Hi Thailand Campers!
Following my last post I've received a lot of disturbing news. It seems there's been a real bust up between Invasion and Philip Crabb. In fact, Invasion have dispensed with his services altogether and are now using Greenway China to provide the TEFL component of their Camp experience. I don't actually know anything about Greenway, so I can't honestly vouch for them. What I can say, though, is that Invasion should be applauded for parting company with Philip Crabb and his English For Fun farce. We have been pressing for this for a long time on this blog, so let's hope this move heralds a brighter future.
Meanwhile, Invasion is in quite a state of turmoil, in that there have been several complaints from campers and from parents about the messy way the August / September course turned out. Apparently, there was trouble about visas as well as the switch in hotels from Cha-Am to Hua Hin. It seems that Invasion had some genuine cash flow problems, probably as a result of overextending themselves with too many camps. This was compounded by the possibility that Philip Crabb was embezzling money sent to him by Invasion. At this stage, we have no proof of that. However, it seems the possibility alone was enough to make Invasion act.
Overall, it seems Invasion are trying to do their best in difficult circumstances. For example, they have offered dissatisfied campers vouchers for £250, etc. However, Invasion need to be much more open, honest and communicative in dealing with their camp participants. I'm getting reports of unanswered emails and robotic responses to phone calls. That's just no way to treat customers. They really need to work on their PR
Whatever happened to cause the bust up, Philip Crabb clearly has his own agenda, the main component being to claim Camp Thailand as his own. In fact, many of you may already have noticed that there are two Camp Thailands now, Summer Camp Thailand https://summercampthailand.com/ run by Americamp and Camp Thailand http://www.campthailand.org/ run by Philip Crabb. What it seems Mr. Crabb is trying to do now is to create as much of a stir as he can about Invasion in the hope that they go out of business, leaving him 100% control of Camp Thailand. He even tries to claim that he created the whole project. This is complete poppycock, he is merely a provider of sub-standard TEFL courses, nothing more. For future reference have no doubt that Invasion/Americamp's version of Camp Thailand is the original one.
I'll make more comments about developments in my next post. Meanwhile, please do post your comments or email me directly.
Keep camping!
EFL Greg
This is a really objective and balanced piece on the whole Camp Thailand fiasco especially around Invasions responsibility and ethics dealing with "campers". As a parent, whose daughter got caught up in some very distressing situations in Camp A in August 2017, I tried during her trip and on her return to get some kind of answers as to what went wrong including emailing both Lee McAteer & Nick Steiert - named directors on Companies House - and still awaiting a reply from them both.
ReplyDeleteSo what did I do? I used social media to get my point over for me to be blocked, by Lee, as soon as I taggged him in my posts. If social media is good enough for Invasion to sell their goods then they must also accept that social media will be used to advise people of the artrious service they provide. The most serious situation came when I got a call from my daughter, during the night, from Thailand advising the Thai police had her passport due to non payment of bills & this was followed by the both Invasion reps leaving the country as per their visa requirements????? This resulted in the group - only having been in Thailand for less than a week - having no british reps available for nearly 3 days and really left to fend for themself. This is all factualy correct and I have the evidence to back this up....I'm not a internet troll as Lee would have you believe! I had been communicating with Invasion by email up to Oct 17 when they abruptly said they couldn't help any further.....prior to we rejected their £250 voucher offer. My daughter has successfully managed to get a partial refund using the RBS chargeback facility which is NOT something banks do easily....her evidence was so damning they couldn't contest her claim in any way. On a final note, my daughter bought her "experience of a lifetime" from Invasion and how they manage their business and who they employ as a 3rd party is irrelevant to their customer. They need to take full responsibility when things go wrong rather than trying to pass the buck to Philip Crabbe (far from innocent I know) and/or other suppliers. Lee McAteer & Nick Steiert are defended by many as being good guys and I'm sure they are to some people, but please do not preach to me, and those affected in the same way, when our experience is the polar opposite to good guys. This situation will be resolved once my daughter have received a refund for the full amount.
Thank you for your comment. That sounds like a pretty shocking experience, both for you and your daughter. You're quite right, Invasion (i.e. Lee McAteer and Nick Steiert) must take responsibility for what happens at their camps, even if there are disreputable characters in the localities. They should do proper background checks on everyone running the camps, and be prepared to offer full refunds in the event of things going wrong or failure to provide what customers have paid for. Not answering emails and blocking people on social media is simply unacceptable. It shows that underneath they do not really care.
ReplyDeleteI'll put up another post on this shortly. Please note that we have been warning people about this outfit since the beginning of 2016 shortly after the "gun" incident at one of the camps in Thailand.