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The charges
For wasting people's time, for getting their hopes up, for being a white collar multi-level marketing cult, and most of all, for acts of deception –Vanguard Innovations & Cydcor is on my list.
The Proof
I went to an interview in Westlake, and they said it was an interview for a job in management. They then asked me to spend a half of my day being a door to door salesman without pay -- canvasing -- which is not something I go to interviews to do. I wish they would have said that in their job posting so I could have avoided the whole experience. I found the whole thing cloaked in deception and I wanted to warn others. When I looked, I found that others had similar or other greivences with Cydcor and Cydcor's parent company.
Please Google the following;
• Cydcor Hiring Numbers -- Summer 2008
• Cydcor Employee waited 5 weeks for first pay check
• Letter from a Cydcor "leader"
• Letter from Cydcor employee
• Cydcor & Ds-max demystified
• Same deceptive interviews
• Letter that I received
• Top Flight Cydcor
• Cydcor Deception in San Diego, CA
• 2005 Letter with Cydcor Information
The interview was at 2:30pm and there were 4 people waiting for their interview when I arrived. Then the interviewer took us two at a time -- which is strange. Have you ever been to an interview with another applicant in the same room? The guy (BIG JERK) who interviewed us spun a tale about how Vanguard was a big growing company and how they needed to train managers and how they wanted us to become those managers. He also told us were moving up in the company and how they wanted us to move up too. At the end of the quick lecture, he told us she's interviewing 24 people that day and that she will call 2 of us back for a round II interview. The whole interview took 14 minutes. I received his call that evening, and he said, "you're in luck...show up for round II at 12:30..." The person I had interviewed with was called back too. In fact, I suspect everyone was called back -- not just 2 out of 24. On my round II I was the door to door "trainee" and I could the rep mention Cydcor when calling in the sale.
So I did some searches on the internet and found some interesting pieces of information about Cydcor: A report from a disillusioned Cydcor Employee he had a strangely similar interview experience. I'm always the last to know, but I also found information about how Cydcor, a division of DSMax, is already an infamous multi-level marketing cult. I also found an example of a zealous and typically innocent (naive, blind) Cydcor employee drone the day she starts, Aug. 18th, (check out the blog archive for August 14th, She deleted the blog entries of September 22, 2002 and October 26, 2002 because of the the comments others had posted to her saying Cydcor sucks, or that it is otherwise a rotten, evil, scam or a fraudulent, misleading rip off. But here's where she says she quit Cydcor on Nov. 19th 2002.
Needless to say, I'm should have never even gone in for their round II interview, otherwise known as Cydcor "death of a salesman" march. But because of my curiosity I researched more.
Because lately, many other people have reported that they have encountered cydcor subsidaries doing business under the following names: Aurora Marketing Group, The Advertisment Group, DSMax, Crescent International, SC Marketing Group in Louisville, KY; JSTARR Advertising, Platinum Marketing ("they are in the process of changing there name to Madison Marketing"), Emprise, Arsene-Lee Advertising Group, International Marketing Strategies, MJ Promotional Group/Trinity Advertising, both part of grantonmarketing.com -- granton marketing/dsmax has three other divisions in massachusetts: JSJ & Associates, the Kaizen Group, and MPMD, Inc -- Gemini Communications in Austin, Texas, Playermakerpromo.com, Lear Marketing Group and Black Diamond Solutions are parts of cydcor.com in Columbus, OH., "R3 Enterprises" winter park, FL, niko-laos in tampa, fl., Niko-Laos in Tampa, FL., Northside Marketing, Quantum Marketing Group, Strictly Advertising, Inc. (Miami, FL), Wentworth Marketing in Denver, "Compass