The door-to-door / commission-only jobs thread (super dooper mega merge)

El Inho

ziggy23 wrote: »

Thanks for this yea I'm being a bit negative alright! I havent worked in over 4 years so things are a bit different than I remember!

just takes patience. if your in a student town too this is a massive time to get out and cover every single shop. lots of j1 students etc fecking off for the summer.

Cathyht

Glad you got a job El Spearo, bring in the dosh now

ziggy23

El Spearo wrote: »

just takes patience. if your in a student town too this is a massive time to get out and cover every single shop. lots of j1 students etc fecking off for the summer.

Single mum actually:p I was offered a job with sky starting next month part time but now they might not have part time I'm so pissed off right now but thats another thread!
I'm just looking for something part time have applied for a few there so fingers crossed:)
Edit just seen u werent asking was I a student!

padma

Where are you located Ziggy?

ziggy23

padma wrote: »

Where are you located Ziggy?

Dublin 7

padma

ziggy23 wrote: »

Dublin 7

It's just I know of a part time job going. But it's in Limerick. So is of no help to you.

ziggy23

padma wrote: »

It's just I know of a part time job going. But it's in Limerick. So is of no help to you.

Ah thanks anyway

ThePatrickk

padma wrote: »

It's just I know of a part time job going. But it's in Limerick. So is of no help to you.

Care to share some information?

padma

ThePatrickk wrote: »

Care to share some information?

posted in limerick jobs thread

ziggy23

I've an intervew lined up with this crowd tomorrow http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1262741. I asked them more and they were a bit vague just saying they deal with major clients in shopping centres etc. I'll go anyway as I need the interview experience

EDIT just seen another thred about them their dodgy wouldnt you know! Might go to the interview anyway and report back ;-)

irishjig69b

ziggy23 wrote: »

I've an intervew lined up with this crowd tomorrow http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1262741. I asked them more and they were a bit vague just saying they deal with major clients in shopping centres etc. I'll go anyway as I need the interview experience

EDIT just seen another thred about them their dodgy wouldnt you know! Might go to the interview anyway and report back ;-)

It's door to door with a big hold all bag selling cheap crap at top notch prices

ziggy23

irishjig69b wrote: »

It's door to door with a big hold all bag selling cheap crap at top notch prices

Cancelled it anyway but oh god probably that Victoria Jackson sh1t! This thread has really opened my eyes to all these scams going on it's really terrible :mad:

Hayezer

I'm a student and have been trying to find work for ages and got an interview for a door-to-door sales company like a month ago and took the job because I was desperate :pac:.

Went around on a day with 2 experienced workers for 8 hours and they made 0 sales. I'm due to start in a few weeks and my parents are really advising against going ahead with it, so much so that my mother has offered to pay me a few bob if I do the gardening every sunny day :pac:. Since I'm new to working in general, what would be procedure for going back on it now and saying that I don't want the job? Just call the boss or try get a meeting or what? I'm sure this company lives off gullible students like me. Would much rather a small steady stream of cash rather than this 100% commission door job .

tbh

Hayezer wrote: »

I'm a student and have been trying to find work for ages and got an interview for a door-to-door sales company like a month ago and took the job because I was desperate :pac:.

Went around on a day with 2 experienced workers for 8 hours and they made 0 sales. I'm due to start in a few weeks and my parents are really advising against going ahead with it, so much so that my mother has offered to pay me a few bob if I do the gardening every sunny day :pac:. Since I'm new to working in general, what would be procedure for going back on it now and saying that I don't want the job? Just call the boss or try get a meeting or what? I'm sure this company lives off gullible students like me. Would much rather a small steady stream of cash rather than this 100% commission door job .

mail or phone them, tell them you were offered a job thats going to offer you experience in your chosen field of study, thank them for their time.

