hello I cant give you any information on the ins and outs of how the company works but I have used there service once before when I first decided to come to china to work and in the process of using them again, if its the same company we are talking about networkesl.com they are ok, they placed me in a reasonably good job ( i been at the same place for 3 years, you will always face a few hurdles with Chinese employer) they offered me good support in the lead up to finding a job and once I was employed they continued this support by offering to liaise with my employer to sort out a few problems I had when I first arrived, I never had any pressure to take any job on the contrary they simply asked what I was looking for, recommended a few which I declined until I found what I was looking for, also they have native English speakers who work for them who have lived and worked in china and understand the process and the language, who once you are here you can call over the phone for advice and help, if it is your first time to china i recommend you go with some sort of job agency ( make sure its accredited )as you will have a few issues and and the language barrier will kill you ) and proper agencies have the contacts and power to get you out of a bad school at no finaicual cost to yourself, after 3 and a half years I have decided to move on and broaden my horizons and the first first person I contacted was my original handler ( chris johnson ) and they are straight onto finding me a new job, so all in all in my books they have done good by me and i recommend thinking about them to handle your applications, hope this helps you....

p.s china is great place to live and work and if you do the right thing and work hard many doors will open up for you as Chinese people are very appreciative

p.s.s like I stated I used them 3 years ago so hopefully they still offer the same standard of service

As far as what I am now being told about this is that apparently what is going on is the black market sale of ID as well as stolen passports as in the actual document itself, in addition to credit profiles, the generation of fake ID and other data which is then being sold in the USA in Los Angeles to Chinese that need ID to continue staying in the USA under fake names with fake paper trails. What happens is that the Chinese get the certified transcripts which from some colleges, still have social security numbers on them, combined with an employment and residential history, US passport and other data such as a full scan of credentials and in a few hours, they assume the ID of that victim, which is usually a foreign teacher, and from there, it gets worse. The crime is not only taking place in China but in the USA as well. The supposed recruiters are directly involved with the process since the Web sites they use attract unsuspecting teachers wanting a job who in turn then send them their life story and full scans of various documents. When someone "willingly" hands over documents for employment which were volunteered freely for one purpose which was actually invalid and illegal to begin with, that then constitutes theft and fraud as well as deceptive practices.

Physical passports are also being stolen by many supposed visa agencies that promise a Z visa, etc.

As for NETWORK ESL being involved...I do NOT KNOW.

What I do know is that they are one of the many Web sites that was mentioned as being of interest for alleged scams.

The US CAN prosecute EVEN IF crimes were not committed on US soil.

What I am being told so far is that the Chinese recruiters are working with some dirt bag American recruiters that could not make it as ESL teachers and instead are now busy stealing passports and confidential data to create fake ID or help the Chinese to continue invalid stays in the USA where the Chinese have over stayed their own visas and they are now trying to hide under someone else's ID such as for apartment rental, loans, credit cards, etc.

What needs to happen in China is that all recruiters should be forced to post a cash bond, and their business licenses should all be in a Chinese governmental data base that can be searched by anyone in English for confirmation as to their status. They should be forced to have a valid legal agent on site, and they should also be forced to protect data and properly destroy data as well.

There should be a straight ahead policy on recruiters which is basically put up or shut up. At minimum a recruiter should be able to provide the following information with no delay or excuses.

Full name of business owner
Business name
Address
Phone
Fax
Business license number
Cash bond in excess of 100,000 RMB
PSB clearance

Do not confuse the average "diplomat" with armed federal agents performing law enforcement functions at any given embassy.
If someone in any nation is doing something illegal that MIGHT involve stolen passports, a file is opened by the host nation and the country of interest.

As I'm not and never will be a fraudster, I won't do any research on this.
I hope the agents do a better job than a visa clerk who attempted to take my passport off me in Beijing before replacing it with a new one, that was to be posted to me at my address in China in another city. She didn't know that she had no right to expect me to be in limbo in a foreign land without my passport and its in-date valid visa. Pathetic!

BUT...it sounds as if they are being investigated by embassy staff for some ID issues and POSSIBLE selling of data.

I didn't know that embassy staff were so versatile. I guess they've had some kind of police training so that they know how to assist the Chinese police to prosecute Chinese criminals. It's great to know they have been trained to be policemen and policewomen in addition to the training they require to do their normal, humdrum work at the embassy.

I am writing this thread because I responded to job ads on 4 other ESL Job Sites from "Teach in China" and "China Teaching Network" and "ESL Across China" and someone named "Hubert Reid" (and numerous other names) which all came from Network ESL because they contacted me in connection with my email to these jobs. I was shocked by how many ads they were posting and how many names they use to post ads under. Why would a recruiter use so many different names?

Are they really a recruiter? They seem to be just another jobs forum trying to gather teacher resumes to forward to school clients. That lead me to researching them and I couldn't really see where they offer any kind of recruitment service per se. According to their "objectives" listed on their site, they are dedicated to (1) "improving the quality of oral English teaching in China..." and (2) "the assurance that teachers enjoy their experience in China...". So do they actually negotiate the contract for the teacher, arrange for the visa paperwork, vet the schools they promote, ensure the contract terms are met?

I did notice the other thread on this site that mentions them threatening teachers with blacklisting for "wasting their time and the schools time" because a teacher applied and decided not to take a position...not that they broke a contract, did a runner or signed a contract and didn't show...just that they decided not to sign a contract with the school they initially applied to...not exactly recruitment gold service :-S
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=54545

It also seems that the school that Network ESL was recruiting for had a reputation for taking advantage of teachers which is why I was asking if anyone knows if Network ESL screens their schools or ensures the schools meet the terms of the contract that is presented to teachers that Network ESL recruits for the school...or do they just charge the schools to post an ad, spam the ESL job boards to collect resumes and 'introduce' the 2 parties, provide some basic information on life in China and then...finished.

Can anyone tell me what they do as a "recruiter" and what their experience was with Network ESL? I am not leaving my email because I am afraid of it being used against me (i.e. some sort of blacklist they mentioned).

Thanks.

Hi all,

I would just like to add, that I have used NETWORK ESL for a few years now, and on every occasion they have set me up in excellent teaching positions and resolved any issues I may have had with schools.

Throughout the entire time, I can say that they have been professional and answered all my questions immediately and with complete information.

I state again, that if you want a professional service, that provides professional positions then you cannot go past NETWORK ESL they are the top in China, without a doubt!

For those of you who are not the regular negative troll patrol on this board, you are welcome to contact me anytime about my experiences

Coincidentally, on the same day as Hannon's praise of Network ESL, Dman published* a misleading and threatening email he received from Chris Johnson, Recruitment Coordinator with Network ESL.

It may well be that Hannon is an individual who genuinely had a positive experience with Network ESL.

It may also be that Hannon is a simply a name used by Chris Johnson in an attempt to mitigate (deserved) bad publicity.

*http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=54545

I was looking at the list of Profiled Recruiters on the "ESL Jobs in China" board of this site, and could not find NetworkESL. In fact, I could not find one single job offer posted by NetworkESL on this site. Would anyone know if they are banned from posting on this site?