Global Network" in Dallas TX, "Greco Marketing" in San Francisco, CA., The Yasny Group in Irvine CA, Westward Innovations of Phoeniz, AZ., MJ Promotional Group of Cincinnati, OH, Jenlyn Consulting in Houston TX. Marketing Sessions (chicago area), SASMarketing Group (also chicago area), DeFrancesco Aquisitions, Inc. located in Pittsburgh, PA., The Advertising Group, Inc in SF CA, Gen X Promotions Cincinnati, Ohio "(the writer thinks there's also subsidary called Bravo Promotions, but they may be out of Indianapolis)", D.B. Consulting, J.S. & Associates, Darr Innovations, Top Flight Enterprises located in Pittsburgh, PA., Top Flight Enterprises located in Pittsburgh, PA., Aspirations, Inc. in Virginia Beach, VA., Hilltop Solutions, Inc., located in San Diego., The Everest Group, or Cambridge Communications (also Premier Marketing Concepts from Melville NY). Atlantic Consulting located in East Rutherford, NJ. Wincor, Inc., Seattle, WA (actually there office is in Renton), Woodlynn Advertising, Inc. in Houston TX, The Everest Group, Inc. DUNN HILL ENTERPRISES, Yenkro Enterprises, Inc. Greco Marketing, DeFrancesco Acquisitions, Direct Link Marketing, COR Concepts, JM Concepts, and Triple Crown Marketing ect., 5 Point Marketing, Elite promotional Group
People have said the following groups are also Cydcor, The Advertising Group or DSMax groups. (added December 2005): MC MARKETING SOLUTIONS out of Pittsburgh, PA, Advertising Endeavors out of Baltimore, Maxson Marketing out of Vancouver; 1 Reality Enterprises and Revolution Marketing in Onterio; Blue Link Marketing and Victory Promotions in Chicago; Arbordahl & Associates in the Chicago area; Infinite Marketing Solutions, Kodo Marketing Initiatives, and Sea to Sky Marketing Group located in the Vancouver area of Bristh Columbia, Canada; Niko-Laos, now called RDK and Associates out of Miami, FL; Image Imports from Nashua New Hampshire; Malloy International and The Marketing Firm in Chicago; Cydcor Puerto Rico http://www.cydcor-puertorico.com ; Johnson Marketing Insights" (http://jminsights.com/home.htm); DeFrancesco Aquisitions, Inc., listed as in Pittsburgh, PA, is now located in Pennsauken, NJ and run by Dave DeFrancesco; Dynamic Marketing Concepts in Atlanta; Protege Marketing Group and Marketing Concepts from Houston TX; Kaleb-Lee and Associates out of Jacksonville FL; Aurora Marketing Group; Innovage; Macon Marketing Group and Bam Solutions out of Portland, Oregon; Wiz Pro Marketing to Esquire Marketing Concepts Winter Park, FL; Westward Innovations; Power Point Marketing; Pereira Marketing Group from white plains NY; Thornwell Inc. in Charlotte, NC; Arsene-Lee Advertising group SF, CA; Verdigris Marketing Group, Inc. and Rocky Mountain Marketing in Kansas City, Missouri; 360 Solutions (Columbus, OH) Kinetic Solutions (Columbus, OH) Pier Innovations (Milwaukee, WI) Langdon Promotional Group (Milwaukee, WI) Elite Business Concepts (Milwaukee, WI) Victory Promotions (Chicago, IL) Arbordahl & Associates (Niles, IL); Kings Ridge Inc. in Richmond Va; Wentworth marketing Atlanta, GA; Momentum Marketing; The Ad Group (TAG) http://www.tagcal.com/
Cydcor subsidaries are likely to have offices all over America with different names. Let me know if you find one that is not on this list by putting the name of the company followed by the location on it's own line in your email, I'll see that it will eventually get on this page.
Not convinced? Read this comprehensive explanation of what's going on with Cydcor, Ds-max and their 1000's of affiliate companies Still not convinced? Please check out [redacted]. This business needs to be shut down.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
It is now called lakeshore marketing. the "managers" are all bf and gf's with the "team leaders" a28 yr old dude and a 19 yr old girl who cant sell shhhhhh. Lets see what else . you get paid fifty bucks your first week lol and your areas are basically at the edge of the ststae. so three hours of driving and you supposed to make money?place is a joke oh and the "ceo" alex lets some felon some mike dude who is in jail currently use his id and codes to sell which is illegal.
