alex s.'s Profile
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Member since: April 2010
Would give a website though i know last year the company made serious threats to people and their families.
exposing pod travel and teach
2 Reviews by alex
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they previously had two company names before. the horror stories were very serious with even the bbc lookikg to investigate. http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/havefunteaching.co.uk. google english international leeds havefunteaching.
violane, racism, cheating and endless lies.
They also went under the name of RTR Reality Last year and changed their name due to being slagged off online. What type company would change their name just because someone slagged them off on Yahoo forums?
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alex s. google search. teach china podtravelandteach
T N. thanks for the heads up, alex. did you have personal experience with them?
alex s. yes. i am actually still in china, well in the uk now on a holiday. been out there a year now, speaking the language and enjoying teaching. it was very very serious what happened before with them. most sites are closed down that report them as they threaten them with legal action. this happend on a lonley planet forum, very revealing.
T N. wow. well thanks for letting us know. i think more people overseas are using sitejabber now so this is helpful!
alex s. http://www.ripoffreport.com/teachers/english-internationa/english-international-the-tru-f8e83.htm
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2161463
garantee they will deny this, but the truth will come out. their website is pretty much the same as before, just alot more attractive. i am sure as soon as the old teachers here about this they will do the same again. : battle online claiming to be satisfied teachers,( he used his girlfriends name before and email address), close down as many sites exposing them with legal action)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2161463
http://www.ripoffreport.com/teachers/english-internationa/english-international-the-tru-f8e83.htm
and this one seem to stick by us all. they are a complete joke of a company, cannot believe they are doing this again.
alex s. just don't want anybody else to go through what myself and the original group of teachers went through last year. all the while they get very rich from us. damaging the schools and peoples lives.
ross t. Thankyou Alex. Yes, i remember looking to do this last year. They were advertised on every job site in the UK. Last years reports scared the hell out of me and my partner. I thought they would be related. Will look into this further. Thanks again.
ross t. http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/havefunteaching.co.uk
vicky a. I have just been informed by one of our successful candidate’s who’s 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 don’t 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 don’t 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 don’t 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 that’s where we get our fees from; the Chinese companies that we work with.
People who aren’t 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 it’s M&S, Virgin Atlantic, or Thomas Cook aren’t 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 it’s in France, Japan, South Korea, or China.
Vicky At Pod Travel & Teach – and we don’t go by any other names.
alex s. Vicky, blatlently Billy and the crew. Batley.? You may be able to fool some people but as you say, in the end the truth prevails. Anyone going to china with this company should contact the chinese
consulate in manchester on 020-72994049. The schools pay the agency 1000 uk pound plus. You will recieve 400 or less. This is while you will be working on a tourist visa. These tourist visas last 3 months and nothing in china is stable, recently visa's would only last 30 days due to the asian games. (Vicky, seen you posting on other forums as potential employees and happy customers. I can see right through those lies, same writing style as last year). Ok, so you guys down in the office will yet again be chasing forums ending in you changing your n ame again !! I will be reporting you to the police once i have the support of the other people you seriously mistreated last year. £400, 4000rmb is a joke of a salary in china. Where will you be placing people this time? not in shenzhen? what is your chinese address? ay, happy chinese new year to you vic.
alex s. waiting for, "lets go for the experience" "money is not important" "some people have teething issues" "we are not there to babysit people" and finaly " i wont lie to you"
alex s. "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" could you plese give me the details of these "other companies throughout the world"? be nice to contact them enquiring about pod travel and teach, put peoples minds to rest.
"Since we don’t charge these fees that others do, it has made us very successful in what we do" how do you know you are successful when you are only just these days sending people out?
anonymous a. they did - send people to shenzhen - they claim to have shut the site down - but have not
anonymous a. so report them to everybody - both chinese and British and interpol
ross t. http://forums.gumtree.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=394729
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/review/index.pl?noframes;read=35758;expand=1
reports from current pod teachers @ http://www.eslcafe.com/discussion/dz1/index.cgi?read=1408952488
His passport refers to him as BILAL ISMAIL SONI, born 13 January 1985. His passport number is 458659196, issued by UKPA on 21 April 2006.
He ran an English organisation 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 Mr 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.
As I have explained, this person has left a lot of people, both Chinese and foreign, extremely unhappy and any assistance you can give in tracking this person down and bringing him to justice would be gratefully appreciated.