Your Worst 3 Agent Experiences Ever !

[Rantor]

You made the last one up. You see we are not so bad after two attempts are we?

DA - do any contractors ever try to 'get back' at agencies e.g; visits with baseball bats or similar?

I guess it wouldn't be that common, but I knew of one mob that went bust owing some guys a lot of cash. I would find it hard to believe that one of these guys in particular did not go for a more direct solution.

[spiderlover]

Why the name spider lover? Is there something we should know? Has it anything to do with why you were sacked?

Nah, nothing so weird - it's just that I have an unhealthy passion for Alfa Romeos.....I've got a 1973 Spider in the garage and a 2007 Spider on the road.

Alfa Romeo Owner's Club ad: "Why not push your car to one of our meetings?"

[BrilloPad]

You made the last one up. You see we are not so bad after two attempts are we?

Well not every agent is as good as you.

Anyway - why not start a thread entitled "Your Worst 3 Contractor Experiences Ever!" for the agents on here?

[DodgyAgent]

1. Having a agency go bankrupt owing me a hell of a lot of money (nearly 3 months worth) one month before the delivery of a project that I had spent the previous 12 months working on and then having the liquidators muddy the waters to such a extent that the client and myself could not work anything out direct. Me out of nearly 3 months income, client out 12 months of investment for a project that would never be finished (and never was)

2. Applying for a "sweet" position for a unnamed company, getting the run around from the agent for 3 weeks until the agent let "slip" the name of the company to tag me along for longer. Unfortunately for the agent I knew the head of IT for that company so gave him a call and found not only did the position not exist but he had implemented a policy of "no more contractors" 4 months previously

3. Normal Agent bulltulip

You made the last one up. You see we are not so bad after two attempts are we?

[Not So Wise]

1. Having a agency go bankrupt owing me a hell of a lot of money (nearly 3 months worth) one month before the delivery of a project that I had spent the previous 12 months working on and then having the liquidators muddy the waters to such a extent that the client and myself could not work anything out direct. Me out of nearly 3 months income, client out 12 months of investment for a project that would never be finished (and never was)

2. Applying for a "sweet" position for a unnamed company, getting the run around from the agent for 3 weeks until the agent let "slip" the name of the company to tag me along for longer. Unfortunately for the agent I knew the head of IT for that company so gave him a call and found not only did the position not exist but he had implemented a policy of "no more contractors" 4 months previously

3. Normal Agent bulltulip

[Cowboy Bob]

The worst I had was some idiot trying to tell me that the agency had a PCG approved contract. There was no such thing at the time and I knew it. No amount of me explaining was going to get this fact through her thick head. Turns out later on - that week in fact - that the agency was made a PCG affiliate and this must have been where this little "fact" came from.

[wendigo100]

That's why I got out of the recruitment business....

....that and they sacked me

Why the name spider lover? Is there something we should know? Has it anything to do with why you were sacked?

[Kyajae]

Your Worst 3 Agent Experiences Ever !

1. Taking a contract via Computer Donkeys
2. Working the Contract via Computer Donkeys
3. Trying to get ******' paid on time by Computer Donkeys

[young veteran]

Why cant more agents jus be a little bit more honest?

nice one spider

[spiderlover]

Good to see an honest agent.

That's why I got out of the recruitment business....

....that and they sacked me

[Cooperinliverp00l]

I was a recruiter for two years and here are some of the techniques we used. These were all oficially encouraged and this from a large national recruiters:

1. The old reference trick. Obviously we didn't need references until an offer was received but it did give us a way into the firms contractors worked for.

2. Telling contractors to use us exclusively. We used to say that using lots of agencies would dilute the contractors impact in the market and would look like desperation. Not true - we just wanted to protect our fee.

