Comments on: TheLadders: Paying for kaka. Now on Google.

By: Guy Decatrel

Guy Decatrel — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:21:57 +0000

Ditto Gary G. Got csamed too. I lucked out in that I was able to bargain the BUM !@#$%& down to $2900.00. Still trying to recover that money from my credit card company. It has not been easy. Stay CLEAR of this place.

By: Gary G

Gary G — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:49:09 +0000

Run far away from Hal James aka ACT aka Executive Options aka fresheffort.com. They scammed me out of $4900 and I’m still trying to get my money back. Talking to an attorney now…

By: Art Huston

Art Huston — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:42:15 +0000

I’m not defending this, but it says more about paid Internet search than it does about Ladders. The links at the top are paid for and it’s common practice for companies to bid on terms that are somehow related to the service they offer and to to use the “looking for xxx” technique. In this case the search term was “recruiter”. It’s marketing, pure and simple.

By: Milan

Milan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:50:13 +0000

Jeffrey,
If you paid that person (“Hal James”) for a service never rendered and you have a proof of money exchange, there are several things you can do: private litigation (through a small claims coart – where you live), contact IRS, check BBB and if your correspondence was via emails/web sites one can legaly report it as Internet crime to the FBI (check their web site). The time is crucial here, the longer you wait the smaller is your chance of getting your money back.

By: Jeffrey Lee

Jeffrey Lee — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:59:22 +0000

Does anyone know anything about Hal James and a company named ACT? Supposedly based in NYC, but I found that it was an executive office suite with one person in it and I paid them $4900 to “get a job”, which Hal told me normally occurs within 30-90 days. It’s been that and I haven’t received one call.

Thanks Jeffrey

By: James

James — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:18:18 +0000

I quit the ladders about a week ago. And what a surprise I got when all of a sudden my job search agents starting sending job descriptions that more closely matched my criteria.

Having spent a year using the site without one response from a resume submission, and absolutely no calls from recruiters, I know that theladders is worthless. So I paid $30 for emails from Marc, but I learned a great lesson for relatively cheep. If you have to pay for access to a job, it’s BS.

It also led me to ignore an offer from Hal James who, for $4995, would spend 30 days getting to know me, and then introduce me to the hidden job market. He would help me target my search, yady yady… What made me skeptical was the 3 people that called me to set up a phone appointment with Hal. While Hal and I were on the phone, someone else from his office called. After the 45 minute discussion, Hal tried to use the hard close on me. I told him that I didn’t make any $5K decisions without discussing it with my wife. He attempted to say that executives were decisive and should be able to make decisions without input from your spouse — RED FLAG. Needless to say, I decided against using his “service”.

Keep up the good work Nick.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:40:25 +0000

Not sure who’s worse…Google (the pimp) or The Ladders (the whore). Marc Cenedella (sp?) is sure a piece of work. He makes Dick Cheney look like Gandhi.

By: Another Steve

Another Steve — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:01:44 +0000

Worked for “headhunter moron,” which fits, but I had to use Internet Explorer. Wouldn’t work in Firefox with Adblock Plus. I sometimes forget what an ad-laden cesspool the real internet can be.