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A company that has currently popped up on job sites is FAST TRACK, which is exactly like SMI, except they sell home remodeling products. I saw the posting on erecruiting.com, and they said they did "Promotional Marketing" (I love how these pathetic companies use various marketing and sales terms to validate their actual strategy. You're a door-to-door sales company, and future prospects are eventually going to find out what you do, so just tell them). They also falsely led me to believe they pay an annual base salary. So I thought I would send in my resume to see what happens.
On their job postings, they specifically stated they would not open attachments in emails, so they wanted applicants to copy and paste their resume into the body of the email, which is fine. However, while I was preparing my resume, I absent-mindedly attached it to the email, and sent the email at 7:34 PM. I immediately realized what I did, and figured I would not hear from them.
Lo and behold, I receive an email from FAST TRACK at 2:50 THE VERY NEXT MORNING, saying that "management" has looked over my credentials and would like me to schedule an interview. I found this very suspicious, so I talked it over with my family to see what to do. They said to at least look into it because they didn't want me to miss an opportunity. So I decided to schedule an interview and head to FAST TRACK's headquarters which are located at 2801 S. Fairfield Ave. Suite A in Lombard, IL (which just happens to be the same address as SMI's headquarters, which I was not aware of at the time).
During the interview, the interviewer (who I will leave nameless) asked me a few simple questions about my resume and then informed me he had about fifteen more interviews in the day, and that was basically the whole first interview. Upon leaving the office, I wondered how he would separate me from the "other interviews" considering he didn't ask more in-depth questions.
I received a voicemail around 2:50 in the afternoon the same day from the interviewer saying he wanted to discuss some things on my resume, and finished the message by fumbling around to give me the number to his office, which ended up with him giving the wrong number. Unfortunately, I had the correct number saved on my cell phone and called back, and they invited me back for the second round interview to shadow one of their "managers" for the day to see their "day to day operations". So I figured I would get to see what they actually do and make a decision for myself.
The morning of my second interview, I received a confirmation call from the secretary of FAST TRACK to make sure I was coming for the interview, except when she addressed what company she was calling for, she accidentally said SMI, and quickly corrected herself and said FAST TRACK. I immediately felt a bad feeling about this company, but I decided to go through with it, hoping that it would be something other than door to door sales.
I arrived at the office, met the manager I would be shadowing, and from 12PM to 8PM we walked around a neighborhood doing door to door sales. Not only did I find it absolutely frustrating and unprofessional going up to people after 5PM, after they have been busting their behind at work all day, but then we even went up to people's doors around 7:30PM, when it was completely dark out. That's just shady.
We returned to the office around 9PM, and after the interviewer talked with the manager I shadowed, he said the manager had nothing but "great things" to say about me, even though the whole day I acted completely uninterested and hardly asked any questions. Then he offered me the job on the spot and asked when the earliest I could start was. I said I wanted a couple days to think it over and talk with my family about it, and got out of that office as fast as possible.
So to those who work for SMI and FAST TRACK, which apparently those names are interchangeable, here is a message from me to you: your company is pathetic, unprofessional, and desperate, and if you think your company is stable and a good work environment, you might want to re-evaluate your life. What I witnessed from that company was the saddest thing I've ever seen, and to be around other people my age with college degrees acting like what they were doing was completely normal made me feel like I was in the Twilight Zone. Why are your companies so desperate to hire anybody, seriously? No seriously, I really want to know. And why do you try to hide the fact in your job postings and your interviews that you're a door to door sales company. Just say it, because the people you employ are eventually going to find out, and you will save plenty of people's time and money. Wasting my time with your company was one of the most disappointing experiences I've ever come across, and am personally embarrassed that I was douped into walking around doing nonsense for eight hours even after they constantly slipped up by giving me wrong numbers and messing up their own company's name. One word to describe this: JOKE.
This is a detailed account of what I had to experience, and I hope people understand what they're getting into when they apply to these companies. If you still don't, I'll make it easy for you: If you're looking to work 10 hours a day, possibly weekends, work strictly on commission and not be guaranteed any money, and perform DOOR TO DOOR SALES, then SMI and FAST TRACK are for you.
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39 days ago by smarter now 0 Votes
That sucks and I'm sorry you had to experience the "first interview." I had a day similar to yours when I interviewed (unknowingly) for SMI where I shadowed Becky and we went door to door in the blazing sun all day and all night trying to sell office supplies. I stopped counting the doors that were shut in our faces and the police threats we recieved after 10am. I wanted to RUN far and fast. What was the most disturbing to me was the attitude of this Becky whom I had spent the day with. She was young, confident, seemed intelligent (although she DID accept a position as a door to door salesperson..weird) and had her degree, yet she found this commission based JOKE of a job to be satisfying! Unreal. I mean, I understand the economy is rough and finding a job is tricky right now, but the day you see me going door to door trying to sell a copy machines and hand sanitizer to a family owned auto repair shop is the day that hell freezes over.
