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Permalink Reply by Amber on March 21, 2012 at 11:28am

Hi Marie,

I haven't really started using LI much yet, but I did know about the "I don't know" and suspensions.

I think the cost for the LI "recruiter" plans are way off base. Do you have any kind of the paid accounts? I am going to sign for one, but am still deciding between one of the "business", "sales" or "talent" plans.

How long have you been trying to contact them about your issue? 

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on March 21, 2012 at 11:40am

Marie - I think this is a perfect argument for why linkedin is NOT a job board. Some people simply don't want to be contacted by recruiters. That's why LinkedIn gives them the option of keeping their network closed and saying "I don't know" when someone that, well, they don't know - tries to connect.

I understand your frustration, and have had friends/co-workers get locked out because of too many rejects, but the reality is if you want to treat Linkedin like a job board (sourcing resumes) it's only fair that you pay for it.

When I was a TPR I never paid for linkedin - I would call the company the potential candidate worked at and asked for them. During that conversation I would ask to connect on linkedin and get their email address. You can also try joining groups they're in and connect that way.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on March 21, 2012 at 11:58am

I completely understand your frustration and don't disagree... however some people are very particular about their networks. They may have "career opportunities" selected but that doesn't mean they want you in their network. They'd probably be happy to accept an inmail, but allowing you into their network could mean something entirely different to them, that's all.

And yes LinkedIn could do a better job of communicating the consequences to all members, paid or not.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Schultz on March 21, 2012 at 1:29pm

Linkiedin want you to buy and send inmails.  They hide behind the cloak of privacy but it's about making a buck.  And yes, they don't respond to you unless you are going to buy something or a big enough customer.  

You may try putting this on twitter.  Usually companies are more sensitive to what is being said about them there.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 21, 2012 at 3:15pm

This has happened because recruiters have gone nuts sending requests to anybody and everybody to the point that people are sick to death of recruiter spam. I am not saying that you have done this but with the number of recruiters working LinkedIn it has created a problem. I use it a lot but am careful to use a connection to ask for a referral or send an in mail first concerning a job opportunity before I send a connection request. I look at a profile. If that person has changed jobs within the last year they probably are not interested in talking to a recruiter about another one if their background is stable.

You should have gotten a warning or two that you were nearing the limit of "I don't know this person". If you did and disregarded those nd continued to send requests that is why your account was suspended. It works better to see if someone belongs to a group, join that group then send a connection request as a fellow group member. Those are less likely to cause problems with your account.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 21, 2012 at 3:53pm

Just my take but my attitude is if I am getting something for free that is making me money I am damn careful not to abuse it. If I'm not paying for it they really don't owe me much in the way of customer service. I can sure show old Oscar and tell them to piss off anytime. All they lost was a bitchy non paying customer, they got millions of those. What I lose is a way to make money for free and I don't gots a lot of those.

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Permalink Reply by Nick on March 21, 2012 at 4:19pm

Hi Marie,

The same thing happened to me sometime last year.  I was not able to connect with anyone for 3 days. I did at some point go past the amount of invites we are allowed.  I sent an email request to customer service asking them to give me more invites and they did. This might come up in the future. Join groups and connect with most members for free.

Regards,

Nick Ramos

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Permalink Reply by Bill Schultz on March 21, 2012 at 5:18pm

While true, they don't owe you much explanation, LI is notoriously bad on responding to even paying customers.  

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Permalink Reply by Lisa A, Doorly on March 22, 2012 at 9:39am

I could not agree more - I have sent issues to LinkedIn on several things and the standard response is always "Can't help you" - it's ridiculous to only accept invites from people you know - and they market this as a business networking tool?  Isn't one of the tenets of networking to meet people you don't know.

 

If I really don't want to connect with someone I just ignore the invite - I don't want to put anyone's membership in peril of being suspended.

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Permalink Reply by Raphael Fang on March 22, 2012 at 11:52am

I got a similar warning before.  They are a profit driven organisation and most people use the website for free.  They simply want the active members to pay more for the services.  I don't sit and wait for the people to look at their email any more.  I just pick up the phone and dial.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on March 22, 2012 at 12:58pm

Dear recruiters,
If you offered your services for free and the person you were providing a free service for bitched about the way you you did it, the fact that they couldn't tell you to send them contact info for all your candidates and didn't have full access to everybody in your database and they wanted to contact everybody in your database. How helpful would you be? If you did give them access to your database for free, they contacted 50 of them a day, your candidates told them to leave them alone and complained to you. Would you cut off access to your database, send this non paying client a note to cut it out or you would no longer provide them a free service? If this non paying client told you it was ridiculous that you wouldn't let them contact anyone they wanted to in your database would you tell them they could go find another free source of candidates for free.

Services offered for free normally have some restrictions. If you don't like or agree with the rules either pay for the service or go find a better one for free. We throw fits about clients who won't work the way we want them to. Candidates who won't or don't work with us the way we think they should. Where did all of this sense of entitlement come from? We don't pay for our inventory (candidates) and half the time we don't call them back or respond when they apply. Now we are going to throw fits that a free source of inventory wants us to respect the rules of a free source.
Most businesses have to pay for inventory and they don't make the profit margin we do.

Good god Gertrude let's get real.

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Permalink Reply by Casey Kuperus on March 22, 2012 at 3:23pm

As usual, I could not have said it better than Sandra!

Sandra McCartt said:

Dear recruiters,
If you offered your services for free and the person you were providing a free service for bitched about the way you you did it, the fact that they couldn't tell you to send them contact info for all your candidates and didn't have full access to everybody in your database and they wanted to contact everybody in your database. How helpful would you be? If you did give them access to your database for free, they contacted 50 of them a day, your candidates told them to leave them alone and complained to you. Would you cut off access to your database, send this non paying client a note to cut it out or you would no longer provide them a free service? If this non paying client told you it was ridiculous that you wouldn't let them contact anyone they wanted to in your database would you tell them they could go find another free source of candidates for free.

Services offered for free normally have some restrictions. If you don't like or agree with the rules either pay for the service or go find a better one for free. We throw fits about clients who won't work the way we want them to. Candidates who won't or don't work with us the way we think they should. Where did all of this sense of entitlement come from? We don't pay for our inventory (candidates) and half the time we don't call them back or respond when they apply. Now we are going to throw fits that a free source of inventory wants us to respect the rules of a free source.
Most businesses have to pay for inventory and they don't make the profit margin we do.

Good god Gertrude let's get real.

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