Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
Is JPC Publishing still up to its old tricks? I'll never forget them – they must be the dodgiest publishing outfit ever. We were caught out by them, many years ago. They phoned with a "last minute offer" which had to be accepted straight away, for an editorial to appear what they said was a national trade paper called "Construction Times".
When we received a voucher copy, it was in "Newcastle Times", which appeared to be a consumer publication (not trade) and wasn't at all focused on the target business market – the front page was about Madonna! The "newspaper" was very poorly put together: all the photos appeared to have been scanned in from other publications and the print quality was also very poor. Now I suspect it was probably one of a small number of copies printed to satisfy advertisers and may never have been "distributed" at all.
When I tried to contact them to say we’d been misled and wanted a full credit against their invoice, the person with whom I'd spoken before "wasn’t available". I called them several times and was always told "a director was dealing with it", but I never received anything in the post and they never returned phone calls or emails.
Each time I managed to get through to them on the phone, the person I’d previously spoken to was "no longer with the company". From what I've read below, that shouldn't have surprised me!
I never got a credit note and we didn't pay the invoice.
I have read a lot of the comments here and feel I am obliged to comment (as an insider).
I worked for JPC, in the credit control department for almost 2 years back in 2000. A lot of things have changed- journal names, regional offices. But it seems they are still up to their old tricks!
To be honest I can't believe the company is still going!
There were around 18 credit controllers, mostly young girls. Each girl normally had 4-5 journals. There were no computers in our department, just lists of company names, telephone numbers and amounts. We were paid a £100 bonus each month if we could clear half of the older debts. The head office is in Derby along with 1 of the directors.
When I first started working there I assumed it was a legitimate company but after a while I realised otherwise. I heard stories from members of the sales teams, on a daily basis, of the tactics they would use to get people to place an advert. I heard they were told to say 45000 papers printed instead of 4 to 5000.
I must stress that I can only comment on the journals that I dealt with. Some of the girls had very few problems with there papers.
I had the City of Birmingham Journal as one of my papers! Commonly known as 'The worse paper'.
I dealt with a lot of unhappy people.
Some companies had been told if they didn't receive 10 responses from the adverts they didn't have to pay. The sales people said that was rubbish but when you are being told that by SO MANY companies you know who is telling the truth.
Many of the girls told me that some journals only printed enough copies to send to the people that adverised and none were distributed. In all my time there I never spoke to anyone who had got a reply from an advert!
JPC targeted large companies as well as small. We had adverts for £1000's for large mobile phone companies.
One lady who had worked there for years told me that the company has gone bust in the past but just started up again under a different name.
It was dodgey when I worked there and still is now please beware and avoid this company. No company can afford to throw money away and that is what you'll be doing. The only people making money (a lot of money) are the directors!
I regret having anything to do with this company...
A few years back I worked at JPC in the summer, while I was back home from University. To me it was just a temporary job, so this information is going to be as objective as possible.
1. First thing in the morning we would get a copy of the BRAD media guide, and pretend to be media companies and order inspection copies of magazines.
2. We would then take the magazines we had already recieved and ring up every advert. We would then try and sell the company an advertising spot in our free newspaper, that in essence was full of adverts (nothing else) and had a circulation of about 1000 copies.
3. However we would not tell them it was a free paper, If you had a Gardening magazine, you would be doing a feature "Gardening express", or even pretend the feature was a magazine. If you read BRAD it would tell you the circulation and target audience of the mag your canvassing. So you would insinuate your free paper was a mag, and read out the fatcs from brad (lie).
4. We were told to close the deal on the phone, pretend there had been a last minute cancellation, and basically sell agressivly.
5. once we sent the fax off and the confirmation came back, we would cut the advert or press release out of the mag and send it to the people who put the free newspaper together.
There the facts. Every paper that was part of JPC, to my knowlege, used the same, or similar techniques.
