I will say what has been said here before, employees get paid, employers pay employees, so why would anyone agree to have 1500rmb withheld from them at the start of their new job? I will never work for any company asking for a deposit for me to work for them, they got it all wrong. Once they told you they would hold the 1500 you should have said no thanks, see ya! and went on to the next job, hundreds of English jobs here, don't let them control the situation.

If you work for 120rmb an hour this is what you should expect!

i think alot of the school are franchised not all Hampson school will do this, which one have you had the problem with？

I started working at Hampson in Chengdu in March and they seemed very nice when I went in for an interview but the supervisor pressured me into signing a contract then & there even though I still hadn’t given the due notice at my old job. I started doing demo classes, which are not fun. You are told that you have a demo class, so you turn up & the set time & wait for the potential student to come (which can be up to an hour late, which happened to me one day) and then after the course consultant has shown them around the school to show off their certificates, facilities, environment & supply of foreign teachers, you sit down & try to win the student. This is done by various methods depending on the student’s age & level. The student will probably have a demo with another teacher as well, so that they can pick who they liked best. I was asked to do demo classes for students who were not within my area of expertise (I teach children) or who wanted class at a time I couldn’t teach due to my schedule, so it was often a waste of time.

If a student decides they like you, you have a class scheduled without being consulted. If you can’t do this time, then problems occur. The course consultant/supervisor/manager might ask you to do the first class at this time & then it can be changed the week after. I did this once & then when I asked when the class would be changed to, I was told that it wasn’t good to change the time after the classes had began (despite what they had previously told me) & that it should stay at the same time.

I have taught one of my students for about 2 months now and she still doesn’t have the textbook. I ask twice weekly for the textbook to be given to her but they don’t have any spare or try to find a record of what books the student has or they forget or it’s given to someone else. This student has paid a lot of money and she doesn’t even have a textbook yet.

I have been asked to do a demo class when I have a current student scheduled to teach. I’ve refused to do the demo as I don’t want to be late for the class or keep the student waiting. It seems the school doesn’t have the same concerns or professionalism regarding their paid up students as I do.

Twice, I’ve been in my normal classroom on a Sunday, which is quite busy and have been either getting ready to start a class in a few minutes or in class and the manager or supervisor has got into an argument with a teacher in the classroom. This disrupted my class and was carried out in front of other teachers, students and parents and I was asked to move to a different classroom to teach rather than the people involved in the argument move to the slightly more private office to carry on the discussion and keep it away from everyone else in the school.

The manager/supervisor/course consultants sometimes stand outside the classrooms to listen to what the teachers are chatting to each other about & then report the details back to management.

I have taught children for 4 years now and find that the best way to teach them is with flashcards, teaching aids, stickers, balloons etc, anything to make the class as interesting & as varied as possible for them and to help the play and have fun whilst learning English. There is no textbook for very young students (I teach 2 & 3 year olds) and only a few small animal flashcards, which will only get you so far. I have had to supply my own teaching tools to teach to the standard I expect as the school won’t buy a few simple supplies. You have access to printer paper (sometimes used), coloured pens, 1 Ikea standing whiteboard (good for younger children), building blocks, alphabet soft floor tiles, 5 stool, a few laptop sized whiteboards & you’ll be lucky to find any whiteboard pens that actually work – that’s all. This is not enough for a 1 on 1 weekly 50 minute class with a 2 or 3 year old. I have bought different sized balls, hammers, hands, dice, stickers, balloons, flashcards, my own worksheets and other materials, which have been standard in other schools I have taught in and should be supplied at a school that charges their students so much money.

I was shocked by the treatment of the female foreign teacher who was attacked by the manager in public (in the main reception with course consultants, teachers, students & parents standing by). That such an incident occurred in the first place is almost beyond belief, but it did and what happened afterwards is almost as bad. The girl was fired and the manager was on a flight to Hainan for his holiday a few days later. No one at the school talked to the teachers about it or reassured us or told us that the manager had been dually punished. The teachers who backed up the teacher were then treated badly by having their reputation slandered by the manager/supervisor/course consultant to parents so that students changed teachers.

There is a lot more to say about this school but I’m sure someone else will be able to add their own experiences to this. I have handed in my notice and will be happy to finish working for an average salary in such an unprofessional, disorganised, incompetent and untrustworthy school and hope that I get my deposit back.

