I ordered 1 item from signals. A few months later, they charged my credit card $14.95, which was to be a month fee for some kind of club for buying stuff from signals and all the associated stores Signals, bas bleu, acorn dvd, catalog classics, supportplus, whatonearth, wireless).
I had read abut this practice on Yscam. It's happened to many people.
First, I apologize for the long review, but I assure you, you'll want to read this ESPECIALLY if you are considering working for the company. This is all from my experience, research, and findings. I will keep some specific details out for security reasons. The following report is more of a "discovery" than a rip-off or a review, but I feel it still needed to be shared.
To begin, I applied for the position through an online job portal. Within an hour, I had received a call and an email stating that I had all the qualifications they were looking for, and wanted to schedule an interview with me. Now I assumed this response was agile due to my resume and prior experience, certifications, and proven sales. Since I received this email past work hours, I left the call back for the next day, and figured I'd do a bit of digging online.
Within minutes, the first results came up from Glassdoor, as well as Rip off Reports. To sum it up, they all stated about the same thing. The job description is VERY generalized, interview process brisk, and compensation not so hot. About 70% of these reviews were negative. Either way, I decided to call them the next day and find out what they were about, plenty of questions ready.
As I had read the previous reviews online, I pretty much found the exact script they use for every applicant. I stated I do not live in the area, and will not be in Orange County until next week. The response was "we are wrapping up interviews, but I can hold your resume and save you a spot for next week". Sounded great! (If I hadn't already known they say this to many applicants). I went on further to question their marketing campaigns. I was explained this was direct sales. In explanation, it's door to door. Now they claim it isn't as they work with businesses, but that's the same as calling a cashier a sales associate. Lastly, I stated I knew the company worked with, or was owned by the same entity as "Ascendance Inc" (keep this in mind for later). I was provided with a very dodgy response that more "uhm, well, we're more like cousins". The total conversation lasted about 5-6 minutes and we ended the call.
I decided to dig in a bit deeper since this operation seemed a bit sketchy to me, especially with such high turnover rate and reviews. Now let's get back to "Ascendance Inc". I had noticed on the same job board, they were posting very similar positions and job descriptions. (I totally forgot, but with zip recruiter being 1 click apply, I had also applied for this). What do you know, an hour later, I get a similar email that they were impressed by my skills and would also like to schedule an interview (I mean I am pretty awesome).
I started comparing the two websites. Neither had stated on their pages that they were partnered or related, but I realized the structure of both of them was VERY similar. In fact so similar that the content was pretty much the exact same just re-phrased (look at both of their approaches and you'll see what I mean), and after viewing their source code, they even used the same scripts, plugins, ect. Looking at their social media pages, they were ALSO structured pretty much the exact same way, but different information. Now I looked back to Signals United website. They have a little map on their contact, showing 3 locations in the Southern California region. None of them show exact addresses besides their own. But, they had little circles on the map which one showed Long Beach. Where do you think Ascendence is? Long Beach. Further looking at some of the pictures on both Signals United and Ascendance Facebook, I noticed employees from Signals popping up in pictures in Ascendance page, and vice versa.
All of this just kept adding questions in my mind. I decided to look at their execs. The LinkedIn of United Signals CEO showed that he had been in the company for about three years. His previous experience consisted of positions such as server and assistant, yet his bio claimed "8+ years of progressive experience in exceeding sales targets". Keep in mind, he graduated in 2013. Now I understand this might not be updated, he might have something missing, but he does not claim to be the founder of Signals on LinkedIn nor their website, but managed to climb to CEO in 3 years with only assistant experience? I mean if that's the case, that's awesome, but I am just going off what I found.
After this, I looked at the CEO of Ascendance. Big similarities as well (You might be wondering why I'm telling you all of this, but you'll see at the end). The CEO had graduated in 2014 (in mechanical engineering not even business) and had no intensive experience besides interning positions.
My perspective is that this is a company/'s that is being run by someone behind closed doors. They hire young individuals and appoint them to executive positions to not show light on who actually pulls the strings. Why not link Ascendance and Signals United together? I mean, take a look at both of their reviews and reputations online. Why would anyone want to link a firm to another company with very negative public reviews. Ascendance is older than United, it seems that they wanted to create a new name and start it again in an office 20 miles away with a clean slate. Both companies seem to post 10-15 job positions with different titles, very similar descriptions, for the same exact job.
They claim you will be creating "marketing campaigns". Sure, I guess that's what you can consider it, if you also consider "Taco Bell" authentic Mexican cuisine. Their responses to individuals with bad replies are VERY generic and state "we wouldn't get contracts with such big sports teams or clients if we were a bad firm". I mean come on, you're selling someone else's product for them. It's free advertisement and sales for the organization, whose gonna NOT let you do that? It's the same as me going to a music artist and saying "hey, can we create a contract so I can sell YOUR albums and I'll take a cut?" Ofcourse! I'm selling their product and making them money, while making a little myself. There's no reason that individual or organization wouldn't agree to do that. You're not selling them something, you're selling THEIR product.
I do have to say the individual that I spoke with over the phone seemed nice, but too many red flags for me in the company. Remember, this is not a negative post, this is just what I had personally found through about 30 minutes of research that is available to the public. Feel free to check out everything I stated. I am sure someone with more time and even more expertise than me can find even more (although I'll admit, I'm pretty d**n good at what I do).
My advice to the management; Change your approach and be more straight forward. Sure you might not recruit as many sales people as you want, but you'll atleast be able to maintain good online reputation and a good company name. Change your script. Because before even myself, there was an individual who posted the exact words I heard over the phone as well. I have a lot more tips and advice I would say, but that you'd have to pay for :)
Signals United, Inc. Reviews
I ordered 1 item from signals. A few months later, they charged my credit card $14.95, which was to be a month fee for some kind of club for buying stuff from signals and all the associated stores Signals, bas bleu, acorn dvd, catalog classics, supportplus, whatonearth, wireless).
