Vanguard Innovations review: Scam 47

I COMPLETELY AGREE
I READ THIS POST AHEAD OF TIME, BUT DECIDED TO CHECK IT OUT FOR MYSELF>>>
IT WAS NOTHING BUT AN ELABORATE WAY TO LIE TO INTERVIEWEES AND GET THEIR HOPES UP! UNREAL ACTUALLY HOW FAR THEY REALLY DID GO TO NOT SAY THIS IS A DOOR TO DOOR SALES JOB. YOU ARE SELLING U VERSE TO ALREADY LOYAL AT&T CUSTOMERS.

IT WAS RIDICULOUS!

I had the same experience. I went along with it for about a week. After 10 to 12 hour days with no real progress and a BS presentation about Cydcor and the ammount of money you could make, researched Cydcor that night, I quit the next day. And for 50+ hrs i got a $50 check... 5 months later!
Stay away from the companies mentioned above including Wordwide Marketing in Columbus.

I agree...don't post your resume public to places like hotjobs on yahoo.com...I have had several scam interviews from Tribe, Vanguard Innovations, JDB Inc., etc. and all of them called me and wanted to schedule a interview immediately.

Word of advice...Stay away from the above mentioned companys and ask questions when they call like if it is an hourly, commission, or a draw. Ask what the company does and what position they are hiring for. If they don't answer your question and try to avoid answering it...then HANG UP!

These places are a waste of time and too depressing!

I completely agree! I was going to write my own report on this company but GottaLoveLebron summed it up nicely.

Vanguard assumes that you are so desperate for a job that you will just give in an take their offer. When making appointments for interviews, they tell you when to come in. Never asking when you are available for an interview.

During my first interview, I asked what my daily duties would be, I was told I would find out during a second interview of "job shadowing." Actually it was door to door sales. Then, I was offered the position after my 3 hours of door to door sales, and they expected me to make a decision on the spot! Of course, I was not going to take this position, but that is still a ridiculous expectation of a possible employee.

They would not give me a description of the job, as I mentioned. They would not show me the offices or let me see the day-to-day runnings of business. During my second interview, I was still not told what to do, but told to follow my "rep" for the day and someone who was learning his job. I proceeded to get into his own personal vehicle with him. I can't even believe I did this!

This is an unprofessional company that preys on naive, desperate, young "kids, " right out of college (mostly).

Looks like they changed their website to http://vanguarwit.com/

Still in Westlake, same Center Ridge Road address...

Thank you for posting this so I didn't drive an hour for nothing. ;-)

AGREE, This one is in Ohio as well. They have changed their name several times.

Business Name:

JJB Consulting, Inc.

Business Address: 18051 Jefferson Park Rd Ste 105
Cleveland, OH 44130
See the location on a Mapquest Map
See the location on a Google Map
Principal:
Jason Braughler
Phone Number:
[protected]
Fax Number:
[protected]
BBB Accreditation: This business is not a BBB Accredited Business

Type of Business:
MARKETING CONSULTANTS
Website Address:

http://www.keystoneintl.net

I cannot tell you how glad I am that you all were gracious enough to share this information. I already went to an initial "interview" with JJB Consulting and was also called by Vanguard Innovations for one as well. Jason at JJB Consulting acted like he was reading from a script during my interview and didn't even crack a smile or pretend to be friendly. Nothing but business attitude, no personality at all. Then stated that after he reviewed my resume and had other interviews, he would decide on "just a few select people" that he would call for a 2nd interview, which was supposed to be a "job shadow." He called and wanted me to come in tomorrow... didn't ask when might be good or if I was available. I had a gut feeling something wasn't right and you confirmed it! THANKS for preventing me from any more time wasted AND false hope!

I interviewed with that company today...they called me for a 2 hour 2nd interview. Then I decided before I went on the second to investigate in the company to find out more information. I read all the complaints...needless to say I am not showing up for the second. The funnier part is that I interviewed with there company before at a different location, different name, and did not realize it until I read all these complaints.

Same thing happened to me but for a company called World Wide Marketing in Columbus. I actually applied for Vantage Point Consulting and they somehow gave my resume over to the office beside them (the share office space)

thanks... just received a call.. will not be arriving for that meeting ..

