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Report: #328325

Complaint Review: The Ad Group - Jaime Hepp - CYDCOR - LA Marketing Firm - Los Angeles California

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  • Reported By: Corona California
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  • The Ad Group - Jaime Hepp - CYDCOR - LA Marketing Firm Los Angeles, California U.S.A.

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The companies included are The Ad Group aka TAG, LA Marketing Firm, California Marketing Team, Marketing Concepts Inc, US Marketing Alliance, BE Marketing Concepts. These are all CYDCOR offices. Not Granton, DS Max, Scanno, or any of the other MLM companies.

If you are called by these guys, you will be invited in for a 1st round preliminary interview to meet with management. Pretty much the only way not to get invited in for a 1st round interview is if you have 40 years of work experience, because they dont want to hire old people. 1st round interview lasts either 3 minutes, or 15 minutes. 3 minutes if they dont want to hire you based on appearance (if you look like s**t) or communication skills (ESL). By the end of the interview or by the end of the day you should be invited back for a FULL DAY, 2nd round interview, which means you will be shadowing a rep to see a day in the life.

Here is where my issue lies. The shadow day is designed for you to make the decision as to whether this position is right for you or not. The other people filing reports are telling you to save your time. I on the other hand, want you to go on the 2nd interview so you can make the decision on your own, based on what you experience, not what you read. Reading the highlights of the Laker game saying they kicked a*s is different from watching them kick a*s, agreed?

So, if you are invited back for a 2nd interview, here are the time breakdowns:

If you are invited back for times that start at around 7:30 to 9am, and conclude at 5:30pm, you will be shadowing a rep on Quill Office Supplies, Verizon B2B or Innovative Merchant Solutions. These are outside sales positions. No base pay. No car allowance. No cell phone reimbursement. Entry Level Sales with Potential for Management. Can you make money? Yes.

If you are invited back for times that start at around 10 to 11am, and conclude at 7pm, you will be shadowing a rep on AT &T. Same as above, except instead of business to business, you will be going door to door. Yes, peoples houses.

First Question: If this was a scam, would Verizon, AT and T, IMS, or Quill do business with them? Probably not. Also, what would be the benefit of them "wasting a day of your life" by trapping you on a full day 2nd interview? It obviously wouldn't benefit anyone. Think of it this way, every company wants to expand. If a company wants to hire 1 rep, they need to conduct over 100 interviews. A lot of people decline these position because it is commission based. So they have to invite back a large number of 2nd interviews. If 100 people go on a 2nd round interview, 3% will get angry and write about it on this website. Not everyone else likes the job, but people who aren't concerned with a couple hours of their life usually appreciate the time spent with a CYDCOR rep, because most of them are cool, motivated and work extremely hard.

During a shadow day, the average CYDCOR rep should be closing between 1-4 accounts, or sales. If that rep doesn't make any sales, usually its because they are new, or they are a piece of s**t. The 2nd interview is designed to show you that sales can be made, rather than just telling you. Yes, bitches, it is 8 hours of hard work. The hours are EXTREMELY LONG. 7:00am to 7:00pm on business to business (including office time). 9am to 9pm on residential.

At the end of the day, you will be invited to sit down with the manager. No matter how much the CYDCOR rep or manager impulses you, the decision is yours as to whether you take the position or not. Yes, they want a decision that day.

Lets say you take the position. It is commission based. If you dont make any money, how much does the company make? None. If you make a shitload of money, how much does the company make? A shitload. So what would they rather have you make? They will train you. Train you very well. But who in the hell would want to work commission based B2B or door to door sales? They dangle a carrot in front of you. Management, run an office like this one, live the life you always dreamed of. But here is the issue IF you get to management, because EVERYONE in the office is trained to want an office, but less than 1% do. And that issue is there is only opportunity if you are willing to relocate. Because all of these offices are in SoCal, the only offices that are available are those outside of SoCal. Even if there happens to be an opening in SoCal, it probably wont be in the city you currently live in. So if you are in LA, you would have to move to Santa Clarita, San Diego, OC, Corona, or Riverside.