Oh please, you have to had it to JPC as they are entering good reports about themselves in order to hide their sharp practices. If you get a call from any media claiming that they have had a client pull out at the last minute and all they need is the print cost DO NOT SAY OK - Also they will claim a distribution of 45,000 and when questioned will claim they said 4 to 5,000 (good one) They will usually deny being part of JPC and the final indicator os to ask the caller how long they have worked there, if less than two months it's probably a JPC set up.
I work for a PR and advertising company and I would never recommend that any of my clients spends a penny with this group. Steer clear. They use dodgy sales techniques (I have reported them to Trading Standards for 'passing off' a few times) and try to get junior members of staff to 'confirm' bookings for ads that have never been booked - the next thing you know, you get a bill for an advert you never agreed to, which has usually been scanned from a legitimate paper.
This isn't sour grapes. I've never worked for them. I just hate the idea that they try to rip people off, especially hard-working self-employed people who do not know any better and can't afford the services of a good ad agency to filter out this kind of dross.
My advice - if ever a newspaper contacts you, Google the name. If it brings you to a legitimate website, check the phone number corresponds with the number they have given you. And never advertise until you have held a copy of the publication in your hand first - ask to see a copy before you commit, as JPC rarely post out any copies of their titles.
Hi. I work for one of the journal groups publications and we dont lie to sell adverts and most of our customers are happy. People who have put bad comments on this page who have worked for us are obviously rubbish sales people who have been sacked! I have worked here for 2 years and there is no lies the papers are distributed and I have alot of re bookings every day surely the people re booking can not be all wrong?!
I stopped by looking for information on another company today, and in passing noticed that a couple of responses had been made to my earlier posting regarding the tactics used by the JPC. I would like to note the following things:
firstly, the training session involving the infamous 'Do you know who I am?!' line was one that I witnessed first hand. I do not presume that every training session goes like this. However the person who was doing the training was one John Meadows. Draw whatever conclusions you wish from that.
Secondly, I can't help but note that while some of the people making accusations are ex-employees, pretty much ALL of the people who are standing up for the company are current employees.
I make no pretence that I was an employee of the JPC for a while, and was not at all sorry to leave the company when the time came. If I feel anything regarding my association with the company, it's shame that I was ever a part of it, and that I didn't get out sooner, but I was young and it was my first real job. We live and learn. You can decide for yourselves if you believe what I have to say or not, but I feel confident that in a wide range of cases my words will be borne out by customers' experiences. On the other hand, I know a sock-puppet when I see one.
Take care all.
p.s. expect, now that I've made these comments, a sudden rush of unaffiliated 'supporters' to appear out of nowhere. Gotta love that Internet anonymity.
xxlolxx – maybe you are not reading the full archive of comments here carefully enough. Yes, there are some from disaffected ex-employees. But many more are from small businesses who have been cold-called by various titles run by JPC, and who very definitely feel they have been misled, abused, ripped-off, and been subjected to grossly unfair selling practices perpetrated by staff on JPC publications. It’s not necessarily the case that, as you suggest, JPC titles are in business because they provide a good service for customers – they can apparently do very well indeed without doing that by, it seems, misleading and deceiving people in a way that exploits a gap in the business practice legislation. Clearly, you are not one of the JPC staff who have participated in this and I am glad to hear it, and maybe not all of the JPC titles work in the same way. It’s possible to identify at least 40 titles which are associated with JPC, and I can’t say if they all operate according to the same model. Most if not all have their official registered office at St Matthews House, Nottingham, but there is no trace of any of them in the Newspaper Society database. The Buckinghamshire Echo, Northampton Journal and other titles working out of Kimberly House, 47 Vaughan Way, Leicester, definitely do not provide a good service for all the reasons listed in this website, and there are others of the same type working out of other addresses.
There is a clear pattern to the various accounts of how small businesses feel thay have been misled into parting with money to some JPC titles, which probably indicates that the experiences are not isolated incidents but reflect a pre-meditated business practice. All of the people I have spoken to who were, like me, persuaded to part with money for advertisements in editions of the Buckinghamshire Echo, were very angry and upset at the way they had been treated and considered that they had been pressurised, misled and deceived, or actually had money taken without their consent. The same story emerges from people who have been approached by a number of other JPC titles. Do not suppose for one minute that all of these people are just going to walk away and forget about this.
