Six grand is probably how much they charge for a page of advertising…I’m guessing your caller was pitching an “advertortial”.
Hamish

Public Service Review: Science and Technology is a groundbreaking publication considering the major science questions facing the public sector.
http://network.nature.com/groups/ukpolicy/forum/topics/3084
http://www.publicserviceevents.co.uk/event/programme.asp?ID=151
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/pub_selectissue.asp?publication=Science%20and%20Technology
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/testimonials.asp?page=1

This is definitely a scam. Stay well clear of these people if they call you. They will probably say they’re from Public Service or publicservice.co.uk. I’ve had at least 3 phone calls from these people during the last 12 months suggesting there were great opportunities at conferences they were organising and that I could speak to 200+ delegates – all key decision makers in the business sector I work within. Usually speakers are paid something or at least have their expenses covered. Not in this case as they wanted me to pay them £14,000 for the privilege! Stay well clear of this scam.

Just had exactly the same experience asking me for a last minute article. Very random conversation about my research and how they could get me ‘in front’ of relevant public sector organisations. Luckily I came across your blog while googling them during the phonecall and asked about the cost – at which point I got an aggressive hard sell and ‘amazement’ I wasn’t able to authorise such a cost from uni budgets! So not a scam as such, but a thinly veiled advertising sell.

A bunch of scammers for sure.
I’m sick to the back teeth of asking this company to take us off their calling list. Still they call.

I can offer a few useful insights on this thread, having (regrettably) worked at PSCA International for a few months last year.
Their approach is built around making you feel that there is a sense of urgency about the decision to pay for an article. Of course, there is no meeting going on and in fact they don’t work with all the people they claim to – most of their edit is reproduced from publically available materials. They suggest that you have been recommended by a civil servant or representative body but that is untrue and the truth is that any phone call you receive is made from a call centre full of salespeople who make hundreds of these calls every week. They would call it ‘salesmanship’; I would call it lying.
The truth is that most folk in government can’t stand PSCA and most senior politicians are wise enough to them to refuse any requests made to them.
PSCA have started calling themselves ‘Public Service’ because the PSCA name is so toxic. This despite the DTI telling them to change their name years ago (when they launched they called themselves ‘Public Service Communication Agency’) and they are quite happy to allow people to believe that they are affiliated with government, when in actual fact they operate from rented accomodation in Stoke in Trent.
Zarine Bedford – who posted a comment in their defence – is one of their sales managers.
Much of their focus is now on targeting universities and research institutes who, unlike privately run companies, haven’t been battered to death by them and are not wise to their modus operandi.
Hopefully blogs like this one will start to raise awareness within the academic community about PSCA and I would urge people to send information to their colleagues alerting them to this organisation.
If you google ‘psca complaint’ you will find a lot more, including an admonishment from the Advertising Standards Authority.

Worth a read if you have time.
Avoid like the plague.
Matt
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01618327387

Had the same call today. Also a sudden opportunity because of a last minute change in editorial.
We had to decide on the spot. It was all so fake, so slimey. I checked with another part of our company and they said “steer clear!”, not that I needed much encouragement to do so.

They just called us, a company in Holland (!), and the lady is pretty persistent and even making up stories to get through to the person she thinks is control of the money to spend on whatever she’s selling. She already harrassed several people in our office, we gonna put out a word to collegue companies to make sure this lady (Melody) and her weird company (who sells his stuff like this!!!) does not get anywhere in her time-consuming but easily seen through phonecalls.

They’re expanding their target area – now they’re calling Germany, where few have heard of them, acting utterly shocked when you tell them no one is interested. The amount they wanted for publication was somewhere in the range of 9,000 euros.
This is not how reputable journals do business.

Just got this call, but thanks to Google and this page, I was able to suss things out while he was still doing his spiel. Thus, I was able to ask him “When are you going to mention the £6000 fee?”, which certainly seemed to throw him! I then said no, goodbye, and hung up.

I am so sick of this bunch of scammers contacting us every month (I have even tried being rude) that I am now on the brink of filing a police report. They are bare faced liars and I tired of their ridiculous montly scam calls that I have been receiving for over two years now.

On a related note:
Does anyone else keep getting invitations to publish on topics far from their field of work in a journal from the “Bentham Publishing Group” ?
The invitation always starts with how I am such an expert in “insert field of research here”, and how my contribution to “insert journal name here” would be most welcome. I have no idea what their business model is, but as they publish on every topic under the sun I would not be shocked if a page charge was levied.
BTW You cant delete yourself from their mailing list, so if anyone has a trick to stop them spamming I would be most grateful !!!

