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Phoenix Executive Group AKA PEG Con artists, scammers and outright liars. Get people at their most susceptible moment & take advantage to enrich their pockets Purchase New York
I had initially been contacted by them and was hesitant at the aggressive approach that was initially used to get me in the door. Being gullable, I went in and met with their first layer sales person who has a wonderful credential, a Phd.
Well he went on and on about how you have to get in at the program at a certain time or risk having to wait until the cycle is renewed. Also he brought up, how companies hire and how I would be better off joining now so I can catch companies in their hiring mode.
I was also enticed by the fact that again, verbally they had promised me consulting work in the time that it took to get me a full time job.
Well, they are a very well run organization and are slicker than oil. They use the latest psychological ploys designed to get you to open your wallet and plunk down your hard earned cash & in return you wind up with nothing but a complete loss of time and money.
After leaving the meeting alone, I was very very much undecided and I really didn't know what to do. There was a period of time that passed and the contact there or the counselor there who would be assigned to me kept trying to call me and email me, but I avoided it.
Finally, I got a call from the President of the company. A silver haired distinguished gentleman by the name of Joseph Kran who is extraordinarily polished and as smooth a salesman as there is.
I was told that I couldn't come in for another meeting unless my significant other came along to the meeting. Like all smart women(who are smarter than I, that's for certain) she DID NOT WANT TO GO from the start. But I pressured her... and that came out as a direct result of my conversation with Mr. Joseph Kran.
Well, push came to shove and we eventually wound up going there and meeting with him and sitting down and talking. He discussed how I would be able to get a very good position with no problem because they have extensive contacts in high places and that in the meantime, verbally I was promised a consulting job. I too was guaranteed a full time job orally by the owner of the company.
He kept stroking my ego and making sure that he pressed the right buttons because I let go of my credit card and it wound up burning me to the tune of several thousand dollars.
Since I was out of work, this was precious money that I didn't have that was being put on credit. But that of course did not factor into the situation whatsoever. This is a business and we are here to make money, no matter if we have to step on a few poor people's lives.
Well, I signed the contract after talking with him for a couple of hours and only later, after my initial elation wore off did I sit down and analyze it.
Their services contract offers no promise of a job whatsoever. It additionally doesn't mention the fact that any maillings that are done are at your own postal expense plus the labor to collate and fold them. Little do people realize.... but the unbelievably high return rate that was unaddressable was statistically significant.
So there was additional time and money spent on mailling which did no use whatsoever. The contract is good for a period of 3 years. I was initially with a woman who was my counselor and then I was placed with a very nice older gentleman named Bart Gerardi who was a bit slow at times.
After throwing away thousands of dollars the COMPLETE NET EFFECT is that I did not get A SINGLE TELEPHONE CALL OR A SINGLE JOB INTERVIEW FROM THEM, LET ALONE A JOB!!!
However, what they don't have in their contract and I nailled them on it, is that in there they do not say anything about resume writing or cover letter writing. They provide you with samples of cover letters but you take a stab at your resume initially. Then your counselor will make the final adjustments based on the accomplishments that you give to them.
Their Video production consists of nothing more than a camera and a VCR in a room where you go thru an mock interview one time. You review it, then that's it. Since the contract doesn't state that it's limited to one, I kept asking for another one but never received it, and I kept on going faithfully to them for 2 years!!!
By the way.... Entrance into PEG requires an MS or an advanced degree. So their counselors are nothing more than sales people who are well educated and have great social skills.
What surprised me was that they didn't have a professional and certified resume write and certified cover letter professional hired at each site full time. You can imagine how the quality of a resume and a cover letter can vary from person to person, so if you get someone without expertise in your particular area, your going to wind up with a generic resume that lacks punch.
And you will have a cover letter that is standard run of the mill. However they do provide it on disk for you, so you get to save the time it takes to write it up!
When I bitched and complained that the resume was not pulling in any nibbles, I had it rewritten a few times by my very nice counselor Bart, however it did no good whatsoever.
Since it was a 3 year contract, I stopped going after 2 and asked for a refund, only never to be heard from Phoenix Executive group again.
Before.... they were willing to take my calls and everything, however now that I sent it to the NYS department of consumer affairs, which is a toothless organization. Had I known that there are that many dissatisfied people with Phoenix Executive Group, we could have banded together and gone to the Attorney General's office in White plains to put together a complaint.
Well, that never happened nor will it, but I want to hit them where it hurts; in their pockets. I wouldn't take this amount of time to lie to you. They are the exact same agency as any other out there that doesn't cost a penny to use.
They have the added feature of Videotaping a mock interview and getting lists that are out of date and preparing cover letters and resumes that are chock full of grammatical errors and typing errors, where if you were the recipient, you would immediately trash it because of the mistakes.
But that's okay I was told.... A person doesn't look at that if they like what else they see. Well, judging from this perspective as a consumer, they failed in every respect. Had this been a reputable retail store, electronic store they would have issued even a partial refund for the time unused that was left on my contract which was a year.
After asking for that pro-rated portion of the contract, (which I thought was very fair) to be returned, I never heard from them again.
Do yourself a favor. Don't bother with them. They offer nothing special that the regular run of the mill executive placement agency has. As a matter of fact, while they are busy collecting fees without placing people at jobs, they can pay for their overhead and salaries and commissions.
It's a numbers game. The more people they bring in thru the door, the higher their take. However resources become stretched thin to the point that my advisor wasn't able to meet with me on a regular basis, nor did it make sense to when there was nothing new to discuss.
They are today's legitimized version of the snake oil salesperson. All smoke and mirrors and poof! your money will be gone quicker than you can say boo.
If you think I'm kidding... go thru their interview process however make sure you keep your credit cards, checks, money at home. When they ask for your significant other to come along (they INSIST that they do) tell them that your not willing to bring him or her along and see what they do. I guarantee you they will come up with some reason/excuse to get you in the door.
DON'T DO IT. YOU ARE THROWING YOUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN.
You are better off hiring a REAL certified resume writer to professionally write your resume and cover letter. That would cost say 500.00 tops. Then you want to buy current lists of executives in your field. That could cost max, $500.00.
Then if you know how to do a mail merge and print, your essentially finished with your cost except for postage and the time you spend.
Plus you will have a resume that stands out as well as a professional cover letter. If your too busy to do the mail merge and collate you can always hire a Kelly girl to do that for you. And I GUARANTEE you will get better results than I got using Phoenix Executive Group, PLUS you will save yourself several thousand dollars.
Now who is making economic sense here when they tell you that they will cut your downtime by a certain percentage.
Why don't you suggest that you will be more than happy to pay upon services rendered. Meaning that when you get a job using Phoenix Executive Group's services they are allowed to bill you at whatever cost was initially agreed upon.
That will never ever happen though. That's why I say they are worse to deal with than any other retail outlet you will ever come across. There are no refunds.... even when there is no services completed.
It's ingenious as anything, but beware..................
Your money is as good as out the window!
Lawrence
Suffern, New York
U.S.A.
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