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Report: #284817

Complaint Review: Midwest Marketing Concepts And GQ Imports - Addison Illinois

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  • Reported By: Chicago Illinois
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  • Midwest Marketing Concepts And GQ Imports 367 S Rohlwing Rd Addison, Illinois U.S.A.

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Not enough info has been here linking Midwest Marketing Concepts to GQ imports. Do a search on Rip-off Reports for GQ imports to see how many people are getting scammed by this Scam Artist group.

I will give a long description of my experience with them.

First, I found them on Monster.com, applied and received an email back from them to contact Tammy Myles. I called and set up an interview with them. She asked me if I would be willing to come in on Monday. I reminded her that Monday was Veterans day as I knew alot of offices would be closed. She said that they would be open and that I could come in to get a head start. She also stated that it was very important that I have my own car, because if I didn't I could access them by public transportation. Seemed odd to me because North ave isnt that far away, but I didnt give it much thought.

I show up for my interview and find that there is already two other people in the office waiting to be interviewed. The office isn't in its own building but more in a group of little offices. Walking in the place doesn't look very professional. Peeling paint, shabby flooring, the infamous plasma blasting music videos, and on the wall it doesn't say Midwest Marketing, it says GQ imports. More on that later.

As I'm waiting for the interview in the reception area with the other two applicants, I'm given a paper to fill out with questions such as my interests and hobbies. Also it asks to list what kind of car I drive. This seemed odd to me as well and I wrote it off as needing to know so they don't tow in the private lot.

The first person gets called in, and in a matter of minutes exits. The second was the same amount of time. Now I was called. The lady that greeted me seemed very nice. She asked again about my interests. Said that she already had went over my resume with her partners and that they just wanted to get a feel for the applicants today and that it was just a preliminary interview. asked my salary requirements which I stated with my background in Customer Service I would require about 35k. She said that wouldn't be a problem. She ended the interview by saying that they only wanted to hire about 5-6 customer service reps by the end of the process and that if I was chosen for another interview that I would be contacted by the end of the day for a full day interview tomorrow.

Around 4:30pm I was contacted again by Tammy and was told that I had made it to the next round of interviews and that I should show up for a full day interview tomorrow and that I should be there at 10am.

I never heard of a full day interview so I thought they must really going to be thorough with the candidates. I show up for the 10am interview and there is 11 of us there for our interview. The head guy comes out and does a roll call and briefly goes over how their company does a hands on marketing with all sorts of big name companies. Regular advertising is dead..blah blah blah. He then goes in back and starts calling the applicants one by one. As they are called they go in back briefly and then pop back out with a employee and leave the office into the parking lot.

I was called in finally and introduced to John from New York who I was told was an assistant manager and that I was going to go along with him and another employee for the day. I was told I needed to impress John to beat out the other applicants so that one day I could sit in the head chair and be the big boss of a branch that they would be opening. Why wouldn't any of these people want that position? Never covered.

So John and I walk out the door, and John asks me where I'm parked. I told him at the end of the lot. We both walk to my car when the writing on the door of the office next to the one of Midwest Marketing catches my eye. CQ Imports. WTF?? We get to my car and John tells me I can't leave my car in the lot I need to go to a sublot across the street. So I pull into the lot and park my car and we get out.

I was told they we were going to ride with George a person who was newish to the company and that we were going to go market. I figured that the company wanted me to watch these people in action so I could better do my job as a customer service rep.

We do some idle chit chat on the way towards Chicago and I was told we would be doing some marketing for Warner Brothers, Hallmark, and Toys R Us. I thought, hey that sounds cool. Until I'm dropped the first bomb shell. He told me on my way to Chicago that my salary requirements would not be met. He told me during training that it would be alot less for the first three months. In need of a job and already having planned for the full day interview, I went ahead with it. Expecting that we would be going to retail locations getting them to put items on shelves, we arrived in Chicago. We pulled into a parking lot of a Bakers Square. At that point the harsh reality hit when they started loading up a duffel bag full of coloring books and cheap dollar store crap in it. I felt like such a tool. We were gonna spend the day going business to business selling crap to the employees.

Stuck because my car was 25 miles away in a parking lot in Addison, I went ahead with the day even though I had already decided that there was no way in hell I was taking this job. Even worse I was pissed that I was stuck for an entire day doing this s**t because I had no means to get to my car. If I was told upfront what the hell we were going to be doing, I would have laughed and left. Same thing as if I was told this at the very begining of the whole process.

