01132523070

Apollo emailed me a very similar message to the ones posted on here and I called them to verify. All seemed fine except that the Ben Taylor I spoke to referred to the "senior consultant" as Mr Biggs with no first name in two separate calls, which I find odd as most recruiters are trying to be your friend. As I am actively looking and my CV is out on many job sites, I was not surprised they had it and agreed to an appointment. However something just feels slightly off, in particular no phone interview before the face to face, so I decided to do more research before meeting them and found this thread. Thank you all, I will now cancel and not waste my time with them.

Damn, wish I'd found this earlier today. I too got the same email a few days ago, and after contacting them had a similar conversation with Ben Taylor, and went to see the self-same Mr Biggs today... As has been mentioned in earlier posts, I'm at a vulnerable time having been made redundant and job hunting for months now, and so I fell for it... I would mention that no actual figures were discussed today, nor any mention of annual subscription or anything...

Based on what I've read on this forum I'm going to tell them where to go and not waste any more time with them.

What gets my goat us how the hell do they get away with preying on people like this ??

His name is John Biggs, but yes, his minions call him Mr Bigg(s).  Bear in mind that Ben Taylor probably doesn't exist and is just a cover name - probably for one of his cohorts in a different office.

I had the calls and mails from Alex Smith to start with and then Sam Wright. They certainly paint a picture of having roles available, and clearly they show roles on their website.......I eventually went along to an initial meeting.

No mention of up front costs on the call, and not even rough figure given at the meeting, guess its how much they think they can get out of each candidate.
The reg office at companies house also seems different to the one on their website.
Caller: Apollo

Be warned folks!

I too had a similar story to others.
Post CV to CV library following day calls and mail from Peter Nam.
Set up a meeting which i attended.
On time, nice approach from Martyn Pearce
Was clear in 5 mins he wanted to drive the meeting with a pitch about how they have a special way to tap the unadvertised job market, 95% success rate of placing people.
His close "we are not a charity" "we do more than a CV review" "we need a commercial agreement".
When I mentioned other recruters don't ask for money, they do it on the finders fee basis he just reiterated his pitch.
He gave me a sheet as home work before our next meeting ... a few odd things on it to ask my wife which made no sense and my wife laugh.
Also all their so called reviews are positive really?
I will not be returning to the second meeting or parting with any of my redundancy money.

To all you job hunters; stay focused on the task at hand, create a daily routine, create balance between life and job hunting which can be depressing sometimes and you will get there.
Good luck out there.

Thank you for your advice on this one David.

I was contacted by Sam Wright this morning by email.  As always a research the company for information about their activities as they appeared to show an interest in my skills.
I was suspicious about Apollo’s email as it was completely out for the blue and not referring to any specific appointment that they had in mind.
I have been duped into attending such an interview some years ago at a company in Milton Keynes only to discover that they would have charged me quite a large sum of money for their services, I hasten to add that I never attended a second appointment were there would have had to sign a contract which would have been legally binding agreement.
It’s so infuriating these companies are in existence praying on people who genuinely wish to return to full time employment.

I got a bunch of these after uploading my CV to a website.  It's unsolicited messaging and should be prevented under the electronics communications act.

1 Church Court
Church Way
Morley
Leeds
LS27 9TN
United Kingdom

Mr Keith Taylor

Annoy them on Twitter here : https://twitter.com/UKApolloGroup or look at their ugly faces here
http://www.ukapollogroup.com/team.htm

HA! Yes, ok spacemanmike - i.e. Total Marketing Solutions. Dumbass.

'There is therefore no need for this post online and I'm sorry that I've had to also stoop so low in responding with the facts.'

Wow, if you are reflective of the 'senior positions' you find for all your mugs, sorry, clients..... case closed.

Low blow posting that online, very unprofessional.

Is this still going on?

The basic premise is Apollo can help you find the jobs that even the companies themselves don't know they need people for.
Overall, you'll be promised a lot, receive next to nothing and then be left to your own devices - oh, and don't try to exit or you'll be threatened with court proceedings and a bad credit rating.

If you are approached by any of the following, proceed with caution;

Chris Gough
Debra Gingell
Dionne Edwards
Flicka Lunn
Geoff Russell
Ian Taylor
Ian Wilson
Jo Christodoulou
John Biggs
Ken Pringle
Martyn Pearce
Nick Grierson
Nick Guyler
Nick Storey
Nigel House
Paul Braybrooke
Richard Wozniak
Tony Mills

Add Sam Wright to that. I was wondering the text i received says to opt out, send NGQD to 88802 , but I have a feeling even that is a bad idea...