It’s interesting that the offending JPC titles are printed by a subsidiary of Northcliffe plc which is owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust. I got the distinct impression that staff at the previous printers (Lincolnshire Echo Group, also a Northcliffe company) were well aware of the nature of what they were printing.
you lot are actually quite sad. iv'e read through all of the comments and you are all cusing jpc but i bet if you hadn't been let go from the company you would still be working there now! The paper obvously works for people otherwise it wouldn't be a buisness! I work for the company now and i don't lie or say any misleading things and i have never been told to either. My clients are always happy with the service they get!!!!!!
Hi Sabs, I have experienced the traumas of the Nottingham Journal. They said they were nothing to do with JPC but funnily enough all the invoices came from their address! I complained to the manager who eventually gave me the name Phil Counds to write to. I have still had no reply and this was over 2 months ago. Looks like a total waste of money as I have had nothing back either!
Hello.
I just want to say that all of the Journals are a complete shambles.
The worse one at the minute is the Nottingham Journal which is trying to get away from being associated with the group. They have designed a website that does not mention that they are part of the group. Also when you contact them or thet contact you they deny this fact.
I have lots of lovely stories that would hang them out to dry but they are so dodgy they would probably get a way with it. How are theses Journals still trading?????
Sabs
Nobby – sounds like you have been through all the anger and sense of outrage that we did having been stung by a branch of the JPC network (see our posting of 23 Sept 2006). Destriarch’s posting of 23 October makes very interesting reading and confirms all that we have been able to find out about JPC. You are right, they are exploiting a hole in the consumer protection law by targeting very small businesses eg. B&B’s, riding stables and catteries, many of which are run out of people’s back rooms. In the eyes of the law, they are not dealing with members of the public, and hence not subject to the constraints of the consumer protection act.
The following is from a Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) document dated May 2007: The repeal of the TDA (Trades Descriptions Act) removes the Trading Standards Services’ ability to enforce business-to-business cases, thereby exposing UK businesses to a reduction in protection from other unscrupulous businesses. Furthermore, the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) does not currently have criminal enforcement powers under CMARs (Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988), creating a gap in criminal enforcement at a national level. As business-to-business cases do arise in the UK, there is a strong argument for Government to intervene and amend legislation to continue to protect businesses, especially as small businesses are often in no better position to protect themselves than consumers.
The last sentence is pretty much the gap that the JPC network is exploiting.
The document also indicates that: With the repeal of the TDA the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations (BPRs) will become the main mechanism for regulating unfair business-to-business practices in the UK. These are the regulations that will replace the CMARs.
To get Trading Standards and ultimately BERR to act under BPR, two things need to happen. First, as you indicate, the local Trading Standards Office for each of the offending branches of the network need to receive complaints. But in addition, the Company Investigations Branch of BERR need to receive complaints as well and when they have enough of them it will bring JPC up their list of priorities. Involving your MP and getting him/her to speak to the Minister responsible for BERR is also a way to push the agenda along. If enough aggrieved people do this rather than, as you say, writing it all off as a bad experience, then maybe we will have saved a lot of innocent people from being ripped off like we were.
This is my experience and opinions of these people. They appear to be taking an advantage in a gap in the regulatory system They do not come under any press regulation scheme as they are doing company to company business. They operate a large number of newspaper names. They appear to approach mostly on small companies who have not got the clout to attack them through the courts when they discover they may have been deceived. They promise anything to get your money including massive distribution, specialised distribution and massive door to door distribution, but they never put it in writing. So unless lots of people contact Trading Standards they are able to play the 'we never said that' game. However, there are only 5000 copies of most publications, some printed by Northcliffe Press, 80 Cleethorpes Road Grimsby DN31 3EH. One of their efforts is to find out when there is a major exhibition and then to phone around the country offering to give full page cover and distribute at the show. My experience is that they dont get distributed at the show. If you have a complaint and push it hard, they simply write off your invoice, presumably in the hope that you will not pursue it and write it off as a bad experience. Most people I have phoned pay up, especially with the rapid threats of legal action. If you have any information whatsoever on the sales statements made, or if you have worked for them and know the score, do not hesitate, email tradingstandards@derbyshire.gov.uk.
