Invasion Win Court Case Against Philip Crabb

Hi Campers,

Some of you may have been aware of the existence of two rival Camp Thailands, the Invasion version and the Philip Crabb version. This must have been very confusing for potential campers, particularly as Mr Crabb was claiming that his was the "original" one and was even using the same logo as Invasion (see below).  In fact, I mentioned this state of affairs in my post of 6 October 2017, and gave my opinion at the time that the genuine one was the Invasion one, which Mr Crabb had merely somehow managed to muscle his way into. Moreover, I pointed out that Mr Crabb had never been anything more than a provider of sub-standard TEFL courses, which I'm sure still remains true today.

Invasion Logo

Anyway, I'm pleased to say that they have finally resolved the issue through a legal battle in court earlier this year, which Invasion won handsomely.  Mr Crabb is now no longer allowed to use the Camp Thailand logo or the word "original" for any of his businesses. Apparently, he had also deliberately spread misinformation in an attempt to ruin Invasion, and was forced to admit to this in a signed statement.

This is indeed good news and is a great step forward for all concerned. It also throws a lot of light on what happened back in 2017. I mentioned at the time that Mr Crabb had his own agenda and was probably trying to exploit the confusion of that period for his own ends, i.e. to gain control of Camp Thailand. In fact, many of the problems of the time were generated by Mr Crabb himself.  For example, I remember how he tried to charge campers a second time for their certificates and claimed he couldn't pay his own employees (a long-standing tradition in the world of Philip Crabb, going right back to his Island TEFL days, when he used the name of Philip Dunne).

So what does this mean going forward? The important point is that Philip Crabb is now completely out of the equation, and this gives Invasion the chance to fully re-establish their reputation. In view of the damaging effect of the events of the Philip Crabb era, Invasion must seize this opportunity by the horns and make it a point of honour to maintain ethical and professional standards at all times in all circumstances. If they do so, the events of the past will fade into distant memory.

Invasion have a new operations manager in place, Thomas Chudley, and he seems to be doing an excellent job in moving things forward. So let's wish Invasion the best of luck. And, of course, please do submit your reviews!

Happy camping!
EFL Greg

Defamation

Hi  Campers,

If ever you post a negative review of a camp you need to be aware that the company in question might retaliate with a threat of court action for defamation, particularly in Thailand. Indeed, many campers say they experienced this during the 2017 Invasion saga. This can be really scary if you're unprepared. So here are some hints on how to handle it.

The most important point to remember is that if what you say is factually accurate, it's going to be very difficult for any company to win a defamation case. Apart from anything, once in court it will become immediately apparent that you are the victim, such that the court is much more likely to sympathise with you. In addition to that, the last place any company that has short-changed their customers wants to be is in court, because any misdeeds are quickly going to come out in the washing. Think carefully, how can a company take you to court, having ripped you off, and then demand that you pay them more because you told the world the truth! What kind of justice would that be?

Also important is that, in the modern world, reviews on social media (e.g. this blog) are standard and common place. It's something every company has to accept. The point is that any review or comment needs to be objective and any opinions based on facts. And, of course, the facts themselves must be accurate. It is also important to keep the tone civil and not to degenerate into abuse.  Reviews and feedback play a huge role in our lives, so be confident that you are providing the world a service by making your opinion heard.

Fortunately, Philip Crabb no longer works with Invasion. However, in days past, he was always the most notorious individual for threatening people with defamation. Basically, he'd do something rotten to you (like take your money for nothing) and then threaten you with defamation if you squealed. He'd also be very quick to tell you that in Thailand defamation laws are very strict, and that the onus would be on you, the defendant, to prove your innocence. This would be terrifying for a 19 year old travelling for the first time in Asia. Images of being locked up in a Thai prison would flash into their minds and Philip would do everything to nurture that image. So usually Philip's threats worked. People backed off. However, eventually enough comments appeared on social media, and clearly they stuck, particularly the ones linked to Island TEFL, Philip's former company. And clearly it was a wide range of people posting. I'm pleased to say, Philip has never yet succeeded in getting anyone into court.

