I recently ventured out to do some door to door sales, and came across this Ad.
I thought it sounded pretty good since they were paying for my bus ticket from Bellingham, WA to Oakland, CA. I called the number and got directed to the Co-Owner. After talking with her and figuring everything out, I got my travel plans all set up.
I left at 8:55 PM Thursday, April 12th, 2012. I arrived in Oakland, CA at 1:00 Am Saturday April 14th, 2012. Only to find out my driver has been waiting at the wrong location. I waited an additional hour, outside around some pretty sketchy people for my ride to show up. My ride then showed up and took me to the hotel.
I didn't have high expectations for the hotel, but I didn't expect it to be this bad either. The driver opened the door to my room which was clearly marked "non-smoking". I was greeted with a fume of cigar smoke exiting the room, both of my roomates were smoking cigars, in an unventilated room. I talked with my roomates, telling them I was a non-smoker and always have been. They said they would respect it, but continued smoking freely in the room. I crawled into the bed and fell asleep.
In the morning I had the day off because I arrived so early. They all went to work, leaving me alone in the hotel for a good 8 hours with no contact or transportation. I stayed in my room airing it out all day, so I could get rid of as much of the smokey air as I could. Once they arrived at 10 PM, they both lit up cigars and started to party. I stayed for a bit to get to know everyone. Then all of a sudden they brought out a pipe and started smoking weed, that's when I left the room until they finished.
The next day everyone was smoking, weed filled every room, there were at least 5 bowls that I saw smoked that day. Everyone was smoking, with no way to get away. Needless to say I spent 90% of the day outside that day. They kept inviting me into their rooms, but I kept telling them I was a non-smoker.
I met the newly appointed manager of the "crew" that night, and his assistant. I entered the room, and they were both smoking weed passing it around the room. Then the owner arrived and chewed everyone out (except me) for using meth, and especially the manager for being high on meth and driving around. Then the cops showed up for a fight in the hotel room next door, we packed up our stuff as fast as we could at 11 PM and drove an hour to Stockton, CA.
On Monday, I went out on my first "drop" after breakfast at Jack In The Box. It was a nice experience to meet a lot of nice people, but the person I was with was way to pushy. We followed a guy from one end of the street to the other! Another door we talked to a nice lady about it, but once she saw the price ($63 for one magazine subscription) she said no, we stayed at the door for an additional 10 minutes, until she got mad and almost chased us away.
I was paid daily, about $20 (I never made any sales as I was in training). People who did sale were making about $70 per day, as you get $10 per sale. The sales were the most dishonest thing I have ever seen in my life. Each "employee" is entered into a points race, (you get all the application forms once you get there, saying you are a self contractor) the only problem is the facts changed between every person who taught me the spiel. sometimes it was 40 guys and girls, other times it was 12, sometimes there was a scholarship, sometimes there wasn't. The list goes on and on.
On Tuesday, I went on a drop by myself. I worked the whole street with straight no's, becuase I'm an honest person and didn't believe in lying to get a sale. I never saw any magazines or paperwork get sent out to send magazines to the "troops". The big contest that they say they are in is a YCA contest, which stands for Youth Communication Awards. Spiels mostly include getting a college scholarship, they aren't "Allowed" to give the address to the company for "Safety Reasons", they will say they live in the neighborhood, they will say they will come back or that they will do chores for you, they also say that this is the only time you can do it.
The "crew" was constantly yelling at each other and creating drama, they were stealing money from the company. They kept telling me that things don't run this way. When we went to pick up the last person, we got pulled over with 12 people in an 8 passenger Ford Excursion. The cop let us go, to get our last person and get out of there. After that I found out that, the Owner of the company has warrants out for his arrest and that there was weed in the car! I also found out that they don't get county permits, so we were constantly avoiding the cops.
The next day I went on one drop and said I no longer wanted to work there anymore, so at 2 PM they dropped me off at a little shopping complex and said, "We will pick you up at the end of the day". I waited around until 8:30, people started getting worried for me, they kept asking me if I was alright. That was kind of suspicious to me, one guy pulled up and offered me a ride, I refused. He gave me his number in case they never showed, at around 8 he showed up again, parked next to me and offered to keep me warm.
I now trusted the guy, and I got in his jeep. He was a very kind guy, and we sat and talked in his Jeep. at 8:45 PM I called and they said that they were in a "situation" and that it was getting wrapped up. At 9:30 they showed up, I was very lucky I wasn't in the car because, what I found out might shock you.
I found out they got pulled over, and caught with weed in the car, as a result of that EVERYONE got a misdemeanor for weed possession! Earlier in the day I organized a shuttle to pick me up at 10:30 PM. The driver got the time wrong and showed up at 10:00 PM, while in the car I had to sort everything out. Luckily the Shuttle driver waited around for me until 11:00 PM. I packed my stuff as fast as I could, said goodbye to a few people, and booked it out of there!
P.S they are NO longer in california, they are in Oregon working their way toward Seattle, WA!
Here is proof that the owner,Kelby Durand Tovar, has an OPEN warrant in Garland,TX.
(Here is another ad from them that just popped up yesterday, they are still advertising to be in California, yet they are probably in Seattle by now. I will keep you posted if any more ads show up)
DO NOT APPLY TO THIS COMPANY! UNLESS YOU DON'T MIND LYING, ARE VERY 4/20 FRIENDLY, AND DON'T MIND THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING ARRESTED!
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Kelby is still doing this in 2013/14.
ReplyDeleteI moved to California& unfortunately was mugged on arrival. With no ID at the time, It seemed to be that job or the street for the first time.
So I did this crew/magazine point race.
The same thing happened to me. I was learning from dishonest drug users, meth, weed, you name it. (kelby never shut up about how he could.. of been a little soccer star. In the 4 days I stayed I saw him abuse his girlfriend and get arrested.)
So with that being said, if you suck at lying/ripping people off, or if you just don't like drugs being on the crew isn't for you.
I'm so sorry that happened to you! This stuff has to stop! I'm glad you came out of it ok, I'm sure there are people out there who didn't make it out. It's just full of lies, that's not how I operate, and that's not how any "company" should operate
DeleteAlso, I spent my last door to door day going door to door warning people about these solicitors. :)
ReplyDeleteYou may have not used drugs but I became the toy that everyone on the crew wanted a chance with. But i was never sober. But see I wasn't with kelby I was under a different manager. And kelby does live in Cali he lives in big bear. But see we were in Vegas and my manager said that the next day he was gonna be at the bus station to buy my ticket the next day to go home but I spent the night at the station and he never showed up but because of that I became some guys how and then I wound up going back to the crew so I can go home. And my room mate would yell at me and be hella disrespectful I didn't like it. People always looked down on me cuz I never really made any sales. So I said fuck it and left. Plus everyone talked shit bout everyone else. Even managers did.
ReplyDeleteI liked some of the people in Kelby's crew, but I didn't spend a lot of time with them because I didn't smoke weed or cigarettes. They were some really nice people, it's just the whole environment wasn't anything someone like me wanted to be involved with. I would have a different outlook on this if it wasn't a very obvious scam, but because it's such a shady business model I feel I need to let people know how it really is, especially people on the job market who are desperate for a job.
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