I know your in SZ coco
- 2012-07-10
POD was English International, a scam run out of Leeds by 2 Asian (muslim) brothers (Billy is 1 of them) and headed by an ugly [edited] named Coco ( who i [edited] in my room on the second night but she changed her name to Kayliegh or something : kaylainchina@gmail.com), who still owe me 4000 for flight money, yea they will pay you half you salary for 4 months, little do you know they actualy get double that from negotiations. U think you get 4 and they take half but actually the get 8.
Then they pimped me out to Lingdong school where i was robbed for over 1 year.
SCUM SHiT
avoid kaylainchina@gmail.com
Or if you care then spam the [edited].
Tom
- 2011-03-11
Always remember that you should never pay any money for a cultural exchange program abroad whether its in France, Japan, South Korea, or China.
One thing that can usually be relied on is that con-artists will usually come out with a bleeding obvious load of bilge (as above) at the end of spiel (in this case self righteous indignant spiel) when they are trying to sell a pup. It's the oldest trick in the world to convince that they are caring. You are supposed to exclaim, your eyes welling with emotion "they can't be as their critics say they are, otherwise how could they come out with such caring advice? Hardly an appropriate anal bit of wisdom when they are trying to defend themselves.
kayla
- 2011-03-07
www.podtravelandteach.co.uk is 'English international" They get 150 people come over to China to teach on L visa.
He ran an English organization called English International, from Leeds in Yorkshire, England. The company attracted English people to come to China to teach English, mainly at Kindergarten level.
As part of the enticement to come to China, foreign teachers were promised, upon completing their 6 month contract: Half their airfare refunded; the entire cost of their travel visa; the entire cost of hotel accommodation while training; two full weeks paid leave and an entire refund of the private taxi fare from Shenzhen Airport to the hotel where training took place.
With BILAL ISMAIL SONI, having disappeared, none of the foreign teachers seems able to get the money rightfully owed to them. This amounts to an average 1,000 GBP per person.
In addition to the money he owes to foreign teachers, he has also cheated many Chinese people who have invested money in property to accommodate the foreign teachers and who will now not get this money refunded.
And, there are so many position here in China. You can very easy to get a job with 10000rmb pay in Shenzhen. Do not let them eat your hard working pays. Do not accept 4000 monthly pay. which they have eaten your 6000rmb a month.
YOU DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY FOR TEACHING IN CHINA, AND YOU DON'T JUST RECEIVE 4000 A MONTH!!
vicky
- 2011-02-07
I have just been informed by one of our successful candidates whos going out to china, about some forums.
Just to put the record straight, here at Pod Travel and Teach we have never used any other names or companies. We have always been and always will be known as POD Travel & Teach. We have been going since 2007 where we have been working with Chinese educational clients and been placing people from other companies throughout the world.
It has only been since September that we have now the full knowledge that we can select the right clients to work with in China, as well as selecting the right committed and mature clients in the UK.
We had originally placed around only 35 people for a trial period of up to 3 months at a time. This has only been done to ensure that we can cope on a much larger scale as we are now looking for 75 people to go out in the February & March period just after the Chinese New Year. We offer full Visa costs as well as return airfare refunds to people who complete a 12 month term. We dont offer nor guarantee any refunds if someone does a only a 6 month term, as this differentiates the genuine and committed candidates from the rest.
As a company we never charge a single penny for our cultural exchange programs. The vast majority of the companies that work in this field always charge a high one off fee, or some kind of application fee. Since we dont charge these fees that others do, it has made us very successful in what we do. This I would imagine makes a lot of people jealous, hence the unfair comments. Furthermore people would say that if you dont charge any fees to the applicants then how do you make your money. Well each Chinese client that we place people at, have an annual budget fund and thats where we get our fees from; the Chinese companies that we work with.
People who arent always successful in their application with us or someone from other competition that might be writing all these unfair comments. It might be even young kids pretending to be several people writing these comments. In the end truth always prevails.
At the same time any small, medium, or large company, whether its M&S, Virgin Atlantic, or Thomas Cook arent perfect, I would be the first person to say that any ones perfect.
Always remember that you should never pay any money for a cultural exchange program abroad whether its in France, Japan, South Korea, or China.
Vicky At Pod Travel & Teach and we dont go by any other names.
ontothem
- 2011-02-04
english international havefunteaching. gone through a name change and restared business. mass recrutin in the uk.. new site is http://www.podtravelandteach.co.uk.
very serious what happened last time. with them stealing 20000 uk pounds from their chinese business partner, (he did deserve that), they have invested greatly in this. please post to make as many people aware. they are really going all out this time.
Alain
- 2010-08-05
Ged, thanks for that post, that is some scary stuff indeed!
Both are money obsessed, to your face liars who con "fresh off the boat" foreigners in to signing ridiculous contracts verging on extortion.
