I am a real estate agent in a mid-sized southern city. I have been working directly with a client for over 4 months who was being considered for a position with a large international company with a facility located in my market area. The company uses Cartus as their relocation firm. I had been introduced to my client through an acquaintance employed by the company.

When the employment decision was finalized my client called me to set up a schedule for starting to look at homes. While on the phone with my client I received a call from a Cartus representative who left me a voice mail stating I would have to register with them to assist my client. Oh, they also wanted me to agree to pay them a 37.5% fee as a condition of registering. I told them I wanted to check with my client's employer to confirm what they were telling me before registering.

Long story short - the employer informed me there was no requirement to register with Cartus to assist one of their transferring employees, nor was there any requirement to pay them any registration fee. A subsequent discussion with Cartus revealed the 37.5% fee they wanted me to hurry up and agree to was actually a overly generous referral fee for a client referral they did not give me.

Watch these shysters. They will do or say anything to generate income for themselves, even when they have provided no services to warrant a fee.