Did I make the right call here:

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I went out yesterday to an "open interview" to get a job selling health products over the phone. I walk in and the person shakes my hand(as an aside, I HATE that gesture) and asks me about what sales experience I have. I tell him and he hires me on the spot. But he doesn't ask for a resume, or a phone number. He just tells me to be there tomorrow to get started. Then he hands me the compensation schedule. The $11/hour(which I understand is pathetic but I'll take what I can get in a city with 14% unemployment) is only if I make a certain amount of sales. This is a huge red flag for me because the ad had said this was the base pay. So, if I don't achieve this minimum, I'll be getting $8.65/hour. Which again isn't that bad but the job is part time. I can't pay my bills on that. But I agree to start tuesday and go home. Then I decide to investigate the company. Turns out that the business was incorporated only 2 months ago, and what they're selling isn't FDA approved, or even regulated at all. And while I was waiting I heard the sales reps making claims about the product I know are not only not true, but were all but certainly illegal. I made the decision that I was going to let this one go because I just couldn't get over the fact that they were selling something that might be illegal, and they were using deceptive marketing to do it. So I have a moral victory. But I'm still unemployed. Did I make the right call on this one?

It will be closed down quickly probably, not necessarily because what they are selling isn't regulated. Certain herbs and such don't require FDA approval and usually only captures the attention of the FDA when people start dying or getting sick from it. But it will likely be closed down because phone sales are a really poor way to market a product in the US these days. Most people are on the do not call list or don't have a land line at all and many forms of telemarketing calls are illegal to make to cell phones. Violators are fined heavily by the FCC.

Other warning signs that this company is a bunch of B.S. is that he didn't want a resume, or didn't look at it anyway. They just someone, anyone, who will make the calls for them.

Given my history with jobs, I jokingly say that I would never work for anyone who would have me as an employee.

This is a sh***y economy. Getting ANY job SHOULD be a struggle for ANYONE.

That you were hired with no reference check is a valid red flag. Anyone that would hire anyone on the spot (absent needing a body right that moment...like a day laborer) without scrutiny is likely unable to get people who look closer at what is going on before accepting the job.

You could have kept the job, sold the product, and if done well, gotten a good paycheck, but you'd have to live with how you felt over that.

Of course, you might have had a hassle getting paid. So, work for nothing?

I remember YEARS ago I took a telemarketing job for some company in Florida. They were basically running a sweat-shop operation. What made me not come back the second day?

1. My time card said that if I was "late" I could lose my pay for the whole day.

2. My time card said that if I missed a whole day, I would forfeit my week's check.

I wasn't savvy about Florida labor laws, but that they wanted to dock a day's pay for being late struck me as very unethical. As an hourly employee, you are paid for the time you are there. Docking an hour as a punitive measure is one thing...the whole day...that's just wrong.

You might come across those street salespersons hawking perfume. I got sucked into that. Yeah, you could make money if you were good at sales. I told them I was not. It was billed as a "management trainee" job. They promised to work closely with me. They never did. In less than a week they admitted that it was all about selling. I walked away. As an "independent contractor," I only got commission. I didn't have much, but they never paid me what I was owed. They had a license to sell the product as street vendors in the city they were based. Most all sales were made by people going on "road trips" out of town...selling where they held no license. When someone came back from one of the road trips and commented that if they saw a cop they had to run, that was a huge warning sign to walk away.

I had a similar experience. I was checking out a customer service job which turned out to actually be sales. It would schedule people to go places and sell their product which happened to be an air purifier thingy.

Long pitch promoting the company. Offered the job and I'd never even seen the product I was supposed to sell. It all seemed way to similar to being a door to door Kirby Vacuum salesmen which amazingly is still common. Something about this also smelled like Amway.

I told the guy I didn't know enough about the job to make a fair judgment so by default I had to turn it down. He said I had to sign up to start training so I could learn more about the job.

No thanks.

Yes, sounds dodgy. Are they so desperate as they can't keep staff and they keep walking out-if so is it because they are a bad employer? I would guess so.