India based agencies

[Eirikur]

they seem to be on the rise at the moment, why is that?
Had several calls in the last couple of months and connection requests on Linkedin from agencies based in India.
They call over very poor quality phone lines with heavy accents, can't understand 50% of what they are saying. Two times they arranged a phone interview with what I thought was the client, but turned out in both cadses it was with some other agency guy based in India, calling over the same poor quality phone lines, again don't catch half of what they are saying and afterwards you don't hear anything back at all. Looks like it's a learning exercise for them, to find out about skills needed in the UK and how to interview, etc.
Decided not to pick up any calls from India any more as they are a huge waste of time.

Anyone on here actually got a contract through one of these agencies?

[BigRed]

They specialise in the £150-£180/day rate band, so no.

[Eirikur]

They specialise in the £150-£180/day rate band, so no.

I always make clear in which rate band I am in one of my opening sentences to any agency, to avoid wasting my time, which is much higher then the one you mention. In my case the roles were for VW (Germany) and Vodafone (at least that is what they told me and what the contract specs said) and the rates were in the range what you could normally expect for these type of roles in these companies.
Later I checked with my direct contact in Vodafone and she wasn't aware of the contract and she would have known if it was really a live one. Which made me think they are trying to get information out of people to understand the European market by pretending they are interviewing them

[craig1]

I always make clear in which rate band I am in one of my opening sentences to any agency, to avoid wasting my time, which is much higher then the one you mention. In my case the roles were for VW (Germany) and Vodafone (at least that is what they told me and what the contract specs said) and the rates were in the range what you could normally expect for these type of roles in these companies.
Later I checked with my direct contact in Vodafone and she wasn't aware of the contract and she would have known if it was really a live one. Which made me think they are trying to get information out of people to understand the European market by pretending they are interviewing them

What they want is a provable list of people who will work at a set location for a very cheap rate. This allows them to go in with a "move to us and save nearly 50% on your contractor bill and here's the proof". They are very good at these sorts of sales pitches, often aiming at very senior budget holders such as COOs who then ask the HR and IT directors for any justification why they should pay twice as much, the directors buckle and the other PSL companies get kicked out except for specialist knowledge roles. The very nepotistic arrangements between many of the big outsourcers and Indian agencies mean that there are extensive contacts list for these agencies to get to the COO, all they need is a hint that the company has outsourced something in the past to have a contact somewhere.

The thing is that there are one hell of a lot of ex-permies who were laid off over the last couple of years who'll take any work right now and are easy fodder for these agencies.

[Boney M]

They specialise in the £150-£180/day rate band, so no.

Less than that, I have told them on first contact my day rate and then gone for a technical exam whereby I cannot understand the fella to even understand him and then they offered my just over a quarter of my day rate when I said no, they called back several times over the coming days.

[craig1]

Less than that, I have told them on first contact my day rate and then gone for a technical exam whereby I cannot understand the fella to even understand him and then they offered my just over a quarter of my day rate when I said no, they called back several times over the coming days.

I heard, friend of a friend so I don't know how accurate or truthful this is, that one fairly desperate guy was treated the same as you but because he was on benefits he was told bluntly to accept the role at any rate or have his benefits stopped.

[SuPaStA]

they seem to be on the rise at the moment, why is that?
Had several calls in the last couple of months and connection requests on Linkedin from agencies based in India.
They call over very poor quality phone lines with heavy accents, can't understand 50% of what they are saying. Two times they arranged a phone interview with what I thought was the client, but turned out in both cadses it was with some other agency guy based in India, calling over the same poor quality phone lines, again don't catch half of what they are saying and afterwards you don't hear anything back at all. Looks like it's a learning exercise for them, to find out about skills needed in the UK and how to interview, etc.
Decided not to pick up any calls from India any more as they are a huge waste of time.

Anyone on here actually got a contract through one of these agencies?

Was it for a SC role by any chance? I have dealt with indian/polish agencies on previous government roles as the recruitment side of things seems to have been outsourced.

It was market rate for the type of role.

[cojak]

Was it for a SC role by any chance? I have dealt with indian/polish agencies on previous government roles as the recruitment side of things seems to have been outsourced.

It was market rate for the type of role.

Market rate to you (ie the client) perhaps...

[SuPaStA]

Market rate to you (ie the client) perhaps...

These agencies are approved suppliers and their Mark-up was very little apparently due to this. AlexMann was one of them which was a UK company but the people I dealt with to secure the contract were in Poland (or some other eastern European country).

[CheeseSlice]

These agencies are approved suppliers and their Mark-up was very little apparently due to this. AlexMann was one of them which was a UK company but the people I dealt with to secure the contract were in Poland (or some other eastern European country).

You don't seem too sure. I've had plenty of calls from Alexander Mann and they have Europeans working out of UK offices. 'Apparently' EU workers can get jobs in the UK