I've lost all respect for recruiters and agree on the money obsessed part totally.
Lucas is a chinese man who "enforces" contract terms by visiting foreigners (who've learnt better at their placements by talking with other FT's) and threatening them with fines, prison terms, deportation and in one instance physically threatening a girl with a knife and telling her to just do what she's told.
Which would be classified as harrassment/intimidation in any other place with common law, and HE would be put in prison. Insane, but i expect nothing less...
Cheers,
A
knowing the ropes
- 2010-05-26
Crap UK recruiter in league with greedy Chinese agent, something like Fergiegate + Andy Pandy! Run a country mile, more competitition, and therefore a better deal among the less greedy homespun Chinese recruiters! We whities don't need fun, but need a relatively honest agent. Coz it says UK on the tin, means nought!
Rin
- 2010-05-25
Thank you for the heads up. I had actually been in contact with the guy from English International...havefunteaching.co.uk in Leeds. Though since got better offers so didn't need to continue correspondence with them. I was invited up to Leeds for an interview. Which I declined as where I live in England, couldn't possibly be further away from Leeds. Looks like I had a lucky escape!
Ged
- 2010-05-18
I am an FT in China and have been doing this for a long time now. I still consider myself to be learning every day, yet I continue to be more surprised with the unbelievable actions of Chinese management and especially recruiters. Talking about Chinese management would be a rant in itself, so I'll confine myself to the topic here... recruiters. The latest experience is with a company called "English International." They are primarily represented by 2 Chinese girls. One is called CoCo. The other is called Snow. Both are money obsessed, to your face liars who con "fresh off the boat" foreigners in to signing ridiculous contracts verging on extortion. Their website:
Also check out,
http://www.teflinchina.com/Contact.asp
CoCo was previously known as Silvia. Lucas is a chinese man who "enforces" contract terms by visiting foreigners (who've learnt better at their placements by talking with other FT's) and threatening them with fines, prison terms, deportation and in one instance physically threatening a girl with a knife and telling her to just do what she's told. Both Silvia and Lucas have changed names, both spent time in jail and changed the company name/location more than once. As far as I can gather, they were in jail for organising/supplying fake visa's, operating without any license, and a violence related grievance. I don't know how many times they've done this, but will they ever stop? I hope this helps word get around and at least makes their job more difficult.
Their contracts are standard exploitation. Full of promises.
6 month to 1 year contracts. Failure to complete = penalty. 9000RMB penalty per incomplete semester. The FT must pay this out of their own pocket.
FT's must pay for their own flights, transport, visa's, and lodgings during orientation/training (160RMB/night in a hotel E-I arrange. Seems suspicious to me, but that's only my opinion, not a fact.) Allegedly they will be reimbursed with flight and visa costs upon contract completion, but in reality I have not met one E-I FT who received such benefits, even partially. There is always some reason they find to deem the contract was incorrectly completed.
Half (yes, I do mean 50%) of their pay is taken each month.
Hidden fees galore meaning the 50% FT's are supposed to get each month is often light for some ridiculous reason or another.
Promised bonuses for excellence are never paid.
Heavy penalties for partial breeches, such as genuine sick days.
In speaking with the E-I teachers, I have found that the schools are paying up to 8000RMB per month.
E-I contract says the teacher will get a minimum 5000RMB per month salary. CoCo tells the teachers the schools are paying very little. She lies to both sides and skims it each way.
After following the "contracted 50% commission" in reality, an E-I FT's salary is as low as 2000RMB per month.
I have continued to find work in China off my own back for over 6 years now, and will never use an agency or suggest one to any westerner who asks me. Still, over the past few months I have continued to meet E-I FT's in this area, so I know they have at least one school contract here. They all have similar complaints and tell similar stories of being treated very well by the school, but very badly by the agency. I feel very sorry for those FT's.
Please please please pass the word to Brits as they seem to have a recruitment office over there. They pull as many people off the street and convince them they will have a grand easy life in China. "No degree?" No problem! You don't need one! "No TEFL? No TESOL?" No problem, they're un-necessary! "No experience?" No problem. "No work experience of any kind?" No problem, you can get some in China! "I'm shy." It's not really work anyway, you just sit and chat with Chinese people.
Why do people believe this?
Remember, "English International"... one to AVOID!! If you've signed up, get out before it's too late. You can easily find work by yourself, simply by being a native English speaker and having confidence to stand in front of a class. No job is easy, don't expect work the other side of the planet will not really be work just because it's a different culture. Teaching English in China is rewarding, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed all these years, and it does afford a generous amount of free time, salary and exposure to a fascinating culture. But work is work. Don't believe sweet-talk!
Con-men in UK, con-women in China. I guess East and West do sometimes work well together! Unfortunately.