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 Subject :IT Firm reputation.. 07-02-2010 15:30:54 
Belgarath
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Joined: 07-02-2010 19:56:12
Posts: 2
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I sometimes get calls from recruiters with non native (I'm American) accents, with terrible phone connections that are clearly routed on very bad VoIP connections (It sounds different), that always contain a lot of background chatter as if the person is working in a very crowded call center (I have sensitive ears).  Half the time I cant understand what they are saying to me and have to hang up when the call does not drop on its own.  The other time, they get as far as to tell me they used to be known as "Company X" and are now "Company Y" due to a re-branding - not a M/A - before I hang up, becouse most of the time "Company X" is a company I have heard a lot of negative things about, or has otherwise wasted my time in the past by offering pennies on the dollar.

I understand that you want to help us sort the bad from the good (Or maybe your owned by one of these companies and this is a marketing ploy) , but how do you here at 5bos plan to handle this sort of situation?

Will profiles for companies that get bought out or are re-branded in an attempt to get away from a bad reputation they may deserve be merged, or will they be allowed to start a new slate by simply changing their name or fileing for a DBA (Doing Business As)?

What about the reps from these companies voting themselves up to look better then they are?

To me, this sort of thing is a security concern.  Any site like this that attempt to even the odds a bit - and I salute you for trying if that is what you are trying to do - is going to be seen as a threat to a lot of unscrupulous people.

Oh, and I think of these sort of things for a living (usually)  so please pardon me if the thought is unnerving. To me, they are just test cases.

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 Subject :Re:IT Firm reputation.. 09-02-2010 07:32:04 
admin
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Joined: 30-12-2008 13:50:03
Posts: 20
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Hi Belgarath, Thanks for the post, some good points raised. Well let me start by saying that we are not owned by any staffing entity! The site is totally independent. One of the team has worked (no longer) for a staffing company as a sales rep and if you have a look at our blog (http://5bowlsofsoup.com/blog) you can see what he’s doing to level the playing field. When a company has changed its name we will enter them as: Company X (formerly known as Company Y). On the Lookup box, if you enter either Company X or Company Y, then the company will show up. Their old ratings will stay. If they have merged or been bought out it depends on the nature of the new company. For instance, if the company continues to trade as an entity then it will have its own Review page, with the Parent company listed under Parent in the company details. If it is entirely gobbled up we would leave the old ratings in place, put a note to say what has happened and close the ability to continue rating that company. We’d have to assume that there would be pretty wholesale change if it was engulfed by a larger player and then the larger player’s ratings would be more relevant. There is room to look at each situation on a case by case basis. As for the other concerns you mention, such as reps voting themselves up, it is a similar situation faced by Amazon and other sites. There is a certain amount that can be done, firstly you have to register with a valid email to rate a company, then there is IP logging and the ability for readers to flag abuse, but at the end of the day the hope it that the IT community will have a more powerful voice that a handful of unscrupulous reps.
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