Stay away from Creative Financial Services, also known as CFS. They got a close friend of mine an…read moreinterview, that led to another interview, that led to a job offer for an accountant position. Sounds like a happy ending, right? Wrong.
After the employer and my friend had signed off on the offer letter for the accounting role, Creative Financial Staffing then insisted to the employer that my friend undergo the most intrusive background check ever -- drivers license history, credit reports, transcripts from schools attended (which my friend graduated from more than 20 years earlier and after more than 20 years of career work in the field). My friend and the employer spoke about CFS and its "background" check and the employer agreed with my friend that a background check for professional references and a criminal courts search was sufficient and reasonable, and that CFS' demand for all the other information like credit reports, driving history, etc. was unreasonable.
When CFS learned that the employer and my friend thought it was more reasonable to limit the background search to professional references and a criminal court search, CFS hit the ceiling. CFS leaned on the employer to talk them into its "background" search, including driving history, educational records (from institutions my friend graduated from more than 20 years earlier), my friend's consumer credit reports, etc. It seems CFS was only interested in justifying their exorbitant fees to the employer, including the all-intrusive "background" check for information completely unrelated to my friend's job duties and qualifications.
Thereafter, CFS said that my friend "refused" to participate in a background check, which was a flagrant lie. CFS was already told that my friend and the employer agreed that a criminal court check along with a professional reference check was reasonable -- and my friend confirmed several times to CFS and the employer previously, and in writing, that this was an acceptable background check.
CFS kept fighting this background check agreement that was acceptable to the employer and my friend, going so far as to lie and say that my friend had not provided professional references. This was a demonstrable lie by CFS, because my friend had provided several references to CFS in writing upon first meeting with them and prior to the interviews with the employer. Creative Financial Staffing then claimed that my friend gave them only one reference -- but this was also a lie. The reference cited by CFS was on the exact same list of several references given to CFS by my friend when he first met with CFS staff long before the interviews with the employer.
After my friend pointed out these false statements by CFS to the employer, CFS continued to apply pressure in an obvious effort to either get paid for the far flung "background" check and, if that didn't work, to encourage the employer to withdraw the offer. It seems that if CFS was not going to get its way and get paid for a very expensive "background" check that was unduly intrusive and which would provide no relevant information for the employer, then CFS was determined to sabotage my friend's employment offer.
Unfortunately, CFS and its cynical ways won the day, and my friend's offer letter was withdrawn by the employer after an enormous amount of fear-mongering by Creative Financial Services. This was after my friend had four interviews (a combination of in person and telephone interviews with the employer) and had been made an offer of employment which was accepted.
It is obvious that CFS wanted to create as many fee-generating opportunities it could (including the intrusive, irrelevant "background" check service they insisted upon) and, if the employer and applicant wanted to go a different direction on the scope of the background check, CFS was all too willing to sabotage the job placement.
Do yourself a favor -- stay away from Creative Financial Services, lest you become a victim like my friend.
