OT- Oval Marketing

[Westdene Seagull]

My girlfriend recently lost her job and has an "interview" with Oval Marketing in Western Road for "an opportunity". Having checked out their website it looks very suspicious to me. The details they have sent her are also very vague - it just looks like a high pressure sales organisation to me. Has anyone heard of them or know anything about them ?

 

[adrian29uk]

I see what you mean about the website. Does look a bit cut throat. No much information on there.

 

[acrossthepond]

They're a Cobra group company. Cobra are good at what they do, and if your girlfriend turns out to be good at what they do too, then she can make a shit load of cash. If she's not, best to move on pretty quickly....

Nothing inherently wrong with a sales company - though it doesn't work for everybody - and they moved away from high pressure a while ago as they know clients don't stick, and so they don't make money long-term.

PM me if you want more (though I know the genre, rather than that much about this particular company)

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Wow - just googled the Cobra Group !!!! Plenty of very unhappy people who've worked for them ! My girlfriend is ringing Oval to ask for a job description ( everything has been VERY vague so far ) and what the starting salary is. If they can't provide either then she's going to politely decline their interview.

Thanks for the info acrossthepond

 

[acrossthepond]

No worries, my pleasure - there's loads online about the Cobra group, though you need to take a lot of it with a hefty pinch of salt...

 

[The Large One]

That website is exceptionally vague in its description.

Interestingly, there are no client testimonials.

Oh, and there's a grammatical error in the first sentence of the company's 'About Us' page.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

That website is exceptionally vague in its description.

Interestingly, there are no client testimonials.

Oh, and there's a grammatical error in the first sentence of the company's 'About Us' page.

Your first two points are what set alarm bells ringing in my head. Hadn't spotted the third point but I'm not surprised you did

 

[willyfantastic]

DON'T DO IT.

I went for the other company in that building, Powerhouse Worldwide, and its essentially commission only door-to-door work. My mate went for Oval and its the exact same thing. They give you all this bs about how only 5% of the country can do it and how much money you can earn, then string you along for a whole day asking you bullshit questions about marketing that has no relevance to the job you're doing.

I have no idea why I did the 'assessment day' but the first thing I was asked was whether I had money for the bus, I then spent from 12pm - 7pm walking around a housing estate in Shoreham with my 'interviewer' trying to sell insulation whilst I followed behind writing notes about marketing questions...

He finally asked me to a final interview at 9pm where I had to remember 5 or 6 things about the company then I had to recite it in order, at this point I said NO and had to make my own way back home from the housing estate.

Complete and utter joke, there's a reason why they have about 45 ads in every section of every job site.



If you have any other questions about it I have a LOT more to rant about them, but you're best bet is to just completely avoid.

 

[Dominoid]

Cones group jobs are always scams and bullshit. I spent a few days working for BYB marketing, one of the Plymouth equivalents. I spent 30 quid on travel, made nothing and froze my arse off to get sworn at a lot. They encourage all kinds of illegal shit too (Door knocking after 9.00pm, ignoring trading standards "no cold caller" signs etc) I was sent into the arse end of Cornwall too so ended up on 12 hours days with travel (not counting travel from my home to the office) They also class you as self employed, so if they make you do illegal stuff, you get fined yourself, not them.

TLR version-don't do it!