
Potential Employer Cancels Return Flight - chrisbennet
https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/126565/potential-employer-cancels-return-flight
======
wool_gather
I don't buy a word of this. That fourth paragraph is an over the top perfect
storm of woe-is-me.

> _I 'm completely broke due to poor financial decisions (that's a different
> story), so I can't afford a last minute plane ticket. It doesn't help that
> this is a small airport, so ticket prices are high. So basically I've been
> stuck at the airport for the past 3 days. Yesterday, my credit card started
> being declined, so I've had to eat scraps from other customers._

A mild troll, but SE still got trolled.

\---

I guess I should clarify. Responses below are right, it's not hard to believe
that there are people without savings, I've also been in that boat.

But this portion has nothing to do with the point of the post; given the
outrageous nature of the post in the first place, this smells to me like a sob
element to hook more people in.

Every part of the post is hyperbolic. _" I blew every question and I could
tell that they didn't like me personally."_ Really, every single one? Oh, and
now they decide they don't like you even though you've gotten to the stage
where _they flew you across the country_??

Laying everything on this thick just doesn't increase credibility for me. It
makes me suspicious.

~~~
ozim
I can relate, because I have had situation where I blew every question and at
the end of interview I felt that people were annoyed by me, or my lack of
knowledge.

The thing was at that moment I just left shitty job, with 24h phone support
for our systems switching with other person on weekly shifts, also I was quite
under attack by one of better established guys. I had savings so no problem
there. But still I had to find job in something like 3 months before going
back to my town.

My self esteem was on the bottom. They got 4 people to question me and senior
guy was math phd. After second question it went downhill. Logarithms were not
my strong side and then SQL stuff that I was doing day in and out just 'PUFF'
went away. (now I am senior, leading team of 5, delivering loads of value, but
back then I would not believe I could do that)

I believe that environment and surroundings contribute a lot to what you thing
about yourself. I picked wrong fight in wrong time. That guy probably also
should work on his basics, or maybe it is just sob story.

~~~
derekp7
This is the thing that really scares me about burnout. You get so mentally
exhausted, that you are unable to think straight enough to pass an interview
even if you would have enough skills to blow them away after a couple months
of rest.

I was in a similar situation, basically not recognizing the signs of burnout
until layoff time, and it took me 4 months to be able to properly interview
(fortunately, the economy was down so it also took 4 months to be able to
schedule any proper interviews anyway).

------
sago
I have been on the other side of this. I didn't cancel the return flight, but
I was sorely tempted.

In my case it was the early days of a company, and I flew a potentially
important applicant from Europe for an interview, paid for hotel, food etc.
They performed terribly. When I sat down with them to figure out why, it
quickly became apparent they had fundamentally misrepresented themselves.
Partially through lies, even more through slippery worded deceit. They finally
admitted to being basically a starting-out developer, skilled at attaching
themselves to high-profile projects and claiming this work as their own.

I did talk to our lawyer about trying to recover the costs. They told me he
wasn't worth the lawsuit.

It was a learning experience. I did things differently after that. In the same
way one would change one's behaviour after being the victim of any con.

So I do wonder what the other side to this particular story is.

~~~
derekp7
Is there anything that could have been different in the phone interview or
skype video that would have exposed this earlier? Or is it too easy for such a
candidate to cheat when remote?

Was also wondering what is in it for the candidate -- if they know that they
are going to flunk the on-site interview, do they just want a free vacation
out of it?

~~~
sago
> Is there anything that could have been different

I certainly changed the questions I asked. And it never happened again. But I
also think wilful deceit isn't that common (massaging the truth is, but this
was a different league to that). So who knows if my changes were effective, or
if it just felt good doing something.

> if they know that they are going to flunk the on-site interview

I really don't think he did. I think he thought he could charm his way to the
job.

------
DennisP
Note the answer on law.stackexchange: this is breach of contract. The
consideration provided by the candidate is the time and effort of traveling,
so company employees wouldn't have to do it. A possible exception is if the
candidate lied to get the interview.

[https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/if-a-
company-a...](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/if-a-company-
agrees-to-pay-travel-cost-for-a-job-interview-is-the-promise-bindi)

------
DoofusOfDeath
I agree this sounds pretty damning for the company. But life has taught me to
_always_ get both sides of a story before reaching any conclusions.

~~~
joekrill
I absolutely agree with you. But at the same time I'm really having a hard
time coming up with a reasonable explanation for this from the company's point
of view.

Unless the whole thing is an outright lie. It's a brand new Stack Exchange
user. There's absolutely no legitimacy to any of the story at this point.
People do this sort of thing all the time on the internet, after all.

But assuming it isn't totally fabricated -- even if the guy was completely
unprofessional, rude, and/or vulgar (lets say, he stormed out and told
everyone to go F themselves), I still can't see it being acceptable for them
to cancel his return flight home if they flew him out in the first place.

But I don't think we'll ever get the other side of the story in this case
because I don't think we'll ever get confirmation that this is even real.

~~~
breakyerself
They may have discovered in the interview that he had lied on his resume about
his work experience/ education, etc. Getting a free trip by lying would be
grounds to cancel any more of the free ride in my opinion.

~~~
izacus
> Getting a free trip by lying would be grounds to cancel any more of the free
> ride in my opinion.

Why? How? On what grounds?

~~~
breakyerself
Fraud

------
crooked-v
This sounds like it should be a "name and shame" situation, as well as a small
claims court case for the cost of return transportation and any additional
expenses from the time stuck in the airport.

~~~
paulcole
What's this broke person going to do, fly back to take them to small claims
court?

~~~
balabaster
This is where the press can be leveraged.

