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I have experienced similar 'scams' from companies like Chandler Hill. They dangle big dollar jobs as an enticement to pay thousands of dollars to help you find the 'perfect' job for you. However, they do almost no work. You write your resume, they do some editing but you can have a resume service do this for a lot less. You make all the contacts and send the letters out - they do nothing. They claim they will be a part of the negotiation process, but they never actually do anything to help you get past all the so-called gate keepers and other individuals that hinder your job seeking efforts.
The few success stories are outweighed by the majority of disatisfied customers - and they NEVER refund any money, so their assurances of refunds if you are not satified are a lie.
The last two comments from Chandler Hill are worthless – companies will claim that negative reports are from competitors or disgruntled former employees rather than admit that not every customer is satisfied and happy with the results of their investment. It is in their best interest to insist that all the claims are false. Companies who play the bait and switch employment game entice people with promises of helping them find a high-paying position. Unfortunately, people are desperate enough and fearful enough about not finding a job that they are willing to shell out thousands of dollars (often using credit cards and dipping into savings accounts to pay the bill), and will not complain when the 'dream job' does not appear as long as they find ‘something.’ Now, I am not saying that every customer that signs a contract with firms like this is dissatisfied; there are always amazing success stories. Nevertheless, there are complaints out there posted by those who are less than satisfied and often feel that they have not gotten their money's worth.
Just to set the record straight - I am not a disgruntled client, a former employee, or a competitor. I am a Program Manager who has watched the job market evolve and morph into the strange beast we see today. When I am looking for a new employee, I want to know what real, appropriate experience they can bring to the table. I do not want to be conned with 'buzz words' or clever intro letters telling me that someone just wants information. Well-written cover letters and resumes (no matter what the format) that provide a good overview of skills and work experience will end up on my desk for my review.
So stuff it Chandler Hill, I have heard about how you 'help' people find jobs from people I have hired - without the help of agencies like yours. Furthermore, a response from a company rather than a satisfied client is meaningless in my book - let me hear from people who have success stories to relate and maybe I will change my opinion.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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This sounds more like an opinion than a complaint. Do you have an example, or any details, or verifiable experiences with this company? If so, please elaborate. If not, I will consider your comment baseless and irrelevant.
lillyb... makes no sense. Not a helpful comment at all. You should put specifics like how long the marketed you for w/o a result, additional details of what services you used or didn't
Chandler Hill Partners is an executive job search and corporate outplacement firm. Generally the employer pays all fees. Chandler Hill Partners offers a free online career evaluation. If you had taken the time to complete this free assessment you would have learned about the issues you are facing and received tips to improve your resume so you would be more attractive to recruiters and employers. It’s amazing how people can jump to conclusions based on zero knowledge. Instead of getting the help you needed you decided to go online and post fraudulent claims against a company who’s sole purpose is to assist the American unemployed and has been doing so for more than 30 years.
Chances are that you are not a real person and never an actual client, rather a competitor of Chandler Hill Partners posting these fraudulent claims in order to damage Chandler Hill Partners online reputation with your claims of scam and scams. I like how you added the word scams to your post so the search engines will pick it up. It’s amazing what you will learn if you are not lazy and just believe what you read on the internet. Next time I suggest you post your name and email address so that if you are really interested in learning about Chandler Hill Partners we could contact you. Thanks for the post. Good Luck with your Job Search and God Bless America
As most of you are aware companies are downsizing every day. People are losing their jobs and the companies that let them go hire firms like Chandler Hill Partners to work with these individuals to assist them in resume writing, career coaching, interview prep and everything else that goes into a job search. Unfortunately it is a competitive business and competitors will post negative and fraudulent comments to damage the reputation of Chandler Hill Partners. In most cases the companies who have let these individuals go (laid-off) pay Chandler Hill Partners fees. Chandler Hill Partners fees are some of the lowest in the industry starting around $200 - $250 per month.
Right on abara! I had the same terrible experience with a company called Taylor Wingate (now San Diego Jobs). The charged me close to 5k, wrote an awful resume and helped me 'network'. It was 5k to be told how to use LinkedIn, which I already had and was using just fine. 6 months later - nothing. No interviews, no positions and no follow-up by them. Just an email saying their name changed. I wonder why?
