This company is in fact a ripoff, but few realize it. They sell a service that is guaranteed to get the names and titles of the appropriate contacts for you at the firms you want to target. Let's say, as in my case, you are targeting firms with a Financial Services group. Not a finance department, but financial products and services.
Given your level, they suggest you should direct your letter to the Senior VP of that group. They will compile a mailing list of firms that meet your target type, geography, size and other criteria, and then identify the right person in the firm to whom your reseume should be sent. They then will prepare your resume and cover letter, print the letters and resumes and then mail them for you. Sounds great, even though very pricey.
The Reality is that they do NOT do this. There are no databases out there that have this kind of information, regardless of what they claim. I ordered 1500 letters, but wanted to do all of the printing and mailing myself. They gave me a mailing list that was horrible. Most people will never look that hard, or see the poor results.in addition, despite ordering 1500, they gave me 3000 and billed me for 3000 and refused to give me a credit back, even when I disputed with AMEX - who took their side, despite proof of the 1500 purchase.
Anyway, I requested several geographies, including local. They gave me names all over the country. The local ones where supposed to be with 30 miles, but they gave me companies over 300 miles away. They were supposed to identify the Senior VP of financial services, but people don't show up that specifically in databases. I received al kinds of titles, including VP of janitrial and maintenance. They have no idea if John Smith, VP is in Finance, Operations, HR or Security. He is a VP, so they give you that name. Finally, they were supposed to give me only firms with a financial services group, but they gave me cleaning companies, the Green Stamp firm, a plastics company and numerous others firms that had NO financial services operation - I called many and confirmed.
In the end, I ordered 1500, they provided 3500, or which only about 400 actually met my criteria, and 80 of tjose were returned becuase the person was not there of the firm would not accept unsolicited resumes. The firm would not recitify the problem and refused to respond to me. Most people have them do all of the work and thus they do not see how bad the service is. They trust Barton - afterall, they are spending thousands of dollars with them, why would they do so if they did not trust the firm.
The resume and cover letter were attrocious. The cover letter was one paragraph and was essentially "I am sending you my resume. Call me if I can be of service". I am paraphrasing, but it was that simplistic. This firm also called my wife months later. They register ILLEGALLY as recruiters with Monster and ResumeZapper and others and then contact people when their resume is posted or blasted. This is how they found me and my wife. ResumeZapper confirmed it and apologized, and confirmed that they had numerous complaints about Barton and that registering with them under false pretenses was illegal in Virginia (where ResumeZapper is located). They keep changing their registration info though, and will continue to do so.
I lost $3,000 with this unscrupulous firm, and when I tried to get a refund or dispute the $1500 overcharge, they LIED to AMEX about our transaction, even telling AMEX that I admitted to them that I LIED to AMEX about the transaction just to get the service for free. This firm is a pure out and out fraud.in case you are interested, I am very experienced with an MBA from a top 5 school, yet still I received ZERO results, not even a single interview from this effort. This method is not effective, and Barton Industries is a well disguised scam. Beware!
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