Dragonbabe recommends telling AppleDaily about this. Need their phone number? 
Or you could send a postal evidentiary letter asking them to stop contacting and harrassing you, and threaten to sue them if they harrass you again. 
In the meantime just hang up if they call.
Iâm told a letter from a lawyer can sometimes be helpful in these situations and doesnât (shouldnât!) cost a lot. It depends whether they continue to harrass you and whether you feel genuinely threatened by their behaviour (I mean, threatened enough to shell out some cash). The main aim (like sending a letter as dragonbones mentions) is to leave a paper trail, but it may also get them off your back rapidly.
The Apple Daily suggestion sounds more fun, though 
Anyone threatens me, I would refuse on principle. Itâs unethical and unprofessional.
[quote=âDragonbonesâ]Dragonbabe recommends telling AppleDaily about this. Need their phone number? 
[/quote]
I think thatâs bad advice (unless your SO was joking 
). The last thing Housecat wants to do is escalate this publicly in a Taiwan/Chinese medium. And too often with Taiwanâs media, theyâll twist and turn for the sake of making the foreigner look bad or for creating more trouble These are journalists not social crusaders or social workers. In any case, I donât think Apple would be interested. When I worked in journalism in Asia (not in Taiwan), weâd always laugh about tragedy stories in Africa. 1000s of people may have died in a famine but 3 people being shot in the UK is a far bigger story. In Taiwan, teachers are being screwed so often by their bosses/buxibans, it is hardly a newsworthy story. Thatâs not saying that what they are doing is not despicable. It is.
You donât know what kind of resources, guanxi or mafia connections, if any, the recruiter has. Best thing housecat can do is ignore them, hang up if they call, and not use a recruiter in the future. Keep her head low, keep quiet and donât mention it to anyone outside of this thread. Definitely donât mention names. In any case, sheâs been in Taiwan a while, so I donât see the need to use a recruiter anyways. Donât these companies usually recruit the new and uninitiated?
Just tell Dewey âYou are fired, I do not need your servicesâ and it should stop. They will get the message. Honestly I thought the point of using recruiters was to get the first year under the belt.
Now for all these mafia comments - what actually can they do to the foreign teacher. Put a sticky ball next to their pillow with durian spikes in it? Hijack their MRT card. Truly you are not a slave to the recruiter which is what they are putting you up as.
I said, no more shines (Sticky Balls). Maybe you didnât hear about it, youâve been away (on a visa jump) a long time. They didnât go up there and tell you. I donât shine shoes (use a whiteboard) anymore.
In Vegas (Taipei), everybodyâs gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino (buxiban), the dealers (native speaking teachers) are watching the players (students). The box men (directors) are watching the dealers (native speaking teachers). The floor men (foreign teacher) are watching the box men (directors). The pit bosses (parents)are watching the floor men (foreign teacher). The shift bosses (Fresh off boat applicant) are watching the pit bosses (parents).
In this sort of case, probably the most powerful weapon at HCâs disposal is simply ignoring them. She has her ARC; thereâs not much Dewey can do about that unless the school fires her. Better to organize her own life and prospects quietly, with Plans B and C at the ready.
Iâm sure DragonBabe was at least half joking.
The need for the recruiter is that they guarentee to have a new teacher for the school within three months if the current teacher leaves. The city government pays for the recruiter for this guarentee, and so that they donât need to deal with the visa and work permit process, which they now nothing about.
So, itâs not my choice to use a recruiter. If I want to work at this school, or any school in the city (there are only 4 here that have foreign teachers), then I have to use a recruiter. GiT got lucky and found a school willing to hire him directly. But none of the schools here can make that choice for themselves.
Anyway, I havenât heard anything else from them since Friday afternoon, and I doubt I will. This thread was just meant as a heads-up.
And housecat always, ALWAYS has a plan B. Itâll be okay!
Exactly! Now doesnât that say Apple Daily, right there?
