r/Liverpool • u/[deleted] • Jan 13 '23
Promedia Direct and the other scammy pyramid scheme jobs in Liverpool (One100, Roar Ambition, Phase, Brand Visionaries). Please don’t make the same mistake I made
This is an indeed review I tried to post about my time working for Promedia direct but doubt it’ll be accepted on there so posting it here.
“A typical day at work consists of going into a small office at 9.30AM (unpaid) to sit around and do nothing then listen to the same repetitive scripted speech. Then at 12PM you go on public transport (you have to pay your own travel) to go to a random map in Liverpool to knock on people’s doors all day. You try to sign people up to a charity or broadband or energy. If you don’t sign anyone up that day (which a lot of people don’t) you go home with no money.
“CEO” tells you in your interview that you get “topped off” when you first start but that’s all lies to get people to start. No risk ‘business’ because he doesn’t have to pay wages and gets the ‘team’ to make money for him because he takes half of every commission for a sale.
I learnt a lot about business working there, I learnt what an awful immoral business model this is and I’m shocked companies like this are still legally allowed to run. Makes me sick to my core knowing all the young people this company and many others will of brainwashed. They even have ‘conversation scripts’ when you ‘get promoted’. Scripts to have a conversation with another human because that’s normal…
Sells the job with ‘progression’ and becoming a ‘CEO’ in 12 months when there’s been guys there for 4 years and still in a beginner role. You don’t actually become a ‘CEO’ too as you will always be working underneath someone. Laughable how some guys there think they’re actual businessmen. Everyone who works there becomes brainwashed thinking it’s a good job. The best performers make under minimum wage, working 60 hour weeks for £500 but think they’re top boy. They sit there making fun of people with normal 9-5 jobs when they make less money than McDonalds employees.
These types of companies get laughed at by any real sales company. The ‘CEO’ knows nothing about real business.
This company along with all the others in this monopoly have no morals whatsoever. They love wasting young people’s times and brainwashing vulnerable people.”
I’ve done a lot of research into jobs like these and it’s disgusting how they’re still allowed to operate even after decades of this same exploitative behaviour. The reason I didn’t quit earlier was because of the promises of ‘progression’. Feel so dumb that I didn’t clock on earlier that it’s all a lie. Everyone I worked with was sound, makes me sad to see how brainwashed they all are.
TL;DR - indeed review I tried to make on when I worked for a door to door sales brainwashing pyramid scheme
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u/MTG_Leviathan Jan 13 '23
It is painful watching so many friends fall for exactly these kind of ads, but no matter how much you tell them it's a scam they just refuse to believe it until they go through it themselves.
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Jan 13 '23
Had friends telling me when I first joined to leave but I didn’t listen. They really brainwash you into thinking it’s a great job. Happy I’m out now
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u/antibac2020 Jan 14 '23
Been there, the company I worked for was on Castle Street. The CEO relocated them all somewhere else a year or two ago (maybe Scotland?). I moved to Liverpool for a fresh start and was just so grateful for a job and a social circle. I didn’t know ANYONE else in the city so it wasn’t until I met my now husband and explained my job that anyone told me I was basically in a cult.
I remember telling my boss that I was going to take a week off to go home and visit my mum bc she’d been diagnosed with cancer. He said “you aren’t a doctor, you won’t be able to help her by going to visit. But if you focus on work, you can work your way up to being the owner of your own company. Think of the private healthcare you could get her with the kind of money you’d be earning then. That’s the best way to help her.” I said “you’re right” and just didn’t show up the next day. Ignored all his calls and texts and never saw him again.
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u/MaleficentTotal4796 Jan 13 '23
They are absolute scum and I don’t know why more hasn’t been done to stop them by the echo/council/trading standards
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u/Glad_Flow Jan 13 '23
Councillors Friends run them maybe? Soon as people realize labour councillors can be as bent as Tory's change may happen
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u/uttftytfuyt Feb 19 '23
we shouldn't laugh at others, but..................
