| Blackstone Consulting Inc |
| Blackstone Consulting Inc. Sales and Marketing Firm is Actually Door to Door Internet Sales. Warning! Minnetonka, Minnesota |
| 2nd of Jan, 2011 by User727551 |
I was applying for sales and marketing jobs with CareerBuilder and was contacted by Blackstone Consulting Inc. Having been applying for jobs for a long time I was excited to hear back although I had never heard of the company.
After receiving an initial phone call from HR and setting up an interview time I wanted to find out as much as I could about the company from there website. This was very difficult because they have a very generic website that doesn't really describe what they do or what clients they work for. The position I interviewed for was the Project Manager position.
My first interview was with the newly appointed Assistant Manager of the company, Kendall. I found out during the interview process that he had been with Blackstone Consulting for less than 1 year and was previously in construction which I thought was strange because he moved up so quickly. The first interview lasted only about 20 minutes and consisted of Kendall asking me some very easy questions about sales and leadership. He also described the job functions which would be 60% current clients and 40% new business clients. I thought that this seemed like a good deal having an established territory. However, after my third interview was I realized how different the job actually was.
The second interview consisted of me and four other candidates and we all sat in on a company meeting. I was impressed because the company was in the Carlson Towers but also found it odd that during the company meeting about 50 people were crammed into a large conference room and stood while the president Jeremy gave a speech. His speech seemed a lot like a sales pitch to the candidates talking about the high sales people from the day before and possibilities of expanding to new markets and new clients. After the interview I sat down again with Kendall and we talked for maybe 10 minutes where he talked about the 2 weak training period and we set up a time for a third interview for the next day.
The third interview which was the final interview only lasted about 10 minutes consisted of him asking me some more basic questions about myself. Before even discussing pay, benefits, or scheduling he offered me the job and reached out to shake my hand at the same time. Almost like he was trying to trick me. I then had to ask him about compensation which i found out was 100% commission and no employee benefits. I also discovered that instead of meeting with current and new businesses I would be traveling door to door to customers' houses and trying to sell them Quest Internet. They didn't consider it to be cold calling because the home owners received advertisement flyers in the mail! I told him I would have to think about it.
Here are some of the reasons I believe this company is a scam:
-Assistant Company manager has been with company for less than a year and was in construction before this job.
-HR is also secretary
-Website if very generic with no actual information on what they do or what companies they do business with.
-The office is 10x too small to accomidate 50+ sales people. No one really uses it except for 1 daily meeting.
-Lots of different levels of managers but who are they really managing?
-Office in Denver, CO with no contact information.
-Very short and very quick interview process with not much screening of candidates.
-100% Commission based and Door to Door sales. Means nothing comes out of the pocket of the business.
Be very careful when dealing with this company. I am glad I found out about this sooner than later. If something doesn't seem right or too good to be true something is probably wrong. Go with your gut feeling!
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| I went in for the first interview and walked out after about 3 minutes. I asked what they are selling and for more information about the company. The owner told me that he would get to that. Right then and there I knew it was a scam and I told the owner that I didn't want to waste my time or his. For some reason he took great offense to this and actually challenged me to a physical altercation. As I left the office he proceeded to follow me out the door and in to the elevator which took us to the main exit. He continued to play the hard ass and kept trowing out threats. I advise him that he might want to stop threatening me because it was uncalled for. He then proceeded to remove his suit coat as if he was going to start a physical fight. Again, I reminded him that he needed to stop his threats because they were getting him no where. After my final warning he attempted to punch me. I quickly dodged his first, grabbed his arm and dropped him to the ground with an arm hold. I informed him that if he wished to continue I would dislocated his shoulder and break his arm. He wisely stopped, stood up, and told me to get off his property before he called the police. I replied that it was not his property and to go ahead and call the police because I would report him for assault. He said a few more idiotic words and walked back in to the building. He and his company is a total scam. I wouldn't even let my worst enemy work there! |
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| Thanks for the advise. They called me for an interview. Guess what, bye to them. |
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Mine was similar, but it was with IDGI. I got an email from the "Director of HR" asking me to come in for an interview after getting my resume on careerbuilder. I was attracted to the idea of running my own territory, their "no seniority" model because I have been a victim of this in previous jobs. When I showed up for the interview, the "Director of HR" was their secretary lol. There was also blaring hip-hop, r&b and country music. During the interview, there was barely any insight on the actual position, and the second interview was a full 8-5 day with one of the senior account managers... I was kind of mad about that, but I agreed.
So when I showed up for the meeting, everyone was "a little too happy". Kind of the environment for a pyramid scheme. There was blaring music...and everyone was dancing, and I was asked to dance as well as play their awkward games with the music. Mind you this was like 7:30 am lol. After the whole day was over...more music and dancing and everyone made me say ONLY positive parts about my day...yup, took me almost 15 minutes to come up with more than one reason. Before I left i was told that I would I would get a call back from the "Director of HR". I was also told about the pay structure, I was interested in the base+commission, for a few weeks till I get experienced enough, and that was an option. So I was called like 30 minutes after I left saying I got the job.