“Public Service” keeps annoying my institute, too (Berlin, Germany). Same tricks, same lies, over and over again.
Once, there was an approach by electronic mail, even offering article space free of charge. But it came from the same company / gang. This is the letter:
“By means of introduction my name is Laura Evans and I am the commissioning editor for Public Service Review: The Science & Technology Review, an independent publication looking at issues within the sector.
For the next edition I would like to invite a relevant expert from WZB to write a short article looking at the importance of social research in the development of scientific knowledge and what we can learn from social research. How important is it to share research knowledge with other countries and organisations to help further develop science? What role does social integration research play within science and society?
The article could be around 1000 words and the deadline would be 3rd August 2009. I must stress that there is no charge for the article and my email is based purely on my own journalistic endeavour.
Contributors to this edition include:
– Michel Jarroud, Secretary General, World Meteorological Organisation
– Professor Katherine Richardson, Chair of the Copenhagen Summit Scientific Steering Committee
– Lord Martin Rees, President, Royal Society
– Lord Paul Drayson, Minister for Science
– Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish Minister for the Environment
– Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment
– Iain Mattaj, Director General, EMBL
– Jane Goodall
If you could get back to me and let me know your thoughts as soon as possible that would be very much appreciated.
Best wishes
Laura Evans
Commissioning Editor”

Had no idea who these people/ organisation were when they called me last week.
All the same story as all the others reported, and with the same excuses (“came out of a meeting …”)
They had only partial knowledge of the type of work that I am doing (Neuro-Oncology) and were very vague regarding the target audience of their “publication”.
I mentioned that 6k are excessive and I said that i would need approval from my dean or a senior administrator to publish two pages for £6k and that our institution would need some time to do background checks on their company as we have no idea about their credentials. Suddenly the caller became very stroppy and terminated the call very soon.

I wish I’d heard of them before they called: they have just taken an hour and a half of my life away. The sales technique is quite smart though since they start off by behaving like journalists looking for background on a story. It was only when he mentioned that they had two pages left and they obviously expected me to write it that I thought there might be a demand for money coming, as indeed there was. I got transferred up the line to someone in charge who got quite snotty when it became clear I wasn’t in the market.

I have had the same approach, but had recently had a similar approach from something along the same lines, so was warned off. Take heed…..

I was just called by Public Service Review, with some very unclear introduction about a report that they are writing for the EU commission. I think they simply call everyone up who recently got an EU grant (that information is public – I received an ERC Starting Grant this year).
It happened to me also a few months ago that they called because they were writing a report for the Swedish science council (right!). We e-mailed forward and back a few times and even had a phone call before the little mention of the enormous fee came up!
This time I had a long discussion with the lady on the phone about their sales methods, but she insisted that her editor had chosen me out for a reason.
What a scam! I can’t believe that it is legal. But maybe it is not.
The worst part is that it will make me more suspicious in the future about interviews, so it may be that next time a reporter calls I will immediately ask “How much will it cost me? Is this a scam?”.

Now also operating in Denmark. Same story as all the others above.
Keep away from them!

[redacted] chancers. We [they? -ed.] are paid to professionally harass people. They give tickets away when they can’t sell enough for a conference. They treat their staff like shit, they are paid weekly what does that tell you? They employ the unemployable and sack them after a few weeks.
STAY WELL AWAY. CHARLATANS.

I had the same call on November 30th, 2011. I am in Italy. Same story as described in the other comments. 9,000€ for two pages in the magazine, quickly reduced to 4,500€. They certainly got my name looking at lists of people receiving funding by the EC.

Same call here. I recognised the patter from a group who used to do exactly the same a few years ago in respect of an advertorial magazine sent to MPs. Always urgent, evasive on requests for a rate card, get aggressive and attempt to belittle you when you ask questions.

Same story. Mr Thomson from Public Service Review just called me to offer an opportunity to write 2 pages about genetic research in Brussels, Belgium. 9000 euros – but money should absolutely not be the limiting issue, so we can cut a deal like 4500 euros. All that after a fantastic story of lost iphone, failing internet connection and on-going meeting to go back to so not able to contact me earlier and my answer needed now on the spot. Then amazed that as a head of dept I do not have 9000 euros immediately available to allow me reaching decision makers in granting organizations. It cost me 20 minutes and feeling stupid not to realize sooner what kind of personI was dealing with.

