The Merrimack Group

SCAM SCAM SCAM!!!
do not go to any of their interviews… unless you want blisters on your toes the next day. Merrimack Marketing group is a predator that preys on vulnerable recent grads who have trouble finding a job.
i went to an interview. the same day walked around Panole in the blistering heat wearing a suit and dress shoes. they say that they will get you lunch, which they did at Mountain Mikes Pizza before they layed out their pyramid sceme on a piece of napkin. the person i shadowed and i went to a total of 148 businesses and sold 2 things. imagine all that walking and these businesses were not close together. got back to the office in Emeryville and the staff pretends to be joyful and stuff. the only people that seemed pissed were the interviewees who just got played. on top of everything they dont compensate anyone for gas. some interviewees went as far as san ramon and paid their own gas, on top of walking, and time wasted.
they offered to come in the next day… yeah right!!!
i was fortunate enough to get Mountain Mikes Pizza. a friend i know fell for their scam, and you know what? the person who he shadowed took him to his own house, cooked a pork chop, and served him some rice with it.
if this sounds great… go to their interviews. lol

latitutude and merrimack
full of bs.
scammers.

Just FYI they are also operating under the name The Latitude Group, same address and phone number but different website and they have their own domain now.

These people are why the «No soliciting» sign should have the power of law. In any case, I’m glad that there are some people out there who fell into this as I did (left after two days). It really makes you appreciate just about any job you might get in the future and it really makes you respect the people out there who work hard for an honest living (that is, not like the people from this place, who work for meager pay, but with zero integrity). The job itself is borderline cult; you go in, high five people so that you’re «fired up,» and supposedly, you play the law of averages so that you get a 10% sales rate, if you’re lucky. Then, at the end of the day, you ring a stupid bell and/​or hit a gong to celebrate your day. Sound good? Anyone?
And ups to the person who found out that Jay («President») is knocking Jana («secretary»). And to the person who said that their group leader bought weed in the morning of his first day. And to the person that said she froze her butt off at a gas station on her first day. And to the person who was trying to sell massages to creepy old guys (ouch). Let me add my story here. After a long day of sales on my 2^nd (and final) day on the job, I was entitled to $ 50 (yup, $ 50, for 11 hours of work). Of course, this comes out of the pocket of the person who is «mentoring» me, and wouldn’t you know it, she was so bad at her job that she only moved three pieces ($ 80 total). Salesmen get to pocket ¹⁄₃ of the sales, so on a more than full 11 hour day, she made $ 27 (that’s less than $ 2.50/hour). And then, she had to give $ 50 to me. In other words, she LOST $ 23 for 11 hours of work (not counting gas and other expenses). As a person of conscience, I would usually not accept the $ 50 because it must’ve sucked so much to be her at that moment, but she was an insufferable person and I was stuck out there for 11 hours with her.
But they don’t care; you move even one item and the leaders are better off than they would be if you weren’t there. They contract you at zero cost and the only people who really get the worst of it are the supposed «salesmen.» Remember, they don’t pay a salary, just a commission.
The bottom line, if you don’t get it, is this: IT’S A SCAM! (and not the only one of its kind, see Students Against Vector Exploitation)

Found a very nice link today.
Someone who had worked for various offices under the same Umbrella Corp. This would the the best testimonial avaiaible to date, I’m sure.
A very great info on the in’s and the out’s of the scam.
Read at your own leisure.

So, I just moved to the Bay area and this was one of the first companies that I had gotten an interview with after submitting my resume online. It sounded promising, I had did some reseach, but it appeared to not be enough. I was referred to
to check out this company and I am glad I did, the reviews that people had written sounded very similar to what my first interview was like and what my second interview would’ve been like. I thought that an 8:30 to 6 pm interview was quite long and not typical of a business, so that made me think and wonder. I am very glad that I checked out this website and learned more about them. Thank you for the reviews everyone!
Oh, also, I was wondering if anyone has heard of Paradigm Events, Inc., located in Hayward, CA? When looking online, it sounded a little similar to Merrimack Group, but was not sure. If you can send a message or reply on here with any feedback, that’d be great, thanks.

Thank you everyone! I too checked here before even attending my first interview. I had only accepted the interview because I was checking into every job lead I could. My husband was also the one that made me second guess the whole idea.
Also, others beware, they are getting needy. The email they sent me was sent at 9:50am, within 2 hours they called me asking to set up an interview for the next day (again only at 10:30am).

