Here's some excerpts of the ITP article about jobsindubai.com (01 March 2006). The article is quite long but includes an interview with the boss of jobsindubai.com - Nofel Izz.
On the Job
by Cleona Godinho
The UAE's Gulf News newspaper published an articled entitled ‘Online recruitment firm performs vanishing act’ in January of this year. This suggested that Jobs in Dubai had abandoned its Dubai office space and quoted paying customers who said they feared that they had been scammed. After reading this, the Windows team decided to examine matters more closely. Here's what we found…
This is what Jobs in Dubai claims to offer: according to its website, it claims it will “introduce you to agents and employers in the Middle East”. In its FAQ section, the firm explains that, “Your name and resume will then be entered into our database and your resume sent to employers for a possible match and an interview. This process usually takes between 1-4 months.” This costs candidates US $79 (or $41 for North American applicants). Jobsindubai.com also links through to a second site - owned by the same people - called Careersindubai.com, which offers to “format your CV to UAE standards” for $37.
Are these services the real McCoy then? Or should we take Gulf News at its word? We decided to delve deeper. The first step; finding those who had dealt with Jobs in Dubai.
Web worries
We checked online forums and asked for feedback on the site via an online Windows poll (on itp.net). We soon found feedback from 11 users, seven of which stated that, even after having requested a refund from Jobs in Dubai, they hadn't received any money back. Four more stated that they had received refunds, but only after sending several e-mails to - and in two cases, repeatedly calling - the firm.
Mike's Story...
In addition to this forum feedback, we met Mike, a 27 year-old graphics designer. Here's his account:
<snip>
“In the meantime, I received a call from a company I had visited in Dubai. They offered me a job and I accepted. Since I didn't need Jobs in Dubai's services anymore, I e-mailed them and requested a refund. They said that I had to wait for six months, as their policy stated “we guarantee a refund of any payment made to Jobs In Dubai for candidates who do not receive employment within six months of registration.” So I waited for six months. After six months, I sent them another refund request. They then urged me to wait a further 45 days, as my CV was supposedly 'under review'. I then sent them any e-mail explaining that I had found another job and was due for my refund. They replied with yet another e-mail requesting me to update my CV on the site and wait a little longer. I finally lost my cool and demanded that my money be returned. After a couple of weeks I finally got an e-mail saying that they had refunded my bank account.”
<snip>
We visited the BBB's site to check out Jobsindubai.com's mention. According to a BBB reliability report, in the past three years Jobsindubai.com had received a total of 24 complaints, including nine refund issue cases, eight customer service issues (which BBB refers to as “failure to respond to e-mails or phone requests”) and three contract issue cases, which the BBB defines as “failure to honour a contract or agreement”. Of these 24 complaints, the BBB states that it has only heard from ten satisfied customers who had stated that they had accepted their case had been solved. The report also revealed that Jobsindubai was not a member of the BBB, rather just listed in the BBB's database.
<snip>
Windows: So, to confirm, this fee is more to check a candidate’s seriousness?
Nofel Izz: “Yes, and it's fully refundable. We've never had any complaints.”
<snip>
After this discussion, and upon reflection overall, we felt we had reached some conclusions. Firstly, the firm’s website is arguably misleading, in that we feel it could lead candidates to believe that Jobs in Dubai will proactively introduce candidates to employers. As Izz pointed out - this is not the case. Secondly, Izz claims his firm has received no complaints, which we would argue is untrue. Lastly, since meeting Izz, Mike contacted us again and informed us that his promised refund had still not materialised, despite it being more than six months since he’d signed up with Jobsindubai.com.
In summary…
Our subjective summary then, as it stands, is that Jobs in Dubai's service is - potentially - no better or worse than that offered by online job sites such as Monster and Bayt. The difference however - and this is key - is that to benefit from such a service, Jobs in Dubai's customers must shell out cash.
Of course, was Jobs in Dubai's refund policy a solid one that we had evidence of working, this fee would sit just fine with us. However, the evidence presented to us by Mike suggests that this refund policy is not always adhered to (as - it would appear - do the complaints received by the BBB in Canada).
On the plus side, Izz told Windows that the firm plans to open a branch office in the Satwa district of Dubai this month, and that his service is already free to UAE residents. It might well be worth such residents signing up to the free version of the service then (after all, what harm can that do?), but if a friend asked us whether they should pay up front with Jobs in Dubai, or go the free online route and check out sites such as Bayt.com first, we’d tell them to read this article very carefully first.
www.itp.net/492646
...