My favourite people?

I'm sure Recruitment Agencies are the scourge of more business owners than just in our PR world. As employers running a SME we occasionally have a need to find a new employee. The most successful means of doing this (and the cheapest) is word of mouth. However, there are times when we pay on-line and print media companies to advertise positions.
We are always up against a sea of recruitment agency ads - and they sometimes aren't even on behalf of another PR agency looking to fill a vacant position! Often they'll be looking for consultants to sign up to their books, and then they'll do the searching. Even our own trade body, the CIPR, is happy to take recruitment agency money to advertise, to the detriment of their members in the business!
What does this say about the recruitment agency? They create unrest in the minds of employees, some of whom may think the grass is greener, others may be perfectly happy where they are. They add to the already stretched recruitment costs an employer faces, especially during recession. Typically that's 20% of the starting salary. We've had two instances in the past three years where we've been let down by agencies. The first one was an employee who we realised after 7 or 8 months was not right. We'd already paid £4k to the recruitment people and there was no part or full refund after this period. Secondly, we were going to offer someone a job who we'd interviewed via an agency, and she had found somewhere privately and eventually left her agency with red faces.
I'd like to know what these agency people have done to become 'professionals'? Do they all have to wear cowboy hats?
Looking at this from another angle, and this is the key point of this rant, how do employers like us compare an applicant via a recruitment agency with one who has approached us direct? Usually the latter has not just responded to our ad, they've visited our website, phoned to discuss the job, and even sent us their portfolios. Ultimately they've demonstrated initiative and intelligence, which of course are usually attributes an employer is looking for. In contrast, the applicant with the agency probably has only done their research after prompting from 'above', and has taken what I consider to be the lazy option by getting someone else to do the searching for them.
If you're a professional PR consultant and you read this, get in touch with us! Even if we've no vacancies, and you're happy in your current position, you're putting yourself in a strong position when one of us is looking at a later date. Even when we say 'no agencies please' on our recruitment ads, they still contact us!! That's like the double glazing salesman turning up at your door when you're just having your tea!
Roger