Mckenzie & Kennedy Management Group Ltd - Xln Telecom timothy craig the charming scam artist, you may aswell hand them your own money Manchester United Kingdom

I was in desperate need for a job as i only had 80 left in my bank and was starting to go stir crazy from being out of work as its not something iv ever had to experience before.

i saw an add on total jobs for a non traditional management position and it sounded too good to be true (which i soon learned was the case).

The job as read as follows;
McKenzie & Kennedy Ltd, a National Management Group based in Manchester, will select and train 8-10 Managers for placement in our NEW City Centre location as part of a 3.4M nationwide expansion plan, funded by Zeus Ltd, a Private Equity Group based in Manchester.

MC&K prides itself on only working with the right kind of individuals. Because we provide our own in-house training academy with on-the-job experience, we can select those individuals most likely to subscribe to our own values as managers, whether they have experience, training, education, or none of the above. Over 80% of our managers nationwide have had little or no experience prior to being selected.

The Ideal candidate will possess:

> A willingness to listen and learn
> An ability to observe and duplicate
> A passion for professional growth
> A commitment to the values of our company
> A drive for results and performance

Salary packages start at 18K per annum to 30K per annum. All Management positions are full time and entry level. We only promote upper level Management from within our own ranks. We do not subscribe to seniority or politics or favoritism. We are a performance based company and therefore whoever gets the job done, gets the job.

The job description:

> Direct supervision over 3-5 individuals.
> Classroom teaching and on-the-job training.
> Coaching and mentoring new candidates.
> Monitoring and managing performance issues
> Leading by example and proper role model
> Minimal administrative duties and paperwork

MC&K's environments are employee-friendly and fun so, traditional corporate types will just not fit in. We take our business very seriously, we just choose not to take ourselves too serious. Our company motto is, Find a job you love, and you'll never work a day in your life! and because of it, our employee longevity is off the charts. Career minded ONLY need apply.

There are three simple steps to begin your career with us:

Step 1 - Charm us with your wit, passion and personality (telephone interview)
Step 2 - Meet and WOW us with your people skills (company presentation and interview)
Step 3 - Let us do the rest! (Job offer, training and an exciting management adventure)

Please call Ms. Anderson @ 0161 236 3200 for an immediate interview. We do not accept unannounced walk-ins without an appointment, or CVs via email without a personal phone call. We hire the person, not the paper.

You can see why this add draws so many people through the door but let me point out a few key points which they have forgotten to mention

1.no where in the job description does it mention that you will be door to door cold calling shops and small businesses around area's which are hit on a 1-2 week basis by other 'trainie managers'

2.your calling and asking for Ms.Anderson who is a fictional character aswell as the other false names they have added to other job description sites for example Ms Amy, Ms Campbell, Ms kennedy, Ms Mckenzie and so on.

3.the company motto of 'find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life only applies to the people at the top of the pyramid Timothy Craig (the manchester branch), Steven Punn (from the london branch) and Christian Nellemann (the original brains behind the whole thing) as its the hopeful manager wannabe's who do all the hard work for a week not being paid a penny, spending their own money for travel earning the top men money on every contract signed then if you havent made them enough money during your firewalk week your dropped without hesitation.

This company is based around misrepresentation or in simpler terms lies and deception!

This starts from the first phone call you make to them, you call and ask for which ever fictional character is stated on the add and get told your being put through to human resources.

After being taken off hold your confronted with the same receptionist you originally spoke to who fills you with some line about the phones being busy so she will help you .. after asking you a few questions she tells you that the managing director would definatly want to see you so puts you on hold again to 'run and get his diary' finaly on return she goes on about how they only have 1 spot left on *friday* and she has given it to you! (how to make you feel lucky but i tested this after i was scammed and phoned in several times over 2 days with false names and every time the script was the same so believe me dont feel so lucky).

When you arrive you get to meet Timothy Craig the managing director, the most charming man you will ever meet in your life BUT please dont be fooled! he is just a very good sales man an even better actor and has done this for so long he believes what he says now too.
He goes on for hours selling the job and company to you, he tells you that your NOT a sales person (which is misleading as it turns out you are, the *Managers* there also go out on the field 3 times a week cold calling), he mentions the academy an 8 week training course which starts with 2 weeks assesment period which you do voluntary 1st week consists of knowledge and exams the 2nd week (the firewalk) consists of you going out cold calling businesses getting them signed over to xln paying your own travel and expenses to earn them money (very smart of them), during these 2 weeks you can be dropped at any time if your not proving to be worth your weight in gold to the company so during your firewalk 15 contracts (3 a day) is what your expected to get! not even the current 'managers' there who apparently made it through the training always got that many during my time there and the people they had training us from the academy definatly weren't.

Some of these i kept in contact with and have recently informed me that they were dropped from the academy as they were not doing what they were *hired* for! which leads me to misrepresentation 2.

You get told that IF you make it through the first 2 weeks and enter the academy then the jobs yours NO MORE ASSESSMENT PERIOD its just you doing your training to get the final contract so why were they dropped.

These 6 weeks of academy training is no longer voluntary your now self employed, in the interview your told that those 6 weeks you get paid 280 to 300 a week! DONT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT (misrepresentation 3), you get paid 20 a contract and are still paying your own travel so also remember this isnt just manchester based you get sent to liverpool and wales too.

They hold new interviews every couple of weeks pulling in new unsuspecting victims to the scam, i wish i had known all this before getting charmed in myself as i even went as low as borrowing money off family and not eating for days on end to afford travel costs and this left me with nothing!

Ofcourse they hire the person not the CV as they need nieve people who dont know the tactics or sales pitches Timothy uses to pull you in.

I was a victim of Tims charm please dont let yourself be the next one!

Remeber if something sounds too good to be true its because it is.

And 1 final warning .. even if your lucky enough to make it through the training with this *new* franchise in manchester (which for your information has been open a couple of years and has already welcomed and said goodbye to people who were lucky enough to make it through training but all got fired once they werent making enough profit for the company) you could arrive for work and discover the office is empty and the company no longer exists .. untracable! leaving you jobless and 100% screwed over.

Please check out these reports;

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/474/
RipOff0474438.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/444/
RipOff0444176.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/450/
ripoff0450566.htm

These are just a few more about this company you need to read.

Anonymous
manchester
United Kingdom