So I had to wait the entire day which meant that I didnt get back to my car til about 7pm. These guys went to every business. No Soliciting signs meant nothing. Carrying a large duffel bag we even entered banks. Let into an office building through one person we even went into private offices who did not invite us in. The guys weren't rude about it though. I don't hold them responsible at all. They seemed like cool enough guys, like the ones you'd grab a beer with. I kind of felt sorry for them for having bought into the bullshit.

There is no marketing firm, there is no customer service or management jobs. Youre just there to peddle cheap crap from your car. And that why you need to have a car. Not so you can get there, but so you can drive to Chicago everyday and sell that stuff. For me that would have meant driving 90 miles a day.

I also plan on writing to MLB, NFL, Samsonite, Hallmark, Warner Bros, Toys R Us, and every company on their sham website. I'm positive that they have no permission whatsoever to be using the names of these companies claiming that they represent them.

David b
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/14/2007 01:24 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/midwest-marketing-concepts-and-gq-imports/addison-illinois-60101/midwest-marketing-concepts-and-gq-imports-scam-marketing-company-lures-you-in-to-sell-chea-284817. 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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#3 UPDATE EX-employee responds

I'm glad i'm not the only one that thinks this way.

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

POSTED: Thursday, April 03, 2008

I agree to everything you said.

I went through the exact same thing.
Same place.
Same interviews.
Same parking lot.

I also worked for Mike Kriss between 11/07-01/08. I thought it was all a joke and I couldn't take it no more.

I really hated the morning meetings and the meetings at the end of the night. It takes me an hour to get to work and from it.
So I would leave from my house at 7AM and be home 13 hours later.

Oh I'm sorry they don't call it "a job" they call it "a hobby".

And what about all that stuff when a leader would say "Hey guys!" and everyone HAS to say "Hey what!".
It IS the worst job I had to wake up to.

Thank you David b for posting this.

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#2 Author of original report

Midwest Marketing and GQ imports update.

AUTHOR: David b - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, December 10, 2007

I have contacted several local newspapers and news agencies in the Chicagoland area. Hopefully someone picks up this story because it really is a shame that so many people are getting scammed into going into this company. They lie on their ads and in their website when they directly tell you "No door to door sales". And they pretty much hold you hostage on your second interview when you find out the truth about this company you are twenty five miles away from your car. If you don't know your way around or have the money to get back to your car you are stuck walking for eight hours.

The worst part is that they are allowed by Monster.com, Yahoo.com, and Career Builder to continue to advertise and scam more and more people, who learn too late about what happens.

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#1 UPDATE EX-employee responds

You're dead on about this scam company!

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

POSTED: Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I am right there with you - I never thought to write to the companies "involved". All the stuff they sell is not even from 'nfl or mlb' but merely a cheap knock-off made in China for a company called Innovage.

I worked for Mike Kriss at GQ Imports when he was based out of Woburn, Ma. A kid that worked there with me - Mike Ryeburg ended up going to Il. with him and is apparently running one of the scam offices.

I like to review this site periodically to help save other people from making the same mistake I made a few years ago...

Some other things involved with this company are morning meetings where they'll make you talk about your 'worst job ever' so that you feel better about what you're doing - thinking you're opening your own business and gaining financial freedom - all lies -

They try to pump you up with loud hip hop music and red bull - and there are ground rules inside the office - you cant leave any new person unattended for fear they'll realize this is the most ridiculous job they ever had - and you can never ever ever talk about anything negative -

so - if you went out all day - in the pouring rain - with a duffel bag full of fish lamps or cordless tea lamp waterfalls (which last about a month - for the record) - and you didnt sell a single thing - well - you STILL have to go back to the office and be all jacked up - if not - they send you packing -

Another thing - your first month into the company you are a "distributor" and you come in at around 7:30 ish - and you dont get out till about the same time in the p.m. .... when you become a "leader" all that means is you come in 45 min earlier and leave about 45 min later than everyone else - and they make you think you've "earned the right" to go to a leadership meeting on monday nights - so monday - you're in at 6:45 and get out by like 10 IF you're lucky....

Another fun fact - they make you think working saturdays is special - they claim you have to be invited - so that you'll ACTUALLY ASK to work on the weekend - I did it and i was foolish - dont make the same mistakes I did

If you want more info - reply to this and I'll be happy to tell you more - I have it set up so I'll get an email when you do....

Lets bring them down!!!

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