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After reading all these posts, I decided to share my story with you guys and girls.
I was looking for a part-time job (I'm still at Uni) in order to get some extra money, therefore I answered a lot of job offers (telemarketing, retail, direct sales,receptionist etc). Then, 3 weeks ago I got a call from the company(whose name I will not mention), inviting me for an interview next day.When I asked who should I adress to when I arrived at the company, they told me "No one. You'll go straight to the director". Odd, I thought, because most companies have a RH team.
Anyway, I went to the interview and had a hard time finding the company because I was expecting that the place was clearly indentified - but all I found was a regular apartment door. I must admit I immediatly thought it was some kind of hook for young women, yet I knocked on the door and got in. First, a young lady asked me to fullfill a sheet with some personal and professional information and then I went to the director - who, surprisingly, was not older than I am. He talked really fast about the job and told me they are seeing 50 people that day, and that they would pick 8 of them to a second interview on the next day - so, they would call me some hours later, if I was selected.
In fact, they called and asked me to show up at 12, dressing formally but wearing flat shoes, because I would go out with one of them to observe how they work. Also, they told me to clear my schedule, because I'd probably be there from 12 to 8 pm.
 The secod round interview was absolute torture, since I walked from 2pm to 10pm,watching people knocking on doors, while trying to answer a bunch of questions such as "15 qualities of a great manager". At the end of the day I didn't know if I truly wanted that job, but the idea of making lots of money kept me on and, allas, they told me that I was selected and would start working with them the next day.
They had told me they would hire just one, or even none, to the position, but on my first day I noticed that they selected two of us - and then 10 more people joined the team on the following week. But I was so excited I didn't even thought deeply about that.
I signed the contract one week later, agreeing to be a self-employee with no salary - comissions only. That was ok to me, because it appeared that everyone was making at least two sales a day. On my first day solo I achieved the two expected sales, but day after day I started to notice that I was sent to places where some of the colleagues have been 3 days ago - which made the process even harder. Thursday morning, after 36 hours of work, I had only made a sale, and began questioning if I really wanted to work so many hours without a salary.
Googling the name of the director, I found this forum and I guess I've been fooled...i'm asking myself too many questions:
- How do we "grow" so fast?
- Why do leaders and managers still knock on doors?
- How can one be motivated and excited day after day, having no personal or social life?
- How comes I'm self-employed and able to manage my own schedule if I am supposed to arrive everyday on 11 am, have lunch break when the leader decides to?
- Why do I have to be with a leader until I leave the building?

 Too many questions...

I have just gone through the same stuff everyone has been saying on here. I can't believe I lastest the two days they had me there for.
I do currently have a job, but am soon going to be out of work, so while looking on job websites I find everything I am looking for at SMS Marketing, I have 3 A Levels in IT and Business, this company seems the perfect match for me, already I am thinking "Wow right on my door step a great job." I send in my CV and covering letter around 9:30am, I then get a phone call no less than half an hour later from a Kendal(Sorry if wrong spelling) she say's I have been put forward for the first stage I thought great this will be a good start. So I go the next day for my interveiw which is at 3:30pm, not a bad time I think I have all day to get ready, when I arrive I sit in a small office area with another 10 or so people all filling out another piece of paper, I am also handed this, looks like some shoddy 2 minute worked questionair, while filling this out I then see Kendal on her computer, not doing work but sitting on Facebook looking through pictures of what looked like a night out. This is making me feel very weird, next thing what happened is Simon Morris comes out of the office and calls my name, at this point I have only been there 10 minutes and it's only 3:20pm while all these other people in the office I could only guess have been there for a while. The interview only lasts a matter of minutes with Simon telling me all about the company, but not asking one thing about myself, I am told to go away and that I will have a phone call around 5 letting me know if I am going to be invited back. I leave thinking to myself this can't be right but I need a job. I get a phone call a couple of minutes before 5, this phone call seems more like my interview getting asked questions like "Do I think I am good enough for this job and why?" this freaks me out but I answer a few questions and then get told to go back tomorrow at 11:30am. Next day I arrive at the Norwich SMS HQ, I go up stairs and find myself sitting in the same pokey little office, this time there are 5 others in there, none of whom I say at my interview, I don't see this as anything weird as a lot of people could have been interviewed. I am once again the last person there and the first person in to the office. I am greeted once again by Simon and taken to see a guy called Lee, he explains to me that we will be going in to Norwich to start some sales, as we left the office each question I asked about "What do you mean sales" he asks me another question on how my day has been so far, this carried on till we got to his car. As we leave in his car he gets a phone call from Simon who tells Lee we must go towards Thetford, this is no easy feat, so off we go. We finally get there around 1:30 by this time I am hungry and wanting to have some food, but instead this is where I find out what the job really is. . . Door-to-door sales. The rest of the day was long and cold. I started "sales" at 1:30pm and didn't finish till 6pm, by the time I got back to the office it was 8pm and then I had to fill in another poorly made Word doc. with more stupid questions with one of them saying "If you have anything you want to ask, what would it be?" - I was told before starting today I will be judged on the questions I ask and if I don't ask the right ones I will not be invited back. After I had filled this in, I was asked in by Simon and Lee who spoke about the company for another 10 minutes or so and then finally told I have a job within the company and will start work 8am Monday morning and finish around 6/7pm.
Lets just say I never went back. Total waste of my time as well as theres.
If you want to work door-to-door sales and work close to 12 hours a day with no money coming in then this is the job for you, if not then I wouldn't even turn up./