These CYDCOR guys are kind of like politicians. The politicians now guarantee a new energy policy to get us away from oil, but you know it wont happen even if you get re-elected and serve an 8 year term. CYDCOR dangles the carrot of opportunity in front of you, trains you to believe the carrot is within reach, and for a lot of people, that carrot disappears. They tell you anyone can make it to management, but if they dont like you, guess what? You still arent going to get an office, even if you hit all the required standards.

So, a little bit of info for potential interviewers. There is opportunity with CYDCOR. It's a completely legit business model. They dont really want to waste anyones time, but it is a natural byproduct of the time of business they run. There are some very successful people who do make it to management with CYDCOR, but it is EXTREMELY RARE. You never really know unless you try. Don't listen to the other idiots on this website. Check out a 2nd interview. If you like it, try it for a couple weeks. If worse comes to worse, you lose a couple weeks but still make a few hundred bucks.

Just Like You
Corona, California
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/23/2008 11:04 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/the-ad-group-jaime-hepp-cydcor-la-marketing-firm/los-angeles-california/the-ad-group-jaime-hepp-cydcor-la-marketing-firm-be-marketing-concepts-marketing-328325. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#8 Consumer Comment

Sexual Harassment and Shady behavior . . .

AUTHOR: BigK - (USA)

POSTED: Monday, October 12, 2009

Most Cydcor managers are simply, nave, ignorant, and completely unfit to be running a business.


My time with Cydcor and LA Marketing taught me that you should never work for someone who . . .

  1. Doesnt pay you
  2. Teaches you to fudge #s in Merlin and yells at you when you do it correctly. 
  3. Owes you over $1000
  4. Owes one of your guys $200
  5. Lies to you
  6. Lies to a new hire in front of you
  7. Plays video games instead of hitting the field
  8. Reads gossip columns while you work.
  9. Tells you he is hitting the field and goes home to sleep
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#7 UPDATE EX-employee responds

SEXUAL HARASSMENT RUNS RAMPANT!!!

AUTHOR: BigK - (USA)

POSTED: Tuesday, October 06, 2009

I was associated with LA Marketing Firm, Sean Vernon, and a part of Jaime Hepps org and Cydcor for a long time. I was frequently one of the top sales reps on my campaign and I had up to 14 guys on my team.


After my experience with Cydcor offices and managers, I must tell you that you should not work there if you are a female or find any of the following behavior or scenarios inappropriate . . .

 

  1. Your boss actually argues with you that when a girl says NO! she usually means Yes . . . and then tries to prove it to you.
  2. A 30 something year old assistant manager sleeps with a teenage girl on his team . . . and gets her pregnant . . . about 15 feet from where the manager/Sean sleeps.
  3. Your manager refers to his admin as the third base coach in reference to her sexual activity before her boyfriend.
  4. A manager says to an employee, I want to f**k you!
  5. Your manager tells you that every guy in the business wants to f**k you.
  6. Your manager refers to a girl on your team as  c*m-dumpster
  7. The new admin is on the bosses lap top. When she stops and looks up at you in disgust, you look at the computer to see pictures of 99% naked women floating across the screen.
  8. A superior calls you late at night to get you to come over to his hotel room.
  9. You tell a superior you arent interested and he is then a complete d**k to you.
  10. Your manager asks you or the admin if youve ever kissed a girl. He also asks you if you would have a threesome with one of the Cydcor employees.
  11. Your manager says he wants to f**k Vera (sorry, I think the VP of Operations at Cydcor deserves a little more respect than that)
  12. Your manager and another manager frequently joke in front of you about one of them f**king the others admin.
  13. Another manager in your sales organization cheats on his wife with an employee.
  14. There is no HR.
  15. Your manager says if the guys in the office bother you again he will yell at them or kick their a*s (that's how you handle it professionally  . . . right?).
  16. A manager in the business asks you for a 1 on 1 . . .  you think it is because you high rolled the office that day by making $250 . . . you then realize that he simply wants a chance to hit on you and grope you.
  17. Upon asking your boss what you did to deserve any of the above behavior you are told you asked for it. When you ask how you ever acted that was any different that dozens of other people in the office you are told Have you looked in the mirror? You dont look like [them]
  18. A manager, Jaime or Sean, for example, tells you that allowing you to work anywhere else in the business (Cydcor) sets a bad precedent . . .  even after you explain to him that you dont want to work in an office where you were taken advantage of and/or sexually harassed.
  19. Your bosss responds to your frustration by telling you that you cant ask people to change, men will be men and that hes bothered by anyone that wants a seat at the table but wants to change the meal to suit there own needs."
  20. You are told tell you the above behavior is normal, happens everywhere and your idea of a professional environment doesnt exist.

