Firebird Scentura Purfume - Larry Hahn SCAM!! lies!! Elmhurst Illinois

Just wanted to warn people that they are now in California and using the name GTW management.

Please be careful! It is very sad that these things happen.

Let me start off by saying that I never worked for any Scentura office, I'm in law school, I've already had a great career for years. You see I did it the hard way unlike Mr. Ewers and these other Scentura clowns. I started out in troubleshooting with Comcast(AT&T Broadband at the time) before college. While in college I did direct sales for Primerica and Vector during my summer breaks. After college I went into Human Resources

for a small medical provider of home healthcare and in two years I moved my way up to VP of the department. Three years ago I accepted an offer to become CEO of a small company that specializes in adult education. One year ago I enrolled part-time in Law School. I've had several people tell me first hand about the unethical business practices these Scentura cult leaders engage in.



Did I make as much as these Scentura cult leaders claim to make while moving my way up? No. But I did it honestly, without scamming people and I am now making 6 figures and I know a thing or two about running a business.

You see I provide my employees with benefits including health insurance, dental, vision, 401k, disability and life insurance upon hire, Scentura provides none.

I pay all my employees for the hours they WORK plus time and half for anything over 40 hours per week, plus bonuses for bringing in new business. Scentura pays only commission.

When we're looking for sales people we advertise for sales people, not managers. Have good sales people been promoted? You bet. But we also have an Accounting department, a Human Resources department, a PR department an IT department plus all our teachers and case managers. I personally would prefer hiring people with

experience in their respective fields where as Scentura will bring on any idiot off the street as long as they're easily brainwashed or plain just greedy.

We have a website, an established customer base, all of our sales people are comped for all the miles they drive plus expenses they incur and all my employees have business cards which the I pay for, even the non sales staff. That's pretty much standard at every company nowadays. Accept for maybe food service and retail which Scentura people seem to think is the only other option out there.

If YOU have been burned by a Scentura distributor you can take some action against them. Will it take the whole company down? No. Will it work against one office? It can and it has. Will we take down every office? Probably not. Can you get them out of your town? Well that depends on you.



TAKING ACTION AND GETTING AN OFFICE SHUT DOWN!
The life-blood of these offices is the classified ads. If their classifieds are no longer allowed in the newspapers the distributor will not be able to place their ads and the pyramid will collapse. They will be forced to close down shop and move to an area where the local papers have yet to catch on.

The first thing you have to do is write a letter or email to the newspaper classifieds as well as websites where these ads are placed. Be sure to keep it professional. If you live in a large metropolitan area this could take a lot of work so be patient and stick with it. Read other newspapers classifieds and search other job sites to find more of these ads and send letters/emails to them.

Before sending the letter it is important to include;

• Your own experiences
  . Don't forget the name of the business as well as the name of the paper/website that the false/misleading ads are in. Stress that this is a business opportunity
  
  , not a job. Therefore, it should not be advertised as a job.
  
  
  
• The Illinois Appellate Court ruling. This case ruled that a contract between Scentura Creations and a distributor/owner was part of a pyramid sales scheme, violated the law and was unenforceable. Click this link and print out the case http://www.state.il.us/court/Opinions/AppellateCourt/2001/2ndDistrict/September/Html/2000964.htm
  
  
  
  
• Testimonials from former owners
  and News
  stories. Just use Google or Bing
  

If the letter doesnt work, send another more stern letter. Send multiple letters or emails if you have to!!!

Then send letters to other news sources warning them of the misleading ads.

This way they wont be able to advertise elsewhere as a back up plan.

You can find some sample letters in the thread below. They were posted by JD back in 2005. Just know the letters are a bit dated so be sure to make them as professional and up-to-date as possible. There also are tons of websites that can give advice on writing good professional letters.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Sales-People/Platinum-Marketing-I/platinum-marketing-internation-n879d.htm

For testimonials
from former employees and owners look in this thread under the poster Noah from Chicago.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/corrupt-companies/essence-unlimited-sc/essence-unlimited-scentura-c-m5f98.htm

Other measures include:

Starting petitions;

Writing your local politicians

such as State Representatives

, City Councilmen/women

, Aldermen/women

; Contacting News Agencies.