OK. Now on to the training, I was given a book to memorize chapter one which had the "sales pitch". And i was told to memorize the sales pitch by the next day...because I will be doing role plays the next day, and I LOATHE role plays can never take them seriously, but you have to do like 3 of them EVERY morning, along with the blaring music and dancing (and you HAVE to join in), plus you have to be there at like 7:00-7:30 am doing this crap every morning. I took it because I liked the money potential, and I recently lost a job. Again going over what kind of pay structure, I clearly said I want base+commission. But the president jeremy kept on steering me toward the commission+bonus. But I agreed to base+commission till when I am good enough to get higher numbers.
The training was less than a week, and I was not paid for it. And the last 4th day of my training, which was a friday I was told "Hey Buddy, you are going on a business trip with the senior account managers for a week" I should have left there and then, but I thought I had come too far. I went on the business trip, and we were holed up in a hotel and worked like 8am-6pm (sometimes we came back as late as 8) and after that we have to have ANOTHER meeting at 9 in the cheap hotel.
After I came back from the "business trip", I was assigned a territory which I had to pay for the gas to drive to. We went door-to-door soliciting, and after week 3 getting kicked out of numerous office buildings for soliciting and also getting kicked out of other buildings (getting kicked out of 4 office buildings on the last day of weeks 3, and it was a Quill customer IDGI's partner who called security on me and she called me a solicitor. She also said she hated Quill and it is too much hassle for her company). I came back to ANOTHER day of blaring music at the office at like 6pm, and they asked me what was "positive" of my day, and I replied "nothing".
And after week 3 I was eager to see my check because I was absolutely broke paying for gas, etc. I was told, yup next week you will get your check. I couldn't imagine working another week of this hell with not enough money. So I asked what my check would be and it was $150...yup. They signed me up for commission+bonus. Even though I said I not good enough to do it yet. So I just left and on sunday afternoon the Senior Account Manager that trained me called me to come to starbucks the next day at 6 am for a meeting before the meeting where everyone dances, etc. And I said, I am not coming back lol, and I should have left sooner.
Sorry for the wall of text but I had to share my experience so everyone can learn from it. |
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I had a very similar experience with Blackstone. I applied for a few jobs as an account manager as that was what I was interested in (business accounts mind you). Anyway, I got called in for an interview almost immediately and decided to go. Like the comments before me, I tried to do research but their website was filled with generic words and the promise of fortune. I figured I might as well check it out since I could be wrong. The first interview was short 10-15 min of really basic questions, trying to figure out if your a psychopath or something; though this type of interview is usually done by phone since its a waste of time driving there for a 10 min interview.
I got called back the next day for a second interview which was a group interview where we sat and listened to the owner Jeremy talk about how successful you can be in the company. He talked about managing 60% current business accounts and the rest of the accounts were just handed to you with no cold calling. He said that 70% of your time is outside the office while 30% is inside. However, when I pressed for more specifics like "How do I go about getting a presentation? Do I call ahead of time and set up an appointment? etc." They avoided my question with more generic words. I was pretty suspicious but had no other prospects and it wasn't costing me money so I thought Id keep going along with it. Two days later I got a call saying I had the job and they wanted me to start training the next week.
Training the first week was 2 hours a day in their office and was nothing special. I figured out immediately that this was door-2-door sales and spent the whole week working on other prospects. The 60% current business customers are the customers that have phone service with Century Link/Quest and you need to upgrade them to internet. The 70% out of office time is d2d and the other 30% is not paid and is mandatory. So you get in at 11am and don't leave till 9-9:30pm. I did one day of the door-2-door and thought fuck no.
Altogether it is a horrible experience. You are a solicitor. They claim your not because they sent fliers in the mail but you are. They call themselves a "consulting" firm because they wasnt to "help" the consumers get the best deal by educating them on their so-called "best-product". This way they are "more than just salespeople". This company, while not fake, is total bullshit, a waste of time, and a liar. |
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| Thank you for all this feedback! I have not even heard of Blackstone, Inc. until today when I got a phone call from a person saying that "my manager reviewed it and I have a few questions to run by you if you can call me back for the position." I was very confused because I did not think I had applied to anywhere called Blackstone, Inc. but wasn't sure because there were a few places I applied to that started with the letter B and I went back to my list I keep and Blackstone, Inc. isn't even one I applied to, so I have no idea how they found my application or contact information...?? Also sketchy that they didn't even list what was reviewed or what position they had questions to ask me about and she told me to call her back at her personal number and all the voice mail sounded like was a receptionist's answering machine. THANK YOU ALL FOR CLEARING THIS UP!!! |
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