-Highly deceptive recruiting tactics. They used a 3rd party vendor to assist in recruiting me. When I tell you that they suggested I could make almost double what I made at my previous job in my first year, I'm not exaggerating. Here is some text cut directly from my offer email: "-Base salary OFFERED 50K base (55K based on overtime earnings + commission plans = $75K+ yearly if not more + full-time benefits– you may even be earning double this amount depending on how well you do! XXX [cannot disclose name because of community guidelines], projects you to make 15-20K in commission on top of your base salary. This will amount to $75,000 at least in your first year." Of course, when I asked how busy the district was they told me it was very busy and that double was realistic. I made it clear in my interviews with Bowlero management and Adecco that I needed to realistically make $75,000 in my first year in order to maintain my income. It was a lateral move for me, not vertical, but I was okay with that as long as the income was what they promised. Well, I was in for a nasty surprise. I would have been lucky if I made $60,000 in my first year. This experience nearly financially ruined me. It will take about a year to recover.
-Commissions: The system is set up so that the team members that are there the longest get the lion's share of accounts. Here is how it works: When a person from a company submits a request or calls, you have to enter their information into the CRM. Once you do that, your name is FOREVER on that account. So, if the person calls later and books with you, but you learn that the account belongs to another team member, you MUST give up that event. My manager) made the most money because she was there for 8 years. I had to work for scraps, and I got the impression from my colleagues that they felt the same way. That being said, after selling nearly $250,000 in 6 months, I was lucky if I made $2,000-$2,500 in commission. To make matters worse, its not like you will have time to perform business development in a meaningful way because you have to manually enter in the sales numbers daily, pick up additional responsibilities because your team is too small, and attend useless networking events.
-Retention: My manager struggled to retain employees. Within my first 2 months, 3 team members submitted their notice. Shortly after I left, another new team member left. That is 5 team members within 8 months. This is in part due to money and in part due to poor leadership on the part of the manager who, to her credit, was a great salesperson, but not a great leader. She struggles to motivate the team, lacked empathy, and provided 0 development in any way to the team. I was the most excited to learn from her, but the experience was disappointing.
-READ THE FINE PRINT: It doesn't matter what Bowlero or their vendors promised you. If you leave within your first 9 months because you are struggling financially or because you are not happy with the lies they have told you, they WILL garnish your wages or sue you for their training expenses.
