TLDR; Company flew me and wife out, gave us verbal and email salary offer, sent us with realtor, offer on house accepted, then said they can only pay 65% of what was quoted because position had been filled (before flying me out). Then tried to buy company I work for.
Received a call from a recruiter I had worked with before, she said she found the perfect position for me, but I'd have to relocate. She told me the pay was low 200s, so I said sure let me talk to them. We had a video interview and they loved me. Told me to book flight to come out to see them with my wife.
Within an hour the owner is texting me asking what my wife does for work so they can help find her a job, tells me I can use his condo which sits empty for 6 to 12 months if needed so we can get the lay of the land and find the perfect house.
Over the next week they email me their benefits package price so I can compare apples to apples. They tell me to figure out what moving costs would be and closing costs on my home so they can put together a relocation package. He also connects me with a realtor to show us some houses while we're out there.
So we get in town, go to a crazy expensive steakhouse. Next morning I meet the owners son (he's taking over the business) at the office, he goes over an org chart with me, tells me who will be reporting to me, takes me on a tour of the building, introduces me to people as “he's going to be moving here and over all of the accounting department.” He takes me to a conference room and introduces me to the “Current CFO” (I assume the outgoing one who is retiring as he was recruiting me for CFO), but no , dude has only been there a week and lacks all of the experience that they were specifically looking for with me. Strange I think. I meet with the owners son again and ask him about their week old CFO if they were recruiting me for that, he says “oh yeah we filled that but still want you probably as the VP of finance, we will create a position for you.”
He takes me outside where his dad is waiting to take me to the condo and meet the realtor to go see houses (realtor was picking up my wife at hotel to meet at condo.) I tell him I need a salary amount so I know which range of houses to go see. He says “Your base will be around $200k and then $40k or so of bonus potential”.
We go see houses, put an offer in on one. Realtor says to call loan agent to get pre approved. Loan agent gets the name of the guy I'll be working for and says “oh yeah he's my good friend, he was the best man in my wedding”. Asks if I have an official offer letter with salary, which I do not. He tells me to ask for one, but says he will call him as well. So I text the guy and he emails me a spreadsheet showing the salary workup he has, which matches the prior amounts. Loan guy calls back saying he talked to his friend and he confirmed the numbers, so we are approved for the loan on the house we offered on.
Saturday comes and wife and I decide to go take in some tourist sites in the city. I get a text from recruiter asking me to call her. She says that I'm asking way too high of a relocation package (they offered to pay for full move and fees, I didn't ask), she also says I am being ridiculous expecting to use the condo for 6 to 12 months. I indicate that the condo was offered to me within hours of our first call. She says “oh thats not the story I got.” At this moment we got a text from realtor that the offer on house was accepted and he needs earnest money before we leave town. Recruiter says she will circle back with the ownership and get an offer letter from them ASAP.
An hour later, owner son texts asking if he can call me. He calls and acts all weird, he says they can only pay me 65% of what they quoted, because the CFO role was already filled. I called him out on his BS and asked why they wasted my time bringing me down for that role if they already filled it with someone who didn't meet the “required skills”. So I told him thanks for wasting our time bringing us down with zero intent to hire us. And even a bigger thanks for lying about the salary so we could get our heart set on the perfect house for us, only to have to walk away from it.
I get home, send them my expenses so they can send me a check (they did send it), along with the biggest F*** you email ever. Basically told them that this is a Tommy Boy situation where the dad has built a great company and now silver spoon son can ruin it. I asked why they hired someone who had ZERO of the required skills.
He sent me a generic reply and stated that I lacked the necessary skills for them to have made me any offer. LMAO! Recruiter got a great laugh out of that.
So I figured I'd never hear from them again…. as they say on TV…. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!!
Flash forward 2 weeks and the owner of the company sends me an email that “I just was contacted by a company in (region I had visited) and they want to explore buying the company” (Owner is actively selling, has a few who will probably make an offer soon). I laughed and knew immediately who it was. Replied to him “Tell them no thanks. They were recruiting me for their CFO and flew me down under false circumstances and lied to me all weekend, not an ownership group that you want taking over your business.”
I'm sure part of their reason for that email was to make sure I admitted to my boss I was exploring leaving. So I owned that immediately. He doesn't care, he's about to sell for millions and knows I need to look out for myself and my family.
Curious if I hear from them again or if they're really done being a thorn in my side.