They’re doing the same thing with a ‘must attend’ conference – but £6,000 is peanuts for this – they start at £15,000 for the conference. I had some time to spare today so I let them string me along for a while but had to put the phone down on the girl in the end, having told her several times that she’d better get to the point, let me know WHAT she was selling and what it would cost … It wasted about half an hour but I needed a break from work! 🙂
I’m surprised to hear that, judging from the comments above, the events actually run at all! They did let slip that ‘one was cancelled last year because we couldn’t find enough’ or whatever. I thought perhaps they were all mysteriously cancelled at the last minute.

Just the same experience from this company – offered that our EU project has been chosen from the EU officials as the only one from Finland to be in their coming publication dealing with the new EU 2020 program.
She refused to send more information by email – said that they had to get my decision (1 page for 3000 €) just now because the EU officials were in video conferencing with them and need the decision …
They were also referring to the Finnish funding agency Tekes that they are in this publication too and we have to be with also because we get funding from them and EU…
I told that we make any decisions concerning project dissemination and publishing in the Media by one agressive phone call.. she was complaining that she don’t understand why I can’t make the decision – said that all others in similar position had said yes…finally my phone battery was empty.
Took 26 minutes of my working time..
Advice to others: NEVER make ANY decisions so that you are ordered to act IMMEDIATELLY.

Be aware that these guys are still at it. Hard selling advertising space which immediately follows high profile articles. Immediate decision required. I was hit this morning.
They must be so disorganised… sourcing contributions at the last minute… being permanently between offices with no laptop (so could not email me details for consideration slower time)… needing to have a quick chat with the editor-in-chief to give a discount. Not difficult to see through the charade.
For all I know the magazine might well get the circulation and attention described… but the sales technique is an instant turn-off.
In the end the guy put the phone down on me. I’ve seen better sales pitches from double glazing salesmen.

I had the same experience but declined their invitation after reading this webpage. I also contacted one of the people they claimed was writing an opinion piece to discover that he had no knowledge of the journal.

These people are complete scammers. They use high pressure sales techniques to try and get you to buy something. At first there is a lot of guff about vague generalities but when it comes down to it they want you to buy space in magazines etc. Total bullshit. Nasty people. AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!

They are still continuing. I got the call yesterday, with exact similar procedure. Editorial meeting and immediate decisions required.

Same drill!
That’s 45 minutes of my life I wont get back! What a scam, I thought something was fishy when he just wouldn’t get to the point of the call and then suddenly BOOM!
“you’ve got 15 minutes to pay or you’ll lose it blah blah blah!”
Crooks, simple as.
submitted it to watchdog, companies like this give telemarketing a bad name. Heres the link if anyone else wnats to share their views:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

A TIP:
If you got already yourself into the position of signing the contract, the company actually has a “terms and conditions” section (accessible in their front page), which allows you to cancel the order within 7 days. Point 9 (a) on on this page http://www.publicservice.co.uk/pdf/pubservrev%20client%20pro%20order.pdf
(They will contact you in 9 days, if you haven’t cancelled it already.. experience talks.)

It is not a scam in the sense that they do not deliver. In fact, they make sure that a legal case against them will fail, by building up a file of the interactions and the copies of documents and web sites generated. It is a scam in the sense that it is highly overpriced, even after negotiating half of the initial price. It is also a scam in the sense that they will get back at you for other things such as Will’s story: being asked to produce an editorial article etc. After my asking who would be paying whom for what, the phone was disconnected, quite suddenly. From that kind of money, they obviously can hire many people: three phone voices, three mail people. Notice the ‘our internet connection is down unfortunately but…’ in the first attempt. I did a quick scan on Google at the call but their English is so English that spelling the right key words becomes a problem. Way to go Brits, make yourselves popular in Europe.

I have literally been getting a call from someone from publicservice.co.uk every week for the past three years.
I have asked to be taken off their calling list and called them back to complain to a manager all without effect. It’s my experience that they are without exception into the hard sales approach and do not think twice about using rude or intimidating language when they realize that you are not interested.
Nowadays I tell them straight off that it’s our company policy to not put through calls from publicservice.co.uk because of their unproffessional approach in the past. It’s the only way I can get them to hang up quickly without wasting too much of my time.