 

Im embarrassed that I was associated with people who behave this way and managers who know about this behavior and do nothing about it. Furthermore, Ive felt incredibly guilty not talking about this when I know women are constantly interviewing to work in these offices. 


Hopefully, this will keep other young, bright, ambitious driven and somewhat nave females from making the same mistakes I did. After sticking around, I realized why there are few to none female managers working with these guys.

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#6 Consumer Suggestion

Questionable Behavior

AUTHOR: Almostgottaken - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, August 02, 2009

This company's website is full of generalities and no specifics. I once spoke to an individual from this company and he refused to tell me anything about the position/company over the phone. This company changes its name constantly: it is no longer LA Marketing Group but The Direct Sales Group. Anyone with any level of common sense would stay away.

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#5 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Not All Managers Make Good Money

AUTHOR: X - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, May 17, 2009

Yes, like any business, as the owner you have the opportunity to make good money. Jaime makes good money. There are some other managers who also make good money. Many managers, however, don't make that much money.

For example, I know of two different managers who couldn't afford to buy cars after a few years in the business. Their employees had to drive them around. In one instance, the manager ended up owing an employee a ton of money. If a manager can't run a profitable business, chances are, no one in their office will either.

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#4 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Not A Ripoff... misleading at ties yes but not a ripoff.

AUTHOR: Tjkelley - (Canada)

POSTED: Tuesday, November 25, 2008

I am an Ex-Owner for Cydcor. My promoting manager was Steve in Winnipeg. So i know that ownership and management can be done if you are willing to work at it, Objective Marketing Group(OMG) opened an office in Winnipeg in may 2005. When i saw the ads fr the company outside on the windows i immediately knew tha it was a Granton/TNI/DsMax derivitive as i had worked for them in the past and had some success. Like any other interviewee i had the 15 minute 1st interview after explaining to the manager that i had worked for similar offices in the past he told me that he would then get me in for a day of Ob(observation) I understood that it meant observing one of the reps in the firld do thier thing so i could find myself a good pitch for selling.

The next day after my day of o, i sat down with the owner once again and he explained the criteria for hitting management /ownership just in case here were any difference from offices i had worled with in the past. It went as follows.

Initially i had to hit 750 in personal profit 2 weeks consecutive which i did my 3rd week. after that i was promoted to leader and began to build my team.

Once i had hit (TL) It was explained to me that now as a team leader my resposibility was to maintain sales while at the same time taking out new reps and training them to hit leadership as well. (now as for how you were awarded the opportunity to train was measured in sales success if you were not producing you did not get to train and build your team) (i know that it worked the same way in Jamie Hepp's office because i i worked with him first hand which i will get to in a minute.)

As a TL to get promoted to Assistant Manager i had to do 4 things. First i had to get 5 leaders on my team secondly as a team we had to generate a total team profit of 4000/week for 3 consecutive weeks. 3rd i had to spend 2 weeks with another ownwer to see how hey ran their office and get a different view on the business. Jamie Hepp at the time was the Top owner in the company s i opted to spend 3 weeks with him at his office in L.A.. The 4th criteria i had to hit was to save $12,000 for initial opening costs for my own office. which once i had reached all criteria all tolled i had spent 10 months with the company and was being promoted to my own office. I opened my office in Winnipeg working with another client Direct Energy. My first year as an owner i cleared $135,000.

