Job Discussion Forums

[renee]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone had experience with Century College, a recruitement company in Vancouver, BC, Canada. My boyfriend and I have been working with a woman named Esther Lin for job placement in China, but wanted to hear from others on their experiences before we commit. Any information would be a great help.

[Silverado]

We are Canadians in China recruited by the very same Century College, Vancouver and Esther Lin. We advise you to be VERY CAREFUL in dealing with the lady and the company. We are considering legal action against them as, as of February 1st, they are in breach of contract with us, having failed to stand behind the "guarantee of payment", as promised.

We are new to this forum and, in fact, have only joined in order to respond to your posting. Is there a way for us to continue our dialogue over e-mail? We are reluctant to post anything publicly for the aforementioned reason.

If you should decide to go with Century College anyway, be more aware of the local sub-contracted companies they set you up with. The one we are dealing with here in Nanning, Guangxi New World Trade International Business and Exhibition Company limited, is nothing but greedy, underhanded, and crooked: DO NOT have anything to do with them. For oh, so many reaons, run the other way. This local company has been the real problem, but in the process, Century College has not stood up well at all.

There is much we can tell you. If you would like, send us your e-mail and we can continue.

[Jonah8]

From Vancouver to you Renee. I have had the misfortune of dealing with Miss Esther Lin and her fairy tales. I will make this short even though I can't make it sweet. I was told anything to get me to come to China and then spent the next 4 months fighting for the basics of the contract. Century College has no quams about lying or simply not telling the whole truth. You can't believe anything said. Don't depend on someone else to do your research and don't believe anything Esther tells you. Enough said! I think you can get the picture from there.

Deep into China and far from where I was told I would be.

[Mavrik]

I am a Canadian teaching in Shandong Province with Century College and all I have to say is DO NOT do business with these people. I came to China with one other teacher from Canada and we were both told nothing but lies by Esther Lin at Century College. The other teacher and I just recently finished typing up a two page document of all of the unfullfilled promises, lies and contract terms that Century College has told us. They pretend to be your best friend until they get paid by the host school and then you left out to rot by them and they could care less about you. I have lived been in China for 4 months, and do not yet have a phone, net connection, have had my hotmail read, did not have an apartment for two months, was told I was teaching college kids to come here and find out was teaching classes of 50 six year old kids at a time. Esther also told us that we would be teaching in Qingdao, actuality we are teaching in the middle of a polluted oilfield 300 km's north of Qingdao, where we are literally the first foriegners to ever set foot in this town. She also told us it was warm all winter with no rain or snow, only to come here without winter clothes and sit through frigid cold weather and snow. So I hope that you have not already been seduced by C.C.'s idle promises and that you find another company to do business with, as I like the previous poster am going home to take up legal action with them.
Good Luck

[Silverado]

How many C.C. "staff" are there in China? Anybody know?

My husband and I are in Nanning, two and a half months into a contract with C.C., and are watching everything fall apart on us. We also dealt with Esther Lin, were told similar or identical stories, and found anything BUT what she said we would when we got here.

We aren't sure what to do now. Our tourist visas expire in 13 days. Esther and C.C. paid for our plane tickets upfront and are holding them ransom. We have a vague promise from C.C. China branch that we can have them back because the contract is broken, but nothing, as usual, concrete. Our contract was broken on February 1st with lack of payment.

If we knew there were others out there, we would have put out a posting long ago. We were led to believe by the same Miss Lin that we were their only teachers in China.

How serious are you, Mavrik, about legal action? We have a similar document here. Are there others?

[Paul G]

All of you with complaints about Century College should post your experiences on the "Job Information Journal".

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/

Many teachers research prospective schools on the JIJ prior to making a decision. Derogatory information there can really harm a school's chances of recruiting/ripping off more teachers. Each of you should make individual posts as the more posts there are the better/worse it will be for the school in question.

[Mavrik]

Silverado,
There are about 6 staff in the C.C. in the Qingdao, China office. Bob Duan is in charge, Nancy Feng is next in line, and Sandy Liangzh after that. My personal experience is that they dangle everything over your head like a carrot, from the contract, to the plane tickets, to your actual visa. Getting the visa from them was a whole other ordeal. I had to march into their office 3 days before my tourist visa was to expire in order to get my visa and passport back! They also got me to travel into Qingdao so that they could find my a new school, and then they stuck me with the hotel and bus charges. They will tell you one lie after the other, and good luck getting your plane tickets back from them! If I were in your situation, I would find a job somewhere else, but that is just my opinion. You can get your visitors visa renewed at PSB office. Good Luck in whatever you decide.