3. We would always drop candidates if they failed at one or two interviews. If they called for an update, we would say that the client had put a hold on their recruitment budget

4. We didn't deliberately advertise jobs that didn't exist (this is illegal) but we were deliberately tardy when it came to removing jobs from the boards. If anyone queried this we'd just say it was an oversight and we would make sure that our IT team removed the job ASAP. In the meantime we got lots of CVs

There are many, many, many more and it's not just the small firms that use similar techniques - the nationals all do the same.

BEWARE!!!!!

Good to see an honest agent.

[Euro-commuter]

Given those 3 examples do you think that I've got away with it lightly or that I've had a rough time with agents ??

No 2 especially is routine. The last thing an agent wants is any contractor being presented by anybody but them. The surest way to stop that is to tell the contractor that they have been put forward, but there will be trouble if they get put forward by anybody else. This is a farce.

Think of it: you go to Tesco and ask the butcher about a roast for Sunday. He tells you he's good a good leg of lamb, but now he's shown you that, you'd better not go to Sainsbury's and ask about their lamb, because he saw you first and you'd be blacklisted if you went through any other butcher.

So? If Dodgy Recruitment Ltd say they put you up for a contract with Mega Co, why on earth should you feel obliged not to see if Fly-By-Night Consulting can get you in there if they will give you a better deal?

We deal with agencies, not with clients. So why not test the market and let the agencies bid for skills they want?

[spiderlover]

From the horse's mouth

I was a recruiter for two years and here are some of the techniques we used. These were all oficially encouraged and this from a large national recruiters:

1. The old reference trick. Obviously we didn't need references until an offer was received but it did give us a way into the firms contractors worked for.

2. Telling contractors to use us exclusively. We used to say that using lots of agencies would dilute the contractors impact in the market and would look like desperation. Not true - we just wanted to protect our fee.

3. We would always drop candidates if they failed at one or two interviews. If they called for an update, we would say that the client had put a hold on their recruitment budget

4. We didn't deliberately advertise jobs that didn't exist (this is illegal) but we were deliberately tardy when it came to removing jobs from the boards. If anyone queried this we'd just say it was an oversight and we would make sure that our IT team removed the job ASAP. In the meantime we got lots of CVs

There are many, many, many more and it's not just the small firms that use similar techniques - the nationals all do the same.

BEWARE!!!!!

[Ardesco]

Sounds about normal to be honest

[messiah]

1) A 'lady' phoned me at work (large corporation) via an external phone when I was permie, she claimed that she was from internal accounts and that this year "I was going to get a big, big bonus" (her exact words). Immediately I smelt a rat ! I was just an IT bod there are no such thing as big bonuses for us (not even in the City). Her next words were "Have you got any colleagues in your team that you would recommend for bonuses !". It was a desperate, fraudulant phone call during the last economic downturn. That's the depths some would sink to during those bad times.

2) Agent called me up for a test for an investment bank, I had to go and sit it at their offices. I turned up .. it was a mixture of business and technical 1.5 hours long (it was tough but doable). He then told me that he would send the test to the bank.
Weeks passed and I heard nothing, a different agency called me with the same role but told them that I would not go for it as my CV and test had already been submitted; they got back to me claiming that the bank had never heard of me and asked me to resit the test on the banks request (another 1.5 hours).
Basically I think that the original agency had already submitted their quota of CVs to the bank and were just 'blocking my application' in order to eliminate the competition, the original slimey agent who blocked me even had the audacity to call me up asking me 'where I was ?' on the day I actually secured the role.

3) Bimbo lady agent asked me via e-mail to answer some detailed descriptions of how to price certain financial instruments back in the day when there was little info available via internet or books (all for a job application). She claimed that she had sent my CV down but I heard no reply for weeks.
Then a different agent got me to apply for the same role (the original agent hadn't sent my CV - no suprise there), but what I later found out is that she had given my original answers to another candidate for applying for the same role; the employer alerted me to this. (she got stung for it).

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Given those 3 examples do you think that I've got away with it lightly or that I've had a rough time with agents ??