El Inho

follow tbh's words...thats the perfect one. or tell them to suck it....the important thing is you picked up on it

curious carlovian

This thread has really opened my eyes. I have an interview scheduled for tomorrow with roar promotions, I seen them advertised on jobs.ie
Very disappointed these companies get away with such scams. I'm just so glad I did not travel up to Dublin and waste my day and spend the train fair! Thanks to everyone on this thread!

cullow123

I did work for a company in Talbot street in Dublin this company shares its offices with Roar Promotions for 2 days doing field representation. The job was meant to be from 9-6 pm but must evenings I did not get back to the office until well after 6.Before I got let go I was told from my mentor that I was doing really well and then I was brought into a room with my mentor and the CEO where I was told my sales was not up to scratch and that they would have to let me go. I had never done a sales job before so I think after just two days in the place they would have aloud me more time to prove myself If anybody wants more information on what it was like for me PM me.

cullow123

What are they like to work for?. Are they another commission only company?. Has anybody here worked for them, if so what was it like?

lala88

cullow123 wrote: »

What are they like to work for?. Are they another commission only company?. Has anybody here worked for them, if so what was it like?

Know a fella whos works with them but does merchandisingfor them. He said there fine to work with for what he does. Ill ask and see is he knows anything about doing sales with them

Kthulu91

lala88 wrote: »

Know a fella whos works with them but does merchandisingfor them. He said there fine to work with for what he does. Ill ask and see is he knows anything about doing sales with them

Any update on FMI are like? and are Roar promotions really that bad? :pac:

OnTheCouch

Kthulu91 wrote: »

Any update on FMI are like? and are Roar promotions really that bad? :pac:

Put it like this. I considerably prefer my current unemployed status than what I had to do for that crowd.

cullow123

OnTheCouch wrote: »

Put it like this. I considerably prefer my current unemployed status than what I had to do for that crowd.

How bad was it and what did you have to do ?

OnTheCouch

OnTheCouch wrote: »

Would like to share a few experiences I had with these door-to-door companies. I would like to state I have no connection to any other company (I am currently unemployed) and this review is purely subjective. Consequently I expect some people will not agree with what I have to say. However, the experience left such an impact on me in such a short space of time that the temptation to write about my period with them was just too great to resist.

The bottom line for me personally would be to avoid these outfits like the plague. Good points have actually been made in a couple of previous posts which would go against the general tone of this review, but the reality is that in my opinion, unless you are a wonderfully naturally-gifted salesman, have a sensational work ethic, or simply have no qualifications (none of which fitted my description), this sort of job simply will not work out for you in the long term.

I worked for this particular company for around six weeks a few years ago. With hindsight I am surprised I stayed even that long. As many people have alluded to, door-to-door is not mentioned in the job description. After having recently acquired a Master of Arts, I was finding it fairly hard to get a job and as a result was prepared to do anything, even though door-to-door would really have been at the back of the queue were I a deity handing out sought-after jobs! I was also actually fairly determined to do well, being young and keen, even though the position went against all my basic instincts. Naturally enough in the first two weeks I was hopeless, and the only sales I made were with the help of my instructor. I was reassured many times however than this was a natural process and even the guys at the very top had gone through this.

To give the company their dues (I don't want this review to be completely one-sided), the vast majority of people there were very friendly and quite willing to go talk through selling problems with you. This may have been a way of lulling you into a false sense of security of course, in case one might have got disenchanted. There was this very cheesy-American style two hour session from 11 am onwards where those who had done well in previous outings all received raucous high-fives from everyone present. Inspirational stories of how entry-level guys became owners of their own companies and even millionaires within a few years were commonplace. The seemingly never-ending days were drawn out yet further later on by rituals of dancing round a room and witnessing the highest achiever on that day 'ringing the bell.' Those among you who may happen to see the similarities with brainwashing tactics utilised by religious cults would not be far wrong. We were even invited to conferences where further images of tangible success were demonstrated in front of our disbelieving eyes in the form of speeches by and interviews with former neophytes who 'at one stage were in exactly the same place as you were.'

The obvious hitch in this whole process was however that I simply wasn't improving, even after the two-three week 'feeling your way' stage had elapsed. And at the risk of stating the obvious, when you are only being paid on commission and making perhaps one sale a day at best, the financial realities soon start to hit home. Worst still, the job starts taking over your life. First of all, there was considerable peer pressure to work on Saturday from all concerned with the company, for fear of not being promoted, or being seen as a slacker. Secondly it seemed that even on Sunday there was some football tournament or something that was being organised by your colleagues that you should participate in, if nothing else but to keep up good camaraderie between workers. Last but not least it came to the stage that you started over-analysing every bad day you had. This had the end result of you thinking that the sole reason you didn't make any sales that day was the extra half an hour you stayed up or the final pint you squeezed in the night before (although in the latter case...). There was also a lot of socialising with people from work, which can obviously be a good thing, but when you see these people from 11 am to 10 pm, you start to feel like the homo sapiens version of a homing pigeon.