So don't be worried, because even in Thailand the basic principles as described above still hold true. I was actually in Thailand when they introduced the laws. It was in 2006 during the military coup. The laws were mainly brought in to protect the King, because there were sections of society that wanted to do away with the monarchy altogether. I'm sure everyone knows about the battles between the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts. The prime purpose of the laws wasn't really concerned with everyday cases like yours, but those with political implications.

However, if you're back in the UK, those complications certainly don't apply. Just be confident about your right to free speech and your duty to inform the world at large of any wrong doing. I've put a couple of links below to websites that give good information about defamation. Don't let the bullies win!

Happy Camping!
EFL Greg

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-law-made-simple-29718.html
https://solicitors.guru/articles/27-law-defamation-explained/

Gap Odyssey Phuket

Hi Campers,

We've noticed that a new camp has started to emerge in recent weeks. It's Gap Odyssey Phuket. It also has branches in Buriram and Cha Am. It already has both a website http://www.gapodyssey.com/ and a Facebook page. Rest assured, this is simply another incarnation of Philip Crabb's Island TEFL or Camp Thailand. So be warned, you can expect exactly the same kind of standards as per those two schools.

It's currently asking for $1,499 for the camp, including a "free" TEFL course, normally valued at $495. In our opinion, this is a total rip-off, an absolutely ridiculous amount of money to pay. As mentioned in our previous posts, the English For Fun TEFL course is worth about $100 at most. It's fully unaccredited and is usually taught by any teacher who happens to be around at the time. They also seem to have teamed up with ITA in some way. The exact connection is unclear, but, in out opinion, it reflects badly on ITA and devalues their credibility in the market.

There may be excursions and teaching in a school, etc, but is it worth spending that kind of money on? Again, as mentioned before, you can do almost all the activities offered off your own bat at a mere fraction of the cost.

We're strongly recommending potential campers to avoid this outfit altogether.

Happy holidays,
EFL Greg

Americamp and Camp Thailand

Hi EFL World!

Let's just have a quick look at Americamp's relationship with Camp Thailand.  Although Camp Thailand comes under Americamp's general umbrella, it is actually at least half owned and run by Philip Crabb. The CEO of Americamp is Lee McAteer, and for his operations in Thailand he has teamed up with Philip Crabb, who runs the show there. He also has a rep called Dean Hallworth there, but his power is limited.

Up to now, this blog has been pretty complimentary towards Americamp and the aspects of their camps that they organise directly. However, it is clear that there is something amiss with the way Philip Crabb is running operations at his end. Typical complaints so far against him are:

1.  He claims his TEFL certificate is "internationally accredited", but this is completely unfounded. It's not accredited in any meaningful sense of the word, and is basically a junk qualification.

2.  Most of the trainers for the courses are unqualified. Instead, they are often just random teachers are in the area at the time who happen to be looking for a job.

3.  Similarly, Philip Crabb himself has no formal EFL qualifications, and is best known in the EFL world for being fired by a school in Bangkok for coming in drunk.

4.  Even now Philip often attends sessions either drunk or clearly hung over.

5.  Philip usually fails and expels a student quickly in order to create fear and compliance among the other students. The student will invariably be someone who has caused some kind of problem or asked some awkward questions.

6.  Later, he often does the exact converse and passes students without even looking at their submissions. The "blank document" incident in 2016, when he passed a student who submitted a blank document, is well-known.

7.  He tries to extract extra money from students anyway he can, with all kinds of extra charges for towels, taxis, air-con, etc.

8.  Most importantly, in 2016 one of Thai staff pulled a gun on some girls students because they did not use Philip's own expensive taxi service. We now have this evidenced from three separate sources.

9.  His history with Island TEFL, which he ran as Philip Dunne before acquiring Camp Thailand, is truly shocking. Google and lots of results will come up. They can't all be lying.

10.  He charges as much as £500 for a five day orientation course before placement in a school by an agency. An identical orientation course can be obtained directly from the agency completely for free.