Chandler Hill is an effective option if you aren't unemployed and can afford the $5K fee. Otherwise, there are far less expensive options out there that provide the same services for little or no cost. Their proprietary software is far less user friendly than LinkedIn, but if you are a LinkedIn member and already have a well developed contact list, you will spend much of your time duplicating your efforts with CH's software...all to aid them in evaluating your progress. I'm sorry, but I didn't expect to spend 20+ hours a week typing in details of contacts I already have, or waste more time in a futile letter writing campaign. Not surprisingly, I'm not happy with their product. Had I known that I would be paying them to warehouse my valuable contacts for what I've received from them thus far, I would never have signed the contract. But, they pitched on how easily they could sell me to their clients...they made me feel so wanted...just like the world's oldest profession.
I received an email saying they would like to interview me for a job. When I went in, to their SHARED OFFICE I found out they didn't have a specific job and I told them they lied to me to get me into their office. They said they had "direct" contact with compaies looking for my skills. If that was the case the companies would pay their fee, not me. They wanted $3, 500 UP FRONT. I told this ### I would ever pay for anything upfront, especially a service that is always paid by the employer, and with no guarantee of even a phone call. Then this idiot said he would only charge half and the rest would be paid after I get hired. What an jerk and total waste of time. Never contact them unless they have a specific job; do not require payment from the searcher, and if you make it to their office and discover they are shared office space, regardless of how nice, turn around and get out as soon as possible. Some of these are nothing but a franchise to use their "offical" sounding name and some direction onsetting up an office and coaching on what to tell the victim. Not a bad gig when you can pay a high school kid to skim resumes for key words which are used for bait and contact info, schedule appointments every hour or less, and even one hit will get you $4, 000 - 5, 000. Never supply additional info that isn't already on your resume.
This discussion is completely hilarious to me! lol.
A bunch of 1/2 educated people giving advise as to HOW the industry of employment services works. Interesting!
I've been a head hunter, a recruiter; worked for an outplacement firm and currently I'm an Executive Career Consultant. The problem is that most people have no idea as to how many types of companies are out there in the field and what it is they do. The job seeker tends to lump everyone together into one pile - Recruiter and then blames the company for offering services the seeker wasn't looking for...lol!
Again, interesting.
It's kinda like going into an Italian restaurant, the wait staff asking what you'd like to order, you responding with tacos, the wait staff telling they don't have tacos (but offering you a nice pasta dish) and in turn the you running to the internet to report they tried to SCAM you into having pasta when you were seeking tacos? Uh just because they are both restaurants, they have a bar, booths, table clothes and servers doesn't mean they DO the SAME thing. You as the comsumer must be responsible enough to know where you're headed. If you needed a divorce you'd SEEK an attorney who handled DIVORCES not TAXES. If you needed a doctor who performed LIPOSUCTION you wouldn't walk into a PODIATRIST office (or at least I hope you wouldn't) maybe some of you would. I'm hoping for the most part I'm making my point to the majority of you 'Thinking" people.
It's the same thing with employment services, you have to know who does what and to whom you should go to get the help that you are seeking. Classic 1 - in their naivete has posted that the employer always pays. This SIMPLY is not true!
From what Classic 1 is describing (as assume they are posting everything accruately) the company was a RESUME' blaster or possibly outplacement. It seems as though what Classic 1 was SEEKING as a RECRUITER, a STAFFING agency or a PLACEMENT company.
My question is this for Classic 1... do you have the advertisment that you applied to that say they are interviewing for a specific job? Did you ask any questions of the person who called to book the appointment as to HOW they got your resume? Maybe what TYPE of services do they offer... or were you so HAPPY to get called to interview that your brain got suck outta ya head and you went running into an Italian restaurant ordering tacos?
Ok folks! I will agree, there are some bad companies out there; however, I have to defend the industry as a whole by saying that MOST PEOPLE DON'T READ! NOR, DO THEY DO ANY RESEARCH BEFORE SUBMITTING THEIR INFORMATION ON LINE! But some how this is some one ELSE's is fault?
Here is the skinny!
