02070173866

Got a call today from Aspire 02072519028 after applying for a Trainee Marketing Assistant job via reed. The lady said that she wanted to invite me for an interview the next day at their office in London, Bath Street. She said that she would email me all of the directions after 6.30pm, but she never explained more about the job and what it entailed. So i decided to google the company but i had trouble finding a website, or proper address. Now iv'e been scammed like this before with people calling me for jobs that either involve you paying for a non essential course or door to door sells so i started to get suspicious. They email you a bloody book on how to get there and promotional opportunities that, lets face it dont exist! Thank God i found this blog otherwise i would have wasted money and time. Do not fall for this scam or others like it, stay vigilant people!

I can't believe some of these comments, to be honest I think they are very commical. If you havent realised first of all I'm sure they wouldn't have called you if you didn't apply for the role. I have read that some people feel because they have a degree or a masters that the role with aspire is above them. This is very interesting because if you were that qualified and that much of an asset I do not understand why you would be applying for roles that state no experience needed?? This is quite puzzling to me. Also I have a masters in business administration and I see that as just a piece of paper, it doesn't validate me. Personally I have been working with aspire for around 3 months now and at the start I was very sceptical about the opportunity to progress so quickly. So what I did was find out things for myself rather than just letting other people make up my mind for me and I have loved the personal growth and progression I have made in all different aspects of the business. I have seen for myself people getting through the program quickly and are doing well so I guess seeing is believing. It can't be a scam if they are able to work with such a strong client portfolio they have which is constantly growing, it just makes no sense. Considering the majority of the comments here are made from people that couldn't handle working that hard, people who just made their minds up from other peoples opinions and people who quit on themselves. Being successful doesn't come easy, Just ask any successful people you know (family friends), ask them what they had to do to be a success. I guess Duncan Banentine is an idiot as he started his career driving an ice cream van. Also Richard branson started by busking outside train stations. I guess those guys did quite well for themselves. I guess I'm just as dumb as them as I am o.k in starting in a position that I don't particularly like to progress a lot quicker than others then so be it (i must be brainwashed...lol). If this was such a scam I dont know how they would be able to expand into spain and other countries. Hmmmmm.... Very strange. I wish you guys good luck in your jobs search and I will keep on being scammed I guess.

I initially thought this might be a fantastic job oppurtunity. But from the comments i've read, i will not bother to attend the interview. To every rumuor, there is an element of truth. Thanks guys.

Offices at this Bath Street location are part of a national network started by a bunch of Americans arriving here in 2007, with ties to a US company called Smart Circle. It is separate from the (otherwise very similar) operation run by the Cobra Group, although some managers may have defected from Cobra. The US side is exposed in this video from Fox News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzpQ1GzShH8

As several posters have noted, the job is commission-only door to door sales and 'employees' have to sign away their rights by declaring themselves independent contractors. Expansion is recruitment-driven, so it is a pyramid scheme in all but the narrowest legal sense. Other companies in the network include:

AKW ACQUISITIONS or AKWA
AMM DIRECT LTD
ASPIRE ACQUISITIONS
BLUE MOUNTAIN INNOVATION
BRADFORD MARKETING
BUSINESS ADVERTISING LIMITED
CASTLE ROAD MARKETING
CEDAR DIRECT LTD
CO & CO MARKETING LIMITED
EA WORLDWIDE ACQUISITIONS
FOSTERS MARKETING SOLUTIONS
G FORCE MARKETING
HEYES CLIENT SERVICES
JL ACQUISITIONS
JPK ADVERTISING LTD
KEY STONE DIRECT / KEYSTONE DIRECT
LMC MARKETING LTD
LONDON MARKETING SERVICES
MARCHANT MARKETING
ORRICK MARKETING SOLUTIONS
OVAL INNOVATION LTD
P&D MARKETING LTD
PARKER WORLDWIDE
POWERHOUSE DIRECT
PRIMUS UK
PURE SOLUTIONS DIRECT
R&S MARKETING SOLUTIONS
RED SQUARE DIRECT
SOURCE MARKETING DIRECT
SRM MARKETING LTD
SUPREME CORPORATION UK
TH NATIONWIDE
UNIK CORPORATION
VI MARKETING SOLUTIONS

