Adaptable Business Concepts AB Concepts, ABC Mislead, shortchanged, tiptoed around important payment details King of Prussia Pennsylvania

I moved to Philadelphia soon after college and began a job search. I put my resume on CareerBuilder.com, which is how Adaptable Business Concepts found me and called me and offered an interview. I've actually received calls from other "direct marketing" firms asking me for interviews since then. Strangely, they all have "concepts" in the title. So, if your resume is on careerbuilder, be careful about anyone calling you to offer an interiew.

So they called asking me a few questions about my sales experience. They offered an interview so I went in. They ask vague questions about leadership, sales and customer service experience but they don't actually discuss what they do. They make the place seem great to work at - cool, expensive looking office, the smiling receptionist making small talk and playing pop music. Everyone is dressed in business professional attire to lure you into thinking you're actually going to be doing actual marketing.

They granted me a second interview. That interviewer was around my age, which I found a little weird. He explained to me how the company operates as far as promotions go, gave an estimation of how much each tier of their organization makes, and - only when I specifically asked - explained that a typical day for an ABC employee involves heading out of the office every day to "market" for their client.

It was only after the manager offered me the job and I came back for orientation that I found out that what they do was go door to door to sell Verizon FiOS and that the pay depends almost entirely on commission and the amount of sales you make a week. So this means braving the elements, having people slam the door in your face, people telling you what you do is shameful, people telling you to get off their property, and in my case, actually threatened to get shot, for 6 days a week so the owner can make 6 figures a year.

I didn't get an opportunity to see and sign the payment agreements until the fourth day of training. That's when I found out that you don't get paid for training at all. You only get a bonus AFTER you make a certain amount of sales. The training period is 2 weeks. 2 weeks that they make you come in for 9-10 hour work days and not get paid for. I was told "Other marketing companies, you actually have to pay for training. But for us you do get paid!" Which is a skeevy way of saying "We'll pay you for training, but only after you start making us money." They sold me on it the same way they train you to sell FiOS to their customers - by stating half-truths.

I should have walked out as soon as I read that agreement. I stayed a week more and walked out. As others have said you have to come in 2 hours early, dressed business professional, just to have breakout meetings in which you go over the same information repeatedly and be told that it's your fault people aren't interested in switching cable companies on the spot. Then you play a game that always results in everyone bickering and smack-talking like it's middle school gym class. Next, you do the tired ritual of recognizing people who have sold the previous day. At the end of the day you do a lame ceremony to again recognize people who have sold that same day. This is every day. On Fridays, the manager will give a lecture about how the business runs - each one can be summed up as "You go out and perform a horrible task, we make money, keep at it and you might get promoted."

Do not work here. It's a waste of time and gas. Oh, yeah, you'll have to drive from home to KOP to either Philly, West Chester, Pottstown, or another area, then back to KOP, then back home every day and there's no promise of gas reimbursemnt. So yeah. Don't get involved in this pyramid scheme.