ONCE AGAIN. Im open to ANY ideas!

I think anyone who has been "scammed" by a Scentura affiliate should acknowledge at least in part that the "scam artist" at one time bit the same bait that lured you in and either made a successful go at it or is more likely trying to recover his/her losses or is MOST likely trying desperately to survive. The latter two likelihoods are unfortunate for ALL involved, like being a victim of a victim, because it did not HAVE to be this way. The business model should work and it has worked very well in the past when the internet, for instance, was not so popular and sites like this did not exist. It`s about excitement and hype for sure - billions of advertising dollars are spent every year to "lure" you in; into the department store, so that once you`re in you`re lured to buy a product. You bought the hype. It`s psychology and its a numbers game. The Scentura model wad designed to teach you this. There was never a guarantee of success, but an opportunity. Like a try-out, not everybody makes the team. Those who don`t fall into one of two categories: acceptance (Thanks but no thanks.) or bitterness (I can`t do it and neither should anyone else.) It`s much easier to be negative than to be positive; it`s human nature, just like it`s much easier to  lay in bed than to get up in the morning. It`s easier to be lazy than to be motivated. Financial freedom requires Very Very HARD WORK! Negativity loves company and the easiest way to attract it is to jump onto a website like this and start spewing it. This unfortunately has been the demise of an otherwise legitimate business. People want to believe it sounds too good to be true and they found someone to confirm their suspicions. From there the negativity s****.>

 Check out This Website: futureoffragrance.com

Alright alright alright.  My favorite another blow-out that didn't even make it for a Orientation.  And then that same old negative blow-outs tryin to defend them for being negative and unemployed.  But anyways heres some answers:

1. Why do we send people in the field?  Everyone has to learn how to sell the product.  If you manage a Ford dealership you better know how to sell a car, if you manage one of our offices you better know how to sell perfume.  And people don't have to go on the streets for one, I perfer bussiness and office buildings myself.  Second we do bussiness in Parking Lots which is private property and up to the owner wether they want someone selling products on their lot or not.  If we get asked to leave we do.  And there are a lot of bussiness that know our product and love our product and know our bussiness and let our people "post" at their bussiness to sell the product.  Direct sales has been around forever and it's not going anywhere if what we did was illegal none of us would be in bussiness.  Have I ever had a person get a ticket?  Yes, but it's because they were asked to leave and didn't it wasn't for the sales and yes I paid the ticket.  Have I ever had a person get a ticket for sales yes, and the very few that is has been for over six years now not one of them had to pay because they were all dropped when shown the bussiness Lic. and sales tax Lic. 

2.  Every contest that we give out we pay out.  If there is a group goal and the goal isn't met then the profits weren't generated to pay out the bounus.  That's why there is a group goal for the contest.  And I have payed out a $1000 bonus to the top person in a friends and family contest.  And I've seen it handed out numerous times. 

3.  I have never once posted a ad for a receptionist position ever for one, but do run ads for office jobs because it is a office job upon completion of training.  Ask any really successfull office manger when is the last time they were in the field. 

4.  Any person who has ever completed the training averaged between $200-$500 a week during training if not more, I've had people pick up more then $1200 in a week during training.  Now if the person like this one or like Noah is a blow-out in less then three weeks they probably didn't make much of anything but once you get it you got it and you can make a lot of money during training.  If the company made me just do sales I would easily make $30-$40 thousand a year just doing the sales my self, but good thing I have the oppertunity to have a unlimited income as a manager. 

5.  That isn't a company vacation, that's a satellite.  And there are company vacations, I've been on 6 were they paid my airfare, my hotel, and some of my meals.  But they don't pay for the $200 concert tickets or when I went and seen the Blue-man crew or the $1000 hands of poker or black jack.  That comes out of my pocket. 

