In response to an ad on one of the job sites, I applied to Skylight Marketing and got a phonecall within 3 days to come for an interview at Edinburgh. I asked the lady to send me an email confirmation about the same, and she flatly refused to do that. Not finding any website or any information about this company, but keeping all my suspicions aside, I travelled for 1hr 45 mins to Edinburgh to attend the interview'.
What I was welcomed with was a tiny white washed room with tiny plastic chairs where 15 candidates were cramped up. The interview' was nothing but totally one sided, i.e. them talking about the company and that they are looking for A-players' who are hardworking, positive thinking, honest and strong. They did not even bother for a one-to-one interview to know more about their prospective employees, but simply asked us to go home and call them back to know whether we are selected or not. I was one of the selected candidates. With all excitement, I bought a 10 day pass to Edinburgh looking forward to a career as a marketing manager or a franchise owner. When I asked them to send me a confirmation letter that I am now selected and will be working for them, once again they flatly refused. THE PERSON LIED THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE INTERNET CONNECTION!
On my first day, Monday 11 AM, we were given an induction and more info about the company and the product they are selling. Skylight Marketing is a franchise of XLN Telecom and does direct marketing of XLN Telecom products. They explained that XLN is investing 1 MILLION GBP ON THIS 8 WEEK RIGOROUS TRAINING at the end of which we will have the choice to open our own franchise or be an employee as a marketing manager with fat salary. Despite the entire green picture displayed, I realise the catch, THAT WE ARE NOT LEGALLY EMPLOYED BY SKYLIGHT OR XLN, that we will be treated as self funded individual and that WE DON'T GET PAID ANYTHING TILL WEEK 3. At the end of week 3, we get paid a couple of hundred pounds not more. I still take up the challenge and I am up at 5:30 AM the next day to reach before 9AM looking forward to get trained.
Day 2, and I am back in the same crampy room, the only office' I have insight to, with not even a decent desk for us candidates to write on. Today we were introduced to our managers' who were none other but other candidates who were in their week 3 or 4 and had done what we were about to do, i.e. door-to-door selling of XLN products. I now realise I have to do this for the next 4 weeks, 9am to 5 PM or more, meeting atleast 100 clients everyday, WITH NO EXPENSES REIMBURSED. When I asked why Skylight does not advertise, I get an answer that advertising costs money and they want to sell cheap. I find Skylight very secretive and do not want to tell us the day to day work we have to do in these 8 weeks, or introduce us to other employees working for them. All they tell is that they will do everything to make us cry so that we run away, but not how they will do so. I wondered what have they to hide if they are supposed to be so honest people.
After visiting about 25-30 shops and restaurants myself, I come across not 1, not 2 but 3 CUSTOMERS WHO ALREADY HAD XLN BUT ARE VERY UNHAPPY WITH XLN! They patiently explained how they had been shown a golden picture by the lady in charge of Skylight Marketing but have been deceived and been charged unnecessarily. They have been trying to reach her atleast 6 times, and despite false promises that they will get their money back they have received nothing so far. One of them is now proceeding to sue the company!
The most astonishing thing was that the very same lady's name popped up twice by two different non-related customers. I headed back to the office armed with these complaints and asked for an explanation from her. She herself had no memory of the 5 to 6 calls received from these gentlemen, and I had no other contact nos or business name to help her jog her memory, but she assured me that 90% of XLN customers are very happy. Probably I was unlucky, or should I say very lucky' to come across 3 very unhappy customers on my very first day of fieldwork. I do trust XLN telecom can save a lot of money for customers, but I do not trust their customer service. Moreover, I DO NOT TRUST THE OWNERS OF SKYLIGHT MARKETING! They test us on our values, honesty and integrity, but it is them who are in question here. No matter how strong & hardworking I am, no matter how much profit I can bring them, I would never work for a company who is making a fool of me and a fool of their customers. The previous report from Victoria have only reconfirmed my suspicions. THEY EXPECT HONESTY FROM US, BUT THEY THEMSELVES ARE NOT ONLY DISHONEST, NON-COMMITTAL BUT ALSO SWINDLING INNOCENT CANDIDATES INTO DOING THEIR SALES JOB FOR FREE!
No wonder they don't send emails or any written confirmation about the promises they make to us, because they cannot make a commitment. I wonder what they are doing with the 1m that's been given to them for training, when they have not spent a dime, they don't even have a decent training room or qualified trainers and infact are getting more revenue and sales from us candidates totally free! NO WONDER MOST CANDIDATES SCRAM OFF WITHIN DAYS NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE AND HARD WORK AS SKYLIGHT DEFINES, BUT BECAUSE THEY ARE SMARTER THAN THE REST OF US.
My dear comrades, if you ever get an offer from Skylight Marketing, Edinburgh, do not fall into their trap. I have wasted not only money spent on my travel, but I have wasted my energy, time, gave up other offers, have been totally let down morally and all dreams deflated in 2 days. I would advice everyone to find out everything about the company they get an offer from before joining. Get a written confirmation of the same, the job description, the salary... everything you have been promised, so that you have a commitment from the company. MOREOVER, MANY THANKS TO VICTORIA AND THIS WEBSITE FOR AFFIRMING MY SUSPICIONS AND SAVING ME FROM DOING A BIG BLUNDER IN MY LIFE!
Soumita
Glasgow
United Kingdom
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