I had read abut this practice on Yscam. It's happened to many people.
First, I apologize for the long review, but I assure you, you'll want to read this ESPECIALLY if you are considering working for the company. This is all from my experience, research, and findings. I will keep some specific details out for security reasons. The following report is more of a "discovery" than a rip-off or a review, but I feel it still needed to be shared.
To begin, I applied for the position through an online job portal. Within an hour, I had received a call and an email stating that I had all the qualifications they were looking for, and wanted to schedule an interview with me. Now I assumed this response was agile due to my resume and prior experience, certifications, and proven sales. Since I received this email past work hours, I left the call back for the next day, and figured I'd do a bit of digging online.
Within minutes, the first results came up from Glassdoor, as well as Rip off Reports. To sum it up, they all stated about the same thing. The job description is VERY generalized, interview process brisk, and compensation not so hot. About 70% of these reviews were negative. Either way, I decided to call them the next day and find out what they were about, plenty of questions ready.
As I had read the previous reviews online, I pretty much found the exact script they use for every applicant. I stated I do not live in the area, and will not be in Orange County until next week. The response was "we are wrapping up interviews, but I can hold your resume and save you a spot for next week". Sounded great! (If I hadn't already known they say this to many applicants). I went on further to question their marketing campaigns. I was explained this was direct sales. In explanation, it's door to door. Now they claim it isn't as they work with businesses, but that's the same as calling a cashier a sales associate. Lastly, I stated I knew the company worked with, or was owned by the same entity as "Ascendance Inc" (keep this in mind for later). I was provided with a very dodgy response that more "uhm, well, we're more like cousins". The total conversation lasted about 5-6 minutes and we ended the call.
I decided to dig in a bit deeper since this operation seemed a bit sketchy to me, especially with such high turnover rate and reviews. Now let's get back to "Ascendance Inc". I had noticed on the same job board, they were posting very similar positions and job descriptions. (I totally forgot, but with zip recruiter being 1 click apply, I had also applied for this). What do you know, an hour later, I get a similar email that they were impressed by my skills and would also like to schedule an interview (I mean I am pretty awesome).
I started comparing the two websites. Neither had stated on their pages that they were partnered or related, but I realized the structure of both of them was VERY similar. In fact so similar that the content was pretty much the exact same just re-phrased (look at both of their approaches and you'll see what I mean), and after viewing their source code, they even used the same scripts, plugins, ect. Looking at their social media pages, they were ALSO structured pretty much the exact same way, but different information. Now I looked back to Signals United website. They have a little map on their contact, showing 3 locations in the Southern California region. None of them show exact addresses besides their own. But, they had little circles on the map which one showed Long Beach. Where do you think Ascendence is? Long Beach. Further looking at some of the pictures on both Signals United and Ascendance Facebook, I noticed employees from Signals popping up in pictures in Ascendance page, and vice versa.
All of this just kept adding questions in my mind. I decided to look at their execs. The LinkedIn of United Signals CEO showed that he had been in the company for about three years. His previous experience consisted of positions such as server and assistant, yet his bio claimed "8+ years of progressive experience in exceeding sales targets". Keep in mind, he graduated in 2013. Now I understand this might not be updated, he might have something missing, but he does not claim to be the founder of Signals on LinkedIn nor their website, but managed to climb to CEO in 3 years with only assistant experience? I mean if that's the case, that's awesome, but I am just going off what I found.
After this, I looked at the CEO of Ascendance. Big similarities as well (You might be wondering why I'm telling you all of this, but you'll see at the end). The CEO had graduated in 2014 (in mechanical engineering not even business) and had no intensive experience besides interning positions.
My perspective is that this is a company/'s that is being run by someone behind closed doors. They hire young individuals and appoint them to executive positions to not show light on who actually pulls the strings. Why not link Ascendance and Signals United together? I mean, take a look at both of their reviews and reputations online. Why would anyone want to link a firm to another company with very negative public reviews. Ascendance is older than United, it seems that they wanted to create a new name and start it again in an office 20 miles away with a clean slate. Both companies seem to post 10-15 job positions with different titles, very similar descriptions, for the same exact job.
They claim you will be creating "marketing campaigns". Sure, I guess that's what you can consider it, if you also consider "Taco Bell" authentic Mexican cuisine. Their responses to individuals with bad replies are VERY generic and state "we wouldn't get contracts with such big sports teams or clients if we were a bad firm". I mean come on, you're selling someone else's product for them. It's free advertisement and sales for the organization, whose gonna NOT let you do that? It's the same as me going to a music artist and saying "hey, can we create a contract so I can sell YOUR albums and I'll take a cut?" Ofcourse! I'm selling their product and making them money, while making a little myself. There's no reason that individual or organization wouldn't agree to do that. You're not selling them something, you're selling THEIR product.
I do have to say the individual that I spoke with over the phone seemed nice, but too many red flags for me in the company. Remember, this is not a negative post, this is just what I had personally found through about 30 minutes of research that is available to the public. Feel free to check out everything I stated. I am sure someone with more time and even more expertise than me can find even more (although I'll admit, I'm pretty d**n good at what I do).
My advice to the management; Change your approach and be more straight forward. Sure you might not recruit as many sales people as you want, but you'll atleast be able to maintain good online reputation and a good company name. Change your script. Because before even myself, there was an individual who posted the exact words I heard over the phone as well. I have a lot more tips and advice I would say, but that you'd have to pay for :)