Complaint Review: Jobfinders International (now Wellington Burke Ltd.) - Woodland Hills California

Dear Friends,

As you can see, Ron Lawrence of Wellington Burke, formerly JobFinders International, has responded to my submission.

I have one simple question:

Ron, where were you with the detailed explanation of the true nature of your services when your company sent me the initial letter, had me meet with your vice-president, and followed up with another letter when I never signed up?

For you see Ron, none of those letters or that meeting contained ANY information that revealed the true nature of your services.

The letters I received and the meeting I had with your vice-president clearly IMPLIED the following:
Your company exclusively has executive jobs to fill based on your phenomenal business contacts;
As the result of my successful background, you'll pull the strings and I'll have my new executive job.
"You'll be going in for CEO interviews" said your vice-president during the meeting.

HOWEVER

IF you had sent me an initial letter that said:

"We are an executive marketing firm--not a headhunter or employment agency. We provide advice in finding a job and nothing more. For $6000. we will
do the following: rewrite your resume, give you a list of companies to contact in your industry and you will pay for all additional mailing expenses, tell you to contact your friends and former business associates, provide you with salary negotiation advice when you find a job on your own"

We could have saved a great deal of each other's time.

But you didn't. You sent a letter that implied completely otherwise.

And when I called trying to find out more details, I had to meet with your senior vice-president, as that was your requirement.

At that meeting, again, the true nature of your company's services were never revealed at any time. Instead, the implication was the same as in the first letter sent to me.

As you know, I posted the WORD-FOR-WORD the details of your company's follow-up letter.

That letter on your company's own stationary is clearly revealing.

Again, the true nature of your company's services are never revealed. With something completely else being implied.

Some of us in America still believe in a moral code in the way we treat and deal with others.

What your company did was pure deception, fraud and dishonesty.

There is no excuse for it. No rationalization.

If the efforts of people like myself have suddenly inspired you and your company to start dealing honestly with people, then that is wonderful.

You can start by revising the introduction letter which you send to all of the people whose resumes you get off of Monster.

It should say:

1. We are an executive marketing firm--not a headhunter or employment agency.

2. We provide advice in finding a job and nothing more.

3. For an approximate fee of $6000. we will
rewrite your resume, give you a list of companies to contact in your industry and you will pay for all additional mailing expenses, tell you to contact your friends and former business associates, provide you with salary negotiation advice when you find a job on your own.

4. If you are in need of these services please contact us.

The executives of your company will also need to repeat these statements a number of times in meetings with anybody who is still inetrested.

You will again need to repeat these statements in any follow-up letters.

Nobody can possibly accuse you of deception if you follow those procedures.

Albert in Beverly Hills, California

"Methink thou doest protest too much." You know, Ron, until you began your defensive campaign to smear your victims we barely noticed you. Now I think we need to pay more attention to you.

You need to understand that this website is dedicated to defending victims. And that includes onslaughts from jackasses like you. You are the loser, bud, having fallen prey to one of the most mundane fallacies... We are dedicated to justice and fairness for consumers, and ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated; it's like being raped by you twice.

The old adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," attained its status because it's true. We would have respected your company if you had applied tried and true principles of customer service and accepted responsibility for this debacle.

It is our experience that those companies that go on the attack usually have something to hide. In fact, your tactics appear dangerously close to another major employment rip-off. Do you have, or have you ever had any connection with Bernard Haldane Associates (BHA)? Jobfinders International has an unsatisfactory business performance record including misrepresentation and noncompliance with promised services.

Word of advice: Change your tune and take care of these problems to satisfaction. Read the BHA book of fate and learn. They are going down for their corruption. Repent, for your day of redemption is at hand.

ED Magedson
[email protected]

"Methink thou doest protest too much." You know, Ron, until you began your defensive campaign to smear your victims we barely noticed you. Now I think we need to pay more attention to you.

You need to understand that this website is dedicated to defending victims. And that includes onslaughts from jackasses like you. You are the loser, bud, having fallen prey to one of the most mundane fallacies... We are dedicated to justice and fairness for consumers, and ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated; it's like being raped by you twice.

The old adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," attained its status because it's true. We would have respected your company if you had applied tried and true principles of customer service and accepted responsibility for this debacle.

It is our experience that those companies that go on the attack usually have something to hide. In fact, your tactics appear dangerously close to another major employment rip-off. Do you have, or have you ever had any connection with Bernard Haldane Associates (BHA)? Jobfinders International has an unsatisfactory business performance record including misrepresentation and noncompliance with promised services.

Word of advice: Change your tune and take care of these problems to satisfaction. Read the BHA book of fate and learn. They are going down for their corruption. Repent, for your day of redemption is at hand.

ED Magedson
[email protected]

"Methink thou doest protest too much." You know, Ron, until you began your defensive campaign to smear your victims we barely noticed you. Now I think we need to pay more attention to you.

You need to understand that this website is dedicated to defending victims. And that includes onslaughts from jackasses like you. You are the loser, bud, having fallen prey to one of the most mundane fallacies... We are dedicated to justice and fairness for consumers, and ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated; it's like being raped by you twice.

