Marketing & Sales "Company"....?

Polly_

Hi Everyone!

OK, so I was wondering, if someone could help me out...

I have an interview tomorrow for a job I applied for online. I dont know why, but I have a funny feeling about it...

Has anyone ever heard of a company called Mkm Direct?

http://www.mkmdirect.com/

The website looks a little bit dodgy, but I asked over the phone if it was door-to-door sales, and the lady said no...

Any information anyone has will really be appreciated!!

Shield

That has to be the most nondescript "career" I've ever seen. Who are they? What do they actually do? How big are they? The domain name was only registered on the 6th of January 2011 so that should ring some major alarm bells.

AlmightyCushion

And no door OR business is left un-knocked.

That screams door to door to me. I'm with psni above here.

Polly_

psni wrote: »

That has to be the most nondescript "career" I've ever seen. Who are they? What do they actually do? How big are they? The domain name was only registered on the 6th of January 2011 so that should ring some major alarm bells.

Exactly! The website says a whole lot of nothing.... There are so many of these companys popping up everywhere....

Shield

*Police hat on*

Be careful ok? Companies exist out there which are nothing but a front for organised crime. If this is one of those companies, the job itself would be non-existent and it would be advertised solely to get as much personal information from you as possible. Criminal gangs know people are desperate for jobs and are cashing in. Think about how much you want this job, and how much personal information you're willing to part with believing this is a real bona fide company?

They'll want:
Your birth cert
Your driving licence
Your passport

...all in the guise of proving your identity of course.

Next:
Bank account details
Credit card details (to run a pretend credit check)
Family details (like mother's maiden name... ringing any bells yet?)
Your PPS number
Previous and present address
Household bills (in the guise of proving your residency/address)

...and so on.

I personally would run a mile from any company who refuses to be up front about their operation. Don't forget, they will invest money to set their operation up, hire legit admin staff who are none the wiser, all the while farming your personal information which then goes up for sale on the domestic or international markets, or used to simply clone your identity.

TL;DR?

Avoid if you are unsure.

ladder

Ya Im thinking thats a bit harsh to say that a company is going to steal your identity without really knowing what they do !!
so i read the site and yes it is a direct marketing and sales company and also says everything is face to face and says event promotions, business to business and business to consumer, (business to consumer fancy way of saying door to door) just my opnion but if you really read the website you would clearly see what it says. on the other point of a company being formed in january 6th being a bad thing that should ring alarm bells, i really have to ask why ?? all companies have to start somewhere or should they be in business for a certian lenght of time before they recruit ??
so yes this my first post but again like polly i was looking for some information about the company and came across this, needless to say im not going to take advise from someone who clearly didnt read the site and who point blank wrote something without knowing any facts, i will make my own mind up and see what they have to say in the interview.

Darragh

ladder wrote: »

Ya Im thinking thats a bit harsh to say that a company is going to steal your identity without really knowing what they do !!

so i read the site and yes it is a direct marketing and sales company and also says everything is face to face and says event promotions, business to business and business to consumer, (business to consumer fancy way of saying door to door) just my opnion but if you really read the website you would clearly see what it says. on the other point of a company being formed in january 6th being a bad thing that should ring alarm bells, i really have to ask why ?? all companies have to start somewhere or should they be in business for a certian lenght of time before they recruit ??

so yes this my first post but again like polly i was looking for some information about the company and came across this, needless to say im not going to take advise from someone who clearly didnt read the site and who point blank wrote something without knowing any facts, i will make my own mind up and see what they have to say in the interview.

You work for the company, don't you?

If you would like to officially respond on behalf of the company and answer the questions raised above, please do so.

There's no point in lying though. It just looks really bad for your company.

dudara

Darragh - you just beat me to it. I was just about to ask ladder the same question.

General feedback for the company in question - your website says a whole lot about nothing. As a potential job hunter, it wouldn't really fill me with confidence that you don't say directly and straightforwardly what you do.

Eoin

ladder wrote:

so i read the site

ladder wrote:

i was looking for some information about the company and came across this

ladder wrote:

i will make my own mind up and see what they have to say in the interview.

Please at least be upfront about it - this is your website.

The CRO doesn't have a listing for MKM Direct Ltd (Ltd = Limited company). Nor do they have a listing for PMD Marketing who share the same phone number that's listed on your site.

