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Q: Youwell Pumpkin English: How do they get away with this?
Here's a story to make you wary of this company.
A foreign colleague of ours was arrested for accidentally walking onto a military base in Urumqi, Xinjiang. As it turns out the authorities weren't too concerned about it but in their investigations discovered that our school is not registered to employ foreigners. Sneekily, the company does all the paperwork in Chongqing before sending foreigners out to work at its other regional branches, this being one such area.
Obviously, the authorities wanted to fine Pumpkin for illegally having a foreigner on the books. However, the school told our colleague that HE must pay any fine for taking pictures of a sensitive area. They totally took advantage of him not being able to understand Chinese (he'd only just arrived) and everything went through an in-house translator. The fine being discussed was 100,000RMB, which our colleague would have had to repay throughout the duration of his contract (back in Chongqing).
This company will try to screw you over for their own mistakes. Other gripes I might have with Pumpkin are as nothing compared to this.
DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY -- THEY ARE LIARS AND CHEATS.
11 years 44 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
Who would seriously work for a company called "Youwell Pumpkin" anyway
Seriously, if this company is doing shady work and hiring people illegally, they will never be able to obtain 1 rmb from your colleague. They obviously can't sue unless the owner wants to be arrested. Good luck with that! I think your colleague should just look for a new job, and not worry. It might be able to get a good Chinese local to file to speak on his behalf if the police question it any further, which they probably won't. It is still important to have a trusted friend in this situation to contact and who knows the full story, and can help him/her seek legal advice if needed.
But yeah ,what is with the name? That screams "fly by night" business that will change its name once caught in a raid.
this company should be shut down for decieving its employees and the goverment
Well YouWell Pumpkin English along with the other English institutions operate in the same way. Finding a job in the teaching industry here will look about the same no matter where it is you end up. BTW I thought you were calling your colleague pumpkin. lol!
to be honest, if anyone told me i owed 100,000rmb through their own interpreter i would tell them to fAck off. how naive is the guy? this is china, if someone's mouth is moving they are lieing especially employers. and what the fack is he doing walking on to a military base, and taking photos?
chinese companies, especially training schools are a scam. that is a given, nothing new. we as foreigners must stay alert at all times and keep our noses clean. a scammer is a scammer and will always try to scam you. if you let a known scammer scam you then 50% of the blame is yours. every local is a potential scam artist, until they prove otherwise. this is china.
do not pay a cent leave the city and seek a new employer. i can not take them seriously with this logo does this scream we will sue or break your legs.
who wants there kid smart as a pumpkin. 
You should be more careful about choosing where you work. If they have already been breaking contract on small things, do you really think they won't go for something bigger if they could? Who was Party A on your contract? Next time be more careful about choosing a job and tell your colleague to be more careful about where he's walking.
Just tell them 'you are not so well pumpkin!'
That'll shut them up.....
gregoryneal1:
yeah, you're right. My Chinglish slipped for a moment.... 
the majority of the teaching schools in China have shady paperwork. Either they dont have the correct license to employ foreigners or they "piggyback" on a larger schools license. You'd be surprised how many schools do this.
As for the ridiculous fine, its not really the schools fault he walked onto a military base. The problem is that they didnt sort the problem out. they should have helped him dodge the fine by explaining he didnt know wtf he was doing.
But seriously, what company will pay 100000 rmb for your mistakes? none. you cant blame them for that. you can only say that they fcked up the license and are terrible at resolving problems.
crimochina:
xun: the fine was for the school having a foreigner work there illegally. they lied to him and told him the fine was for what he did.
i've been there glancing over a question 
xunliang:
that may be the case but that fine is for the school, the authorities would charge the school not him. I was at a school that got fined so i know. they fine the school and the employee. but the employee only gets fined about 1-2 months wages
What you are stating is impossible even for China. 10K maybe 100K impossible.
Lots of people seem to think this is a lie. Every word of it is true. To be honest I'd be a bit incredulous too if I hadn't seen the whole thing happen first-hand.
Our colleague skipped the country the moment he got his passport back. Minute I found out the true story I sent all my money home and booked flights to Thailand. So, 'hello' from Bangkok -- the the mojitos are particularly good
very entertaining story however personally i would love to give it a tittle ... in order to be more valuable and attractive what about (A WRONG PHOTOGRAPHER IN A WRONG PLACE ) . did you ask yourself if someone jump into your bedroom taking pics and you are right there .. what'll be your reaction ?? actually your friend or colleague is lucky .. how could he allow himself to enter to a military base ( i know that place no one can get inside accidentally as you said )( A foreign colleague of ours was arrested for accidentally walking into a military base in Urumqi, Xinjiang. ) i'm ganna ask two questions : 1- let's say your friend is a photographer did he show them any authorization letter ? if you don,t accept this fact for someone taking pic of your bedroom what are you expecting xinjiang authority to deal with this case ?
2- are you sure that pumpkin school are not allowed to hire a foreigners ? i know your answer ( not sure ) pumpkin school xinjiang branch is a new opened school and they already submit all their documents and pumpkin didn,t get the feed back yet in that time .. so they had to pay for his mistake not the authorization as you claimed Mr. smart , one more thing the government didn't kick him out from the country but to get out from xinjiang AREA for his own safety i'm a local guy here and i have nothing to do with pumpkin school , yes i worked with them before and i truly didn't see any of the lies you mentioned ....cheers
Hulk:
I've accidentally walked into military bases here 2 or 3 times... and I quickly walked the puck out once I realized what I did. It's easy when you're wandering around aimlessly with a camera or cellphone.
There was nobody standing guard since they were all off hittin' the booze. Nice try, though.
MissA:
He was to be sent back to Chongqing where he was required to work for the rest of the contract for virtually no pay, to pay for the company's paperwork dodginess. Failed to mention that little point, didn't you?
MissA:
Hulk, it seems extraordinary that you could wander onto military bases, and that the dude in question in this case did. At home we have, you know, fences and armed guards and stuff...
you did not notice the military guard standing at attention when you went in the gate, something about this smells.
MissA:
I actually knew this case in real life (small city) and there was SFA evidence that he was on a base until the guards came running, which is profoundly strange. Urumqi's a touchy city in many ways.
The whole thing was f*cking bullshit - never mind fishy.
ambivalentmace:
a lazy chinese guard gatekeeper, wonder if he still has a job
Dear tommy,
Yawn! If I'm talking so much crap why has this company not advertised for new teachers since dec 2012? Might it be because the expat community has seen passed your idiotic attempts at saving face and decided that you and your employers are full of the proverbial?
I really love Xinjiang East turkestan that is, and hope to visit again. In the meantime, this school is a joke and I hope it has closed. This is a pity as some great locals worked there, overall however it's treatment of foreignstaff was completely unacceptable.
One post?
To the people who are skeptical of how easy it is for civilians, foreign and local alike, to get onto a military base here. My high school students threw an informal graduation party and invited their favorite teachers including me, a foreigner. I was all set to go until a student casually mentioned it was on a military base. That's when I first found out foreigners on military bases are a no-no. But apparently, unsupervised 16 year old rich kids aren't.
