I too purchased Allen and Associates (Minnesota) because it was sold to me that this program was a collective proactive service to help me find a new job while I was recently laid off. It was sold to me that Allen and Associates (Minnesota) has a proven approach to access new contacts within a job opportunity that typically most people cannot access.
It was sold to me that they would build a marketing campaign centered around my service, create a new resume and obtain about 200 new companies that exclusively work with Allen and Associates and have a history of working with Allen and Associates. They bragged about having a unique system where they would follow up on a custom marketing campaign that they put together for me and call on all their contacts.
It sounded like a unique approach to finding a new job. I was told by Eric Gustafson (Minnesota) that I would be assigned a customer support manager and they (including my sales representative Eric Gustafson out of Minnesota) would be proactively working for me to help design and call on these contacts once my campaign was completed.
It was positioned to me over and over that their value add was different then other placement firms in that they would contact these names for me. I really thought this was a good fit for me because Allen and Associates would put together their campaign for me identify contacts within their network and make the follow up calls on these contacts is a perfect fit.
I asked them if I could pay half upfront and pay the rest once the campaign was completed. Eric Gustafson (Minnesota) told me that they cannot do this. There slick response was 'because Allen and Associates would build this custom marketing campaign for me and the fact that they would have new inroads within their customer base, they assured me that is would be worth the investment and that I would be able to find a better job within 90 days'"
Results:
1. Allen and Associates came up with only 100 companies to market to not the 200 that would be recommended. Strike One
2. Their supposedly 'contacts' was a D&B listing that you can put together yourself if you know how to do it. The contacts that they provided me to call on were very caught off guard by my calls and directed me to HR —Strike two
3. Resume that was delivered by them was less than detailed leaving many of my accomplishments left out. —Strike Three
4. Found out after the campaign was delivered to me that it was my responsibility for all calling efforts. I told him that it was my impression that they were going to do it for me and that is why I purchased their services. Erik tried to convince me that it only takes 10-15 minutes to call on these contacts. I indicated to him that I already have a full time job and this is why I hired them to do this.—Strike Four
5. They know that I am an upset customer and I left them messages and a honest but brutal customer survey and they have yet to return my phone calls. —Strike 5
Danielle was my customer support manager was never was proactive in me or my campaign. I felt that I needed to be the one who is proactive in contacting her and go over their program with her. Left her a voicemail and it took her 10 days to return it.
Kari Slade has never approached my concerns nor has she returned any of my phone calls either.
Erik Gustafson (Minnesota) has yet to proactively call me to see how their 'rock solid approach' is working for me.
I recommend that anyone who comes in contact with Allen and Associates, STAY AWAY or you will be taken advantage of.
If they try to convince you that these complaints you are reading about are false or misleading, RUN AWAY or else you will loose $3000 dollars
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