I'm sure that nobody is saying that your organisation specifically is carrying out identity theft, but there are organisations out there who are. So I would recommend that you should try and distinguish yourselves from these people by actually registering the company that your name suggests has been registered, and posting proper job descriptions etc on your website.

Shield

If you do work for the company, you should be ashamed at the level of grammar and punctuation used on the site. Go on, tell us all about the "team of professionals that all ready have the experience required" if you're only in business since the start of the year.

Also, if you're only in business since the start of the year, you can't have had a full trading quarter, and yet:

"MkM Direct, however, has never had a quarter where we have not grown, nor have we ever been forced to downsize."

Give everyone reading one reason to believe this is a credible company with outright lies on display for all to see.

Careful with the answer though - this place has real professionals.

ladder

well now we are getting places yes i work for the company never said i didnt and sorry if i used the wrong word choice will/would make my own mind up, to be 100% honest it is registered with cro and and cant understand why it has the same number as pmd marketing or a listing that suggests the same, again it clearly states direct sales and marketing on a face to face level and as for careers again it clearly states what the role is on the job ads which people apply for, so please lets not get into a battle of words on this as all posts apart from polly are from moderators on boards.ie so for anyone who has any questions about the company just call or mail the contact information is on the website and all questions will be answered.

ladder

dudara wrote: »

Darragh - you just beat me to it. I was just about to ask ladder the same question.

General feedback for the company in question - your website says a whole lot about nothing. As a potential job hunter, it wouldn't really fill me with confidence that you don't say directly and straightforwardly what you do.

direct from the about us page on the website

MkM Direct Ltd. is a leading outsourced direct sales and marketing company
with operations in Ireland. Our approach to doing business is truly unique and
simple. Our key business areas are face to face sales and Marketing through
business to business, business to consumer and event campaigns. At MkM
Direct we help to develop a direct link between our clients and consumers as
well as rentention of existing customers.

if its not clear then what changes would you suggest feedback would be greatful

Shield

Hello? Do my questions not get answered?

Eoin

ladder wrote: »

well now we are getting places yes i work for the company never said i didnt and sorry if i used the wrong word choice

Like saying that you'll wait and see what "they" say in the interview?

ladder wrote: »

to be 100% honest it is registered with cro

Under what name?

ladder wrote: »

and cant understand why it has the same number as pmd marketing or a listing that suggests the same

And the same postal address in Limerick too.

ladder

psni wrote: »

If you do work for the company, you should be ashamed at the level of grammar and punctuation used on the site. Go on, tell us all about the "team of professionals that all ready have the experience required" if you're only in business since the start of the year.

Also, if you're only in business since the start of the year, you can't have had a full trading quarter, and yet:

"MkM Direct, however, has never had a quarter where we have not grown, nor have we ever been forced to downsize."

Give everyone reading one reason to believe this is a credible company with outright lies on display for all to see.

Careful with the answer though - this place has real professionals.

there is no lies, just read through the site or look at the job ads, as for professional our clients can vouch for that.

Shield

Answer my question:

Your site clearly states: ""MkM Direct, however, has never had a quarter where we have not grown, nor have we ever been forced to downsize."

...and yet you haven't had a full trading quarter yet.

How is this not misleading?

ladder

psni wrote: »

Answer my question:

Your site clearly states: ""MkM Direct, however, has never had a quarter where we have not grown, nor have we ever been forced to downsize."

...and yet you haven't had a full trading quarter yet.

How is this not misleading?

ok before it was registered as a limited company it was under sole trader status we have been around for about 11months it was under my own name not mkm direct until it was registered

ladder

Eoin wrote: »

Like saying that you'll wait and see what "they" say in the interview?



Under what name?



And the same postal address in Limerick too.

yes and it also has the same postal address as 5 other companies its a rented office space, so i assume the phone lines there were for another company before to. and before you ask before that address it was run from a serviced office space.

jor el

What name is the company registered under, and what name was it registered under as a sole-trader? There is no listing for MKM Direct with the CRO, so unless you can provide the actual registration detail of your company, no one is going to believe a word you say.

The domain is registered to Sean <SURNAME SNIPPED>, and there are also no records with the CRO under this name.

