- Original Poster
- #1
First kindly accept my apologies for the lengthy message - its a big issue.
We are a small startup company selling software services to businesses in the UK. AS a business we always had no Agency Policy for hiring people due to a bad experience we have had. However, in November 2017, a recruitment agency moved into the same building and sent us several unsolicited emails promoting themselves as a different agency and stated that unlike other agencies and stated. They stated that they saw an advert in indeed.com for a sales consultant (the advert also stated "No Agencies should contact us") and stated the following:
We telephone interview which is followed up with a face to face interview with every candidate prior to sending you the CV. We put them through their paces with sales orientated questions and scenarios testing their selling skills in the following areas: Qualifying, Building desire, Relationships and rapport, Adaptability, Influencing, Negotiation & Closing. Not only do we test them on skill but also test their commitment, attitude and ultimately…how hungry they are to make commission.
I responded back to them saying we have a no agency policy and therefore not interested. Despite, the owner of the agency knocked on our door and requested I speak to him. Given the fact he was a neighbour office, I agreed to speak to him and eventually agreed that we will work with them to test the water. He then sent us their Terms of Engagement via email and after reading it I replied to them saying it is not going to work. The owner of the recruitment agency contacted again and said they are willing to change the terms to include their responsibilities, etc.. At this point, I requested a former director to work with the agency to amend the terms. the terms predominantly to include background checks, and to include what they said in the email above. As things progressed, a short while later, the former director who was dealing with the recruitment agency resigned and the agency owner sent me CVs and confirmed to me that the Agreement was amended and signed by the former director. I took his words for it and hired 3 sales representatives through the agency.
within a month, I came to know that two of them falsified their CVs and the third candidate joined us direct from the prison. All three of them were dismissed immediately lawfully and and I advised the agency I will no longer work with them. The payment terms agreed with them was that 10% of the annual salary is payable in 4 equal instalments and that if an employee leaves in month 2, then only one payment is due. The other 3 will not be due. (The original terms they sent us required us to pay 10% of the annual salary in full within 30 days). Given the fact one of the employees were dismissed for falsifying CV, 2 others were dismissed within 30 days, no invoice was due to be paid.
After a month, the same agency owner contacted me with a CV saying
I highly recommend you see her Ram, one of the best candidate I have spoken to in a very long time. She is the perfect candidate to build your business.
When I did not reply, the agency owner knocked our door and said he wants an opportunity to prove him and that I give him an opportunity and he wants to genuinely make things work for us. Trusting his words again, I decided to interview the lady and eventually hired her after 3 interviews to run the UK sales & marketing as I was busy with development work.
The lady hired came across as trustworthy and genuinely interested in making the business a great success and I she presented a business plan in which she was going to hire 12 sales people in 10 months and said she has the necessary experience in fast phase sales recruitment, etc.. and eventually I have given her the budget and left her to manage and i was working from a development centre overseas on and off.
Within 2 months, I realised that she had hired 12 sales people that she was going to hire in 10 months and i was a bit worried and began to question and check as our sales was also going down - hire more sales people to reduce sales - terrible experience.
As I investigated, I learnt that the recruitment agency owner has introduced 12 candidates and the lady hired all 12 of them, I became worried and began to check their backgrounds and learnt that all 12 of them were self employed prior to joining the company and 11 out of the 12 falsified their CVs as the references came back proved. I questioned the the lady responsible and she began to fire these sales reps one after the other which made be suspect. I then interviewed the other candidates direct and they all said that the Agency owner has never met them, they were just asked to attend interviews and they were given the job. Some of them admitted that the jobs in their CVs are not true and it was not their mistake but the business's as the business should have checked the references before hiring them. I presented my findings to the lady and she immediately resigned without providing any explanations.
I requested the agency that they pay back the monies already paid to them and when they refused I filed a claim at the small claims court for all the monies the business paid them (£9600). In response, the agency made a counter claim for £14,600 saying that they have never agreed to check the background of candidates or meet and interview the candidates in person and stated that the "Contract" is the one they sent us in the first place, to which I replied stating I am not agreeable to those terms. I have written to the solicitors requesting for a copy of the contract and they haven't replied for 2 months. I have spoken to the former director who confirmed to me that he has never signed the contract / agreed via email to anything.
I have lost over £150,000 in a matter of 3 months because of what this agency has done and this made the company almost bankrupt.
In my view, if the agency argues affirmation for contract, then they would be guilty under the business protection from misleading marketing regulation 2008 and I will be entitled for statutory demand. If the agency doesn't argue affirmation and and say they have delivered the services in line with their agreed terms, (this can be proven as they have produced P45 (proven fake) for an employee, etc..) then they are in breach of the contract which I don't have as the employees confirmed in writing that they never met the agency. Another employee who falsified his CV confirmed in writing that the agency owner was aware of the "accidental mistake" in his CV.
Separately, the offer letters offered to all of the employees were "Subject to Satisfactory References". This would also mean the contracts were not valid and therefore the the agency is not due any monies so their counter claim is not valid.
I have spoken to the lawyers who think the legal cost will be significantly higher than what is being claimed and I am also not keen to spend money on legal matters given the massive hit on our financials.
