What is the correct company name at 9600 Great Hills Trail Suite 150W, Austin, Texas 78759?
In Store Solutions, In-Store Solutions, In Store Advantage, or In Store Advantage Solutions, Inc?
Do a Google search for 512-820-4518 and 512-402-5330 and see for yourself.
Beware of attractive, but possibly deceptive job ads which offer entry-level training in management, marketing, and sales especially if the ads state "no experience required". If you decide to interview with such a company, ask many questions before accepting employment. Ask about the advertised training.
http://www.instoreadvantage.com/clients/
We specialize in in-store marketing campaigns for DIRECTV® service and VIZIO. We work inside two of America’s largest retail chains helping them promote their brand and acquire new customers.
http://www.instoreadvantage.com/contact-information/
In Store Solutions
9600 Great Hills Trail Suite 150W
Austin, Texas 78759
careers@instoreadvantage.com
No phone number on company website.
Craigslist job ads refer to company as In-Store Advantage.
(512) 402-5330
Phone numbers from various job ads:
CONTACT: Lindsey / HR Director at 512-820-4518 or 512-402-5330
***
From Craigslist job ads:
Entry level sales and marketing representatives will be trained in the following areas:
• Promotional Sales and Marketing
• Public Relations
• Account Coordination
• Campaign Management
• Client Relations
• Management Training
This is NOT a 100% commission job! ALL of our position offer a GUARANTEED weekly salary with opportunities for commission and bonuses. We DO NOT participate in any door to door, business to business, telemarketing, or cold calling!
***
Domain Name: INSTOREADVANTAGE.COM
Creation Date: 16-nov-2009
Expiration Date: 16-nov-2011
I got an interview for this company too!
ReplyDeleteThis is a SCAM company!!!! They said they are doing marketing for big companies like Direct TV but really? Is that true?
"Reputable companies have been victimized by scammers using their company names and reputations to scam unwitting job seekers. Always take the time to stop by the company Web site before responding to a job ad," she suggests. "You may find a notice warning you of the scam. What you won't find, is a job listing for someone to accept checks and wire funds to someone."
Quoted from,
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/07/15/cb.avoid.job.scams/
I applied to this company through CareerBuilder and got a call back two days later. I was a little curious after reading this blog so checked out their web site and I went with a cautious attitude. The girl at the front desk was super cool. She gave me an application to fill out and I quickly looked it over. They didn’t ask for anything crazy or different than any other job interview I had been on this summer. The interview was quick because he said it was just a preliminary, first round interview. They hire entry level marketing reps and train them to be managers so they can open up new areas of Austin. The growth of the company is pretty exciting. I also checked them out at the Better Business Bureau http://austin.bbb.org/Find-Business-Reviews/ and found out they have an “A-” rating. No complaints or misrepresentation. I’m naturally a pretty skeptical person so I even went to Best Buy later that day just to see if I could find one of their reps there doing marketing. Sure enough, I asked a manger and he said they are there most days in the TV department. We’ll see what happens but I hope to be invited back. No, I’m not that Mack Brown nor am I related.
DeleteYou can add Bell Marketing Group (Bryson Bell)in Allen TX, and most likely Evantage in Dallas and ICM Dallas as well. I'm almost curious enough to go to the 2nd level "interview" (I was "impressive enough" to skip the "normal" phone interview) just to see what Bob at Sam's Club in McKinney is going to show me.....
ReplyDeleteI have an interview there tomorrow, and I was just wondering what kind of questions are they going to ask me. I was also wondering why they would want to interview me when I have no prior sales experience and/or knowledge of the work tasks they want me to do.
ReplyDeleteThank you because I was on my way to there today for a manager job but when I told them that I was at work and that I will be running late they it will be OK and to come when ever I can
ReplyDeletei dont understand how this is a scam will someone brake this down for me .
ReplyDeleteYour post is dumb and you should feel dumb
DeleteWhy would VERY WEALTHY companies like AT&T, Directv and T-Mobile, which probably have BILLIONS (or at least several hundreds of millions) in profits annually, would hire a bunch of random companies that just started within the LAST YEAR OR TWO to promote their shit??