I will leave it to the reader to decide whether the above is merely sharp practice or outright criminality. The point is that Philip Crabb is clearly not a man you should be entrusting yourself to or giving your money to. It also reflects back on Americamp that they continue to work with him.  It shows that they themselves lack any real ethicality. Clearly it's just about money at the end of the day.

So we conclude that, even though there are some wonderful positives about the Camp Thailand experience, potential campers should boycott Camp Thailand, and use another provider until such time as Americamp disown Philip Crabb.

In my next post, I'll quote from some of the numerous emails I have received.

Stay wise!
EFL Greg

Crime in Thailand

Hi EFL Teachers,

I was just googling around and I came across this really interesting website - click here. It's by a guy called Andrew Drummond. I don't actually know him personally, but he seems to be doing some great work on his site exposing all kinds of different scams, frauds and interesting criminal cases in Thailand. Interestingly, he mentions Philip Crabb. Do check it out.

Generally, the Thais are wonderful people, and you'll love them. Thailand's not called The Land of Smiles without reason. Nevertheless, because of the weakness of the law enforcement system, there are also a lot of cheap criminals there, getting away with all kinds of stuff, completely unchallenged.  So do keep your eyes open, particularly when it comes to any large financial transaction or any offer that looks too good to be true. Most crime in Thailand is done by stealth or fraud, rather than direct attack. For example, you're unlikely to get actually assaulted, even at night.  Mugging is a pretty rare crime.

Good luck everyone.

EFL Greg

Go Abroad

Hi Campers!

We've noticed that a lot of very good reviews for Camp Thailand have been posted on GoAbroad. That's good news and I'm sure most of them are completely genuine. However, there are a couple of things you need to be aware of.  A company can often get customers to review positively by offering an incentive. In this case it could be something like a discount or a good grade or a placement. The reason we think this might be the case here is because suddenly a whole bunch of reviews went up at the beginning of January. That plus Philip Crabb's reputation for threatening people he think might say something negative.

So let's quickly review the main positives and negatives of Camp Thailand.

Positives:
Terrific group experience and camp atmosphere.  Easy to make friends.
Interesting expeditions and activities, e.g. elephant sanctuary, etc.
Meaningful experience teaching to Thai children.
Helpful and creative Americamp reps, e.g. Dean.

Negatives:
Unaccredited TEFL certificate.  Basically a junk qualification. Placements should be free too.
Over-priced.  Most activities can be done independently at fraction of cost.
Rigid structure and subordination to the tyrannical Philip Crabb (formerly Philip Dunne of Island TEFL).

Also, remember that, although you may be working as a volunteer when you teach in the Thai schools, Americamp and Camp Thailand are making a mint out of the whole thing.  Just do the maths, work out how much you pay and how many campers there are.  You'll quickly get an idea of the kind of money involved.

Good luck.  Hope you make the choice that's right for you!

EFL Greg

Companies

Hi EFL World!

Following my last post when I recommended independent travel as something more meaningful than the "camp" experience, I just thought I'd build on that by pointing out some of the salient features of the companies that offer the camp packages.

It's easy for youngsters and gap year students to be deluded into thinking that these companies are some kind of extension of the education system they're coming from, and that they're full of altruists and people concerned only about their welfare. Don't get me wrong, there are undoubtedly people like that within the companies, particularly at ground level. However, that is not their raison d'etre. Don't be naive, this is the real world.  They're businesses designed to make as much money out of you as they can by exploiting a niche in the market. This is almost certainly the motivation of those at the top running the company, the CEO, Managing Director or whatever.

That's why, when you look at doing one of these camps, you need to consider the possibility that you might be putting money into some fat cat's pocket (no personal reference) for something you could easily be doing for free.  Take the Elephant Sanctuary. Try contacting them directly. And "island hopping" - you don't need to join a camp to do that.  And any TEFL "orientation course" for a teaching job in a Thai school should be completely free.  All the placement agencies do that because they take a direct cut from the school. If you do the maths and tot everything up, you'll see you're being well and truly ripped off.

