Alpha International Promotions On my 2nd Interview, took me 1 hour off-site to try to rip off unsuspecting customers Indianapolis Indiana

I had this experience with this company several years ago. I don't know if they are still in business, but watch out for other companies associated with them! I know there are a whole slew of them operating under various and ever-changing names.

I went on a first interview with Alpha International Promotions probably 6 years ago. Easiest interview ever. It lasted approximately 10 minutes, and the owner who was interviewing me said he wanted me back for a second interview. I was desperate for a job, so I said ok and came back the following Monday. The way the owner explained the company to me in the interview was that they were an event planning company who worked with the D.A.R.E. program, so I imagined them essentially coordinating events for D.A.R.E, and I assumed I would get more info in the second interview. I should have known by the 10-minute interview that something was amiss.

I came back for the "second interview," and while sitting there waiting to talk to the owner again, I overheard quite a bit of group chanting from a back room, which was a red flag to me, but I thought maybe they were an over-exuberant bunch. After the motivational chanting was over and the employees came out, I was told I'd be riding with this other person about an hour away to this event she was setting up for the day. This was not explained to me at all in the first interview. I knew I would doing something like job shadowing for the day, and I should have asked more, but how was I supposed to foresee something like that? Stupidly, I said ok and probably signed some papers like an idiot. The person I was assigned to was a super sweet girl, right out of high school, and so drinking their kool-aid. The ride there was basically her trying to indoctrinate me and explaining the company and that it's so wonderful. She explained that they are fundraisers for the D.A.R.E. program, and they set up events at stores to get donations. Sounds ok enough, but I basically knew right then the job wasn’t for me, but yet I felt stuck. We stopped for some food, and she showed me how quickly I could become management and own my own branch of this company. This is all starting to sound like some fishy pyramid scheme to me by this point, but I'm stuck with this girl for the rest of the day.

We finally get to our destination, and it's one of those tractor supply places, a giant store of rural supplies basically. We set up a table and bust out some brochures about D.A.R.E. We then proceed to bug customers all day to donate money for the D.A.R.E. program. The naive girl I was with finally explained to me after much of the day had passed that D.A.R.E. only receives 5 cents for every dollar donated.... WHAT? Someone had told her that it was actually a lot of money for a third-party fundraising organization to give to the respective charity and she was ok with this. So here we are, asking these lovely customers in this rural place for money for a charity, and only 5 cents of every dollar they give us is actually going where we are telling them? SO WRONG!! The remaining 95 cents of every dollar goes to Alpha International Promotions, and the person actually collecting the money gets a small percentage of that. The figures she gave me were less than minimum wage; no way could I have lived off of that purely commission-based starting salary. Plus, they don't pay for your expenses for driving all over the place to set up these scamming events, so you’re essentially in the hole until you do get to one of those bigger positions so you get a bigger piece of the money obtained under false pretenses.

I started getting upset about the situation I allowed myself to get into and could not wait to get home. I should have called someone to come get me at the beginning of the day like my gut told me to do. I am super non-confrontational, so I just acted like everything was ok, and told the owner when we got back that I'd have to think about it. I wish I would have thought back then to report this awful company and call D.A.R.E. to find out the legitimacy of the company and make sure they knew that only 5 cents of every dollar was going to them. And if D.A.R.E. knew about it, I would have reported them to a charity watch organization for using this shady “fundraising” company.