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[papillon]

Found this little ditty on another whingesite - a little out of date I think, but it serves as a timely reminder of why EF should be avoided once again. I believe these schools in Sumatra are now closed.


EF in Indonesia, FORGET IT! [INDONESIA]

Yes it is possible. There is at least one place worse than Korea when it comes to fakes, frauds, liars, and smooth talking English schools. I personally went to this place, spoke in person to the owner, and two of their teachers in Medan and also in Pekanbaru. The teachers were in daily contact with their embassy after being royally F�ed over and I do mean ROYALLY.

The owner of the school lied to my face about wages, housing situation, transportation, and overall conditions of the school. (THIS MAY NOT BE THE SAME FOR ALL EF SCHOOLS, just this SOB in Indonesia.)

Here are his details:

Alinudin Tedjopranoto is the man�s name. His title is School Director but he is also the owner.

Yayasan Adhi Loka Lestari
JL. Sultan Syarif Kasim no. 91 E/F
90761) 849 500 tel/fax
0812 760 6725 tel

[gugelhupf]

This is very out of date (March 2005) but absolutely genuine. EF head office took out press adverts to try to track this ex-franchisee down and tried everything to recover some of the fees he owed them. They did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to assist teachers at EF Pekanbaru who were marched off to the police station for visa irregularities when the operation went t1ts-up. EF even intervened to prevent other franchises from taking on those teachers, so keen were they to prop up the franchise for long enough to get back some of their owed money. There is some justice in the world, however, because EF got shafted by this guy just as much as the teachers got shafted by EF.

The Pekanbaru school was taken over by the franchise that runs EF Cibubur later in 2005, while the former DoS - an honorable guy who had actually tried to help the teachers find new jobs - started up his own school in direct competition. I don't know who got the Medan schools, but I understand they are under new management now.

[Atoms for Peace]

The word on the street (jalan?) in Medan is that Pak Ali owes EF "only" Rp500 million - peanuts to a man of his means. Nobody can understand why he doesn't just sell a house rather than have hios name sullied. Mind you, he was known as a "crook" before all this happened.

By the way, EF didn't try too hard. Apparently the creep is still around in Medan...

Sad to see teachers being ripped off (to say nothing for the other staff at the school) by some greedy reptile for whom Rp500 is small change.

[englishgibson]

As a former teacher, senior teacher and director of studies at EF English First in China, I'd say to all AVOID EF CENTERS AT ALL COSTS.

EF has "Headless Head Offices"

Cheers and beers to the hard working FTs in Indonesia

[adamsmith]

After reading Pappilons posts on EF here and EnglishGibsons posts in the china site, I would almost say they were related.

[englishgibson]

Hi AdamSmith,
Your name sounds familiar ....by the way, Pappilons ain't my "brother"
Cheers and beers to the hard working FTs in Indonesia