Two Agencies, One position...up the creek?

[Mordac]

Funny enough Agency A put me in at a lower than expected rate, certainly lower than Agency B and lower than I agreed from memory.

The guy from Agency A had the nerve to say well I would be no better off if I did accept the higher rate from Agency B.

I can reveal that Agency A is known as PCR. Until I get official confirmation that the role has gone cold later this week I'll delay naming Agency B.

I felt quite strongly about the situation and rightly or wrongly I cancelled another interview that week that Agency A had set up despite them repeatedly attempting to contact me to change my mind.

Get rates agreed in email, even if you have to send them one saying "I agree to be represented by Agency X for the role of widget tester at Company Y at an agreed rate minimum of £450 p/day etc". That way if they stitch you up, they can't claim an exclusive on you unless they have put you forward at that rate. I haven't had the pleasure of PCR, but it's nice that their pimp had your welfare in mind:
"The guy from Agency A had the nerve to say well I would be no better off if I did accept the higher rate from Agency B"
The market is still reasonably buoyant, you can hopefully put this one down to experience and add a couple of names to your spam filter.

[MarillionFan]

Has happened to all of us at some time so dont worry. Its one of the problems of dealing with agents, that sometimes more than one CV goes forward because one keeps it a secret or its weeks later after you originally put a cv forward to one agent.

Normally the contractor loses out.

[Swashbuckler]

Whenever you are represented by an EB and the same EB says the role has gone cold or not offered an interview, always confirm in writing to the same agency that you withdraw your permission for them to represent you for the same position, should the situation change with another EB. A role that has gone cold has gone cold - therefore it doesn't exist. The representation issue no longer arises - at least for them if they are telling the truth. No EB can say this is not the case later on unless the interviewer changes their mind about interviewing the same contractor through the same EB.

A lot of the problems contractors have with EBs is that they fail to back up all their negotiations in writing throughout the process. This is a mistake. EBs use phone calls deliberately to escape accountability for saying what they say when it suits them. However, it does you no good whatsoever.

When are contractors going to learn to exert their own terms and conditions with EBs just as they do with contractors. Negotiation is a two way process, you know, and contractors who want to be business owner managers should be acting in a business-like way from the time they first pick up the phone to an EB, not act like a desparate wannabe pseudo employee willing to be pushed around until they are finally offered the role, if they're lucky.

Should something like this ever happen again, write to the client company and explain what Agency A's are like and what they did to hinder your chances of being considered - that they are less interested in ensuring their client gets the right candidate, instead they are only interested in pursuing their own selfish needs at the client's expense. Sooner or later the client will stop using them - if they have any sense, that is. If they don't then the end client is probably not worth contracting for in the first place.

Also, if you are being interviewed through an EB B after being represented by EB A leading to a abortive attempt to get an interview set up, explain to the client during questions that you have cleared it with EB B to be represented by EB B only not EB A. Chances are EB A will never find out because this prevents the client interviewer only saying they are interested in you with HR who, without such knowledge of the interview outcomes, are then bound to screw things up for you by informing EB A at a later stage about the mix up over CVs sparking the EB war - with only one casualty - you..

Thanks Denny,

I think you're pretty spot on with your summary. It only became an issue when the client interviewer told Agency A that i had secured an interview with agency B.

Why I'm not sure as all its done is to create undue strife for all parties concerned.

Tom

[MarillionFan]

"Why I'm not sure as all its done is to create undue strife for all parties concerned."

This is because to be an agent you have to be a small minded, small dicked, big ego-ed ******. Hey dodgy?

[ratewhore]

Get rates agreed in email, even if you have to send them one saying "I agree to be represented by Agency X for the role of widget tester at Company Y at an agreed rate minimum of £450 p/day etc". That way if they stitch you up, they can't claim an exclusive on you unless they have put you forward at that rate. I haven't had the pleasure of PCR, but it's nice that their pimp had your welfare in mind:

Hang on, wheres the signed exclusivity agreement? I don't remember ever seeing one or seeing a set of t's and c's which I implicitly agree to by going through an agent? Nor have I ever got rates confirmed by email. If I am successful at interview and we can't agree the rate then no gig, simple.

Personally, I'd tell pimp A to fuck right off and if they bang on then tell em you'll come round and smack em. That seems to do the trick...

[Swashbuckler]

Hang on, wheres the signed exclusivity agreement? I don't remember ever seeing one or seeing a set of t's and c's which I implicitly agree to by going through an agent? Nor have I ever got rates confirmed by email. If I am successful at interview and we can't agree the rate then no gig, simple.

Personally, I'd tell pimp A to fuck right off and if they bang on then tell em you'll come round and smack em. That seems to do the trick...

Agency A had nothing in writing with regards to an exclusivity agreement and whilst no lawyer I'm pretty sure these agreements go against the spirit of a free labour market.

Even the the guy's line manager from agency A confirmed this too me when he was trying to persuade me not to cancel another role they had arranged for me.

[Mailman]

You should have said to gimp boy that he was being recorded and that if he really felt so strongly about it then he should take you to court, reminding him again that he is being recorded...just in case he goes all jihadi on yer ass!

Mailman

[TheMonkey]

Look on the bright side, the tuliphead from Agency A could have sent your CV to the company without telling you, which really screws things up when Agency B gets you an interview.

I had an SThree drone do that to me. Fortunately the company were quite nice about it.

[expat]

It's a free market.

I went to a plumber to see about getting my central heating fixed. After considering it for a few days, he told me he couldn't do the job. So I went to a second plumber, who told me he could do it, and gave me a satisfactory quote for the job. Then the first plumber found out, and came round yelling that he had seen me first, so I couldn't go and get another plumber to do it. Do you think he was justified?

[Denny]

I went to a plumber to see about getting my central heating fixed. After considering it for a few days, he told me he couldn't do the job. So I went to a second plumber, who told me he could do it, and gave me a satisfactory quote for the job. Then the first plumber found out, and came round yelling that he had seen me first, so I couldn't go and get another plumber to do it. Do you think he was justified?

No, but there again there is no third party involved. It's the third party that is causing the issue because HR told them about the problem of multiple representation.