They can only act if you give them the info.
I'm glad I found this site before I rang this shower of excrement for a job. i was given a job detail sheet at Coventry Job Centre, job said research assistant, no experience necessary, based in RUGBY, Warwickshire, journal publishing, Chapel Street, Rugby, mobile number no office number . Must have good communication and able to prioritise own workload, salary poor , after reading the posts about this company I am steering well clear by about 3,000 miles of this as a potential employer.
This site has saved me yet another wasted interview , thankyou blagger.com.
im sorry but this company is absolutely terrible!
when i worked there they wouldnt even take my details, they didnt even have my full name, this was strange straight away, i left after they shouted at the person i was with because we asked for confirmation that i worked there, they wouldnt even give me the company name.I had pretty much guessed i wouldn't get paid as i had heard from local people who had heard of them and knew exactly what they were doing.
we were just told 'you will get paid at the end of the month!!!' by the second man as the first one stropped off.
obviously i was not paid and its now the 4th of july and since then two of my friends, friends started working there and i advised them to leave but before they had a chance, one was sacked for being ill and the other one did leave.
Then i found out that one person i worked with was sacked for wanting to take they're driving test and the other was just sacked randomly.
I think it is absolutely disgusting they can get away with this and its only because people wont stand up to them but i am going to because they owe me money and they take the mickey out of so many people, especially as i made them nearly £400 worth of advertising and they cant even be bothered to pay me the £150 in wages they owe me.
Very bad company if they ring you stay away.
You would sit at desk at the beginning of a week and have to deciede on a feature that you was going to work on that week i.e horse's or properties abroad holidays etc.
Then you would be givern local newspapers and magazine's to get the adverts that was in them relating to your feature.
You then had to cold call the company and try to get them to place an advert with you for alot of money.
You could even offer them upto 100 words editorial.
The company only make 5000 copies per paper but you would tell the perspective company that you do say 45,000-60,000 copies just to get you to buy one.
If the person is vulnerable they then offer what seem like fantastic deals all the time untill there advertising budget is gone.
I worked at one of the papers based in derby for 2 and half months.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of the company having worked in one of there sales offices but I must say that some of the comments on this website are greatly exagerated and obviously orchastrated by a small number of disgruntled ex employees. The comments by John Rivers were of particular interest as the director of the company is actually Jon Rivers(as in Jonathon) not John so the guy concerned either doesn't know how to spell his own name or didn't actually post the comments that were obviuosly made up by someone with to much time on there hands. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Hi there im the director of the company and just to say that we opperate as honestly as we can as our staff are all school leavers we only offer hands on training and this is where we find our figures go up to sell the space. i feel that what we do is right and we have have many investigations from trading standards, watchdog and private investigators but no one can touch us.
I have made many millions from this business and will continue to do so as well as my business partners.
the newspapers are not worth the paper its printed on and we get our copies distributed by ALR in Bolton. not all our copies are picked up we have a 45% wastage every week so these get binned by ALR.
Now if you want to be in a company that just makes money you should pop into one our offices for a job but if its a carrer your looking for your better off applying to the real press
I am happy to discuss anything about this company on or off the record. alot of the staff that currently work there are under threat of loosinig there jobs if they speak to anyone.
i have advertised in the kent area for recruitment and as the circulation is small it is quite good for response for the type of staff i am looking for. i have had one or two misprints or double invoice but after a call they were corrected with some great further deals. it works for me
I feel compelled to add a comment about the JPC after randomly finding this website.
