200 managed to get directly through to my new boss.  He finally managed to get rid of her and straight away she called back on my line, luckily I missed the call...however, I will be ready for her when she calls again...I am not quite so polite.  These people have skin like Rhinos...

So, when brought to the attention of the caller - a Rebecca Theobald - that they were featured on this lovely website, apparently this website and all these posts are now subject of a legal case. Apparently she couldn't tell me any more as it's "going through the courts and can't talk about these things whilst this is happening". So, quick question to clarify this -  is there a court case? When I asked her for details of the project it was all top secret. When pushed for more info so we can make a decision as to whether it's worth her speaking to our CEO, she said she felt like she was being misrepresented and hung up! Sorry, but if you feel like you're being misrepresented don't hang up, stay on the phone and explain why!

Afternoon everyone, just though I would add my two pence into this discussion.

I was employed by there scum bags and drawn in by the massive amounts of money to be earnt and the credibility of the company.  

[***]. Basically there is a room with 20-30 people in and phones. There are no computers, there is no database, the staff have to go home at night and basically google the companies that they are going to call the next day. So when you get asked to be removed, there actually is no database. The staff have a pile of numbers/companies/directors and call through them all day.

It is a joke, I have worked in sales for many years, including double glazing sales, this is by far the worst.

If your wondering why they are so harsh on the phone, it is because you are told in induction that if you put the phone down or end the call without a sale you will be sacked. You have to get the decision maker to buy or put the phone down on you.

It is a terrible business, I am not sure how it is still running but it was massively going down hill when I was there.

I left after a month to much relief, and found sites like this when I left.

Terrible company, I feel for you all.

Same thing. Called me in Poland. I've just finished 1h long conversation on the benefits of e-learning and they tried to force me into several thousand pound decision over the phone. I'm deeply disappointed that such calls still take place in 2012.

My company was called this morning by ths publicservice.co.uk and enquired about maritime fireamrs training legistlation, claiming that they were working for the Royal Navy.
The call was passed to me. The person introduced herself as Jackie and started asking me questions about how the RN could improve maritime security.
After about an hour she started talking about a publication coming out soon needing an editorial, for which, of course, there was a fee, "well worth it as it would show case our company". When I told her we were not interested she had the cheek to say SHE was dissapointed!
SCUMBAGS, AVOID!!!

Becky Theobald and Rebecca Wilkinson are the same person.....

This should be illegal! Thankfully cold calling is soon to be outlawed in the UK, let's hope this puts these out of business.

As the Managing Director I was bombarded by calls, email and voicemails on my business lines, home phone and mobile. They told my daughter who answered the home phone that it was regarding funding and the European Commission and they urgently needed to speak with me.

After refusing to speak with any of my Management, an onslaught of bombarding and rude, harrassing behaviour commensed for 40 minuites. After assuring me that this was all about gaining me funding and contracts for the European Commission and that my research and technology was directly being requested by the Commissioners themselves they proceeded to ask me for 8000 GBP or 16000 Euro (Not a correct conversion by the way.
When I stated that the refusal to communicate by email or attend meetings and the fact that I would have to pay to recieve funding and contracts sounded like a scam, and if this was legitimate then it was at best appaulingly offensive and unprofessional conduct and business practice I was rudely shouted at, my business and intellect insulted and the phone slammed down.

Over the next few days I received numerous emails from suspiciously personal hotmail accounts and phone calls from a UK cell phone +447823330526 at unsociable hours such as 8am and 11pm, demanding that I take part in this "project for the European Commission" by paying her this ammount which was now somehow only 6000 if I signed and returned a contract with in the next 15 minuites.

If this had been a company in my country this lady would possibly be facing charges for harrasment and corporate misconduct.

I asked some questions and did some research of my own;

I would be very weary if I recieved any more calls from:
Public Service Europe
Public Servie UK
Public Servant
Public Service Events
Defence Management
DMJ
All the same company 'publicservice.co.uk ltd" a small advertising company in the UK.

It sounds to me very much like they just buy contact email lists off the internet, which I found out you can buy for as little as $2000 and email an advertisment to poor unsuspecting individuals.
I doubt very much if the majority of the emails are even read, or make it past the junk filters.

If you want to give a few tens of thousands to a crook and what appears very much like a dubious scam then by all means go ahead!

Better still ask them to provide proof that their testimonials are genuine or to provide accurate statistics on the track record of success of other companies who have used their services...no reply.

Interesting post - I worked there for a very short period of time - I took the job when I was desperate and it was truly awful. Another reason why the people who phone you are so obtrusive and difficult (including myself when I was there- not to any enjoyment of my own) is because in the call-centre you have your line manager basically shouting in your face as to what to say next down the phone. My nicest calls we the people who said they could hear him and felt bad for me but they were still going to hang up (of course). I left there most nights in tears (not all of us have rhino skin) to start another evening of googling new companies. Terrible. I'm so lucky not to work there any more.

p.s. I am not Becky theobald in case you were wondering!