I was on the interview with primusukltd.com today. The interview took 3 minutes, in a hurry, just to dont give me a chance to ask anything. I only asked: is there a basic pay or only comissions? and manager replied: you are paid as much as you are worth. judge for yourself!

Hey Guys! Guess what?
 I decided to give it one last try today (see my comment above, 21st January), just to make sure quitting was the best option for me. Let's say it was the real observation day.
 I went there as usual and noticed that it is, in fact, total brainwashing. Money, hard work,attitude, progress, more money...it's 50% work, 50% attitude - come on! I mean, if I'm trying to sell something to someone, doesn't he or she have the final decision? As some of you guys said before, if you are not being successful, they tell you it is your fault, it is your lack of attitude or your laziness (even you were on the field for 8 hours + 3 in atmosphere, 6 days a week).
 Well, I just couldn't bother saying goodbye face to face. Tomorrow morning I'll call the office and tell them I'm out.

It means you get paid for the sales you do, nothing more. Also, if you are not "ringing the bell" or learning as faster as they require, you're just lazy and negative. Don't bother working there, unless you are really really great at sales.

me two pal this sounds just like my day today with jms in leeds.. i really wont a job and this has pissed me off so much..good luck finding a job :)

wow all these stories are very similiar to my experience today allthough I did apply for the job through job site as it was listed as a £15,000 - £20,000 salary and was a trainee marketing consultant nothing mentioned about door to door sales, I had my interview today and was put through to round 2 and after reading this I wont be attending the 2nd round of interviews tomorrow.. didnt spend 7 years building a career in sales and getting a degree to waste on door to door sales around Manchester.

thanks a million to all the people that have posted this information you have saved me alot of time and money.

Hi.

Thanks for saving we a whole lot of time and hassle, was about to go for an interview with 'SMS Marketing' in Norwich. In their first email to me they said "We are a Sales/Marketing Company situated in Norwich. Our company designs and executes promotional packages and on-site promotions for our clients in various industries." Which sounds good, but actually means nothing.

When I rang Kendall to tell her I would not be attending, she really did not put up too much of a defence when I suggested this might be a scam.

Its quite a clever choice of name also, when you google 'SMS Marketing' of course you get pages and pages about text message marketing, so takes a long time to find this page.

SMS MARKETING = SCAM!

This is basically a pyramid scheme:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing

It is not a pyramid scheme although I can understand narrow minded people such as yourself see it as that. A pyramid scheme means you cannot earn more than the person above you, which you can here. There is no clients in a pyramid scheme, they have a physical in house product. Do you think clients such as Talk Talk and Red Cross would be associated with a 'scam' and also pyramid schemes are illegal so they definitely would not be involved with them. Some people on here really need to look at it with more detail, it is funny reading some people perceptions of it.

I'm glad you guys found this forum before attending 2nd round. I wish I did!

