Thread: Cancelled Interview - Can I Claim Against Recruitment Agency?

Not sure if anyone will have an answer to this one... but....

After some canvassing from a Recruitment Agency, I agreed to go to interview at one of their clients (blue chip type aerospace Company). All of the details were passed through to me via e-mail and telephone, well in advance, and I spoke to the recruitment company again, on the evening before the interview to check everything was going ahead (so that if there was a problem, I could sort myself out with work for the following day, which I had had to cancel to attend the interview.

After a nightmare of a journey (long story - but the M62 was closed for the day!) I arrived at the Company with a few minutes to spare, only to be told that there was not a booking for an interview for myself, and that the director was in with another prospective employee conducting an interview and wouldn't be available after that for the rest of the day.

Of course I immediately contacted the recruiters who were quite emphatic (at the time) that the interview HAD been booked and that it was the fault of the Employer. However, I was subsequently informed later that day, that it was in fact the fault of the recuitment company, and they have admitted that in writing also.

The question is, are they liable in any way for my loss of earnings and travel expenses. They have offered to pay 25p per mile for travel and that's it. No job interview and the job has gone out to someone else.

Their point on this is that there is no contract between the candidate and the recruiter, so they don't feel that they are under any obligation to compensate me for their mistake, but... does anyone know differently - perhaps someone else has had first hand experience of something similar. These companies are very good at taking money but don't seem to want to take responsibility for their errors when it comes to their purses.

Thanks in advance

Jeff F

Thanks for the info - thought I would do that initially, so I sent them an invoice for 40p per mile, which is the national tax rate allowance and a days standard consultancy rate for the missed days work.

Guess it's off to file county court papers in 6 days when the original 14 day timeline I gave them expires.

Thanks again

Jeff F

Well - threatened with county court - they decided to opt against it and paid up

but it seems they get away with murder so I hope others can learn from my experience

J