The old adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," attained its status because it's true. We would have respected your company if you had applied tried and true principles of customer service and accepted responsibility for this debacle.

It is our experience that those companies that go on the attack usually have something to hide. In fact, your tactics appear dangerously close to another major employment rip-off. Do you have, or have you ever had any connection with Bernard Haldane Associates (BHA)? Jobfinders International has an unsatisfactory business performance record including misrepresentation and noncompliance with promised services.

Word of advice: Change your tune and take care of these problems to satisfaction. Read the BHA book of fate and learn. They are going down for their corruption. Repent, for your day of redemption is at hand.

ED Magedson
[email protected]

"Methink thou doest protest too much." You know, Ron, until you began your defensive campaign to smear your victims we barely noticed you. Now I think we need to pay more attention to you.

You need to understand that this website is dedicated to defending victims. And that includes onslaughts from jackasses like you. You are the loser, bud, having fallen prey to one of the most mundane fallacies... We are dedicated to justice and fairness for consumers, and ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated; it's like being raped by you twice.

The old adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," attained its status because it's true. We would have respected your company if you had applied tried and true principles of customer service and accepted responsibility for this debacle.

It is our experience that those companies that go on the attack usually have something to hide. In fact, your tactics appear dangerously close to another major employment rip-off. Do you have, or have you ever had any connection with Bernard Haldane Associates (BHA)? Jobfinders International has an unsatisfactory business performance record including misrepresentation and noncompliance with promised services.

Word of advice: Change your tune and take care of these problems to satisfaction. Read the BHA book of fate and learn. They are going down for their corruption. Repent, for your day of redemption is at hand.

ED Magedson
[email protected]

"Albert" claims to be above average in intelligence, and I am sure he is--but the headline he has written to his report appears to be from someone totally determined to express opinions instead of giving facts.

He did not give his full identity so my suspicion is that he formed his opinion without becoming a client--wherein he would have been given the facts so that he would not have to guess at the service we provide.

JobFinders before, and now Wellington Burke, the company who bought the assets of JFI and continues providing job search assistance services to executives, offers a much-needed service to the marketplace. Companies have all the money, and the recruiters, and the HR staff working for them in seeking new employees. You, the person seeking to become an employee, works alone, typically! If you think the recruiter is working for you--then remember the old adage--"follow the money!" Who pays the recruiter--the company. Who does the recruiter look out for--the company!

Wellington Burke, Ltd. is a professional executive marketing firm. We deal with executives whom we expect to be intelligent and have the ability to evaluate prospectives.

The prospective here, is for the exec to work alone in the job search campaign, or utilize professional help. Sure, you can go to a recruiter by yourself without Wellington Burke. I am sure ALL executives in a job search do that. I also am sure all go to the internet--searching for jobs, posting resumes.

You will absolutely come away with the opinion within a few weeks that with over 30 MILLION resumes posted on the internet--you are going to need some help in accenting your resume.

Wellington Burke, for free, will meet with you and give you a pre-screening analysis of your career and job search efforts. We will suggest to you how you might improve your chances of getting noticed and interviewed and hired.

If you like our suggestions, and if you decide you want to evaluate further the prospect of hiring professionals to help you in your job search, and if we accept you as a client (certainly not all are accepted as we do not want unemployables, or lazy persons unwilling to help themselves, etc.), we will prepare a job search campaign plan, specifically tailored to your needs, and spend all day presenting it to you.

We will first identify your transferable marketable skills, then give you suggestions on how to control references you may have concerns about. We will identify the market sector wherein your skills can be sold, the companies within that market sector and give you a list of the individuals with hiring authority (or the president) of the companies within your chosen geographic area who hire persons with your skill set. And their telephone numbers, too.

Next, we give you a plan to control the interview so that you win the offer; and advice on how to maximize the offer. We also supply you with a list of over 1,200 current job openings from which you may peruse and if you find a position you would like to pursue, we will probably be in a position to recommend you for the job. That depends upon whether you really are a good candidate for the position. We get these job openings through our contacts and will not recommend someone who is not qualified--if we do, we lose our contacts.

Once you have seen all this presented to you in an all day session with a professional consultant, you must decide if the plan as prepared and presented by us has merit and value. If you decide it doesn't--the we still give you the right and opportunity to cancel the contract with us and we will give you back 85% of the fee we charge you for the service. You really don't even need a reason, just cancel.

The 15% we keep still leaves us in a considerable hole financially on the deal, but it keeps out those who would deliberately utilize our service with no intention of going forward. Besides, if you are not interested enough in furthering your own career to invest 15% of about 2-3 weeks of your salary, our typical fee--then we really cannot help you anyway.

So, if I were an executive seeking employment, and I had an opportunity to believe someone who won't identify himself beyond his first name, ramble on and on about how he was ripped off even though he never became a client(!), or I could go see and listen and evaluate for myself at NO COST initially, and even after signing a contract for services, I still have the opportunity to see the plan prepared especially for me and still cancel for any reason--well, if you aren't enough of a thinking individual to come up with the right answer to that question, we don't want to work with. Go somewhere else.

Thank you,
Ron Lawrence
Wellington Burke, Ltd.