Complaint Review: Robert H. Johnson Career Florida

One of the first things I learned in the business world is that when someone doesn't sign his/her name to a letter or statement, or submits their comment/complaint anonymously, then the chances are this person lacks integrity, is not to be believed, and is probably up to no good. The "Tony" who has lodged this complaint against me lacked the courage and basic honesty to give his real name.

I think it's important that everyone know that this issue has been thoroughly reviewed and had a full hearing by the Northeast Florida Chapter of the Better Business Bureau. When I realized what "Tony" was up to, and saw that there was no reasonable way to resolve the complaint with him, I suggested he file a report with the BBB, and I provided him with the telephone number and mail address to do that.

The BBB's records are open to the public and I invite anyone who is genuinely interested in fair play and the truth in this matter that they call Ms. Darlene Bell of the Northeast Florida Better Business Bureau at 904/721-2288, or her e-mail at dbell@bbbnefla.org. You will then be able to see BOTH sides of the story, and not just "Tony's" spurious and false claims. I responded fully to each and every comment "Tony" made against me, and also pointed out his obvious deceptions.

I am immensely proud of my reputation as one of the most respected career counselors and executive coaches in the United States. I graduated with highest academic distinction (Summa c*m laude) from California State University (DH), Los Angeles, and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most prestigious scholastic honor society. My undergraduate degree (BA) in Human Services/Counseling was conferred by Mercer University, Atlanta/Macon, GA. I am also a Certified Career and Job Transition Coach (JCTC), a national designation of the Career Planning & Development Network, headed by Richard Knowdell, creator of the respected Card Sort Assessment system. My JCTC training was delivered personally by Mr. Knowdell.

I am frequently invited to be a keynote speaker at national conferences. I have maintained offices in the same location for the past 17 years. In that time, I have provided career assistance, counseling and resume writing services to more than 9,000 clients. I am the author of the 5-book "How to Find a Job" series for the entire State of Florida, with books for Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa Bay Area, Miami, and a combined Ft. Lauderdale/Palm Beaches. At the invitation of our local city/county public library system, I am currently delivering free job hunting workshops at locations throughout the city to help people struggling with unemployment.

"Tony" accuses me of being "a fraud." The American Heritage Dictionary's definition of a "fraud," is "one who assumes a false pose; an imposter. One who defrauds; a cheat." I have never represented myself as anyone other than a career counselor and job coach. And I have not cheated anyone. "Tony" paid for and received a professionally-written resume and cover letter. "Tony's" complaint revolves around his not understanding the language of a resume. He did not like what he calls "run-on sentences." I tried to explain to "Tony" that the language of a resume is very different from other forms of written communication. The brevity that is demanded of a resume requires a suspension of normal sentence structure and common English punctuation. No matter how hard I tried to explain that to "Tony", he just continued to scream over the phone. I offered to re-write any phrases with the understanding that those changes were counter to the accepted standards of resume construction. All he had to do was go through his resume and tell me the specific changes he wanted to alter. He refused to put that time and effort into it. That is when I suggested he call the Better Business Bureau and get a more objective perspective. I provided the BBB with copies of both the resume and cover letter that I wrote for "Tony."

I am greatly distressed that anyone searching for my name and my professional offices will see "Tony's" vengeful and unfounded accusations against me. People don't like controversy, and few will take the time to read or research the details of "Tony's complaint, thus injuring my reputation and impacting me financially. I am hopeful that someone at RipOff Report with a sense of integrity and fairness will contact the BBB, and make the effort to discover my true reputation and dedication to clients, and remove the ugly slur on the browsers.

For anyone reading this response, feel free to contact me at flajobs@earthlink.net, or call me at 904/733-7841.

Thank you for your time and patience in reading this lengthy response.

Robert H. Johnson, B.A., M.A., JCTC

If you look at the background of Mr. Johnson and the 1000's of people that he has assisted in his many years of service to the job searching community, you would, as an intelligent consumer, realize that if Mr. Johnson didn't have some complaints about his service, he would be the only business man out there that didn't.

