Job Discussion Forums

[Roger2007]

Microsoft (Bangalore, India), Spectrum International (Bangalore), & TEFL.com (UK): Beware of these companies & their treacherous business practices

Dear All,

This is from a blog, http://roger2008.skyrock.com/ , to publicise & warn any potential TEFL teachers of the unprofessional, misleading, & subsequently evasive behaviour of three companies I had the misfortune to deal with when responding to an advert placed on the TEFL.com website regarding a position in the Microsoft company in Bangalore, India. Their lack of sincerity, integrity, transparency & straightforwardness is astounding, considering these companies purport themselves to be professional concerns.

Their tactics are as follows: Initially, things start promisingly & reliably enough, regarding interviews. They then promise further contact / interviews. The applicant is subsequently kept waiting from day to day, for weeks on end, yet when the applicant emails to ask about the situation, assurances are given, that s/he will be contacted in due course.

Next, after the publicised deadline has passed, it is apparent they have reneged on their promise of future interviews / contact, as no due notice is given that the applicant's candidature has been changed. Therefore the applicant had been left under the misapprehension that s/he was still a valid candidate. The applicant has been kept waiting pointlessly for so long, fruitlessly, & subsequently it is found that these companies have cut off all contact, not deigning to let him / her know where they stand, & offering no apology nor explanation for their erratic, time wasting behaviour. End of dealings.

These companies are:
Spectrum International, Bangalore, India
Microsoft, Bangalore, India
TEFL.com, through the staff person, Veronica Jordan

TEFL.com themselves are guilty of allowing at least one company whom they know to be unreliable & undependable (Spectrum International) to still advertise on their site.

UPDATE, 04.05.07: A Mr. Sharad Dhawan, director of Spectrum International, kindly replied to my notification that I had blogged complaints about the behaviour of his company. The details are set out at the foot of this blog. Both Microsoft, & TEFL.com (Veronica Jordan) remain tight-lipped & unrepentant to date. All new developments will be posted.

This blog is a little lengthy, but I feel it is important to detail the events, so as to show what a sham these companies really are. Applicants do not expect this kind of unprincipled & ramshackle behaviour from companies presenting themselves as they do, as serious, professional concerns. Professional, they are not. Their behaviour vindicates this. The story with all these three companies has been a litany of broken promises, wasted time, & snubbed emails.

I had been given promises by Spectrum International, which were later reneged on by one of Spectrum's female staff: Ms. Roshni, then evaded later on after the event, when emailing this Indian staff person further. The consequences of having to wait even longer for an available air ticket (something which would not have come about had I not been messed around by Spectrum & stuck to my own original plan of an early August 2006 departure for India) led me to complain to the host agent, TEFL.com. This was later on, when I was already in India, & found the correct channels to complain through, on 25th January 2007.

For people interested in the course of events of the above situation, this is how things transpired, starting with the email of complaint about Spectrum's behaviour I sent to TEFL.com. Please read on:

> 25th January, 2007
> Dear Sir, Madame,

> I would like to report & complain about the misleading & unprofessional behaviour of Spectrum International, an agency operating in Bangalore, India. I work in China, & decided to take a year off to travel in India.
>
> Initially, I went back to England for the purposes of seeing my family, & applying for an India visa. This was on 18th July 2006. That week, Spectrum advertised 10 positions for working for a client in Bangalore. I sent my CV, & received a reply the next day, Wednesday. This was on the 25th July. They phoned me that Friday, 28th July, & I was interviewed for over an hour by a staff person named Roshni. The interview process was in 3 stages, so I was next interviewed the following Thu., 3rd Aug., by Brooke, of Microsoft, the client company.
>
> Passing this stage, I was then informed that I would be interviewed by the 'team lead'(er) of the dept., a certain Brian, who was based in Shanghai. Brooke could not ascertain exactly which day I would be interviewed, yet assured me I would be contacted sometime the following week.
>
> Nothing happened the following week, so I took the initiative to contact Roshni of Spectrum. She replied, on the 16th August:

Hi Roger,

I fully understand your concerns. As Brian was on a tour and had been held up, he was not able to take his calls as per the schedules. We are still working on his schedules and will let you know as soon as your interview date gets finalised.

