Allestra Recruiting is surely a dishonest and unprofessional recruiter. I agree with you that it is best to steer clear!

By contrast, there are indeed what I would call honest and professional recruiters operating in cyberspace who provide an excellent service for both budding and established foreign teachers looking for teaching posts in China, though they tend to be rather thin on the ground.
Unfortunately, when it comes to teaching contracts, many Chinese educational establishments operate unprofessionally compared to the UK. They expect louwai to negotiate the terms and conditions of contracts, something that former UK teachers, for example, are unused to doing, and many of whom would find abhorrent. Professional recruiters can act as a middleman on behalf of foreigners, and thus avoid foreigners participating direct in haggling with potential employers. Another advantage that a recruiter has is that he will have had reports, both good and bad, from foreigners whom he had previously placed in certain educational establishments. So, he can tell you if the staff there are laid back or not. Not all foreigners want to immerse themselves in competitive environments within the Chinese education system!
Chinese educational establishments located off the beaten track and at distance from their provincial capitals often prefer going through recruiters based in provincial capitals. Why? Because by doing so the FAO's needn't embark on time-consuming travel to the provincial education bureaus located only in the provincial capitals, followed by more time wasted due to bureaucracy, in order to get the invitation letters for their new FT's approved. Recruiters will willingly do so on behalf of employers. Of course, without said approval, Z visas cannot be obtained by louwai! Click on the link below for information re my preferred Chinese recruiters' MO:

http://eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?page=2;read=56688