Consider this. The complaintant is in Ct. He calls a guy in Florida to help him with his resume. Does it on line. He has chosen not to do business with the hard working people of Ct. that he lives with. (they probably know that he is wacked)

He then proceeds to put all of this time in running down a prominent business man that has authored several extremely helpful books that changes peoples lives to for the positive.
This complaintant, in his response, didn't have the guts to even include his last name on the complaint and is worried about his $200 dollar investment.

I can't imagine that if Mr. Johnson put a resume together, that his intent was to do it incorrectly so that this fellow wasn't hired.

Doesn't this guy know that resumes are not supposed to be grammatically correct by design and then he challenges one of our local businessmen's intellect who has been doing this for decades.

I know that Mr. Johnson is an upstanding businessman! I am one of his competitors and often recommend people to him unknowing to him. I have suggested his book to hundreds.

To do business with Mr. Johnson would be a very prudent thing to do. He is a great man and businessman that can be trusted!

Nicolas Trenton
Jacksonville, Fl.

The complaint filed by "Tony" is spurious and unfounded in fact. There is little truth in it, and it contains significant errors of fact.

"Tony" admits that he has never had a professional resume written for him, yet in the same breath presumes to be an expert, claiming that the resume I wrote for him is "worthless" (but he never put it to the test in seeking employment) and contains incomplete and "run-on" sentences. These are clear evidence of "Tony's" lack of understanding of resume formatting. Resumes are purposely written with incomplete sentences, and "run-on" sentences, because it is purposely truncated language to convey information in the few number of words. "Resume" is a French word and means "to summarize."

"Tony" fails to mention in his complaint that I offered (as I do with all clients) to make any alterations he wished to make, and correct any information he felt was not accurate. "Tony" refused to give any time or effort to that.

I think it should be pointed out that I never met "Tony" face-to-face. Ours was an Internet experience, and in attempting to communicate with "Tony" I began to sense that what he really wanted, now that he had a copy of of the resume I had written for him, was to abuse me verbally and get a refund. I refused, but offered to make any corrections he wished.

I think it is germane to this complaint for me to mention that I have been a professional career counselor for almost 20 years, and have successfully served over 9,000 clients in the 17 years I have had offices in Jacksonville. I have written over 14,000 resumes, and I am a founder of one of the 3 national organizations of professional resume writers. I am an executive coach and a nationally-certified Job & Career Transition Coach. I am the author of 5 books on job hunting and career changing, all of which can be purchased at Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstores. I graduated from California State University with a Masters degree, graduating with highest academic distinction (summa c*m laude) and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest national scholastic society.

When working with the general public, there is always the riskk of running into a mentally unstable person like "Tony," and there's really nothing one can do about it. I advised "Tony" to take his complaint to the local Better Business Bureau and provided him with their telephone number and contact information. "Tony" filed a complaint, and anyone who reads it in its entirety will see that "Tony" is emotionally unbalanced, and downright wicked. I replied on three separate occasions to the BBB explaining my side of the situation and also provided the Bureau with a copy of the resume I had prepared for "Tony" inviting the Bureau to comment on its quality. That correspondence is available for any and all to read.

In the end, I found "Tony" so unreasonable, so insulting, so disgusting in his infantile behavior, that I hung up on him. If he's offended by that, tough. There's only so much abuse I have to endure for the small fee I charge for my services.

While Mr. Johnson's story above THE VICTIM is an interesting read, unfortunately, and as per usual, it contains little fact. However, this is exactly what I've come to expect of Mr. Johnson over the last three months. As far as expecting a full refund for services unsatisfactorily rendered, all I can say is that I believe this is beyond Mr. Johnson's capacity as a professional.



Mr. Johnson's on-going sense of indignation and shock continues to amuse and sadden me. I guess in Mr. Johnson's "Resume Fantasy World" it's OK to "steal" money by producing an unusable professional resume and still expect your client to be happy with the results. This must be the same place where he's written 11,000 resumes and helped 8,000 clients in the Jacksonville area. What's more, in this "special" place, it's OK to insult and berate paying clients and expect them not to have a problem with that. Well I'm sorry to inform Mr. Johnson, but the "real" world doesn't operate that way.



