We recently commissioned a recruitment company in Bradford called Brook Street; they are a national firm with offices across the country.

We paid circa £1650 for the introduction of a candidate who we eventually decided wasnt right for the business.

We informed Brook Street of our decision and unfortunately we were a couple of days over a 12-week rebate period so we were not due any rebate back from them. We didnt mind this as we really just wanted a replacement candidate and this is where we became very disappointed.

We requested the free replacement as we also had an additional vacancy to fill so we thought they would jump at this opportunity; we couldnt have been more wrong! They wanted an additional £500 on top of the £1650 we had already spent. As a gesture of goodwill we offered £200 but this was not acceptable to them.

We cant quite believe that in the current climate, a national business such as Brook St. would be so short-sighted and essentially loose a customer for a disagreement over £300. As they are a large company they have certain policies so our impression was that the local manager didnt have the authorisation to make a call on this.

We requested a face-to-face meeting to try and sort this but they are too busy to attend, this wasnt the case when they wanted the business in the first place.

My advice is if you are an SME be very careful when dealing with big recruitment companies such as Brook Street. The deal might not turn out how you expect it to or they might not truly appreciate how good business practise and how SMEs want to work.

Thankfully we have now found a replacement candidate through a small recruitment agency and it also looks like they have a suitable candidate for our next vacancy.

Your loss Brook Street!