Very very Bad Experience - Loss of Money
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Review
I enrolled in GAC program - Go Abroad China,
As clearly stated and agreed finalizing the contract,
I would have made an internship to learn new professional skills,
I'd have been followed Tutor on the job place and a career advisor from GAC.
Moreover,
Gac would have me attended professional marketing conferences and networking events.
GAC would have guided me through all the bureaucratic steps necessary to stay in China.
GAC would have arranged some Chinese classes that I paid for.
All the above has been agreed during the contract.
In reality:
1- the company I worked for as an intern didn’t provide me any training at all - (I even had to bring and use my own pc on the job place - they asked me what they had to do and I felt, that they totally took advantage of my academic knowledge but I didn't receive anything in return in terms of new skills and competences).
Therefore, I didn’t learn anything new and I didn’t improve my professional skills, which is what I soundly paid for.
2- Even if, I reminded GAC many times about the marketing conferences that I paid for and agreed during the contract, when I enrolled in the program, I have never been invited to any professional conferences and networking events. At a certain point, after my insistent requests, they informed me that GAC didn’t provide that service anymore. Weird thing is that they sold/ promised me the service and it’s one of the reasons I enrolled with them as conferences and networking events are important elements of professional growth
3- About the "help and guidance" through the bureaucratic processes necessary to stay in China, they forgot to make me register at the municipal police station as it is requested to all temporary residents in Shanghai within a week of their arrival.. To mend, I was told to go to an hotel, stay one night and get the temporary registration form from the hotel. So I had to book an hotel and spend more money. I paid for it not them...
I was confused about this procedure.
Just later, I found out that they asked me to go to an hotel, because if I had registered to the city police, as required, I would have incurred in an expensive fee for registering so late.
I was informed about this fact by the police itself, when, later on, I had to change my apartment and I had to register my new residence once again. The police checked my entries and could see that I had registered through an hotel and not on time, within a week as required, after I had first entered the country. The police was nice and after I started crying for the extremely expensive fee they asked me to pay, they let me go with no charge.
What annoys me is that I paid so much the agency GAC, because I just wanted to focus on myself, my professional growth and development without worrying about complex procedures and bureaucracy.
But instead, I had to worry all the time to solve issues, attend conferences and learn something new ( professionally ) by myself.
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I was offered a full time job.
After I invested about 2000 Euros in documents and notarisation services to get a working visa,
The Company I worked for decided to outsource all marketing services and I was suddenly left home with no refund, no explanations and a consistent loss of money.
GAC did nothing!