Any thoughts and comments as to how the case could be argued in courts would be much appreciated.
We are a small startup company selling software services to businesses in the UK. AS a business we always had no Agency Policy for hiring people due to a bad experience we have had. However, in November 2017, a recruitment agency moved into the same building and sent us several unsolicited emails promoting themselves as a different agency and stated that unlike other agencies and stated. They stated that they saw an advert in indeed.com for a sales consultant (the advert also stated "No Agencies should contact us") and stated the following:
We telephone interview which is followed up with a face to face interview with every candidate prior to sending you the CV. We put them through their paces with sales orientated questions and scenarios testing their selling skills in the following areas: Qualifying, Building desire, Relationships and rapport, Adaptability, Influencing, Negotiation & Closing. Not only do we test them on skill but also test their commitment, attitude and ultimately…how hungry they are to make commission.
I responded back to them saying we have a no agency policy and therefore not interested. Despite, the owner of the agency knocked on our door and requested I speak to him. Given the fact he was a neighbour office, I agreed to speak to him and eventually agreed that we will work with them to test the water. He then sent us their Terms of Engagement via email and after reading it I replied to them saying it is not going to work. The owner of the recruitment agency contacted again and said they are willing to change the terms to include their responsibilities, etc.. At this point, I requested a former director to work with the agency to amend the terms. the terms predominantly to include background checks, and to include what they said in the email above. As things progressed, a short while later, the former director who was dealing with the recruitment agency resigned and the agency owner sent me CVs and confirmed to me that the Agreement was amended and signed by the former director. I took his words for it and hired 3 sales representatives through the agency.
within a month, I came to know that two of them falsified their CVs and the third candidate joined us direct from the prison. All three of them were dismissed immediately lawfully and and I advised the agency I will no longer work with them. The payment terms agreed with them was that 10% of the annual salary is payable in 4 equal instalments and that if an employee leaves in month 2, then only one payment is due. The other 3 will not be due. (The original terms they sent us required us to pay 10% of the annual salary in full within 30 days). Given the fact one of the employees were dismissed for falsifying CV, 2 others were dismissed within 30 days, no invoice was due to be paid.
After a month, the same agency owner contacted me with a CV saying
I highly recommend you see her Ram, one of the best candidate I have spoken to in a very long time. She is the perfect candidate to build your business.
When I did not reply, the agency owner knocked our door and said he wants an opportunity to prove him and that I give him an opportunity and he wants to genuinely make things work for us. Trusting his words again, I decided to interview the lady and eventually hired her after 3 interviews to run the UK sales & marketing as I was busy with development work.
The lady hired came across as trustworthy and genuinely interested in making the business a great success and I she presented a business plan in which she was going to hire 12 sales people in 10 months and said she has the necessary experience in fast phase sales recruitment, etc.. and eventually I have given her the budget and left her to manage and i was working from a development centre overseas on and off.
Within 2 months, I realised that she had hired 12 sales people that she was going to hire in 10 months and i was a bit worried and began to question and check as our sales was also going down - hire more sales people to reduce sales - terrible experience.
As I investigated, I learnt that the recruitment agency owner has introduced 12 candidates and the lady hired all 12 of them, I became worried and began to check their backgrounds and learnt that all 12 of them were self employed prior to joining the company and 11 out of the 12 falsified their CVs as the references came back proved. I questioned the the lady responsible and she began to fire these sales reps one after the other which made be suspect. I then interviewed the other candidates direct and they all said that the Agency owner has never met them, they were just asked to attend interviews and they were given the job. Some of them admitted that the jobs in their CVs are not true and it was not their mistake but the business's as the business should have checked the references before hiring them. I presented my findings to the lady and she immediately resigned without providing any explanations.
I requested the agency that they pay back the monies already paid to them and when they refused I filed a claim at the small claims court for all the monies the business paid them (£9600). In response, the agency made a counter claim for £14,600 saying that they have never agreed to check the background of candidates or meet and interview the candidates in person and stated that the "Contract" is the one they sent us in the first place, to which I replied stating I am not agreeable to those terms. I have written to the solicitors requesting for a copy of the contract and they haven't replied for 2 months. I have spoken to the former director who confirmed to me that he has never signed the contract / agreed via email to anything.
I have lost over £150,000 in a matter of 3 months because of what this agency has done and this made the company almost bankrupt.
In my view, if the agency argues affirmation for contract, then they would be guilty under the business protection from misleading marketing regulation 2008 and I will be entitled for statutory demand. If the agency doesn't argue affirmation and and say they have delivered the services in line with their agreed terms, (this can be proven as they have produced P45 (proven fake) for an employee, etc..) then they are in breach of the contract which I don't have as the employees confirmed in writing that they never met the agency. Another employee who falsified his CV confirmed in writing that the agency owner was aware of the "accidental mistake" in his CV.
Separately, the offer letters offered to all of the employees were "Subject to Satisfactory References". This would also mean the contracts were not valid and therefore the the agency is not due any monies so their counter claim is not valid.
I have spoken to the lawyers who think the legal cost will be significantly higher than what is being claimed and I am also not keen to spend money on legal matters given the massive hit on our financials.
Any thoughts and comments as to how the case could be argued in courts would be much appreciated.
