02070173866

omg thank whoever started this blog, i was well excited that i had an interview on monday, when comin to research the company, i came across this blog.. thank you i have defiantely cahnged my mind in attending theses basturdss interview.. they have no life in wasting pplz time

Thank God, I'd pay whoever started this thread instead of wasting my money going to Aspire. Spoke to some clown called Carley... who was more bothered about how I was getting there, then giving me information about the company & about the role involved.

STAY AWAY ~ KEEP SIGNING ON LOL

i cant believe people can do this to people who just want to get back into work. everyone gets excited when they could get a job but it is pretty sad that some people are so heartless and so damm ruthless about it. stay away unless you want to work for nothing.

to the people who do work there and are thinking of working there, good luck working for nothing and working for a company who exploits genuine people.

I worked there, you sign a contract saying you are an independent representative so they don't pay you any wages. Basically, it is commission based, you get £20 per sale and you are supposed to sell 3-4 per day but hardly anyone does this consistently, the office average is more like 1 per day. Then, you get 2nd interviews, so you take someone around with you for a day and hopefully they will join. Then they become part of your crew, when you have enough people and do enough sales you become a manager and start making money off their commission. So it is basically a pyramid business which falls apart most of the time unless you are at the very top. Some days I made good money but on the whole it wasn't worth the 70 hours per week I was working. Many people were selling nothing at all. Also they brainwash you, telling you that it is a recession so there are no other jobs available, you are not allowed to read newspapers and you work 12 hours a day (about 6 knocking on doors, 4 in the office and 2 travelling) and only rest on Sunday, so you don't have time to look for other jobs. There are some good parts / training to this business but overall I wouldn't recommend it.

This sounds like the COBRA GROUP!!! I worked for a COBRA office elsewhere in the country. Yes, sadly these tactics are not just based out of this office, but our nationwide, and in fact in many more countries globally.

I have no issue with door to door sales and a commission based structure, but their misleading recruitment policy and lack of willing to provide any geniune information on the job is disgraceful. The first time you find out what the job is about is when you are following someone around for a whole day! If you work there already ask yourself when you first found out what the job was all about! After they filled your head with the promotion structure and the prospects of running your own office!?!? FYI, I already know the answer to this!

As I said, door to door sales I have no problem with, commission only I have no problem with, but a lack of honesty and decieving job advertisements is appauling. Advertising to graduates as a sales/marketing based role. I do not think these people could give an accurate description of what marketing is.

This company is like a cult. Brainwashing is an accurate description. They get people hyped up about progression and running their own office so they will stay around earning peanuts hoping to recruit five people to their "crew" so they can set up on their own. People stick around for a while but eventually lose the motivation as they realise they are earning very little and getting nowhere. I am sure from reading these posts that people from Aspire (or whatever they want to call themselves) will be thinking I am wrong and do not know what I am talking about. They may even call me a neg-head!

I can assure you I am right though. People want to aspire to running their own office and making loads of money, but everyone realises at some stage that they are earning nothing, selling very little, and are not progressing anywhere! Just going out every day knocking on doors earning very little. They think it is good because they are wearing a nice suit but it is a complete crock!

Take my advice. if you work at Aspire, quit! Start a life and achieve something real! If you are going to an interview or thinking of applying then save yourself the effort!

As I say, no problem with door-to-door, no problem with commission only. My problem is with the bogus promotional structure. The complete crock about being motivated all the time and not being negative (woo-hoo! let's all work 11 hours a day for little money and be happy), the manipulative recruitment process, the misleading job advertisements, and perhaps most of all the use of the word "marketing" totally out of context when people are seiously looking for careers in this field!

Good luck to all searching for jobs in a difficult marketplace but do not waste your time with the COBRA group! This is not marketing, this is not a level of sales recognised by employers, and thanks to whoever started this discussion since it has saved many people the time and effort of dealing with these people!

Stay away from that company.It is scam.I went for interview last week there..It is truth what people are writing about them..Do not go..door to door sales for commission..

I received a call from the number  02476 220 500 after applying for a job via the REED website. On the phone the girl seemed very friendly, insisted on me attending an interview with a Managing Director. Researching them i found that they had one crappy website which is hardly professional and then i found this site.