That said, the camp experience can be great fun if you like being in groups or don't have the confidence to travel alone.

But think first, make sure that going to Thailand, or Cambodia for that matter, really does turn out to be the wonderful experience it should be.

Good luck,
EFL Greg

Latest

Hi Everyone,

Originally, I started this blog to review all camps in Thailand. However, we've only received reviews about Camp Thailand. This strongly suggests that Camp Thailand are the market leaders. Nevertheless, as you know from previous posts, there has been quite a lot of negative feedback, such that I myself have recommending boycotting it until further notice. I also commented on a student forum https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4121707#primary_content So how should you potential campers respond to this?

Firstly, it's important to know that most of the experiences offered by the camp can be got independently, at a mere fraction of the cost. There's nothing to stop you going to any of these elephant camps, etc, under your own steam and experiencing them at your own leisure.  Having your own freedom is one of the joys of travelling. The camp experience offers a certain amount of security together with the big group experience. For example, you're sure to make new friends and meet interesting people. But is it worth spending close on £1,000 on this, particularly as the TEFL aspect is so suspect?

Our advice, if you're having second thoughts, is to team up with a group of friends and travel independently. Don't be frightened of travelling in SE Asia. It's one of the safest places in the world if you're careful and follow sensible, common sense precautions. It can also be so much more exciting and rewarding to experience a developing country in a freewheeling kind of way, rather than the packaged version the camps will give you.

If you want to teach in a school, just an online course will be enough. Just go round to any school and offer your services for free or something minimal and there's a really good chance they'll take you on. If you want to teach for several months or a whole year, go direct to a well established placement agency, who should place you for free. Schools like English For Fun and Island TEFL, etc are exploiting your lack of knowledge to make a financial killing.  Don't be conned.

Be a real traveller! Good luck.

EFL Greg

Camp Thailand Review

Hi, EFL Greg here!

We've had quite a few reviews of Camp Thailand now, with a mixed bag of reports. Everyone seems pretty agreed that the activity part of the camp, i.e. the excursions and elephant trips, as well as even the live teaching in the schools, is pretty well set up, and has been a positive experience for most campers. Most of this is directly under the control of Americamp, who seem to be providing a reasonably genuine service.

However, it's the TEFL side of Camp Thailand that is seriously suspect. This is run by Philip Crabb together with his Thai wife, and we've had several reports of unacceptable course standards and severe bias in the treatment of students. See the comments on the Camp Thailand post. In addition, it has now been conclusively proved that the TEFL certificate issued by EFF (English For Fun, formerly Island TEFL) is wholly unaccredited, and is basically a junk qualification.  

From the reviews we've received, Philip Crabb, formerly Philip Dunne, seems to be running the place like a dictator, ruling by fear. Anyone who causes him any kind of problem quickly gets removed from the Camp, whether it be a a student or an employee. There are no refunds incidentally. The most disturbing incident, however, occurred just recently when he or his wife actually had some of the Thai workers pull out a gun on some of the girl students just because they weren't using the camp's own taxi and were liaising with a former teacher and employee banned by Philip. We cannot verify this independently.  However, we've heard about this incident from two separate sources. So it needs to be taken seriously. It's possible Camp Thailand is even paying off the police. The incident was apparently quickly hushed up by both Americamp and Camp Thailand.

So because of the atmosphere of fear that Philip Crabb specialises in creating and the sub-standard courses he is fraudulently offering, we're recommending that prospective campers vote with their feet and boycott Camp Thailand until such time as Americamp have dealt properly with the situation and brought Philip Crabb to heel. Anyone who knows anything more about any of the above should come forward and post.

It's always important to remember that in developing countries like Thailand, and even more so Cambodia, law enforcement is weak. In fact, corruption is rampant, particularly within the police force. So don't expect that you will automatically get justice in the event of any criminal or illegal action inflicted upon you.  

Always be careful when committing yourself and putting yourself in the hands of people you don't know, particularly when travelling alone to a developing country.

