01132523070

Good Morning

I've emailed our ISO accrediation company, TÜV UK Ltd, to ask why our details aren't coming up on the register. Thank you for letting me know about this and I'll update you when I get a response. Our certification is completely valid and the certificate is valid until 23.4.2017. We have an annual external audit to confirm our accreditation. If you send me your email address I can send you a copy of the certificate.

Regards
Abigail Greenley
Operations Director

It is hard to avoid the thought that, whether posted as retaliation or not, your post is a clear breach of the Data Protection Act.

For clarity my previous post refers to yours of 11th June.

Having checked with TUV, our ISO accreditor, they upload the registrations to TSO (The Stationery Office) who keep a record of ISO accredited companies. This is not available online but you can check our registration with Mike Haskins at TSO - phone number 01603 696030 or mike.haskins@tso.co.uk. I trust this answers the question

Anything else please call or email me - a.greenley@apollo.eu.com or 0113 2052851

Thank you
Abigail Greenley
Operations Director

Thank you for your information, however there does appear to be some confusion.

I used the ISO Register " The ISO Registers primary objective is to provide a unique and comprehensive free of charge service to all users to confirm ISO Certifications".    This is the web site where your many company names are not showing. It could be a site which claims this and does not deliver like the " Who's Who" book you mentioned in previous posts, that sounds like the real " Who's who" but is really borderline vanity publishing.The ISO register may not be as official as it portrays itself, a constant dilemma in business.  Either way, thank you for your transparency, and I am sure someone will second check the facts and report back.

I also acknowledge that you have offered to send details to my email address, but forgive me, after you published that poor guys letter online for the world to see, as some kind of justification for your frustration and annoyance, I am a little reluctant to submit much information about myself, as I have a slight foreboding of what you may do with it.

You know you have an organisational structure  which is varied, employees that seem almost invisible on say LinkedIn and a customer base that are not happy with some of your methods, which are pitched to many at a very vulnerable time of their lives.  You have chosen to operate in part of the market that many head hunters, coaches, executive placement companies, etc would never operate in, or use the methods that you deploy.  In the midst of all this, no matter how frustrating for you, publishing a letter from a man clearly broken by recent experiences was I suggest both a professional, ethical and moral mistake.  You could have summarised and kept on the right side of the line.  Recent actions looked a little like kicking a man when he was down, and no one likes that, no matter what the circumstances and frustration felt by yourself.

Apollo deceived me into thinking I was communicating with them in response to a real job opportunity only to to find it was a scam. The practice is wholly deceitful.

was due to meet these boso's tomorrow morning at 9.45 in Birmingham.  i must admit it did not sound right initially but hey i went along with it.
Very posh guy rings me up called Ben Taylor and goes on about help but when I asked him about contracts available he went silent... he says his senior consultant would like to meet me.  What got me was the way he addressed his senior consultant a Mr Pearce... seemed to much.
Luckily i looked on this forum tonight and have sent in a note saying sorry cant make it...
SCAM SCAM
cheers all

This is the ruling against Apollo by  the Adverstising Standards Authority. Worth asking them about this, if you really believe meeting them will help you at all. They could be wonderful, but would so many  people on this site say similar things? If it looks  to good to be true then .................  Or leave your cash, and credit cards at home, tell them you will pay from home if you have cooling off period, see what happens then!

ASA Ruling on UK Apollo Group Ltd
UK Apollo Group Ltd t/a PCS

Complaint Ref:
A13-240446
Background

Summary of Council Decision:

Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad

An e-mail ad for PCS, a career management consultancy, had the subject header "RE: Your Online CV". Text in the e-mail stated "Dear [name], PCS specialise in assisting mid to senior level professionals secure their next role through our extensive experience in utilising the unadvertised job market, obtained through our successful 14 years of business. As you may recall we are an established career management consultancy with offices across the UK, covering every industry sector, across all disciplines and functions, including both the public and private sector. To enable me to arrange a convenient time for a meeting in your local office please reply to this email with a copy of your most recent CV and availability over the next 7 days and we will be in contact. Alternatively, please visit our website at www.p-c-s.uk.com Kind Regards [name] Client Services".
Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad:

1. breached the Code because it was unsolicited; and

2. misleadingly implied the advertiser had an existing relationship with the recipient.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
10.13.310.4.210.4.53.13.7
Response

1. UK Apollo Group Ltd t/a PCS said the complainant had registered with, and uploaded their CV to, the website www.exec2exec.com, which was also owned by UK Apollo Group Ltd. They enclosed details of the privacy statement from the website, which advised that details may be passed to third parties and other group companies. They said that in registering with www.exec2exec.com the complainant had agreed to the terms and conditions on the website, including their privacy policy. They said they had now suppressed the complainant's details from UK Apollo Group's mailing lists.

