After reading about Meten/Metro English, ING, Com-Com, EF, Web and other such so called Training Centres I would like to add my 2 cents because I have worked at all of them in one time or another.
Also after hearing names such as Tony Yu, Helen Zhou, Audrey, Frank Zhou, that are synonymous with these companies I came to realise that it wasnt their fault. As a teacher who still loves China and has lived here for 6 years, it became clear that it was my fault.
I failed to realise a quintessential fact. A training centre has absolutely nothing to do with education. Not before, not now not ever. Anyone who believes otherwise is naive at best or stupid as I was. They are solely money making enterprises and those who are working for such places are there to support that effort. Foreign teachers are not there to teach. We are there solely as a promotional tool to attract students. Chinese are used in distinct capacities. Overseers who- and I use the word loosely, manage the place and spin doctors who promote, by any means necessary the business. All are there to serve a single function and that is to amass as much money as they can for the owners or until the place goes bust.

A brief history of some training centres.

ING International English.
Originally this was an EF franchise with 5 branches in Shenzhen. As franchise they were required to pay a monthly fee to EF and to promote EF material. During 2006 the powers that be decided that they didnt want to pay EF anymore so certain financial figures were fudged to make it appear as if the schools were going in to negative profit. It was actually the opposite. A decision was reached to separate from EF and rebrand the centres ING international. At the time 4 of the 5 schools had foreign centre managers who ran the centres well considering the many unreasonable requests made by the senior management.
In 2007 it was decided that the foreign managers were no longer needed and that the Chinese staff of Sales managers were to assume control of the centres. Within 3 months 4 foreign managers had left as well as the general manager. Within 4 months after that time, ING centres went backwards. The reason was simple. The incumbent managers had no experience in managing the centres.

Metro/Meten English
This is a Chinese branded franchise modelled after Web international and Wall Street. Headquartered in Chongqing the school branched out to Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and Suzhou. As with centres of this type, slick advertising, empty promises, unqualified management all go to promoting a scenario of organised chaos. Prior to the Olympic games PSB officers were stepping up checks on foreigners. As a result 4 foreign teachers were arrested for visa violations related to Meten. At the time of the arrests Meten officials were on the case. The foreigners were released pending further enquiries by the PSB. Their passports were seized BUT later returned to the school upon a payment of a fine but the passports were not immediately returned to the teachers. Eventually it was revealed that Meten had no rights to hire foreign teachers outside of Chongqing so all foreign teachers outside of Chongqing were working illegally. As a result all foreign teachers stood down until the situation was resolved. It didnt get resolved and subsequently many foreign teachers left or were afraid to go back. Metens official response at the time was they could only get the visas via Chongqing and then they would tell the PSB that the teachers were transferring from a centre in Chongqing to Shenzhen. The management of Meten have no managerial experience and even less educational experience.

EF, Wall Street,
These are all run in a similar fashion with the appearance looking good but the reality is far from anything other than slick con artists who masquerade as educators. The focus is get em in and tell em anything to get their money then move on to the next victim.
Training centres whatever their guise are all parasites and leeches run by unscrupulous people who pray on naive customers like sharks and pray on foreigners the same way, in the name of education. For them education is a big bucks business where anyone who works for them is expendable and replaceable. It is naive of us as teachers to think that this practice can be stopped because these centres are not bound by the same codes as real schools nor are they in the least bit concerned with ethics. Newbie teachers are not going to stop coming to China or be recruited by these parasites because their game is too good. All we can hope to do is to stay away from such despicable organisations that use education as a tool to feed their greed and lust for money.
If teachers decide to teach at these places then do so knowing that you are just a piece of meat, a promotional gimmick that will soon wear out and be discarded just as easily, as unfortunately there will always be someone to take your place.