Complaint Review: McKenzie Scott Partners - Denver Colorado

I was desirous of exploring opportunities outside of my industry expertise, and sought assistance in such. Bob repeatedly indicated to me that he was not a marketing guy, but a founding principal of the firm, and that I would greatly benefit from Mckenzie Scott's services. I was shown McKenzie Scott's process for developing executive marketing plans and told that, as an individual, I could only reach ~10% of the job market but, with their plan, could reach ~96% of the market. Further, and on numerous occasions, Bob indicated that McKenzie Scott's $20MM computing system was world-class, that it substantially set McKenzie Scott apart from their competition, and that such would essentially guarantee access (and concomitant results) in the non-listed job market. I was reminded by Bob on numerous occasions of McKenzie Scott's money back guarantee, and also that Bob wished to maintain contact before, during and after my search. In addition, I was told that once I became a client, a five member team would work with me to develop a marketing plan specific to my skills, experience level and industry preferences. I was then invited back with my wife so that McKenzie Scott could interview her as spouses are typically involved with high level interview processes. Bob further represented that I was very marketable, and that with McKenzie Scott's assistance I could expect to receive approximately 8 10 interviews and 3 - 5 job offers at the executive level being sought. Finally, I was chosen to become a McKenzie Scott client and to receive their Senior Executive service level and was urged to remit my check ($12,500 via Federal Express) immediately to jumpstart my search. Once I did such, I never heard from Bob again. I was scheduled for a meeting in late February with Paul Bokelmann in Denver to develop a plan unique and specific to me and to meet the members of my marketing team. Prior to this meeting, I completed lengthy questionnaires on the McKenzie website to give them more information about myself, in addition to providing an updated resume' as well as a universal resume (which later was marginally adapted to create the universal resume' used in direct mailings). Once in the office, I spent most of the day with Paul Bokelmann going through the marketing materials and unique plan. This plan entailed a very aggressive 8 week campaign to jumpstart a search process, and entailed heavy involvement by McKenzie Scott and myself. I've got numerous areas of contention with McKenzie Scott, primarily centered on gross misrepresentation of their service effectiveness. 1. Unique marketing materials are boilerplate, standardized documents. The marketing plan is merely a computer generated regurgitation of the information I had previously submitted. 2. As part of the marketing plan, I was to contract for a direct mailing campaign to generate and mail 2,400 letters to senior executive officers at target companies. These mailings were said to be a key component of the search process. Six weeks into an eight week campaign, the mailings are not complete, with numerous iterations on target companies and individuals within such companies. The generation of the targeted mailing lists has been an error-filled process, with much wasted time. On numerous occasions, I had to go to Edgar's online to get industry SIC codes for use in attempting to create a custom mailing to selected industries. McKenzie Scott's interest has been in generating numbers to fulfill the quota on letters, without heed to targeted companies / industries / individuals. This activity has been a huge waste of time, effort and monies, and has produced ZERO response. 3. McKenzie Scott's website is merely a portal for requesting information and for accessing other public domain websites. The job market supersearch is non-effective, as the only sites scanned are themselves jobsites (Monster, CareerMag, 6FigureJobs, etc.) No source companies are included in this supersearch capability / activity. Other websites such as TheLadders are 100% more effective at securing source company postings (at a fraction of the cost). Further, the emerging market activity is merely a headline scan of selected industries, not an insightful tool to assist in seeking employment opportunities. 4. Unkept commitments and non-timely follow-up. As part of the Senior Executive service with a 5 person team headed by a lead consultant (Paul Bokelmann), the service level and response did not meet expecations. McKenzie Scott was to have heavy involvement in the process, including extensive consultative discussion. Aside from an every other week call from someone I had not met at McKenzie Scott and a weekly computer generated email, there was little contact or involvement of McKenzie Scott. 5. Misrepresentation of service effectiveness. I have received no activity and no response from their services rendered. McKenzie Scott grossly misrepresented both their website and service capability. McKenzie Scott's ability to uncover the hidden job market is grossly overstated. Given these concerns over misrepresentation(s) and generally poor performance from McKenzie Scott, and that I obtained multiple job offers from companies I had been speaking with prior to engaging McKenzie Scott (including 2 whom I received rejection letters from in the customized mailing), I sought a fair and equitable settlement with McKenzie Scott. As experienced during my engagement, the promises to contact and follow up were rarely, if ever, met. I have chosen this venue to air my grievances due to their non-responsiveness, unkept promises and poor performance. I would urge all prospective users of placement services to avoid McKenzie Scott, or if still desirous of a career transition resource, to exercise caveat emptor. While their stated interest is in making clients former clients as quickly as possible, their true interest (as dictated by action, not words) is in getting to jobseekers' checkbooks, hustling them into an assembly line / boilerplate structure, and doing sloppy and marginal work to assist jobseekers in their career search activity. Jobseekers can do better on their own initiatives by utilizing more of the reasonably priced services such as TheLadders, 6FigureJobs, CareerBuilder, FlipDog, Monster and various other resume' development and distribution firms. Further, the customized advice is readily available in many off the shelf formats. McKenzie Scott has grossly overpriced and underperformed on their service, continues to misrepresent the capability of such service, and does not keep service commitments. Jeff Cypress, Texas

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