I am one of the unfortunate people who worked for the JPC. I was based at the big office in Derby, and my title was 'journalist'... although to be honest, it's nothing like journalism.
The office was split into five parts - four different 'newspapers' and the universal journalist. The four different newspapers - including Midland Review, Newcastle Times and god knows what else - had salespeople and an 'editor'. The salespeople rang up different companies, got them to pay ridiculous amounts of money for an advert, and then they came over to me - the journalist - and I had to write a copy for the advert.
However, the 'copy' was a press release I just had to type up onto a computer. That was all I did.
I also had to go out and buy newspapers and magazines for the 'editors' to look through so they could steal adverts.
There are two computers in the whole office, which isn't much for a 'newsroom'.
And a readership of 15,000 is pathetic - they don't even print 5,000 papers!
Also, there were about three huge folders of complaints to get through every week.
I'm shocked that JPC is still going. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
Just caught up on the blog due to lack of free time. I would be very interested in speaking to the gentleman below, please supply me with an e-mail address.
Add a comment about this blagger
Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
When we received a voucher copy, it was in "Newcastle Times", which appeared to be a consumer publication (not trade) and wasn't at all focused on the target business market – the front page was about Madonna! The "newspaper" was very poorly put together: all the photos appeared to have been scanned in from other publications and the print quality was also very poor. Now I suspect it was probably one of a small number of copies printed to satisfy advertisers and may never have been "distributed" at all.
When I tried to contact them to say we’d been misled and wanted a full credit against their invoice, the person with whom I'd spoken before "wasn’t available". I called them several times and was always told "a director was dealing with it", but I never received anything in the post and they never returned phone calls or emails.
Each time I managed to get through to them on the phone, the person I’d previously spoken to was "no longer with the company". From what I've read below, that shouldn't have surprised me!
I never got a credit note and we didn't pay the invoice.
I worked for JPC, in the credit control department for almost 2 years back in 2000. A lot of things have changed- journal names, regional offices. But it seems they are still up to their old tricks!
To be honest I can't believe the company is still going!
There were around 18 credit controllers, mostly young girls. Each girl normally had 4-5 journals. There were no computers in our department, just lists of company names, telephone numbers and amounts. We were paid a £100 bonus each month if we could clear half of the older debts. The head office is in Derby along with 1 of the directors.
When I first started working there I assumed it was a legitimate company but after a while I realised otherwise. I heard stories from members of the sales teams, on a daily basis, of the tactics they would use to get people to place an advert. I heard they were told to say 45000 papers printed instead of 4 to 5000.
I must stress that I can only comment on the journals that I dealt with. Some of the girls had very few problems with there papers.
I had the City of Birmingham Journal as one of my papers! Commonly known as 'The worse paper'.
I dealt with a lot of unhappy people.
Some companies had been told if they didn't receive 10 responses from the adverts they didn't have to pay. The sales people said that was rubbish but when you are being told that by SO MANY companies you know who is telling the truth.
Many of the girls told me that some journals only printed enough copies to send to the people that adverised and none were distributed. In all my time there I never spoke to anyone who had got a reply from an advert!
JPC targeted large companies as well as small. We had adverts for £1000's for large mobile phone companies.
One lady who had worked there for years told me that the company has gone bust in the past but just started up again under a different name.
It was dodgey when I worked there and still is now please beware and avoid this company. No company can afford to throw money away and that is what you'll be doing. The only people making money (a lot of money) are the directors!
I regret having anything to do with this company...
1. First thing in the morning we would get a copy of the BRAD media guide, and pretend to be media companies and order inspection copies of magazines.
2. We would then take the magazines we had already recieved and ring up every advert. We would then try and sell the company an advertising spot in our free newspaper, that in essence was full of adverts (nothing else) and had a circulation of about 1000 copies.
3. However we would not tell them it was a free paper, If you had a Gardening magazine, you would be doing a feature "Gardening express", or even pretend the feature was a magazine. If you read BRAD it would tell you the circulation and target audience of the mag your canvassing. So you would insinuate your free paper was a mag, and read out the fatcs from brad (lie).
