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I came across a company called Retro Consulting based in Nottingham, who had a lot of Job Adverts for positions in Sales on most of the main Job websites. As somebody who has been unemployed for over a year I have become desperate and decided to give them a go.
The Job advertisements are very misleading, they do not tell you that the job is commission only (therefore no minimum wage) and state the wage to be £15, 000-£20, 000 with no experience neccesary, it quite simply looks too good to be true and they have clearly tried to draw as many people in as possible as the advert explains nothing. After all who would apply for a job where you aren't guaranteed to earn ANY money?
Retro Consulting operate out of a small office based at 15 Hockley, Nottingham, shared with another company called Jam Industries, which upon further research is involved in exactly the same thing (probably run by Tomlinson as well). When I attended my interview the place was full of other people filling out application forms. I had to wait for around 45 minutes for my meeting with the Managing Director, Simon Tomlinson, until he called me into his office.
Tomlinson asked me the usual interview questions, what are your strengths, where do you see yourself in five years time, blah blah blah. He told me that they offer opportunities to advance into a senior management position within six months of employment, claimed that they were an international company with offices all over Europe (although their website suggested that they are a small business) and invited me back the next day for 'training' and refrained from answering any questions about the job, assuring me that "it will all be explained tomorrow". Pretty much all he told me about the job was that it involved selling Lovefilm packages. Tomlinson even suggested that I could start work within a few days!
The 'training' consists of observing an existing salesman within the company, I was told that I would be there until 8pm and all the Job consists of is knocking on doors attempting to sell Lovefilm! They claim to make their decision based on that, which is ridiculous as you will not be doing any work yourself! I was then offered a job and they told me that the pay would be commission only (very low commission rate), that's hardly the minimum £15, 000 suggested in the description is it? If there is no basic salary that should be clearly stated. RC have you working ridiculous hours for no minimum wage, whilst attempting to get your hopes up with promises of promotions to keep you onboard.
After doing further research it seems this is a common business practice mostly associated with the Cobra Group, I'm guessing this is why Simon Tomlinson was referring to Retro Consulting as an international company, they are probably part of the Cobra Group! Retro Consulting are using the current unemployment levels to their advantage and bringing in people desperate for work, Simon Tomlinson, you should be ashamed of yourself.
oh yeah if you go to an interview and you get invited back for a "observation day" a day out with activities this is code for your going to work for free for the day my advice keep your bus ticket and go home look for something else
yeah ive just been there retro consulting and jam industries are the same company they fill your head with a load of business development talk and career prospects and its just another door to door sales job a load of crap i have worked for these kind of companies before there all the same a lot of work for very little pay off yeah you can earn a lot of money I have done in the past but you can work a lot of hours for nothing if you don't sell. i have just sacked the whole idea off before i got sucked in i went out with them for a taster and ran a soon as i got chance i don't advise anyone to get involved with companies like this. I also noticed they did have them ipads so i know that is true glad i bailed when i did i cant afford a note pad with a computer chip i am ok with a pen and paper lol
Bunch of ###ing Nazis! Brainwashing cult!
I was sacked by Simon for signing up one of my friends twice (what he told me I could do if I changed the email address). So i rang up the MD of the company, a man called Justin and complained. Simon then tried to pay me off to keep my mouth closed! wanker
I got told I could sign up existing customers, by Simon himself. Surely this is fraud and doesn't benefit lovefilm! Do you reckon they know about this?
Everybody is also pressured into signing up friends and family.
I was also told to buy an Ipad which would improve my comission by about £5. So I did, and Simon didn't pay me extra, so I now have a very expensive Ipad bill to pay for!
I worked for the company for about 5 months, got pressured into going to various parts of the country to work. We would stay in travellodges and cram about 5 people into a normal room and have to pay accomadation our selves, with the promise that we'll earn loads of money. Touching on what Zubravko said about false promises, I was promised that everyone would have the chance to reach management by hitting certain criteria, but I know that his assistant manager didn't hit the criteria as I was in her team! AND they tried to force me into working on Christmas Eve, and boxing day.
If you didn't hit your daily target you'd get an angry response from Mr. Tomlinson and he would put it down to you being a 'pussy' or 'weak minded'. When you did well, he didn't acknowledge this either.
I'm putting it down to experience, and I put all the ### they washed down my throat onto my CV and I actually got a decent job. But if the authorities knew half of the things that I witnessed in my time there, they'd be horrified
On top of this, I NEVER got paid correctly, didnt receive wage slips (Simon just paid me what he wanted, normally about £100 less than I was expecting), and got told I DON'T have to pay tax. He prays on graduates desperate for work and local people who can be easily brainwashed.
I worked for 6 months with continued false promises. In all fairness I earned decent money but it is a scam. A cult in which they bully you into staying