There were some unavoidable reasons which caused the delays in the process.

Your candidature is still valid for us.

Looking forward to getting back to you with the dates for your final interview soon.

Take care.

Best Regards,
Roshni

To which I replied:

Hi Roshni,
Thank you for your reply & acknowledgement. I will now wait for the promised interview. Lets hope it can take place soon.
Regards,
Roger


The following week, I contacted them once more, after not having been contacted again (please bear in mind that I was waiting on in England to deal solely with this matter, otherwise I would have been off to India by then; needing only approx. 4 weeks' time to deal with the procedures) as I was naturally anxious to have this matter cleared up, & to know where I stood, so I could then make an informed choice as to what my next step would be, with or without the job.
>
> On 23rd Aug. I emailed Roshni (quite desperate by now for information about the outcome), she replied on the 24th:
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> I fully understand your concerns. Let me get back to you after working things out....
>
> Have a great day...
>
> Take care...
>
> Best Regards,
> Roshni
>
> A week or two later, I saw that Spectrum was advertising the same positions again on TEFL.com, this time with a deadline set @ the end of September. I emailed Roshni 0n 29th Aug., emphasising the need for a speedy decision & response, as I was waiting in England specifically for this matter to be decided, & received this reply:
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> I do understand your concerns. As the client is on an official trip for a different assignment, we have not been able to get feedback on time. Your candidature is still valid with us and we would let you know as soon as we have a feedback from the client.
>
> Hope you understand the concerns.
>
> Best Regards,
> Roshni
>
> Feeling I was being seriously held up by unprofessional & unethical staff (on Microsoft's side, that is, not Spectrum's), I determined to get a visa for India in Birmingham on 14th September, if I hadn't received any response before then. Ironically, the very next day when I returned to Rochdale from acquiring my visa for India, the following email, sent on Spectrum's initiative (as I had already given up on them by then), was sent to me:
>
> Hi Roger,
> This is with reference to your application for the position of Language Specialist with Microsoft Bangalore.

> We do appreciate your concerns related to your candidature with us.
> As our client is currently travelling on an official assignment, we are not able to give you a feedback on time. We assure you that we would get back to you with the feedback from the client as soon as he is back from his assignment. Your candidature is still valid with us.

> Regret for the inconvenience caused to you.
> Looking forward for your response in this regard.
>
>
> Best Regards,
> Roshni
>
> I discovered this email on the 18th of September, as I had given up on waiting day to day for a response. On reading it, I responded promptly with the following response:

Hi Roshni,
Thank you very much for your update on the current situation regarding your Microsoft client. Please be aware that, despite the unprofessional behaviour of your client, I am still willing to be considered as a candidate for one of the positions in Bangalore, as I am serious in my commitment to working in India. I only wish your client was as concerned & professional as you, yourselves are.

Yet, despite this, I think you can appreciate that people cannot wait forever, & I have already been looking into other options. I consider your client Brian, of Microsoft, to have missed a great opportunity of gaining the trust & respect of applicants, which is a great pity. Both Microsoft & your company showed such punctuality initially, & I expected the same degree of reliability further on down the line as a matter of course. Brian would surely not have seriously considered any applicants if they had displayed the same behaviour as he has recently. Let's hope for the best, regardless.

Best Regards,
Roger

> Taking into account that I had already spent 7 weeks waiting day to day for the outcome, I then decided, even though I had now bought an India visa, (& my passport was now full as a consequence, necessitating applying for, & obtaing a new one should I be successful in my application; all extra time & inconvenience to all concerned) to still throw my lot in with Spectrum. I was so keen to work in India, & furthermore, had already spent so much time waiting for them already, so I waited diligently & hopefully until the 30th Sep. (the deadline) - & heard nothing. I consequently assumed the candour I displayed in my response to Spectrum was not appreciated, even though I had taken care to keep to facts & not display rudeness. Nevertheless, taking into account the time I had waited for them to deal with things, the least Spectrum could have done was to notify me of my change in status with them, then I could have gone on with my other plans. Their lack of transparency was deliberate, unprofessional & immature; keeping me in a state of false expectancy & ignorance.