As Mr. Johnson states I have contacted the BBB of N.E. Florida and have registered a complaint against him (and Career Florida) for a full refund of my $ 200.00. Since the BBB has no legal authority to enforce judgments, the case has now been closed as "customer dissatisfied" and now Career Florida has a permanent mark on what I'm sure is an already questionable reputation. Since so little truth exists in Mr. Johnson's rebuttal below, I am only able to address a few issues, these being:



- Mr. Johnson never sent me a $25.00 refund. As Mr. Johnson states to the BBB in his letter dated 7/8/2002, "There will be no refunds of any kind to Mr. Curotto."

- I attended St. John's University in NYC, while Mr. Johnson attended U Cal at Dominguez Hills, and

- The "mysterious" job lead was only available 150 miles from my home and only if I sent Mr. Johnson a $3000.00 cashier's check. In Mr. Johnson's weird note referenced above he states, "I would be willing to hook you up with the recruiter and a guaranteed interview for a $3000.00 fee. Let me know. Certified bank draft, of course."



In closing, I can only say that all I ever wanted was a full refund of my $200.00, but because of Mr. Johnson's arrogance, conceit and foolishness I have been forced to take my case to the BBB and the WWW. Please let my lesson be something you don't experience yourself and take heed to stay as far away from Career Florida and Robert H. Johnson as possible.

Never in all of my years of serving clients have I encountered such a person as Mr. Curotto, and I believe it is very important to put his unfounded, vitriolic accusations in their proper context. He is only one of literally thousands of clients I have served over the years, and my reputation among both my clients and my professional peers is without blemish. There are two things which I firmly believe about Mr. Curotto at this point in time: (1) we met via the Internet and he was attempting to get his resume done for free, and (2) he is emotionally unbalanced.



Once I realized that Mr. Curotto was not to be placated and that his complaints had no merit, I suggested he file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I have filed two formal responses to Curotto through the Better Business Bureau detailing every aspect of Mr. Curotto's complaint, and I have also provided the BBB with a copy of the resume I prepared for Mr. Curotto, inviting the BBB to submit Curotto's resume to any competent authority to see if it was the schizophrenic document he claimed it was. I have no doubt that it is Mr. Curotto who is schizophrenic and not the resume.



Those of us whose professions bring us into direct contact with the general public will from time to time encounter a bizarre character like Mr. Curotto. After serving more than 8,000 clients and writing more than 11,000 resumes, as well as authoring a half-dozen books, I guess my number has come up. I answer Mr. Curotto's charges with my professional credentials and my long history of successfully serving thousands of people. The easiest thing for me would have been to simply refund Mr. Curotto's $175 to him and write-off the many hours of time and effort that went into preparing his resume. But once I realized the true purpose of his phony critiques and refusal to participate in making adjustments to his liking, I threw in the towel. In the correspondence with the Better Business Bureau, Curotto continually adds, twists or creates a new spin on events. He even assaults the integrity of the state of California's university system where I received my Master's degree, pointing out that it is not an Ivy league college and not one of the 35 top universities in the United States. What that has to do with anything, I don't know. Mr. Curotto graduated from a small, backwater college in upstate New York, and from the display of poor grammar, punctuation and misspelling in his documents, didn't do a very good job of educating him. He certainly has no credentials or demonstrated command of the English language to critique anyone else's writing.



In closing, I have put a challenge to Mr. Curotto: Let's put his resume to work and see if it produces invitations to job interviews. I have even offered Mr. Curotto a cash reward and an apology if it fails to perform. Mr. Curotto has refused. It is my position that Mr. Curotto cannot claim that the resume I prepared for him is worthless for job hunting, and in the same breath refuse to put it to a test. In fact, I took the initiative to send his resume to two retained recruiters and one of them responded within hours offering to set up Mr. Curotto with an interview. I rest my case.



Robert H. Johnson, B.A., M.A., JCTC