Ok So did any of you guys actually call and speak to the JJB about this? I'm guessing not. So even though you attended an interview you left and looked up the company and this is the only thing you found and you feel it justifies everyone's rants on here? JJB & Vanguard are not the same company at all...WHOA I know how can I say this and bust all of your negative little bubbles here...oh yeah I CALLED that's how! So all of you who think JJB is the same as Vanguard did you look any further then this blog?!?! I'm guessing not because if you were to have you would have found that Vanguard is actually located in Westlake and Eric Boyd is the President of that company, how does someone find this out...by going to the companies WEBSITE. You all are seriously a bunch of fools and I'll bet the majority of you are still unemployed, I mean come on you let something like this, a blog of negativity determine your future job prospects, not to mention it is full of posts of complete random strangers - and on top of that some of you really wrote a book on here, I mean come on how much time did that take you?!?!

Look people if you have questions about any position at any company, CALL THEM! If they are vague and aren't cooperative, don't answer any of your questions, then yes absolutely feel something is not right and base your decision on that, on YOUR own, not what others who didn't even bother to ask questions write on this blog board, I mean come on people it's not like they have a blogs around leaving positive feedback on companies.

I interviewed with JJB, and Bestter Bussiness Consultants in Independence, it's all ###. The whole time they kept saying of we really liked your resume, and you're what we as a company are looking for. But they failed to even mention to me what qualifications I possessed that interested them so much. Also, while arriving at my interview with Better Business Consultants in Indeoendence, I was cat called to by some young punk. Really!? how unprofessional, and the guy who was interviewing me, who overheard what that guy said, tried to apologize to me for the incident while smiling with a smirk on his face. I recently applied for vanguard online, thinking it was for vanguard wine distributions. When i received my phone call today from Vanguard, I knew it was BS. I still scheduled an interview thinking it would be different this time. NOPE. I'm glad I read this posting, and did some researchon my own. I cancelled my interview.

Just had an interview with Vanguard, Inc. in Westlake today and was a little concerned so decided to Google their name and found all of this useful information. I'm a little confused b/c the website says Eric Boyd is the owner, but a man named Mike interviewed me today, said he was the company owner and would soon be changing the company's name. Can anyone give me any additional information on that? (and Stephie: don't feel badly: I thought it was Vanguard the investment company!).

