R.L. Stevens & Associates RL Stevens & Associates Deception and Intimidation Indianapolis, Indiana

We who are desperate and in dire need of work often times ignor the obvious.  I am a communications professional that fell for the same ripoff about 15 years ago by a company called "Haldane".  Same scam - not even updated by RLStevens - and yes, I paid them $5,000.  The pretend office that is actually a shared space with several other fake companies; the non-existant "unadvertised job market"; the phoney access to key decision makers; poorly reworking the resume (or simply making you do it yourself); "mentoring" the candidate on "proven" networking techniques that never work; making you study antiquated promotional material in order to meet targeted "goals" and move to the next level.  Amazing!  I consider myself a smart guy and very aware of ripoffs and I got suckered in.  Desperation makes fools of us all.

Based on a detailed online survey, I got a call from a woman named Debbie who refused to discuss the way her company works but wanted to set up an interview with me today with a "counselor".  A bit later I got a call from "Sean" at RL Stevens.  Sean had me on speaker phone (a sure sign of a non-professional who couldn't care less) and asked me a few questions to see how best to sell me their services.  Amazingly it was the exact same pitch I got 15 years ago.  After listening to his lies, I told him that thanks to the internet companies like his are being exposed for what they are and that he should be ashamed of himself for what he's doing.  He swore at me and slammed down the phone.

The best thing you can do is report them to your local Office of the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission (the BBB is useless).  Iasmuch as the Haldanes and RLStevens are vey careful about having you sign "no promises" agreements, as with most professional criminals they are tough to catch and prosecute.  You will never see your money again - I never did.  These people provide nothing and serve only to hurt and damage.  One can only hope that those who choose to steal from the desperate get theirs in the end.

One last note; from time to time you'll see "rebuttals" from people stating how these companies fairly and equitably worked things out or really did right by them finding them a great job.  This is nothing more than the comapny itself submitting more lies in a lame effort to try and disway the massive public outrage at their crimes.  DON'T FALL FOR IT!

I understand what you went thru as I was also scammed. I was made promises after promises. Two of my "case workers" quit RL Stevens and I was assigned a man who basically told me that if I paid them more money they could help me speed up the job search--whell, when you pay someone thousands of dollars and no promises, why feed the pig more money?

Yes, I hope who wants to start a class action suit will let us join!