My husband and met with Paul Jacob and Joe Kranz in the Iselin office and in October I hired Phoenix Executive Group. My company was downsizing and I knew I would lose my job in the coming weeks. I am a marketing manager for over 30 years and was not seeking a career change. Phoenix was aware that I had an AAS degree and not a BS degree in my field.
The agreement was that PEG would work with me until I accept a job of my choice. Paul Jacobs stated that they would contact people they have placed in corporations and refer you to them for job interview and placement. It would take 2-3 months.in the meantime, they would get me temp work to help me pay my bills, but that never happened.
Joe Kranz said his wife works for Bristol Myers as Marketing Manager in Parsippany office. He said that he could call her and place me in a position at her company.By the way, when there were job postings at BMS for marketing pros, I asked to have Mrs. Kranz walk my resume in. That never happened either.
I paid the fee of $4410 by credit card. I was to get a job for a minimum of $75,000 annually plus a sign on bonus then I would pay Phoenix a balance of $2205. None of the contract agreements have been met. Now I am on my 3rd counselor and I have no interviews and no offers and sadly as I review my sending out 100 online resumes a week, a mailing every 2 weeks and 10 calls each morning, I have nothing to show except an ongoing charge card bill and enhanced debt.
After 3 months I started to ask where my referrals were. There were none. Then I was asked to meet with another counselor in Parsippany office, James Marken, who told me in 2-1/2 hours that he called his hi-powered contacts at pharma companies and no one is interested in meeting me. Then he went on to tell me how 'unique' I was and advised me to buy 2 books.
When I called friends of mine who work at Fortune 500 companies for my "informational interview", they took me aside and said that my newly constructed resume format (by Phoenix) was terrible. I was told my resume would go into that garbage before a review.
To date, I not received referrals from Phoenix clients placed in pharma companies or any other companies. I told them I wanted to work at S&P and I still have no contacts there, no referrals.
I did not receive response from temp/contact work request even after 2 requests were mailed.
My so called direct mailings have incorrect/old addresses. Some 20% of companies listed were out of business. Larry Maglin explained that it's D&B's database that's out of date and they will use another mailing list company for me. This did not happen.
Each mailing has taken about 6 weeks to get processed and mailed although I was told turnaround would be 5 days.
When I finally insisted on a sample by the 3rd mailing (which Jack Santore initially wanted me to pay for and I refused) I was embarrassed. The letters where written illegibly, typed all in caps ad when I made follow-up calls, no one knew who my advisor was that allegedly had referred me to them. Needless to say I got nowhere.
Although I repeatedly requested mailings to NYC geography, all mailings went to NJ companies. The prospects responded that they were receiving (or not receiving) the same mailing over and over again. They did not respond to the first one so they did not answer any follow-up ones.
I chose my direct mail database, but somehow it was often changed without my knowledge or consent and mailing sent to modified list.
After one year, in Oct I wrote to Kranz and Maglin telling them that I am dissatisfied with their service and the reasons as stated above. I requested a pro-rated refund. After certified mail and many phone calls, Kranz would not answer my calls. Maglin said Kranz does not speak to clients and they do not give refunds and the best they could do is get me another advisor. So now I have David Laska who is so busy he talks to me for 1/2 hr every 3-6 weeks by phone just to check on my progress. When I ask for referrals, he says he doesn't know what I'm asking and will talk to Maglin.
Thus, my debt is larger, my unemployment insurance ran out in May I keep selling my jewelry and stocks to keep financially afloat and I still do not have what I paid for.
Presently I am freelancing for pennies per hour, part time, with no benefits. When I did some background research on PEG and their offices, I found it interesting that in most all locations they are listed as an employment agency, although it states in their contract, in bold type, that they are NOT and employment or placement agency.
I would like to add that upon my continued discussions with each different Phoenix advisor, I am still told that I am doing all the right things as they advised and that they don't know why I don't have an offer or job yet, and to just keep trying and doing what I am doing.
My question is, if I am doing all the right' things why don't I have an offer?
Ms. A
Victorya, New York
U.S.A.
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