WELL I AM PRETTY MUCH CONFUSED NOW.SOME PEOPLE HAVE MADE IT,SOME NO.
AT FIRST I DIDN T FIND IT STRANGE,IN FACT I VE AN APPOINTMENT WITH THEM TOMORROW.THEY CALLED ME ON FRIDAY, THE SAME NUMBER,DIFFERENT PEOPLE(CAN T REMEMBER THEIR NAMES),ARRANGING DIFFERENT TIMING,BUT WHAT REALLY GOT ME SCARED IS THE LACK OF INFORMATION ON THEIR WEBSITE,AND THE FACT THATTHEY ARE USING THE SAME ADDRESS.IT S REALLY SAD TO KNOW SUCH THING,WITH THE CORRENT RECESSION GOING ON.IT S NOT FUNNY AT ALL,DON T THINK I LL BE GOING TO THAT INTERVIEW TOMORROW AND THANK GOD FOR SENDING ME TO THIS FORUM.

Thank god my friend showed me this...had an interview arranged with this company but don't like how dodgy this sounds so will be cancelling.

You should be also aware of company named Oval Innovation Ltd ! It fallows the same scenario- dodgy office,loud music, very unprofessional enviroment!
Complite waste of time!

I got a phone call from the offices at bath street, i orignally applied for a retail advisor position which had a salary of 18k - 20k. i got an interview few days later asking me to come in. I went in for a first interview, there was about 30 people waiting to be seen. The actual interview was not even 5 mins, just a few basic question. Later they call you saying that you have been invited for a second interview and that you were lucky to get it.

When you actually go for the second interview, the same 30 people who were there the day you went for the second interview are there. In my first interview i was not told it would be door to door sales, i was told it would be office based with a fixed salary. Which is a lie. They sent me out for the day with a guy called Stan, he was a greek guy. Really nice person in to his job and tried hard. He did actually make 3 sales that day. But you could tell he wanted them bad. I was out in haringey with stan till 10.30 pm and we still had to go back to the office, and report and have a final interview.

I was really tired i wanted to go home, my legs were aching. They told me i got the job and tried to make me feel low by saying i aint made no proper money in a long time and time to make decent money and how i could become a manager quickly. That day as Stan was a nice person and the other people who had work there was nice to, i thought why not give it a try. The next day when i woke up. I regretted it and never even turend up for my first day.

It is not worth it, these guys take on anyone, they even had a guy who i went school with, who has no skill or anything, he is literally unemployable.

If you like being out for 12 hours on your foot by yourself and dont really care about money then go for it.

Otherwise i woudlnt recommend anyone to go for it

Use your own judgement people. If it sounds too good to be true... then it probably is!!

EA Worldwide ....
Aspire Aquisitions

Both in London , both use Total Jobs and Gumtree to advertise... lots of people go for the interview... .. some stay.. make no money and leave a couple of weeks later ...sad and more knowledegable than when they first went in.

Yes they are a SCAM..if you believe working for NO money is correct. Commission only jobs are for the super heros.. time share boys... double glazing sales... kitchen sales... no sale.. no pay ...

All weather conditions!!

Dream on .... Avoid these people at all costs!!!

Whilst I can understand the general consensus of people who do feel that this is a scam, the basis of what this company does is very clever. You start of working for X company as you move up they say you can be a managing director. This is completely true. The group of companies all use the same company secretary (RDA CO SECS LIMITED) from what I can understand that each of the company will pay part of their comissions to the companies higher up in the group however they all have links to each other. I believe it is a completely ligitimate company although their company secretary is a non trading company?!
Obviously the enviroment that people are placed in really weeds out the candidates who are serious from those that thought it was a quick  way to make some money. The reality is that companies like this and Cobra can really make copious amounts of money for people, it will be that for the start of this job that you will not be earning much if any as it is not the easiest to sell to consumers, however they do say they do events and B2B I would definately suggest that you try and get into the B2B selling as it is much more forgiving for new comers to the sales industry and people you call tend to be more friendly!
Good luck to any body that decides to go for the job, they will accept anybody but thats the nature of the job, if they didnt they could be letting a potentially brilliant sales person slip away. The unfortunate thing is that if you arent a good sales person this is not the job for you. For all of those that are confident in their selling ability this job will allow you to flourish and within the year you will be set up with your own company doing exactly what you were trained to do. Once you are offered this position though they may have given you enough information on their clients that you can set up privately and not have to give the (presumably high) comission cuts to the parent company.