Despite Spectrum not having contacted me either way, I perceived I was not successful, yet felt irritated that they hadn't shown the common civility & protocol of letting me know directly, I then set about booking a ticket to India online, only being able to find an available ticket in mid-November. I subsequently took on temping work to offset expenses in having waited all that time in England.
>
> When in India. & checking the net on 6th Dec. '06, I noticed Spectrum were advertising yet again, the same jobs. I immediately sent my CV, & emailed Roshni 2 days later, as the ad. had by then been removed from TEFL.com, asking Roshni if candidates had now been chosen or are they still under consideration. Roshni didn't bother replying, & I didn't receive any official response from Spectrum with my second application sent while in India, just as when I was in England.
>
> It has taken me till now to get all this down in writing to you to complain & warn you about Spectrum's unprofessional & misleading behaviour, as opportunities to find cyber shops are not always here in India, plus it took me a while to find how to contact you on your home page. I hope you will consider penalising Spectrum from advertising on your excellent site again, so they won't have the chance to wast people's time, patience, commitment & money. I was serious & reliable in my dealings with Spectrum. They can't honestly make the same claim in their dealings with me, & I'm sure, with other candidates who they dealt with. A quick email to an applicant to let them know they were unsuccessful should only take a couple of minutes. Not to inform candidates is tantamount to a snub, & unprofessional.
>
> Should you need any proof of correspondence, I have saved all our emails to file for your perusal, should you wish verification on what has transpired. The following is the address Roshni puts at the bottom of her mails. Thank you for your time, patience & consideration in reading this.
>
> Yours,
> Roger Pickering
>
> Spectrum Placement & Marketing Services Pvt. Ltd.
> 780, (1st Floor), 12th Main, 1st Cross, HAL 2nd Stage,
> Bangalore - 560 008. Telefax : 91-80-2526 2303 Extn : 55
> mobile: 09844537064
> e-mail : [email protected]
> www.spectrumconsultants.com
>
> "Inspired by Careers"



TEFL.com replied with the following, a day or two later, on 29th January 2006:
TEFL Professional Network <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Roger,

Thank you for your message.

We view complaints against any of our registered employers very seriously.

A complaint received from a teacher regarding a specific employer is
passed on to the employer concerned in order that they may respond. This
policy also applies to employers submitting a complaint regarding a
specific teacher. We consider this is only fair to all parties involved.
I will therefore require your permission to forward your message to this
particular employer.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Veronica Jordan


I responded immediately, giving my total blessings to forward the complaint to Spectrum, to see what they had to say for themselves. Furthermore, I then emailed Roshni, of Spectrum to inform her of the proceedings. I then emailed TEFL.com again with the following:
Dear Veronica,

This is just to inform you that I sent a courtesy email to the agency I complained to you about, just to let them know the situation, thus it would not appear as though I had gone behind their backs. I was expecting some kind of response from Roshni, yet it seems she is being as unresponsive as she was before. May i ask if she, or the agency Spectrum International, have given you any response to explain their conduct to me about this issue?

I sent the following email, just after I had emailed you my response last Friday:

Dear Roshni,
This is a courtesy email just to inform you that I have made a formal complaint about you & your company's behaviour regarding the job positions which the company you work for advertised on tefl.com., & the fact that you kept me waiting for so long, then finally didn't respond at all, after all the waiting you had put me through.

You will be contacted by TEFL.com shortly, & they will be forwarding the email of complaint I sent to them, so you may reply in your defence.
Regards,
Roger Pickering


I really do hope they will display the basic common decency to explain their conduct, rather than just ignoring people. Let's hope for a speedy & reasonable response. Thank you for your time & help so far, I am really very grateful.

Best regards,
Roger Pickering


I received an acknowledgement from Veronica, thanking me for letting her know. On 1st February, I emailed Veronica Jordan again to ask if she had received any response yet, receiving this reply, the following day:

Dear Roger,

We have received a reply from Pradeep Krishnaswamy who has informed us
that he is investigating the matter.

Regards,

Veronica


I waited a further week, then emailed Ms. Jordan on the 9th February, asking if she had received any response yet from Spectrum International, wanting to strike while the iron was hot, receiving this reply on the same day:


Dear Roger,

As stated in my previous message we have contacted Spectrum and
received
a reply informing us that they would investigate your complaint and
would be in touch in due course.

