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Allen And Associates

Allen And Associates review: Awful experience 20

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1:46 pm EST
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As a professional recently without a job, the option of using the main stream job portals was not the right fit for my work experience and education. Allen and Associates was sold to me as a Service that specifically catered to professionals like myself looking for employment. The sales person claimed to have key contacts with Fortune 500 Companies. Allen and Associates claimed direct relationships with these organizations was going to be the key role in getting me in front of decision makers as I looked for a job.

This is all a scam to get your money. I paid $1800.00 for a service that was not met. Allen and Associates does not put you in front of decision makers. Nor do they make the effort of job hunting for you. This is an over priced resume writing service that preys on out of work professionals.

Do not use them. Keep your money.

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20 comments
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louw_37
, ZA
Dec 03, 2012 9:49 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I agree and nothing the so called happy customers or Customer Relations employee says, makes a difference. Facts are facts. They work with 6 Figure Jobs to obtain your information and then the trap is set. My recent letter to them, here under, explains everything. Private information blocked out.

Dear Sir.

I was one of the unfortunate immigrant job seekers in 2010 to be swayed into a service contract ($2000) by your fraudulent misrepresentation of facts and the so called "job seek service" that you offer. I paid you $1000 upfront for which I received 30 letters, stamps and envelopes that I had to mail myself, and a so called campaign plan that required me to do all the work and to contact people of your list. This is information anyone could get through the yellow pages or on-line. Some of the letters that I have sent out was returned, "Address or person unknown" What a scam. I very soon realized that you do not have any special contact with employers or hiring managers as you have claimed, nor did you know about any open positions. It was also clear, based on responses from your so called contacts, that they did not know you or worked with you. I informed your correspondent that I do not wish to continue our relationship as it is not based on the truth or facts and asked for the $1000 to be paid back.

I have returned to South Africa without ever obtaining a job in the US, least by you. I now only visit and do occasional business in the USA, based on my own skills and abilities and not yours. I was prepared to write the $1000 of as school money and lessons learned, but now your debt sharks contact my family (my daughter) or friends in the USA, harassing them for $1000, based on the so called "contract" that you have entered with me in 2010. To set the record straight. You can only enforce a contract that was truthful without misrepresentation and only if you delivered the service that was agreed upon and that was "commonly understood" by both parties and of course the requirements as per state law, California. Your contract does not adhere to any of the above and nor was the understood service provided. A contract based on fraud or misrepresentation is no contract at all. Based on the above I now claim the following from you;
• $1000 refund that was paid to you and for services not provided and to be paid into my South African account at ... bank South Africa, check account nr ... Kempton Park. RSA.
• Stop to give my particulars to any debt collector or third party. Any disregard of this instruction not to contact me, my friends, relatives or anyone will result in my seeking legal advice on the full extent of my remedies under state, federal, and common law in the USA.
• Please advise me immediately of any contacts to third parties already made by you, so that I can attempt to control or undo any damage that may result and take every possible step to make sure that no further attempts at such contacts are made. Inform all credit agencies, debt collectors, to whom you have sold the "debt" about this and inform them that this is now a formal dispute between parties.
• Please conduct all future correspondence to me directly and in writing at the following address; Johann..., Unit ..., South Africa.

I will answer no communication that is not in writing to the above address.

Sincerely,

Johann
Former US address: ..., CA, 92532

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Connan J.
Middleton, US
May 20, 2011 8:34 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Allen & Associates is complete scam! This is the company that own 6 figure jobs and the ladders. I was promised that they could put me in contact with key people from fortune 500 companies and that they would make my job search much more effective by have a team of people help me. I was told that they had developed contacts over the years with key HR personnel in most of the fortune 500 companies and they could leverage these contacts to make my job search more effective. This was far from the truth.
Realizing that Allen & Associates was a scam, I cancelled the service a few weeks after signing up. One year later they sent the rudest bill collection service after me claiming that I still owed money to Allen & Associates. I contacted Monica Bar, an Allen & Associates account manager, and she was absolutely rude. I could tell by the sharp tone in her voice that she probably deals with dissatisfied customers all day, every day. She talked in circles as she tried to run me off of the phone. Anytime I asked her questions that were not on her script she yelled at me demanding money. She argued that after the first 2 weeks of signing up for the $1800 Dollar One Year Service Agreement all of the job hunting services were provided. If they claim they will help you find a job for one year, how could all of the services be met in the first 2 weeks? It's just a scam to get your money.

This is what the $1800 Dollar One Year Service Agreement includes:
- Counseling from a career coach that can be summed up in three lines
-Email your resume and cover letter to the hiring manager and HR
- Call the Hiring manager and HR for a follow up
- Be persistent and repeat
- No joke. That's the career coaching
- Company Research- (a Joke) They go on sites like Bloomberg, type in the company name, and cut and paste the company profiles into a document. I assume this because I cut and pasted the company research that they did for me into Google it took me Bloomberg. They copied it word for word.

- They mailed out 60 resumes and cover letters- a service worth $50 on a bad day.