After reading all of these comments, I feel obligated to respond. As a former employee of JJB Consulting, I feel like I can definatley set the record straight for many of you. IT IS ALL A SCAM! JJB Consulting (run by a husband, Jason Braughler, and wife, Jocelyn Braughler, team) used to be Keystone International, Strategy Inc, Kinetic Solutions and who knows what it was before that. The company operates as an I.C.L. under the corporate umbrella of Cydcor with offices all over the country. The office in Westlake operated by Eric Boyd is under the Cydcor umbrella and operates similar to JJB Consulting. There are about 5 offices in the Cleveland area operating under Cydcor. Offices all over the country offering false hope of money and success all the while preying on young naive individuals.
This is how it works...
Upon submitting your resumeto JJB Consulting or having your resume stalked off of Career Builder (or whatever sites you can post and view resumes on) you will be called and told that your resume had been reviewed (it really has not been; only viewed to pull your phone number) and that they are interested in scheduling an initial interview (they are interested in scheduling an interview with anyone who has a heartbeat and that can utter the words yes or no). You will be asked a series of questions by JJB Consulting followed be a lengthy explanination of the company (most of which ia a lie). They pressure you into accepting an interview the next day and if you can't make it the very next day you are told to call back when you are available or if you seem somewhat intelligent you will get a call back closer to when you are available. If you accept the interview time for the next day, you will arrive to be told to fill out a sheet of ridiculous questions that are not even reviewed and forced to have meaningless conversation with Jocelyn in the lobby. After waiting for a period of time, Jason will emerge from his office and call you back in for a stone cold scripted interview where he sounds like a robot. Answering only the questions he deems necessary to answer and if you ask questions about the pay he will NOT answer it. If he dosen't like you, he will end the interview faster than it began and kick you out as fast as he can; you will leave more confused than when you arrived. If Jason does like you, he will give you some song and dance about interviewing other people and will call you at a certain time if he has decided to invite you back for a second interview. Upon being called for that second interview, he too will pressure you into coming in the very next day for the second interview. If you can't make that he will "act" like he is trying to figure out when he has a "spot" for you. Again, when you come in for the second interview you will have to wait in the lobby and have meaningless conversation. At some point during the wait, a mass amount of other hopefuls who have bought into the pyramid scheme will pile out of the very same office you interviewed in. All on their way to their "appointments" with trainees or on their own. Once the herds have disbursed, Jason appears and tells you he wants to introduce you to someone; that someone is who you will spend the day with going from business to business lying and scamming people. After his speech about "impressing" the trainer, you are dismissed like cattle and off you go! The day is spent in someone's car whom you have no idea who they are in a place you most likey have never been to. At that point, you follow this person door to door and telling people you need update their bill or they will be defaulted. At some point during the day when you take a break from all of the scamming, you will have lunch with the person you are with and they will tell you how great the company is and how much money you can make. The money is a lie and the pyramid scheme is on paper in front of you; don't believe it. Starting at Entry Level and working your way to Executive in less than a year. The actuality of it is, most people don't make it and are used and abused. Making it to the Executive Level is a pipe dream and that would only mean you are out there scamming people too now. After spending the day (if you make it throught the day without asking to go back) you go back to fill out yet another sheet and possible have a third interview. At that point, you sit down again with Jason and he asks what you think about the day. After that brief meeting, he will tell you that he needs to talk to the other Trainers who have taken out other interviews and they will make a decision based upon that and if interested, he will call you at a certain date and time.
Upon receiving your specified phone call (which the majority of all people get) Jason starts by asking what you thought of the position, based upon your answer he will then tell you that the company has decided to go in a different direction or he will offer you a position beginning the next day (this company is all about the immediate start, though not in every case but the majority).
Upon accepting the position and reporting for your first day, you will be thrown into a room with blasting music, other people screaming and playing stupid "games." You will be taught the trickery of which the other people accustomed to using everyday. In addition to the craziness of this position, you are expected to drive your own vehicle and put hundreds of miles on your car per week and spend the majority of your paycheck on gas. The minimal amount that is actually made does not compare to the high dollar amounts explained to you during your second interview. Making money at this position is VERY difficult and if you are ok lying and cheating people then take the job! During time at the company, I sat in on several conference calls and meetings run by Jason, all talking about the benefit of making loads of money and how they spend it. They make money off of the people who work below them; dubbed a consulting fee. It's simply...IT'S A PYRAMID SCHEME! The office enviornment is fake and forced; Jason walks aroung masking the fact that is wife is the one who sits in the lobby and Jocelyn tells stories about her husband never mentioning his name.
The set up is a pretty good racket and hopefull if we continue to blog about the negativity of this company and it will shut their doors! FOR GOOD! Then, they will not be allowed to prey on the misfortune of others. Again, I am a former employee and you can take this any way that you want BUT just beware before you take a job with this organization and what is has to offer. Also, in addition to what an indivual stated above, yes do call and ask a series of questions and see the response you get from Jocelyn. Just be careful what you do, especially when this company is involved.

you people deserve to be unemployed

signed anonymous just like all of you

No one deserves to be unemployed and that was simply a cruel, selfish, unfeeling thing to say. At least these are people who are principled and have depth to their character unlike the true low-life's of the Vanguard company administrators and those related to it. Their behavior will come back on them some day just like other greedy, cruel selfish people in the past (Enron, etc.).

Cleartheconfusion has it completely wrong and it sounds like she has some serious sand in her vagina. I used to work for JJB Consulting as well and I've seen several people make it to the executive role in the company in the 12-18 month time frame. The only reason people don't achieve their goals in the company is their own self-defeating attitude, which it appears Cleartheconfusion has bought into.

I agree completely with happyhappyjoyjoy1. this picture says it all.

You're all a bunch of queers!

Get a job people, and stop collecting unemployment when ya'll don't deserve it! Job offers are out there, please don't decline them so you can be lazy and collect money you don't deserve!