Best regards,

Veronica


This was the last correspondence I received from her / TEFL.com, yet during this time, TEFL.com was allowing Spectrum International to continue using its website to advertise the same jobs in Bangalore. Not wanting to irritate Ms. Jordan with too frequent mails, yet wanting this matter to be dealt with promptly & adequately rather than just being pushed to one side to be conveniently forgotten about, I waited for three weeks, then emailed TEFL.com again on the 21st February with the following:


Dear Veronica,

It is now nearly three weeks since Mr. Krishnaswamy of Spectrum International informed you he was 'looking into the matter' regarding the broken promises & misleading information to me in my application to them. May I ask if he has given you / TEFL.com any response & satisfactory explanation of their behaviour displayed to me? If not, it couldn't be that he has no intention of replying, do you think? How long does it take to look into a matter; one or two hours perhaps, or less?

Meanwhile, I see Spectrum International are still using your site to advertise the same job postings (please see below). I hope we can get some kind of satisfactory response from them. I really feel quite aggrieved at their (intentionally, I think) evasive behaviour, as I hope you can appreciate.


INDIA: Bangalore [FastView] 19 February, 2007
Language Specialists Needed
Spectrum Placement & Marketing Services Pvt.Ltd.

Spectrum Placement & Marketing Services Pvt. Ltd. seeks language specialists for a 1-year contract in Bangalore, India. As a successful candidate you will work full-time as a Spectrum staff member within a Fortune 500 company's training department. You will monitor quality of service and deliver effective learning solutions for intercultural and language learning needs.



Thank you for your help so far Veronica, I appreciate it. I will check my mails tomorrow night, Indian time, in the hope you have had time to reply. If not, I will have to wait until I reach the next sizeable town which has internet facilities. Such places are a little patchy in India. I hope you can understand my predicament & do not see me as pushy & abrupt, thank you. Looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards,
Roger Pickering


TEFL.com did not reply at all. I then emailed TEFL.com / Veronica Jordan on the 8th March:

Dear Veronica,

Have you received any reply from Spectrum International yet? I'm still waiting to hear from them. Do you have any another address for me to forward details & the complaint to, so the process can be sped up at all?, I would be grateful for any further details.

Regards,

Roger Pickering


Again, no reply. Clearly, TEFL.com & Veronica Jordan had no intention of doing anything, & like Spectrum International & Microsoft, Bangalore, they felt they had to explain nothing to anyone. Incensed at this deliberate connivance & evasion of responsibility by TEFL.com, as well as Spectrum & Microsoft, I emailed again with virtual pleadings to TEFL.com to reply with an update, on the 19th, 24th & 28th. The email of the 28th illustrates my desperation for info. & some action:

Dear Veronica,

I have emailed you twice during the past 7 days, & there has still been no response from you. May I ask why you are refusing to reply?

The following was sent by you on 2nd February, promising action by Mr. Krishnaswamy. Since then, effectively nothing concrete has happened, & going off current behaviour, it appears nothing will ever happen regarding this issue except false promises & evasion.

Please, please respond to this email to give me an update on the situation. It is most degrading to have to send repeated emails in chasing up a matter about a grave injustice, only to be snubbed repeatedly.

If you feel I have committed some offence to justify your lack of response, I would be most grateful if you would point out the error, to which I can then atone for it. Thank you very much for your help so far. I keenly await your kind reply.

Regards,
Roger Pickering


Again, absolutely no response. It was obvious I was being brushed off. Therefore I decided to adopt a more proactive stance, & emailed the following on 31st March:


Dear Veronica,

You are still allowing Spectrum International of Bangalore to use TEFL.com's website to advertise, even though by now, you know that they practise lying & evasive tactics with applicants such as myself. Is TEFL.com prepared to have the moral courage to bar this comany from advertising, or am I going to be forced to openly inform users on the net of the fact that TEFL.com are knowingly allowing dishonest companies to advertise on its site?

