It's actually good to confirm this same thing happened to the older American teacher (not that I'm happy about it) but good to confirm I'm not crazy and that we are able to put together a serious comprehensive warning to anyone else who would be cheated by Easytalk.

What actually shocked me the most was after their ridiculous 'explanation' for taking 1/3th the monthly salary they not only insisted with straight faces this was normal and that if I didn't continue teaching for them they'd confiscate the 10 days or so already worked in the current month as 'punishment'. I mean the absolutely f**king arrogance and balls.

I couldn't have cared less about their 80rmb 'new student bonus' since their 'alleged monthly pay' was so low but for what its worth I racked up a pretty good streak of new students for them. The 200+ rmb 'bonuses' were of course withheld as 'punishment' for causing them to lose those students. I would not be surprised to find out they deduct 800 RMB if any students quit.

Yes, I should also mention similar to the older American you mentioned I noticed they did insist they will attain a Z-visa and claim they cover that cost but in 6 weeks I saw about zero efforts to do any such thing. Mind you, that is pretty standard with any training centers who purposely want to use up all the time on the teachers L-visas if they can.

Thanks for posting other scam/potentially scamming schools in Nanning. Since you mentioned it I also wanted to put a huge 'heads up' for a franchise in Nanning and I believe in BaiHei called 'Zjibo' (maybe Zhibo, Zhjibo' sorry forget spelling):
- Standard issue constant ongoing scam: Finds foreigner and offers extra work. Has bizarre payment system where after working 8 classes (not days) then you get paid.
So since its just a side-job once-a-weekend sorta thing it might be months later before you get to 8 classes. His ongoing thing is delaying and delaying counting on the fact many foreigners eventually leave China OR leave to other cities so they will never collect.

IF you do stick around and outwait the delays then 3 months later he just pays you about 40%. His reason or excuse? There is none. He just says 'thats all I owe you!'. End of story. At least its not going to be losing that much money but again its the loss of 6 or 800ish RmB + your TIME you could have spent elsewhere.

But ya I was pretty shocked that EasyTalk Education just pulled such a blatant robbery. Like many scammers in China its nearly more enraging that they will say with an absolute straight face this is obviously a 'reason' and then start acting 'as if' you've somehow offended them. Though they just blatantly cheated and robbed the teachers.

I will keep an eye out for the other ones you mentioned. I want to confirm your mention of 'EF Schools' which are absolutely notorious for tricking and taking advantage of new arrivals who don't understand 5000 rmb for 40+ hour work weeks is an absolutey rip-off to begin with. They are also notoriously anal, treat employees in creepy monitored highly controlled workplaces etc. I haven't worked there but I once got half-way through an interview before realizing this was a 'new arrival exploitation scam'.

Good stuff to keep this posted and thanks for adding more details. Sometimes I'm less concerned about myself (I can survive) but it infuriates me thinking an unwitting new-to-China arrival would end up at Easytalk Education (ETI) and basically get abused, used and maybe someone who's relying on that job for Z-Visa and living hand-to-mouth as many are during their first month (especially not knowing the banks or how to transfer money from home tc).