Here’s some more on them – http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01782630200/2

Now they call German universities with their bullshit. Just received a call from the UK under phone number +441315531100 at about 6 pm. Some unstoppable lady speaking for several minutes, same style as described above: last minute editorial meeting, wanting effectively to sell me two pages in a publication, explained that other authors were ministers, EU commissioners, some national lab departmental directors, blablabla. I asked them to detail their request in an email, but that was denied since everything was very urgent, and unfortunately they could not send email. But they could show me their publication online under http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=6Ld01k5NF0x8&EID=b617f8a8-9d34-4a6c-a2bc-c3cd4e095d8f&skip=
However, their business does not seem to be running very well these days, I was offered the useless double page article for the bargain price of 1000 Euros. After 10 minutes, I had enough. I told her, as an ordinary professor with a small group, I was not playing in the same league as the other guys mentioned, so I would definitely not make a good addition to their publication and suggested to contact more important guys at our university. Such lack of vanity stunned her completely and make her end the call.

These guys keep calling me. Usually I manage to politely decline quite quickly (I prefer to avoid being rude). However, Paul McBrae from Public Service Review took this to a new level of aggression yesterday – even accusing me of not wanting to be open with my research, and going against RCUK requirements of open access, because I wouldn’t pay him £6k. He then started ranting about me not being important enough, not wanting to get my research out to the key decision-makers, and accused me of lying when I said that our department do not get sent the publication (I since double checked and we do not). It was quite amusing when he got wound up when I suggested it was a magazine: “No! It’s a Review, perfect bound, silk…

I don’t know if it’s the same company but I have attended quite a few of their events and they have always been well organised with good speakers.

This company has called me today and the lady on the phone made up this story of needing an editorial at very short notice. And of course costs would be involved. When I explained to her that this is nonsense she did become quite unpleasant and cut the conversation.
Complete waste of time and I hope that nobody falls for their sales ploy.

Just got one of these call here in Denmark. By giving you accurate information about your funding sources, the caller does well to establish a legitimate premise. But the conversation appears too well rehearsed and the information to support the need for urgency seems too detailed. Some of the details were specious (internet down and no email, conference call pending, etc.) In addition, the name the caller provided was surprisingly similar to my first and middle names. Don’t let them waste your time.

Had the same call in Australia yesterday. Exaclty the same scenerio, long discussion (80 mins), imortant decision, $8500 (which was quickly dropped to $5000), yes, for 2 pages. I was actually convinced that it was a good idea – timing seemed right. All I wanted was 1 hour to decide. But, “the editor” was adament that I make a decision “right now”, and the caller could not send an email – aparrantly a virus on her comuputer. Eventually they did send an email with the deal laid out. I quickly searched and got this thread. After replying to her with a NO and link to this site, she sent the following:
“Peter,
I have followed the link you provided and read the content of the “blog”.
May I draw your attention to the fact that it is exactly that, a “blog”, headed by the ramblings of an astrophysicist named Andrew Jaffe who has also written a blog on Elvis Costello and “the impact of sex in space”, which are neither interesting or hold any credibility at all.
I find it very difficult to understand why you would doubt the credibility of our organisation, publicservice.co.uk and our publication, the Public Service Review – Local Government when we have been producing information for the use of Government departments for 13 years and have many many editorial contributions from Government Ministers themselves, that deem the Public Service review range a credible and comprehensive tool in which to disseminate information.
The likes of Jose Manuel Barroso – President of the European Commission, Janez Potocnik – European Commissioner for Environment, John Dalli – European Commissioner for Health, Gunthe Oettinger – European Commissioner for Energy, Martin Schulz – President of European Parliament, Androulla Vassilou – European Commissioner for Education, Culture & Multi-Linguism, Andreww Stunell – DCLG and Sir Merrick Cockell – Chairman of Local Government Association, who regularly write FOR us, would not do so if our publications were NOT credible and NOT read.
Our website is abundant with information, editorials, digital publications and testimonials from contributors both public and private sector, dating back many years and to suggest that this enormous amount of content could possibly be a scam is ludicrous.
The position in the forthcoming Public Service Review – Local Government 21 has now been filled and we will oblige your request for us not to call you again.”