After the fifth week I really was at the end of my tether. It was slowly starting to dawn on me that the company would not be my Stairway to Millionaire Heaven and that my gut feeling that spending many long hours walking around fairly sketchy areas, being hassled by brazen neighbourhood youths, having no protection from the elements (umbrellas were seen as being intimidating to potential clients) was not the best way to get ahead in life may well have been right. Plus I was having to pay for the privilege, as transport costs were bizarrely enough not included! I realised that I was actually losing money, despite not returning home until 11 pm most nights. But most of all, I was trying to do something which I deep down abhorred, that being trying to sell items to people in their own homes, in many cases using tactics that bordered on the intimidating (verbal if not physical) and general bully-boy behaviour. The sense of relief when walking home after finally telling them enough was enough was overwhelmingly invigorating. Nonetheless I do feel I have to add that I jumped before I was pushed, I had received one or two warnings by that stage that my sales figures were woefully short of expectations and if I'm being realistic I would have lasted a day or two more before a parting of the ways would have become inevitable.

A few probable life-long consequences have resulted from this stint. But let us begin with the positive. Sitting in front of my television on a cold night at 6 pm the day after resigning was unexpectedly joyous, as I knew that my former colleagues would only be warming up at that stage for the final few key hours of the day. I have also become a lot less gullible after the experience and would never be as naive in the future. Unfortunately I also believe I have become more cynical and less inclined to be trusting of people unless I see concrete reasons or examples for doing so. Since this time I have also developed a serious mistrust of anyone involved in the sales business, which I am aware myself is irrational but I cannot seem to shake this implanted seed in my subconscious. Worse still, I also tend to be extremely curt at best with anyone who should dare darken my door in the vain hope of selling something. Ironically enough, most people I encountered in my time knocking on doors were actually fairly friendly. It is this last part which fills me most with regret. For this alone I would give these companies a very wide berth, as the whole thing is just a scam, unless you are one of those three aforementioned categories of individuals.

cullow123 wrote: »

How bad was it and what did you have to do ?

I posted the above review from nearly exactly a year ago today. Slightly depressing that my own circumstances have barely changed in the meantime, but oh well.

My intention was to try and make the review as balanced as possible, as if one is good at sales, they could conceivably do very well in the business. Plus this sort of work clearly toughens you up and trains you to be mentally stronger after a while.

However it was overwhelmingly the wrong choice for me personally, as I explained in the above post.

lala88

Kthulu91 wrote: »

Any update on FMI are like? and are Roar promotions really that bad? :pac:

oh ya forgot aboout this. he said he doesnt really know what there like in terms of sales because its a different department

Lady in Black

My boyfriend has been working at one of these companies selling airtricity door to door for the past 3 months now, I've calculated he works 72 hours a week (from 9am to 11pm Monday to Saturday) yes unreal hours!! :eek: most days he gets between 2 and 4 sales (recommended minimum is 5) some days he's gets NONE. Their worth around €29 each.

He has most certainly been brainwashed by the managers as they promised him he will have his own office in about 9 months from starting.. He is far from that let me tell you. He is currently building a "team of his own" and as quick as he hires someone another person leaves (sees sense!) I have been against this job from the beginning as I too had an interview with the same type of company last year (selling sky) and I quit before I even started. Living purely on commission is just not plausible as he is behind on his rent, might have to move back home with his parents and had to sell some of his possessions just to afford bus fares and lunches.

I know this is a long post but I am at the end of my tether trying to get him to take a job with a proper wage. He firmly believes he will be a millionaire from opening several offices around the world(gullible & brainwashed)

He only ever has Sunday off and even then his manager is calling him to plan the next week and set goals, even though he sees him on a Monday morning anyway!! (Pest) there has been week long road trips to cork and Louth, which he had to pay his own travel fares and accommodation.