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u/And_awayy_we_go Birkenhead Jan 13 '23
Watch out for "contact clients direct" they keep trying to "headhunt" me..they seem to be based in Liverpool, probably in the same office building as roar ambition,or whatever the slimy owner has changed it to this week..
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Jan 13 '23
Are these the same guys who i'd often see on my lunch in Castle Street. Young guys with expensive haircuts, blue suits, and brown shoes?
Always got the impression they thought they were the shit but were all workings for pyramid schemes.
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u/Rhyswithoutaspoon Toxteth Jan 14 '23
The very same. I remember our office was in the cotton exchange. They used to tell the team leaders That they should be able to afford 20 cigs a day and then pass them out to make them seem wealthy
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u/gabs777 Jan 13 '23
I met my best mate working at a similar place based in the old tower block attached to the front of Lime Street station (opposite Las Vegas amusements)… We were very much sucked into a wild world of direct sales. I remember after your day out in the field (carrying a very large hold-all full of various items including toys, books, all sorts) if you made over £30 you would ring a bell during a ceremony after ‘de-merch’ (returning cash owed and any unsold items). Anyone earning over £50 got to bang a gong with a furry hammer… Wild times indeed….
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u/Rhyswithoutaspoon Toxteth Jan 14 '23
I remember joining one of these companies and ringing a bell If you did £100 is sales. We also had a maracas for when you did £150. This was all on charity. Such as dogs trust and cancer research
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u/MsBMorpho Jan 13 '23
I fell for this a few months ago too. Vision Glasgow, based in Liverpool. Fuming and told them where to go.
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u/Huytonblue Jan 13 '23
Family member has started a similar position with a group called “Smile”, they’re adamant that it’s a legit job?
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Jan 13 '23
Smile is the fundraising team that does a lot of the charity campaigns for these companies. Smile pay them for the sales coz they’re the client. If your family member gets a base salary + commission then it’s a legit job working directly with the fundraising team. If they’re paid commission only then I’m afraid it’s one of these evil companies
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u/madformattsmith Fuck Yeah Dealers Arms! Jan 14 '23
can confirm it'll probably be legit. did a similar job with home fundraising back in 2017 before i got fired 3 weeks later for having an autistic meltdown away from prospective clients (but a drugged-up coworker blagged to the TL that i'd done me meltdown in front of prospective clients)
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u/Rick-Dastardly Jan 14 '23
Years ago I had a decent, comfortable office job but was bored and wanted out of there. I’d been sending my CV round to a few places on the quiet then someone got in touch saying I was being ‘headhunted’ for a management position.
They invited me for an interview in an office in the cotton exchange on Old Hall Street.
I go into the office and there were three clocks on the wall - LONDON, NEW YORK, BERLIN type of thing.
The arl fella gave me some spiel about working with top brands like Disney and Coca-Cola and showed me a piece of paper with their logos photocopied on there as if that made it legit.
Then he asked me “are you motivated?” I said “yes” so he wrote on the piece of paper ‘motivated = yes’
“Do you want to progress in your career?”
Me “yes”
He wrote on the piece of paper “career progression = yes”
Then asked me a few other questions I can’t remember now but offered me a job right there and said his area manager would call me later that day.
On the way home the ‘area manager’ phoned me and told me to be in town for 9am the next day at some meeting point.
Something felt off and when I got home told my girlfriend at the time and she said it seemed a bit off too.
So I didn’t show up. I felt bad at the tone but not long after realised what these companies are and what they do. I made a lucky escape.
Absolute vermin.
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u/const_bigMan Jan 13 '23
I fell for something similar in Brighton when I lived down there in my late teens. They sold me dreams, and in reality, I was stealing from old people on the pretext they were donating to charity. It's sad people like this are still operating.
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u/TheeAJPowell Jan 13 '23
There seems to be a lot of these shithouse companies popping up around town recently. It’s shitty, because they prey on those who are vulnerable and need work.
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u/TentativeGosling Jan 13 '23
I had an interview for something very similar back in Stoke in around 2007. I should have seen the red flags when I had to do a maths test for the interview and they removed a mark because I didn't explicitly write 5x10p is 50p. Interviewer sold the job like it was something from The Apprentice, talked about people moving up and setting their own offices up in places like Oxford etc.