6.  Well I guess for the same reasons you blow-outs bash us.  I've had my sexuality questions been called numerous names and all over and yet my worst response to you is that you are stupid, and you are unemployable, but I also always wish you good luck. 

7.  I believe it was the contract that was multi-level not the company.  Scentura is a Distributor of top of line renditions fragrances.  What the difference between us and a multi-level is there is no investment, which there isn't, there are no fees and no one ever has to buy anything.  Now multi-level is not illegal Mary-Kay, Avon, Amway are all very successfull multi-level companies but you do have to buy or invest in the company.  We ask for 60-120 days of working hard, being honest, good attitude, a little desire for someone to be their own bussiness owner.  So there is no scam and if you do read into your one little piece of ammo that you post on every claim you'll read that the only ones who can screwed is us, being office managers, and Scentura because everything is on a consignment basis.  No one can ever say they didn't "get paid"  you get the money first.  Then the office and then Scentura.  The reason there are so many reports is because of uneducated idiots like yourself don't do the real research.  Most of the "reports" are from people that were in the bussiness for less then 3 weeks, and most of them less then 3 days.  It's pretty hard to be successfull in 3 days or 3 weeks.  Noah which one was it for you 3 days or 3 weeks?  And anyone who got a office and didn't succeed is because of their work habits.  I tell every person that gets promoted into their own office that they have to work harder for themselfs then they did for me.  Some of them choose to get lazy and what you put in is what you get out.  I've made the choice to make this work for me, I've been here for over 6 years, I have Zero debt and all the money to do the things that I want to do.  Others are lazy, but this company has produced HUNDEREDS of people making over a 6 figure income and lots and lots of millionaires.  As a matter of fact I believe Rob has been making a 6 figure income for over 15 years??  And Early is a new regional and by definition your makeing at leat $125,000 and he's 23? 

8.  Well heres how I look at it some will some won't so what.  I give the oppertunity some people take advantage of it.  And then there are others like noah who sit around on their computers and slander hard working people.  Maybe it's jealousy, maybe they are just negative because they are unemployed, or broke, or whatever but it works for a whole lot of us.  And someone will walk into my office soon and it'll work for them and a year from now they'll be successfull and noah you'll still be posting the same old crap from 2001.  Wake up buddy it's almost 2010. 

So happy holidays to all the blow-outs hope christmas is good for you.  While I'll be gone for the holidays spending my earned income and getting ready for taxes and the best time of the year in our bussiness.  Yes Jan-Feb are better then Dec.  I still wish you all good luck. 

Hello again Rob and Earley! We've had our back and forth and EVERY time you both dance around the issues at hand to brag about how much money you make and others can make through your borderline criminal pyramid scheme tactics.

So for the 5th or 6th time, I implore you to give us some honesty!!!! Please answer the following questions. Failure to answer these questions truthfully will result in me posting more facts about Scentura and the next one will be a testimonial from a former owner of seven years. Soooo here it goes;

1. Why do you send people out to sell on the streets without sales permits? You know it's illegal but you send people out anyway! When they get a ticket or a court date do you help them?

2. Why do you hold contests for large cash prizes and fail to deliver? You know it's true, you tell people that the ones who sell the most during FFAAR will get a generous cash prize (in my case $750) and lie to them the next day saying the group as a whole didn't sell enough.


3. Why do you post ads for receptionists and office help when that's not what the job entails? And don't try to tell me that you only advertise for management because you know that's BS.

4. Why do you lie about how much people will make during training? You tell people they can make hundreds a week but they don't. I've read countless accounts from people who worked for a Scentura branch for months and took home close to nothing. I even read accounts from owners that said the majority of what you make pays for the office and advertisements and you take home little to nothing in the end.

5. Why do you promise company vacations when you're really just making people sell in other towns? You know you make them pay for everything themselves and I'm sure you're familiar with the term room bottle.

