Things just don't come easy

As soon as I was finishing my blog update about my unexpectedly awesome interview, I sat down for an internet research. After all, they wanted me to come back for a second interview next thing in the morning, and I had to get busy with marketing information, especially information related to the company itself.

So, I clicked into the companys' website. It was a pretty site, very simple, very convenient... but not really informative. The site has named a few famous companies that have used the companys' services, such as "carphone warehouse", but it didn't give any examples. Even though that on a normal basis it should have raised my suspicion by now, but I figured at that moment that it was only because the site was relatively new.

I thought then, Ok... let's keep on searching for clues... I'm pretty sure I can find something on the cyberspace.

Unfortunately, I have found something. - this is of course only an example of the vast amount of information I've found on them and on their peer companies.


Report: R&S Marketing Solutions - Red Square Direct - COBRA Group
Category: Multi Level Marketing
R&S Marketing Solutions - Red Square Direct - COBRA Group SCAM Brighton United Kingdom
*Consumer Comment ..A response


R&S Marketing Solutions - Red Square Direct - COBRA Group
Phone: +44-02070173877Fax:

Western Road BrightonBrighton, United Kingdom
Submitted: 10/26/2008 9:26:12 PMModified: 10/27/2008 7:32:16 AM


Ripoff Report Verified Safe
Hello,About 2 months ago I went for an interview at 'Red Square Direct' after being told that I was just what they were looking for. I attended the first interview that was in a very grotty little office above a flower shop. The receptionist was dressed in very casual clothes and had very loud dance music playing. I was invited into the office and the man interviewing me did not seem to be paying any attention at all and then just said I'd get a call if I got through to the second interview..and as good as pushed me out the door before answering the question of what they actually did.Of course I then got to the second stage and was told to wear 'comfy' shoes. So I arrived next morning and was introduced to a team leader who was going to take me out into the field to get a taste for the job. He was a nice lad but seemed so brainwashed and so did all the other employees. We got the bus to a train station and he then told me we were going to Portsmouth (about 2 hours away from the office in Brighton). Now you are probably all going to think I'm stupid but i am only 18 years old and was desperate to leave my old job. We got on the train and he then told me I had to pay my own train fair (12 pounds!!!). He then got me to write these things down in a note book. The law of averages, and other things something about REHASH... if I wrote one word wrong he wuld say NO YOU HAVE TO WRITE IT WORD FOR WORD. We got of the train and walked about selling make up for about 6 hours ( he only sold 2 all day). He kept on going on about how much money you can make but then on the train back to Brighton he said 'you do know its commission only right? Its 5 pound a sale'. ( so he had earned a tenner for 12 hours work including travel which you have to pay for out of your own pocket!. He made me memorize all these sayings and things and said you only get the job if you remember them 100%.We got back to the office and I took the stupid test and of course I passed (like everyone else). The manager called me into the office and started spouting a load of crap about how I could be earning 60K in under a year and that the money I pay for the travel is 'my investment for the company' HAHAHA. He left the room for a second and then came back in with the team leader and told me I had the job. The team leader left the room with me and said 'WOW what did you do? Hes so impressed with you, do you know how rare that is? He doesn't normally like anyone!' I have been told by other people that they say this to everyone. I got sucked into this crap for about 12 hours but then my boyfriend talked sense into me and so I did some research and found out that this company is related COBRA group. I do not know whether this is an actual cult but it had many cult like qualities.Please do not get duped by this. I felt so sick that I actually got sucked into this but as you see it really effects you as I only went for one day and am still thinking about it now!!

tie me an Interview

Oh Crap, I need a tie?!
I was sitting in the waiting room, filled with couches and people sittting on them. I guess they were waiting for the same interview as I was... Frankly, thre was no way for me to know, due to the infamous "waiting for an interview" code of laws, which specifically says that one should make and uphold the situation as uncomfortable as it could possibly get for the other candidates, keeping the eerie silence at its extreme. Though it was not really quiet there. For some reason there was loud music being played, with the catchy and fitting words of "feel the pressure" being repeated over and over.

All of the other guys looked older. And smarter. And they had a tie! I began to feel I have zero chances of getting the damn job. Even the asian guy managed not to look like a douch in his suit.

Not that I thought I would be getting the job in the first place. Now call me cynic or lacking in confidence, which I am, mostly, but the job specifically mentioned working full time. You see, I have "visa restrictions", which prevent me from working full time.

So I wasn't worried at all. Really. No excitement. No butterflies in my stomach. I wasn't even yawning! (I yawn when I'm excited). I just thought of it as a new type of experience. After all, I had to gain some sort of knowledge about the procedures of getting a damn job in London, not to mention the fact that I have never gone through an interview, so the upcoming one was basically my first, one, EVAH.

What an interesting situation have I put myself into... how would I sell myself? what can I offer that other people lack in? and how can I do it without lying through my teeth?

Oh well, I'll learn my little lesson today.

---> AFTER THE INTERVIEW

Well, for some reason, they want me back tomorrow. Tomorrow is the real deal of discovering my "abilities" and some other pointless issues important to Londoners. They also pointed out that I should come in a suit... I hate ties. It's gonna be a 9 to 5 kind of first training, and maybe a test in the end, to see if I fit their criteria, whichever it is.

Well, good luck to me.

line up

It seems I've underestimated what the police clerk was telling me the other day: "you should get there early in the morning, since it's usually a bit crowded."

I had plenty of time reminiscing those words, as I was, as I AM more correctly, standing in line, literally that is, for the past 3 hours in front of the police registration office for foreigners - or Aliens, as they call us here.

humpph! Aliens, I was thinking to myself. I had nothing better to do but to think to myself. The line was miserably long. The old chap that helped me with directions inside of the 'Brandon Building' told me to take a left at the corner of the building and I won't be able to miss it. Indeed I didn't miss it. As soon as I turned left, I bumped into a lovely little Russian girl, who was last in line... at least until I showed up.

Don't bother searching for the end of the line.

The first hour and a half passed while I was outside the building. All of us in the line were huddled close to the building bricks, in a useless attempt to cover our heads from the droplets of rain that were pouring here and there. The sky were, of course, gray, and next to us was the usual procession of central London. Red double deckers with various commercials came and went, people walked by, some with obvious puzzled looks at what it perhaps seemed to them a bunch of people standing in line with no apparent destination... maybe a new store is opening...

Like I said, I had plenty of time to think. Me and Raquel were thinking about moving into a new place, closer to her hospital and my school. It offered a chance for me to notice how much people are paying in London for housing rental. Usually it goes by weekly payments, I've seen houses offered for more than 500 pounds a week. 500! that could amount to 15000 shekels a month easily! What are people doing here for a living to earn enough money to sustain this kind of luxurious lifestyle, not adding the fancy car and fancy food.

More important, What do I have to do to earn like them?!

Of course, getting a job would be a good start. Little did I know, that by the time I got back home after finishing with the registration process, I would have been rejected for my first job possibility.

Like I said, hour and a half later, I was privileged enough to get into the "inside" part of the standing in line. Instead of a nice straight waiting line, as soon as the people went inside the building, they formed some sort of a self made snake game coming straight out of the holocaust. You wouldn't have guessed in a million years where is the tail and where is the head.

It was pure fun.

two hours later, I went outside, with a piece of paper in my hand. And that has concluded my day, basically.

FYI - There's suppose to be some sort of a "Pancake day" today in Britain. Don't ask me why.