2. They said the reference to maybe knowing about PCS already was made because they obtained their details from www.exec2exec.com and PCS also advertised on that website.
Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA considered that the evidence provided by UK Apollo Group demonstrated that the complainant had registered with www.exec2exec.com in 2010, and that in doing so they would have ticked a box stating "Yes, I agree to the privacy policy". The privacy policy included the statement "Your CV may also be viewed by other divisions of the group if it is thought their recruitment or career management services will be of benefit to you". The CAP Code stated that the explicit consent of consumers was required before sending electronic mail, but that marketers may send unsolicited marketing about their similar products to those whose data they had obtained during, or in negotiations for, a sale. We did not consider that ticking a box that referred to a "privacy policy" was sufficient to establish explicit consent. We acknowledged it was acceptable for marketers to send unsolicited marketing about similar products or services by e-mail provided the consumers details had been obtained in the course of, or during negotiations for, a sale. However, we did not consider that the website www.exec2exec.com clearly identified that they were owned by UK Apollo Group, and that the data was being collected on behalf of them. We also considered that www.exec2exec.com did not make clear its relationship with PCS. We therefore considered that only www.exec2exec.com were entitled to send unsolicited marketing to the complainant on this basis, providing they complied with other Code requirements. We also noted that marketers should take all necessary steps to ensure they did not make unwanted marketing solicitations by ensuring databases were accurate and up-to-date. Because the complainant registered more than two years before they received the e-mail, we considered their database was not up-to-date. We concluded that the ad breached the Code.

On this point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 10.4.2, 10.4.5 and 10.13.3 (Database practice).

2. Upheld

We considered the ad, and in particular the claims "RE: Your Online CV" and "As you may recall", implied that the advertiser had an existing relationship with the recipient. Whilst we understood that the complainant had registered with www.exec2exec.com in 2010, we noted that was over two years before they received the e-mail and that www.exec2exec.com did not make clear its relationship with PCS. Because the ad implied that the complainant had an existing relationship with PCS and that was not the case we concluded that the ad was misleading.

On this point the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action

We told PCS to ensure that any future marketing communications they sent complied with the CAP Code, and that they held explicit consent if required.

Thank you all for this very helpful thread.
I got a text from an Alex Smith at Apollo this morning - 07860 021982 & 0113 2052871. I wondered why he didn't call, & why the website was Apollo.eu.com  (eu.com, what is that meant to be?) so did a bit of checking.
Agencies make 10-15% off you EVERY day you work if you get a contract through them. This can be hundreds a week for a few internet ads, making a few phone calls & a bit of pay-rolling once a month,
So there is no way you should pay thousands up front!

Contacted initially via email. Whilst there may be a place for this type of service, it should be made much clearer that they are not a recruitment consultancy or headhunter and that their services are chargeable. I did not go to my meeting as I just had a gut feeling that it wasn't quite what I thought and am now very glad I didn't. I'm sorry Apollo, but your methods very much smack of preying on the vulnerable; we all know how tough it is to get a new job and trying to convince people that they'll only succeed if they pay for career counselling is morally dubious in my opinion. I'm over it now, but was very upset initially having realised that there was no real opportunity. I'm not calling you scammers, but you need to be more transparent as to what your offering is.

looks like they are up to same old tricks I got another email today even though i have unsubscribe from this sh£$% so many times  "RE applying i have had a relationship with them in fact all my email have the RE in i have never contacted them nor have i ever used there so called recruiter web site exec2exec next email i will make a compliant not only to ASA about them but also the certain job board i can only guess they and getting my details from.

The  ASA are very efficient, though Apollo will probably claim you are competitor trying to ruin their good name. The ASA asked me twice if I was a competitor, it may just be Apollo's first line of defence. Its worth 10 minutes on the ASA website just to help other people in the future.  Could you give us all a clue which job board, even a cryptic clue, and I for one can get my CV taken down from there.

Slick, almost plausible and actually a good wake up call.  Price quoted in excess of £4k.  Dangerous and fundamentally corrupt.  Have searched internet for all main players and basically, would find it easier to track down Lord Lucan and Shergar... Hats off though, as greasy con artists go, they are particularly slippery - think an eel dipped in KY jelly.  Had scanned my CV and had visual prompts on desk related to hobbies.  Clever

Me too - sadly read this too late...............................

Hi 'Martin' - where did you find this information.  Sadly I signed up with these scammers and the outcome was a complete waste of time.  Trying to understand how long they've been at it.

Can someone explain what the "Busted" stamp is across some of these posts mean please?

"Busted" stamps are used by the Site Moderators to indicate suspect posts which have been found out.  Usually those posts are fake "positive" posts pretending to be from satisfied customers of the company being complained about.  These posts tend to be in groups, using different names, but found by the Moderators to be from the same IP address.  It is a common ruse used by scammers and con companies when they are found out.  It is more effective to mark them "Busted" than just removing suspect posts as it shows what lengths such companies will go to to try and fool the public.

Wow - I think there may be something interesting going on here with UK Apollo Group and their trading name Taylor CVs

https://twitter.com/AlexCyberprog/status/654692372954001408

Thank you to everyone, who has commented on this thread!

I've felt a little off about this company, as soon as I chatted to them on the phone. I couldn't place my finger on it, but I'm so glad I came across this.

I too am in the job hunt and are a little tired of the long process of finding one. I do, however, despise companies who prey on the weak. This company being such a company.

They have minimal presence on LinkedIn, which is the FB of the professional world and I struggle to find anything useful on Google or their website - which by the way looked like it was set up yesterday.

Anyways, back to the grind and finding my dream job. I can only buy so much Vegemite, with a dwindling bank account.

Yes, I'm Australian and no my name is not Bill Murray. I somehow got reminded of Zombieland whilst writing this review and I don't exactly feel like my name popping up every time someone types my name into Google.

If you are reading this still, make sure you keep posting. Keep this in the spotlight for future people.

Keep Posting, I certainly shall. I obviously now have a case pending against UK Apollo Group Limited in the County Courts for breach of the DPA and PECR. Their defence (as someone has already found!) was laughable...