I believe that  02476 220 500 is a number they are using via their new coventry sector. I am awaiting my confirmation email for the interview and when i receive it i shall swiftly delete it

I received a call from someone on this number this afternoon, I have applied for lots of jobs recently and so was not sure which job this agency related to. The lady (I didnt catch her name she spoke so fast) told me that my CV had been checked by HR and I have been selected for an interview tomorrow at 2pm at Old Street. She said that she would email me all the details after 6pm tonight. I thought this was a little odd, why she couldnt email me straight away?? After repeatedly checking my email and finding nothing there I decided to google the number and found this blog, will definitely not being going tomorrow! Again, the website I have been using for my job hunting is reed so I imagine that is how they find the contact details for new recruits.

hey guys

i did the even dumber thing and rang this number myself as a mate of mine had given it thinking it was obv a decent company. so when i rang a friendly girl picked up and said 'aspire' and all i said was HI my friend gave me ur number saying u were recruiting and straight away she put me on hold then came back and said Ohhh yehh i remember and im thinking u remember what?? she asked me for my name and number and said she'd fone bak in 2 mins.


5 mins later i get a call from the 0207 251 9028 number and this time she said ok u got an interview at 1.15pm 2mrw and im thinkin hang on a min this is the fisrt time im ever talkin to u ppl and have never applied before, it was as if she already heard about me or had my details before!

i thought this was a bit dodgy and so i decided to look up the company and to my suprise came across this blog about it!

guess i wont be going to my interview 2mo coz i certainly am not gonna be workin like a dog for a peanuts!!! Will defoooo be tellin my mate aswel that this company is a piece of S**T!

CARRYING ON WITH SIGNING ON I GUESS LOL!!!

Thanks to whoever started this..... :)

I had applied for a job as a Client representative, i.e. not door to door sales. I was in London for several other interviews yesterday when I got a call from Kelly from Aspire on 0207 251 9028 and was told HR had approved my application and wanted to interview me.  

So I went for prelim interview later that day.  Eastern European man who's English I could hardly understand interviewed me, told me it was mainly B2B sales then gave me the promotion structure saying I could be marketing manager in 6-10 months.  Later I received a phone call saying I had gotten a second interview, was quite excited even though I did think it was odd to have an interview from 6-8.30pm on a Friday.  

So before I set off to London today I decided to do some research into the company.  Couldn't find a website, but found this page.  And I am glad I did.  I phoned Aspire and voiced my concerns that the role seemed quite vague and I would like a better idea of what I was going to be doing and they e-mailed me a job description.



Sales and Marketing Representative (2009)

         o Face to face, in house presentations for our client`s potential customers :
               + To acquire and/ or maintain a customer base
         o Developing strong leadership skills to build a high performance, cross-functional team environment
         o Meeting with various customers to present them with services that our clients can provide
   * Public Relations
         o Developing and implementing original training techniques to achieve internal goals
         o Outside Sales/ Marketing Training/ Corporate Communication
         o Campaign Development
         o Developing excellent verbal, written, interviewing and presentation skills
         o Customer Service
         o Focuses on increasing foot-traffic, market share, and overall awareness ;
               + To drastically improve incremental sales
               + Generate repeat business
               + Create listing relationships between our clients and their customers
         o Maintaining the integrity of clients` reputations and by ensuring the success of each campaign .
               + To deal directly with clients and their customers on a regular basis
         o Deal with a client`s specific target market and increase their market share and image within a geographic area
         o Participated in a structured development cycle of the company; spend a full day with an experienced client representative before making any final decisions
         o Knowledgeable on product knowledge during client workshop and techniques for dealing customers, clients and situations which are practiced on a regular basis


I called back and politely declined second interview as it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

it is true! these companies are not reputable and make you work without a salary, you only get a very low commission if you sold any products (on the streets or door to door) and very often they dont even pay you the commission that you have earned.
STAY AWAY from these companies!

I just got an email from aspirehrdept2@googlemail.com that they have accepted me for a prelim interview and asked me to call kelly on 0207 017 3866 if not they will call me within 24hrs, i did find it strange that this wasnt really a business email address, when i did call kelly she asked for my telephone number and email address which i found strange again as i thought they would of had my c.v. she said she will email me details and directions but said the email wont get sent until after 6pm, which i thought was strange again. I think its unfair what they are doing and should be honest and upfront about the job details as were not exactly going to be working for free.. and the job description which was on reed was retail sales and marketing. thanks to whoever started this blog i dont think i will be going for that interview after all.

ASPIRE - 1 BATH STREET - I went for an interview on Friday 26th and it was just soooo funny. The interviewer was biting his fingernail!! I found that interesting. After the promotion structure of becomeing a Manager in 3-6 months period he came out with even more interesting working hours!!! (9:30 - 20:30) !!! I belive that is not even legal. Very odd! I said no thank you and left. I know these guys know for this forum..They are very ingenious. There is even a press release posted on the net on 26th of how again someone has been promoted blah-blah-blah.. I assume for us people making a research.
Don't bother going there!!

