Thanks to this site I narrowly escaped being ripped off by Bernard Haldane and Associates.
I had been lokking for a job in Indianapolis and I saw their add in the Indianapolis Star Jobs section of the paper. Since I live out of state I thought it would be a good idea to have someone in Indianapolis help me out with my search.
I contacted BH and they set me up an appointment with David Caswell one of their Vice Presidents (Sales Rep) Dave said he had access to the "unadvertised job market". He said 90% of people looking for jobs look in Help Wanted/Classified adds or on the Internet and that these job listings are only 10% of what is actually out there. The other 90% of jobs are "unadvertised" and I could be part of the 10% that has access to the unadvertised job market by using BH services.
He also said I was under payed for the skills and education level that I had. He said he would have no problem finding me a job that payed much better. He said BH would set up the interviews, negotiate my salary and vacations and that my fees would be returned to me "via a signing bonus" by the company that hired me. He said he called three different companies and that he had an individual (me) with a certain skill set, and that two of the companies wanted to interview me. Of coarse he couldn't tell me which companies he talked to.
He claimed he could place me in 60 days without a doubt.
All I had to do was pay the minimum fee of $4860.00 and get started in the program. The quicker I got through the program the quicker I could start interviewing. I let BH charge 4860.00 to my charge card and I was to start Phase I the next day. That night I checked out the net and found this sight. Thank you to all of you who posted complaints.
I went in the next day to get a refund. David agreed to refund my money but only because they were letting me out of the contract out of the goodness of their hearts because there were no refunds in the contract and I was making a big mistake. The truth is, no services were rendered and I was due a full refund. Caught them in the nick of time and they weren't happy about it.
Dave wanted to know why I changed my mind and I told him I had read some things on the internet. He said they were all lies and that I could check with the attorney general or the BBB and I was making a big career mistake.
He said there was no way to refute things said on the internet (in some cases I agree) but this sight allows rebuttle.
I was unsure what was the truth so I asked him if BH actually contacted the potential employers and set up the interviews for their clients? He danced around this question and never gave me a straight answer. Still unsure of the truth I asked for some references. Surely if BH had placed so many people and had such a vast network of satisfied clients then they could come up with a few references who wouldn't mind telling me what BH did for them. Dave got angry at this request and said that this would be an invasion of their clients privacy and there was no way he could provide me with any references. This is when I knew for sure it was a scam and I told him I wanted the charges reversed on my credit card. He promptly did so saying they had not processed it yet.
Any good business can provide a few references!!! At that point he turned me over to the office manager because David was helping another client. The office manager talked real quite (so no one else would hear) about how they had an impeccable record with the BBB and the Attorney Generals office, and how all the statements on the interent were lies. I thanked him and left with my money.
In my opinion BH is a way over priced resume writing service/employment counseling service. I was hoping they actually had contacts at various businesses. I was led to believe BH would find job vacanacies, set up the interviews for me, and negotiate salary. From what I can tell this is not the case. They said they have access to the "unadvertised job market". Sure, there are jobs that aren't advertised, but they don't have access to those jobs, you have to find them on your own.
Be your own judge, but I think it's a scam. If there is anybody out there that BH has successfully placed. Write a rebuttle to my complaint because I would love to hear how BH got you the great job your currently at, leave me a phone # and I'll call you and you can tell me about it.
Click here to all the others who have been victimized by Bernard Haldane Associates
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