4. We were told to close the deal on the phone, pretend there had been a last minute cancellation, and basically sell agressivly.
5. once we sent the fax off and the confirmation came back, we would cut the advert or press release out of the mag and send it to the people who put the free newspaper together.
There the facts. Every paper that was part of JPC, to my knowlege, used the same, or similar techniques.
Regards.
This isn't sour grapes. I've never worked for them. I just hate the idea that they try to rip people off, especially hard-working self-employed people who do not know any better and can't afford the services of a good ad agency to filter out this kind of dross.
My advice - if ever a newspaper contacts you, Google the name. If it brings you to a legitimate website, check the phone number corresponds with the number they have given you. And never advertise until you have held a copy of the publication in your hand first - ask to see a copy before you commit, as JPC rarely post out any copies of their titles.
firstly, the training session involving the infamous 'Do you know who I am?!' line was one that I witnessed first hand. I do not presume that every training session goes like this. However the person who was doing the training was one John Meadows. Draw whatever conclusions you wish from that.
Secondly, I can't help but note that while some of the people making accusations are ex-employees, pretty much ALL of the people who are standing up for the company are current employees.
I make no pretence that I was an employee of the JPC for a while, and was not at all sorry to leave the company when the time came. If I feel anything regarding my association with the company, it's shame that I was ever a part of it, and that I didn't get out sooner, but I was young and it was my first real job. We live and learn. You can decide for yourselves if you believe what I have to say or not, but I feel confident that in a wide range of cases my words will be borne out by customers' experiences. On the other hand, I know a sock-puppet when I see one.
Take care all.
p.s. expect, now that I've made these comments, a sudden rush of unaffiliated 'supporters' to appear out of nowhere. Gotta love that Internet anonymity.
Destriarch at 15th Jan 2008, 11:51PM
There is a clear pattern to the various accounts of how small businesses feel thay have been misled into parting with money to some JPC titles, which probably indicates that the experiences are not isolated incidents but reflect a pre-meditated business practice. All of the people I have spoken to who were, like me, persuaded to part with money for advertisements in editions of the Buckinghamshire Echo, were very angry and upset at the way they had been treated and considered that they had been pressurised, misled and deceived, or actually had money taken without their consent. The same story emerges from people who have been approached by a number of other JPC titles. Do not suppose for one minute that all of these people are just going to walk away and forget about this.
It’s interesting that the offending JPC titles are printed by a subsidiary of Northcliffe plc which is owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust. I got the distinct impression that staff at the previous printers (Lincolnshire Echo Group, also a Northcliffe company) were well aware of the nature of what they were printing.
I just want to say that all of the Journals are a complete shambles.
The worse one at the minute is the Nottingham Journal which is trying to get away from being associated with the group. They have designed a website that does not mention that they are part of the group. Also when you contact them or thet contact you they deny this fact.
I have lots of lovely stories that would hang them out to dry but they are so dodgy they would probably get a way with it. How are theses Journals still trading?????
Sabs
The following is from a Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) document dated May 2007: The repeal of the TDA (Trades Descriptions Act) removes the Trading Standards Services’ ability to enforce business-to-business cases, thereby exposing UK businesses to a reduction in protection from other unscrupulous businesses. Furthermore, the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) does not currently have criminal enforcement powers under CMARs (Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988), creating a gap in criminal enforcement at a national level. As business-to-business cases do arise in the UK, there is a strong argument for Government to intervene and amend legislation to continue to protect businesses, especially as small businesses are often in no better position to protect themselves than consumers.
The last sentence is pretty much the gap that the JPC network is exploiting.
The document also indicates that: With the repeal of the TDA the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations (BPRs) will become the main mechanism for regulating unfair business-to-business practices in the UK. These are the regulations that will replace the CMARs.
