312-499-5900

He tried to get my boss's cell phone number from me - told me he didn't have a message to leave.  He
said he was Michael Andrade.

These are the type of jerks our government gave hundreds of billions of dollars to because they ran the investment banking industry into the ground.  Gordon, people with your attitude should be doing time behind bars.  You provide a disservice to humanity, regardless of what company you work for.  Your existance is sustained via corporate bribery and the blackmail of politicians.

I laughed out loud when I read this part, "Ask anyone of high repute in the business(Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Salomon Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, etc)".  High repute? hahahahaha  I guess maybe they are highly reputable for conning an entire nation and so far, getting away with it.

Something's up with Rip-off Report.  

*UPDATE: Rip-off Report Investigation - Houlihan Smith & Company recognized by Rip-off Report Corporate Advocacy Program as a safe business service - Houlihan Smith pledges to always resolve any issues, feel safe, confident & secure when doing business with Houlihan Smith & Company a national investment banking firm that specializes in providing financial opinions, valuation services and corporate advisory to public and private busine"
http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q5=houlihan+smith&q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search%21

WTF?  Did Houlihan Smith post that or did they pay off or threaten Rip-off Report?  I doubt everyone here is 100% satisfied.  I know our company isn't.

Got a call today 12/4/08 asking for an employee by name who is no longer the president.  When I asked what it is regarding he said a personal business matter.  I took him name & number down then recycled it :0)

I got a 4 calls from these idiots, to help our receptionist out I took the last call. Asked them how much time he needed for his presentation to me, he said it would only take 15 minutes, I told him to send me a certified cheque for $1000.00 and he could have a whole hour of my time.
He hung up and never heard from them again

As a sales person for a similar company, it is our job to reach the senior most person to get a quick and prompt answer. Talking to admins or coordinators that cannot answer questions about what the company does takes up time that we quite honestly do not have.

There have been countless admins that I have talked to that have been just as rude as you describe the exec as being. Its obvious that you have nothing better to do than complain about someone who was upset because you wouldn't let them through.

Mike Andretti called asking for the CEO as if they were best friends. I'm told to take messages so when I asked for a message he said "here's your message: Tell him I am on the phone, I'll hold." I told him no and he started getting extremely rude and vulgar. I told him I am just doing my job and he responded with "if you were doing your job you would do what I'm telling you to do." I hung up on him then looked up the company and found this. If he calls back I'm going to pretend I know him (since he pretends that he is best friends with the CEO, who is also my father) I'm going to see if he remembers meeting me at Sara and Chris' wedding last year and ask if he's still ashamed about the bet he lost with my dad on their fave sports team. Since he claims to have a generic name, hopefully this will shut his ass up and make him look/feel like a moron. Since they're wasting my time, might as well waste theirs and have fun with it!

FYI.  They've got some new scam up where they offer a free laptop computer on craigslist and then have you call them.  I think they're harvesting phone numbers to sell...that's the only scam I could think of that would work with "I gave the laptop away already *click*"

Either that or it was some woman who thought it would be cool to give out the 1-312-499-5900 number.  But then, why would she give out the main number to the company...and then why would someone at that main number act like they knew what the message was about?  Oh well, no accounting for that "investment banking" firm...

I received a similar call from a Kyle Bird at this number. He asked to speak with the owner and I told him she was at lunch and asked to take a message. He did not want to give me any details and kept insisting she would know who he was, after pushing him for an actual message he became very pushy and kept insisting that she already knew who he was. This is most definitely a scam, no one in my office knows who this person is!

Steve Richards asked for the president of our company and was very pushy in trying to reach him. I told him that he was with a client and he said he would hold while I told our president that he was on the line. I told him i would take a message. then he began to ask if he was off site meeting with someone, conference call and that's when i told him i would relay the message to my boss. i hung up the phone while he responding to my comment

Just interviewed at their offices today with Kim LoDolce.  Wow what a waste of time.  I have experience raising money for a start up company and had the privelage of working with private equity, venture capital, and investment banking professionals.  Houlihan Smith is just not right.  They dont care about building relationships in a business that is all about people.  Funny thing is they will continue to do business because their will always be niave desperate business owners out there.

Wow I thought they were a legitimate banking institution. I have an interview scheduled with Kim and I really don't want to waste my time. If you could please tell me what you didnt like about the company, that would be greatly appreciated.

is a fictional character from a movie.  Apropos, isn't it?

Exact same thing. Guy called himself Jim Coulter. Knew my first name but mispronounced the company name (that was a first). Prentened as if I knew him. Just said hey Jay its Jim Coulter and then there was silence. I said "I am sorry do I know you". Said, I was looking to raise capital, I had called him and he was returning my call. I am a Vice President at my firm. Thinking that he was mistaking me for our CFO I asked for his contact information for a callback from our CFO. Instead he asked me for CFO's name and number at this point I knew something was fishy, I advised him that I could not provide him that information. HE SAID "That's ridiculous, I don't think we will be providing you the funding" and hung up. What's amazing is that despite many many complaints above these guys are still in business. What's happening to corporate America ?

Micheal Polumbo 312-499-5900 called asking for owner of our company. Very rude when I told him owner was not available-stated he understood I had to screen calls. Told him again owner was not available and kept wanting to hold the line. Finally hung up on him as his sneaky ways didn't get past me.

You'll never get off the lists, I'm sorry to say, I've been trying for over 10 years. If it's not these guys, it's their other buddies. Over the years I've gotten so I recognize the voices. I started telling them that the owner didn't work there anymore, a few weeks later I got a call from a guy pretending to be a contractor at my boss's house and he needed his cell phone number.  He was really rude and insistent that I provide the information.  Well, I knew he was lying, my boss was on vacation, I knew he wasn't redoing his kitchen - but by the time he got through with his interrogation, they knew my boss was still there and the calls started again.  

I thought I had finally hit the jackpot when my boss actually sold the company and retired.  Now they demand to know who's in charge (I won't tell them) and last fall, one guy proceeded to curse me out and call me bad, offensive names (rhymes with hunt), when I hung up on him, he called back and started all over again.  I really wish there was something someone could do!  I called the phone company and they told me there was nothing they could do unless I hit *69 to mark the call or something, but that just tells me 'unable to complete request'

Houlihan Smith called this morning, a similar rude encounter - who immediately called back after I had told them to never call again and hung up on them. Which led me to this website.  Thanks for giving me space to vent!

called and asked for former owner, I told him he had retired, was there someone else that could help him?  He wanted to know who was in charge, I asked what it was regarding. "Personal and Confidential business" When I asked how he could have personal and confidential business with someone he didn't know, he got annoyed and started in with his spiel about how this wasn't a sales call... Which is when I told him "never to call here again" and hung up.  He called back immediately and demanded to know why I had hung up on him. By this time I had pulled up HOULIHAN SMITH on my web browser and told him we weren't interested in an investment bank.  He again demanded to know who was in charge, I told him "ME" and hung up.

If you're such an UPSTANDING company - why must you resort to these types of tactics?  Can't imagine ANY of your sales people getting by the gate keepers?  How DO you sell ANYTHING?  Slipping charges on unknowing peoples credit cards too? hmmmmm

No YOU get a REAL company so you can be a big boy and wear big boy pants and not just talk about your new lollipop you purchased with your $9mil SCAM

Someone named Damian called and wanted to speak with my boss.  I told him he was on the phone and asked what the call was in regards to.  He was rude and abrupt and just said it was a "confidential matter."  I asked for the name of the firm and he said Houlihan Smith and gave 312-499-5900 as the phone number.  Definitely a scam.