Depaul Industries

I, like many other thousands of people, am unemployed and desperately looking for a position. I answered a blind ad on Craigslist and was contacted by Jose at Depaul Industries. He was impressed with my qualifications and wanted to meet as soon as possible saying that he had a great temp-to-hire placement for me.\r \r After driving all the way to the appointment, I was made to wait for over an hour before I was taken into a little room with several other applicants for other positions. We were given a huge amount of paperwork to fill out that asked for our personal information including our social security numbers, driver's license information and date-of-birth. I didn't even know if I was interested in the position since I hadn't been given any specific details about the job, so I left those fields blank. \r \r After another hour of waiting, I finally got to meet Jose. He was very nice and welcoming. He seemed to be genuinely interested in me and felt that I would be a very good fit for the position; which required a high level of skills. I was given the impression that they were having a difficult time finding applicants who were qualified. Jose advised me that he thought I was perfect for the position and made the position sound like one that I was definitely interested in. Per Jose, the wage that I was requesting was in line with what the employer was willing to pay. The next step was the background check. I provided my social security number, driver's license information and addresses for the past 10 years. Jose was excited and said he would call me the minute the background came back. I have never had an arrest or conviction and have only lived in Oregon and Washington so there should not have been a problem.\r \r I never heard from Jose again. After three days of waiting, I tried calling him. His voice mailbox was full and not accepting messages. I sent two emails. Both of which he ignored. The next day I called the main number and was transferred to his full mailbox and was not allowed to leave a message. The next day I called the main number and was finally able to leave a message. He did not return my call. I finally gave up. I know there was not a problem with the background check, so I was a little perplexed. Even if they were not interested in me for the position, Jose should have responded to me either by phone or email to let me know why.\r \r The next day I saw the same ad for the same position again advertised on Craigslist. This time it stated a starting wage. It was $5.00/hour less than what Jose had quoted me.\r \r I couldn't care less about the position or my reason for not getting it. What I do care about is that Jose would not return my calls or emails. What if I had taken the position and had had a major problem and needed to get a hold of Depaul? This does not bode well, and I wouldn't do business with this company if they were the last agency in Portland.\r \r Or did they just want my personal information for some reason? Are they running some kind of scam operation? People, don't give your social security number to anyone for any reason unless you have a bonifide job offer on the table! I am putting in a fraud alert with all three credit bureaus now! more

Like many other Portlanders, I started temping when I needed income while looking for a permanent job. I contacted Depaul after responding to a Craigslist ad for data entry jobs. After interviewing and testing with a woman named Lois, I was sent to a job the next day doing data entry at the county building. The supervisor there was completely rude and condescending and talked to me like I was 8 years old, and told me I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone else there or ask anyone else for help besides her. She also gave us scheduled breaks and lunches (at a data entry job?? give me a break! it's not a sweat shop). I was very frustrated, but I needed the work bad so I stuck it out for a couple days because I didn't want to walk out and burn a bridge with the temp agency... so for 3 days on every break and lunch I would repeatedly call Depaul industries, and the woman at the front desk would transfer me to a voice mail. NOBODY would take my call so that I could tell them I was unhappy and wanted to end the position, and nobody would help me at all. Finally on the 3rd day the supervisor was so mean that she made me cry - i worked out the rest of the day but didn't say anything when i left - when i got home there was a message on my machine from Lois saying she was ending my job and not to go back or contact anyone at the county. I called imediately and was transferred to Lois, expecting some kind of apology - after all, I did the professional thing and tried to contact them about my bad experience instead of just walking out on her - instead I was simply told that she had already talked to the supervisor and they had decided to end the job and that was that. \r \r Use them at your own risk, but if you go into the office be sure and grill them about how they treat their temps. Cons: Terrible staffing recruiters who don't care anything about their temps more