19 minutes ago by Lar234 0 Votes
I worked for this company for 3 days and I have to say it might just have been the worst 3 days of my life. They lie non stop. The ad is a lie and the job is a lie. I believe the end concept is legit and if you put in all of the work you will definitely end up having your own office, but at what price? These people are worse than used car salesman. Who wants to go door to door for 12 hours a day for 8-9 months in the rain, sleet, snow, sub zero temperatures...not to mention in some of the ### and shady areas of the city you will find...and not even be guaranteed any money. Like the above poster said...the economy might be horrible, but I will never subject myself to something like this again. There is no such thing as having integrity when you are performing this job. They use brainwashing tactics on all of their employees. Trust me...EVERYONE is brainwashed...I am by no means old (27) and wise, but every employee is a recent college grad around 21 & 22 years of age, and they don't know any better because they've never had a "real" career job. That is why this company preys on them. From the first minute I stepped in there something just didn't feel right, and thankfully I got out quick. Just to let you know the horror you're in for I'll even break a typical day down for you:
9:30 am - report to the office to "practice pitch" with all of the other used car salesmen. This entails the managers putting on hip urban music while everyone partners up and practices a specific pitch to try to trick people into signing up for home improvement estimates and cleaning services. "The first line of the pitch is "Hey sir...(with a big fake used car salesmen smile)...don't worry I'm not selling anything ..(this is said to put them at ease, but if they don't sign up no one gets paid..so you are indeed very much selling something.) It's all dirty tricks.
10:30am - Get into a broken down looking car with your manager, and 2 other "used car salesmen".
11:30am - Get out of your car in a horrible, run down, dangerous neighborhood and go door to door trying to get people to sign up for cleaning services and home improvement estimates. You know...utilizing your ### pitch.
2:30pm - Lunch
3:15pm - back going door to door
8:00pm - Finish up in the field after going door to door for the last few hours in the ### black of night (very shady)
9:00pm - Arrive back at the office to recap your day with all of the other losers, and brag about how well you did, and try to hide in a corner if you didn't do well.
9:15pm - Very bizarre ritual where everyone stands around a table with a schoolbell, a gong, and a really tiny bell. One of the brainwashed [censored]bag proceeds to yell "Hey guys"...where everyone then responds "Hey what"...then the [censored]bag says it again.. "Hey guys"..and you have to repeat this ### yet again.."Hey what"...Then goes up and either rings the little bell = 3 sales made...the big bell = 5 sales made..or the gong = 6 sales made.
10:30 - finally arrive home
So if this sounds like the type of day you want to have for 8-9 months or longer...be my guest..don't say you weren't warned. i have a college degree, and even though the economy is bad I'll find something 1000 times better than this eventually.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
See, the funny thing is that you spent all of this time writing a book on something that you never should have even gotten into. How do you think some of the richest people in the world became rich? They were entrepreneurs, they worked harder than anyone else. If you work a 9-5 your whole life, there is no way you are going to get ahead in life. Paul Mitchell did the same thing before he started out his empire. He would go salon to salon selling his homemade shampoo and conditioner everyday. He lived out of his car, making his dream a reality. Eventually after his persistence and drive did he make it with his hair product company. He now owns a tequila Patron, I think you have heard of it. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world, all because he worked harder than others, and had one thing "pride" that he was able to put on the shelf in order to make sales everyday. For him it was not eating vs. having pride and not selling his ###. I worked for this company that you called fraudulent for 9 months. I have seen 2 people open up offices, one in tampa and one in atlanta. The only reason that I didn't succeed is I wasn't able to give up my pride all of the way. That was the hardest thing for me because unlike you I have drive and I was very close to succeeding a couple times with opening up my own offices. I have unfortunately trained and developed people that had the mentality like you and quit after about a month of being employed. If you did have pride, how did you quit, when you were working there?
Did you just not show up, or call in and give a b.s. excuse as to why you couldn't work anymore. For me working there as long as I did I have heard all of the excuses, and the people that quit, were so insecure and scared they would not even show up and never pick up their phones or call in and talk to management and say that they had to move, got sick, or something else stupid happened.
This is a real business opportunity that not everyone likes, or wants to do. The guy that started up waste management deals literally with "###" everyday, but I think he enjoys it now when me makes over a billion a year. Imagine what his friends said back in the day when he started picking up and getting rid of his neighbors trash. Probably the same that a lot of people that think its just door to door. There is an opportunity there that normal people see and laugh at. My boss when I was there has been doing it for 8 years. He is in charge of 26 offices, 8 which i have personally seen, and he is retiring this year and he's only 30. All I have to say to the last guy is that have fun working until you are 67yrs old, where you go into work everyday, know how much you will make everyday, do the bare min. not to get fired, and envy everyone that you know that has more money than you that probably worked a little harder than you did while you were growing up.
