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Please pay attention if you do not wish to lose your money and waste your time. In November of 2006 I contacted the Bakos Group for resume evaluation services. Speaking to a person there who will identify himself only as "Jack," I committed to a verbal contract for services. I was supposed to have received a professionally re-written resume from the Bakos Group. What I received was far from it. For starters, the resume was titled, "SALES PROFESSIONAL" - notice the misspelling? I guarantee you any potential employer would! There were, in addition, 17 other spelling or grammatical errors and four factual errors, including an incorrect e-mail address and span of employment at a previous position that was off by over a year. Prospective employers check this information! Previous employers must, by law, provide dates of employment of their previous employees to companies making legitimate inquiries of such.
I was furious and demanded the return of my money. "Jack" refused. He told me I could submit "suggestions for revision" which the writers would "consider." Consider this: what this amounts to is me writing the resume and paying someone else $295 to type it!
Please keep in mind that at no time prior to getting my credit card information did "Jack" inform me that no refund even for an incredibly poor job. I thought, as with most services, if a job is performed so miserably poorly that a refund and an apology is a matter of course.
I called my credit card company, Discover Financial Services, and entered a complaint with the Disputes department. Initially, the result was a credit for the amount in dispute. With the next statement, however, the amount was re-posted. This is a very good reason to never do business with Discover.
I have no recourse, it seems, other than to contact the BBB in the city in which the Bakos Group is located and to file a complaint with the District Attorney and the State of Massachusetts Attorney General. I informed "Jack" that I would do this and he laughed as he hung up the phone. He apparently doesn't think I'm serious. Or perhaps he doesn't think much of the power of these offices.
Mine will be the third complaint to the Office of the State of Massachusetts Attorney General in the last three years. It is my sincere hope that Bakos Group will be shut down.
I advise you again, do not do business with Bakos Group. You will lose your money and waste your time doing so.
Regards,
Ryan Baggett
Please tell me exactly what the misspelling in "SALES PROFESSIONAL" is?
I agree with David Miller. Where's the error in the spelling of "Sales Professional"? I think Ryan Baggett needs to go back to school.
It is amazing as I had a similar experience with Bakos Group late last year. Discover Financial Services were of no help and I did report them to BBB with no success. Avoid Them! resumeedge is so much better
It doesn't surprise me that Bakos Group would be a total rip off. They offered me a free "resume critique" when I contacted a certain recruiter, and I accepted. A day later, I received an e-mail informing me that their evaluation of my resume was complete and asking me to call to obtain it. I did, and it was a waste of time. The person I spoke with sounded like he was picking up the document for the first time and offered little besides: "uhh . . . it looks pretty good." I'm sure that the employees' treatment of paying customers is slightly more thorough, but I still question their competence.
I agree with the negative feed backs about the Bakos Group. I called them several times and the person who answered the phone did lack professionalism and social etiquette. In addition, he did not know any thing about my CB despite the fact that I was sent an e-mail that my resume was evaluated and they were ready to give me feed back.
Finally, the person who answered me could not even prononouce the word epidemiology. He called himself a professional and expert writer.
I believe the Bakos group is a mere rip off.
Yo Ryan old boy,
Perhaps some of the other 17 incorrectly spelled words had the same number of mistakes that you claim are contained in SALES PROFESSIONAL. I would suggest using the spellcheck feature of your word processor program. Short of that there is plenty of print dictionary tomes available for your perusal.
I had Bakos perform a resume review for me and they pointed out basic information(probably from a template) of what was wrong with my resume. I spoke to the same guy each time and he gave me the same sales pitch. Before I would send them any money I wanted to speak with past clients to review their service. I waited a week with no response. They just brushed me off. After a month I called them again and got the same sales pitch. I told them I was still waiting for the references they promised and Chris was very rude to me. He told me they have no control over their past clients and they cannot make them speak to me.
I asked them how many clients they have and he told me they have about a million clients. I said, "You have a million clients and you cannot get one of them to say good things about you to a potential client. Chris did not like that. He got frustrated with me and I told them I was not going to purchase anything from them. I would not hire them to re-write the alphabet let alone my resume. Save your money. They were very unprofessional and would not follow-up with the sales process so I cannot imagine how poorly they would be after I give them money. Please see my emails to them.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Bryant"
> To: "'BakosGroup.com'"
> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 9:33 PM
> Subject: RE: Your Requested Resume Critique From BakosGroup.com
>
>> Hello there, I've asked for some references on the phone last week and I
>> have yet to receive them. Can you please advise?