I've got to go though people, I'm too busy setting up interviews and cancelling them or skipping them, like ya'll, to talk anymore!

I was just offered a job interview by JJB Consulting, and I am so glad I've come across the information here so I know to avoid this company.

Although I have not actually visited them, there are a couple of things about this company that just seem fishy to me. First of all, their official website is www.jjbconsultinginc.com. I did a WHOIS domain lookup to see the info behind who registered this domain, which you can find here: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/jjbconsultinginc.com

The site is registered to a Jason Braughler, I'm assuming thats the Jason that answers the phone. JJB Consulting claims they are based out of Middleburg Heights, OH, however the address registered to this domain name is Sunnyvale, CA. Whats more, its a PO BOX! That has fly-by-night scam written all over it. That way, if they need to ditch Middleburg Heights and run from the law, that domain name info won't help the authorities track them because it isn't an actual location of a home or office.

Secondly, whenever you call JJB Consulting, Jason answers the phone, who is also the owner. I mean seriously, at what kind of company does the owner work as a receptionist? Unless its a brand new startup with no employees. However, those of you who have a facebook account can visit this company's facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/JJB-Consulting-Inc/129486290425251#!/pages/JJB-Consulting-Inc/129486290425251?sk=wall and you will notice all sorts of posts about new people being welcomed into the company and promoted. Of course, they could just be lying about it.

Its obvious that the last few replies from posters like "anonymous just like all you", "happyhappyjoyjoy1" and "happyhappyjoyjoy2", are all JJB cronies. I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of them is Jason or Jocelyn themselves.

Again, cleartheconfusion and other posters before them, thank you so much for shedding light on this and helping me avoid wasting my time at a sham interview.

ohhhhh boy. I agree with the happy joy's comments.

i agree w happy joy's

Eric_83.

You're a queer! I bet your address is something like: 123 Unemployment Pkwy, East Cleveland, OH.
But, you're real address is located at: 123 Unemployment Rd, Sunnyvale, CA. That way, in case you needed to ditch Cleveland and run from the collection agencies, people wouldn't be able to track you down!

Happyhappyjoyjoy 1 and 2 speak the truth! And if I could "like" the posting by Anonymous just like you, I would!

I have an interview with JJB and after reading all of this garbage, I will not be attending the interview. There is way too much arguing going on here. It is clear to see that some of the responses are obviously from JJB employees; anyone could figure that out. If a company has to go to such lengths to respond so hastily to each comment, they have issue's. Not a company I want to work for...

MAJ29,

You're a turd!

WOW! I get called a turd because I am choosing to not be part of a company that has a horrible reputation? Or is it because you know I am right and there is NOTHING you can do to stop the influx of public opinion postings? I think anyone that reads this will obviously know the answer and it is clear to define that you work for JJB Consulting. So, continue to lie to people in an effort to get them to come to your shoty company and interview, I just hope half of them have a brain and do research prior to coming in.

MAJ29,

You're still a turd...

I also worked for JJB Consulting very briefly and it is a pyramid scheme. That's not to say that people don't advance because they do, but only if you're comfortable with the kind of job it is. It's a door to door job and sometimes you really can help people lower their gas bill, but most people don't care and they are going to be rude. I think it takes a certain kind of personality and attitude to do that job and not everybody has it and not everybody is going to succeed. For me the amount of money I spent on gas wasn't equal to the amount of money I was making and the eleven hour days I had to put in made it difficult to look for another job so I quit. There is no point to working for nothing, being employed means nothing if you don't get paid. I was also told that when I started I would make a base pay salary plus commission, which wasn't true. It was a base pay only if you closed 10 sales a week and if you didn't it was full commission. Which means that your first three days of training, when you can't close your own sales, you don't get paid anything. They pretty much push you into full commission, which means you can go a week or two making barely enough money to cover your gas. I don't have a problem with hard work and I don't have a problem with sales, but I do like to be paid for my time.