Sales isn't for everyone, but if you look right now the highest paying jobs in the world are dealing with sales. The reason is because not everyone can or wants to do it.
The funny thing is, they have also suddenly appeared in England. My girlfriend found this job on jobsite and thought that the job would be a way to gain experience as none was needed to apply, but on the job discription it did not mention anything about door-to-door work, so inevitably she applied for it on the saturday, got an E-Mail on the sunday night requesting an interview on bank holiday monday (which was very inapropriate to say the least.) passed the interview and was told to attend an assessment on the following day (also a bank holiday) which i was suspicious about, the hours were 10:30 - 20:00 exluding the managers talk at the end of the day which took it up to 21:00 and she didn't get home until about 22:30 (using public transport). she then got a phone call later that night to say she had the job and started the day after because they were impressed by her attitude even though she did barely anything but write stuff down, by now i didn't think this company was legit as no business i know of only takes 3 days to pick a candidate, another thing that arroused my suspicions was the fact that they told her to stay on jobseekers allowance until her first pay cheque which is highly irregular.
i have my 2nd interview today.. i thought id do some research and i found many stories similar to this one.. im vert very disapointed, its the 1st interview iv had in months and after splitting up with my partnew on new years eve a new job is exactly what i needed, rest assured i will not be joining them for the 9hours.. instead i shall be laying in bed and sulking.. these people should have some respect for people who genuinly beleive their [censor]..!
I was desperate for a job and had a lot of free time plus their "flexible" schedule (not really flexible you either worked all day or didn't work at all that day but they allowed you to take off any day you wanted with very short notice) meant I didn't have to do it full time (if you worked full time there it would equate to 70 hours a week). I worked there about a week before deciding a job a highschool drop out could get working at a fast food place would have been a better job than the long hours and commission only pay meaning most people in the office myself included were making less than minimum wage with no benefits whatsoever and horrible working conditions (extreme temperatures, pouring rain, no access to a bathroom unless a complete stranger was willing to welcome a door-to-door salesman into their home or you walked over a mile to the nearest fast food place or convenience store that would let you use their bathroom). Also, the drivers didn't even get reimbursement for their gas so they were making even less. However, since I could decide to only go in when the weather would be nice all day and had nothing else lined up I stayed on for another two weeks working only 6 more days total before my last day there when I realized there was absolutely no way this company could ever be successful. I was sent to an area where in one neighborhood was a ghetto where everyone rented so there were no home owners there to sell to and the houses were in such bad condition it was clear none of the homeowners cared to get any repairs done I felt like I could get shot or stabbed with the looks I was getting before I just abandoned that neighborhood for my own safety, and the other neighborhood was an estate community with a sign at the entrance for all the homeowners there to see mentioning that the home owners association had just worked out a deal with one of the companies we competed with for a discount on home remodelling and about half of the houses in the neighborhood had signs for that company in their yard. When I got back to the office the manager asked me why I had no appointments set up and so I told him the truth that there were no qualified buyers in the one area and the other area everyone either was already getting work done or had just turned down a better offer that there home owners association had worked out with our competitor than we could make them and were not going to be convinced to get the work done with us. Instead of crossing off the area from their map so that they would not send more people to waste a day there for a few years until they may need more work done he berated me in front of all the other employees there calling me a liar and insisting that there was no home owners association in that area to have worked out a deal with our competitor. Since I knew the manager would question why I had no appointments set up, I had taken pictures of the worn down houses and the sign from the home owners association as well as all the signs for our competition throughout the neighborhood but since my manager started off with yelling an screaming at me I figured I'd let him take this time to show his true colors before pulling out the pictures to prove I wasn't lying and expose him for the ignorant fool he is. Unfortunately since my ride was very late picking us up the only people still there were my carpool and a bunch of interviewees that the manager kept back after everyone else left to go over more stuff with them even though it was already after 11. Everyone who was there quit after seeing how he reacted but I'm sure he gave some bs reason to the other employees who noticed our carpool wasn't there anymore to make it look like we were all just terrible at our job and not that we quit because we were fed up with the management and with how many people they bring in for who turn down the job I'm sure no one questioned why 8 interviewees didn't come back. If you enjoy long hours with no benefits, terrible pay, terrible working conditions, and management who would be blaming you if they sent you to a bad neighborhood and you got shot then this is the job for you and they'll accept anyone. You aren't being accepted because they think you have great qualifications, you're accepted because it is commission based so you are the one taking all the risk and getting the least pay, they don't pay you unless you are making money for them so if you end up not being a good door-to-door marketer they don't lose any money because they just don't pay you and if you are making any money that means their making even more off your work.
I have purchased a fast track watch from one of the outlet of the Titan before 6 month, now the paint of dial is scratching automatically, so I have return the watch to the same outlet and they insure that I will have my replaced watch with in 15 days but 20 days has been passed and till I am not getting any response from there.