i recieve a call from this no the name of the company is Oval Innovation ltd. is is the same Gm company

Aspire is... let's just say an 'interesting' company, and would love for people to share their (maybe good, but lets be honest, mainly bad) experiences with the company, and other such company's. Would especially love to hear if you've worked there for more than a day (so you passed the 'Day of Observation').

please email me: neeki_09@yahoo.com

This has obviously been going on for a long time...i too had an email today from a girl called Kelly, it went as follows:

Thank you for your interest in a career with us!  After carefully reviewing your past experiences and skills, you have been selected for a preliminary interview.

We are an International Sales/Marketing Company situated in London. Our company designs and executes promotional packages and on-site promotions for our clients in various industries. Due to our continuous success with our clients we are expanding rapidly, which has led to us look to recruit for various opportunities.  We are looking to provide training from entry level in sales/marketing, customer service and promotions with the chance to progress through to management for the more ambitious.

Please phone our office directly on 0207 017 3866 as soon as possible to set up your preliminary interview. Please ask for Kelly when calling. We will also attempt to call you within 24 hours.

We look forward to hearing from you soon..

Kelly

If they call me I will certainly be ignoring their call.

It is v.sad that a business is running this way, but they are certainly not the only ones. There are several companies in Nottingham that all run out of one office (the company i got dragged in by was called Star) they too are a Sales company who are commission only...but they do not tell you this until you have been for two interviews...

I came back from travelling and have struggled to find work of any shape or form because people just do not reply to emails, telephone calls etc. it seems there are so many talented people who are being overlooked.

I got exactly the same email today, and no other information such a proper website to do some research on the company. Avoid at all costs, no way am I wasting my time working for free for a scam company.

Same thing guys! Not going after reading this, this time the company named itself Aspire and the lady was called Kelly!

Its unbelievable. how can they get away with it? i treid to report them on reed.co.uk but the website doesnt have the 'report' button. sahme. these pricks should pay for what they are doing to people! is it even legal to mislead potential employees like that??

Almost fell for it, but after researching Aspire and Oval, managed to cancel interview.
Why do they con people and how do they get away with it.
Why do Reed allow them on website?
Reed's reputation has gone way down in my books.
Tried calling Reed over and over again, but they didn't seem to be
answering their phones!!!
Wonder why!!!

Wow and heres me getting all excited over this good job i looked into this
And Bath street is the street i live on so i may just pay them a little visit see whats really going on

i have been receiving calls/emails from these numbers offering interviews - nothing adds up and many details they provide are outright lies.
Another name they go by are Oval Innovations. If you are unsure check websites - these seem to say a lot about nothing and also aim their schpeel at potential employees rather than clients. Outrageous!

I had my 'interviews' this weekend. They didn't tell me I'd be going out door to door so I wasn't wearing a coat and froze. Wish I'd just stopped then but took me until next day to really click what it was. It's basically half way between a scam and job with actual prospects. They rely on a high turnover of staff at the entry level of their progression structure to work for them for at least a limited period doing the door to door sales (on performance based pay), as this is the basis of the business (the fact that there are multiple names I'll get too below). After a while most people, and this is probably expected by the management, will drop out (as its [***] work) to be replaced by new meat, with only a very few, who for whatever reason have stuck it out, getting 'promoted', and promotion just means you co-ordinate door-to-door sales more. The reason for lots of names is because, so I was told, everyone is self-employed from the beginning and if you are one of the very few that 'progress' you start making your own business links and your own company within the framework by whoever started the pyramid, thus why there is one address and one number for seemingly lots of 'companies'. So there you have it, there is a very very slim chance of making the big bucks they promise, but the odds are heavily against you and, like most pyramid schemes (which i think describes it well) the later you join the less opportunity there is (all the  really succesful people that my 'interviewer' was telling me about seemed to have started working when the set-up was in its infancy.) So its something you have to make your own mind up on people. I'm glad with my decision.