Recruiter issues

[zacsmom]

Hi everyone.  My sons recruiter will never return any calls.  There is no one else that I can see that might be working in the office.  I realize he is busy however he has also forgot about appointments and then will call back weeks later only to apologize.  We live about 40 minutes from the office so it's not like its right around the corner.   In the meantime my son is torn between going to another recruiter or just sticking it out with this one.  Neither one of us want to appear as a complainer or troublemaker but at some point something has to give.  My son had very high scores on his asvab, no criminal problems whatsoever in his past-he's a good guy.  Only 18 and ready to get going.  The only problem he had was a medical problem that has already been addressed-it was a wart that had to be removed (of all the crazy things).  He had the wart removed and all apperwork resubmitted.  We recently learned that this recruiter is going through a divorce.  I feel bad for the guy but I would be fired if I disapeared off the face of the earth for weeks at a time.  I dont expect this guy to hold my sons hand but common courtesy wuold dictate that if you tell someone you will get abdk to them in 5 days and now its 3 weeks laster something is wrong.  I am sure the Navy would agree.  Any advise/suggestions/help?

[phoebe stg2]

Wow! Sean must be really lucky. His recruiter has been great. After the pre-test and again after the ASVAB the recruiter was real ready to have Sean sign up. Spent lots of time going over career options and having him attend workouts at the local park. Sean even has to check in every week. I have seen no problems so far. So if you are having problems with a recruiter run as fast as you can to the next one.

[Josh's mom Alaskan STG]

My sons' recruiter was never around either. He lied to me about his paperwork and now my son isnt a E3 after bootcamp like he should of been with 2 yrs of njrotc under his belt. and when he found out that my son was to ship out in 2 weeks, he texted my son. My son was in DEP for a yr and never had a Dep meeting and the recruiter didnt even go to the office until the day before my son was to fly out to Meps. so we could get his flight info.
ridiculous. we complained to the area commmander but he is still in his office and the other military recruiters are benefiting from him not being in his office and joke about him as well..
best thing to do is to try to find another one, ask questions on the navy.com site, they have a place to ask a recruiter questions and good luck. luckily my son is happy that he is and not to concerned about the lower rate. he is actually fast tracked for signing up for 6 yrs, so he will make E4 by the end of a yr of service.

[Pam1957]

Evidently your recruiter is not 100% on the job with his personal life going awry. I've learned that you really need to have a good recruiter. It's a tough decision, but I would put my son or daughter first and see another recruiter. If the first recruiter gets angry, have your son put the blame on you. Think about it...I wish I would have checked out a couple of recruiters and I am sure that your recruiter cannot help it that his personal life has overflowed onto his job. However, as Moms we should have the chance to interview them...lol

P.S. I wouldn't go to his chain of command...that might make things worse.

[zacsmom]

First of all-a big THANK YOU to everyone who replied to this. Just to give everyone an update. I have stopped by the actual office twice now and it was locked-lights off. So no reponse to messages left on cell or at the office, no reply to email or text. This is 3 full weeks of nothing. Now I know the Navy is busy but 3 weeks is just not right-and the locked office had me concerned. So I contacted another office. They had no knowledge of the office being shut down so they gave me the number of the Navel Recruiting division that this office belongs under. I really, really hated to do this. I really didnt want my son to be labeled a momma's boy-but this is the only time I will be able to help him and the whole family just didnt know what to do especially after finding the office locked up on 2 occasions. They were able to pull up my sons paperwork and said that after this time they would get involved. They also said the Petty Officer that ran the office we were going to was on vacation but did not have an answer as to why no one was running the office - work doesnt stop because one person goes on vacation. I hope I didnt create more problems but even if 1 recording had said to call somewhere or the office was closed for the petty officer to go on vacation we woudl have left it alone. Again-THANKS! I feel like there is a great support system for us Moms out there!

[Pam1957]

Way to go! I bet your son was not the only one left hanging by that recruiter...You did good!

[swanksmom]

I would contact another Recruiter and get his advice. It is not fair to your son. Best of luck to you. .

[momof2sailors]

We were having some issues with one of my sons recruiters and had to get a new one. So don't feel bad at all. They are suppose to inform people of when they are on vacation and such. They are also suppose to set a good example and to me he was not doing that.

[Carla Street]

I am a moderator on Yahoo for navy moms and we've had some discussions about recruiters too. I went to the actual navy.mil site and one of the main recruiters contacted me right away and it was really great. He had a pretty impressive rack of initials, NCCM CNRC NCR. He was very helpful and we had several back and forth emails.

We had a recruiter who refused to work with the family after the sailor was in and I wanted to know if that was part of what they are supposed to do.

This site has some interesting articles: http://usmilitary.about.com/lr/dealing_with_recruiters/49167/4/

[Angie]

NCCM = Master Chief Navy Counselor
CNRC = Navy Recruiting Command (the people in charge of all the recruiters)
NCR = Navy Career Recruiter

[Pam1957]

There are some great recruiters out there...you may have to step in now Mom. We had a terrible one and we wish we would have known to ask more questions. Find a different one and get copies of everything that is put in writing. The first few times we let our son handle it himself and then we went twice, but just didn't do as much as we should of, could of and would of...someone needs to write a book out there like "Talking to Recruiters 101". Good luck, but don't keep the guy if you are getting a bad vibe.

[zacsmom]

Diana-well about a week ago I contacted the Recruiting Division for this office and had to leave a message. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a call back about an hour after that. They pulled up my son's paperwork and stated that yes we should ahve had an answer, and that while the recruiter was on vacation someone should have contacted us. And then I was promised another call back. To date-nothing. I would be concerned if there was something in my son's history that was questionable but there's nothing. So today and yesterday we have tried the original recruiter as he is supposed to be back from vacation but still all we get is voicemail and no response

[ChrisAmo]

A gentle hint Diana (actually 2). It's not safe to use your full name, you should use a nick name. And please turn off your caps....you're shouting at us!