I worked there for years and regret it enormously. I can also vouch for all of the claims on this thread about the way a sales approach is made. The strategy is to build the enthusiasm of the potential customer by following a well honed sales structure/pitch and to force the customer into making a decision there and then. It is all about ‘urgency’ – a point sales managers will drill in to the sales teams.
They do have articles from all sorts of interesting people but, and it is a BIG but, most of these articles are reprinted and publicly available – very few are bespoke and unique to PSCA. It is also true that the last two UK governments don’t touch them with a bargepole because their underhand and highly dubious tactics are well known to people in the UK; hence their move towards phoning people in Europe where they are less well known and their change of company name to publicservice.co.uk and scienceomega.com. The stench from their previous name PSCA got so overwhelming they had to change the company name – true story. they also changed their phone numbers to try and dilute the impact of the whocallsme website, which has pages and pages of complaints about them. This is a fact – I know from the best sources that was the motivation behind their company name and phone number changes.
Some interesting facts from my experience:
1) The editor is a lady called Lisa Carnwell. She is a nice person. However, she has never closed a deal in her life, she works in a different office. The sales people invent personas and job titles to bolster their credibility and it often works. The truth is they are just young blokes with a love of money and without scruples. One guy in particular, John Warrington, puts on a funny voice and does a whole thing about being the editor and how he knows people you know, and does a thing about an imaginary secretary called Penelope. It’s very funny and charming, but utter bullshit. He is a sales person sitting at a desk in a call centre, just a very very good one. Beware!
2) They used to be called Public Service Communication Agency, but the UK Government forced them to change their name because it was so misleading.
3) They send out far fewer books than they claim, and even then no-one requests them. The circulation is non-controlled. It is known within the company that no-one reads them and they get a huge amount of requests from mail rooms to stop sending their magazines, cause they are widely perceived to be junk.
4) They stooped so low as to take money from Aids charities in Africa by lying to these charities about distribution numbers/links to government etc. When I brought this to the attention of senior management they did nothing to stop it.
5) There have been many complaints about their management style. When I was told once to go hospital straight away by my GP because he suspected I had pneumonia I rang my manager. Their response was ‘can you not go at 5pm after work?’ In that moment I knew I had to leave, and I stopped caring and my loyalty was shattered.
6) They only want to speak to Directors – they won’t deal with marketing. For them it is all about pitching someone who can make a unilateral decision on the spot. Their mantra is keep going until the customer says yes or hangs up. It’s pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch deal. A sales person needs a deal a week to be safe.
7) There are some good decent people who work there. The CE himself is a fundamentally good person, albeit one who is welded to a sales strategy which has delivered him great success and riches but has done nothing to enhance the reputation of his company. He tolerates and encourages his people to lie about meetings and the involvement of senior people – it is all bullshit. They work in an office in Stoke in Trent and no single person from the UK Gov, the EU, the Vatican or whatever nonsense they spout has ever set foot inside the place. It’s sharp practice and they know it – in fact they revel in getting away with it.
Ask yourself this one question – particularly you academics who are such a major area of bloodthirst for them – if the publication is so well received, and so highly respected, why haven’t you heard of it?
In short, there are much better ways of spending your money. Put it towards a bursary instead!

I took a call from an Emily who asked to speak to the director of the organisation that I work for. I screen his calls and as I have not heard from the Public Service Review before I ask for the purpose of her call and if she would mind sending either an email or fax with details. Emily then became very rude, aggressive and confrontational. Talking over me and then asked me “are you not listening to what I am saying?” when I asked her to repeat the name of the report she was referring to and then accused me of not listening. She then claimed not to have access to internet, emai or fax and insisted on speaking to the Director and said “don’t we consider yourself to be a leader in your field? I guess not” when I asked if she had contacted anyone else in the same field. What startled me is how professional sounding the name of the company is which only prevented me from hanging up. Avoid at all costs. Emily was a nasty piece of work and if she is indicative of their professional practices I would AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

I was just contacted by phone from a busy conference-room in London by a nice woman who started to talk about EU projects, funding and whatnot, and my project had been “highlighted” in their meetings. They knew all about it, including scope, funding and so on (from KTH Project database?). It sounded like the world’s opportunity. It was to be presented to all stakeholders, ministers and research granting organizations. All mentioned by name, and within my area.
However, after lots of sweet-talking, very convincing, they mentioned what it would cost me. 1 page 4000 pounds…and deadline on sept 7th. They needed answer right away. I hesitated, and they were soon down to 2000 and asked at which level I could accept.
Instead of looking more at the brochure, I googled around a bit and found this site (yes, the one you read now):
http://www.andrewjaffe.net/blog/science/000475.html
It seems to be a very elaborate scam, or on the borderline. The call took maybe 20-30 minutes. She reclined to send me an email because of server problems, and said she already sent me an email this morning. I said she could try another address, but then the server problems were on their side…
In the end I (surprise) turned down her nice offer. But it was very convincing…
Just to be on your guard!

Sarah Johnson is the latest seller to be plugging this one to us. She refused to talk to anyone other than the MD and went on about how urgent it was. Phone back the next day and I will not return her call after reading the above comments.