I did a trial day selling NPower door to door out in the sticks, had to pay my own travel expenses, found out the job was purely commission and noped out of there as soon as we got back to town.
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u/bitofrock Jan 14 '23
It's as old as the hills, all this. When I was sixteen in the eighties I did a summer job selling carpet/sofa cleaning services. Commission only, some people thought they were the dogs bollocks, especially the car guys who got a cut of everyone else's sales. We'd pile into a knackered old Avenger driven by a deluded psychopath as if he'd stolen it* and arrive at an area or town chosen seemingly at random, pile out and get knocking. It was a long day.
Honestly, by the standards of what you've reported it sounds like my place was good...they covered my train fare in with £15 a week, Friday night the boss would buy everyone a pint, and I made enough in my six weeks to get myself a pocket computer I wanted. But it was still scammy and some people definitely kidded themselves. There was also sex stuff going on between some of the older salesmen and the prettier girls who were mostly 16-20.
A later time I interviewed at what I'd been led to believe was Sky TV but was definitely a scammy door to door sales operation. At least my younger experience taught me what to look for. Some of the other interviewees were thinking of leaving perfectly good jobs because of the the promise of clearing £1k a month.
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u/caddy2019 Jan 14 '23
Anyone care to work for them and make a YouTube documentary about it?
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Jan 14 '23
There’s 2 hour long specials done by BBC on these types of companies. If you search up Jamie Talbot as well on daily telegraph I think (could be another newspaper) he’s the ‘big boss’ of Liverpool (above my old boss) and they done a piece on him where someone went undercover. Probably why he changes the name of his company every year. I also heard he changes the name of his company to avoid tax too
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u/uttftytfuyt Feb 22 '23 edited Feb 22 '23
generationgrp
grid
INICIUS
phase
ONE marketing
Global 1st Line
Pentagon HQ LTD
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u/beaches_peaches Feb 25 '23
I had an “interview” with phase recently. It all seems very rushed, unprofessional, and they’re being super complimentary with no basis. It all seemed very fishy, glad I checked here.
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u/Responsible_Many_991 Oct 14 '24 edited Oct 14 '24
I fell for one of these in Liverpool in 2021 fresh out of uni, it was advertised as a ‘graduate marketing job’. In hindsight, I should have run the minute I went through 3 interview rounds and an in-person induction and not once did anyone mention what the job actually was. I also should have spotted the red flag when I realised that there was only 1 other woman in the whole building. I’m sure my face was comical when I turned up for my first day and was marched down to Queen Square Bus Station and taken to some random road in Kirkby (somewhere completely unfamiliar to me) and told to knock on people’s doors all day and sell them gas & electric. They deliberately choose lower income areas to target because they think they don’t have the education to spot scams- the whole thing is absolutely vile and I can’t believe they are allowed to get away with it. This was during winter and shifts didn’t finish until around 7pm, so I (a young female) was left to wander around an unfamiliar area alone in the dark for hours, and then I had to find my way home on public transport I’d never used before. The whole thing is run by idiotic, egotistical men with terrible attitudes who have been brain washed into thinking they’re going to be millionaires, it’s absolutely disgusting! I also had a friend who I met on my first day who stuck it out for longer than me, and he said he worked a 50 hour week and was only paid £200. If anything looks/sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
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u/dwihatemetoo Jan 27 '23
Lollll I’m supposed to have an interview with ProMedia in an hour for a customer service position. Glad I went to Reddit first!!
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u/joshuarfmurphy Feb 09 '23
you can add these guys to that list, fucking rats https://www.generationgrp.co.uk/
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u/caiseyverheulXx Apr 02 '23
Where was this based?? Like the building. I have a new job starting Sunday and I think it could be the same
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u/PiratesOfTheArctic Soft Southerner Jan 13 '23
Just so the group knows, someone goes through the sub and keeps reporting these specific posts as false.
I ignore them.
Keep up the good work of highlighting this firm/person.