Poor Agency Rates! (Name & Shame Section!)

[Subhuman]

Even though Larsons said the rate for the job was just increased there is still no confirmed percentage from the agency’s and no clear way of knowing what the real day rate could have been for the guys that are out doing the work. In some cases I am sure the Agency’s tell the client what the daily charge will be and then low ball the guy they are sending out. So their profits are maxed out.

Do free lance guys work for the Agency’s or do the Agency’s work for the free lance guys?

I received a email today asking me what my expected day rate would be! So if I say I want 500 and they could have paid 650! Who gets the extra 150? The agent or the company they work for. And why do they think they should have this money over and above the commission? Or I say I want 651 and I do not get the job!

[ROVSKI]

IV offshore play the same game. I worked on a job in Vletnam as a Supervisor for one agency and and my nightshift Supervisor was out for $300 less working for IV offshore. Agencies take more and mugs go out for less, this game is no fun anymore. Too many greedy agents and too many hungry techs.

[K2]

Subhuman

Good question – where does the difference between agency charge out minus their commission and contractor day rate actually go? Maybe back into the business? Bonus pot? Monthly top up to the agency staff’s basic wage? Lack of response from any agency speaks volumes. They are quick to advertise jobs though eh!

I heard of two guys, same position, same job but different agencies one on £100/d less than the other (Atlas)! Bearing in mind both agencies have taken their commission, probably a little extra as per above paragraph but here we see the lower paying agency skimming even more from their loyal worker!

The other agency joke is travel rates! How many try this on?! Strange how they tell you it is client policy but when you turn down the job you get offered full rate door to door!

Trust no one. Sad sign of the times.

Stay safe

😉

[Subhuman]

K2
It is odd to see so few people ie: 2400 plus so far, out of the 32 that have written to this subject, express there feelings. I can think of very few jobs that I have been on where the day rate has not popped up in conversation at some point. Only to find out that every one is on different rates. I know we all get mad and bitch about being robed. Yet few people so far have voiced there anger here at the very people that should have are best interest at heart. So we keep using the same agent and stay loyal year after year knowing that they are stealing money from us every chance they get. There I said it "STEALING" because that is what it is at the end of the day. These people go home every night after a 8 hour day and have weekends off…. still getting there commission ‘plus’ even though the office is closed till Monday oh almost forgot bank holidays and the Christmas break where they really rake in the profits.
The lack of comments from the agency’s only prove that they have nothing to fear as less then 1 percent of the people reading this form will express there feelings on this subject, so they [the Agency’s] will continue on taking as much as they can get.

[Larson]

Even though Larson’s said the rate for the job was just increased there is still no confirmed percentage from the agency’s and no clear way of knowing what the real day rate could have been for the guys that are out doing the work.

12.5% mark up, so 11.11 margin. The real day rate is £470/day.

In some cases I am sure the Agency’s tell the client what the daily charge will be and then low ball the guy they are sending out. So their profits are maxed out.

Very true in some cases and we have gained contractors who have worked with other agencies for this exact reason. Not interested in low balling any contractor, were not put under huge pressure to squeeze every penny out of a deal, were not a company that competes against each other to see who can make the most out of a contractor.

The other agency joke is travel rates! How many try this on?! Strange how they tell you it is client policy but when you turn down the job you get offered full rate door to door!

That is true with some clients, a travel day rate is in the contract, but its never enforced so don’t accept it.

[Subhuman]

Thank you Larson’s,
If what you say is true, it should shame all the other agency’s out there that have read the few posts in this thread and have not had the courage or decency to own up to there thieving ways of doing business.

I should think you will be seeing a lot of new CV’s coming your way shortly.

[liddelljohn]

Just be careful and discreet when discussing Day rates with colleages some companies have instant runoff if they catch you doing it or some -one snitches ,

It happened to me and 2 other guys at Tyco when a supervisor overheard a conversation and reported it to a manager we were all instantly dissmissed .we were all 3 doing same PT job at 3 different rates .

Some comapnies believe in Divide and rule and the agencies also thrive on it ,,, ROV world is a way of evening the playing field .

[K2]

Why be discreet about rates? As Subhuman already mentioned, rates and agencies are the top two topics of conversation amongst contractors offshore.

Never heard of anyone being run off a job for discussing rates, there must be more to that story.

I worked for Tyco a few years back, rates were all over the place. It was a case of what you negotiated. Guys talk and moaned which created a headache for the agency involved. I was called at home and told not to discuss my rate. At the end of the day if you’re not happy either renegotiate or move on.

Now days it is no good accepting a contract then finding out you’ve been duped when you get offshore. Decide what you want before you accept the contract. Understand that agencies will try and rip you off. They will succeed. Just that you won’t know. At least if you are happy with your rate then it is bearable. If the agency won’t meet your requirement then don’t take the job although it is surprising, after refusing a job due to unacceptable rates, how many calls I get to say ‘we managed to persuade the client to meet your request’, gee, how nice but I see through the lie and read ‘oh shit, we’ve been rumbled, we’d better hand over the full rate and not try to rip this guy off’.