To get Trading Standards and ultimately BERR to act under BPR, two things need to happen. First, as you indicate, the local Trading Standards Office for each of the offending branches of the network need to receive complaints. But in addition, the Company Investigations Branch of BERR need to receive complaints as well and when they have enough of them it will bring JPC up their list of priorities. Involving your MP and getting him/her to speak to the Minister responsible for BERR is also a way to push the agenda along. If enough aggrieved people do this rather than, as you say, writing it all off as a bad experience, then maybe we will have saved a lot of innocent people from being ripped off like we were.
They can only act if you give them the info.
This site has saved me yet another wasted interview , thankyou blagger.com.
when i worked there they wouldnt even take my details, they didnt even have my full name, this was strange straight away, i left after they shouted at the person i was with because we asked for confirmation that i worked there, they wouldnt even give me the company name.I had pretty much guessed i wouldn't get paid as i had heard from local people who had heard of them and knew exactly what they were doing.
we were just told 'you will get paid at the end of the month!!!' by the second man as the first one stropped off.
obviously i was not paid and its now the 4th of july and since then two of my friends, friends started working there and i advised them to leave but before they had a chance, one was sacked for being ill and the other one did leave.
Then i found out that one person i worked with was sacked for wanting to take they're driving test and the other was just sacked randomly.
I think it is absolutely disgusting they can get away with this and its only because people wont stand up to them but i am going to because they owe me money and they take the mickey out of so many people, especially as i made them nearly £400 worth of advertising and they cant even be bothered to pay me the £150 in wages they owe me.
Went for an interview for a telesales job, the guy sat on the window cill of an empty office, and said when could I start.
That was some interview.
Not got paid or any commission. Phoned in sick on the 2nd Friday, they sacked me over the phone.
I was trying to sell ad space to Blackpool hotels for a Midlands ad mag (that does not exist).
You would sit at desk at the beginning of a week and have to deciede on a feature that you was going to work on that week i.e horse's or properties abroad holidays etc.
Then you would be givern local newspapers and magazine's to get the adverts that was in them relating to your feature.
You then had to cold call the company and try to get them to place an advert with you for alot of money.
You could even offer them upto 100 words editorial.
The company only make 5000 copies per paper but you would tell the perspective company that you do say 45,000-60,000 copies just to get you to buy one.
If the person is vulnerable they then offer what seem like fantastic deals all the time untill there advertising budget is gone.
I worked at one of the papers based in derby for 2 and half months.
I have been speaking to solicitors in regards to the matter of me still not being provided with documents from JPC.
If John Rivers sees this I would be willing to have an "off the record" chat with you.
I think the whole process has be disgusting with the company .
I have made many millions from this business and will continue to do so as well as my business partners.
the newspapers are not worth the paper its printed on and we get our copies distributed by ALR in Bolton. not all our copies are picked up we have a 45% wastage every week so these get binned by ALR.
Now if you want to be in a company that just makes money you should pop into one our offices for a job but if its a carrer your looking for your better off applying to the real press
JR
I am one of the unfortunate people who worked for the JPC. I was based at the big office in Derby, and my title was 'journalist'... although to be honest, it's nothing like journalism.
The office was split into five parts - four different 'newspapers' and the universal journalist. The four different newspapers - including Midland Review, Newcastle Times and god knows what else - had salespeople and an 'editor'. The salespeople rang up different companies, got them to pay ridiculous amounts of money for an advert, and then they came over to me - the journalist - and I had to write a copy for the advert.
However, the 'copy' was a press release I just had to type up onto a computer. That was all I did.
I also had to go out and buy newspapers and magazines for the 'editors' to look through so they could steal adverts.
There are two computers in the whole office, which isn't much for a 'newsroom'.
And a readership of 15,000 is pathetic - they don't even print 5,000 papers!
Also, there were about three huge folders of complaints to get through every week.
I'm shocked that JPC is still going. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
Just caught up on the blog due to lack of free time. I would be very interested in speaking to the gentleman below, please supply me with an e-mail address.
Thank You
coventryboy at 1st May 2007, 11:22PM
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