So I would like to share an experience I had with the company ITSolutions Xchange. I just graduated from college and I was applying for jobs. I applied for a job with this company. I got a call from Steve Winard asking me to come in for an "interview' and he would like to discuss opportunities for me at their consulting company.
Once I went in, he looked at my resume and he started explain to me that to be in the IT security field I needed CCNA and other certifications. He told me unless I get these I would not be able to find a job. So he told my about their sister company TCS which provided training for this. He told me this was not his field so he didnt know much about it. He "asked" his collegue to send him the details. So 3 different courses, $12000 all together. He knew every detail about how sallie mae took payments and how much interest they charged.
Clearly this was all planned. Thats what they do, call people to talk about job opportunities and sell them courses. A google bought me to this forum link which discusses people being ripped off.
My aim with this post is to prevent people from falling for this. Hope this turns up on google and people read this before going in for an "interview".
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36 comments:
YOU SAVE ME!!! I just got the interview today. and I won't go for interview tomorrow!!! thanks man!!
I had the same experience. They basically bring you in with the pretext of an interview but they then grill you with a bunch of words that are basically just telling you that you are an idiot useless. That your experience and resume is less than nothing unless you take their training. I had mine with a Debrah Anand who sentme an email saying that I was going for an interview but it is a marketing strategy for their courses. I left feeling like shit, and that's their objective.
I received a call from this same outfit and had some women speak to me at 100 mph she was more interested in telling me about her career accomplishments and kudos instead of listening to me.
I knew right away this outfit was not offering jobs but trying to sell training. I flat out ask the women if she was a recruiter or selling training, she when off on a tangent and said "I was fighting her" After further research I found that the MO of this outfit it that it is a recruiter partnered with a training outfit.They explain that your resume looks good but needs further certifications like CCNA etc. I knew right away that there was no job but they provided training at a steep price. I would not even waste my time travelling to this interview. Job Searchers BEWARE !
Had same experience today - went in on pretext of job interview
recruiter named Deborah Anand starts to lecture and browbeat me
complaining dont have skills to
be sent out for interviews Talking mile a minute - she then goes into spiel about being top
placement recruiter, puts people into Wall street and top firms, but
need to improve skills. Want me to sign up for MCSE/CCNA classes at
$1650 apiece (supposedly discount from $2200)
Sat there for hour enduring all the abuse (you are s***, must have
all these classes before considering putting you out, etc)
Looks like scam
Took form and left
Thank god I found this! I went in for a "interview" on Thursday and it was for a desktop support position. I met all the job requirements but then they tried to switch the requirements to a job that I didnt have the skills for.
Right after they did the same thing and tried to push training on me and said they have a 80% placement rate and tried to get me on the spot to place a 150.00 deposit down to pay for there 1000.00 course in which I can get my CCNA and MSCE. He didnt want to let me leave until I ddi that. I was pissed.
There was no "job" they get you to come ito the office then push training. CLEAR bait and switch. I met with a Robert their "Director of IT" What a joke.
I am dumb I wish I goggled this BEFORE taking a day off of work, driving all the way to Wall St (where their office is), paying 40.00 to park, etc etc.
SCAM!! Stay FAR away from this company. Their methods to get you in the door are gtay hat AT BEST.
Check this out guys from the BBB web site.
http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/career-and-outplacement-counseling/it-solutions-xchange-in-new-york-ny-93198/
wow..i just got a call from them(woman ellen cohan) and have setup an interview this fri. but i guess ill cancel it after all you guys had experienced. I really hate all these recruiting companies. 95% of the time they tell you over the phone that they have a position avialable, but when you get to their office, there isnt any sign of a position that on hand.
Just to be sure this is the company all you guys are talking about right
IT Solutions Xchange
42 Broadway, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10004
212-684-1244 x.103
The same thing happened to me yesterday. I told him that I have to go think about it for a day or two and refused to "prepay" ($750 total for A+, CCNA and Network+ or I can put down a deposit of $150 and pay $850 more later).
Well I got home and googled around and found the forum post you listed.