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that few people who apply and "work" at these firms ask this crucial question. What Fortune 500 co. would trust a "marketing" firm that's only been around for a year or even just half a year?? How can you "prove" yourself as a big marketing firm in that little time? Esp. in JUST ONE AREA or location.
Such BS... These scam artists need to get a life (and a REAL job).
They don't hire a bunch of "random" companies. They hire one corporation to do their marketing (as do all big companies) and that corporation gives smaller entities under them the marketing promotions within each market. DirecTV, for one, knows and expects this or else they wouldn't allow the use of their logos and marketing materials. Otherwise, these "random" companies would be setting themselves up for huge lawsuits. No doubt DirecTV is much smarter than you are giving them credit for....... The company that owns these smaller companies has been around for over 25 years - plenty of time to "prove" themselves.
DeleteYou're an idiot
DeleteI've lived in Austin for a long time, graduated from UT last year, and have been looking for a real job ever since.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed with In Store Advantage a few months ago. I was very skeptical from all the information I read from this site, but went for the interview to see for myself.
I liked the company and they asked me to come back for a 2nd round interview. In that interview, I actually saw first hand the promotions they do for DIRECTV inside a Best Buy store. I was even introduced to the GM of that Store (Steve).
I joined the firm in October and now I think it's funny that there are people that don't even live in Austin but are judging Austin's local companies online.
This may not be the right company for everyone but if you are not willing to spend 30 minutes on an interview, how do you know?
This information is completely FALSE. When my husband first began working for this company, I too thought it was fishy. That's the world we live in, unfortunately - no one trusts anyone. I have since come around, especially after I also began learning more about the companies and how they work.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, both In-Store Advantage and Bell Marketing Group do, indeed, represent DirecTV. As for the comment questioning why a multi-million dollar corporation would hire "new" companies to work their marketing campaigns - all corporations do this. No one does their own - they all hire out smaller companies to do the client acquisition for them. Secondly, these are not new companies. The company that owns both In-Store Advantage and Bell Marketing has been around for over 25 years. DTV provides all ads, logos, promotional items, etc. to these companies in each of the big cities. That's why the ads you see on places like Career Builder, Monster, Craigslist, etc. are all very similar. They have to be according to DirecTV's specifications. Plus, why would these Fortune 500 companies where the reps for companies like In-Store Advantage and Bell Marketing (among others) allow them into their stores if they were scams? They wouldn't. Sounds like someone has sour grapes to tend to instead of thinking logically about this.
Interviews: Like most places of employment, the interview is designed to weed out potential employees. It's all a numbers game, really. Yes, they are always advertising that they are hiring. That's because they ARE. Employees come and go (let go, quit, whatever the reasoning - turnover is high in sales). The first interview is short and sweet and gauges the employee's personality and level of excitement. Not everyone gets a 2nd interview, but yes, many do. The 2nd interview is designed to allow the employee to see a snippet of the day-to-day happenings of the reps. They go to the store, listen, and observe. Thee's no smoke-blowing or BS'ing. How many employers let you "try before you buy?" Not many. This gives the employee the opportunity to gauge whether the JOB is right for them. If there's a 3rd round, it's to go over paperwork and to get feedback. There's no scam involved. A scam would be taking something from you and you not getting back anything in return. This is an EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY. Don't want it? Don't accept it. But there IS NO SCAM. It's sales and marketing, pure and simple.
No, you don't need experience - they train you in how they (and DirecTV) need you to do it. Have experience? Super! Even better! Just means you can skip a lot of the steps of learning. You get paid to train, you get commission on your sales, you get bonuses here and there and other rewards that are not always monetary (like iPads, XBoxes, TVs, gift cards, etc) in spirited competitions. Doesn't sound like a scam to me!