Note( They also let you use a website that works like a simple excel sheet, and you can log on to organize your data. This must be free, because I never used it and I they still want to be paid in full)

Beware! Allen & Associates, the ladders, and six figure jobs are a complete rip-off! Real job placement agencies charge companies, not the people looking for work. Companies like Allen & Associates pray off people who are looking for work and feel hopeless when the job hunting gets hard. Save you money and don't use Allen & Associates. In my opinion It's a con, a scam.
As a Marketer I can warn you that the next few posts will be people claiming that they used Allen & Associates and they had a great experience. It will be lies. It will be some social media marketer working for Allen & Associates that just received an alert that this blog was posted.

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maachupeechu
Montréal, CA
Feb 21, 2011 9:48 pm EST

I agree to the articles.I came to Canada 10 years back and went to meet Allen and Associates. Nothing was delivered that was promised in the meeting...I paid $ 1800 from my line of credit..when i called them for questions no one called back.
I was extremely dissatisfied with this service and i feel it's just a scam.
You can make your own resume...find all the databases for available jobs online or on websites..you don't need a place to print them for you, never return your call, and charge you $ 1800 for that.
I would NOT RECOMMEND ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES TO ANYONE.
You can always go to the University or College counseling and they will give you the same information.
I have a great job and career and I make sure to help newcomers to Canada and try to save them their $ 1800

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RMeadows65
Saugus, US
Sep 30, 2010 10:52 am EDT

I have to disagree with this complaint. I was out of work for about 6 months until I found Allen and Associates. I had tried posting on various job boards and using free services. After speaking with the Campaign Support Manager through Allen it only took me 3 short months until I was hired again.

No company can secure a job for you; what Allen does is provide you the tools and knowledge you need to secure the job yourself. The CSM will outline exactly what you need to do and their team takes care of the majority of the work, but you still need to follow up on the companies they target if you expect to see results.

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bb33
Holyoke, US
Apr 20, 2010 8:14 pm EDT

I used their "service" a few years ago. They wrote two versions of my resume -- one functional and one chronological. Both contained numerous spelling errors and were poorly written. We spent numerous hours over several days going back and forth before I received a clean version. Next they updated my original cover letter; however it was little more than rearranging the text and changing a few sentences into bullets. The final blow was the the list of target companies they recommended I contact. It included firms that had been acquired and no longer existed... All in all, it was a waste of money.

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solicitor
New York, US
Apr 05, 2010 1:17 pm EDT

You're lucky you only got scammed for $1800. I was scammed for $4300 by RJS, a similary type of operation that is alson only an overpriced resume writing service. I will admit, I like the resume but I have been out of work for 4 years and I really could use that $4300 now.

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Anonymous
-, US
Mar 29, 2010 3:21 pm EDT

That’s funny that everyone has something negative to say about Allen and Associates. Again I will tell you that I went through the process and everything they told me was right on the money. I too paid what I thought was a lot of money until I saw the prices of other companies in there industry that do way less and expect a way bigger payment. Its funny to me how they can provide you with great research on the companies that you would like to work for, along with every bit of information about each company and the person that could hire you and about 5 ways to reach each one of those executives directly, also providing customized marketing letters that they send out to each contact with something current about each executives company. After all of that you still can't land a job, maybe its time to look at yourself and stop trying to blame everyone else...

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MP Smith
Elk River, US
Mar 17, 2010 9:03 am EDT

I also used Allen and Associates, I was promised numerous things to get my money. I am EXTREMELY disatistfied with this company, they should be shut down. They DO NOT deliver on their promise, for what little they do you could hire an admin to assist you for MUCH MUCH less and get the job done quicker.

During this climate I am sure they are sitting back and racking in the money. They need to remember what GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. Terrible company, stay away and tell others DONT BE FOOLED!

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Ljubomir
New Orleans, US
Mar 09, 2010 12:09 pm EST

I have been contacted by their personal and the same story: We can help you get your 6 figure career, it won't be easy, you have to work with us but we can get you directly in touch with Executives of Fortune 500 companies.
After reading all of your comments, what shell I do? It's at least 1 500 $ to pay and I'm not sure what to believe in now. Can someone be more specific on how much time and effort they have spent till the job was found?
Thank you all!

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not happy!!!
Easton, US
Mar 08, 2010 8:47 am EST

STAY AWAY FROM ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES
After about 3 weeks of job-searching on my own, I came across teh A&A service, and I was approaching desperate enough to do anything, so I agreed to hire them. They hailed themselves as a professional marketting firm that would, as is said above, put me in front of the major decision makers in the best companies and would write a custom marketing campaign to get me hired quickly.
They asked me what industry and companies i was interested in, and then expanded my list to about 100 other companies, and i had to narrow it down to my top 25. They then did what they called "extensive research" for about 2 weeks, which was really some lacky googling the companies for recent headlines. The "Custom marketing campaign" was really just a template letter of my resume/cover letter with the first paragraph including something from those recent headlines as researched online.
The package did include some coaching one-on-one help with a consultant, and this was helpful, but no more helpful than asking a few professional friends or someone in any human resources department. It's all stuff that you already know (or at least I knew) but they just reinforce.