Does anyone realize all of those business you said were conducting business as cydor, were all people who grew and expanded into new markets just as was stated in the initial interview? Just saying. Yes, its D2D and B2B sales and based on commission. So what? How is that a scam? Because its hard? Yup it is, I didn't make it but not because its all a scam. Yes there are some owners who suck at their job and will eventually run their market into the ground for doing people wrong, but not every owner lacks honesty and integrity. The business model is much like subway, you learn everything from the ground up and eventually you can open your own 'franchise'. Because one subway owner spits in your food does that mean every subway does? Same goes for the reps. It just makes me laugh that anything associated with commission and actually working for your money is always considered a ripoff of some sort. I wish everything was commission based so people would actually do their jobs. Just my 2 cents.
AprilShowers19 that guy sounds like an a**hole I'm sorry you had to spend all day with him, being a female that used to work there i would have the same experience but vice versa where the guy i was interviewing was very inappropriate, it sucks spending the whole day with someone like that. He grossly broke the no harassment policy the company has.
I don't know if it's a branch of the same company, but I've just relocated to Virginia Beach, VA, and I have already had 3 calls for 'fake interviews' for positions exactly like this one described. I was unaware first time and went for the interview, but quickly realized it was not a genuine company or position when their business address was in a 'rent by the day' office complex, and they told me their company name was different to the one I had applied to. When I asked why, they couldn't give me an answer. When I asked what their trade operating name is and what date the company was set up, they couldn't answer. Needless to say, I left, annoyed that I had wasted a morning.
Since then, like I said, I've had 3 similar calls. They all start by saying they 'found my resume' online and then 'tell' me a time to come in. They do not ask anything about my skills etc. When I ask about the role, they reiterate that there is NO DOOR TO DOOR SALES' even though that was not what I asked. They are unwilling to give any more details and do not ask me any screening questions. Just in case I am passing up a genuine opportunity, I always write down the company name and address and telephone number. With all 3, a little digging on Google brings up other addresses, other company names, scams etc. or even just small discrepancies between their profiles and their websites etc.
I hope reading this may help other job hunters to avoid wasting their time on these interviews. Having spoken to other job hunters in this area, it is clear there are many pyramid schemes operating under various names and advertising for generic positions such as 'Entry Level Marketing' and 'Brand Associate Trainee' etc.
I saw several "entry-level" positions posted on CareerBoard for Venator Inc. Just my general knowledge of marketing company scams, I was weary of the company leading me to Google quite a bit. My search yielded no results, other than their company website which had vague information and pictures of photogenic people that have a lot of fun. Since they weren't on LinkedIn (not quite a redflag, that's not as utilized as it should be, ) I Facebooked them. Two things stuck out to me: First, they just joined last week, which doesn't make the company seem well-established or reputable and secondly, I recognized a girl from my highschool and asked around who she is. With several mutual friends, I was able to find out that she is listed as working for JJB Consulting. I Googled that company and found this review as well as several others: /link removed/ /link removed/ and /link removed/ I messaged the girl from my high school to find out more about the company and continued to look on Facebook and Google for other employees using only their first names because--RED FLAG--that was all that was provided to me. I e-mailed EMILY who is the person I contacted about the job posting and contacted me after reviewing my resume to set up the [pending] interview; I'm awaiting her response about the accusations of this in fact being a door-to-door position, contrary to what venatorinc.net states and the multiple business names.
Is this company by chance called Lakeshore Marketing?
I worked here almost 10 years ago and find this hilarious... that is because Jason was supposed to have 20 offices under him by now with all of the promoting going on. It's a scam you go business to business in an assigned territory selling AT&T or office supplies and use about $200 a week in gas at least. I quit when they wanted me to drive from home in Akron to Middleburg Hts to Ravenna back to Middleburg Hts then home to Akron. I asked if I could work the territory from home and was told if NO. Plus they put me in a territory a week before that where another rep had been just three weeks earlier and I was yelled at by 80% of the people I talked to. Steer clear of this place for real it gets you no where. If you are going to do this you are better off seeking a telemarketing job to save gas $$.