Alot of people reading this are going to inevitably ask why i am not still working for them. THe client we were dealing with closed up shop in Manitoba and rather than move to another city i opted to close my business instead and pursue other ventures.

The reason i post this is I know first hand that with dedication and hardwork you can succeed with Cydcor. The key is being ablt to dedicate yourself completely to your future for a year and yes sometimes that means having no social life and in my case it also destroyed my relationship that i was in at the time. They do not tell you h*e hard you have to work to get there and hey go on about how easy it is if you follow the steps. IT IS HARD WORK... don't mistake but if you are willing to bust your a*s for a year or two to get to ownership you will have financial freedom.. would i do it again? in a heartbeat, and i would even start back at the bottom.

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#3 UPDATE EX-employee responds

The Ad Group (Cydcor) IS a scam. I KNOW, I WAS ONE OF THE ONES SCAMMED.

AUTHOR: Jessica - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, September 04, 2008

The guy who started this thread obviously did not spend more than just a couple of days with Cydcor. I wasted a few months of my life making little to no money and my life was only work. I'm no stranger to working hard, either, as I now work 50 or 60 hours a week in my current job and couldn't be happier. Here is my story with Cydcor's "The Ad Group" run by the infamous Jamie Hepp. He is one of the most immoral, terrible people I've ever had the displeasure of working for. Why? Because at first you really like him. Then you realize he is abusing you beyond words.

I worked for a branch of Cydcor out in Los Angeles, called The Ad Group, or TAG (www.teamtaggroup.com) for short. I wasted a good two months of my life working for them and after realizing this was merely a complex pyramid scheme I quit. The only reason their practices are not illegal is because you never give them any money. But, as they say, time is money, so in the end you are giving them quite a bit. As for the specifics of my experience at Cydcor, here is the jist of it.

My initial interview involved them telling me that in less than a year I would be making well over $100,000 a year as a manager if I stuck with them. They said I would run my own lucrative business, and that they would guide me in this endeavor. What essentially ensued was me spending two weeks in the field walking around in the 90 degree heat of Los Angeles in the summer in a suit doing door-to-door sales. I did this for 8 hours a day, plus an hour before and an hour afterwards, for an average work day of around 10 hours. They called this face-to-face business. I had no pre-established meetings, and spent my days walking into somewhere between 50 and 75 businesses a day, feigning my importance and often resulting to lying (as was encouraged) in order to get past the gatekeeper and speak with the decision-maker. I would, on a good day, get to speak with around 5 of these decision-makers. At this point, 3 out of 5 would tell me to leave, scream at me, or curse at me. The remaining 2 would, if I was lucky, buy something. I represented Quill office supplies, and on a very good day I would make around two or three sales equaling around $400. This would result in a commission of around $100. So, you may think, that isn't so bad! What's wrong with $100 a day during your training phase? Well, understand that you work 10 hours a day and that you pay for your meals, your gas, and you get taxed. Your territory that you canvas could be anywhere from 10 miles away to 25 miles away. In Los Angeles you are looking at driving an hour at least just to get to your sales territory. So at the end of the day you are making somewhere around $60 or $70 on a good day. On top of the fact that you have to drive to the office everyday first before you go into the field and again when you return. Gas is expensive, and so is wear and tear on your car.

