Red Square Direct Scam, Torture, Long Hours, Management Opportunity con, Sales, Marketing face to face London Nationwide diff name for sub divisions

Yo,

I applied for this job on the Monday, got offered an interview on Wednesday which I attended. The office was a joke, loud music playing and no apology my interview being late. I was told I would get a ring if I made the second round, which I did. I had to go in on the Thursday at 9am sharp, but again was made to wait till 9.50am with no explanation or apology. There were around 10 other people also in my position who had made the second round. We were all paired up with a 'Trainer' and our job was to shadow them while they tried to sell Victoria Jackson cosmetics all over London. Basically this role offers no basic wage, its all commission based and it is up to you to pay for your travel and food out of your own pocket. They say they want a student mentality where you have to be prepared to learn from the bottom and that the fact there is no wage will mean you will be more dedicated in selling as you know that this is the only way to make money. A job in Central London does not offer a basic wage is questionable. On average they want you to make 50 a day but that means consistently selling 10 cosmetic sets a day...easier said than done. Apparently you do this for up to 4 weeks and then you get promoted to a trainer (my trainer had been promoted after 8 days). This is all good, but you still dont get a basic wage!!!? Infact you only start receiving a basic wage once you reach the assistant manager's position which apparently only takes around 3-4 months and would enable you to receive around 40k a year. Within 6 months or up to 12 months you can be expected to reach the managerial positon which enables you to receive a salary of 70-80 k. Now this all sounds good...a bit too good to be true. Anyway back to my story...although I enjoyed being with out and about with my trainer, I witnessed first hand how hard it is to get a sale. In conjunction with this, the fact they dont even pay you a basic wage is laughable! They expect you to come in at half 7 in the morning, then you have to get back to the office at 6pm, demerch (which means returning the stuff you didnt sell) and decash (returning the proceeds made) then you can go home. . Now this process can take up to an hour...so that means you are leaving the office at 7pm!In my case I would be home by half 8 So in perspective you are working over 12 hours without a basic wage and you have to rely on comission which isnt always guaranteed to help pay for your way. Now apparently this only goes on for 3-4 months before you become an assistant manager but I find that very hard to believe...I am a big believer of the motto that if its too good to be true, then it is. Also the guy from the London office who wrote a report has been there for three months and doesnt seem to have been promoted! This all doesnt sound too good. Back to my day, we returned to the office at half 6 where I had to fill in a 'final interview' sheet and then had a interview with the manager, who told me that he had started of as a distributor as well. I have been offered the position, but now I have found this site I am not so sure. Furthermore I am living away from home and therefore have to pay rent as well as living costs, therefore this job which is only commission based will not cover my expenses. Also I want to be able to look for other graduate jobs while I am working but the long days means that I have no time to do this.

I am thinking of maybe giving it a week, but everyone I have talked to has said that it doesnt sound worth it. I might even phone up and say that I have had a change of heart. At the end of the day I am paying rent and bills, and on top of this with travel expenses for this job (getting to Central London) as well as food etc I am beginning to believe them. My biggest qualm is the fact that they dont pay you a wage but instead you have to rely on commission which isnt always guaranteed.

What does everyone else think?

Thanks for reading this :)

I wasted an entire day and a half at this place. I went for an interview on Monday which lasted 10 minutes although i was made to wait almost an hour as the people in the office rushed around stomping as if they were just SO busy. My interview was very short and it was evident that they had not even glanced at my CV. I was applying for an events role within marketing and was told in the interview that the company was 80% events based. I was turfed out after listening to this guy explain VERY quickly what it entailed and wasnt really given a chance to talk about my marketing experience, or if i did he looked around the room.

I was told i would be called between 5-6 in the evening if I was to be called back for a second interview, which, in his words, would be a FUN day from 12-8! At 6:05 I was called to be told that I had got the second interview, yay!

The next morning i rushed to the shops to make sure I had presentable clothing and flat shoes as i was told we would be going out to meet some "clients". So I spent my last few pennies out of my Job seekers allowance.
I arrived and was made to wait in their horrible reception room whilst the receptionist played loud, bad music. Then I was hastily taken into an "office" where an over bearing manager told me that my guide for today had "very kindly" taken time out of her busy schedule to work with me. I was then rushed out onto the street where she proceed to ask me for my CV (which i was not asked to bring as I had it the day before and they had record) she told me they had SO many CVs that they would not be able to find mine but that she wouldn't tell on me to the managers for not bringing it (she had me in her grasp..oooh)

We proceeded to get a sandwich (which i could barely afford) and get on a bus to Whitehawk (known to be pretty much the worst estate in Brighton) to meet our "clients". We had one other girl there who had just got the job and it was her first day so I would be shadowing her aswell.