I am semi retired at age 61 and doing some part time consultancy work so my CV is registered with different agencies but certainly not with Apollo. Despite never having heard of them I  had an approach from Peter Nam to meet with 'Mr Pearce', who was described as a 'Senior Consultant'. I had a look at their web site which seemed legitimate and gave me the impression that they were a recruitment agency specialising in senior level roles. As I was doing something else in Birmingham on that day I thought I would go along to see what they had to offer. I met with Martyn Pearce in what is obviously a serviced office at 3 Brindley Place Birmingham, it didn't take long for his spiel to reveal that what Apollo actually do is charge a fee (which he wouldn't specify) to give advice on CV improvement and how to network  within the 'unadvertised job market'. I excused myself after 20  minutes and told him that I wasn't interested. Had I known about their operating methods I wouldn't have gone near them

I've had these now as well. They sent details from a Peter Nam, Sam Wright and I had a call from someone else. When I asked about what jobs they had they said "we don't work like that". If they are a recruitment agency (as they stated to me) then surely they should be able to show what jobs they have available.

One massive scam!!!

Received an unsolicited email. Met with Chris Gough in Manchester. The vagueness displayed when discussing the oil and gas industry and jargon made me suspicious. I've been dealing with specialist recruiters for over 20 years and have never experienced such a lack of understanding. My wife checked Apollo's site as she was also suspicious. Don't you just love women's intuition?
Of course it's both infuriating and insulting at the same time. Waste of my time but thankfully not my money

John Biggs has repeatedly phoned our home number to try to get my husband to pay Apollo for finding him a job which he says are not advertised at MD level: most are word of mouth which his company Apollo, working with Exec to Exec liaise with well - when my husband did this: and paid over £3,000 and was then told to write himself to cold call companies himself: i.e. write to them - no help given except they looked over his CV which was very good and told him to change it.   As if you write to companies in the UK asking if they have a vacancy for an MD - really.   When my husband complained, he got nowhere: John Biggs then phoned our number and hung up on me.  He then phoned again and I asked if he had phoned this time to apologise: he said no but I am going to hang up on you and he did.   I wrote to the company by special delivery to ask Mr Biggs to write with an apology to me and they did not reply.   I then emailed them and posted a link on twitter so no-one else would fall for paying money out to a group such as this.  The 'sole Director' Keith Taylor, then got Jonny Glass to write to my husband saying they had passed my name to the police.    My husband is talented with an MBA, a degree in Engineering and many years MD experience: it is extremely difficult to get jobs at this level - without being head hunted: whatever the government says, jobs are just not there.   If a company approaches you through proper channels, while you are searching a recruitment site Exec to Exec, you assume they know what they are doing.  John lost money; they insulted me and then said they were reporting me to the police: whatever you do, do not deal with them not only are they not pleasant; rude but they also take your money and do not do anything they advertise they do.

The police wouldn't be able to do anything as the only crime is against you , if they are not providing a service in which your husband would of signed then they are in breach of this contract. if your husband gets emails or has any calls with them ensure you keep or record them as evidence of poor service. this company needs to be closed down what ever they call themselves look in to there past they have changed there name more times then jamie oliver has changed school dinners

UK Apollo Group seem to prosper on misrepresentation and then trying to intimidate people into paying up.  John Biggs was a classic used car salesman, all smiles and hollow promises, but underneath, not a nice person.  According to LinkedIn he is Chairman of the Saffron Walden Conservative Association...........wonder what they think of his antics.

I believe that there misrepresentation should be publicized as much as possible how can one company from reading all theses posts charge one guy £x amount and for the same service charge someone else more do they just pluck numbers out of thin air like if major organizations did this they would be fined i say watchdog should be called or the trading standards also when you call to speak to Alex smith or Jamie sherwell etc they are mysteriously unavailable also when i met with one of the consultants in the Leeds office he didn't know who these people where strange as they say they are calling on there behalf

It's unlikely that there is anything genuine about UK Apollo Group.  They have many people with names that are non-specific on gender, Sam, Alex, Jamie, Pat, can all be male or female, just depends who answers the phone.  Also, their LinkedIn profiles don't mention UK Apollo Group, just 'A well respected consultancy', 'leading HR management company'.......yeah right!

I was contacted by someone on behalf of Geoffrey Russel and I went to meet with him at Cavendish Sq. I already knew the bldg and its obvious that it is serviced offices - so far so not very remarkable, many co's work out of such places these days. Geoff then proceeded to talk at me for 40 mins. Actually what he had to say was plausible ( naturally), but my antenna were well and truly twitching. I'm working anyway so I agreed to a further meeting and did a little digging ( didn't find this string though - sadly). When I met with Geoff the second time I remarked that I was very skeptical about the website testimonials, only first names, not verifiable and many with the same structure and syntax, Geoff expressed surprise and professed to have had no input in sourcing these.  After another period of being talked at we got on to the issue of the 'unadvertised job market' I asked the obvious question only to be told that the answer was part of their I. P.

I was decidedly unhappy about that, anyway at the end Geoff handed me a piece of paper with a list of services for a fee of 5k but if I made a payment in full by the end of Feb reducing to 4K - classic hard sell tactic, reminiscent of 1990's double- glazing salesmen. The ' contract' was appallingly prepared and completely amateurish. No co. Reg no, no vat detail, and promised nothing but access to a databases

Anyway ,discussed the whole thing with a bona Fidel recruiter and he said , ' stay well away' these people are bloodsucker preying on the vulnerable