JJB Consulting interview sounds like a JOKE I was called for an interview almost immediately after I had applied. I would like to THANK everyone who has taken the time to post their opinions of the scams this company is trying to pull! I scheduled an interview, but when I was wrapping up the conversation with Jason he said to dress professionally..REALLY! that was my 1st CLUE (isn't that a given) When I went to look up the company's website it seemed so generic and did not clearly describe what the business does, just sounded like a "word salad" . I then searched the internet and did not find anything but complaints about scams about JJB Consulting a.k.a. Keystone International a.k.a. who the f knows what else this company has gone by! It seems this company changes its name constantly to avoid the bad rap that succeeds it! My advice is steer clear.

Oh my, I just got a phone call today from Vantage Point Consulting wanting an interview. The lady asked what I was looking for and I said NO SALES, I would like a call center environment with inbound customer service calls... Needless to say she lied and said there was no sales just a chance to expand my customer service career... No thanks, they will not be seeing me Monday. These people are a little to desperate.

Seriously! ?

You have got to be kidding me! Another JJB employee is suppose.

I worked for BBC or the other company that shared the office with BBC. They are the same company except the BBC promoted their assistant manager to manager, which is the owner of the company. Now they make lots of money, at the expense of its work force. It is precisely why they have 14 positing’s as of 11/14/2011 on career builder and other job boards. However not one of them is direct and to the point, there all vague. Things like, Entry-level Management, Sales & Human Resource Training, Retail Sales, Bartending, Serving Experience wanted ….and In addition my favorite, Account Manager Training – Entry level.
The way it works is they call you in for an interview, than they do a brief interview to check your interest, (looking for ppl who have not done their research, or ppl who really want to do the job), and they tell you after their 15 interviews in the day they will let you know. Bottom line is, if you show that you are interested they will call you back. After the second interview, you go to training, which is basically going with two or more ppl in a car to some location, and you walk around all day DOOR TO DOOR selling their clients product. During the training there is no talk of actual work knowledge or factual information, just basically hanging out with your trainer and the other person.
The ppl I did my training and working with wore cool and nice ppl, but as their objective is to make money mine is to learn, grow, and make money. Now if this were a job where the factors affecting your income are controllable, the job would not be so bad. If you don’t mind walking all day in heat, cold, rain, and every other weather condition Ohio throws at you, all year round. However, the factors that affect your income, progress, and everything else, is the number of sales, clients in existence with Cydcor, exceptional performance in sales, market conditions, recruitment and retention of employees (through training after they accepted the job), leader development (7 first generation, 15 second generation something like that0, and sales, sales, sales .
I didn’t hit those high sales numbers basically because I am not comfortable doing impulse selling (convincing the client that they need/want the product or creating the desire to buy). In addition, working over 60 hours per week did not help with my smile in front of clients. However, there are ppl there who make good money, I think. For example, my trainer had good sales, in range of a thousand per week, with over fifty percent cancelation rate. Which is still a mystery to me on how it is calculated, supposedly, it is taken from the first week, first day to the middle day of the month, I don’t know some BS that the management team told us. But his case was extreme, I believe the average cancelation rate was about twenty percent for those who hit seven hundred to a thousand. Bottom line is ppl there can make money, but not everyone who goes there makes money, and the sixty plus hours per week are not worth the full $1000 a week to me, especially when it’s not guaranteed, and not including the food, gas, and wear and tear on your car.
My advice to recent college grads that they target, is Do-Not-Do this, it is not a good experience to put on your resume, in fact I have been told to take it off/ not put it on by four different job recruiters. My advices to you is get a job that pays weekly/ biweekly, and stay away from those unlimited potential income jobs. Weather it’s a stupid laborer job or a part time position.

Pretty sad that JJB consulting employees have to go on a message board or public opinion forum and troll people. "123 Unemployed Drive, East Cleveland?" WOW racist much? You West side suburb racists wouldn't last 20 minutes in East Cleveland. Why dont you drive to East Cleveland and you will get a reality of what the world really is like. Not some Pyramid Scheme/OFFICE TV show, fake environment, where people are delusional and scamming money out of their lower level employees. There is a thing called Karma and you all will feel the WRATH of it one day. I have never worked for JJB consulting and i am glad to say I never will. I also have seen the pictures on Facebook of the 2 clowns throwing a pie at each other's face, VERY CREEPY.

I completely agree! Everything cleartheconfusion said is true.

