Very well said there. What's more, writing off negative comments as bitterness and discrediting those who complain, is potentially a big cause of many of the problems of the ESL industry, cheaters and scammers no longer fear the internet like they used to because they are very much aware that people no longer take the negative feedback as seriously as they used to.

I once made the mistake at the time when I entered the industry of not taking on-line reviews seriously as I though that they were all crap teachers who'd deservedly got fired, trying to get revenge in vain. Then I learned the hard way, by working for a terrible employer and getting a lot of trouble and threats when I tried to leave. To that day, that particular employer still continues to cheat people and receive negative reviews, but the combination of apathy towards those who complain and fake positive replies/reviews leads even more new teachers into making the same mistakes that I did.

Yes, there are indeed some moaners who can't hack it and some crap teachers, but people need to distinguish between what is right and wrong. To be honest, there are even some genuine complaints that do mention issues that mean pretty much nothing, such as the lack of western toilet in an apartment or people in the city not being able to speak English, but we should still at least show some empathy towards such posters and offer advice and tips, rather than condemning them. After all, it is often the case that crap teachers are not actually that crap, they just lack in experience and have not been trained that well. Also, many newer foreign teachers tend to come from well-off middle class families and feel a sense of shock when they arrive in China.