Just had the same deal offered to me, reduced massively in price may I add from the initial 6K still did not take it which confused the salesman a great deal. This was for promoting our cycle shelters and street furniture. Good sales patter but he would not forward me any details by email at all to back up any of the claims. Shame

It has been 2 years since you reported this scam. The bad news is that they are still active and I almost got duped.
More on this here
http://www.ajaykumarsingh.com/uk-scams/publicservice-co-uk-scam-publicservice-co-uk-fraud.html

Look at all the comments. Not one is actually complaining about the publication its self. Just the manner in which they were approached. But! ALL have said they were told the cost and they were told that it is urgent. So where is the dishonesty? everyone is welcome to say no. or i dont like doing things on the phone, or i dont pay to write. It does not mean this is a scam. there are many people write with us and are very happy. just look at the people who do pay to write, they do it because they see the value. Understand urgency and enjoy masterbating.

I just had the same call … a long description of the excellence of the publication, the big names in it etc etc. (again, he was in a meeting, no access to internet, must take immediate decision..)
When I finally said that I need to evaluate and will not take any decision before asking some external opinions, he got upset that I spend his time for nothing etc
I have a tendency to immediately reject this “urgent offers” but I prefer let the person talk, loosing his time (i was replying to emails during his uninteresting speech (it so so clear that he was reading a text that it made me almost laugh))
dimitri

Believe me, there is NO MEETING WHAT SO EVER, NOTHING IS URGENT, BUT TO CLOSE THE DEAL IN ONE PHONE CALL…ITS DISGUSTING THE WAY THE STAFF GET TREATED AND SCREAMED AT WHILE ON THE PHONE TO YOU ALL, AND THREATENED WITH BEING FIRED. THERE IS NO TRUTH IN ANYTHING THAT THEY SAY NONE WHATSOEVER. I HAVE CONTACTED ALL THE NAMES THEY DROP IN THE CALLS. WATCH THIS SPACE…….THEY SAY THEY ARE IN CONGRESS BUT THEY ARE IN A CALL CENTRE ENVIRONMENT BEING PRESSURED TO MAKE CALLS AND NOT TO LET THE CLIENT GO. THE STAFF ARE DESPERATE AND NEED TO MAKE MONEY TO LIVE, I THINK IN THIS FIRST WORLD COUNTRY, PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE EXPLOITED IN THIS MANOR. THEY WILL BE BROUGHT TO TASK……

Now, they’ve reached Sweden. The same story presented to me today, urgency, importance, and no E-mail. Three different persons telling me of my importance. There should be some way to get a warning on top of Google search for this fraud!
Peter Lanbeck
Lund, Sweden

REDACTED

REDACTED

I just got off the call after a harrowing 45 minutes trying to understand her British Accent.
Thank fully, I rejected her offer and then immediately looked this page up.
I wonder what would have been her next step? How exactly would she have extracted money out of me?

Sounds like you have all saved me from a lot of headaches. I have had a call this afternoon from our head office, saying there was a call I had to respond to ASAP from Public Sector and call is urgent etc, etc. So before I called them back (silly me) I did a web search and surprise, surprise, you all saved my bacon. Many Thanks

Pity I didn’t find this thread earlier in the year. We’re a small start-up consultancy and when cold called this sounded like an interesting marketing opportunity (having an advert in the magazine). What was an offer to write became a proposal to advertise, and they dropped prices dramatically so it looked like a good deal. Total waste of time and money. Then threatening calls when we didn’t pay invoice we hadn’t received because they didn’t have the address right for the company.
The experience has resulted in a strict policy now of no dead-tree advertising at all, even with reputable organisations.

I was appalled at how much they wanted to charge me for a stand, but the keynote speakers looked good so I booked a delegate place at the academic rate at their Manchester Conference on Dementia in Manchester. Competently run (but no list of delegates handed out which is essential for networking purposes). Keynotes good except for the one on the platform who had paid for the place – and it was obvious. All the breakout workshops were run by paying companies or groups. More than one delegate uneasy at this ‘infomercial’ approach to what was billed as a proper conference to discuss a socially important issue. This week got a call from a company called GovToday with a similar slick and high pressure pitch.

Just had exactly the same cold call this morning and wasted 30 minutes of my life talking – seems like a classic ruse – compliment your company / organisation, ask many questions about events ideas you may not know and so feel a little dis-empowered, then more compliments, offer of writing a article – finally the huge cost of £6000 after 20 minutes of conversation – quick 20 secs chat with the manager for a 50% reduction but you must confirm today!!
I kept saying to myself this must be a scam but this blog article confirmed my suspicions….
thanks!