Obvious scam.
Anyone tricked by it is a fool.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Unilocalers for the heads up!!! My little sister applied to this company and they responded with a very poorly written e-​mail. (red flag… red flag.)
It starts out, «Hey [my sister’s first name]… After reviewing your resume, an Executive from our firm has requested your attendance for a brief interview.»
Who capitalizes «executive»?? Mr. Executive, it’s nice to meet you…
After some poorly written BS, the e-​mail ends with «Congratulations!» Um, did she just win the lottery? More like, congratulations, you’ve entered the dark lair… You’ll never escape (muhahaha!).
Creepy. Scary. Stay away! And again, thanks for the heads up!
More info at
.

Thank you all for the heads up!!! I was going to go in for my first interview tomorrow, but I wanted to google Merrimack because it didn’t feel exactly right. I am so glad that I came across this page! THANK YOU!

This place is WHACK! They dropped me off in like Vallejo or someplace and we tried to sell pizza coupons to random people at the gas station. Then they took us to this residential neighborhood where the sales people were just plain RUDE and pushy and knocked on doors ’till 9:30 PM. My phone and purse were in the car that dropped us off so I was stuck. The best was when they told me to drink outta a garden hose and to use some random persons bathroom! Shady. Don’t waste your time

Without a doubt, the single most unprofessional experience of my life! Not only is it a ridiculous employment opportunity, but I was taken into downtown Oakland at 9pm so that the district manager I was shadowing could buy weed. Yeah, I really want to work for a company that has values like that. I didn’t even want to give it one star, but Unilocal makes you.
As stated in the reviews below, the first ‘interview’ is line after line of pre-​rehearsed bull that feeds into a second interview. That second interview is a day long ‘sale’ of the position. The person who you shadow endlessly pitches how great the job is, and NEVER stops talking about money. The man I shadowed, Chris, was obsessed with wealth and cared about nothing else than making money. He was self-​absorbed and thought he was God’s gift to the world. No one told me I would be walking around suburban Dublin for 7 hours so I wore heels and did not bring a coat. No one offered me a coat either until I was literally blue in the face. At the end of the hellish day of bothering people trying to sell $ 5 coupons to Pizza Hut, you get brought back to the office where they make you wait in the 1980’s wannabe-​chic lobby while they track their sales in a room that no one else is allowed in. And if you ask what goes on in there, they wont tell you; but you hear loud club music, cheers, and bells. Riiight. And when all is said and done, they tell you that you have to work 6 days a week for 10 hours a day for meager money. Its not commission they say, nooo. Its «performance pay.» Uh-​huh. I cannot say enough about how terrible and unprofessional this company is. The owner dates the secretary. Other employees stay at each others houses constantly. It’s a twisted little scheme with really unsavory people. I urge you to not interview with this company, and to stay away from scams such as this at all costs. I hung in the job hunt for another month or so and managed to score a fantastic position. They are out there, but not with the Merrimack Group.

Wow after reading these review it is all true first inteview is about 15 min and they want you to come back for a second interview. There is no way that I am coming back for there second interview. I am glad tht I google this company and this was the top four…

I went in for their «second interview» which turned out to be 10 hours of pavement-​pounding pain.
I also came to find that your first 2 weeks of training only net you $ 50 a day for a 12 hr day of work 6 days a week NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SOLD…
HOWEVER! They were selling A’s ticket packages which sold very quickly and easily. The guy I «shadowed» made about 210 bucks for that day in cash. Which was respectable, considering he said he made about that every day. That averages out to about 55 — 60k a year.
Now, for all their talk of advancement and being promoted in 3 – 4 months I met NOT A SINGLE assistant manager and had heard of no one being promoted in the 11 months since the office in Emeryville was opened. This raised an immediate red flag, and I figured there was something i wasn’t being told.
Another thing that struck me was the abundance of ex-​real estate and mortgage brokers. All these guys came in with visions of quick and easy money still fresh in their minds, and that probably made them easier targets.
I also found the whole setup to be damn near a pyramid scheme. I, in fact, think they have gotten their program as close to a pyramid scheme as legally possible. Although, I don’t know if they’d pass the scrutiny of federal investigators.
Finally, i found them to have a very culty vibe. Everything about them reminded me of the moonies, or this weird church i went to with a friend for a couple weeks that tried all kinds of stuff like love-​bombing and indoctrination. They had their own vocabulary, pretended to be SUPER happy and energetic.
In all, I’m considering continuing because I’m SHIT out of a job. I HAVE A COLLEGE F*****G DEGREE AND I CANT FIND A F*****G JOB!!! WTF IS THIS S**T!!!

I went in for the first round interview at this company. I also went in for the first round interview at The Marketing Group in San Francisco. I got the impression that both companies were running very similar scams, as Max T. mentioned. For more info on this type of scheme, see the reviews of The Marketing Group (
). Anyway, stay away from this company and any companies running a similar scheme.