I recieved an e mail from aspire and couldn't remember applying for the job but i passed the crazy interview stages and ,bewildered i got the job. It's tough but its good for the right kind of person. However there is a lot of secrecy and office politics, they don't tell you up front the things that you automatically find out in other jobs i.e. how the pay works, what the benefits are, what the working holidays are...from the outside it does look like a bunch of people on recreational drugs doing door to door sales.the job definately isn't for someone with a family or many friends that stay in contact with you, there's no time for a life, even a doctors appointment, there's no level of understanding how to communicate about personal issues and the "atmosphere" is always very tense even if it preaches positivity. It's usually a 12hour day and then networking that can go on for hours, i'm thinking about quitting, not because i feel i can't succeed but because i can finacially support myself whilst i learn and grow in the business...i.e. they expect you to have money for your monthly oyster, lunch, networking trips, and i'm not sure all the sacrifices i make will be worth it, i won't let them kill me like those poor souls who committed suicide in french telecom company! My warning would be to be prepared for the [***], i'm not sure anyone will ever be completley upfront with you about even the simplest of things! The options yours..........

It's true, it's 100% commission and the people pressure you in a really negative way but claim it's positive. I think i can't take it there anymore....i've been there for a while but they take the bicuit....i follwow everything they say and still no reward...........DON'T GO TO ASPIRE ACQUISITION 1 BATH STREET, LEAD BY DUNCAN CHAP! IT AINT WORTHIT(Unless you parents are rich and your very bored with no purpose in life)

Mark (posted on 11 Sep 2009) is entirely right. I used to work for them for aroudn two months. For the very few days I was quite excited, but then the reality broke through. Basically, unless you are a bloody good sales rep there is no chance you can make money. Anyway, from what I remember there used to be three companies using the same address (GM Solutions, Red Square and another one). This whole Aspire thing is apparently a Duncan Sharp's (not Chap, but thanks Selam for the info) company, he started it around a year and a half ago when I was still around (he was my manager; a great guy btw), but back then it was called Supreme, afaic. And yes, well put Selam - a good job for rich parents' bored kid, because surprisingly they were the most (and probably the only) successful people around.

I have had my 2 interviews with another company who work out of the same office as Aspire. They all share the same phone number and answer with marketing as u go through to a switch board and get transferred from them.

Some people are too quick to judge and im sure all of the people that work there no what the job intails, if they are still there its because they want to be im sure they would leave if they really wanted to. there is nothing or noone holding them there.

As far as the girls working in the Bath street offices they are all very nice friendly girls who just have a receptionists role, which is the reason why they do not discuss the job in details over the phone, it is not their job to do so.

It is not a SCAM company otherwise they would have been shut down by now u bunch of idiots.

Went for the first and second stage interview and got the job. Spoke of being skeptical about the rewards and was told everyone felt the same but after a couple of months working and moving up to assistant manager that i would soon lose this feeling. But since coming across this website and finding out they have changed names three times over a one year period, i am realising that it might not be a SCAM per say but it is definitely a misleading campaign to abuse people out of working hours and maximize their sales. Very smart of the company to be honest, use staff and dont pay them unless they get you more money first, and even then its per item sold so you dont have to worry if they work 12 hours, you aint paying them for their time... Unless you are an amazign salesman that can get 10 subscriptions a day to charities (and the record is 12 by one person who has never been beaten), this is not for you, and even if you were that good at selling, other companies will reward ten times more for your effort.

Just saw these messages when I typed ‘Aspire Acquisitions’ into Google and it does seem like a scam. Applied to the job via Reed through the following link:

http://www.reed.co.uk/Job/details.aspx?jobId=18301651

It seems like a really good marketing job with a wage of £16,000-£19,000 but quite frankly that’s a load of B*llocks! I rang my local Reed representative, who agreed that the job looked ‘dodgy’ and advised me to call them to try and suss them out, which I did. I was told by a lady named Kelly that I wouldn’t be paid a wage and that it was all commission based. She then said to me that she was going to cancel my interview, without me even asking! Seems like this company operates under a number of different names (e.g. GM Solutions, Fosters Marketing Solutions, Supreme Corporation UK, etc). I spoke to  Kelly on 02070173866. Word of warning- DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS JOB!!!! I’m glad I sussed it out before the interview!

I recieved a call (like some others I have read about on this site) saying I got the job and that I would recieve an confirming email after 6pm... when I received an email confirming the interview as a "Marketing Assistant" by Aspire also providing me with a website: http://www.aspiremktg.com for Monday 19th October, I googled the address (initially to find the location) I luckly found these warnings... shouldn't there be something against false advertising?
Well, if it is truly is only commission based and only door-to-door sales then I would have NEVER applied for this job through Reed.co.uk
I'm upset to hear that it is false advertising (basically a scam) but am happy to find the truth and not waste my time...

       ****
The email was from:

Charlotte
Administrator
Aspire
1 Bath St
London
EC1V 9LB
0207 017 3866