------
sremani
The only situation I can justify this if there is an undeniable proof of
FRAUD. That is a different person takes phone interview and from the one that
shows up for in-person.

Its very likely that some one did not do due diligence and ended up with a
wrong candidate and wanted to cover their budgeting ass.

~~~
crispyambulance
Nope not even flat-out fraud could justify stranding someone in another city.
Some folks are desperate to work and may resort to deception to get their foot
in the door for an interview. On the scale of nefarious activity, I put that
pretty far down on the list-- slightly worse than jay-walking.

I have my doubts about the veracity of the story, but if it is true then that
company needs to be shamed.

~~~
Johnny555
I disagree -- fraud absolutely justifies this -- if an overweight dark haired
guy did the initial video screen and the company flew him out for an
interview, but then a skinny blonde guy shows up and can't answer any of their
interview questions, I don't see why the company has any obligation to fly him
back home -- they agreed to fly out the guy from the video call, not the guy
that showed up.

~~~
Verdex
Maybe, but it does open up the door to a lawsuit. What if the overweight guy
was actually working for a recruiter who had a scam going on to get
unqualified people hired. The skinny guy might not know that someone else took
an interview for him because it was all a plan by the recruiter. In this
instance you're punishing someone who was acting in good faith, but had the
misfortune to find a corrupt recruiter.

Better would be to use the legal system to recoup your costs. This way you
don't accidentally recoup your costs from an innocent individual with zero
oversight.

~~~
ryanmercer
>Better would be to use the legal system to recoup your costs. This way you
don't accidentally recoup your costs from an innocent individual with zero
oversight.

Or strand someone that fibbed about their experience, that then writes a
suicide note (after throwing screenshots of the emails and cancellation up on
their social media) claiming you stranding them in a city far from home with
no money and no way home was the last straw and then commits suicide in front
of your building

Or someone that comes back and sets the building on fire "with nothing left to
lose".

Or waits for the person that interviewed them to walk out of the building and
assaults them. Or follows them down the sidewalk and shoves them in front of a
bus/trolley/train.

There's a bazillion reasons why this was a horrible idea for the company to
do, if it is a true story.

~~~
Johnny555
Those also sound like reasons to hire everyone you interview regardless of how
badly they performed, just in case they are mentally unstable enough to act
out inappropriately after rejection.

------
GlenTheMachine
Pretty sure, if nothing else, that you could sue them in small claims court.

Unfortunately, in my experience (IANAL), small claims courts only have the
power to enforce ruling via liens or other local means. Which means that if
you bring suit in your local small claims court, the only way to collect is if
the company in question has real estate or other holdings in your local area.
Alternatively you could bring a suit in the company's home district, but that
means you actually have to show up in court there. Which means travel
expenses. Usually it isn't worth it.

------
Jarb
My then-girlfriend had something similar happen to her years ago. She drove
around 5 hours to interview at an engineering/architecture firm and was put up
at a budget hotel for the night. Although she had to pay for the room in
advance, the company said they'd reimburse her for it and the mileage. Of
course they did neither and effectively ghosted her after the interview when
she tried to recoup her losses.

~~~
magduf
I learned early on in my career to not bother interviewing with non-local
companies that wouldn't pay for my interview expenses up-front (hotel, airfare
if necessary). If they're that cheap, they're not going to be a good place to
work for.

I've also found that smaller companies tend to be really bad about this stuff
(not universally!). Big companies are almost always very fair and honorable
about treating interviewees well.

~~~
philwelch
Big companies have legal, HR, and compliance departments who know that it's
not worth nickel-and-diming on petty shit.

~~~
magduf
Yep, exactly this. HR can be evil at times, but here their evilness is
actually a good thing, because it's cold, hard rational logic: "nickel-and-
diming on petty shit" is bad for the company's bottom line.

------
Johnny555
I agree with the others that are skeptical of this story.

The only justification I can think of for this is if the company felt they
were defrauded.

Like if the guy had a great resume with years of experience in all the skills
they want and he passed the phone screen with flying colors and then when
brought on-site he couldn't answer a single question, maybe the company
thought that he had someone else do the phone screen.

------
izacus
I really can't fanthom the thought process that could bring anyone to the
point where he wants to strand someone on an airport with a huge bill.

I get that you're angry... but this is vindictive beyond words.

Sue the guy on small claims court, blacklist him, shame him publicly. But
cancel his plane ticket so he's stranded and broke on an airport? How inhuman
has to be a person to do that? Over a single dumb interview?

------
catchmeifyoucan
I really want to know the name of the company now

------
philwelch
There's another part of this story that doesn't quite add up. Airlines, in
general, like to book round-trip flights rather than one-way flights. Not only
is a round-trip flight generally less expensive than two otherwise equivalent
one-way flights, but sometimes it's even less expensive than either one-way
flight booked alone. So why would you ever get a refund for cancelling the
return leg of a round-trip flight?

------
ryandrake
I wish people would name the company, especially when it does something this
awful. Why be coy? It’s not like there is a chance that you’d get the job
anyway. You could save lots of other candidates time and grief. Name the
company and the first and last name of the recruiter who stonewalled you when
you told them you were stranded at an airport due to their unacceptable
behavior.

~~~
ardfie
That might come following legal advice or action. I can understand erring on
the side of caution here.

~~~
Verdex
You can always name and shame later. However, once the name gets out, you
can't take it back. Erring on the side of caution is the right move.

------
robodale
This could easily make national news. Name and Shame.

------
vkaku
Put it on Glassdoor. Let people learn more about this employer.

------
techslave
There is zero chance that this is authentic; ie that this gives us enough of a
view into what actually happened.

------
DigiMortal
What a petty company

