Friday, July 13, 2007

You Are Not Alone

Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to look back on your experience with the Arthur Group or Bernard Haldane and think "how could I have been so stupid?" Don't feel too bad about it. You are not alone. The salesmen are very good. The Arthur Group keeps plush offices in Minneapolis and Chicago and 100% of it is paid for by your initial fees.

Follow the link to a few more testimonials from people who were scammed by Bernard Haldane. "But I worked with the Arthur Group, not Bernard Haldane!" They are the same company, run by the same people.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/employment/haldane.html

New Scam, Same as the Old Scam

http://consumeraffairs.com/news03/haldane.html

Arthur Group Testimonial

Below is an account of one person's experience with the Arthur Group that was left as a comment. I am posting it here so more people will read it.


My experience was very negative of the Arthur Group (I've noticed tonight that the Arthur Group has removed itself from Indeed.com and hence erased the 57 comments, 53 of which were very negative and 4 appeared to be from the Arthur Group...).

Look here it is - I got drawn into the trap of giving them $3,000 for services for resume preparation, blue print and letter sending. I basically met these guys over 2.5 months once a week, while they read my thoughts, chatted to me for an hour about nothing in particular and then I left to do the next section of my resume! Finally, I finished my resume and they moved me to letter sending out.

They gave me a companies register and asked me to review it and identify the companies I wanted to them to send my resume to. They offered no insight at all, nor were there any client relationships with any business. I never met anyone to put me in front of, from their clients? At the interview (with my wife?) they told me that they had clients willing to pay me $200k+ and it was wise for them to prepare me for their clients positions. They're assistance had "never" failed to place a candidate, even though their owner Barry Trimble, wouldn't declare how many people had ever been placed.

Also, the letter writing, my wife and I were told, had never failed to place a client! After the convincing sales pitch, you're left thinking why I'd be stupid not to pay them for the services, after all I'm paying them 11% for placement and these fees come out of the fee. Thankfully, I had the sense not to pay for interview skills and just told that I'd never failed an interview and as such I'd run with my own instincts. Barry, was certainly a little upset on this, as he wanted to charge me about 2-3k for this!

Finally, no one ever called me after the resume was complete, letters went out, no one called, I registered nearly a year ago and have never had even so much as a courtesy call from them since I last spoke to them months ago. Since, this I've been meeting lots of business contacts and I drop the name The Arthur Group and I've had condolences, some saying those guys should be put out of business, I thought that they were shut down, didn't the Attorney General shut them down for malpractice, etc, etc - really I felt like a moron every time I mentioned their dumb name.

My experience has left me realizing that they have no real clients, they skim jobs off the internet sites, there business model is to take 10-15 times market rate for resume writing (actually, they don't even write it).

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone and would stay away.

I would definately consider supporting a class action against them for malpractice

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Haldane - Arthur Group Connection

For those that don't know, Bernhard Haldane was an executive recruiting company that got into a little bit of trouble with Attorneys General from at least two states(MN, IL) for their business practices.

Here is a link that has some posts. Please note that the Office Administrator for Haldane is now the head of the Arthur Group.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/021/ripoff0021985.htm

Spread the Word!

The internet can do wonders in terms of educating potential Arthur Group clients. Please share this blog with your address book. The Arthur Group's services cost thousands of dollars and people need to be educated about what they are paying for.

Your experiences about what types of services were provided, what you paid for them, and your satisfaction level can help other people make up their minds regarding the Arthur Group.

Post a comment and spread the word!

The Beginning

The purpose of this blog is to expose the Arthur Group for what it is.

The Arthur Group, with offices in Minneapolis and Chicago, claims to help people secure a new position in exchange for a percentage of the first year's salary.

Please leave your comments about your experience with the Arthur Group. People need to be aware of the kind of business this is.

Bad Barry