Totally agree.

It is in the contract you signed, you should both have an original stamped copy, I also asked for a receipt when they took my deposit.

Pure speculation, as I do not know you, but are you sure there is not more to this story?? It's just I cannot see why they or anyone would put themselves in the position of not only having to pay you the 1500RMB back if you decided to go to say the labour courts, but also the court costs involved and a dent in their reputation when they loose.

It just seems a bit futile for the sake of a measly 1500RMB if you ask me if they did not feel they had a very good reason for doing so. Only speculating mind as I can only go on the information you have posted.

OOOoooo p@@s taking Is that all you have to offer?

Personally I think the question is warranted. Why on Earth would a company that has branches all over the place and makes a lot of money, put themselves in the position of arguing over 1500RMB if they did not believe they had a good reason to do so?

At the same time however, maybe they have, as I said, I am purely speculating. It's just something doesn't sound right about it to me.

Your grammar in the post that I quoted is lacking in accuracy. Mine lacks accuracy at times also, however, some of the things you wrote led me to believe that you aren't a native speaker.

I know it must be hard for you to formulate a logic response when uninformed about how employers sometimes think & act and, also, about the labor laws.

First of all, according to the Chinese labor laws, there is virtually never a good reason not to pay salary due an employee.

Secondly, there are many employers in Beijing and elsewhere that doubt an expat would ever go to the Labor Bureau and file a complaint. There are also those who are not about falsifying employment records to escape responsibility should the expat actually go to the Labor Bureau and file a complaint.

Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

Knowing how disreputable some employers are outside the realm of education and that private educational enterprises are generally even worse, one should not be surprised that they try to cheat you out of even 100 RMB. Some employers will do it out of vengeance and others, simply, because they can.

Hampson sounds like a scumbag operation as they violate labor laws right from the start. It is illegal to withhold a security deposit from an employees wages or to require any form of guaranty beyond a simple written contract. If right out of the gate they violate labor laws, just how difficult can it be to comprehend they are perfectly able to -- and probably do -- violate others? It is not really rocket science.

You mention Western outlook. How one could expect that to apply in China is a mystery. Using that same logic, people would line up in an orderly fashion when waiting for the subway, not spit on sidewalks or not piss on trees along the side of the road.

You're lucky.

Actually, I have had very, very few issues here and the ones I have had I have been able to settle on my own.

Unfortunately, though, I have met a lot of people who have not been so fortunate. If I worked for a company that decided not to pay me, I WOULD collect my money one way or another.

Yep. Con artists.

Thank you for your interest in Hampson! With so many evaluations of Hampson (whether positive or negative), this is an indication of Hampson’s size and popularity.

Allow me to highlight a few figures regarding Hampson and address a few often discussed issues.

1, Hampson just turned 9 years old
2, Hampson has a total of 19 campuses located across 11 major cities. Each year Hampson continues to expand throughout China
3, We currently employ more than 700 foreign teachers. (Our large staff is a result of Hampson only offering 1 to 1 English educational services)

Hampson is the first organization, in China, specifically designed to provide one on one education by only hiring foreign instructors. We are not perfect and there are still many aspects our management team are constantly trying to improve on. But we can guarantee that Hampson’s management is reasonable. We will not undermine our reputation by over a mere 1500RMB deposit. This 1500RMB deposit is always refunded unless a teacher seriously breaches the contract terms.

The Hampson organization is constantly growing and improving. We understand that some previous teachers were irate without their deposit withheld, thus posting negative comments about our organization and management staff. Please be assured that all of the previous teachers, who had their deposit withheld, had seriously breached our contract terms for this to occur. Over the last 9 years employing over thousands of foreign teachers, we have encountered some foreign teachers who have not fully cooperated with us, but a great majority continues to work flawlessly and harmoniously at our organization.

If you want to truly understand what it’s like working with Hampson, we recommend that you contact some of our currently teachers and hear their views. Feel free to swing by any weekday evening or weekend at any of our 19 campuses. They will be glad to share their views

We welcome any feedback you have for us. We continuously strive to improve or school for both our students and teachers. Feel free to e-mail us at: hampson.edu @ 163.com