To cut this rather long story short (if I can, it was a long day) we proceeded to put on an RSPCA bib each (this is the moment I should have gone to the bus stop on the other side) and looked a map of 100 doors we would be knocking on asking people on benefits and old folk to sign up for 8.50 a month to the RSPCA.

The girl who was "training" me would knock on the doors and play on the fact that these people had dogs, cats or if they had had pets who had died, saying things like "aaaaw thats awful, you poor love, well i'm sure you will want to contribute to the RSPCA" she stroked the dogs, let them lick her face and jump all over her.
The girl who was being trained was told to speak at the door several times but was too shy to, she was pressurized by the trainer and told off like a school girl.

Girl A (we shall call her) the "trainer" proceeded to give me tasks as we walked along the streets and I had to jot in my note pad the positives and negative points about myself, she would be focusing on the negatives and "helping" me to make myself better. She is 22, I'm 26, I have worked in marketing for 2 years and have a degree. I found her SO patronising.

She only began to speak about money after asking me what I thought she earnt, I said on fish4jobs it had said 17'500 basic so I guessed comission on top. 2 hours later she told me that it was all comission based and that you could eventually earn 80K if you became a manager in a year!

I rang my brother for advice as he is a top salesman in London...needless to say I left for the bus stop soon after that.

A whole day of mine wasted from 12-6 in a time when jobs are short and people struggle, the last thing I would want to do is go around a place where people are poor and ask them for money.
They tricked me into thinking I was going into an events role, gave me high hopes and wasted my time. I am very angry at this company and they must be stopped.

They are under the name of Powerhouse Direct but funnily enough do not have a website, they also go under the name of Red Square Direct which you will see has an unfinished website.

I rang the Manager as soon as I got home and he made lots of excuses about the person who interviewed me and how if HE had interviewed me he would have made it clear.

I would rather not have to go in to this awful place again or indeed stand outside with a placard saying "do not go in here" but I almost feel it's my duty to stop people from wasting their time. So please if anyone knows of any action we can put against these people please help.

And to the people who work there, I feel sorry for you as its a brainwashing scam that will never look good on you CV; it's a majorly glammed up door to door sales job with no basic wage with "managers" sitting in the office taking your money and charity's money.

I could go on and on but I think you get my point.

Liz Danon

I previoulsy worked for red square for a very short period of time but my partner is still working there currently.

I was slightly surprised at how I managed to get the job seeing how I only answered two questions at my first interview and both my first and second interview only last 5 minutes each.

So I am just wondering is this definately a scam or just a company to be a bit wary of? As I don't want to see my partner caught up in a scam.

Your ripoffreport was linked several days ago on the website (((Redacted))) in the context of a discussion on companies such as Supreme Corporation and Red Square Direct. A number of comments favourable to these companies were posted, apparently from a variety of sources, including ex-employees and even the mother of a current employee.

However a check revealed that all the messages originated from the same IP address, so were likely posted from the same computer, most likely by an employee or employees of one of these companies assuming a variety of fictitious identities. See the the Whinger's site for more details.

The tone and phrasing of the above 'INSIDE INFORMATION' report suggests to me that it originated in the same way. You may wish to search more widely for information on your company.

Good Luck!


CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Yeah it appears that it is not a scam, definately a loop-hole that lets ppl being employed for next to no money. Definately performance based so they got their low costs down to a tee, as a model the business works, but it could be better if when you build a crew they stick around, this could be done by being a little generous financially, nobody can afford to work for 6 months for nothing really. I agree the reg director makes big bucks and he is very good at what he does. The business is not really serious, its dead simple and thats part of the problem that people cannot accept why they failed. I am not a good salesman but I hope to try to be good at managing myself and other ppl and yes I am hungry. It definately takes getting used to and If you worked at a serious company before all this high fiving and cult like chanting of JUICE and the referral of KISS and STD in non sexual ways is a bit much. I thought that I would REHASH my article after giving it a big of thought, but its definately not an easy business and yes offices do close if not properly managed. All I wish to do is to achieve good sales, build my crew and succeed in a way that i minimise my involvement in the atmosphere, impacts, clapping and cheering on. I'll probably find a nice quiet cafe to train my crew too coz I really hate their music. I reccomend this to driven ppl with decent savings, coz if you are looking to pay next months rent.............. better go buy a sleeping bag!!!!

I worked with this company a few years ago, it wasn't for me but my friend stuck at it and he is now that regional director in question. He makes a lot of money and has a very comfortable lifestyle now. He does work long hours, but i guess thats what needs to be done to make good money anywhere in the world. Dont think its a scam but not for the kind of person that is not out to make it big. If you just want a job then go get one. That business waas definitely only for a certain kind of person.

Hope it helped

OUTSIDER