Trust no one.

😉

[Andy Shiers]

Hmmmm , I’ve never heard of that before either 😕
Only time I’ve heard of people being run off is when they are crap at their job , Personality clash , Sabotage and people upsetting the client.
In ALL my years working in this finicky industry , rates have been discussed and agreed prior to going on the contract ………. As K2 said No Likey ………… Don’t takey ! ……. Unless you are desperate for the hours and willing to go out for a Peanuts ! 😯
Then the Job goes tits up because you are not experienced and you should not be freelancing in the first place ! …… It’s a small industry , still , and names eventually come out whether it’s the Leaches ( Agencies ) or the Desperado !
Rates are good at the moment ! 🙂 ……………… For me anyway 😆

[Andy Shiers]

Good Topic to discuss though , James 😀

[K2]

Ref my earlier post regarding Atlas paying their PT £100/d less than another agency PT onboard – a good mate actually wrote to Atlas for their view and received, in his words, a ‘superfluous, irrelevant and flowery’ set of replies that did not cut any mustard.

I now just heard the PT has queried his low rate and the response from Atlas was ‘you are the only PT on that job so we didn’t know the going rate’. 😯

Amazing! Amazing that they think guys offshore are that dim that we cannot see through their facade of lies in order to cover up their extortion of rates being skimmed from a guy who is already surrendering a portion of his earned salary to them for what? A few phone calls, flight details (sometimes), insurance and a bit of admin a child could do.

Perspective – In one month this PT has been paid £3000 less than the other agency guy. If this agent does it with one it is likely they do it with more. Ten guys = £30k/m…… 20 guys? Go figure.

As previously asked, where does this money, above their commission go?

Trust no one.

👿

[Rovned2]

I’ve been on several jobs over the last two years where "Supervisors" who were actually inexperienced sub-eng’s had accepted rates which were over £100 less than mine.

As earlier stated, it’s the same (newer) agency names coming up over and over again.

On another note I was told earlier by one of the longer and probably most reputable agencies that Fugro had capped their agency rate for supervisors.

This is only possible because not enough people are questioning the offered agency rates. I know for a fact that if I took a staff job at most of the larger UK ROV companies I’d have an equivalent day-rate increase of £30- 40/ day at least, not even factoring in pensions and bonus. The freelance ROV industry has been ridiculously diluted as earlier stated, people who know what they’re doing are increasingly being saddled with clowns and the companies are feeling the benefit.

Something which has added considerably to this a lack of feedback about agencies. If an agency supplies someone on your crew as a sub-eng and he’s a trainee INFORM THE PROJECT MANAGER! He probably won’t be happy about paying premium rates for non-qualified hands and will hopefully take action. On the other hand he might just ignore you but if you don’t put in the report nothing will ever be done.

It doesn’t matter if the person is "a nice lad, he’ll be OK with some experience", he shouldn’t be where he is. From my experience the reason he’s probably out with an agency is because he wasn’t qualified enough to get a start with a company and they’ve blagged his CV.

Unless something is done this is just going to get worse.

[Roy Simson]

Well Guys I did warn you " Don’t Trust Any Thing The Agency’s Tell You "
There job is to get you offshore and start earning them money .

I hope this Topic does not slip into the big black hole of most Topics .

Nice work keep it up , Should any body hear of any work going put it on the site and people can work direct .

Most company’s will hire you direct and its cheaper in fact some company’s wont hire you via agency’s . Like I have said many times if the Rov operator has not got a bad history of late payment or no payment go direct .

This topic being debated is well over due let hope we can keep it going .

Raptor

[Rovned2]

With regard to my earlier comment about capped rates I believe that this is the case.

I believe that PROFFS (to whom I was referring) work at a fixed percentage and have been excellent in all the years that I’ve worked through them.

The issue seems to be that the experienced supv’s know what they’re worth and the likes of Proffs will do their best to get a good rate as the more I’m paid the more are they. If the client won’t shift on the rate then their hands are tied as I won’t go and there’s a queue of muppets waiting to go out at low rates through cowboy agencies.

A number of agencies will adjust the rate according to how much they think they can take for themselves, working from what they think they can get away with to a minimum percentage as their cut gets smaller., all the time telling the contractor that they’re getting him a better rate from the client when in fact they’re reducing their cut.

I recently spoke to a mate who’s a 3.4 and a newer agency (two initials offshore) were paying him £450 and charging the client £800, as he later found out when he worked in the client’s office.

[K2]

Draw from these what you will:

8 legendary recruitment agency tricks to be aware of

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3802177

http://www.weeklygripe.co.uk/a489.asp

10 things we hate about recruitment companies

http://www.contractoruk.com/agencies/recruitment_agency_tricks.html

It’s little wonder agency trust has all but disappeared.

😉

[Author]

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