[renee]

THANK YOU to all who responded, although I wish your respective situations were pleasant instead of the horrific experiences that have been shared. Our fears have been justly confirmed. Although Brian and I did not accept any of the positions offered by Esther Lin and are therefore not in China, I feel our experience dealing with Esther and Century College in the time BEFORE actually signing a contract and purchasing a ticket are worthwhile for people to view. If a recruiter, school, or company behaves remotely in the following manner, RUN AWAY. Do not be fooled; do not be swayed; and do not be pressured by the incessant niceties.
When we initially contacted Esther (over two months ago), we were told there was a very good job awaiting us in Quindao. Pack your bags, buy a plane ticket, a great Chinese adventure awaits, she said. Being the hardened inner-city teachers from the US East Coast that we were, we said no. We wanted details, in writing, ASAP. Esther didn't have them, but sounded nice enough, so we continued working with her, simultaneously playing out several other (disasterous) teaching options from both Western and native managed schools in China.
After Christmas, Esther attempted to send us to Shenyang in Northern China. The job was with a school called Great Navigation and the contact is a man named Hanson. She sent us a sample contract from her company, Century College, which provided flexibility to leave the post if it was not suitable, along with other basic employee rights found in most Western contracts. However, the contract we received was not from CC, but from the school itself, and provided no such provisions. Both Esther and the C.C. contract provisions asserted that we would be living in a private apartment, our visas would be paid by the school, and we would be teaching no more than 40 kids. We also found out from Hanson himself that we would have to live in a hotel room (no cooking facilities, no desk to prepare lessons, nothing) for the duration of our contract, we would pay and arrange for the visas ourselves, and the MINIMUM number of students we would be teaching numbered 50. Along with that, we were assured that there was a desk with a space heater near it at the school for us to prepare our lessons, i.e. the school had no central heating and the average temperature in January in Shenyang is -7C! When Brian and I checked out others' experiences in Shenyang (and there were plenty), the situation we would be entering sounded similar and we, again, told Esther no.
Esther had lost our trust. She did not give up, oh no, for she couldn't bear to lose out on the commission she would receive for placing us, so she pulled out the big guns: Taiwan vis a vis Andy Lin. If Esther was a living, breathing smiley face, Andy Lin would be her Nixon. All business, all fake, all the time. DO NOT trust, accept placement with, or attempt to get a coherant answer about anything from Andy Lin. (For more information on him, see the Taiwan forum.)
As for the office in Quindao, a woman named Julia Bai, recommended an alternative for us in Chongqing while Esther was on Christmas vacation. We checked it out, dealt with a Canadian man named Bert Pursoo, were given a mutually agreeable contract, and were offered the job. After we purchased Chinese visas and reserved plane tickets, we called to confirm one last time before actually purchasing the tickets only to have Bert tell us he made a mistake and could not hire either of us, then quickly hung up the phone. I would not trust a single lead the Quindao office sends your way. Curiously enough, I have heard from a fellow poster who met Julia that she pretended to speak no English.
Regarding Esther's character and professionalism, she is extremely nice, friendly, and upbeat in both her emails and on the telephone, but this is only an act. In reality, she is ignorant of the details of a given job placement and will spew as many lies as necessary to pressure a potential client into taking a position. I'm assuming that after she has arranged placement and received her commission, nothing is really her problem and she responds accordingly. If she is directly confronted with her behavior and lack of professionalism, she becomes confrontational and insolent.
I would encourage all of you to gather as much information as needed about Esther Lin and Century College to proceed with legal action. Her deception and teatment of you is utterly and shamelessly wrong. After two months of trying, and failing, to find a decent job with a legitimate company in either China or Taiwan, Brian and I have accepted a position in Ecuador. We have concluded that China seems perfect for visiting, but not for working.
Renee

[Johnathan]

For further help go to EFL-law.com operated by a real lawyer with contacts in China and elsewhere and who has been working in EFL for many years in North east Asia and elsewhere. Take a look at some of the contracts and Chinese labor law. Yes, my recruiter worried mostly about getting his bonus that he would lose if I quit because I felt the workload was way out of line, as well as the net savings. But your story sounds worst but everybody on this board needs to know that

1) many recruiters are mostly in the business to put money in their own pockets

2) to keep the employer happy so he gives them more business to do the above

3) keep you happy but realizing you can be easily replaced especially at the end of the contract with somebody else which will make them more money again.

Complaints from you are considered probably minor until I did something about them through organizations like EFL-law.com, these boards etc. The more we employees stick up for our rights then we might begin to come closer to being number 2. But before coming, do your homework-though easier said than done

[Aislinge]

Thank you for the heads up. I have most recently seen one of their ads in Vancouver