It's been made clear to me that this job comes first priority over everything yes even me, I need help as to what will make him realise he is being taken for a mug as I cannot take it anymore

irishjig69b

Lady in Black wrote: »

My boyfriend has been working at one of these companies selling airtricity door to door for the past 3 months now, I've calculated he works 72 hours a week (from 9am to 11pm Monday to Saturday) yes unreal hours!! :eek: most days he gets between 2 and 4 sales (recommended minimum is 5) some days he's gets NONE. Their worth around €29 each.

He has most certainly been brainwashed by the managers as they promised him he will have his own office in about 9 months from starting.. He is far from that let me tell you. He is currently building a "team of his own" and as quick as he hires someone another person leaves (sees sense!) I have been against this job from the beginning as I too had an interview with the same type of company last year (selling sky) and I quit before I even started. Living purely on commission is just not plausible as he is behind on his rent, might have to move back home with his parents and had to sell some of his possessions just to afford bus fares and lunches.

I know this is a long post but I am at the end of my tether trying to get him to take a job with a proper wage. He firmly believes he will be a millionaire from opening several offices around the world(gullible & brainwashed)

He only ever has Sunday off and even then his manager is calling him to plan the next week and set goals, even though he sees him on a Monday morning anyway!! (Pest) there has been week long road trips to cork and Louth, which he had to pay his own travel fares and accommodation.

It's been made clear to me that this job comes first priority over everything yes even me, I need help as to what will make him realise he is being taken for a mug as I cannot take it anymore

tell him ur leaving him, mite wake him up?billsave yeah?

allibastor

Lady in Black wrote: »

My boyfriend has been working at one of these companies selling airtricity door to door for the past 3 months now, I've calculated he works 72 hours a week (from 9am to 11pm Monday to Saturday) yes unreal hours!! :eek: most days he gets between 2 and 4 sales (recommended minimum is 5) some days he's gets NONE. Their worth around €29 each.

He has most certainly been brainwashed by the managers as they promised him he will have his own office in about 9 months from starting.. He is far from that let me tell you. He is currently building a "team of his own" and as quick as he hires someone another person leaves (sees sense!) I have been against this job from the beginning as I too had an interview with the same type of company last year (selling sky) and I quit before I even started. Living purely on commission is just not plausible as he is behind on his rent, might have to move back home with his parents and had to sell some of his possessions just to afford bus fares and lunches.

I know this is a long post but I am at the end of my tether trying to get him to take a job with a proper wage. He firmly believes he will be a millionaire from opening several offices around the world(gullible & brainwashed)

He only ever has Sunday off and even then his manager is calling him to plan the next week and set goals, even though he sees him on a Monday morning anyway!! (Pest) there has been week long road trips to cork and Louth, which he had to pay his own travel fares and accommodation.

It's been made clear to me that this job comes first priority over everything yes even me, I need help as to what will make him realise he is being taken for a mug as I cannot take it anymore

He won't cop it unfortunately until something breaks. He is at the stage where he is making some sales and therefore thinks that it can be done and improved upon.

If these companies were really good at managing sales they would notice market saturation in thier areas. The only reason they let people out to make sales is cause there is no financial outlay for these places to staff, they could send out a thousand guys and if they all got only one sale all together the company still wins.

If your partner can't see reason you need to say its you or the job. His answer will let you know the pecking order you have to live with

El Inho

Lady in Black wrote: »

My boyfriend has been working at one of these companies selling airtricity door to door for the past 3 months now, I've calculated he works 72 hours a week (from 9am to 11pm Monday to Saturday) yes unreal hours!! :eek: mosti days he gets between 2 and 4 sales (recommended minimum is 5) some days he's gets NONE. Their worth around €29 each.

He has most certainly been brainwashed by the managers as they promised him he will have his own office in about 9 months from starting.. He is far from that let me tell you. He is currently building a "team of his own" and as quick as he hires someone another person leaves (sees sense!) I have been against this job from the beginning as I too had an interview with the same type of company last year (selling sky) and I quit before I even started. Living purely on commission is just not plausible as he is behind on his rent, might have to move back home with his parents and had to sell some of his possessions just to afford bus fares and lunches.