I had the "interview" with a Robert Rettig, the "Director of IT"
Thank you for posting this! A five minute google search just saved me hours of driving from out of state, and a wasted day for an "interview"! I send out dozens of resumes everyday, so when someone calls back it can be difficult at times to determine which job they are calling about. I received a voicemail from this same woman (Debra Anand). She called herself the Director of Recruiting and the Director of I.T. and said she would like to arrange an interview. As usual I did a quick Google search to check them out and what caught my eye was "ITSolutions Xchange Scam", which led me here. And sure enough, same company, same name, same phone number...
Honestly, I don't know how people like this live with themselves. Real people are out there struggling to find REAL jobs. People who have mortgages to pay and children to feed... and don't need their time wasted.
Thank you again! This is a good lesson to always get as much information about a company and check them out as best you can before going for an interview or giving them too much personal info. Fast talking and reluctance to give out specifics are good warning signs. There are a lot of scams out there.
Hope you have a great day! :)
I had the same experience with IT Solutions Xchange. I have already paid $1500.00 for an MCSE class. At our first class we were told that NO written material would be available for the class....only e-books. We were also told that we had to supply our own versions of Windows 200 Pro and two versions of Office. I never took an "approved" course where you had to provide one thousand dollars worth of your own software. After 1 week, the e-books were never mailed to us. I tried to email my "recruiter" Robert Rettig at both the New York and New Jersey emails but all come back as undeliverable....user not found. Calls to the 42 Broadway office are never answered. The number to TCS in New Jersey does not work. I am planning to drop this so called course and begin a fight for my money to be returned. This place is a TOTAL SCAM!!!! Stay far away.
I just got called yesterday about a position at this company. A woman named Evelyn told me I had an interview for 1:30pm tomorrow and I'd be meeting with Robert Rettig. She never said what the position was, just that I had to bring 3 copies of my resume, etc. Did a quick google and had trouble finding their site but found this link and the link at http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/12994-job-interview-tomorrow.html. Thanks for letting people know about this scam.
Well,i was hoping beyond hope that these postings were false,but sad to say my experiance echos everyone who has posted.I am A+ certified already and took a phone call last week and set up the interview.During the interview D.Anand kept looking at comp.screen an talking a mile a minute,When i gently suggested she was reading a script,she got defensive.That's when i knew you guys were right. Thank god i am old enough not to part w/ any of my money!!!!!
I just received a call this morning from Deborah Anand @ ITS Solutions, she stated she was Director of Engineering. She went on about how well know she was in the IT world, she went on and on. She said my resume was great, but then she offered these IT training courses that she said I should take and I could put $150.00 down then make payments on the rest. I moved to NY from VA to make more money in IT which I've been in for ten years, not be taken for what little money I have. My little voice in my head said to Google this outfit and I'm so glad I did. There are some great post on this site & good luck to everyone out there searching for honest employment.
Thanks for that post to all of you. I just got out of the same Deborah Anand brain washing an hour ago. I was not asked to put any down payment (and I wouldn't with my experience with people of that kind). I was also surprised of how high was she talking of herself but I didn't felt like a sh*t any way. I should admit that she almost convinced me to go to get some certification but I'll will go get it somewhere else.
Best luck to all honest and hardworking people.
Thanks for that post to all of you. I just got out of the same Deborah Anand brain washing an hour ago. I was not asked to put any down payment (and I wouldn't with my experience with people of that kind). I was also surprised of how high was she talking of herself but I didn't felt like a sh*t any way. I should admit that she almost convinced me to go to get some certification but I'll will go get it somewhere else.
Best luck to all honest and hardworking people.
ohh guys, i already payd $1000.00 for the mcse training at it solutions, does anyone of u guys know get that money back.
please
New name, same game, now called Very Staff. I got the high pressure call this afternoon from Deborah Anand, spoke 1000 miles an hour trying to convince me how great she was and how much she could help me. I could see the writing on the wall as "real" recruiters do not belittle your skills/accomplishments in order to get you a job, it is just the opposite. I agreed to the interview to get her off the phone and immediately told my girlfriend there was something fishy here. I jumped on Google and look what I found, a bunch of other people also being strong armed into some bogus training. Steer clear of this people. Good luck to everyone in their job search.
WOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now the name is VERYSTAFF
I just had this interview today with the same lady and she basically beat my resume down to a pulp. Granted Ive always felt that I needed to (and will) delve into my IT career deeper than the desktop support level but she was certainly over selling!!!!! She went on a tirade of how she is "this and that" speaking a million miles a minute. WOW!!!!!!!! The funny thing about this is she's IT and so are we, what made her think or them think that we wouldn't do a google search on them??? Practically everything we need to know about anyone is on the web.
same thing happened to me Sadly I took the day off from work to go on this interview but thank god I have a second interview planned somewhere else now i will be focused on that interview and wont even bother with this one.
I just had an interview two days ago, they were real flexible on price, but wanted me to put down 150 for registration to hold my seat. When I asked questions during the interview she seamed to be upset that I was questioning her. So I simply explained that I just wanted to have a clear understanding of the Very Staff program. She did speak a mile a minute as everyone in this blog has indicated. I wanted to believe this was a legit outfit but couldn't, the delivery, the waiting in the lobby for a half an hour before anyone spoke to me and unprofessional-ism tipped me off. I payed no money and will concentrate my efforts elsewhere.
Thanks for posting this after send hundreds of resumes I finally got a call from Deborah Anand, I was excited to meet her but I did a quick search on her name and came up with this post thank god, they are n ow called verystaff another scam BS company
Be carefull!!! Don't spent your time on this agency "VeryStaff". I've got a call from number 212 747 0001 ext 109. They address is 42 Broadway suit 1136(11th flor), 1004. I've got an appointment. And then i've came...i'm waitintg for Robert(IT Director) for whole hour!!! Don't trust them, don't give them your SSN and money!!! The names of others scummers is Deborah and Sam
Ughhh... I went there today. Haha, the whole interview, Robert Rettig was shaking uncontrollably..
Anyways, I made a stupid mistake and gave them my SSN; does anyone know what I should do about this? Would it make sense to report that to the authorities somehow? Or should I call them and tell them not to use it?
just spoke with Robert i challenged him on the phone told me he didn't see me as what he was looking for changed his mind. very staff is scam stay away far was
I too went for the interview (Luckily I live just an hour away from NYC). I was semi-buying it until the "IT Director" tried to push the classes, and he tried to get me to sign up right there. After I said "I'll think about it" and left the office, I promptly took those forms to a shredder. I should have looked these clowns up first...
I went there yesterday and met with that Deborah. She spoke nonstop for an hour and a half and again she promoted the certifications. I said I don't have the money to do it and she was ready to provide me with the info on loans available.
I am glad that I looked her up on Google.
Thank you all.
I got a voice mail from Debrah Anand from VeryStaff, aka IT Solutions Xchange. She wanted me bring be in for an interview. I agreed to an interview but afterwards had second thoughts. The phone conversation was odd. She never offered a position, and she talked allot about herself. Most of it sounded rehearsed. I went to find out how to get to their office in down town NYC and found the post about the scam. I decided it was a waste of time. She kept saying graduated from Colombia and she was a director of IT. She said she was a geek helping geeks, but it sounded like she was trying to sell me something. At one point during the conversation Debrah started talking tech for no apparent reason other then to try to impress me. She rattled off things like server virtualization, and Telecoms needing CISCO people to run wires. It did not impress me since it was BS to try to sell MCP and MCSE certs. She said Network Engineers and System Admins were the same thing. At that point I decided to end the call.
Her linkedin profile is http://www.linkedin.com/pub/deborah-klein-anand/4/355/413
Other spelling of her name is deborah anand.
Email Address is danand@verystaff.com
if you dont have these certs or a background in IT then you will not get a job in the field. I went and took the classes and now I am working for a fortune 500 company thanks to TCS Verystaff. Also if you read the post from the school it even says that if you have the qualifications they will help you to get a position, if not they offer the classes help you pursue a career in this field. so for the serious applicants i say go for it. if you are an idoit like most the people who have posted here then please enjoy your minimum wage position serving fries and burgers.
I agree with the previous comment. I went to their classes. I took the a+, net+, and ccna. I now have a management job. I oversee a help desk department and I also manage all the desktop engineers for a mutlimillion dollar marketing company. If your still looking for a job and the phone isn't ringing all the time and you don't have the certs, then you should be asking yourself why. Once I did it, the job offers were coming in like crazy and I had to beat them off with a stick. IT Solutions saved my career. They also offered me free refresher courses at any time. I havn't seen anyone post that they took the courses and they were a scam. They do have some interesting techniques to get you in the door, but what they are telling you is just putting it bluntly and it is true.
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