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I dont only suspect this idiot to be an incompetent bitter ex employee, I think he is someone hired by the competition to damage our image. In fact, i think most of these messages are added by a small select few with time on their hands.

No hard working person has enough time on their hands to chat so much [***]. people who have used GDS are very happy and have developed long term bsuiness relationships with them because they do very well for them.

Stop being [removed] and go to the jobcentre to get your JSA and so something meaningful with your [***] lives.

[***]..The 100thousand club is for high end stuff, what did YOU personally advertise. IS YOUR NAME CHANNEL OR ROLLS ROYCE OR BENTLEY, I seriously doubt it!

i had enough of this [***], i want to destory this company, anyone who wants the fresh leads email me web.entrepreneur2@googlemail.com and i will email you all the information.

Try working at Yell Bristol if you really wanna uncover a scam. that place even rips off new share owners when the company floats.

Its all about creating new customers who dont excist by buying a handful (or boxful) of SIM cards..with a new phone number (that isnt recognised on the swanky and slow SAP CRM)you can create an account, create credit, buy some ads and get paid commision.

They call it "NDF day" No data found..

All of the top sales guys did this and was the only reason bristol was top sales office.

And should I mention selling new media or 118247??? We were openly allowed to increase all stats over the phone and in writing. Increasing hit rates, the amount of requests we got last month for xxx on 118.

Even with the big yellow book everyone lied about enquires, numbers, circualtion. After one year there I could handle no more scamming Joe Average the plumber...and for the record yellow pages adverts are bloody expensive when you want a single page, full color.

There are a million sales offices and companies much worse than GDS International but I guess they didnt sack you.

As much as I find this blog amusing, does anyone really care what GDS is doing? If you're an ex employee with a grudge, do something about it that actually has some real world effect. If you're a client who got screwed, you have the law on your side, so exercise your rights.

What's the point of complaining on this blog? Except of course for some of our entertainment.

I worked there for a while, made a couple of bucks, and moved on. I learned some valuable things that have helped me in my career, and forgot about the things you can't use anywhere else (not exactly standard tactics, but if you don't agree with them, leave).

There's some good people there and some bad people. No use mixing things up for the good people.

If you're going to do something about it, fine, do it, but don't slander the company on here and make it more difficult for some of the good people to succeed. They're trying to earn a living. And if the company isn't getting in any sort of trouble, how could they think they're doing something wrong.

I know guys who have had offices all over europe calling companies to tell them somebody is trying to buy their domain name of their company, offering them first refusal at the cost of hundreds of no thousands dependant upon the size of the company. A domain cost about 2 quid to register and thats it. "Leads" were sourced in exactly the same way as GDS, these guys are all very rich indeed.

So is it possible to have a multi national expanding profitable scam - absofuckinglutely. The only difference is, these guys had the good graces to not pretend what they were doind was a total scam!

you in the US or UK?

no one cares what gds do..they just a avarage publishing company..al publishers including marcus evens use such tactics..grow a dick guys, move on mann

dont you know that there are over 50 x gds staff satationed around the world in publishing companies owned by GDS? its all a scam, watch out. every publisher is an evil lying scumbag, buyer seller beware.lol

world domination. ban advertising

I don't understand why companies like GDS put so much effort into a scam when they could've just started a legit business that actually provides genuine solutions that help people, maybe they wouldn't have made so much money, but still.. What is the point??

Also, I don't get why people on this site are defending GDS saying that it is legit, absolutely ridiculous to say it is. GDS is a SCAM!!!!!!!

And other people justifying what GDS does because other media companies out there scam too.. Wake up for [***] sake, if EVERYBODY in the world went around ripping people, we would live in a very dark and horrible society, luckily that is not they way the entire world works.

GDS opitimises everything that is wrong in western society, GDS is a child of Thatcher

after seeing GDS all over the papers 2 weeks ago for sexual harassment and then finding this sight I'm sorry and embarrassed to say that I ever worked for GDS.  The company IS a lie and a scam, all they taught us to do was yell at people and bully them.  The circulation for the publications is 100% fraudulent and there are no BPA statements.  We would like and say someone from pfizer had recommended us to speak to the CEO;s we were calling on, all lies.  The only good thing about this company is being taught persistence but other than that it is a complete joke and sham and I feel sorry for any advertisers that wasted money with GDS.

If it's Jim Craven you looked up, then avoid him and anything he's selling at all costs.  

Jim was picked up by GDS in Australia as a sales associate years ago, and beat his way up the filthy ladder by selling ads in non-existent magazines.  He eventually became "CEO" of the company.

He had numerous lawsuits against him and was eventually fired.  (I know of at least four sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him in the company.)

He also lies on his linkedin profile.  It says he attended "Queensland University of Technology".  He did not.  He's never attended college.  

He's very good at lying and very comfortable doing it.  He's made a [***]-ton of money doing it and he seems convinced he can do it again by building up his own [***] company.  

