02072441212

Are not some of the statements by HJ bordering on libellous?
Is Always Lucky still there?

Must be bordering on a record if so!

I worked 6 terrible months for Chequepoint Amsterdam in 1990. The local boss, mr. N. was a total crook. His assistants Andrew M. and Vince G. were his adjudants who did most of the work.
They lost their licence in the Netherlands because they were not considered a decent company by the Dutch National Bank (Nederlandsche Bank). If you loose a licence in a liberal country as the Netherlands there must be quite a bit "wrong". Money laundering was daily business.

I applied to chequepoint after leaving school. My first official job, and my worst. I had 2 very short interviews, 5 days apart. After the second interview mr. N. told me that I could start the next day as a Cashier. What an experience. Many clients felt ripped off because of the hidden 9.8% commission fees. On average 25% of the clients became more or less angry. Some became very very angry. They called me all sorts of names. No one likes that, also because of the low salary. If you made a very good rip-off you got a bonus. Once an American elderly couple changed $ 20.000, they paid $ 1960 commission. Pure theft. I received about $ 100 bonus, and I felt bad for weeks. After the change you are not allowed to return the money If the customer has second thoughts. Only suited for immoral people, and even such people did not last long at chequepoint Amsterdam.
Started to work there, and after one month I could get a promotion to the position of assistant manager. I politely declined the gracious offer. Instead I was looking for a better position. Luckily, I found one and left with a big smile on my face, writing down in the till book : "Andre has left the rip-off ". Much to the annoyance of mr Vince. Afterwards I heard that he laughed his guts out. In those days, Chequepoint Amsterdam had a staff of about 40 people. But every year they hired at least 100 employees...........
If you want a [***] job? Go for it. The horrors will be beyond immagination.
They have microphones and camara's everywhere, perhaps even on the loo. To spy on the staff, off course. To one of the girls I once made a joke that I had the intention to study for the priesthood. Two days later mr. Machin asked me "when are you leaving us for the church?" That is how sad it is.
En als de heren Machin of Graham dit lezen: Ik ben uitstekend terecht gekomen. Stelletje boeven!

got a call from this same number, inviting me for an interview, was expecting a follow up email and nothing came.. what sort of scam??

Chequepoint is situated directly opposite Gloucester Road underground station behind the cash converter front in a grotty office.  Their old American HR woman Sara has now left the company and has been replaced by Pooja (a girl from India) who is using the name "ALWAYS LUCKY" in the above comments in a desperate bid to hire staff.  Most people in London are aware of the bad reputation that Chequepoint has in treating their staff members. All of their staff leave the company within 2 to 3 months of joining so you will find the same job being advertised every couple of months.  Chances are that "ALWAYS LUCKY" - aka Pooja has been sacked too because she has stopped replying to each and every comment above.

ChequePoint are finding it difficult to recruit staff because they treat their staff really badly, watching and listening to them all day long from secret cameras in order to find fault with them.  Currently they are advertising for a Financial Controller at the Reed Employment website (as they have already done many times before) - however they are now withholding their name from the job spec so you won't find out who they are until AFTER you have applied.  

If you get called in for an interview, don't bother going because you will either never get the job or if you do, you will be sacked within a couple of months when Felix the MD tells you to eff off.  Once you have Chequepoint on your C.V. you will find it impossible to find another job after you have been sacked because they will NEVER give you a good reference.  You have been warned by an insider who was sacked because Felix could not handle the truth about Chequepoint's finances!!

Come on get real, among all of these bad comments only a mysterious stranger "ALWAYS LUCKY" is singing praises about her company!

i cant believe there are so many negative comments on this company
just accept your qualifications or experience sucks therefore the reason why your dismissed or not offered a job.

DO NOT WORK HERE

i see a post from Wilkin on 28 Jan dating "DO NOT WORK HERE". seems there are two wilkins at chequepoint. i know one and that is me. let me introduce myself. my name is Wilkin and I've been at Chequepoint since 2011. i love it. would i say "do not work here? well maybe if you are whining and goes from job to job, never satisfied and always ready to blame someone else for your failures. is that you? then go and kick up a fuss somewhere else. if you want to be given room to achieve things, be part of an effective team and WORK HERE just don't expect something for nothing.

How exciting.  I love a good mystery and this sounds like it has it all! Secret cameras, on the edge of the law, volatile, dynamic, unfathomable.  Wow.  I have simply got to go to this interview.
This sounds like an experience not to be missed.  So looking forward to meeting the extraordinary Mr Grovit who sounds like he has walked straight out of a Dickens book.  Magic.
I am with always lucky, why see the glass half-empty?  Why assume?  Why pre-judge? My curiosity has been tweaked.
Perhaps I will return to tell all (if not bounded by the official secrets act, of course)

Angel

Where you are interviewed and the condition of the back office really doesn't matter. Chequepoint are a small operation and their money is obviously spent on expensive High Street rents across London.

