Hi Campers!
I have now received several reports about the appalling way Invasion treated the August/September intake last year that I can only conclude that as a company Invasion fall a long way short of what they claim to be and how they advertise themselves (click here). I had given them the benefit of the doubt up till now, but no longer so. In addition to the organisational failures, I'm also getting lots of reports about drunken behaviour by some of the reps at some of the camps, as well as drug taking. There was also, of course, the infamous "gun" incident back in 2016.
I'm sure that when Lee McAteer and Nick Steiert started out they were genuine in their wish to create something properly meaningful for youngsters in the form of the Camp experience. Great idea! However, money and power do corrupt, and they seem now only to be concerned with their profits. Any true concern about their customers and students seems to have gone completely out of the window. Basically, they're just ignoring everyone. Rather than being "of the people", they now seem to be adopting a high and mighty stance. The sheer number of testimonials to this is now overwhelming. Rather than list them all one by one, I'm putting a couple of links here so that people can read the complaints against Invasion themselves. Also read my posts, "Invasion and Camp Thailand" and "Invasion and Ethics", both in October last year. The comments there are particularly revealing, as also are the ones back in 2016. In fact, please read the whole of this blog if you have time.
First, there is a Facebook page, "Camp Thailand and Invasion travel fiasco support". you may need to join the group to get full access. For some reason it's down at the moment, but they say it will be up again shortly. In addition to this is the Rip-off Report (click here), which is quite detailed and goes pretty deeply into what happened. However, the second half of it needs to be read with a pinch of salt because it is obviously written by Philip Crabb himself, who was undoubtedly one of the main culprits in the whole saga/fiasco. He mentions "OUR company, English For Fun" and the inevitable "internationally accredited" reference to his own TEFL course, etc. So you may need to read between the lines there. Nevertheless, the overall report is pretty damning for Invasion. It's all in strong contrast to the massaged write-ups on the GoAbroad review site.
I have written to Invasion to ask them for their side of the story, but sadly they have not replied. It now seems to be their standard policy not to respond to any enquiries related to August/September of 2017. Looking back, the writing was already on the wall by the way they covered up the "gun" incident in 2016 (see my posts of June 2017 and October 2016). Just the fact that they were willingly working with a man as notorious as Philip Crabb already gave some indication of their level of ethicality. They cannot simply blame everything on him, they need to take responsibility themselves. It's important that everyone at every stage of the Camp experience has the highest degree of integrity and is fully vetted beforehand.
Of course, I personally wish people would read my blog before signing up for these camps. Sadly, most people only read it after the event. Anyway, if anyone is reading this prior to going somewhere under Invasion's steam I strongly recommend them to rethink. In fact, I would recommend everyone to boycott Invasion completely.
Good luck for the future!
EFL Greg
Well, I can confirm this is 100% accurate and the way they dealt with my complaint was utterly disgusting and yes I eventually got ignored too. I did get a full refund after going to the bank but it should never have been this way. I was shown around 200 complaints from people on camps in August and September. You may want to add head reps being drunk and sleeping with intake members on to your list. Finally word is getting out what these people are like. it is an amateur shambles
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. Yes, that seems to be what most people are saying. By the way, don't be shy about mentioning your name. Any comment with a name always has more credibility. Don't worry about threats of defamation, etc. They're completely hollow, because they know what you're saying is true.
ReplyDeleteCamp Thailand are now lying to the banks to stop the refunds. I got a letter that had been sent to the bank signed by the rep who was on our ruined experience saying she provided everything and I was jumping on the bandwagon...liars, this is so upsetting that they can lie like that
ReplyDeleteA very good post and I have to say a very honest and concise review. The 2017 was horrific and the only answer that i got was to blame an ex partner. It was apparent that there was an issue with funds and hundreds of youngsters had the same problem and I can confirm that I have those complaints from these kids. Many were as you said, just ignored. these people saved for this once in a lifetime trip and it was ruined through bad management and trying to hide things rather than being open and honest. The way the complaints were handled was disgusting, the removal of reviews ( which still continues) that did not conform with their opinion of themselves. The biggest issue was that of the 2018 intakes who many had their holiday changed totally even to different locations and were not even told, the terms and conditions changed without telling people, prices increased without telling people. This is grounds for a full refund in Uk consumer law but this was ignored and people were ignored. There was and still is a massive issue with the Visa, the Thai Embassy confirmed that the statements they were giving to participants was not true so they sneakily changed the wording and removed all teaching and volunteering. Even though they were confronted they would clever word replies to people and not answer questions. In effect what they have done again is change peoples holidays and not tell them. I have spent hundreds of hours with these kids and their complaints and helped and guided hundreds of them with their claims. Which I can also confirm they are now sending letters to the banks signed by head reps to say that the problems never happened. It really is the most underhanded way i have known any company work. What their ethics are is beyond me, they have prove beyond doubt to me that they are unfit to deal with the public.
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ReplyDelete