212-920-8181

Kim is great and did a ton of sales and was always very nice

GDS Publishing, GDS International is A SCAM.  

New York District Attorneys Office at 212-335-8900 the case number to complain is 22287. They are launching a investigation into GDS International. You have to give your name and number, but it stays completely anonymous.

Case number to complain is #22287

I was duped into advertising with gds. I dont know what i was thinking but the guy was just so convincing at the time, the media kit and website was very impressive and after speaking with the guys director I got a great deal. The leads I was promised were non existant. The online information was just rubbish, it was basic data capture software that said someone had looked at my article, big deal, all rubbish and all lies, cost alot of money and delivered nothing. Spend your money by ramping up your google spend instead, ore value, better results, actual enquiries!

Steer Clear

The same thing is happening in the UK, GDS are in the process of being investigated by the Companies Investigation Branch. They also need people to come forward with there stories of GDS and provide evidence etc. Call them on +44 (0) 2075966100

You can call the UK number, or do it online via this link:

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/cib/index.htm

It doesn't take long.

Check this out:

http://twitpic.com/ekroo

Looks like their social networking site is not quite telling the truth either...

Ha!  That will totally destroy any cred that meettheboss had (if any).

Yeah, the problem with GDS in general is that they move unqualified sales staff into nearly every other position, from HR, to editorial, heck even the CEO.  While it seems idealistic and lovely that anyone in the company could move into any position, the fact at GDS is that these people are not given any training and most of them haven't a clue what they're actual position is supposed to entail.

Meettheboss.com is a perfect example of this.  I'm certain at least half of the folks running the show are sales staff.  Not only is the "[insert random number]" tech glitch ridiculous but the typos are also inexcusable.  Who the hell is proof reading their stuff?

Yes I worked for GDS in the past.  When I first went into that office I loved the atmosphere it was very lively. No more then a month after starting work I realized it was not a 9-5 business hour job.  I had a day that lasted from 8:30 in the morning to 8:30 at night, and since no one sold anything our sales director said we had to be in work and on our phones by 6:00 A.M the next morning.  Not to mention that if you possess individualism at this company and show you had a brain bigger than a peanut, they fire you.  Pretty much this job was just like boot camp mentally, they broke all employees down to think the same.  I couldn't do the job anymore talking to repeated people on the phone who tell you they just fired someone because the economy is so bad yet they will put 20K towards an advertisement with GDS because they think it will help.  It doesn't, the mags go no where and the leadership of the company is just as bad.  I think the company if it was true to its word would be great, but they teach tools on how to lie and sneak around secretaries, why should you have to do that if your product is as could as GDS makes it out to be? Stay clear of GDS they will take your money once and call you every quarter to get you to resign.

This is the funniest thing I have seen for a while. I worked at GDS for over a year a few years ago whilst a guy called amir (is he still there?) was in charge and I thought it was a great place to work.
All this has come as a surprise as I always thought that publications were distributed, even though sales tactics were sometimes aggressive, but that's sales.... I am interested to see what happens, although I dont believe the DA's office willl get involved.

you're an idiot

why? Do you have solid proof that the pubs are not distributed?

WITH THE FBI:

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/internetschemes.htm

Instructions
Internet and Telephone Fraud
Step
1
Gather as much information about the company as possible. Some of the information that will be helpful include the name of the business, any contact information for the business, what transpired, the name of the person with whom you spoke, the product you purchased, the purchase price and the method of payment.

Step
2
Visit the National Fraud Information Center (NFIC) Web site and complete their fraud report form. If you do not wish to submit the report online, you can also mail a fraud report to them. Call them at (202) 835-0618 if you are a law enforcement officer wanting to report fraud to the NFIC.

Step
3
Report Internet crime to the FBI by visiting the Internet Crime Complaint Center Web site at www.ic3.gov/default.aspx and completing the online form.

Brick and Mortar Fraud
Step
1
Contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to report fraud that occurred from a company that has a physical address. This should be the BBB in the city and state in which the company is located, not the BBB where you are located.

Step
2
Report the fraud to your state attorney general's office.

Step
3
Visit the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Web site to report fraudulent activity via their electronic "Complaint Assistant" form. When you complete the form, the information also will be transmitted to the FBI.

Step
4
Report the fraud to your creditor or banking institution if you utilized your credit card or checking account to pay for goods or services. By reporting the fraud immediately, you may be entitled to recover some or all of your money.

Great, you have done your research on reporting fraud, but you have not answered my question which is, "how do you know that GDS do not distribute their magazines?"

Apparently you worked there for a year.  If within that time you did not get any indication that the company that employed you was far from reputable then you must be pretty [***] slow.  