I have been extremely patient, yet all to no avail. It is ironic that TEFL.com, through the auspices of yourself, are now guilty of the same behaviour which I complained of, & which you exressed ostensible concern about, saying you "view complaints against any of our registered employers very seriously", yet when push comes to shove, you would rather merely turn a blind eye to such companies & their tactics, & furthermore, refuse to explain yourselves, evading replies to the aggrieved; exactly the behaviour exhibited by Spectrum International. It is not only unprofessional, but deceitful, cowardly & scornful. Please have the moral courage to practise what you preach, rather than allow & accommodate injustice merely for a quiet life.

I will wait until Monday evening. If there is no satisfactory (or any) response from you, I will then feel obliged to make public both TEFL.com's, & Spectrum International's devious business tactics.

Companies using these low tactics cannot be allowed to continue without being challenged, before they abuse & mislead other decent & trustworthy people's time & faith. I have been straightforward from the beginning. Unfortunately, TEFL.com are not willing to back up their clients / users when they have justifiable grievances. Perhaps you should do some self analysis to ascertain exactly what your real motives are.

Regards,
Roger Pickering


To the day of composing this blog (14.04.07), no explanation has been offered by 2 companies: TEFL.com nor Microsoft for their unpredictable & disrespectful attitude to this applicant. It would appear they each feel they are above accountability & reproach. The fact that I was dropped from consideration, I assume due to the comment about Microsoft's team leader in my reply to Spectrum (but can only assume this, as I was never officially informed), is not an issue with me. All companies should have the right to pick & choose as they see fit.

What does aggrieve, is the deliberate lack of due notification, with its consequences of wasting so much more time added to that already wasted, & then these companies cutting off all communications, like sulking children, determined to be awkward. Either that, or hitting 'block' to applicants' consequent mails, imperiously dismissing any further dealings. Hardly the behaviour of responsible professionals.

I was prompt & straightforward in my dealings with these three companies, yet further on down the line, none of them reciprocated in kind. They all reneged on their word, & displayed absolutely absolutely no concern for the individual. This kind of dishonourable conduct displayed by each & every one of them is unjustifiable & unconsciounable. Let people know where they stand, give due notice & then there's no problem, it's as simple as that.

To notify applicants of their situation is the right thing to do. Microsoft (Bangalore), Spectrum International & TEFL.com all choose to renege on promises, not lay their cards on the table nor duly notify, & the outcome is frustration to applicants. Spectrum International is particularly guilty of unconsciounable behaviour, by having two staff persons who mislead as a matter of course, in Ms. Roshni, & Pradeep Krishnaswamy; two very insincere people.

However, to explain Spectrum's stance, a Mr. Sharad Dhawan replied promptly to a notice I emailed to these companies, using their prescribed addresses, or the one through TEFL.com as given on that site on 16th April 2007. Mr. Dhawan showed concern over the issue, & pointed out various aspects, to which I wholly agreed, yet a crucial point he stated was clearly untrue (a blatant lie, told to him by his subordinate, Ms. Roshni, to put it bluntly):


"...I have investigated the matter and this is what I have to state.

It is a fact that the process for interviewing you got delayed.

The hiring process includes an interview by the client. The Client Manager was traveling overseas during the period and coordinating a time between him and you became difficult and was compounded by all of us being in different time zones. When my colleague, Ms. Roshni managed to fix up a time for this interview, she called you. This was in October 2006. You told her then that you were no longer interested in this position.

At no time did Roshni tell you to put your other plans (including visiting India) on hold. Neither did she assure you of a position with us without completing our process." & "...In your case the process has got delayed and we regret any inconvenience that it may have caused you.

This is an isolated case which has inconvenienced you. I sincerely regret this and hope that you do not make an impression about Spectrum based on this.

TEFL is a board that we use to advertise and they do not have any control over our process.

I can speak to you in person to discuss this should you so desire.
Warm Regards
Sharad Dhawan"


I replied to all the points in his welcome mail, point by point, yet had to make it perfectly clear that this staff person, Ms. Roshni, was clearly not telling the truth to Mr. Dhawan in order to cove her tracks & save her skin. This was the nature of the person who I had previously been dealing with; devious as a matter of course, yet I was not to know this at the time.

