Further to what I was saying, I am actually quite grateful to Expertise as they recognized my strengths in teaching, which was better suited to more advanced learners, and got me a college job. There is nothing robotic or inhuman about Expertise staff, they recognize people's better qualities, and wherever try to work with them.
The reason I am keen to defend them is because my experience of ESL in China was not limited to Expertise. After leaving Expertise on good terms, I took out an apartment share with another Expat friend in Beijing, and decided to make a go of it independently, namely keep a few part time teaching gigs, which ought to amount to a proper income. The world I glimpsed into was much worse than the supposed "horror stories" people are recounting here about Expertise.
Now before anybody accuses me of being a Laowai sellout, the real Laowai sellouts are the Western managers of language schools, the self styled entrepreneurs, the people who have Guanxi, or like to think they have.
I did a substitute gig for this Westerner based in Beijing, but previously I had contacted him about part time teaching gigs, and he simply was not delivering the work he promised.
I later learned from my room mate that this guy had also screwed several of his friends over on the costs of a Visa, and the dishonesty I perceived in him was also perceived by others.
I took out a few classes at my room mates part-American owned foreign language school, and again I encountered an employer who was promising hours he couldn't deliver, screwing employees around by rescheduling them, and being a manipulator in general. In fact, the last I heard of this guy was after my room mate went on vacation, and receiving assurance that his job would still be there when he returned a week later, he later learned that he had given their substitute a whole months work.
I guess my point is that the dishonesty culture is rife throughout Beijing, and if you want to avoid it, it is best to avoid Beijing, as there is so much more to see in China.
Whatever criticisms one has about Expertise, I have this to say, they're much more honest and trustworthy than many of the firms out there, and certainly much more honest than any of the self-styled expat entrepreneurs out there.