Housecat is right. Dewey basically has the contracts for entire cities or counties pretty much sewn up. When I was in Taoyuan it was practically impossible to get a job there without going through Dewey. The principal at my school couldnât stand Dewey and wanted to get rid of them, but his hands were tied. At one point, one of the military service guys at our school (who was from a very well-heeled Taipei family and so could try crazy shit like this) tried to put in a tender for the contract for our EV. The principal and one of the directors at our school really liked him and wanted to switch to him, but were out-voted by people in government and other school principals who had also had high staff turnover and general shenanigans from Dewey (incidentally, the last I heard from that ex-military service guy, he was a curator at an art museum and involved in art auctions â crazy dude). In other words, you can bet some serious hongbaos were changing hands, and I mean some serious cash. The three EVs had a budget of 25 million per year, of which Dewey supposedly got about 5 million of that. Thatâs just for three schools. Think of how many schools Dewey has. Think of the hongbaos. Thereâs no way to compete with that. It has nothing to do with making the process more efficient, getting the right teachers for the job, etc. It is entirely to do with the money. With so much of it sloshing about and so little accountability, what does anyone think is going to happen? Housecat is a very small pawn in a much larger game. I went through a phase, when all of this dawned upon me, I could barely believe it to be true, let alone accept it. I mean, I come from a country where corruption is a big no-no. In my fatherâs industry, several guys got in massively deep shit (as in they got hit for some massive fines that basically wiped them and their wives out, and they also did jail time) for trying to fuck around with the government. It really did my head in when I actually learnt how all of this works here and was part of my intense rage at this country and its culture that peaked around the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 (when I finally finished working with/for Dewey).
In my case, I applied directly to the Taidong County government for my job because they accept people through the regular MOE method (which uses a different recruiter to Dewey), but they also accept direct applicants. I believe Nantou County also does this, but I donât know about other counties. I know, itâs Taidong, and who wants to be stuck halfway up a mountain in the middle of nowhere, right? Yet not having to deal with all of this nonsense just removes one layer of frustration from my job, and allows me to fight on one less front, which makes things infinitely easier. The guy in charge of the programme here in Taidong has always been a really decent guy, not only to me, but to other teachers here from all that Iâve heard. It might be worth making the move, remote as it is.
Exactly! Now doesnât that say Apple Daily, right there? [/quote]
Itâs not sleazy/Apple Daily worthy enough just to be taken advantage of by a recruiter.
Now that story with the French teacher, the library, and the exposingâthatâs the story the Apple Daily lives for.
Sh*t, then Dewey can claim that EVERY DAMN BUXIBAN IN TAIWAN WORKS WITH DEWEY and will charge you a good sum of money.
Screw themâŚtell them to sing that AC/DC highway song cuz thatâs where they should be going.
I guess thatâs what the guy meant by the veiled threat.
Itâs good of you guys to post this information.
Frankly, I think you guys should band together and expose Dewey right now. Enough of this taking advantage of foreign workers bullcrap!
Pig: While weâre at it, I think we should also expose the piss poor job that traffic cops do too. Oh yeah, thatâs also an open secret. As I said, there must be some serious hongbaos changing hands and/or the people higher up donât really care what happens with the English programmes/teachers at individual schools.
If you do a search for Dewey on this website or others you will find a veritable shit list of complaints against them, including by me. I must have written thousands of words about them. Itâs open knowledge that they suck, but what can anyone of us do that anyone with any power to change things really cares about? Itâs not like anyone could form a union. As such, divided we fall. The CLA (Council of Labor Affairs) is fairly inconsistent in dealing with such matters anyway. Iâve had success in the past dealing with a different employer, but housecat has experienced an unmitigated disaster in dealing with a former employer by getting the CLA involved (indeed, the CLA ended up getting her fired).
