Climber.com Bad Business Practice San Diego, California

I am not sure about the your individual circumstances, however, I do know that in even the most efficient organizations some things slip through the cracks.  We have consistently maintained a "A" rating with the BBB and as you can see on this forum we are happy to work out any problems. 

Climber.com provides services to 1.8mm job seekers and tens of thousands of Recruiters and Hiring Managers each month.  In this market place, we offer a service which helps our premium members get more visibility through search engines and in recruiters search results.  We also offer our Recruiter Directory that enables our members to send LinkedIn Invites and their Resumes directly to the Recruiters and Hiring Managers they choose.

I am happy to work with you to resolve this situation and I firmly stand behind our product and wonderful people who give 100% every day to help others find meaningful work.

Please reach out to me directly at through our customer service team. 

Cheers,
Mike

It sounds like the poster was able to get some resolution.  My emails to the CEO, Mike O'Brien, and the COO, Nick Jimenez, have gone unheeded.

Like other posts, I was solicited via phone.  The company is using job boards to sell their wares to job seekers, not to screen a candidate or set an interview but to sell.  That to me is abuse.  The company left a callback number, but I had no idea what it was in regards to.  At the time I decided to join I was unaware of what I was getting into.

Since the sale was over the phone, there was no disclosure regarding terms and conditions and terms of service.  I was told in a recent email from their client services associate the following.  This is verbatim:

" 'Yes,

I understand you signed up over the phone. However, at no time did the sales representative tell you or elude that you would be eligible for a refund. This is a feeling you have concluded by reading only portions of our Terms of Service on the site as well as the feeling of dissatisfaction. When you decided to use our website, you agreed to our Terms of Service by entering and using the site. Feeling you should receive a refund and being eligible to receive a refund are two completely separate things' ".

I have yet to do business with a company, until now, that does not require you to accept their terms and conditions and terms of service at the time of sale or solicitation, not afterwards.

See sentence four in above excerpt.

I signed up less than a week ago at the time of this writing.  I purchased a four month program, called the VIP Program.  In the money back guarantee under Terms on their website, there is no reference to the VIP Program being the Premier Program.  They are one in the same.  The Premier Program does not offer a money back guarantee unless you have received points, rewards, or discounts from other websites.  Monster.com did not offer me anything and my only issue with them is allowing companies to solicit job seekers for a sale.

Evidently this company is dead set on keeping my money, and upper management will not contact me at my request.  Within one day of signing up I was having service issues, calls going unreturned, etc.

I am pursuing this with the State Attorney General's Office and have filed a credit dispute.  I would recommend this to anyone having issues with service.

No, they do not guarantee a job.  I would be leary if they had stated they could.  This simply boils down to service issues and a lack of goodwill on the part of Climber.com.

If Mike O'Brien, CEO of Climber.com, attempts to contact me to resolve this issue (yes, he has received my emails), I will update this post with a response.  I will follow up to this post either way in an effort to assist others considering using their services.

First, in regards to the BBB, Climber.com currently had an A rating:http://www.bbb.org/san-diego/business-reviews/employment-agencies/climber-com-in-san-diego-ca-18000329/#bbbonlineclick

Climber.com offers a 30 day money back guarantee. If you cancel after the 30 days, the refund becomesineligible. This policy is clearly stated in the terms of use on the Climber website: www.climber.com/terms_of_use

Climber.com is a monthly billing cycle as long as it is active. The day a user signs up is their billing date for each month. For example, if a user signs up on the 14th of February, the 14th of each month will be their billing date. If this user was charged a second time, it was due to the fact that they did not cancel their account prior to their next billing date. Once an account is canceled, no future charges will be applied.

In regards to Recruiters, Climber.com Recruiters understand that they have a separate inbox for their Climber candidates. Climber.com sends them notifications that tell them to check it when a candidate has reached out to them. Recruiters who come to Climber to source candidates, have a full understanding of how their process on the site works, and Climber candidates are not just another resume sent to their inbox or Applicant Tracking System.

The "Professional Profile" is just another way to help match job seekers with their ideal employers. It is not a personality test, nor does it take away from a candidates experience and work history. If a job seeker does not like the results of the Professional Profile, they have the option to take it a second time if they wish.

Climber.com did not rip off this consumer. The job seeker was billed on their monthly billing date that they agreed to by submitting their credit card and personal information to the website.

To all that have been following this thread: I received a nice email from Mike O. the CEO of the company. He explained that he would be doing some training with his staff, as the information that was provided me by DG which I copied above was incorrect. While they do have an email system, it is not something recruiters have to log in to.

Secondly, They did refund all of my money, including the first 30 days.. I wish to thank Mike for doing the right thing.  While this service did not have the desired effect for me, I understand that they have helped a lot of people connect with recruiters to find employment.

Thanks again Mike for your help in resolving this matter.

Best wishes,

Scott

Scott, please check your email, i think you will be happy with the resolution. 

Mike. The confirmation number that was given me is 3437646518.

If you cancelled on the day you were billed we will absolutely remove the charge! 

Yes.. please go the BBB... Fact is they have 24 complaints in the last 36 months.

 

Climber.com said--"The accusation that our recruiters have to sign-in to our site to receive a jobseekers email is completely false." --

 This is an exert from the email from one of their customer service representatives-- I was not getting any response from recruiters and asked if there was a way to see that the recruiter actually recieved my email. My take away from what they wrote was that the recruiter has a Climber mailbox where they would receive my messages...  Which is it?

 

From: DG

Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: Recruiters
Importance: High

 
Hi S,
The emails are being sent. If you would like to view which contacts have been emailed, you may check your recruiter activities. Although we appreciate your feedback, at this time there is no way to view the sent message text. The message is received in their climber.com mailbox, and there is no junk mail to receive.

 

Climber says-- "Finally, if a user does cancel their account, but has already been charged before the month is over, we are happy to re-activate the account for them so they can use the month they paid for."

 

I cancelled on the day they indicated on their site was my "re-up" day for the next 30 days... Why would I continue a service that was not working? I CANCELLED FOR A REASON.. Perhaps Climber.com does not understand that charging for a cancelled subscription and not refunding the charge, is called theft.  They billed me for the 30 days forward which I do not have a subscription for...

 

Not to mention that they are not refunding what they billed me for the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" time period. They say I missed the deadline by a day... yet it was the day listed on their site.. totally deceptive. If they truely believed in having Satisfied Guaranteed, they would have refunded my money straight away. I was not asking for something unreasonable--- I mean if I came back 3 months later that is a different scenario... but 24 hours? Come on!

 

If they change their mind and do the right thing, I will repost that the issue is taken care of and they ultimately did the right thing...  

 

Climber.com would like to address the accusations of the client who issued a complaint about our business practices and site services.