AVOID HYBRID NEWS LIMITED.  HYBRID NEWS LIMITED is a scam.

http://www.hybridnews.org/ - scam

If you want to fix the companies reputation, STOP LYING TO PEOPLE, STOP THE BAIT AND SWITCH TACTICS, STOP MISREPRESENTING YOURSELVES, AND STOP MISUSING PEOPLE'S NAMES... pretty simple. Once you stop that, people will stop complaining about it. Fix you ethics and the reputation will fix itself...easy

Actually, this hybrid news thing (asiancorrespondent.com) is an interesting idea. I'm by no means a fan of Jim (we just don't see eye to eye on a lot of things), but hat's off. Interesting concept, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

In regards to whether or not its a scam. Having a public facing website, it's difficult to hide who's seeing the site or who the audience is. Traffic numbers are easy to get. So I don't see it.

Seems to me, he has built something new, and if it draws enough attention, ad sales could be significant.

I think old Jim may have started something legitimate here. Hats off big guy

I understand you bashing GDS (we all know what it is) but it's a bit ignorant to bash something you know nothing about, at least take some time to do a bit of research..

Jim,
Thanks for responding!

I worked closely with you for several years.  I happen to know that you're in no way capable of doing anything legitimate.  

Updating your linked in account so that your education isn't a baldfaced lie, might do something to prove that you're no longer interested in getting to the top by lying.  
That said, it would do something, but not much.

This is proof: one of the designers in the UK mocked up audited forms for 'proof' of distribution and they (the mock ups) would sit pride of place on Spencer's and (before he was fired) Jim's desk in Bristol. I saw them when I went on a visit to the office. Most impressive, I must say.

Just ask Harlan and he will tell you. He is the Head Editor now over in Bristol. The recruitment video will give you names of people in the company who are all also lying http://www.gdsinternational.com/careers/

Sure, you can earn good dollars there, but it isn't a legit place. It's a self sufficient company who produce publications for their own gain. There aren't any patnerships with WHO, EU, US Government and most of the cover stories are written by the editors in Bristol. It's simply, each publication campaign that makes $400,000, makes a $200,000 profit once you deduct sales commissions, phone bill and then printing 100 copies of the mag!

I now work in the print industry in New York and to produce 100,000 copies of a high quality, glossy mag (like the 100 TC) will cost approx. $125,000. This includes set up costs, running the mag and proofing, etc. Plus on top of these costs you then have to distribute each copy to a named database (that database doesn't exist, btw) that will cost at least $3 per copy. 3 x 100,000 = $300,000. $105K + $300K = $405,000 in costs alone. So as you can see, they do not print or distribute the mags they claim they do.

Thank you, your Honor. No further questions.

Enough y'all. We know what GDS is, how it makes its money and how it employs and treats people. One way or the other, anyone who had dealings with them, either as an employee or on the receiving end soon comes to realise this. Bring back the good old days of Ian Tracey getting pissed on the bus on the way to work and Janey who is apparently doing very well in mining in Australia.

I know someone who is currently working there.  what can they do to help.  email me at brutusstrikesback@gmail.com

It's funny reading this and then remembering the girl who got fired because she tried to rewrite the pitch so it didn't have any lies in it...

If you want to root out the bad business practices.. start with rewriting the pitch, which is identical for every publication, every event...

GDS sales people are taught to "tailor" the pitch to the company they are calling at that moment ie. insert relevant analysts here, insert relevant circulation here (companies and job titles), insert relevant content here...

In fact, many times they will call lower level execs in the company to get this information prior to calling the boss

The pitch seems to good to be true because it is, it's always unique to the specific prospect. Many sales people when describing what article the prospects advert will be positioned with, will read directly off the prospects website for content

In order to get through to the "boss" they say they were referred to them by a top analyst or executive from an accredited organization. Or that they were recommended to speak to them from a specific executive or organization.

In reality, a person is given a "section" which is a sepcific area of technology. They will then go to vendor lists, trade shows, etc, and print out the website of every company on that list and then begin to blindly cold call all of them.

No content, contributors, etc are secured until after all vendors have been booked. Then they tailor the content to the vendors. Publications are distributed to sponsors. In regards to the one publication that is BPA audited, the publication is sent randomly to execs.. none subscribes, none requests it, it shows up in their office and they never read it...

Also, their webstats and inquiries generated for clients are off a list they purchase. Someone in biz dev is charged with assiging names and job titles with the most relevant vendors. So if you are a Businness Intelligence vendor, you will receive the identical "leads" as all the other Business Intelligence vendors in the publication

Everything is fabricated...

And no, current GDS employees, this isn't the way things should be done or are done at any respectable company. It's a sham

It is a lie, no matter how you slice it

As this post was deleted along with many of the others, if you are serious about making complaints, and want to make them anonomously then this is the best place to report factual information.

www.crimestoppers.co.uk  Include factual information about business practices in the 'anything else we need to know' box. Include the names of as many current senior employees as possible, money that is involved, information on the consistent drug dealing and drug abuse that go's on.

Keep in factual, non racial or slanderous