[quote=âGuyInTaiwanâ]Housecat is right. Dewey basically has the contracts for entire cities or counties pretty much sewn up. When I was in Taoyuan it was practically impossible to get a job there without going through Dewey. The principal at my school couldnât stand Dewey and wanted to get rid of them, but his hands were tied. At one point, one of the military service guys at our school (who was from a very well-heeled Taipei family and so could try crazy shit like this) tried to put in a tender for the contract for our EV. The principal and one of the directors at our school really liked him and wanted to switch to him, but were out-voted by people in government and other school principals who had also had high staff turnover and general shenanigans from Dewey (incidentally, the last I heard from that ex-military service guy, he was a curator at an art museum and involved in art auctions â crazy dude). In other words, you can bet some serious hongbaos were changing hands, and I mean some serious cash. The three EVs had a budget of 25 million per year, of which Dewey supposedly got about 5 million of that. Thatâs just for three schools. Think of how many schools Dewey has. Think of the hongbaos. Thereâs no way to compete with that. It has nothing to do with making the process more efficient, getting the right teachers for the job, etc. It is entirely to do with the money. With so much of it sloshing about and so little accountability, what does anyone think is going to happen? Housecat is a very small pawn in a much larger game. I went through a phase, when all of this dawned upon me, I could barely believe it to be true, let alone accept it. I mean, I come from a country where corruption is a big no-no. In my fatherâs industry, several guys got in massively deep shit (as in they got hit for some massive fines that basically wiped them and their wives out, and they also did jail time) for trying to fuck around with the government. It really did my head in when I actually learnt how all of this works here and was part of my intense rage at this country and its culture that peaked around the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 (when I finally finished working with/for Dewey).
[/quote]
This is really interesting. Itâs very similar to how they ran the recruiting industry for labourers and caregivers until recently with a few recruiters taking control of the whole system through government contacts. This also resulted of workers being taken advantage of as too much power lay with the recruiter, and then led to many workers running away when things broke down or they had no money etc. I believe the system is changing now though due to all the bad publicity they received.
Anti-corruption clauses are mandatory now for multinational companies. The US and UK make can indict you on corruption charges for payments made overseas, not only that the Americans can indict foreign citizens and there are senior Taiwanese executives being prosecuted now for fixing LCD panel prices. Taiwan and China run on âguanxiâ so itâs a completely different ball game in this part of the world.
The above system above also shows how poorly managed the education system is here, itâs simply unprofessional and unethical and how can good education be achieved in such an environment? It really shows the difference between a Western independent management mindset and the Asian way i.e. no principals or teachers are willing to speak out against this system publicly and they are actually not in control of teachers who are being hired nor even KNOW the background of teachers being hired.
I guess thatâs what the guy meant by the veiled threat.
Itâs good of you guys to post this information.[/quote]
Ok Blacklisting/Blackballing I get. Mafia guanxi I did not. I have seen the light o 
n thisâŚ
WTF is Dewey? Some recruiter? I had one conversation with a recruiter before I snagged my position from my current employer and flew here.
It went like this (via Skype):
Recruiter: âWhere are you thinking of working?â
Me: âIâm planning to attend school in Taipei, so Iâd like to find work in or very near central Taipei.â
Recruiter: âOh, but itâs very hard to find jobs in Taipei. How about Taizhong?â
Me: âBut I saw five ESL employment ads for central Taipei in just the last few days.â
Recruiter: âWell, my area is in Taizhong. We could schedule interviews for you here.â
Me: âI see. So you want me to give you a portion of my salary because you helped to arrange interviews for jobs?â
Recruiter: âAh, yesâŚâ
Me: âThen youâre fucking useless.â
The next day, I told HESS (who contacted me) to fuck themselves and forwarded them the link to this forum where the woman described her deportation because of them.
I got my present job a few days later.
helloâŚi am not sure about housecatâŚall i can say is that the contract i signed was clean. i just arrived a week ago and Dewey signed me in one of the schools in Taichung for November. Adrian and Andrew have been very helpful including finding a place for me to stay. they were very accommodating and answered all my questions about the job before i even got here. their recruiters worked just fine with me even through email. i thought that i might not be able to expect the same thing when i get here in TaiwanâŚluckily i did and they gave me even more! i am not sure what you guys experienced with Dewey. all i can say is that their company is like any other recruiting business and education consultancy - the fact still remains that they provide us, teachers, with employment here and that is whatâs important. we opted to come here so we have to face the inevitable. but i have not experienced a single hassle since i got hereâŚthanks to Andrew and Adrian who helped me throughâŚ
i am now on vacay while waiting for my start date and enjoying my stay hereâŚ
Welcome to the site, Dewey.
I think your experience with Dewey can be good or bad depending on where you are placed 
.