 I quitted this week without a word: I just didn't show up on Tuesday. That was the best decision I could ever make. I know I'll never get paid for 2 weeks of door knocking, but I don't care, because I don't want to get in touch with them anymore.

I got called back for the 2nd interview and was too quite excited by the protential of high level earning. After arriving at the SMS HQ based in Norwich at 12pm, I had to wait over an hour before any one saw me.

Finally a guy called Ben brings me in and says that we will be going out in to the field "huh?? thought this was an interview??" Yes yes it is it allows us to get an image of what your like. (at this point your so confused after waiting for ages you kinda jsut go along with it)

The field was a 40 min drive in a shabby Volvo then doing door to door sales yes thats right in the freezing cold! So after walking around in the cold going door to door and not saying a word to any of the potential customers how can this guy get an image of me??? Then at 8pm yes this interview lasted 8 hours already! We have to go back to the office where will do a very informative questionaire that will give the manager an idea if he should employ you.

Then another 40 minutes pass and finally your called back in (10pm now) and after much talking on the managers behalf they would like to offer you a job. Which sounds great. The manager in question had seen that im currently unemployed and said can you come in tommorrow and we will start?

Right now this was strange I wasnt really sure who or what company i was worling with and what my salary was in fact i really knew nothing about what i was doing all i kept being told was the money and how fantastic it is!

SMS is what you call an MLM Multi Level Marketing if your unsure use this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing

Did this at business in Alevel as if I didnt realise it before. But the idea is to get you out of norwich and in the middle of no where so that you can be brainwashed for an entire day and work for them! Please please please if you get a call from them dont go unless you like doing door to door sales in the cold then be my guest.

Oh and Kendall really is that your name?? You dont even put your surname on the emails you send out?? JOKE of a company

WITHOUT PREDUDICE

Having read your reply it struck me that your a rather nieve person. These direct sales companies are scam artist!! they are not interested in employment law, telling the truth or paying people their dues! I've just walked away from one - owing me commission! I have three management quals have worked for the FT, Toshiba AND OTHER top companies, professional companies! who are straight up front who dont need to hide their intentions and who most of all dont move the goal posts at a whim! It seems to me if this is all the work you have experiance in then you no, no different. So how you can say these people are lazy is beyond me - have you ever door knocked and I might also add laws have been brought out about this!!! Thank you for the comments on this web sit it would seem I too got a call from this company having applied to many companies looking for work. I didnt remember applying for this job and thinking now they may have lifted my c/v from the web site posted. Seems odd they would ask you to bring your c/v with you if you have already submitted it. I felt suspecious about this I remember my brother warning me when I was young to look out for companies like these! Anyone who is constantly advertising is a S**t company! and you must stay away! I will complain to reed and I think many people should and anyone else who cares to lisen! these companies crawl out of rocks to take advantage of peoples desperation to work. Seem to me that your very nieve and almost stupid to think that the hundreds of people who leave are all lazy? and why if its such a great company do they have to keep advertising for staff? Also ive found some of these companies always pay on the last day of the month...! just stay away from the likes of people who endorse them and who are involved in ripping good, hard working people off.....! go and work for a charity if your young get some voluntary work under your belt that will stand you in good stead and you will get extra training ****STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT MARKETING THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO'S POCKETS ARE LINED ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE EMPLOYED WITH A SALARY!!! REPORT THESE PEOPLE TO ANYONE WHO WILL LISEN THEY NEED TO STOP EXPLOITING INOCENT, HARD WORKING PEOPLE !!!! I would also say im a very hard working person always have been.... but im not prepaired to work 3 peoples jobs for one wage!!! Im almost shocked carrie that you would make such sweepinf comments! if they were such great companies then whu are they not up front and honest with folkes? seems odd that - STAY AWAY FOLKES AND WRITE TO THE PUBLICATIONS WHO ADVERTISE THEIR RUBBISH JOBS AND COMPLAIN!!!!

