Spontaneous English - Taichung

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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Word of warning to anyone seeking employment in Taichung: Stay away from Spontaneous English.

I was ripped off for a month’s pay, and I know four other teachers who lost between a week’s wages and a month’s salary.

The owner is an alcoholic little weasel (lengthy string of more descriptive adjectives deleted) who makes a habit of hiring, scamming and firing foreign teachers. He even went so far, on one occassion, as to take out a paid advertisement in the China Post slandering two teachers who split on him when they witnessed his outright theft vis the teachers they were replacing.

/words to the wise

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Moderator’s note:

The name of the owner was edited out as per this site’s policy of outing people.

I did leave the alchoholic, cheating, weasel stuff in because other postings about this school on other ESL sites seem to confirm these findings. :wink:

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Just a note, cos there are other Spontaneous schools out there.

I believe this is a franchise, and that each school is independently owned and managed.

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They’re warned against in the Job Journal on Daveseslcafe. I always found the school name Spontaneous English funny in the same way as Jackson Five English.

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I sincerely apologise to any alcoholics or weasels who I may have unintentionally hurt by comparing them to the theiving, dirt-sucking slug mentioned (redacted by mods) in the initial post.

I understand and respect the forumosa policy of not NAMING greedy, disingenuous, mutant wastes-of-skin. The ethical concerns, not to mention possible legal consequences, in pointing out the moral and genetic shortcomings of specific bushiban operators are serious and valid concerns.

Mods: Please accept my thanks for censoring the name of the evil little piece of garbage I so thoughtlessly included in my haste to warn other potential victims of this duplicitous, criminal snake.

:notworthy:

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[quote=“Avrom”]I sincerely apologise to any alcoholics or weasels who I may have unintentionally hurt by comparing them to the theiving, dirt-sucking slug mentioned (redacted by mods) in the initial post.

I understand and respect the forumosa policy of not NAMING greedy, disingenuous, mutant wastes-of-skin. The ethical concerns, not to mention possible legal consequences, in pointing out the moral and genetic shortcomings of specific buxiban operators are serious and valid concerns.

Mods: Please accept my thanks for censoring the name of the evil little piece of garbage I so thoughtlessly included in my haste to warn other potential victims of this duplicitous, criminal snake.

:notworthy:[/quote]

Now, now, there is no need to get all pissy about having the name deleted. We did leave your warning and the weasel stuff in. :wink:

Why don’t you look at the glass as being half full rather than half empty.

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Deleted :banned:

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[quote=“Durins Bane”]

Why don’t you look at the glass as being half full rather than half empty.[/quote]

The glass is twice as big as needs to be. :loco:

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Avrom, why don’t you give the details of how you came to be ripped off? Specific information is a lot more acceptable here than “Joe Bloggs is a little shit.”

I had a fairly big fight with a Spontaneous school in Taipei, so please don’t think that I’m taking their side against you. But I prefer to hear what actually happened and then make up my own mind about who was right and who was wrong. Calling people names, without explaining what actually happened, is not really very helpful.

Let’s call your man “Chachi”, DB will like that. You worked for Chachi, right? What happened?

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[quote=“Loretta”]Avrom, why don’t you give the details of how you came to be ripped off? Specific information is a lot more acceptable here than “Joe Bloggs is a little shit.”
[/quote]

Details?
Pretty straight forward. At the end of the “contract” (an almost meaningless TERM in this game, much less a valid legal document), I was told via telephone that $9000 NT would be deducted from my pay for having been late (less then 5 mins) on two occassions. NOTE: There were no terms in the contract relating to deductions for being late, or anything of the sort - see above comment re: meaningless/valid.

I told him that was ridiculous. I went to the school and told “Chachi” that I wanted my money. I worked the hours, I expected to be paid. “Chachi” went absolutely berserk, threatened to kill me, and refused to pay me ANY of the money he owed.
Not the first time he’s ripped people off in this way: Invents a reason to rip them off…when they object, turn it into a huge fight and refuse to pay anything.
Since he’s hiring people “under-the-table” to begin with, there’s no legal recourse. You cannot turn to the courts to enforce an illegal contract. That, however, does not alter the underlying principle of quantum meruit, pursuant to which the evil, alcoholic, lying, thieving weasel Chachi has stolen my (and others) services.

What did you think? That he held me up at gunpoint and took the money back? How many ways ARE there to be ripped off by a buxiban operator? I suspect that in the vast majority of cases (as in this one) it’s a bald refusal to pay what is owed with the full knowledge that there’s not a damn thing to be done about it…short of hiring some thugs to lay a good East-end sock beating on the sonuvabitch. Hmmmmm.

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Sounds pretty clear-cut to me, and I would be pissed off in your shoes.

When I was in a similar situation I explained - politely - that since I didn’t have enough money to live or a visa (I was reliant on them for a work permit.) I was facing imprisonment until I found a way to pay for a ticket out. It sounds melodramatic, but that’s what it boils down to. In the circumstances I obviously was pretty concerned about getting the money I believed was owed, and had no qualms about causing ‘trouble’. I was already in trouble, although I may have neglected to mention that I had another job lined up.

As they were claiming they didn’t owe me anything we needed to find a resolution without anyone getting nasty. I produced a copy of an article I found at tealit.com which explained how to file a complaint at the CLA. It’s free, no lawyer is required, and their judgements apparently have the force of law. The good bit is that they have to investigate any complaints, within ten days if I remember correctly.

My ex-employer who was trying to bully me was suddenly faced with the prospect of someone coming to look at their accounts and hiring practises. I wasn’t doing it to be vindictive, :slight_smile: I was doing it to get a clear decision about whether they owed me any money, and to buy myself some time with the immigration people. With the complaint under investigation I had grounds to fight any deportation order, and would be able to find another job.

Obviously, neither of us really wanted to have to go through all that. I just wanted them to understand that they didn’t really leave me any choice. It was up to them to suggest an alternative, such as paying me off properly. Amazingly enough, they paid. And when I went back to get the tax money they had skimmed off but not paid, there was no trouble at all.

So you DO have legal recourse. Or are you going to say that you didn’t have a work permit through this company and were working illegally?

I really don’t understand why people insist on doing this. Working legally is not hard, taxes are negligible, and there are no benefits to breaking the law. Of course, if your employer refused to sponsor you, and forced you to work illegally, and you had no legal alternative available, then what have you got to lose now?

Hiring illegal workers is also going to get him into trouble. If you’re planning to leave Taiwan anyway then why do you have to fear getting found out? It’s just another thing to complain about to the CLA, another thing he doesn’t want to get into trouble for.

I did once call the CLA in TaiZhong, with reference to IACC. They were on the phone to the company within ten minutes, even though I’ve heard all sorts of claims about IACC being ‘connected’. The rule of law DOES mean something in this country, if you’re prepared to give it a chance. Just bitching because someone didn’t pay you something they weren’t actually obliged to pay you - because you chose to work illegally - is not a solution.

Hope it works out for you. Don’t give in without a fight, and take a local witness next time you go to talk to them.

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My ARC was provided by another school. The Spontaneous gig was simply extra hours in the evening. I wasn’t interested in drawing attention to the fact that I was working beyond the terms of my legal employ, but your advice has given me something to consider. Thanks. :slight_smile:

…although…the sock beating still appeals to me.

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You don’t HAVE TO draw attention to having been illegal. You just threaten to. But you knew that anyway. :slight_smile:

Save the sock 'til after you get the money, then either fill it with wet sand and use it to clobber him with… or make a cute little puppet with it and become a moderator of forumosa.