Headhunters
Recuiters
Staffing agencies
Day labor companies
Temporary agencies
Placement companies
Search Firms
Outplacement companies (notice there are PLACEMENT and OUTPLACEMENT) two totally different restaraunts
and there are also privat and coroporate Outplacement companies - they usually work for a different client (KNOW the difference)
Career Coaches
Career Advisors
Resume Blasing companies
Career Marketing companies
Career Management Firms
I think I've mentioned them all... if I didn't this is a good start - Especially for thos who had not clue there were THIS MANY choices in the industry of Employment Services. What the JOB SEEKER needs to kow is WHO does WHAT and for WHOM, that will dictate who pays the fees. Which by the way another MYTH is that you don't pay if you use a headhunter/recruiter/staffing agency or placement company...lol NOPE you pay (you just don't know it). It's too much for me to get into here (feel carpal tunnel syndrome coming on from what I've typed so far).
As far as the WEIRD statement about their SHARED office space...lol The firm I work for we have 18 locations across the country all ALL are leased by our firm alone except one which is shared. The reason we do it is it's a small office, there was no need to have a dedicated admin staff - also why pass the costs of OVERHEAD along to our customers...lol Classic 1 "You do know that when you buy something that's added into the costs right?" Every time you walk into any business office or store you are paying for the lights/water/heat/AC/theft/bounced checks/admin staff/lease/snow removal/landscaping - so to that I'd have to say...lol you should have been thanking them for trying to lower costs FOR YOU! Many companies are going into shared spaces these days.
Bottom line people... DO YOUR RESEARCH before submitting your resume online and if you are wanting TACOS go to a place that serves TACOS!
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcb5vt3j_3g7gw53gc
Anyone that believes they can just pay a $ and someone else will magically find a job for them should expect to stay working the drive through at mickyD.
Unless you see the value of creating relationships with placement service personal, (who really do have relationships with a plethora of executives), then you are better off looking for a similar job like the one you lost at the drive through.
Entitlement died with the birth of America. Get off your but and work persistently hard with a humble positive attitude to create “relationships” and the jobs will come to you.
I agree with the spirit of the last comment, but the practice of saying you are a recruiter when you are a service is fraudulent. Stewart Cooper & Coon (maybe that should be Con), send you recruitment emails, acting as if they have a position that matches your resume. Here are some Tacos for you! Then you find out the actual relationship is a service, not a recruiter - sorry, no tacos after all, pay me now and maybe you'll gat some Pasta for your money. The original complaint is valid. Services should not use the words "Recruiter" "Head Hunter" or "Agent" if they charge you a cent before you actually have a job (my AGENT gets a rake for the Jobs he gets me AFTER I get the job - never before).
Sheila, there is a typo in your https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcb5vt3j_3g7gw53gc deck, but it has very good information.
I'm a person just starting to look for work. I was called by SCC. They service sounded fine. I'm potentially interested. But here's my concern. Like anyone would do in some due diligence process to vet professional services, I would like a couple references of past clients. But that request was declined with the reason of "too many transactions and don't want to constantly both our clients". Well, that doesn't work for me. How is one to vet this service if they cannot get 3rd party verification, in some form? I ran an interactive agency for 10 years and we would always provide references on request. If people are going to spend tens-of-thousands of dollars on my services, in a trust-based sale, then I would expect them to want to talk to one or several of my past clients. Why is this request seen as not do-able? I cannot cut a check with some verifiable proof of good service if that want up-front payment vs. pay-for-performance. With that, am I missing another way to vet this company? - John
SCC teaches you how to open up opportunities even if there is not an open position available. They teach you how to become an expert at interviewing skills so you can beat out the competition. They can typically help you find employment within 6 months at a 97% achieved statistic when the national average is 1 month of searching for every 10k you earn based on the dept of labor statistics. They do recruit for companies as well - but what I like about them is that they are teaching me skills that provide competitive edge. I have all kinds of resources, tools, a campaign director, a marketing guru, a resume writer, a web portfolio with skills and graphs. They forced me to think about what I have accomplished and validate it with numbers & metrics. They did not post a job with lots of dollars to attract me. They have not done bait and switch - while they do have a division that recruits for employers - the division that helps candidates is not enticed by a promise of a job that they have or are working on in their recruitment division. It is not an easy process - I've had more homework and activities required of me that made a job search what it is suppose to be - a 40 hour job in itself...you just don't get paid for it! In fact, I feel like I am back in college again. My campaign director works with me twice per week minimum to help coach and I have to fly out to phoneix to practice in person. They are tough and critical which makes you better if you are open to modifying your faults. No, I do not work for them. I've hired them to build my skills, brand image, and interiewing skills. No one has ever been rude on the phone or in email. I think you have to understand what you are paying for. This is not someone who hands you a job this is someone who teaches you how you can find a job or create a job opportunity. They contacted me after I posted my resume to tell me about this service and did not once bait and switch me with the enticement of a high paying job. This is about as honest of an evaluation that I can provide and I do recommend them to others who have successfully used them as well.