Did you not think it was strange how you could say anything it took to get a deal, how you were selling a report based on the fact that it was going to a specifically targeted circulation, yet you had 5 other colleagues each selling on the same title whose media kits included completely different audiences and content to your own.

If you were able to let the fraud that you were a part of pass you by then good on you.  Doesn't take away from the fact that you spent a year of your life conning people.

It was common knowledge that the mags were not distributed back in my day.  It wasn't made clear to us in training but anybody who spent any period of time working for that organisation knew full well what they were doing.

PS normal publishers do not pay rates of 17.5% commission to salespeople for producing licensed government reports.  The WHO, UN, FSA and European Union do not employ a publishing house to create reports to inform recipients about vast amounts of funding which is being injected into their business sectors.  Most employers do not make you stand for 8 hours a day and instruct you to yell down the phone.  Most employers don't turn a blind eye to sexual harrassment / discrimination and borderline rape cases.  Most employers do not pay their staff additional bonuses by chucking an eighth of coke onto their desks on Friday afternoon. GDS however do!!

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.

This is MUCH simpler than that. In fact, I am quite surprised I never heard this objection.

Slutty dressed 22 year old in headset: "[insert title here] is courier delivered to 80,000 c-level executives..."

Now considering GDSers are ONLY allowed to pitch c-level guys, why haven't they ever heard of this publication or pf GDS?  Out of their "40 plus publications and events" no one knows them. Fail.

I think you will find if you print in China or India your bill may be a little less than 405K!!

Can see why you never made it in publishing and are bitter.

I wish i saw this thread before i got a job at gds.  Although i wasn't there for very long, i knew that if i made a career there my soul would gradually be sucked down into a vortex where i would be nothing more than a decadent, morally decayed swindler.  I feel that if anyone there has a conscious they should really reexamine what they are doing.  The whole operation of GDS is nothing more then a clever, sophisticated and complex way of chiseling people out of there money.That is pretty much the bottom line.  Anyone who does not know this is simply a pawn of there game.  The unfortunate thing is that GDS can get away with it because they are headquartered in the UK and are not subjected in US laws or NY state laws.  So write complaints to the DA all you want but they probably are not going to do anything because the reason cited above and prob more that we are not aware of.  

It is true that most of the people there are naive 21-25 year old dupes who GDS prey by posting glossy ads on careerbuilder, monster and other job posting websites with there emphasis on no experience and amazing commission payouts and a respectable base salary.  You walk in there and a charming, energetic and a fast talking man named Owen Wilson gives you the run down of the glory of GDS and how there are no politics here and you can be promoted in a year and will be making over $100,000 a year.  You think to yourself. "Wow, what an amazing opportunity this is and you gleam at the idea that you may have found the job that you were born to do.  You then get the job (with a job offer sent to you by e-mail btw) and start training with a group of people.  The training lasts a week and Mr Owen Wilson lays out the map for success in the company.  You learn the GDS way of selling. Tactics that must be employed to pitch to c-level executives ( or if you were trained to be part of events, CEO's, how to deceive secretary's but more important how to deceive the prospect.  The pitch that you are supplied with is is 3 pages long and takes almost 10 mins to finish.  The pitch is filled with misleading statements aboout how they were recommended to GDS from some important CIO who the prosepect is supposed to know.  You walk out to the floor and start reading out loud, feeling like an idiot, like the way you feel when you are rushing for initiation in to a fraternity.  But once you reach the second phase of GDS and officialy  get hired, you find yourself on the phones, actually doing the selling and slowly and surly descend into a fools paradise where most of the girls are heartless [removed:lang] and most of the guys are [removed:lang].

I turned out to be that person.  I was that 25 year old kid who got duped into the GDS way of life.  As the days went by i started to realize what exactly i was doing and how alot of my coworkers were some of the worst people you wish that you would never have to encounter but you did.  Of course there are some good genuine people i met there and who are still prob there although i never kept in contact with anyone.  They are there with good intentions but and prob know too in what they are doing but i can only speculate that they are there and pretending that they are not doing anything immoral and brush it away.  The money is there and there is potential to make alot of it if you are 100% committed to this fraud. The only thing i can say is that all the dollars in the world cant buy back in what you truly have lost by working at gds.  I have a better job now although the money isnt that great or anything, i am happy being there and doing something that is legit.  As i look back at that experience i learned something about the nature of business. It is something i will take with me for the rest of my life and i see it all over the world and it is a pratice especially true in downtown Manhattan, and the core of it all in wall street.  The thing that i have learned is a lot of companies can make more money by selling you nothing that you didn't ask for then by selling you something that you really need.

GDS makes you money by selling you nothing but a glimpse of your ignorance for taking the bait and believing the hype.

Buyer and Seller beware