Hi everyone,
I’m a former employee of Public Service (apologies to anyone i may have called on this forum) but i thought i would let you all know how they work.
When i started i was given a 1 weeks training on how to “Pitch n Close”, we were trained to make you want it and trained to make you agree to have it there and then on the phone because they know if they email you or allow you time to actually think about it you would realise its far too expensive.
We were sat in a room with 20 other people, and a pile of leads printed off the internet and just call all day, nothing else, call after call until you find someone who bites and sell it to them.
They do have really big name editorials and the magazine does go to some very important people (whether its actually read is questionable though) so its not really a scam, but the price is huge and they know it.
Also Andrew they HATE this blog and talk about it a lot in meetings, the amount of deals they have done on the phone but then lost because companies have researched this blog costs the company thousands every month. I sold £3500 myself to a company who cancelled a day later after reading this blog, costing me £200 in commission (my invoice to you for loss of earnings is in the post Andrew lol)
Its a shame because it is a good book, and they do have some really good editorials and if they didnt make their sales staff sell in such a bullying and aggressive manner then it would be a good company, but the pressure on the sales staff is horrendus, i’ve since left because although the pay is great, morally its a very questionable job calling people all day lying about “last 2 pages” and “i’ve got to go back in a meeting in 20 minutes” etc was too much for me.
My advice is to keep this blog Andrew and hopefully their CEO Gordon will change his companies sales ethos eventually.

Update for anyone concerned.. due to the impact of bad press and mainly THIS blog – the company has now re-branded the products to Science Omega Review UK and Science Omega Review Europe http://www.scienceomega.com/review.
Same shocking Sales approach and same impact = ZERO!! It’s amazing they can ask for such large amounts of money yet never actually distribute to the people they claim they do. It only goes to the people that pay thousands to publish. The only way to stop this sort of disgusting practice is use your Approved Supplier List and only use Peer Review publications – also as scientists you should NEVER do anything AD HOC!

Worked at this company recently for 3 days. The most hostile environment I have ever worked in. So much pressure on staff. They get us to lie to people on the phone and do anything to make a sale. Evenutally had an altergation with the manager so decided to leave. Don’t believe anything they say. It’s all a script, they also do have computers in the office. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING

I worked for the company recently for four weeks – the worst month of my life.
The place you on a training course and tell you how you will earn magnificent amounts of money and entice you in. The training is actually quite fun and they make sure that the days you are in the office watching people, it looks fun and a nice atmosphere.
So you start in the office. The staff themselves are lovely, the top earners are actually some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. It’s the managers that awful people, they pretend to tell you they are ‘Head of Europe’ when they are just lying through their teeth. The amount of times I got shouted at for letting customers go or not calling them back when they had hung up, was ridiculous. They are nasty bullies with no morals or no aspirations other than the lies they tell.
You have a script and a specific story you need to sell, the sales people are normally harsh or abrupt on the phone, due to someone telling them word for word what to say to you, or being told to ‘not let them be in control’. There is no meeting, conference, you don’t even have a computer on your desk, there is 4 between 30 people.
I changed working there, I was not myself, wouldn’t get out of bed, crying constantly and they did not care once. If you have no morals or do not care about robbing people, I recommend taking a job there today. If you have one nice bone in your body please please please don’t work there, it is not good for you mentally and you have no employment rights really in the first year!
And for anyone on the phone to someone now or received a message, refuse to speak to them, hang up. Lets show this horrendous company they cannot get aware with treating both customers and staff the way they do and get them closed down once and for all.
I left there and found myself a perfect job, which is the best thing ever and the best thing I ever did was leave that god awful place.