I found it curious that within 60 seconds of posting my updated resume to CareerBuilder, I got a rather lengthy e-mail from a Kristine Barney at StewartCooperCoon.com trying to pitch me on using their executive search firm. I'm not an executive by any stretch -- I'm an executive admin. Big difference! Even if they are legit (which I doubt), I wouldn't shell out that kind of $$$ for placement.
Another e-mail for the spam folder ...
I tend to agree that these firms all offer the same pitch which comes with a hefty price tag. I was contacted by one of their sales people after posting my resume on LinkedIn and spent 30 minutes on the phone with him before I realized that this was all just a pitch leading up to a sale. He was full of gobbledegook stats and processes that his firm utilizes, none of which made much sense to me. I agree that getting a good job requires skill, but these guys aren't offering anything that a C-level leader can't do with some strategic networking and aggressive searching.
I have found a great opportunity for anyone who has C-level contacts, you really should look at this power point as your contacts can leverage you a great residual income, no this is not MLM but a unique new concept that costs nothing to join:
http://www.theprovisionconcept.com/
After you view this contact me at danieldrugan@provisioncorporation.com to learn more. And no I wasn't planning on even leaving this info or here to sell anyone, just was curious as to the postings and then saw the correlation.
Best to all!
I think that something like "paid fee agencies" can work in theory, but in practice, they fall short and mostly disappoint job seekers. Something like this model would probably work better for executive level positions, where the few thousand dollars is chump change and they wind up landing a job at $150, 000 per year. For us mere mortals, it would never make much sense.
$150, 000 a year isn't what it used to be.
Just got my introductory email solicitation from Stewart Cooper & Coon. I was neutral on this type of service and decided to see if there were any comments from satisfied clients. I've noted lots of comments, but none from satisfied clients. Thanks for your comments, but given the absence of the type pf information I'm looking for, I know just what to do with this email.
The more text mistakes in a post, the less ones opinions and facts are considered valuable. Does anyone take the time to reread and correct their comments?
Interesting what defenses (to the service and to negate the complaint) there are above. I can only say that from PERSONAL experience - using them - it's exactly what the complaint describes. I'm not sure what wanda3 and jpg11 are doing - but can only assume that they're paid by these companies themselves to defend the merits of the $5000 "retainer" fee. I've personally seen this paid-for-support tactic on forums. I've seen it on Alibaba (read about it).
But as someone who was recently unemployed, I can vouch that this service won't help. ***Personal networking connections*** are the key way to get a job. That's almost the ONLY way for a 35+ year old to get a good, sustainable $100k+ job.
Finally, this complaint isn't solely aimed at Stewart Cooper Coon (although they are scam artists and liars). Every service - including those paid by employers for RIF (reduction-in-force) people - does nothing to help people GET a job. Note that "Right Management" delivers 10% of Manpower Group's revenue, but over 50% of its profit. And all they provide is the same crap-for-service as Stewart Cooper Coon.