So, what happens after this training phase? Well, you get promoted! Wow! After only two weeks of hard work I got promoted to a Leader! I'm so proud of myself. I can't wait to learn more and get some new responsibilities and perks/pay! Oh, wait. No, just new responsibilities. What sort of responsibilities? Well, for one, I now have to arrive at the office an hour earlier, at 7:00am every day to do leader training. Then, at 9:00am all of the interviewees come in, and guess who is interviewing them? Me! Yes, I am interviewing AND HIRING people who are literally two weeks behind me. These people have already been interviewed once (roughly a 15 minute interview) and this is their second interview. The trick is that all of these people who we interviewed the first time were called, even though we tell them we only call a small percentage. We call everyone. The idea is that they are hungry for the job and feel like they need to prove it. So my job is to reel them in. I hire them to my team and then I am expected to train them completely from start to finish. How do I do this? Well, now when I go into the field to do some good ole' door-to-door sales I am bringing my interviewee, who most likely is miserable and does NOT want to take this job. I even had multiple people say after the first half hour that they would not take this job if their life depended on it. Oh well, too bad, you're stuck with me for 8 hours doing door-to-door sales. I had a girl that was so miserable she cried in my car for 15 minutes after someone cursed at us for soliciting them even though they have a No Solicitations sign. And yes, we were encouraged to solicit those people as well. And to lie to security guards, lie to receptionists, and lie to everyone to get to the owner. You can understand that many of them were irate that you had infiltrated their businesses in such a way and wasted their time. Most just tell you to leave, but some are very angry and treat you quite poorly. This was always embarrassing when you have a poor, undeserving person with you who is literally on THEIR JOB INTERVIEW.

After a full day of terrible door-to-door sales you then tell the person you are interviewing that you want them to be on your team. You tell them they're great and can make loads of cash. You only have to work in the field a few months until you hit Assistant Manager you tell them. If you're lucky they'll take the job and join your team. Then you take them in the field with you every day to train them and split your doors with them. Sometimes you have 2 people and you split it 3 ways. What does this mean? Your sales commission just dropped by either 50% or 66% because you are seeing either 50% less doors per day or 66% less doors. But that's okay, because as a Leader you make more money, right? No. You don't. Same amount as the guy you're training. And what is that, you say? Zero. You work on commission only. So yeah, there are PLENTY of days when you LOSE money by making zero sales and paying for gas and food. Also, at the end of the day as a leader you are expected to stay later and socialize as well, to make the new guys feel at home. This means you show up at 7:00am to the office and train for 2 hours. Go into the field at 9:00am with your interviewee/new hire, and leave the field at 5:00pm. You arrive back at the office at around 6:00 6:30pm. You stay at least half an hour to an hour. You leave the office at 7:30 8:00pm. Your work day is at least 12 hours a day, for a nice average work week of 60 hours. Oh, and if you don't make your sales, they expect you to work Saturdays. In fact, just before I was to be promoted as a Leader I had a day where I made zero sales. They told me I should consider working Saturday to make up for it. I did not. They in turn did not promote me. I had to work the next Saturday to prove my worth, and then they promoted me.

After you are a Leader for a while (2-3 months they say) you hopefully accumulate 5 people under you that are all promoted into the same title as Leader. At this point you become an Assistant Manager. You still make no base salary, but your commission doubles. This is because you are spending half of your time training with the Manager of the branch, thus you are only in the field about a third of the time. So you're likely making less money. After you train a few months you then take the 5 Leaders you trained who hopefully haven't quit, and you go open your own office with them and the guys they hired. Where? They tell you where they have an opening, which is, in the case of the 2 months I was there, either of two towns in middle-America. You have no choice. So yeah, you are moving, bringing a bunch of people who have never been their either, and hoping all goes well.

In my two months working at Cydcor I realized how many people were hired and how many of those quit. After the first week I started taking a log out of my own curiosities. Here are my statistics:

Time span: 7 weeks
Average interviews per week: 96
Average interviewers hired per week: 9

Number of interviews in 7 weeks: 673
Number of newly-hired in 7 weeks: 63
Number of newly-hired still employed after 7 weeks: 2

Note that by interview I mean 2nd round interview, which means each and every one of those interviewers were offered a job. So, out of 673 people we tried to sucker in, only 63 fell for it. Of that 63, only 2 were still falling for it after 7 weeks.

