Click the play button on the video window to the see the storyMike Steere of Phoenix needed a job, so he jumped at an ad in the newspaper pushing management positions and offering $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
Steere was excited.
"I get a set of keys to my own office, my own staff and personnel," Steere said.
But as he spent days in training at National Management's Phoenix offices, Steere said it became clear to him the real focus was on selling perfume on the street.
ABC15 talked to several other people who answered a similar ad from a different company, Innovative Management in Tempe.
Those people said management positions were also a big part of the ad and they were told they could be their own boss and get keys to their own office.
After weeks and months though, they said, they never saw anyone get a management position.
Instead, they claim they were stuck in "training" mode, selling perfume in parking lots out of the trunks of their cars.
It's something a former Innovative Management receptionist said she was told not to tell anyone.
All of the Innovative "trainees" to whom ABC15 talked said they quit in frustration.
Innovative Management has since closed its offices in Tempe.
Both Innovative Management and National Management sold Parfum du Monde, a perfume bottle with a designer name on the top of the box above the words "promotional tester."
The trainees said the people at Innovative Management told the "trainees" the fragrances were the real designer perfumes but in different bottles.
We heard National Management sellers using the same words when we walked up to them as potential customers in North Phoenix recently.
Dan Chasin, who runs National Management in Phoenix, said he has nothing to hide and agreed to sit down with us to answer questions.
When asked if the perfumes were the real designer fragrance, Chasin said no and that they shouldn't be sold that way.
Chasin said he will make sure his sellers don't misrepresent the product.
He calls them "renditions," but also called them "knockoffs."
Chasin said he's not connected with Innovative Management, though both businesses sold perfumes made by a company named "World Perfume."
There are dozens of complaints about other businesses nationwide who sold World Perfume the same way.
Those complaints also allege the businesses used management jobs as lures for low paying perfume selling jobs.
Chasin said National Management, open for three months in Phoenix, is different and that he didn't promise salaries like $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
When shown the National Management ads on Craigslist promising those salaries, Chasin said he thought we meant his newspaper ads.
The ads seem to be effective.
We watched as dozens of people walked in and out of National Management offices.
Chasin said they are all "training."
Chasin said he has no paid sales people, and that his "trainees" are independent contractors selling the perfumes for $30 to $40 a bottle and working, on commission, towards a managerial position.
ABC15 asked Chasin how many people he brings in actually become managers and get keys to an office.
Chasin replied that it depends on the person, but he admitted that none have become managers yet.
He said he has two people who are close.
The National Management "trainees" we encountered undercover told us they're excited by the prospect of selling enough perfume to become these much higher paid managers.
Steere quit after a few days.
He believes the experience is just a waste of time for people who don't have time to waste.
"You have your hopes up so high, you get so excited. Hey, I got this great job. And then you find out, no, I'm just a sucker," Steere said.