Yes, they do come off as extremely disorganised, the vacancies are advertised on an almost permanent basis and they clearly have a high turn over of staff. The interview process is not expansive and you will not get a huge amount of information regarding a job specification (because there probably isn't one). If you are deemed a suitable candidate, Richard Hellman will scamper away to see if a member of Senior Management will talk to you. This is where you get the job or not, if someone sees you, you'll get the job, if they are too busy, you will hear nothing back about a supposed second interview.

All in all a very strange experience with Chequepoint, and my sympathy goes out to Richard as he knows that any serious person will have researched the company before attendance and be aware of their odd recruitment process and business model.

I have worked within the company for so long as I am very experienced to put together following 10 commandments of Chequepoint succesfull employee using a bit of irony to the pure facts, I have been personally witness of happening. Please, excuse my expression even in "bad words" and believe me they are stright on place.

1. Always be paranoid, because you have stolen any amount of money for sure. It is true even you havent and that is the point, capiche? Even if you really havent, your colleague did it for sure. Anyway, be patient with the madness and the crazy hysteric crisis, because it is corporate culture.

2. Snitch as many information on your dear colleagues as you can. Even the most regular activity he or she is doing is very worthy to be your colleague blamed for. This is the way you could survive for very long time, because you are considered to be loyal.

3. The customer is just a piece of crap ready to be ripped off. They are never coming back. Just get used to their crazy screams in front of the branch and get comfortable to the fact you are paid from this activity. Juggle your mind with saying "if they are so stupid and came to our branch to do the exchange, therefore they deserves to be stolen". Forget the [***] meaning of the word "ethics".

4. Do not worry by complying with the law. The company has own messy and nontransparent legal "MEMO" system issued by the management (and if you are part of the management, do not forget to issue as many MEMOs as you are able and do not worry if employees practically do not know what to do). Court proceedings are as well very popular within this company although they are losing the vast majority of cases. But pleading is considered to be official sport of the company.

5. Reporting, reporting, reporting. Nothing is more important. Even not your real job description is as much important, dude! Report could be wrong and may contains [***], but if it is delivered, where it supposed to be delivered (but in time - you could really not afford a minute of delay!), you can go home. But avoid changing colors in the excel sheet!

6. Double check if you have in every document you made an annex saying "Private and Confidential" and if you have signed it personally. Eventhough it means nothing accordingly to local law.

7. Do not be proactive and do not trying to be smart! But even if you are not, you can be fired for not having these atributes. But you could be fired for everything anyway. So, be prepared to be fired on weekly or at most fortnight basis when "senior management" visit. And if not stright fired, then just to be [***] out for any trifle, which do not give sense at all.

8. Accept the fact you are just a poor executive secretary (with duties only instead of duties and rights) eventhough your job title and job description is telling different story. Do not suggest your management any expert advice, because despite your knowledge, work description and your experiences, they wont be taking you in a serious way. Just tollerate will of the "senior management", which is just fullfilling any higher nonsense commands and their arrogant behaviour. If you think something should be done in any particular way, because it is logic and gives sense, be sure the management will take the other solution.

9. If you do something for the benefit of society, expect warning letter. Expect warning letter for any activity you have done, because warning letter should be awarded even for the most ridiculous crap. And do not try to oppose or you will get another one for your right!

10. It is very important to investigate every piece of [***]. As well, let yourself treat like a peace of [***] and answer immediatelly "yes" on every question. It is very sympathic to the management. But just do not solve out the important core things! It should harm the company.

I see things have not changed!
Quite funny really.

Its funny how this page has gone from whose called me. Into an employee forum (of Sorts)...... oh well. There are lots of other jobs out there so go find them.

I think almost everyone has

I worked at the Gloucester road head-office over 10 years ago, reporting to Felix Grovit every Friday who would fly in from Brussels and stay in London for the weekend. Over a few years I saw about 60 people leave, mostly sacked, so people there last about 6 months on average. Many senior people left good jobs to come work there only to find themselves unemployed shortly after Grovit used them for their fresh ideas and shat them out.

Grovit (real name Fareeh Ishmail I recall) is a horrible little man who swears a lot, wears stupid tweed jackets, wears funny orange glasses and has an office which is so dark you can hardly see him (which is a good thing!!!).

He is a thief and a crook....I could name so many examples. And I will  :)

Watch future posts.

My world! Chequepoint, BCF, Cash 22, Harada and etc. or many more, belongs to the same guy, being used to move money around for the purpose of tax evasion.

A guy called Pera is an active director of all the 33 companies, Mr. Grovit is not the company director on the books anywhere. Keeping in mind, he would be rejected in any interview at the first instance.

Guy called Brian, he blasted Grovits and HO lately by sending out an e-mail outlining the sort of stuff company is up to and how 1970's style of management is in practice, which left HO in state of shock and resulting in HR covering up through a follow up e-mail.