Research all you want, but most of the time bad press is put out either by disgruntled employees or by the competition. That's business. But don't pu-pu a job opportunity that doesn't even require you to have experience just because someone makes a few highlights in an ad. They have no clue of the inner-workings.
Your post is dumb, and you should feel dumb.
DeleteMy son got sucked into this borderline pyramid scheme a few months ago. The people who run these outfits lull these gullible folks, my 21 year old son included, into believing they have a real opportunity to make lots of money by telling them they will recieve $100/installation sold for DirectTV subscription per week with a base pay of $360/week. "Installation" is the key word here. They get their base pay (minimum wage) or $100/installation per week which ever is greater." Wow! I know I could get 5 or 6 people a week to sign up. That'd be $500/week!", you may be thinking. Not so fast. It is not $100/sale. It's based on installations within that pay period, which is Sunday - Saturday. Saturday being their busiest days. And who do you suppose controls installation scheduling? Yep, they do. So you could sell 7 subscriptions in a week, but if only 3-4 get installed every week from your sales you end up with the same amount of money as your base pay. Make sense? I didn't think so either. To top it off they dangle the "opportunity" of becoming an "account manager" if they make 14 sales, not installations over a 2 week span. "Wow! An easy promotion!", you may be thinking. But wait. Know how much more you make as an account manager? Zero. But, now you get the added responsibility of training others just like you which is going to require you to give up time once spent actually making your own sales so that you can teach the next poor sap to do what you do and let them take orospective customers that you could be selling to in the process. Great opportunity, huh? It doesn't really matter though. You could literally sell 100 in a week and still end up with a $300 paycheck. This company may be great for DirectTV, but believe me, they are terrible for the gullible kids who believe their hype about making some real money. My son has recently come to realize all this for himself and quit to return to furniture sales. Not great, but WAY better than being caught up in this scheme.
ReplyDeleteI never write on these blogs but after reading this I feel the need to give my two cents.
DeleteI work for a company that sells AT&T services. They pay me a salary or commission whichever is greater too. Some weeks, I am very grateful for the salary part because it at least gives me something to fall back on so I can put gas in my car and food on the table for my daughter. I also am paid when a customer "installs" with AT&T. I never thought I should be paid if a customer does not install. AT&T did not make any money on the deal if the customer changes his/her mind, so I figure that is fair. These companies want to install as many as possible every week so they get paid too. Doesn't make since to me, why they would not install just so they don't have to pay your son...
As far as becoming an "Account Manager", every company I have ever worked for has minimum requirements for getting a promotion. From the looks of the LinkedIn page for that company, there are a lot of "Account Managers" that work there. Seven deals two weeks in a row is half what they expect here at AT&T so I don't feel that is anything crazy.
Funny thing is that I have always taken responsibility for my actions and never blamed others for my misfortune. Maybe your son was just not cut out for this type of sales. If he was so happy selling furniture why did he quit to do something else?
I think your "OPPORTUNITY" in life is what you earn or make out of it, not what someone else gives you!!
oh this sounds horrible!
ReplyDeleteI have an interview with them tomorrow!
I just quit one of these rackets after two weeks. Huge waste of time and nothing to show for it.
DeleteI went through with the interview and the 2nd interview was me going out in the field with a trained sales rep. He told me all of these wonderful things about the job and how much money he was making (bought a car, house, etc.). In other words, he got me really excited thinking that I would be making money left and right. Well after going out into the field I was scheduled to come in that next monday and start my job and guess what....the guy that took me out in the field had up and quit!! He hated the job and was not making any money and had been there for 6 months. You do not get hourly and commissions, its commissions only! And you ARE NOT guaranteed a sale every day. Just think about how bad the economy is, the last thing on peoples minds are switching service providers/starting a new one. Unless you just have OUTSTANDING sales skills, I WOULD NOT recommend this job! Oh and on top of that you have to drive to the office to have the morning meeting then drive all the way to your store and then after being on your feet ALL DAY you have to drive back to the office to have the end of the night meeting. I spent way more in gas then what I was making. Huge waste of time!!
ReplyDelete