Good luck with whatever camp you finally decide on.

Greg 

Accreditation

EFL Greg again!

So your TEFL certificate's going to be "internationally accredited", is it? It's easy for any course provider to make a claim like that, but is it really true? First of all, it's unlikely that a course that advertises itself as half fun on the beach and half study is likely to meet international standards. Also, if it has almost zero training with real Thai students, again it's coming up short by international standards. Most importantly, though, any truly accredited course will have an external assessment by that accrediting body at the end of the course. For example, your last teaching session should be observed by someone external to the school you're paying fees to. Everyone knows this is the case with the CELTA and Trinity qualifications. If a school makes it look easy, they're almost certainly duping you.  They're making a false claim as a means to acquiring your hard earned money.

A great example of this is English For Fun's (formerly Island TEFL) claim to be accredited by the University of San Diego. Our review committee recently contacted USD directly, and they confirmed that they do not accredit Island TEFL. Nevertheless, the claim is still clearly there on the Island TEFL website and the English For Fun log-in page. And, remember, these are the same people who will be running Camp Thailand.

So we advise all prospective EFL trainee students to research the academic credentials of the school.  The best way is simply to contact the accrediting organisation directly.

Good luck with your hunt.

EFL Greg

Locations and Addresses

EFL Greg again!

One very important thing to check out when you book your camp is whether there will be any recourse in the event of dissatisfaction. Remember, you'll be handing over a fairly large sum of money. So what if the camp or course comes up short in any way? Will you be able to get a refund, etc? 

First, always check the terms and conditions of the company. If they seem unreasonably harsh, that's probably a warning sign. The other important factor is whether or not they have an address in the UK or the USA. If you're trying to claim in a developing country, like Cambodia or Thailand, there's a good chance you'll just get brushed off. That's why it's essential that any camp has a proper address in a fully developed country, i.e. a country with a properly working legal system.

Recently, we made enquiries to Americamp about Camp Thailand, because Camp Thailand gives Americamp's Manchester address as their own. So we asked Americamp if they guaranteed courses in Thailand in the event of any dissatisfaction. Initially, they claimed that all applicants were vetted in Manchester and that they had representatives in Thailand. However, when we applied to Camp Thailand, we were offered an Island TEFL course instead, with none of the camp experience frills, and there was certainly no mention of Americamp representatives. So we probed a bit further, but Americamp then went silent on us and we heard no more from them, even though they said their CEO herself would reply. 

So to us that sounds highly dubious. The courses actually run directly by Americamp are almost certainly fine, but any of the camps in developing countries, such as Thailand or Cambodia, for example, are wholly unguaranteed. You may have a good experience, but, on the other hand, you could equally easily find yourself seriously short changed.

So do check this kind of thing out. Never make assumptions!

Happy course hunting,
Greg

Camp Thailand

We have received quite a few reviews and comments on Camp Thailand, which seems to be based in Surin, but also with camps in Phuket and Chiang Mai. It also has the backing of Americamp, which is certainly superficially a plus. However, it's unclear whether Camp Thailand is a franchise or a company in its own right. The man running it is Philip Crabb  (click here). Interestingly, Philip Crabb is the same man as Philip Dunne, who used to run Island TEFL, and the Camp Thailand courses are basically the same as the Island TEFL ones. As one would expect, the  website is very impressive, with lots of bells and whistles - and, of course, testimonials. But always beware of testimonials. No company is going to give any kind of negative report about itself. It's also very easy for companies to massage testimonials on their own and other sites (e.g. GoAbroad) by giving students an incentive to post a review. That could be in the form of a discount or a pass or a special position. To get an idea of the kind of standards to expect from Camp Thailand and some of its early history, simply google "Island TEFL Review" and a good mix of reports will come up.

Do check out the other posts on this blog too. Just click on the blog title in big letters right at the top to get to the latest post. Read particularly the posts about accreditation and pricing. Finally, and importantly, read the comments below.

Good luck with your search for a good summer camp.

Greg