I know this is a long post but I am at the end of my tether trying to get him to take a job with a proper wage. He firmly believes he will be a millionaire from opening several offices around the world(gullible & brainwashed)

He only ever has Sunday off and even then his manager is calling him to plan the next week and set goals, even though he sees him on a Monday morning anyway!! (Pest) there has been week long road trips to cork and Louth, which he had to pay his own travel fares and accommodation.

It's been made clear to me that this job comes first priority over everything yes even me, I need help as to what will make him realise he is being taken for a mug as I cannot take it anymore

I nearly blew it with my missus to because of these jobs. Give him a break though. When your in and see some money its hard to see why to quit... He doesn't want to fail. And the whole thing chants to him that friends and family will ask you to quit. Bet honest with him, tell him how your hurting and hope for the best

Rod Serling

Finished up in college a few months back and was delighted to get an interview with a certain field sales organisation, I wont name them but if anyone needs to know feel free to PM me, I don't want to come across as being out to get this company in my first post here but I certainly think I should post about it. I knew absolutely nothing about them and couldn't find much information online so I assumed they were just a small business. Nowhere on the ad did it say door to door or field sales or any of that or else I wouldn't have even applied, just basic salary plus bonuses and under the category of call centre/sales. So I applied, got an interview and got invited for an observation day. Again, D2D was still not mentioned even at interview so I was thinking I was going for a call centre job which was the kind of thing I was hoping for.

Went in for my observation day and was introduced to the team and the other guy who was there for observation. I can't fault any of the people working for them, all lovely people. Finally the manager tells me I'm about to be brought out and see what it's like in the field and I realise I've been suckered in to door to door work. She said I'd be there for about two hours max and then she'd bring us back in to chat and see how we got on and do a trial sale with her. I wanted to leave then but I decided to stick the day out and see what it was like because after all beggars can't be choosers and I needed a job. (The other guy who was there for observation did however tell them to stick it and walked right back out when he realised)

I was put in a team with three lads and we drove off to Naas. We all got to talking and I realised very quickly that it was even worse than I imagined. I mentioned I was only there for a few hours and they all laughed and said "Yeah, first day? You'll be here til the end of the day!" I learned fast that they were there because they absolutely had to be and would leave if they could. One was there paying back student loans with the intention to leave the minute he'd done that, the other was fired from his last job for reasons I wont post, the other the same. They told me that they go all over Ireland and are never told 'til that morning where they're going. They can be called the night before work to be in at 9 or 10 for "motivational talks" and it's very very bad to miss these.

They need to get 10 sales and anything after that is a bonus. If they don't get 10 sales, they are made work Saturdays and your hourly rate is dropped by €1. This was a pretty huge red flag to me, as the job already required you to work 12-8 Monday to Friday. I asked what happened if you refused to work Saturday if you had plans or children or anything else as and they told me you'd be let go, simple as. I went around and watched them have door after door slammed in their faces. We got a break around half 4 when I learned that one of the other sales reps, who apparently was attempting to become a manager, had suggested breaks become half an hour long to improve efficiency, something that the manager was attempting to implement on this particular day. So she came around and tried to rush us along and asked how I was getting on. I asked her what happened to me only being out for a few hours and she said she felt it was far more beneficial for me to see a sale so I'd be out until I saw one. Ridiculous.

So I spent the rest of the day trotting behind another member of my team as I went to about 80 more houses and didn't make a single sale. I was counting down the minutes until 8 o'clock and when it finally came I asked the guys what the deal was with getting home - "well, we have to wait for the manager to tell us we can leave" "but it's 8 o'clock?" "Yeah.. Sometimes we work 'til after 9." And that's what happened. It was 9 o'clock by the time I was leaving a random estate in Kildare to get home to Dublin. The manager told me I'd made a great impression on everyone and she'd be keeping me on, I told her I felt lied to and would not be back. That's my experience of door to door work and it's the lowest of the low, I never wanted to do it in the first place but I'm glad I gave it a shot so I can now honestly say it's the worst scam of them all.

BohsMeerkat

Simliar experience working for a commission only company doing work for the paralympics, advertised as 9-6 but realistically it's more like 8-8 or later...
Promises and bonuses are mostly bull**** aswell, I was one of the good people aswell, there was people who were there who stayed and done fairly bad each week i was there and that was for 2 months...