all in all i feel that this is a useful service, but only if you are only a very lazy and very unprofessional person without internet service. If you have 2 hours a day to invest in your job search, you can do all of this on your own. If you can't write a resume, hire someone for $100 to do it for you, but save the nearly $2k and STAY AWAY FROM ALLEN AND ASSOCIATES

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jfranks355
, US
Dec 10, 2009 9:41 am EST

Ok, I have read all of the post on this website and I can't sit here any longer and not say anything. I to used Allen and Associates and unlike some of you on this website I feel like I got what I paid for, I found a job with there help about 6 months ago. If you follow what they tell you then you will be successful with there program, but people are lazy and don’t want to put work into anything so when they don't see results the first thing they want to do is point the finger at everyone else except themselves. I would recommend Allen and Associates to anyone.

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jfranks355
, US
Dec 10, 2009 9:25 am EST

Listen

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Bob9
, US
Sep 10, 2009 4:48 pm EDT

Sounds like they are doing businesses a great service by identifying and waylaying the stupid and lazy...

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engineer4266
Pittsford, US
Sep 08, 2009 10:15 am EDT

Thanks a lot for having this info. I will NOT fall victim to these.

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StefanieS
Brooklyn, US
Jul 25, 2009 5:43 pm EDT

I was also contacted by Allen & Associates after submitting my resume to 6FigureJobs.com. I was alos told that they only called "a select number of clients". That was strange, since the woman who called me did not even have a good copy of my resume. How could she make an assessment as to whether she could help me or not. She gave me an idea of what the fee would be (about $2500) and asked if she could call me back later after she reviewed my resume. It was during that time I did a bit of research. All I could find were complaints about the very things I was hesitant about- why such a large portion of the fee upfront before they could determine if they could help; who have they actually found jobs for; what exactly would I be getting for such a large amount of money. It was not like I was afraid of spending some money. Sites like TheLadders.com asks for a premium to use their services and another premium for the resume services. But even at their highest, it did not come close to what Allen & Associates wanted to charge.

When the salesperson, Allison Cooper, called me back later, I was armed with questions. She immediately tried to disarm me by stating again how horrible the job market was and how this "new, innovative" approach to the job market would be beneficial. Considering that they have been getting complaints since 2005 (before the market downturn) I was doubting this sales speech. She then said that she did not understand why people would want to wait until they were desperate in order to do something proactive with their search. I then asked for something simple - to talk to a satisfied client who can give me his impression of the service. she said this was impossible due to confidentiality issues. I explained to her that this was not a confidentiality issue if the client agreed to talk directly to me. She told me that the testimonials on the website would be sufficient.

I consider myself lucky for not being hooked by the company. But if they are for real, as the 2 other respondents claim, then Allen & Associates needs to make the satisfied clients visible.

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Allen and Associates Former Employee
Braintree, US
Jul 20, 2009 5:19 pm EDT

Please do not fall for this scam!

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Anonymous
-, US
Jul 06, 2009 4:21 pm EDT

For over 45 years Allen And Associates has been working with individuals to market themselves to potential employers. We are not a Recruiting or Headhunting Firm. We offer a comprehensive campaign tailored to each individual client based upon interactions with their Executive Career Consultant and Campaign Support Manager, who work with each individual client to craft a unique campaign geared towards their needs and successes in this job market.

It is our goal to work with our clients until they are successful and we do so by providing services to our clients for up to five years as specified in our User Agreement. We also provide unlimited revisions to the client’s professionally crafted Resume and/or Broadcast Letter until comfortable with the documents that they have received.

Our experience has taught us that our success is derived from our client’s success and that is why we have employed the “best of the best” in Resume Writing / Career Coaching and Research. One of the many things that we stress to our clients is the importance of “Follow Up” and how it significantly increases the level of response from the initial mailing.

Over the years, Allen And Associates has helped thousands of professionals across many industries. It is our goal to help our client achieve success in the job market and we stand by that with our 5 year service guarantee. We are committed to work with our clients until they have gained employment.

Please contact the Allen And Associates Director of Client Care at [protected] ext 790 to discus any issues that you may have.

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jmac12
Market, US
Jul 02, 2009 4:10 pm EDT

I used the service and it was great

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Jack
Portland, US
Apr 20, 2009 9:50 pm EDT

This company should be shut down. They are worthless company and all of their "success stories" are made up. Their resume writers are written by English Major flunkies. I bet they are flourishing in today's climate, preying on all sorts of unemployed people. Ms. Slade is a total loser as well. Hey kari- ### You

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SJT
, US
Apr 03, 2009 8:39 am EDT

I agree with this posting. The only service they perform is writing your resume. They have no contacts with any corporations and no inside information. They will send a letter to a corporation that you select but they have no contacts. You could do the same by going on Hoovers or the companies web site to find out the key contacts are. They have no expierence and will not help you in your job search. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE.

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