Agencies to avoid....

[kal]

I would have told you to whistle. The agent decides who goes forwards to the clients, not you.

And the agent did such a good job doing that very thing with my current role, rejected me out of hand, so I went to the client direct and applied, got the role on more that the top rate he was offering while still costing the client less, only one to lose out was the agent, such a shame...

[GB9]

Add Rullion, Manchester if you want to opt in. They wont submit you for roles.

RDF, caught them re advertising a role they advertised a month previous.

Anything Allegis Group ie TEK Systems, Aston Carter, pump you mercilessly for contacts then pump them mercilessly for 'ins' to the hiring department.

Seconded to the whole of above.

To be fair, Rullion were very efficient payers, but if you upset them, then forget it.

No clever as these things often come back to haunt.

[cojak]

There is only one agency that I would avoid and that is for their rubbish business model.

I would not reject any agency that could get me a contract, and that includes S3 and Harvey Nash.

In my experience being absolutely clear with the agent how you work (including contract reviews and rate-cuts) shows them that you are a professional and know how this business works.

You just have to puppy-train them as to how they deal with you.

If they get uppity then the job isn't real - no agent worth his/her salt is going to jeopardise their commission against a contractor who knows the deal.

[BolshieBastard]

Add Rullion, Manchester if you want to opt in. They wont submit you for roles.

RDF, caught them re advertising a role they advertised a month previous.

Anything Allegis Group ie TEK Systems, Aston Carter, pump you mercilessly for contacts then pump them mercilessly for 'ins' to the hiring department.

[TheGrave]

This must be a sticky topic, I busted my ass to find it. Also another one with positive feedback for agencies can be created - let's say call them Agencies Blacklist and Agencies Whitelist. Will save a lot of painful experience to many of us. Anyway, I wanted to share my experience with a small agency called Datacom (probably most of you haven't even heard of them). I had a very lengthy negotiation with them regarding a contract rate for a position I knew I was a perfect match. Anyway, we nail the rate to the maximum that the client has to offer, I go through the interviews, they like me and want to get me on board. I receive an electronic copy of the contract without any signatures on their side so I request a hardcopy with signatures in case they decide to play some stupid trick on me later on. After several iterations I finally receive one (not having signatures on all the necessary places bust most were covered), sign myself and send it back. Next thing I do is book a hotel for a month in the middle of nowhere and a train ticket in advance. I let them know about this and guess what! Next day I receive an e-mail that suddenly, the end client got a new financial director of the client has not approved the rate and they want to decrease it by more than 10%. Biggest bull of all time. Luckily, I managed to get rid of the hotel reservation and sent them straight to hell. Stay away from them by all means!

[BolshieBastard]

I have had really really good experiences with Aston Carter. They would call me up regularly whilst working at contracts through them,
asking if I been paid ok?
asking if I am happy at my role? or want them to look for other things?
take me out for lunch regularly?
when out of contract, I would be amongst the first they would contact for roles before publishing them.

In general they really looked after me.

In a stark contrast, Project Partners - a bunch of cowboys.
I got a contract through them, had problems with pay on a number of occasions. Had to resubmit paperwork on many occasions. If possible I'd avoid them big time! I went for Xmas Drinks they arranged, a few other agents there did mention the agent looking after me a was a lazy so and so!

Amen about PP! Bunch of ****wits. I refused a role with a bank because of those twats. Told them never to contact me again they were so incompetent. Shame about losing the role I'd been offered but I got sorted closer to home so hey, ho!

Have to say jumar were complete nobs too.

[alluvial]

To be honest I've had the odd problem but the agent has always bent over backwards to sort things out. The biggest nightmare I've had was when I went direct with a client and I couldn't get the lazy tosser I was working for to sign off my invoices and then another bloke and I had to go direct to the FD to get a PO signed off for an extension that said lazy tosser wouldn't sign.

[northernladuk]

Is a little sad to see businesses getting badmouthed here without ability to comment tbh. Is my experience that you get bad individuals that move between outfits rather than a bad organisation, and where you do see unusually slanted terms a polite phone call generally corrects the situation, especially if you really will walk if conditions not right.

There's a few I would rather not work with again out of choice but if I wanted the contract and needed work it wouldn't stop me taking the job.

I don't really see how people get as far as getting so upset with an agent or company without doing something mature and professional about it.

I think recruitment gets a very unfair bashing from contractors, which means when an agent genuinely shafts someone the complaint gets lost in the endless babble about cowboys and muppets. Would be better for the industry if people acted like professionals.

Totally this. There have been a number of requests for a blacklist or a sticky and they are always turned down for exactly these points. Watching most of the complaints people post they are indeed down to an individual or just the crap we have to put up with agents trying to get their cut. Neither of those are a reflection on the company.

[Mose]

Is a little sad to see businesses getting badmouthed here without ability to comment tbh. Is my experience that you get bad individuals that move between outfits rather than a bad organisation, and where you do see unusually slanted terms a polite phone call generally corrects the situation, especially if you really will walk if conditions not right.

There's a few I would rather not work with again out of choice but if I wanted the contract and needed work it wouldn't stop me taking the job.

I don't really see how people get as far as getting so upset with an agent or company without doing something mature and professional about it.

I think recruitment gets a very unfair bashing from contractors, which means when an agent genuinely shafts someone the complaint gets lost in the endless babble about cowboys and muppets. Would be better for the industry if people acted like professionals.

[Sausage Surprise]

I have had really really good experiences with Aston Carter. They would call me up regularly whilst working at contracts through them,
asking if I been paid ok?
asking if I am happy at my role? or want them to look for other things?
take me out for lunch regularly?
when out of contract, I would be amongst the first they would contact for roles before publishing them.

In general they really looked after me.

In a stark contrast, Project Partners - a bunch of cowboys.
I got a contract through them, had problems with pay on a number of occasions. Had to resubmit paperwork on many occasions. If possible I'd avoid them big time! I went for Xmas Drinks they arranged, a few other agents there did mention the agent looking after me a was a lazy so and so!

That's a lot more than you'd get from most agents