I felt that I would write this review about my experience with Stewart, Cooper & Coon and the experience that I had with their program. Stewart Cooper & Coon markets their company and each of their programs as an executive recruiting and placement firm, quoting that they are one of the best in the nation at placing candidates with companies better than the other leading executive placement companies out there. There were even stories within the city that I lived in that ranked and rated executive search companies and for the past 2 years it showed SC&C as the top company. Well, in short for the $4k+ you spend for this service my opinion is that your better off keeping your money and just utilizing the several other programs that you find on the internet for free are just as a comparable resource. Here are the series of events, as I experienced them, so you can be the judge as to whether you should spend your hard earned dollars on this company and the service they provide. I am also stating that this is my experience and I am sure there may be some clients that were satisfied with the service they paid for, I’m just giving my experience and informing future clients so they are better informed before they spend their money. When I was researching this company, I could never find a review of previous clients and the BBB rating showed an A+ with ZERO complaints. I just felt that a honest review of my experience with the company will help future clients make a better informed decision. So for the ones that read this review take it for what it’s worth and decide for yourself.
When you first inquire about the company they will explain how successful they are at placing executives with perspective companies. They will have you look on their web site about all the success stories. But, you will find out that if you try and ask for previous client’s info so you may email or call them about the services, similar to references, you will get the privacy of their client speech.
After I decided to take their 2nd program, which included the 10 target companies ($4, 000), I submitted my resume for their “team” to evaluate and come up with an executive resume that would better target the companies and careers that I was looking to get into.
Resume stage (time lapse 3 days):
Well, I will explain what I received that a kid in high school that can cut and paste would have done a similar job. Let me explain how I came up with that conclusion. Being that I was coming from and industry with well over 20+ years of experience, graduate school and multiple certifications the average person could see how the resume that I turned into SC&C was 2 pages in length. When I got the resume back in SC&C format, it still had the header of the previous person that SC&C resume writer had just completed. The resume writer through in an executive summary at the top of the new resume and cutout any soft skill bullet points that I had entered and ended up with 1 ½ pages. When I asked about why the resume was cut down so much, I was told that the majority of companies spend less than a couple of minutes looking at each resume and that the first page is the key. Ok, so it sounded legit since they are supposed to be the subject matter experts right? Now, part of this is my fault in the aspect that I signed off and agreed with the resume, which I shouldn’t. This decision was also based on the advice from my campaign director or whatever technical name SC&C calls their advisor, which every client is assigned one. He is the main guy that you deal with as far as questions and program details and updates. You really can get this same type and quality of resume writing yourself, just search online there are several examples across the internet. In the end, I never used the resume that SC&C drafted. I used the same one that I had turned into them to get the interview for the position I am currently working at.
Success story stage (time lapse 7-10 days):
Step 2 was the success story process. This is where you will go into their website and SC&C has a web page built with what seems like 100’s of questions about the success stories of what you have done throughout your career. The point of all the questions is that the data you put in is linked to your own web page, kind of like an extension or your resume if perspective companies would like to know more about your successes. The stories are broken into different categories that the hiring folks can toggle between. Now remember, I was told before that most hiring managers won’t read past the first page of a resume, do we really think they would pull up a link that’s on your resume to read more if they quit after the first page? I think not, but you can decide for yourself.
So between the resume that some college kid is probably doing for extra cash for beer money, they also place the link to your SC&C web page (success story) along with your LinkedIn web page at the top of the resume. Once that is all done, and you have agreed and signed off on it, you will move onto the marketing phase of your program.
FYI, your resume and personal webpage only stay on the SC&C site for 6 months, till the end of your contract with SC&C. You are welcome to keep the webpage and resume searchable, for an additional fee of course…..
Oh, I will say that the SC&C web site has a lot of exercises, they “give” you a “free” copy of Fred Coon’s book and your advisor will show you more than you even care to look at what all is on the SC&C web site.
Marketing phase (time lapse 45 days) (10 target companies):
Now, when you choose which program you are going with they explain in their sales pitch about how they have people within their network and that your resume and is sent to all of their recruiters within the network. At this time you will be talking (emailing) with your marketing coordinator, can’t remember what gee whiz term they gave the person who cold calls the 10 companies you had selected. The point of the person is to call the 10 companies that you had selected, remind you that you have done all the work so far for them. You even have to go onto their data base and look up the name, addresses, email, etc… for all 10 of your companies and send it to your marketing coordinator so they can call and email the companies. Is anyone else seeing a pattern here with this company? Who is working for whom anyways? Apparently I was working for them at the time.