I replied immediately, point by point, yet couldn't stress enough the blatant untruth told to him by his employee, Ms. Roshni. Mr. Dhawan replied on the 19th April, thanking me for my reply & information, & that he had requested Ms. Roshni to provide proof that she had spoken / had some kind of communication with me in October. I replied on the 22nd, saying that, unless Ms. Roshni fabricated something, she would not be able to provide proof of anything, simply because she never tried to contact me again after her email of the 15th October, informing me I was still a candidate. The woman is deceitful from head to toe. It's as simple as that.

Mr. Dhawan replied with the following:

Dear Mr. Pickering,
Thank You for this additional information. I think lying is a serious issue and deserves disciplinary action.I will keep you informed on the outcome of this issue.
Warm Regards
Sharad Dhawan

Director

I emailed Mr. Dhawan on 3 May, informing him as an afterthought that he has my blessing to forward the emails I sent to him regarding his staff person Roshni, to Roshni herself. She deserves to know the truth I have said about her, & perhaps it will serve to make her come out from behind her wall of silence & lies. An admission of guilt, & a personal written apology are due to both Mr. Dhawan & this writer.

The issue still continues, & is yet to be resolved. Let's hope the guilty are punished accordingly for the damage they have done to at least this one applicant (& how many more besides?), & to the disrepute they have dragged their companies into. A company is only as reliable as the quality of staff it employs, & clearly, there are at least two bad apples working for Mr. Dhawan. I will update this blog, as & when I receive fresh information. I wish the best of luck to Mr. Dhawan in dealing with his staff & their eggregious behaviour.

Hopefully the above blog will help readers considering dealing with the above companies to make an informed decision. Good luck to all sincere job hunters, wherever they may be.

All the best.

Roger2008 @ [email protected]

[Henry_Cowell]

Before you decide to travel to India (or to any other country whose culture you are not yet familiar with), it's always best to read up on problems in intercultural communication and behavior.

Things abroad will not always be the way they are in your home country or in countries with which you're already familiar.

Welcome to the real world! It just keeps getting bigger and bigger, doesn't it?

[danielita]

Hi Roger,
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with Spectrum/Microsoft Bangalore. I do feel an need to offer a different experience with Spectrum/Microsoft. I also applied for the same position through Spectrum and my experience was quite different. I emailed my CV to Spectrum and I did initially wait a few weeks to hear back from Roshni. She then emailed me regarding my candidature and we set up a phone interview, followed by a second one (all set up quickly and conducted on time). The third interview was to be conducted with Brian at Microsoft as well and like in your experience he was traveling at the time however we were able to fix up a time for a phone interview (albeit 2 weeks later). Brian actually called me about 30 minutes earlier than expected (5:00AM) but fortunately I was already awake and ready for the interview.
During this process I was also seeking and interviewing for other positions.
Microsoft was conducting reference checks when I received a different job offer and decided it was a better fit for me. I emailed Roshni to let her know that I wished to remove my name from the competition. Now, I did find it strange that she never responded, but I assumed that she was just quite busy and didn't have time to respond. Spectrum Consulting does recruiting for other companies than Microsoft.

You may have just hit a cultural wall and perhaps someone with more experience in Indian culture could back me up on this assumption that Indians do not like to say "no" to people and her evasive tactics were more cultural than intentional on her part.

D

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Having worked with Sharad and the people at Spectrum from 2004-2005, I have to agree with what Henry Cowell said: You have to appreciate that India is not the US, Canada, Europe, et al, and that things work with a different idea of "timeliness". This is not necessarily unprofessional in terms of Indian business. Perhaps it's not ideal, but it's simply a fact.

I must say that, during my time in Bangalore, the Spectrum people were as forthright as can be culturally expected. In fact, in retrospect, Sharad and the staff at Spectrum literally bent over backwards to accommodate the b*tching and moaning so often exhibited by its non-Indian employees. Sharad himself is a sincere and professional manager who "gets it", and does anything he can to make foreign workers' lives easier.

Things will not always be easy. It is India.

It's disappointing that you had a bad experience Roger2007, but for others reading this: don't let it scare you away. Spectrum does its best to assist their employees, especially considering the inherent obstacles of doing business--and living, in India.

