Interview I had no chance of getting

Fiona3

I am relocating from Bournemouth to Worthing. My current job is a home claims consultant.

I put my CV on Reed and a company (not an agency) called MetLife contacted me about a job as a medical claims assessor. I didn’t apply to them, they found me.

I called the lady in response to her email. She said she would send me the job spec.

I received the job spec and it said you must have medical claims experience. I then phoned her back and said that I only have home claims experience and asked if I’d have any chance of getting the job based on this. She said yes and that they are just looking for good customer service. I agreed to go for an interview.

My work gave me 1 day unpaid leave and I spent £43 on train fare. Was out of the house for 8 hours.

When I got there, I interviewed with the same woman. She then brought in a claims manager who picked up my cv and then said that she couldn’t take me on with my experience. I would need some medical claims experience.

A week after the interview, I sent them an email explaining that I was unhappy that I’d spent train fare money and taken a day of unpaid leave for a job which I had no chance of getting before I even got there. I asked to be reimbursed and got no response.

I wouldn’t have minded, had I lived locally but they were fully aware where I was travelling from.

After getting no response, I took to Twitter and they asked me to call them. I called and explained the situation and they said they would come back to me.

The interviewer/woman who wasted my time then phoned me to say they wouldn’t be reimbursing me and she was patronising saying that an interview is not a guarantee of a job, which I am fully aware of. I just feel that they could have established that I wasn’t suitable over the phone. When I didn’t accept that they wouldn’t be reimbursing me, she said she would speak to her manager and come back to me.

Her manager has phoned me today and said they will reimburse the train fare but not the day of unpaid leave. She said they aren’t admitting they are at fault, this is their company policy to reimburse travel expenses if interviewees ask for it. I don’t fully believe this.

What do you all think? Should I accept the train fare and leave it at that? Is there even anything else I can do? It’s a shame because I’m £73.40 down from the day of unpaid leave. The manager who phoned me even said that the communication wasn’t good between the recruitment manager who found me and the claims manager.

I’d never even consider asking for a reimbursement usually as I know I won’t get every job I go for.

Thanks in advance.

TBagpuss

Yes, I'd accept it. They don't have any obligation to pay you anything, even though they have messed you about.

I see no reason why you could not, however, also respond in writing to the manager and let them know that you are very disappointed, as you explicitly raised the issue as to whether your having only home claims experience, and no medical claims experience, would mean that you were unsuitable and were explicitly told it would not, by the company representative herself (not the recruiter), and that you were told at the interview that your lack of that kind of experience meant that you would not be considered for the role.
Say you are concerned that you were given inaccurate and misleading information by their own staff member, a which resulted in you incurring direct financial losses, and that you feel as a minimum they should provide an apology and review their internal communication, and that ideally they should reimburse you in full.

Mika134

Yes you should definitely accept it. Whilst it is annoying of her to give you false information, or of them to have given her false information, you have reported it so hopefully there will be some consequences. They aren't obliged to give you anything (although that definitely is not their company policy) and taking it further won't do you any good.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

I'd agree with above. The company (or at least one of their employees) has messed you around and cost you time and money. However they are legally entitled to mess you around if they like; there's no law against it. I would take the train fare as a de facto admission of fault and just forget about it as it doesn't look likely that they are going to come up with anything better.

shortcrust

TBagpuss wrote: »

Yes, I'd accept it. They don't have any obligation to pay you anything, even though they have messed you about.

I see no reason why you could not, however, also respond in writing to the manager and let them know that you are very disappointed, as you explicitly raised the issue as to whether your having only home claims experience, and no medical claims experience, would mean that you were unsuitable and were explicitly told it would not, by the company representative herself (not the recruiter), and that you were told at the interview that your lack of that kind of experience meant that you would not be considered for the role.
Say you are concerned that you were given inaccurate and misleading information by their own staff member, a which resulted in you incurring direct financial losses, and that you feel as a minimum they should provide an apology and review their internal communication, and that ideally they should reimburse you in full.

Very sound advice.

This sort of thing happens all the time but in most cases they’d have gone through the motions and waved goodbye with a smile. I sort of admire their honesty, but that honestly should have been followed by a pretty mortified apology.

WoodyMax

Hi, I would accept it so you are sure of getting it. Then I would write to or contact the CEO who is James Reed putting your case as politely and clearly as possible. I couldn't find a direct email address but you could try writing to him at

Legal / Head Office
Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd
Academy Court
94 Chancery Lane
London
WC2A 1DT

It's worth a try I have had success on refunds when writing to CEO's

JReacher1

Is it possible that they just did not like you and so decided to let you down gently by blaming lack of experience when in reality you just failed the interview?

marliepanda

WoodyMax wrote: »

Hi, I would accept it so you are sure of getting it. Then I would write to or contact the CEO who is James Reed putting your case as politely and clearly as possible. I couldn't find a direct email address but you could try writing to him at

Legal / Head Office
Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd
Academy Court
94 Chancery Lane
London
WC2A 1DT

It's worth a try I have had success on refunds when writing to CEO's

Firstly a CEO has never read your messages, I assure you.

Secondly, the OP has not been messed around by Reed...

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

marliepanda wrote: »

Firstly a CEO has never read your messages, I assure you.

Secondly, the OP has not been messed around by Reed...

I was definitely with him as far as "Hi", but unfortunately it was all downhill from there.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

JReacher1 wrote: »

Is it possible that they just did not like you and so decided to let you down gently by blaming lack of experience when in reality you just failed the interview?

It's possible, but it's a cretinous thing to say. It's hardly "letting someone down gently" to tell them you've just completely wasted their time. Some people would no doubt behave this stupidly, though.

Incidentally people don't "fail" interviews.

JReacher1

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

Incidentally people don't "fail" interviews.

LOL. What a ridiculous statement :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Of course people fail interviews. I assume you have been unsuccessful in a lot of job interviews and your mum has told you that you didn’t fail the interview you were just overqualified for the job