Cleartheconfusion is 100% correct about everything they said. Not one thing in the post is false or exaggerated. I would know first hand...I figured that all out in the first week I was there, but still stayed for a couple months..What a waste of time and my money.

BTW: Obviously BOTH HappyHappyJoyJoys are employed there :-) Kind of immature postings though...

Just an FYI: I think this company may be going by the name Lakeshore Marketing now. Thanks for the comments I had a feeling it might be a scam!

I worked at JJB for about 2 months. They no longer sell gas. They have switched and now sell T-Mobile phones buisness to business. A lot of what people have said is true...some of it is exaggerated. Can you make money...maybe. You need to be a good salesmen. Can you advance...that's why I left. You need to get promoted to trainer. That's easy to do...just sell 5 lines in a week...I did it my second week there. Then you have to start showing up for the 715am leadership meetings. Then you have to interview and try and build your team. You must get 4 people promoted which means they must do what you just did...and have 10 people on your overall team. That means if you interview and get 5 people on their team and they all have 1 person on their team...you are eligible to become manager. Once you are manager you get a decent salary and you can become an executive and open up your own branch anywhere in the US that TMobile wants. You could also choose any of the other clients that they have as well such as Direct Energy or Quill. Executives that promote other executives get a bonus from TMobile...plus you get a small share of that companys income. They dont get any share of any sub promoted offices...or atleast thats what i heard. So the overall goal is to get new executives into more markets reaching new clients. So in some sense it is a pyramid scheme. While beings trainer you can still make money if the ppl under you don't sell a thing. But you won't get promoted because they will quit.

Heres why I quit: You have to pay for your own gas and often your territory is out a ways from Cleveland. You also have to interview and build your team. I am an honest person. So when my potential hire asked me how much she could make...it was hard to tell her that the week before I made $200. The week before that I made $800. But that was my best week. What bothered me most was that many people acquired people on their team that I knew couldn't sell anything. I had to train a couple of these people and I wondered why they were even hired. I know now...they were hired because the trainers will take whatever they can get and hope that they can get 4 promoted and make it to manager before anyone quits. I also didn't like the sales tactics that we were trained on. We tried as hard as we could to get our customers to sign up that day. It's called fear of loss. Most people I had to come back to wouldn't sign up...so I understand why they use this tactic. But they would tell us to say "you can only get this deal today". That's a lie...the deals were always the same. This is sales 101 but I don't like it. As for TMobile...I think they are a decent company. The phones we sold were legit. I did have cancellations and if people cancel in 14 days...you don't get paid.

I lost money at this job. I hate to write this because the people are friendly...and I liked the atmosphere. However, I feel bad for the people who got rooed into this job and didnt make a dime. The people that work there mean well and most of them are honest. But usually the honest people didn't make much money. I was pretty good at it and still couldn't pay the bills. So use your own discretion.

So I think the place in Solon, Ohio is one of these pyramid scheme companies too. Ire Magna. Once you meet your sales goals and recruit a bunch of ppl you are promoted to store manager (1.5 yrs about) you get your own store and RENAME it, one of your choosing. How smart of them. It is door to door 100% commission salary. Its selling paper/office supplies. The employees are so ridiculous. The guy I did my second interview with (aka drive around and watch him try and sell) was such a pig. Now I am not a sensitive person, I have four brothers and bartended for years, but this tool would NOT stop making sexual comments. The attire was professional so I was in black pants and long sleeve button down, nothing suggestive (still), it wasnt just a couple comments either. It was CONSTANT. I even tried to be polite and redirect the conversation to the job, nope, he said "Why do you keep changing the subject" or "Its up to me if you are hired or not" apparently I was supposed to be part of his "pyramid". I checked my phone on the way back and it was just on and on "Who are you txting? All your boyfriends? Black Boyfriends?" Idk where that came from lol! Also he kept mentioning that everyone goes out after work to drink...like mandatory, I was so close to claiming i was in AA or something. His comments were also "What do you wear when you are not at work? Is it slutty do you dress like a [censored]?" I think he has issues with women. Go to a conseler. When I called the next day and left a message I stated why I wasnt coming back, him and no one cared. He avtually kept calling me to go out that weekend. Complete Losers.