You may well be legit, but there is no verifiable evidence to backup your statements, or those on your website.

Edit:
Your name is in the public domain as the registrar of the website. The email address you used to register this site use the name PMD and the email host ymail.com. PMD Marketing has the email address careerspmdlimerick@ymail.com, so there is a clear connection between you both. Both companies are using the same telephone number and same address, so how can you claim you don't know how this has happened?

Eoin

jor el wrote: »

The domain is registered to Sean <SURNAME SNIPPED>

And look at the email address it is registered to:
sean.pmdlimerick@....

The PMD that the OP is saying is totally unrelated. The ones whose contact address is: careerspmdlimerick@...

Shield

There is no such thing as "we" if you're a sole trader, so "we", the company, has only been trading since January, which means "we", the company, hasn't had a full trading quarter yet, which means "we", the company, can't have experienced growth in a quarter yet.

You are dishonest on the website. You are misleading with your answers. You have been exposed as a shill for your company and you badly need to hire someone to revise your site for grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors.

Nobody will be taken in by the drivel you have on your website, and taking all of the above into account, plus the amount of times you've been caught out in lies by my fellow moderators, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself.

mackeminexile

Is this part of the Cobra Group/Appco as its now called?

ladder

jor el wrote: »

What name is the company registered under, and what name was it registered under as a sole-trader? There is no listing for MKM Direct with the CRO, so unless you can provide the actual registration detail of your company, no one is going to believe a word you say.

The domain is registered to Sean, and there are also no records with the CRO under this name.

You may well be legit, but there is no verifiable evidence to backup your statements, or those on your website.

Edit:
Your name is in the public domain as the registrar of the website. The email address you used to register this site use the name PMD and the email host ymail.com. PMD Marketing has the email address careerspmdlimerick@ymail.com, so there is a clear connection between you both. Both companies are using the same telephone number and same address, so how can you claim you don't know how this has happened?

so check out mkmdirect.ie as we all know you need to be registered with the cro to have a .ie address

ladder

mackeminexile wrote: »

Is this part of the Cobra Group/Appco as its now called?

not part of cobra group or appco but similar

tricky D

jor el wrote: »

What name is the company registered under, and what name was it registered under as a sole-trader? There is no listing for MKM Direct with the CRO, so unless you can provide the actual registration detail of your company, no one is going to believe a word you say.

The domain is registered to Sean Sheehan, and there are also no records with the CRO under this name.

You may well be legit, but there is no verifiable evidence to backup your statements, or those on your website.

Edit:
Your name is in the public domain as the registrar of the website. The email address you used to register this site use the name PMD and the email host ymail.com. PMD Marketing has the email address careerspmdlimerick@ymail.com, so there is a clear connection between you both. Both companies are using the same telephone number and same address, so how can you claim you don't know how this has happened?

Good work there and to the rest of the folks.

mackeminexile

they are the same thing now. In that case multi level progression system selling door to door? Taking new self employed reps on obs day/interview in order to build your team?

ladder

psni wrote: »

There is no such thing as "we" if you're a sole trader, so "we", the company, has only been trading since January, which means "we", the company, hasn't had a full trading quarter yet, which means "we", the company, can't have experienced growth in a quarter yet.

You are dishonest on the website. You are misleading with your answers. You have been exposed as a shill for your company and you badly need to hire someone to revise your site for grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors.

Nobody will be taken in by the drivel you have on your website, and taking all of the above into account, plus the amount of times you've been caught out in lies by my fellow moderators, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself.

oh come on you are mincing words again "we" "i" you know what i mean as does everyone else, and as a moderator you are really showing how one sided you are being.

ladder

mackeminexile wrote: »

they are the same thing now. In that case multi level progression system selling door to door? Taking new self employed reps on obs day/interview in order to build your team?

yes it is, but not part of the cobra group it is self employed and yes you build your team in that way

ladder

Eoin wrote: »

And look at the email address it is registered to:
sean.pmdlimerick@....

The PMD that the OP is saying is totally unrelated. The ones whose contact address is: careerspmdlimerick@...

not related to mkm direct that was a company i used to work for i.e field sales i started off my own company, when pmd closed down i took over the office where pmd marketing traded from.