The calls and emails to the 10 companies were the same over the 45 DAYS. I emphasize 45 Days because that is the maximum length of time your marketing coordinator will actually call and or email the companies to try and get you some type of interview. The emails and phone calls would go out every couple of days. In my experience the marketing coordinator was always met with a voice mail or office staff to leave a message which was never returned. After about 3 weeks I asked, why don’t we move onto different companies if we are not getting any traction with the first 10? Was told that isn’t within the program and that would change the program, and of course we could contact any different companies. Sooooo, for the next 30 days for a total of 45 days, I saw the same emails go out and the same phone calls and messages left. Now, this is all tracked and copy and pasted on the SC&C’s website to cover them to show “work” and companies that they have reached out to. At the end of the 45 days I received an email from the marketing person and stated that she had contacted the 10 companies by phone and email and tried but unsuccessful in landing and interview and that her portion of the program was over and wished me luck…LOL.
Remaining time of your 6 month contract:
During the remaining time you have left with SC&C you will be talking, usually once a week either by phone or email to your main program coordinator. During this time he basically talks to you and tries to tell you where you can look for and keep applying for jobs. Again, this is your doing the majority of the work.
So in retrospect I believe the $4k spent on the program could have been better spent elsewhere. There isn’t anything proprietary (except maybe the webpage) but you can get one made for you for an entire year plus for a lot less than $4k.
Thank you so much for your detailed review. I felt something was off when I spoke to them but the refusal to send more references of happy clients was the red flag that made me walk away
Here is the letter I received today:
Hi Robert,
My staff found your resume on-line. If you are actively engaged in
finding a new career opportunity, we would like to hear from you. Our firm has
placed thousands of executives throughout the United States and Canada, from
start-ups to Fortune 1000 companies.
Please click on the link below and
answer a few questions and be sure to attach your latest resume to see if we can
help.
http://stewartcoopercoon.com/about-us/resume-evaluation/
Thank you
for your time. If you have any questions, please contact me by return email at
kbarney@stewartcoopercoon.com. This will ensure we are able to access your
information should you need additional assistance.
Kristine Barney
Senior
Vice President, Executive Evaluation
StewartCooperCoon.com
4809 E. Thistle
Landing, Suite 100
Phoenix, AZ
85044
_______________________________________________
Stewart, Cooper & Coon
is a human capital strategies and management firm specializing in retained
search, individual executive placement, corporate outplacement, organizational
development, and career transition programs for private sector, government, and
senior military leadership. SC&C is headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, and has served
corporations and individual executives in both U.S. and foreign markets for over
two decades. We are bonded and licensed, have an A+ rating with the Better
Business Bureau and BBB Online, and are active members of the Chamber of
Commerce.
I had a feeling that there was more to know about this company below signing up. After getting half way throught the questions in the survey, I copied the name of the firm and searched on Google.
If you wonder if some company or product is a SCAM, then type SCAM in front of the search string. After I did that, this complaintsboard was near the top of the search results. I stopped filling out the survey and marked the message as JUNK.
I agree as I also got lured into using a similar firm called Resolve out of NY. I supposedly had the owner Bob David even close the deal with me. What a BIG MISTAKE and HUGE waste of money, especially at a time when every dollar is needed to keep my household and family going while out of work. I want to warn anyone out there looking for a job not to fall for the same sales pitch as I did. The same story of claims to have tons of contacts and yet after 4 marketing campaigns I had zero results meaning not 1 response from the thousands of emails and supposedly phone calls made on my behalf ZERO. I tried to get a refund but was denied and reminded that I could still use their services up to 2 years. Don't make the same mistake I made by believing that their process will result in obtaining emails or phone calls from anyone as it's all a ruse to lure you into paying them $6k for a revamp of your resume followed by email blasts all over the country which leads to no results. These kind of company's need to be called out so others don't fall prey to their empty promises of recruiters and hiring managers noticing you. Its all a bunch of BS!
This company claims to help you find better job.
These guys are frauds. I paid 5000 and have not received any benefit. They were not even able to schedule an interview. They make you do all the work but still no results.
Do not ever sign up