Agency incompetence

[Burdock]

cheers for the posts chaps!

[ar786]

Hi, another newbie here:

My situation is as follows:

I have been offered a contract directly from a consultancy who are working for a telecomms company. Now the question is, do I still need to go through an agency? or can I go directly through an umbrella company such as Parasol? I don't understand why an agency should take a % of my income if they didn't even find me the contract! Apart from finding work for contractors what other services do they offer for the % they deduct?

[Crossroads]

Hi, another newbie here:

My situation is as follows:

I have been offered a contract directly from a consultancy who are working for a telecomms company. Now the question is, do I still need to go through an agency? or can I go directly through an umbrella company such as Parasol? I don't understand why an agency should take a % of my income if they didn't even find me the contract! Apart from finding work for contractors what other services do they offer for the % they deduct?

If you can go direct to the consultancy then it probably makes sense. All that will dictate this is if the client (the consultancy) will let you, or if they have preferred suppliers (agencies) and will only deal with them.

As for what else does a (good) agency do?

First and foremost, if you are lucky a good one will only take a few % (my current takes 5%, previous to that was 7% - both because they are preferred suppliers and ALL of the clients' contractors use them), and typically that few % barely covers the cost of money - in my last gig I was paid monthly, within 7 days of month end...yet the end client did not pay the agency for (typically) 90 days+.


When I have gone direct I have put up with the long payment cycles of large corporates (and negotiated my rate accordingly). If you do go direct, don't bank on being paid on time, it is a commerical arrangement, not a salary to an employee, and as a client they will get away with paying late if they can.

[Bright Spark]

Hi, another newbie here:

My situation is as follows:

I have been offered a contract directly from a consultancy who are working for a telecomms company. Now the question is, do I still need to go through an agency? or can I go directly through an umbrella company such as Parasol? I don't understand why an agency should take a % of my income if they didn't even find me the contract! Apart from finding work for contractors what other services do they offer for the % they deduct?

In my experience the consultantcy is only going to pay you once they
get paid by the telecomms company, this can be from a month to
several months, some large agencies can pay you weekly (ie Hays IT)
even though they haven't been paid by anyone yet, another
benefit is that if the client/consultantcy is small and there is a risk
it could, go bankrupt or decide to dissappear with your money
then getting paid by an agency weekly could only be a good thing.