>>
>> Thank you very much,
>> Michael Bryant
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "BakosGroup.com"
>> Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:39:51
> To: Michael Bryant
> Subject: Re: Your Requested Resume Critique From BakosGroup.com
>
> Mr. Bryant,
>
> We have contacted several clients who have experience similar to yours.
> They
> have not responded yet with authorization to have you contact them. We
> will
> contact them again.
>
> Chris
>
> BakosGroup.com |
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Bryant"
To: "BakosGroup.com"
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: Your Requested Resume Critique From BakosGroup.com
>I am a bit surprised you do not have their approval already so you can act
>on a request like mine without jeopardizing the sale.
>
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
> Thank you very much,
> Michael Bryant
Mr. Bryant,
We respect the confidentiality and privacy of our clients and we not want to jeapordize our relationship with them.
Chris
BakosGroup.com |
I would like to post my experience with Bakos Group. Right from the start I found Jack to be extremely gracious and professional. I never felt pressured to buy from them. I had my resume done and was happy except for some minor revisions which they did in a timely manner. In fact I was thrilled with the results. Having such a wonderful resume gave me more confidence in pursuing employment. And indeed the resume gave me the "extra edge" in getting interviews. I now have a job that I believe my resume helped me to "get my foot in the door".
Wanting to talk to "other" clients is ridiculous. It's a resume not a building contractor. If they called me to ask if I would talk to a prospective customer I would have thought they were nuts.
Ryan Baggett needs to get a life and spell check.
My experience w/Bakos Group was great and I am a happy consumer.
Same here, I had Bakos revamp my resume in 2007, and they did a fantastic job. They really took my resume to the next level of maturity and professionalism so I too am puzzled by the above comments. Maybe it was a bad apple and hopefully Bakos has taken steps to remove folks that should not be involved in resume consulting.
Approximately one year ago, I was referred to BakosGroup.com for assistance in my job search by a very close friend. He and his family, over a period of 15 years, had great success with BakosGroup.com. In fact, my friend attributes his success to the writers and employment specialists who were always available to assist him and his family. His wife, 2 adult children and his uncle all used BakosGroup.com. A couple of them had their resume updated at least twice. My experience with everyone at BakosGroup.com was professional, prompt and respectful. In my job history, I had to overcome some disadvantages that Bakos skillfully resolved. My job search ended very quickly! I got the job I targeted within 1 month. Anyone can contact any time at charliesztzas@hotmail.com.
Actually I was surprised to see this complaint against a service that I have used for many years and, without exception, all the staff have been professional and supportive. I've also proudly referred my family and friends to them. I question the authenticity of the complaint. Anyone can contct me for more details at nanciyorkey@yahoo.com.
After many years of climbing the ladder in my industry (many relocations which had put much stress on my family), I decided to transfer my experience and skills to another industry that was less mobile. I sought help from other resume services. For more than 2 years, my job search got me nowhere. Believing it was the job market, I was very frustrated. My neighbor thought I should have another professional review my resume. Frankly, I was stunned to hear that I was being typecast in another industry. Believing that employers and recruiters would recognize my background, I never gave it another thought. Bakos Group (BakosGroup.com) removed the typecast effect. I then started to get interviews. Yep, I changed jobs, I am extremely happy (my 3 children are seeing me more, not to mention my wife), and I being considered for a promotion. This would never had happened if I didn’t change my resume, produced by BakosGroup.com.
My circumstances are similar to many hard-working professionals: My industry (printing) was suffering and I had to make a move or die a slow career death. I looked, and looked, and looked. Was I being stigmatized? Was I unemployable because of the nature of my work industry? Then I looked at my resume. An aha moment, or is it an epiphany? I knew somehow that employers and recruiters were trying to eliminate me. Not trying to hire me. So, not being a communications type of person, I went to some professionals. They all said that the resume was fine and that I was over-reacting to the job market. My cousin, who I respect for his accomplishments, told me about his positive experience with a resume and employment service called BakosGroup.com. I contacted them and they spoke my language. They also told me that my instincts were right and that I could change my resume. I did and WOW, I started to get interviews. After my 9th interview with 5 employers, I finally accepted an offer. I changed my career, I’m happy, and my family is happy. If I didn’t speak with BakosGroup.com, I still would be searching, never realizing that my efforts were in vain. What a difference.