6. Why do you call people such mindless, unprofessional and immature names like weak piece of s**t if they don't play into your deception? Earley you may remember calling me a f**king idiot for posting facts because you had no real response or intelligent answer for me


7. If this isn't a scam as you two continue to claim. Why are there so many reports against this company? Also, why did the Better Business Bureau and an Illinois State ruling call Scentrua a multi-level selling company? Don't try saying that Ford, McDonalds and Wal-Mart have complaints against them too! These companies are at least upfront about their job duties, they pay their employees a steady paycheck and they don't try selling to random people in parking lots without the proper permits.

8. How do you sleep at night? This is a question of conscious so don't go bragging about how expensive your house, bed or car are because it's all from dirty money no matter how you look at it. I really don't understand how you guys live with yourselves by taking advantage of so many young professionals that are just trying to get ahead.

Here's your chance to come clean so don't try saying I'm not being fair!

wow i really respect what u said I try to tell alot of people that its not the opportunity thats giving but its what u do with it By the way I am an owner in Lanham Md I am apart of the dream team schott division. This is my 2nd week as a branch manager my name is earley gaynor and I am a black male that is 22 yrs old running my own office this is the greatest opp. going point blank period.

office number is 301 577 6694

We appreciate the fact that were not here for your interview. If you believe that by paying at most a couple hundred dollars (or free if you have the know how) to set up a glitzy website makes the company, then you also believe the clothing makes the person! Very shallow Ken. Truth be told, we do have a website and it is used for the purpose of customers ordering our scents over the net. Unless you are a customer trying to order, we feel no obligation to tell you that site. We do not use that site for recruiting or hiring purposes! We are not a multi level marketing company nor a pyramid scheme. We do not ask people for an investment. People recruited into our company do not obligate themselves to purchasing products or kits. There are no fees. As a matter of fact, our people earn an income during training. It is true that people of various abilities will earn differing incomes, but, I know that to be the case in all business'. When we develop someone for management or ownership, that person does not fund the opening of their location out of their own pocket. People that still think the info. acquired on the web from anonymous sources versus meeting face to face with the people who work their butts off on a day to day basis to provide a great model is just ludicrous. Come on, get into 2009! 10 years ago, these people with their ridiculous claims were threatening to all business'. Internet savvy people of 2009 and beyond understand that every business that operates on a nationwide or beyond level has the goons who blog about the companies immorality, poor practices, lack of direction, poor management, etc.... is always written by someone who is very bored and is usually very jealous. Society has always been the have nots complain and bi*ch about the have's. Just like a sportscaster or writer criticizing an athlete for their on field play, or, how much money the person makes for their abilities. Or the divorced person providing guidance on marriage. Or the broke financial planner offering investment tips. You were obviously given an opportunity to learn the business and get promoted to your own.. You had the ability to run your potential business however you saw fit. You could have run a model office and shown all of us idiots the right way to run a company. But, NO, you couldn't cut the mustard. I understand that there are many good people who try the training program and, for reasons of their own, throw in the towel. But, they take their experiences as that, learn from them and utilize those experiences to their benefit elsewhere. Many people date lots of other people before they settle into a marriage. They are supposed to have learned from all those experiences and utilize them to grow their relationship. But, I am sure there are many people that choose to complain about their previous relationships instead. How about getting a better outlook on life and stop talking yourself into believing that when a person decides to quit something, it's because of what someone else or something else did to them. It's a choice! In this opportunity, all the managers and owners all went through similar training experiences to todays trainees. The owners are the diamonds who were able to withstand the pressures. That is true of anybody in a high level in any business. The people who are making it have made a choice! To stop quitting everything they try and finally stick to something that they, as well as others, can benefit from too. There is NO BETTER OPPORTUNITY THAN THE ONE YOU CREATE FOR YOURSELF!!! Look at what is happening in this country with all the people who thought they had "job security" and "financial security". This trend happens every few years. Companies lay off to help the bottom line, profits rise, they hire more people to meet demand, and then the process begins all over again. The people at Firebird and other similar business' just chose to break the cycle for themselves. Nobody likes ending up on the short end of the stick, but, you had and have a choice. We don't ask anything of a candidate other than a good attitude, show up on time , be consistant, develop good personal habits, and show you are trustworthy. So, remeber, the further you throw yourself out there, the more you open your self up to criticism. So, becoming successful is a mental and emotional thing. Weather the storm!!! You won't regret it. You'll learn, grow, develop self worth, grow to understand and have values, and make money along the way. And if you really want it, develop into being the boss of your own location. On our money, not yours! R and R