Polly_

Thanks a million everyone. I already have a job, and I was going to go to the interview just to see what it was all about, but I'm not going to bother now.

I've had friends who went for these kind interviews, and stupidly accepted their job offers, only to find out at a later date that it was a complete waste of time.

ladder

Polly_ wrote: »

Thanks a million everyone. I already have a job, and I was going to go to the interview just to see what it was all about, but I'm not going to bother now.

I've had friends who went for these kind interviews, and stupidly accepted their job offers, only to find out at a later date that it was a complete waste of time.

hi Polly Just to point out that in the interview stage i would have made it quite clear that it is direct face to face sales and in this case it was for Business to business sales so i wish you the best of luck in your future career pursuits
regards

Eoin

ladder wrote: »

not related to mkm direct that was a company i used to work for i.e field sales i started off my own company, when pmd closed down i took over the office where pmd marketing traded from.

So why did you say you couldn't understand why the same phone number would be listed and implied that they were completely unrelated? Surely if you worked for them, you'd have an inkling why this would be the case.

ladder wrote:

and cant understand why it has the same number as pmd marketing or a listing that suggests the same

ladder

Eoin wrote: »

So why did you say you couldn't understand why the same phone number would be listed and implied that they were completely unrelated? Surely if you worked for them, you'd have an inkling why this would be the case.

being honest Eoin would you like to be linked to that company ! i run a completly different company and with very different morals

jor el

ladder wrote: »

so check out mkmdirect.ie as we all know you need to be registered with the cro to have a .ie address

Not true, you can register a discretionary name in the .ie domain now.
Why can't you just say what the registered company name is, if it exists?

ladder wrote:

i run a completly different company and with very different morals

Hmm, yet you shill your own company here earlier this morning. Not very moral. Also your completely different company just happens to be in the same building as your old one, uses the same telephone number and you still have the same email address. You also deny any knowledge of that company until you are once more caught in the lie. There is nothing believable or credible about what you say. This thread will stand as a warning to all who are considering applying to you for what are most likely non-existent jobs.

Eoin

ladder wrote: »

being honest Eoin would you like to be linked to that company ! i run a completly different company and with very different morals

But lying about your connection with it until you got caught out isn't helping your case.

I can see that your Irish domain name is in fact registered to a corporate entity, but I can't see that company name on the CRO website. Are you trading under a different name?

As you can see, all of the information that has been posted on this thread was found very easily online. This is why it pays to be transparent and honest about you and your organisation's identity.

Your website has a phone number, which I was able to google and find the connection to PMD.

Your .com domain name is registered to you personally, and your domain registrar has not hidden the identity, so that was dead easy to find.

The IEDR website shows details about your .ie domain name, and that's instantly viewable too.

ladder

Eoin wrote: »

But lying about your connection with it until you got caught out isn't helping your case.

I can see that your Irish domain name is in fact registered to a corporate entity, but I can't see that company name on the CRO website. Are you trading under a different name?

As you can see, all of the information that has been posted on this thread was found very easily online. This is why it pays to be transparent and honest about you and your organisation's identity.

Your website has a phone number, which I was able to google and find the connection to PMD.

Your .com domain name is registered to you personally, and your domain registrar has not hidden the identity, so that was dead easy to find.

The IEDR website shows details about your .ie domain name, and that's instantly viewable too.

No I trade under MkM direct and i really dont know why its not registered with the CRO. as i had to send them my incorp papers to get the .ie domain...... but will look into it and post as to why

Eoin

In the interests of fairness, the ie domain is registered to a corporate body of some description.

Shield

ladder wrote: »

oh come on you are mincing words again "we" "i" you know what i mean as does everyone else, and as a moderator you are really showing how one sided you are being.

Let me clear a few things up from this post, and the posts that have been made since:

I am not a moderator of this forum. I am only a moderator of the forums you see under my name. In this forum, I am treated as a regular member, and my posts are subject to the same moderation as yours. In other words, if I posted something that breached their charter, I would receive the same warnings, infractions and bans that you would.

I am on the side of truth, and we have heard very little truths from you thus far. Instead we got lie after lie as you continued to deny everything, until it was no longer possible due to the overwhelming evidence against your unlikely claims. This may have damaged your reputation, and you did it all yourself.

