As luck would have it, i was able to get my hands on the current agreement (good thing since the old link i had is broken.)
It looks pretty much the same except point 13 is new (summary: "don't complain if you don't get a job.") And of course the last page is the money shot (summary: "doesn't matter what we've promised you up till now, this is what the deal is.")
9 comments:
I have a service charge agreement - that was sent to me - if you would like to post.
It seems that various people are quoted different prices for the same service. What they sent me indicates they want a $7500 investment.
Thanks for all the warnings on this site -- it has been a great help!
Greatly appreciate what you have posted and your summary on ITS. Now I know why it is hard to find anything other than their own websites.
Time is money. Thank you for svaing mine with this post.
While I recieved an identical e-mail message, it was not spam-manna from heaven. The cuase is easily identifyable. It arrived within a day of having posted my resume on monster.com.
Dan, thanks for the service you are doing. I would not have fallen for ITS full court press (not a sports fan, but sounds right), as I have already fallen for Global Career Management's one :)
E. Michele
I am one of the "sucker". I was an easy target since I am familiar with "personal marketing" and it worked for me in the past. (I wish I would used the same company).
The bottom line their "service" fell apart on week 1, and I do not want to go into the details, many others had similar experience.
But I am fighting them in every front.
Asked my credit card company to reverse the charge. They blatantly told the CC company that they fulfilled the contract. I am still fighting.
Complained to BBB, we are up to the third round since they "closed" the case after ITS told them "I refused their performance guaranty". (a.k.a do the same crappy job again).
Complained to the FTC (still waiting for the feedback).
Next step is complain to the state's attorney general.
Plan: there are about 10 different ways to complain to BBB, and I will open a new case every week!
Any other advise out there?
Explored the small claim court but it works only on CO, and the travel expense makes it ineffective.
SOOOOO glad to have found this site in time. After reading negative comments for almost two hours, I can't wait until my follow up call with the "recruiter".
I've also read some interesting articles on what can legally be considered career counseling versus career advice. One is a licensed function in all but two states (counseling) and the advice/marketing does not have any regulations tied to it. Guess which one ITS (and their many alias) are considered....you guessed it.
Add Barbara Coffey, Senior Partner, to the list. Always listen to your gut...during the first five minutes of conversation with her, she tried out several ploys that women in the workplace could face..."how hard it is to be a woman in a man's work" and "shame on them for not recognizing your contributions in your current job"...both situations did not fit any of the conversations that we had. I felt like I was talking with a "psychic" who was throwing out suggestons to see which stuck. She was very smooth and came across as sincere/nuturing. I was almost sucked in but red flags where popping up all over.
I will right this experience off to just that...experience at recognizing fraud. My three conversations and 2 hours wasn't without gain though. I was able to recognize some issues with my resume' and knowledge of current market salaries...from my own self analysis (not hers). So it's off to the library (with my ever so reasonable library card) to do more research. As anyone finds some legit job services, keep calling them out.
Thanks again for everyone who has posted so far...knowledge is power especially to fight off this type of vultures. They prey on the supposed isolation of a job seeker who probably isn't making their search known to many...it is sick. If anyone is fighting them directly and needs support, tell me where to send my story.
I don´t know if you are still reading this blog but you are doing a real public services here. I got a call as well. I was suspicious though because they never mentioned price, (always a sign something is over-priced), and because they were too enthused to have a discussion and send free slick video.
If you read this they are only agreeing to give you 3 resumes and 12 coverletters for $6500 or more. I have a firm here that offered to do more for $3500 including a Myers Briggs test to see where you best fit.
As one who is distressed and getting pooer everyday, I am truly upset by these companies taking advantage of those in need. I guess that is the way of the world, but public, please be wary. Do not sign up for these services. Their database of jobs is the same as Careerbuilder, Indeed, etc, who are free to the users.
Real recruiters are paid by the employer, who can pay and thus they have incentive to really hire people. This is the golden rule and it is true.
It is frustrating and these people give you false hope, but they are merely taking your money you need to support yourself until you find a good job. You can do this research yourself, and it is your job while you are looking for a job so you should have the time to do indepth research.
I am hoping we all get excellent jobs and get back to work. Let´s try to do that without feeling badly about it because we were scammed in the process.
Thank you for the information you posted. Some time ago I responded to a job posting, maybe on CareerBuilder or many Craigslist.org. Awhile later I got a call from someone saying I had responded to a job posting. They couldn't tell me anything more about the job which is quite odd for this situation. At best it's someplace sloppy enough to have the temp placing calls to recruit people. Even if that's the case it would be pretty dumb. If you want to hire, you want to hire the best person possible. So at best they're scaring away some sharp folks, folks who are looking to be wooed even in this "tough" job market.
Anyway, she couldn't tell me more and the company she was saying she was from didn't ring a bell. I apologized and said I'd call her back; that instead of asking her to dig up those details (details any recruiter should know), I'd go through my records and find it. But I couldn't find it! They didn't use that name in their positing for the position.
What I did find with that new name is this site. That got me several different names and looking around. I never called her back. Even if it was legit, that they themselves were hiring, I didn't want to work for them.
Low and behold 6 weeks later I found myself in the same position. This time when I returned the call, I talked to a different lady. Funny enough she too didn't have any information on the position but said I could ask the VP the questions so let's set up an appointment.
Now this is very WEIRD. Normally a recruiter wants to chat with you, get a feel if you're for real, maybe get some references, etc. Normally you can ask the recruiter questions about the job. They may not know all of them. But they should know a bit about the position, the work it involves, be able to tell you if you're salary expectations are in their ballpark, and some other details.
In this case, yet again they didn't know anything. This time I knew the company and been through it before so I pressed her on it. I nicely explained it was pretty unusual not to know any of this general stuff. I asked if maybe she could call me back when she found these things out. Now I really was asking nicely and these are pretty normal questions. She got pretty ticked off at me, acting unprofessional and making some comment about my loss. I told her the truth, that I was sorry she felt that way, that I'd love to chat with her more about the opportunity when she knows more about it and wished her good luck.
In short, the interaction was totally f-ed up! I've worked a lot of jobs over the years, both full time and contracting, and never once has someone recruiting been unable to answer those questions or at least volunteer to find out some more on them.
And get mad at me? That left me befuddled, to say the least. Even if it was my dream employer calling me up, before I'd show up there in a suit and ready to interview I would want to know a little about the job. I want to go into the interview with a loose plan of things to say. I may have to shift directions but I don't want to walk in their blind. And in this case, well, I was pretty suspicious that this was a scam. And even if they were looking to hire, from what I've read about them here on top of the snotty people on the phone, I wasn't interested. But I doubt that was a case. What sort of place that is legitimately hiring would be so desperate for me to come in after I've been double submitted for the same job in 6 weeks?
I consider myself a fairly savvy professional, yet I almost fell for this. However, At the same time I was speaking with ITS, I got a call from Allen and Associates.
It sounded too good to be true. I was speaking with a friend about Allen. He told me to stay far away. He hadn't heard about ITS, but we decided to see if it was the same idea.
The "counselor" was nothing more than a smooth talking sales person who kept saying "no pressure" but offered me one-time discounts if I made a decision within a few days.
At this point, it didn't pass the "smell" test.
This website confirmed all suspicions. Thanks.
Post a Comment