JTM Solutions (also known as Blue Mountain Solutions / AC Generations) are a commission only door-2-door sales company based in Colchester (Culver Street East) T: 01206766982 W:http://www.jtmsolutions.net/ – they frequently post high paying sales jobs on major job boards including Reed, Gumtree and try to cover their negative press by posting press releases regarding their recent expansions etc.

Examples of this negative press can be found at the following locations:

• Whocallsme – “It is awful they are brainwashing teenagers who are desperate for a job. Joshua Peace threatened to ‘Kick the sh*t’ out of a girl for not making him enough sales, this girl is now terrified of going to work and doesn’t know who to trust”
• Scam, Scam, bacon & eggs & scam – “Not just door to door sales either – its commission only (with you paying your transport costs), and you register as self-employed.”
• ASA Judgement – Judgements upheld against JTM / Blue Mountain for misleading ads – “The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told JTM to ensure that their job ads distinguished clearly between offers of employment and opportunities for self-employment.”

The reason for exposing JTM Solutions / Blue Mountain is due to a personal grievance I have with this “company”. My other half worked with this business for the best part of 10 months and in this time she earnt a fair amount through commission only but ended up working 12-14 hours days and by the end of her term, there was an outstanding amount of £450.00 unpaid for sales and travel expenses (+ court fees), not to mention the severe strain this placed on our relationship. We have tried to chase this money up through the courts but thanks to the umbrella style system of multiple companies hidden within each other it’s difficult to trace the company that actually owes this money.

The Interview Process – Pyramid / Ponzi Scheme

 
The interview process is a complete farce, a salary of £20k-100k is offered based on your performance and how many recruits you have working underneath you. This is a classic pyramid / ponzi style scheme that they justify by saying all other work structures are effectively a pyramid. While this may be true in professional sales related industries, one isn’t promoted based on the number of sales made in a day and cannot be demoted for not meeting ridiculous sales targets in one week.

90% of applicants will be offered the position and the opportunity to come in for a field day or 2nd interview (the 10% either being too young to legally work, or had no comprehension of the English language). This 2nd interview involves doing a full days work for no pay, during which time you will be expected to cover your own travel expenses for which you will not be reimbursed. All job offers are given on a “self-employed” basis meaning you will not receive a basic, zero holiday and be expected to work Monday to Saturday and the occasional Sunday.

While working for JTM / equivalent you can expect to sell for companies like Red Cross, Talk Talk, Miller Patterson, 3 Mobile and others – if you’ve ever been stopped in Colchester highstreet odds are these people are working for JTM or Cobra.

You will also be expected to go on road trips hundreds of miles away, be expected to pay for your own travel and accomodation (The Etap is a favourite) and sell in cities including Scotland – Cowie (ironic), Leeds, Manchester, Norwich, with no premise that you may earn any money at all! In some instances you’ll find yourself coming back with less money than you left off. An example of this was a road trip to Scotland where one “employee” had to pay for accomodation, petrol and food totalling £150-200 but only managed to make 3 sales (£45) leaving them with a grand total of -£105-145.

Panorama covered a subsect of one of these branches in their show titled: “All Work and Low Pay” – Part 1 – Part 2. Part 2 (from 2 minutes onwards) is what you can expect to deal with when being interviewed for one of these firms.

A Day In The Life Of A Leader

The day starts at 10am for the most part, with some earlier mornings to greet the new additions to your “crew” over a coffee, known as the expectations meeting. From 10-11am, the plan for the day is discussed, including who will work with who in Atmosphere and talk about the weaknesses of the distributors. Once this has been done and no conference calls are planned, Youtube videos are played from “motivational” scenes in Boiler Room, to the latest raunchy music video. From 11 until about half 12, the leaders work with the distributors, getting them to pitch over and over again, high fiving, and explaining the rules that no leaning, arm folding or toilet usage is allowed. There is then a short meeting followed by a period where distributors are sent to wait outside the building while the subject of who will get interviews that day is discussed with the leaders. A “quick” lunch at Asda, and then it’s off to work. You’re expected to work from about 2 until half 8 knocking on doors, making sales, teaching “re-trains” the basics and, of course, ringing the bell. On arrival back to the office at about half 9, you will take your interview upstairs and prepare them for the questionnaire. After another hour of waiting around, you will have to wait again to give in your figures of how many people you spoke to, how many houses you got into and how many sales you made that day, to be told the reason for any of your failings is either your pitch, your pace or your attitude. Some nights you will be told of a conference call starting at half 10pm, and then encouraged to go for a drink at the local pub (Fashions) and see the morning in, only to be back at work in 6 hours.

Joshua Peace

 
I have personally had the privilege of meeting Joshua Peace on a number of occasions and in a social environment he is a charismatic individual and we both got along quite well. I would like this situation resolved in a friendly manor as I hold no personal grievance towards him and ultimately would like to settle this over a beer but unfortunately I have have had to resort to an online platform to vent my frustration as the county courts aren’t helpful.

Conclusion

 
The entire process while not illegal prays on people desperate for a job – if you’re an excellent sales person you will no doubt make some money with JTM but at the sacrifice of your own personal sanity and health. There are a number of legitimate businesses that offer promotions based on performance and give you a minimum wage as well as commission and holiday days. (Unicom, Centrica, RBS to name a few).

If you’ve had an encounter with JTM, Blue Mountain, Cobra or any of the following corporations please leave your comments regarding your experience below:

• AKW ACQUISITIONS or AKWA
• AMM DIRECT LTD
• ASPIRE ACQUISITIONS
• BRADFORD MARKETING
• BUSINESS ADVERTISING LIMITED
• CEDAR DIRECT LTD
• CO & CO MARKETING LIMITED
• EA WORLDWIDE ACQUISITIONS
• FOSTERS MARKETING SOLUTIONS
• G FORCE MARKETING
• HEYES CLIENT SERVICES
• JL ACQUISITIONS
• JPK ADVERTISING LTD
• KEY STONE DIRECT / KEYSTONE DIRECT
• LMC MARKETING LTD
• LONDON MARKETING SERVICES
• MARCHANT MARKETING
• ORRICK MARKETING SOLUTIONS
• OVAL INNOVATION LTD
• P&D MARKETING LTD
• PARKER WORLDWIDE
• POWERHOUSE DIRECT
• PRIMUS UK
• PURE SOLUTIONS DIRECT
• R&S MARKETING SOLUTIONS
• RED SQUARE DIRECT
• SOURCE MARKETING DIRECT
• SRM MARKETING
• SRM MARKETING LTD
• SUPREME CORPORATION UK
• TH NATIONWIDE
• VI MARKETING SOLUTIONS

Update: 24th March 2012

Thanks to Leo Clark for informing us that the latest strain of the JTM Solutions scam has respawned under a new name “Absolute Client Services”.

Sebastian Cowie is a full time SEO Consultant for a leading UK SEO agency. In his spare time he likes to blog about link building, metal and whatever else takes his fancy. He occasionally frequents SEO conferences and doesn't bite. When he's not on stage he regularly tests new and exciting ways to generate links for his affiliate endeavours.

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