WITHOUT PREDUDICE

Emmm.... and your the owner of the company then? if its not a scam why do you pay commission only? also why are you not upfront with your employee's and why then does most of the commission go to the managers?? and not all PYRMID SELLING IS HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS??? unsure why you would think that....! I've heard some rubbish in my time...! if these companies are so great, great payers etc then why do they have such a high turn over of staff? I would point out that NO ONE has the right to scream and shout at you this is ABUSE and is covered by employment law no matter what your contract of employment is...... it seems sad that these companies FEEL THEY HAVE TO PUT PROPERGANDER ON THESE WEB SITES TO JUSTIFY THERE ACTIONS!!! STAY AWAY FROM THESE COMPANIES THEY ARE SOLE DESTROYING AND UNFAIR AND IF EVERYONE STOPPED WORKING FOR THEM - THEY WOULD HAVE TO PLAY BY THE RULES!!! It sickens me that these tpe of companies pray on vunrable people and are not upfront or even pay staff!!! They are also breaking the 48 hr rule providing they havent got you to waver your rights in the fine print!!!!

I would like to thank this thread as I was targeted for an interview today actually, which I wont be attending weasting my time or money - so thank your guy's keep spreading the word a I will.

Dear, Dear,Dear Duncan ......

what aload of rubbish you wrote - who can work for nothing? it cost you money to get to work.... and youi have to eat....! sadly if these companies were lagitimate they would pay basis and wouldnt expect everyone to work for nothing and do door knocking....!

Put simply if you advertised the job was 100% comm based you would would 10 hrs for nothing to prove yourself.... and its door to door sales with NO perks!!! how many applications would you have and why is it your now targetting peeps as I dont remember contacting you!!

Get real - sorry your obviously the same guy or girl who wrote the other comments on this web site defending this SCAM!!!! people keep away - these people use and abuse people and are not very nice.

So if you want to work hard for nothing every day never get paid be shouted at and screamed given unrealistic targets and be abused go ahead - other wise stay away!!!!

Your companies maybe lagit.... but why the need to pay commission and why the need to be so vague and not upfront .... Ive done mr for years working in dangerous areas   sadly your explaination doesnt hold water for me. Why is it your not so upfront as a company saying its commision only and you will work a day for nothing or even three weeks..... sadly, there is always something not right when things are not transparant ......! So I wont be attending my interview. Sadly I worked for a direct sales company who had a basic - never got any commission as promised or anyone else and the goal posts were on roller skates, breaking employment law abusing people..... nah sorry but I think if your employing people for a job you should pay them at least a basis ans then be upfront with them.

Well done you if your have done so well - but if the buisness is so sucessful why do you have to keep advertising for staff? or is it that those of you who left were lazy! well I quit my job and I certainly wasnt lazy infact Im extremely hard working but Im not prepaired to work 3 jobs for one wage and still but treated like S**t...!!! sadly, the whole point of work is you get paid for exchange of labour only I think some of these companies think that there doing you the favour!!!!

Thank you to this forum I will not be attending my interview as I didnt even apply for the job....!

I have done market research for 17 years in dangerous areas. its not recommended and the laws have changed on door to door salemen... I suggest your check this out...! also you comments are abusive and harsh, why would you want to work for nothing...! and why should you if you have such a glamourous of high profile clients then why are you not paying a basis?? and a fair wage or upfront in your advertising or at any of the three interviews and if your sucj a well established company why are yor not up front with people. Emmmm sadly it seems to me that people are using the internet wisely and advising people of the down falls of these companies which are quiet a few, it would seem.
Any company which has to keep advertising people over and over again - sadly has some issues not everyone is lazy and claiming jsa Im not!!! wont be going to my interview.....! prefer to stay at home watching crap on tv than weasting my time!!1 infact ill spend it applying to some decent companies for a job..... geeza a job....!oh and by the way I wont call the majority of peeps whi have had exp with one of these companies an idiot as they all seem to be educated enough to spot alot of rubbish when they see it.....!

dont beat yourself up about this - these companies hire people as cannon fodder some of them have had No management qualifications and obviously dont know how to handly or manage people. Just let is go and be thankful you left any decent company would welcome your committment to your job and help you improve or give advice! so your better off gone....!

please don't go back if u really need a job . tat is a waste of time. I have worked there for 3 months and i got pay 150 pounds. for the period . they have no feelings for people.

do you honestly think that some of the biggest brand name companies in the world who have very intelligent business people running them would let a dodgy door to door company use them for a scam!! Wee man ??? the nmae tells me the size of your brain!