The focus of my blog was suppose to be finance and information technology. But since it is MY blog, I can add other topics. I've decided to add travel as a topic.
I actually love to travel. I enjoy seeing new environments and new landscapes.
My husband and I joined a travel club last year and it opened our eyes to the vast pricing schemes in the travel industry. We also sign up for more offers now and receive phone calls about different travel opportunities. He's been receiving cruise phone calls and I just got a call today from ETour and Travel. They offered 4 days / 3 nights in Orlando (with a stay at a Sheraton/Hilton property) and 4 days / 3 nights in Dayton. The package also includes vouchers for discounts on air travel ($100 per ticket) and $100 in credits toward shows and attractions. Our cost: $149.
Sounds good on the surface, but what's the catch? You have to attend a 45-minute presentation (not a big deal) but you also must BUY NOW. I hate snap decision. The caller said I could not call back in a couple of hours and get the same rate.
I said if it's a good deal now, it will be a good deal later. Maybe another company will call with the same or better offer.
For $149, you get a package in a mail that tells you how to activate everything and you have two years to use it and there are no blackout dates. But why must you BUY NOW? Is the offer really going to disappear 2-3 hours from now?
In response to something that happened to me and comments that were on the website about the alleged recruiting agency Work Save Retire, I entered the following information on the website.
My call was from 810-224-9420 and has the same elements that other people mentioned. I think WorkSaveRetire was trying to get me to meet with a Brian. Suggested that Brian would come to my house. I said I wasn't comfortable with that so then she suggested a public spot like a cafe or library. I asked where was Brian's office and was give a lame excuse as to why Brian is never in the office. So I said I wanted to meet some company representative in the office and that's when things unravelled.
The things that stood out as unusual: (1) a recruiting company that has YOU finding the job utilizing desktop sofware, (2) require that you meet with financial advisor, (3) asked if I had 401K to rollover, (3) asked value of retirement assets, (4) asked fewer career/job related questions, (5) has many offices throughout the country but did not know the address of the company's location in my area.
So after I received their e-mail (they had my address from CareerBuilder) I visited their website and noticed that Contact Us does not list an address and notice that the website itself is not even their own domain name - its subhosted on Ning, a social networking site.
Somebody wanted to know where is the scam? The scam is that job boards are exploited to sell other services. What recruiting agency asks the job seeker to find the jobs using software. Recruiters are the people with relationships with the employers.
It's a bait and switch. The bait is "help you find a job". The switch is "in the meantime, talk to my financial advisor".
This is what happens when job boards are misused. You get people like me who blog about it at every opportunity.
A potential client asked if you needed a website if you have a Facebook page.
With the exception of
iPhones (whose browser is Safari), most cell phones cannot view flash
websites or flash elements in an HTML website. With the proliferation of
mobile devices, more people are surfing the internet from something
other than a desktop or notebook computer.