Job Discussion Forums

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

If a school can afford to pay you $1500 US a month in Mexico, it sure as heck can afford to cover the alleged test costs for any short-listed candidates they are interested in.

This reeks of 'scam'. Evil or Very Mad

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

Wow! And do you get free weekly foot massages as well??

I got a job in Mexico 6 months ago (tomorrow is my anniversary!! Wink

). When I arrived, I was so shell-shocked I could barely remember the numbers in Spanish and my boss basically led me around town pointing me at things like food, apartments and so forth until my language skills came back. I've been to Immigration with some people who speak better Spanish than me (and a bad case of Moctezeuma's revenge) and another time with me as the 'best' Spanish speaker, and both times were completely fine, and I'm now the proud bearer of my FM3.

Therefore, any company who is collecting for the exam, before they decide if you have the job and saying you need it for Immigration purposes, in my humble opinion, is lying.

Wouldn't it be a funny surprise if you sent the $25, did the exam and then never heard from them again?!? Or worse, if the next time you heard from them was when your credit card mysteriously started racking up all of these weird bills.... Shocked

Run away! Run away!

Lozwich.

refazenda

They were initially asking $15 USD, and since they asked for payment by PayPal, and since I had a couple of dollars in there I had not used in a long time, I did it. It has been three weeks, I did the exam and I have heard nothing. SO now they have raised the "fee" to 20 USD?

How do we let Dave know about this? They've also posted on some other sites as well.

Refazenda
(who will not pay any fees of any kind to anyone for this ever again!)

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

The fact that they are using Paypal is interesting. There is a 30-day built in guarantee with paypal...that is, if you don't hear back from them after having used your credit card, you can run a charge back, getting your $20 back.

Those charge backs cost $20 each to the host on Paypal. That is a considerable risk to take if this is simply a money grab. You can't easily open a Paypal account without passing certain security measures.

Maybe they simply thought it wouldn't be that big a deal for the Spanish course. Not too sure about the Secretaria de Educacion needing that Spanish exam though...that sounds off.

refazenda

This sounds fishy. I was asked to pay $15 USD for processing my exam. Why would the price change?

refazenda · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:47 pm Post subject: Response from English Canada

I wrote EC, and I received a response this morning (below). If I don't hear anything, or if I am somehow not qualified, I will chalk the lost $15 up to experience.

*********************************************

Dear Linda,

When can I expect to hear from you? I would like to know if my score in the Spanish exam is sufficient for you to proceed with my application.

Regards,

RESPONSE*********

Your score was fine. We need several weeks to sort through everyone. Hopefully we will be able to do the next step by May.
Contact me in May, if you haven't heard anything.
Regards,
Linda Darian

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Well, that is fishy and blows my Paypal protection theory away.

They don't even give you the results of the test?

You can get your $15 back if you want, through paypal. It's not much, but the chargeback to Eng Can would bite if it happened say 100 times over.

2 cents

refazenda · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 3:53 pm Post subject: Working for English Canada

Well, maybe I will be fortunate and get hired by EC; then I can write and tell everyone what a wonderful time I am having in Mexico! Laughing

Refazenda

refazenda

Ok, so I've clarified things with EC. It seems the fee should have only been paid if you were hired. From what they told me, it sounds like somewhat of an administrative error in what was published on the web. The short of it is that if you were not hired you should have received a refund if you paid via PayPal or through their bank. I received a refund with apologies.

I think we should give EC a chance. Someone will come back later and tell us all about how it is working there.

Oh, and they may take a while to get back to you because some (all?) of the openings are in September, hence the May/June expected response dates we've been seeing from them. Now we wait!

frigginhippie · Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 188 Location: over here

Thanks for all the responses. I wrote them too and mentioned my Spanish proficiency and pointed out as you guys did that ANYONE could take the test for you and mail it back. They wrote back saying okay, they'll take my application without the test or fee. I wonder if the Secretaria knows about that one Wink

And about the start date, the email said adult positions start ASAP. So I hope you guys who asked for that get your $$ back Confused

J-kun · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 4:01 am Post subject: EC- just one more thing

Not to beleaguer this topic, but another strange thing about EC was the test its self- It's full on Castilliano de Espana. Hardly seems like the Secretaria de Educacion de Mexico would require such a thing. I mean if you say "cogi un taxi," in Mexico, people will think you comitted an indecent act with a motor vehicle. Plus all that vosotros and stuff about Spanish cities, of course. That's what got me thinking it wasn't legit.
The suspiciously high salary, too... (Strange that we're put-off by the promise of a decent wage)
It sure would be nice to hear from someone who actually works for EC now.
If this turns out to be a scam authored by Canadians, my whole world view will be rocked.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

C76 · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 5:53 pm Post subject: Re: EC- just one more thing

Julieanne · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 120

Well I worked for this company for 2 years and my experience was wonderful. They paid me on time, and the salary that was originally offered stated etc. I even spoke with the Director about all of this and she informed me it was a draft e-mail that was supposed to go to people already placed and unfortunately went to people applying. They stopped the error within a day and anyone that paid was refunded. So all you people who were criticising did not have all the facts, especially friggin hippie who didn't even read one of the postings of a person who was refunded
Next time don't jump to conclusions so quickly!

refazenda

Ok, that is good news. I was under the impression that this was a new school, but from what you're saying it sounds like this school is simply expanding.