Dear John,
Congratulations on finding and maintaining your dream job for the past 14 years! It is rather odd that you would write a critical blog about a company that you have never worked with or for! The people that you name were, at best, Asst. Branch Mgr.'s many, many years ago with a completely different company. They never had any sort of relationship to or with the owners of this company. Very odd that all these years later, you would spend the time to comment on a business that must be so, so far in your rearview mirror. If you are disgruntled towards people you were associated with 14 years ago, then blog under an entry about them. You have chosen to complain about a business that has never had any relationship to these people or these circumstances. So, even though I am one of the company "knuckleheads", at least there is merit to my rebuttal.

I just called there to set up a interview with them next week and whe I asked them for thier website she sais it was down. That for me was a red flag so now it took me to this site, And I really do appreciate what I saw It looks like I am free next wendnesday no interview now


Thank yOU

Unfortunately, I do not have near enough time to write this report properly. Let me start by saying this outfit and others like it are a MONUMENTAL WASTE OF TIME AND YOUR MONEY. If you have no conscience and don't mind taking the little hope that some people have left, then I guess this might work for you. If you have a thread of decency, you would never be able to do to people what these so-called enteprenuers do. I know. I was in the program. I ascended to the EO level and got "my own office". In fact, I faked it long enough that I was actually a day away from signing a lease for my DC (Distribution Center) when I quit. I did the "powercar's, satellite's and 21-club's". I received the training in how to present the whole program to others...I was coached the whole time during my EO to DC transition. To those of you who still claim this is an honest living, your delusional at best. This is just an excercise to weed out those who can't scam others, from those who are good at it. The better you are at it, the better you'll do roping in trainees to make money off of. I saw a Regional Owner get run out of the business. Saw another Regional Owner empty out the office of the Owner I mentioned previously. In fact, as a DC owner under the Regional Owner, I was asked to help empty out the office. The plan was to get to the office very early on a Saturday morning so that no landlord presence was in the buillding, that way, we could just take all the furniture etc and run out on the rent that was owed by the previous owner. That landlord (of a nice upscale office building) was out thousands of dollars now. The low-life's that I credit for distracting me for 8 months are Mike Hillaeus and Kevin Kaczmarek. I started working out of an office in Burr Ridge. If I ever meet either one of them again, there will be no misunderstanding of my feelings toward them. Like I said, I don't have enough time to go into every negative that resulted from my getting hooked by these moron's, but 14 years later I can say the only positive thing that experience did for me, was to lead me to the job I currently have where I am making way more than any of these knuckleheads. I like coming to work at a normal office enviornment, I enjoy doing work that I am not ashamed of (approaching people in parking lots and in their places of business to sell watered down perfume gets old after a while...and don't think you won't be asked to do that...you will, almost everyday you "work" there), and I enjoy earning a very generous paycheck for the honest work that I give my company. To close, if you are reading this report because you are debating about whether to go in for the interview or not.......You have better things to do in your life than waste your time, effort and money with this pyramid scheme. Pass on this negative experience and get on to something that you can feel good about. I'm sure one of the company knuckleheads, still drinking the company punch, will enter a rebuttal to my posting....To them I say go ahead, there will already be people/recruits that won't attend the 2nd interview because of my words.