Ok. So, companies go on complaint boards after seeing complaints and then write stellar reviews to counteract negative statements. I find it strange that some of these people came to the complaint board to write 1 comment on 1 complaint. What brought them here? Also, their grammar is too well written to actually be the people who needed their resumes done. In any case obviously the original poster accidently spelled "Sales Professional" right on here, but perhaps on his resume it was wrong. However, I do agree that a resume writing service would have a difficult time producing people to speak with someone as a reference. However, they could offer feedback forms received or gratitude letters with the identifying information removed. After all, no one wants others to know that their resume was written by someone else and no one wants to give out their phone numbers these days.
Good to know, they are sending me email etc, too and I was reading them, you know we all are looking for a job. So ahh.. yeah.. no no way. I already got scam by jobfox, wanted to do it with resumeedge.com I know their services, they are actually better, but don't have the money..
Stay away from this company is right! They offer you unconditional guarantees and multiple services when you first talk to them but really all you get is a resume not that much better than the one you had. Boy did I get ripped off.
I also found BakosGroup to have poor communication and they produced a resume for me that had numerous errors. When I asked for 'revisions' to address those concerns, they became increasingly short with me until my most recent contact, where I got a revision attached to an email with nothing in the body. Literally, nothing. I liken it to a restaurant server who, when asked to have something rebooked, returns to the table and slams it down in front of you - walking away without a word. This is the level of 'service' you can expect from this company. Regardless of your feelings about a customer, any business should maintain decorum and professionalism when dealing with what you perceive as a customer that is difficult to please.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHOOSING ANOTHER COMPANY.
After no success with my job search, I considered using Bakos to do a major overhaul of the structure and format of my resume, which I knew had grown stale.
Before committing, I had several discussions about all of this with the Bakos Group. Besides patience with the multiple calls, I found John to be very knowledgeable and understanding, obviously a veteran in the resume business (a friend confirmed that Bakos Group was first registered in 1981 and incorporated in 1992). After gaining the comfort I needed from my calls with John, I jumped in and purchased their signature product, BAKOSresume.
We had done 4-5 rounds of revisions. The writers were very prompt, usually returning a new draft the day after receiving my edits. There were some ‘glitches’ in the first draft, e.g. a couple of typos that spell check could not catch and misinterpreting the exact nature of some functional experience. I had expected some amount of this, but considering that the writers did the first draft based entirely on my original resume and a form that Bakos uses to gather additional information, I was very pleased with the draft. Actually I was glad that I did not have to get involved, as I had gotten sick of re-reading my resume and needed an outside perspective.
I received the first draft three business days after returning the completed form and paying the fee. Later that day I sent Bakos an email with the comment “I love it, ” and that I would have my first revisions back to them ASAP. Besides using a very ‘eye-pleasing, ’ attention-catching format, I was happy with the new structure and the content. It was the complete change from my original that I had wanted, without any misrepresentations. We completed the ‘first final version’ three weeks ago and I did some test marketing with a few friends and recruiters, receiving favorable comments. Two weeks later, I decided on making a change to the main ‘headline’ as well as several other revisions. The Bakos writers were happy to make the changes, republish it on their website (retrievable via a link in the resume), and send DOC, PDF and TXT versions back to me, adding that “they offer unlimited revisions…until I am completely happy or reemployed.”
I do not know what others expect when using a service like this, but I did not expect the first draft to be perfect. I figured it would be an iterative process to get to a final product. I can only say that I have nothing but praise for the Bakos writers’ performance, and was very pleased with the amount of patience and respect shown to me during this process. I would definitely recommend the Bakos Group to anyone needing help with their resume, either for their professional writing abilities or when a fresh perspective is needed. I promise that I am not a Bakos ‘plant, ’ just someone so satisfied with their service that I wanted to share my views.
I have had good service from this company. Reasonably prompt revisions that took 4 or 5 revisions to arrive at my satisfaction level. Their contact on the revisions were via email and the initial contact [John, I assume was John Bakos] was informative and dispelled many myths I had assumed were correct in resume writing. I have yet used this resume as it has just been completed to the final product. I will find out when i begin sending it to prospective employers if it is as effective as they claim. As for my personal opinion thus far it is a worth while service as I have spent many hours on my computer writing and re-writing my resume with no where near the results that were achieved in the number of revisions this service provided. Overall my experience has been positive.