Good luck to all.

[Stephen Jones]

You sat in England for months waiting for a possible telephone call, and then think it is the fault of the people who were too busy to call! ROFL

If there was nothing else holding you in England, then you should have gone to India, and given Spectrum your Indian mobile number when you arrived. You could even have bought an Indian mobile chip in the UK and let them know the number before you set out.

If you had been offered a job and they cut you dead then you would have grounds for complaint, but when all you've been told is that they'll phone you back to make an interview, you haven't really a leg to stand on.

[dennis45]

I'm at a loss to understand what the complaint is here! So you applied
for a job he saw advertised at tefl.com (it could easily have been
Dave's jobs, another site, the NY Times, whatever...). These guys
Spectrum then appear to have dragged their feet in getting back to you
and then probably decided they did not want you! It happens all the
time.. instead of a courteous rejection note, they just chuck your app
in the bin. It's probably happened to me dozens of times, so what's the
big deal? Should we be shooting the messenger here? Dave, tefl.com and
loads of other sites provide us with cool job services, so should we
really start bad-mouthing them in public because one of their
advertisers fails to respond to an application? Come on Roger, let's get real here! The problem clearly was with Spectrum.. the tefl.com guys were
under no obligation to even answer your complaint but it appears they
were trying to help you. Is it any wonder they now probably ignore you?
Time to grow up Roger and get a life.. if u want a job in some Indian
call center, then go for it and quit moaning that yar hard done to.

Den

[davina m]

You need an advisor!

Having read your 'complaint' - the most charitable name I can afford your tirade, it is my opinion that you are genuinely in need of some professional advice.

From the 'evidence' you have published, there is nothing to support your accusation that the company in question is fraudulent, their only fault apparently having been to take a long time to acknowledge your correspondence regarding a job application. As for accusing the advertising organisation of knowledge of this apparent (non-existent) fraud when their only fault was to try and help you, puts you in an even more precarious position. Namely, you might quite reasonably be sued for libel, depending on the jurisdiction to which you as an individual are liable and also that of where your accusations were published. Therefore, not only are you putting yourself at risk but that of anyone who publishes said accusations without sufficient evidence to support them.

Finally, take this additional free advice. If you are genuinely looking for a job, you are going the wrong way about impressing potential employers. Such irresponsible behaviour does nothing to ingratiate you either as a person or a teacher and gives us committed, professional TESLers and our profession a very bad name!

[Roger2007]

I've just amended the offending word which Davina pointed out regarding Spectrum. Many thanks to her legalese trained mind.
Roger2007

[Henry_Cowell]

Have you learned anything else?

[Roger2007]

As a matter of fact Henry, yes I have: not to naively trust complete strangers immaterial of the glossy marketing strategies. Actually, I'll be giving a more thorough reply to this issue in a few days' time, when I've put down in an area for a few days, as there are some important points need addressing.

[Roger2007]

Okay, I know it's been a while. I've been up in the hills, where lines are slow & prone to crashing etc. I arrived here in Varanasi the day before yesterday, & was writing out a response when the computer completely crashed & I lost everything. Last night I discovered the course I came to attend is now on this aft., so the replies to the critics will have to be deferred, but whatever happens, it will be done after 9-10 days. Promise. Now, don't hold your collective breaths.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I understood very little of your last post. Could you re-word, Roger?
What I did understand is that you're in India and taking some sort of course?

[Henry_Cowell]

Maybe it's an on-the-ground course on intercultural communication for Westerners intending to live/work in India? You know -- sort of an "orientation" to the subcontinent, culture, etiquette, etc.

[Roger2007]

Okay, I know it looks like I've been negligent about this reply, but honestly, this is the 4th attempt at dealing with it on 3 separate days since finishing the course. There have been daily power cuts; 5 power cuts here within the past 24 hours, & it's been very difficult to write out a full reply under such difficult circumstances. However, I've saved most of it to my camera flash card, & will finish & post it after arriving in Jammu & Kashmir. My train is this afternoon, & I should arrive there after about 30 hours. Sorry for the delay, but it's not been through lack of trying, but rather, lack of electricity & backup batteries.

[Henry_Cowell]

Welcome to the subcontinent!