Unfortunately, I do not have near enough time to write this report properly. Let me start by saying this outfit and others like it are a MONUMENTAL WASTE OF TIME AND YOUR MONEY. If you have no conscience and don't mind taking the little hope that some people have left, then I guess this might work for you. If you have a thread of decency, you would never be able to do to people what these so-called enteprenuers do. I know. I was in the program. I ascended to the EO level and got "my own office". In fact, I faked it long enough that I was actually a day away from signing a lease for my DC (Distribution Center) when I quit. I did the "powercar's, satellite's and 21-club's". I received the training in how to present the whole program to others...I was coached the whole time during my EO to DC transition. To those of you who still claim this is an honest living, your delusional at best. This is just an excercise to weed out those who can't scam others, from those who are good at it. The better you are at it, the better you'll do roping in trainees to make money off of. I saw a Regional Owner get run out of the business. Saw another Regional Owner empty out the office of the Owner I mentioned previously. In fact, as a DC owner under the Regional Owner, I was asked to help empty out the office. The plan was to get to the office very early on a Saturday morning so that no landlord presence was in the buillding, that way, we could just take all the furniture etc and run out on the rent that was owed by the previous owner. That landlord (of a nice upscale office building) was out thousands of dollars now. The low-life's that I credit for distracting me for 8 months are Mike Hillaeus and Kevin Kaczmarek. I started working out of an office in Burr Ridge. If I ever meet either one of them again, there will be no misunderstanding of my feelings toward them. Like I said, I don't have enough time to go into every negative that resulted from my getting hooked by these moron's, but 14 years later I can say the only positive thing that experience did for me, was to lead me to the job I currently have where I am making way more than any of these knuckleheads. I like coming to work at a normal office enviornment, I enjoy doing work that I am not ashamed of (approaching people in parking lots and in their places of business to sell watered down perfume gets old after a while...and don't think you won't be asked to do that...you will, almost everyday you "work" there), and I enjoy earning a very generous paycheck for the honest work that I give my company. To close, if you are reading this report because you are debating about whether to go in for the interview or not.......You have better things to do in your life than waste your time, effort and money with this pyramid scheme. Pass on this negative experience and get on to something that you can feel good about. I'm sure one of the company knuckleheads, still drinking the company punch, will enter a rebuttal to my posting....To them I say go ahead, there will already be people/recruits that won't attend the 2nd interview because of my words.

First of all, Firebird has no relation to Larry with the exception that his company provides us with our product, which is high quality renditions of top designer fragrances. The statements made in this report are false and misrepresenting. The individual, Mallor, Lani or whichever, never entered into a relationship with Firebird. We have been in business for many years and it would not be considered "Top Secret" info. that is presented in our meetings. As a matter of fact, if Firebird was somehow bilking people out of something, why would they continue to provide the same content of meetings day in and day out? What we offer at Firebird is the opportunity to learn to be your own boss with no financial investment on the part of the candidate. From being your own boss running a business using Firebird as the model, a person has the opportunity to gain financial stability, job security and independance. We are also able to be empathetic to a candidates needs as all management and ownership been through the same learning process' and has experienced everything that any other individual will go through during training and on to the management of there own location. People that are selected do go through multiple hours of interviews and orientation so that they have a good understanding of the learning process and what it will take to become successful in our business.
As with many other business', there are individuals that have "selective hearing" and only hear the outcome (nice cars, nice homes, financial security). They seem to forget that every candidate including the branch owners started off just the same way they did. It is not Firebirds fault they did not pay full attention. I can personally say that candidates are asked multiple times if they are clear in what we are doing and are they willing to commit 60-90 days to the learning process.
In close, Firebird offers their apology to anybody that misunderstood what we do or how we do it, but we also want to clarify the person above has misrepresented the process. The person admits that they never actually worked in our company. They also admit that they followed the encouragement of people who know nothing about our business, or through another posting that the validity of is questionable. Thank you and may life give YOU the opportunityto make your dreams become your reality!