This should be illegal! Thankfully cold calling is soon to be outlawed in the UK, let’s hope this puts these out of business.
As the Managing Director I was bombarded by calls, email and voicemails on my business lines, home phone and mobile. They told my daughter who answered the home phone that it was regarding funding and the European Commission and they urgently needed to speak with me.
After refusing to speak with any of my Management, an onslaught of bombarding and rude, harrassing behaviour commensed for 40 minuites. After assuring me that this was all about gaining me funding and contracts for the European Commission and that my research and technology was directly being requested by the Commissioners themselves they proceeded to ask me for 8000 GBP or 16000 Euro (Not a correct conversion by the way.
When I stated that the refusal to communicate by email or attend meetings and the fact that I would have to pay to recieve funding and contracts sounded like a scam, and if this was legitimate then it was at best appaulingly offensive and unprofessional conduct and business practice I was rudely shouted at, my business and intellect insulted and the phone slammed down.
Over the next few days I received numerous emails from suspiciously personal hotmail accounts and phone calls from a UK cell phone +447823330526 at unsociable hours such as 8am and 11pm, demanding that I take part in this “project for the European Commission” by paying her this ammount which was now somehow only 6000 if I signed and returned a contract with in the next 15 minuites.
If this had been a company in my country this lady would possibly be facing charges for harrasment and corporate misconduct.
I asked some questions and did some research of my own;
I would be very weary if I recieved any more calls from:
Public Service Europe
Public Servie UK
Public Servant
Public Service Events
Defence Management
DMJ
All the same company ‘publicservice.co.uk ltd” a small advertising company in the UK.
It sounds to me very much like they just buy contact email lists off the internet, which I found out you can buy for as little as $2000 and email an advertisment to poor unsuspecting individuals.
I doubt very much if the majority of the emails are even read, or make it past the junk filters.
If you want to give a few tens of thousands to a crook and what appears very much like a dubious scam then by all means go ahead!
Better still ask them to provide proof that their testimonials are genuine or to provide accurate statistics on the track record of success of other companies who have used their services…no reply.

Thanks for posting this blog. I am glad I was able to find this information online in between calls from them so that I had some context to confidently turn them away.
I got a call from this organization at 4AM local time (in the US on July 4th holiday weekend). They had the same sales schtick as above: last minute editorial change, want to speak to a director, we are widely distributed. After I declined to participate, the sales pitch became more persistent and, frankly, manipulative (“we want innovative researchers such as yourselves”, etc.).
The man I spoke to was very polite but insistent. It took about forty minutes to get him off the phone.

I am being threatened with legal action and they have made up an invoice contract for 2k- has anyone got any advice!?

Same as everyone else’s experience – rude, persistent and completely pointless. I don’t mind hanging up on them anymore, so much easier than listening to the rubbish they come up with.

I don’t think you have to try and dodge these people anymore. As a former employee from years ago I still have friends who worked there. As of yesterday, Thursday August 22nd 2013. The company went into liquidation. All the staff were laid off.
Whilst I completely agree that once you get past the veneer the company uses a very aggressive advertising sales technique, marred with smoke and mirrors, it is obviously not a good time for the 100s of people who lost their jobs.
You do have to think though, is it the working practices which were the reason for the final failing of the company?

Very credible on the event approach, we nearly got sucked in but did some last minute checking and realised it was a scam.
The proposed event was cancelled at the venue end, but no communication from anyone to say that. Fortunately, we hadn’t paid anything, just wasted a fair bit of time on preparation for something that was probably never going to happen.
Lesson learnt

Hi All,
It looks like they went bust last summer http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/200-jobs-axed-Newcastle-based-publisher-collapses/story-19704837-detail/story.html on 24th August 2013
Then miraculously they were reborn as Adjacent Government on 28th August 2013 http://www.adjacentgovernment.co.uk
The common link is the owner / director Mr Peter Gordon WARRENDER and yes they are using exactly the same sales tactics which unfortunately I fell for.

HaHa…….no more cushy number for you fatty

There back ! http://www.adjacentgovernment.co.uk

Now I am very confused. I found this thread when looking for the Science and Techology web site. I was approached (along with another colleague in the UK) in 2009, and they never mentioned anything about money. They seemed to be happy to work with us for a couple months on a commentary of several pages, including the figures, typesetting, and everything. We published it in Public service review: Science and Technology volume 2. There was a nice link to a large ‘web presence’, and the paper has been cited since. Maybe it was a pyramid scheme where we were being used to add some sort of legitamacy? Really frustrated, as it was a ‘nice’ comment we put together.

Dresden, Germany: I got a very similar call today from
http://horizon2020projects.com/
looks like these guys follow people who got ERC grants. It was 2 pages of text to be written in 2 weeks, for £7500. After I hesitated, it became one page with an exceptional price of £2000 but I was asked to keep it secret 🙂 And she had “meeting in 10 minutes” (although the conversation lasted half an hour or so) and I was to answer immediately. All requests to communicate via e-mail and give me time to think were rejected. I hang up the phone in the end, but she tried to call again.

apparently the horizon2020projects.com thing is in full motion. got contacted today and told the same story as above. also helpfully suggested that the money can come from dissemination funds of existing projects.

Still going strong in Sweden, I’m sorry to say. A colleague has been bulldozed into signing up for this. Is there any way to break the contract? Colleague is not an authorized signatory, but could the company claim that they entered into the agreement in good faith?