Now comes Wilkin, who knows how to buy time by pretending to be occupied where as his tactics of leaf-letting rarely works and funnily enough, he considers himself International Marketing Manager, knowing little or nothing about marketing strategies.

Facts:

Approximately over 10 Area Managers have been sacked or either left in the span of 6 months

Branch level turnover is horribly high, those who have survived over six months are the only ones who are secured because Employment Law protects them from straight dismissal

On average, 3-4 cashiers are dismissed on a weekly basis

Senior management runs by Grovits only, Richard has left, New HR lady is already under stress and not too sure why she is still coping up with all the crap

This company has been exposed in the industry of performing shady ways of ripping customers off by charging higher interest rates and commission

PS: It will only go down because from the beginning till end, I only saw it declining and now it is heading for disaster

List of management staffs who have left/sacked in the period of 1 years from HO:

Berry, Kate, David Baker, Chirs, Vipul, Jaz, Matthew, Anna, Rohan, Richard, Niel, Allan, Brian Linker, Mustafa Aziz, Sharon, Du Preez, Anil, William, IT: Hitesh, Nadeem, Simon, Givaani.

The above list does not include Branch level managers and cashiers, I would say multiply the total number of stated names by 2 or 3.

Does anybody know that senior Grovit once sacked his own son and hired him again after an year  when he couldn't find work anywhere!

Pera has been sacked once 6 years ago, he was hired again at the cashier's position and eventually was promoted as senior Grovit's partner in crime!

Facts related to Cash 22/Berkeley Credit and Finance:

The company is insured against any employee accidentally buying fake gold or a very good replica at the branches

However, when an employee mistakenly buys a fake gold, company deducts the money from his salary and later on claim the same amount of money from the insurance provider.

Effectively, if an employee buys £100 worth of fake gold, company collects £100 from him/her and £100 from insurance company - this makes it a commission structure of 100%, so company is better off earning money through this means :)

Employee salaries:

No one is ever get paid for the over-time, their is always a discrepancy in salary calculation, on average employees are paid less than what they actually entitled for.

Employee contract spells out the T&C's for bonus scheme, however if the bonus paid is supposed to be £100 for each staff member, only £25 - £50 is given - Leaves employees unhappy!

Dreadful Facts:

Most of the company branches have witnessed Debt Collectors coming in and close to shutting down the shops

Company never pays the service providers, here is the scenario explaining "how the cash level is maintained":

New store is opened in January, Electricity bill arrived in April for 1st quarter, Finance department will try to deny the fact by saying - place was only opened recently, which leaves a room for legal proceedings, this allows company to manage the cash flow until and unless Bailiffs are present, in this case the funds are cleared instantly :)

Wilkin - Self proclaimed (International Marketing Manager):

Keeps the Adobe photo shop open all day, pretends to be designing leaflets or branch interior

In order to secure his job, he always suggest the production of new style of leaflets, sadly every time the leaflet drop process is organised, the branches see no improvement in sales

Expert in sucking up, which keep his job secured - this is my first hand experience as I used to share the office room with him

I doubt he would know that in order to market the business one needs to apply the perfect mix of marketing 4 P's and he consistently applies below the line techniques of marketing where as the entire world is now using above the line strategies.

Following is the tricky commission and interest structure of the company:

Chequepoint Ltd.:

All the currencies are sold for 5% less than Forex spot rate

On top, customers are charged 5-8% commission too

Overall, every transaction results in collecting 10-12% profit - commission + gross margin

Cash 22/ Berkeley Credit and Finance (Pawnbrokers):

Gold rates offered are 40% less than market rate, where as all the competitors work on 10-15% profit window

Pawning rates are lower than 40% threshold, interest charged is 11.9% for any amount, where as competitors start from 5% and only go up to 8%

Prepaid master card is a rip off - 3% commission is charged for topping up the money only, so for every £100 top-up, customers pays £9 fees, for every transaction customer is charged £2.50

Facts about AML process in Chequepoint:

The company pretends to adheres with anti-money laundering guidelines, and supposedly runs a test, for which answers are provided before hand in order to save the time.

In reality, Pera, the accountant, the liaison officer, the director, the finance manager, the cash flow manager , the auctioner and etc, attempts to carry out hefty transactions from foreign visitors without requesting for source documents. This is due to, so company can charge the customer higher commission (around 25-45%), mind you, the transactions of such level occur only once a week, and the criterion of eligibility is for any amount over £5k.

Berkeley credit and finance Ltd, the pawnbroking arm, is a black listed company with the Credit Expert agencies, therefore the trading name is Cash 22 Ltd, so the consumers can be fooled.

The changing of name for operational entities, such as Berkeley Credit and Finance, is an annual process, controls by in-house lawyers, who are also the victim of bully and prone to frequent dismissals.