How NOT To Hire A Private Investigator, or PI Agency

I’m always amused when I see posts such as the following on Craigslist:

Craigslist Posting For An Atlanta Private Investigator

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen this post. Previously, I’d sniggered at it and simply ignored it but curiosity got the better of me and I decided to see just what the ad was about.

There are several “red-flags” in this particular post:

• “out-of-state”   – any private investigator in Georgia is required to be licensed. It’s also Georgia law that any investigator advertising in Georgia is to display their license number on any advertisement. It could be argued this is not strictly an ad, but if I were a potential employee and I was applying for this posted position I should be sure whoever I’m talking to is licensed to operate as a private detective agency.
• “part time basis only”   – it’s true the nature of private investigation work is not typical 9-5 work (we give you an idea here) and there are busy times and slow times. A normal person, however, can’t hang a career on “part-time”. Would you hire a part-timem surgeon to operate on you? Would you hire a part-time attorney to try your case? This type of language is very telling about the type of agency we’re dealing with here. They’re willing to work your case with part-time individuals who may simply be supplementing an income and would treat your case as a hobby. They would not exhibit the kind of care and attention to your case that they should.
• “at aol dot com” – This “company” use AOL as their email provider. I’m not going to go into the lack of professionalism this exhibits.

So, I had one of our interns send them an email:

Here’s the response I got from gaprivateinvest@aol.com or “GaPrivateInvest at aol dot com”:

Seriously? “Billy William”? This clown wishes to hire licensed investigators yet he/she doesn’t even have the common courtesy to use a REAL NAME? Their grasp of the English language is also limited, and at this juncture we think they may be foreign. But that’s not the worst part of this particular email.

• The ask us upfront how much we want to get paid. They don’t ask for our experience, age, license number – nada. This is clearly an agency operated purely out of greed. They are looking for the cheapest staff and probably charging exorbitant rates.
• I offered to send my resume – they don’t care about that apparently.
• They can’t spell  - even worse they can’t use a spell checker which is standard on every email composing software today.

So, we continue the conversation:

We bait them with a low-ball hourly rate. We sent this email on February 19th. 6 days later we still didn’t have a response so we sent another email:

Another 6 days go by and we finally hear back from Billy William:

Another disjointed poorly written email. We conclude at this point we’re dealing with utter morons. They can’t compose a sentence. We decide to not bother to respond to these idiots. Our time is better served elsewhere. But, like dog-doo on your shoe, they respond again:

This is the height of mediocrity. They suggest we work part-time for multiple agencies. At Eagle we don’t allow our employees to work for anyone else. How can you expect loyalty from someone who works for multiple agencies?

At this point we sent them an email saying we were hired on by someone else and that was that.

If you are a potential private investigator employee:

Please don’t ever entertain the idea of working for someone like this. They epitomize the type of agency we are trying to put out of business. They are run by an unprofessional, and probably unlicensed private investigator wannabe. They probably drive around in retired Police Interceptors so they WILL get noticed. They most likely take retainers from clients and provide them with sub-standard services. As an employee you should worried about getting paid from the likes of this “agency”. We continue to hear, on a daily basis, stories of private investigators who were gypped by itinerants like these. It’s this kind of unprofessional behavior that gives all investigators a bad rap. Don’t fall victim to these guys and assume all agencies are the same.

If you are a potential client of a  private investigator:

Do business with a professional agency. Examine their communication with you. Ask to see their client list. Ask them what people say about them. Ask them if they offer a guarantee. Check their license – all Georgia private investigator licenses can be viewed for free here.

If you have hired gaprivateinvest@aol.com and feel you didn’t get the service you deserved:

Simply call us immediately at (800) 867-3930. We’ll be happy to assist you.

And remember, a competent private investigator is only a click away! Just click the link below to choose which of our offices you’d like to speak with:

I need a private investigator in Atlanta

I need a private investigator in Destin

I need a private investigator in Mobile

I need a private investigator in Biloxi