I, and I'm guessing most other reasonable people around here, would have had a lot more respect for you if you had been honest from the start and admitted that you are a relatively new business experimenting with new ideas, concepts and projects. I mean, you could have even benefitted by learning from the experts over on the Entrepreneurial & Business Management forum, but instead you chose to be dishonest, misleading, vague and you lied by omission. You can hardly blame people now for being very dubious about anything you say - again, this was completely avoidable had you been truthful from the start.

In the interests of fairness, allow me to clarify something from my earlier post for the benefit of all readers: I was not directly accusing you or your "business" of being a front for criminal dealings. I was giving advice to a new boards.ie user about the sort of things that he/she needs to look out for, and your site happened to tick all the boxes. I then continued to advise the user of things to look out for when interacting with unheard-of companies whose history cannot be verified.

Finally, you'd be surprised at how forgiving people on this forum can be if you adopt the correct approach. Throw your hands up in the air, admit you got it very wrong, and you might just find people will be willing to give you a second chance. Who knows? You might just learn a thing or two from people on this site who run many successful and profitable businesses.

You might also be surprised to hear this after everything I've said, but if your business is a genuine, bona fide operation, then I wish the venture nothing but success.

Darragh

Hi, I'm Darragh and I'm the Communications Manager of Boards.ie

Just in case there's any ambiguity here, what's happened here is a classic example of how someone running a company can make a big mistake online. You now have to deal with your actions.

Ladder, instead of coming here on the defensive and pretending you weren't associated at first, you should have stated who you were, your involvement and answered the questions.

The advice on this thread from psni is very sound. I've worked in direct marketing (and would never again) and the biggest problem that we face from Direct Marketing companies is that they never answer questions honestly on either our site or their own.

I won't be removing ANY posts from this thread.

It should serve as a lesson to you that dishonesty will never work.

You have to understand that we have done nothing wrong here - you have made statements on this thread that have been shown, by publically accessible and available records, to be not as you say. If it wasn't being discussed here, it would be discussed elsewhere.

To quote psni, because I agree with it:

I, and I'm guessing most other reasonable people around here, would have had a lot more respect for you if you had been honest from the start and admitted that you are a relatively new business experimenting with new ideas, concepts and projects.

I mean, you could have even benefitted by learning from the experts over on the Entrepreneurial & Business Management forum, but instead you chose to be dishonest, misleading, vague and you lied by omission.

You can hardly blame people now for being very dubious about anything you say - again, this was completely avoidable had you been truthful from the start.

In the interests of fairness, allow me to clarify something from my earlier post for the benefit of all readers: I was not directly accusing you or your "business" of being a front for criminal dealings. I was giving advice to a new boards.ie user about the sort of things that he/she needs to look out for, and your site happened to tick all the boxes. I then continued to advise the user of things to look out for when interacting with unheard-of companies whose history cannot be verified.

Finally, you'd be surprised at how forgiving people on this forum can be if you adopt the correct approach. Throw your hands up in the air, admit you got it very wrong, and you might just find people will be willing to give you a second chance. Who knows? You might just learn a thing or two from people on this site who run many successful and profitable businesses.

You might also be surprised to hear this after everything I've said, but if your business is a genuine, bona fide operation, then I wish the venture nothing but success.

You can read our legal guidelines at http://www.boards.ie/legal but for now I see no reason to take action on anything here other than to advise you to be honest online.

Darragh

ladder

Eoin wrote: »

In the interests of fairness, the ie domain is registered to a corporate body of some description.

MkM Direct Ltd company number 7333219 registered on the 2nd of August 2010 at companies house cardiff.

champ121

just seen this thread today and i couldnt agree more with everyone exect for ladder. Its the same company pmd marketing, its a joke of a company. i went for a interview with pmd marketing and i just cant describe the day i had with them. everyone is brian washed, nothing less of that. when you get 'promoted' you set up your own company and thats exactly whats happens here!!! <snip>

Eoin

@champ121 - I've snipped a bit of your post. Please watch the language you use to describe companies, this has been covered in the charter.

ladder has (eventually) said that while he worked for PMD, it wasn't his company. You can take or leave his word for it.

@ladder, you should read this post again, this is all of your own doing by not being upfront.

I don't think there's anything to be gained by keeping this thread open at this stage.