Recruitment Agents - a reply
Johnman,
Sadly I have to agree with you, all to often recruitment agencies act with little or no regard to the needs of jobseekers. I cannot/will not attempt to justify the actions of inexperienced recruiters. I will however say that as I understand it it is against REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation, recruitments governing body) guidelines to advertise spurious vacancies. If you believe that you have been misled by an agency you should report them to the REC!
If when you call an agency in direct response to an advert the reply is "We are currently in discussions with .........Airlines for....... positions. The key terms are still to be finalised but will be similar to the terms below" Then I would suggest you politely inform the agency that you do not wish to continue with your application and post a message on here 'naming and shaming' these cowboys.