Jan 18, 2014 10:34 AM
121281 Views
Appco Group India or Nirvana or Legion or Millennium:
One company named Appco India Pvt Ltd located in India-Mumbai-Andheri is taking huge amount of Donations in the name of your charity by visiting door to door and telling all the lies in order to get donations. I just want to make sure that it reaches you or not. Actually I went for an interview and was called for another day for second round at Appco.
They were doing monkey business "doing things in a crazy way for cheating people out of their money" at that day you are given a a chance to go out with a person/lead who will evaluate you by putting in stressful situations.
First my lead took me to a restaurant and started explaining about appco SBU {Subsidiary Business Unit} few of them which is entertainment, insurance, charity, customer service where they brief about it while making sure they make you feel charity is the best SBU you can work in. Then they tell you that in just 5 steps you can be a manager and handle your own SBU based on performance and if you are too good you just need 5-6months to become a manager.
Later the lead took me to a posh society and said just walk-in and ignore the security. After which she took me to a flat and i was blown out when she started his sympathy filled charity speech. I have no problem with that because that's the way people donate now days.
LIE No 1:
But I got angry when she said we are bunch of guys from your society doing something good for a cause, she repeated that at each and every door and tried to sympathize the donor by telling things like instead of giving 5-10Rs to a poor you should make one time investment of 10000Rs - 20000Rs {100-250 Euros} and if they can over that too they accept donations but there was no minimum limit. They said things like poor people eat from garbage cans which is true but why was she lying that we are bunch of friends who have taken this initiative to raise donations for AGE Old. We went to almost 50-60 doors and she said the same lie of we being from your locality or from this society. Why would she lie if she represent you / your organization "HelpAge", why not just say it directly?
LIE No 2:
While walking into a building she would take a look at the notice board {A board on which everyone name is written corresponding to flat no}and take a random person name and say we have talked with him regarding this and he showed his interest.
LIE No 3&4:
We have talked with everyone in this building but in reality we haven't yet. For salesman this can't be said as a lie but a marketing phrase. The forth lie she said was that she has got your reference from some other society or school or someone "named xxx" but in reality most people said they don't know any such person or don't work in any school.
The Luck Factor:
She said in each and every speech that we have completed 496 donations and just waiting for the last 4 donations to which one person filled the form which she had for donations and gave her a check worth 2000-4000 Rs {aprx20-50 Euros}. The cheque was a crossed cheque in the name of HELPAGE. Later at that door she said we have completed 496 donations and we need more 4 even after getting a check.
The Unlucky Factor:
As it was a posh society most of the people were highly educated so they asked whether you have the permission to enter the society for such a cause?? They said to her to write an application and come after it's approval but we continued and got another cheque of Rs.700 {aprx.10 Euros} but she used the "reference trick" that some of "donor" friend or known person gave us your contact to which after giving the check she tried to call her and came to know that no such reference was given.
Later we were stopped by security guards and I was feeling insulted, even before I felt disgusting when she was lying shamelessly. Then the security guard shouted at us and took the Rs.700 cheque on the demand of the owner. Soon we were thrown out of the society after a huge brawl between her and the security guard but I was shocked because she didn't had a bit of shame after such an activity, most likely because it was their day to day job and they had get used to it.
The Signal:
We were told that it will be your test as how you cope with a situation you will be deliberately put on. And I thought all this lies and the security thing and no prior society permission was a part of my test, so I maintained a clam.
The But Factor:
But after being thrown out she told me that such situations occur and you should stay calm and she took me to another society a little far away. But before entering i asked her do you have the permission for this society at-least to which obviously she doesn't. I went with her because we all new management trainee were suppose to left our belongings at the office and now i was in a locality far away and it was my first time over there.
I wanted to finish this and go back to the office and say it to their face that they are lying to everyone and i don't want to dothis job, and also their higher level employee were energetic and abusive so I rarely had any chances of arguing with them on their lies.
But as we were wrapping up she told me to do the last few presentations, but I refused as I didn't want to get involved in it at all. I told her I would say the truth that we are a authorized {God knows} direct sales person for HELPAGE. Later I went to an argument and I left.
The Verdict:
Help Age was a good cause for supporting Elderly people but the problem was that the staff at Appco Group India were wearing good clothes and had people from educated background and were spending a lot of money on their clothing makeup and infrastructure.
Their higher level work staff was an overconfident and an abusive person saying abusive words. They were having XBOX 360 and at the start of the day they played loud music and motivated the crowed of the leads. Energizing them to bring the best in them for lying to educated people.
The Conclusion:
I have read and heard about this company online after i went back home. They are allegedly being told for lying to customers in various SBU's, they are taking a 60%-80% of the amount received from donor and distributing among themselves from low designation to high designation employee. Most of the employee allegedly haven't received their salary as it's a sales based job, if you do sales then only you get paid.
For HelpAGE:
Please make sure that the money donated to this reaches to you. I mean the entire amount they took from citizens. Later you should pay APPCO GROUP INDIA a part of it. Please all the people do a research on the working of this company "APPCO GROUP INDIA" and then only donate. I would suggest you all to better do an online payment or visit one such HELPAGE center.