When I realized Cydcor was wasting my time, and that I was making zero money, I quit. I was treated extremely rudely by Jamie Hepp, the Manager of the branch, and one of the top 6 guys in the entire company. He told me I was nothing but a quitter and that I lied to them about me taking the company seriously. He berated me and talked down to me for about 15 minutes and then told me to get out of his sight.

After quitting Cydcor I joined another firm in sales and have done extremely well. In less than two years I am making a six-digit salary and working with a great company that treats me with respect. I work a normal work week and I cherish the moments I had a Cydcor for putting things in perspective. It's one of those jobs that you're glad you had because it makes everything else seem so much better. I wish there were a way to shut down Cydcor, because all they do is reel you in so you can make sales for them. They do not care if you succeed or if you fail, because after all.. they have zero investment in you. You are being paid nothing. You only make money if you make money for them. And you're being trained by other people that they are not paying either. It is a brilliant scheme to dupe people into running around doing door-to-door sales for you. They don't care if you stay a week or a month, just as long as you make some sales for them. And if you don't make sales they don't care about that either, because they aren't paying for your gas, your food, or giving you a base salary. Your failure or success is a mere formality to them, and in the end does not affect them in the least. They just keep hiring and hiring and hiring. Then those people figure it out and they quit. Then another batch of people come in the door. It is an ever-revolving system of abuse that makes money for a very few people at the top of the entire scheme. It is a wonder that these guys are still able to participate in such unjust business practice.

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#2 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Good Report from someone that knows!!!

AUTHOR: Paulie - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, July 17, 2008

This person is right on! I worked for one of the many offices of Cydcor for more than a year. The Cydcor company is legitimate and Gary Polson is a wonderful person. It is NOT a pyramid scheme by definition. Money is NOT taken out of someone's pocket to go to someone else and anyone can be promoted past the person above them. There is profit sharing involved. It is similar to a multi-level marketing model by generating residual income. All funds come from the Fortune 500 client who is not required to pay unless results are provided. What a great idea. Performance based marketing. No up front expenses. Each Inependent Corporate Licensee (ICL) office operates independently and some are not quite as ethical as others. You will see this evidenced throughout the country and this website. Jaime Hepp is a good man with values and his organization is a good one. We all have our faults and you could find something wrong with anyone. The position is available to anyone who applies if you are not a dirt bag. It is commission only so it is feast or famine. Many people, like myself, paid their bills doing this. It is not a position for someone who does not want to work HARD!!! The hours are long mainly because of the training involved before hitting the field. It is door to door no matter how you look at it. It works. I acquired MANY clients for AT&T and Quill. Primarily it is cold calling but you develop great relationships with people and it becomes warm calling if you are honest and do it right. If you can help the customer, great. If they are getting a better deal with another carrier, move on. Simple. Someone who NEEDS a job and who is willing to work for their money should try this business model out. Those who make it, can profit enormously!!! The owners (managers) make good money and they are all very young. It is profitable but it is risky. It is a true lesson in entrepreneurship. Decide for yourself. You might learn a lot about yourself and others. In case you are wondering (and I know you are) I no longer work there because I now have a misdemeanor on my record and Cydcor standards are higher.

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#1 UPDATE EX-employee responds

JStar

AUTHOR: Edb0047 - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I like what you have said about the experience and the business model, I totally agree with you. I filed a ripoffreport on 4/12. I was one of those hard workers, check it out. We may know the same people. I worked for Johnny, who WAS also under Jamie, our office promoted Ken (Att office). It was a shame what was done to me, but I don't blame the company, I blame the individual owner. This is what makes Cydcor so confusing for many. The company Cydor is an excellent company, BUT the individual owners are the ones that can make bad decisions, and give Cydcor a bad name. I wish I would have left with Ken to California, he is a trustworthy business man, with morals, ethics, and integrity unlike my ex-owner.

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