[SouthernSpecial]

There is a page on abc.com that has e-mail addresses for Primetime, etc.: http://abcnews.go.com/Reference/story?id=54216

Maybe someone could contact them?

[bped]

Done deal. Thanks for your help.

[[email protected]]

Only An Interview--can you describe the TWU personnel? I have my own ideas, just want to see if I'm close.

[[email protected]]

Great idea Amanda--and while I'm at it, may I just say how disappointed I am with WWW.FLTEACH.announce This is a foreign language teachers website that I think (based on what happened) deleted my warnings about TWU and I'm only guessing here, but I think TWU blasted them with threats of lawsuits. Way to look out for your own skins instead of protecting the kids. Weenies. Curlyben--leave this be, I'm irritated!

[Kenobi4]

What is the world coming to?

Seems terribly appropriate considering the lengths any number of people will go to badmouth one company.
I am NOT with Two Worlds United, and just to make things clear, I truly do not care if anybody suspects I am, so I would highly recommend you not even waste your time trying to figure out my affiliation.

This may be completely unrelated, as I am wellll past being a high school student, but while I was searching for a way to leave our grand country, TWU came across as a foreign exchange program, along with numerous postings relating to the company in AskMeHelpDesk. I have to admit, while irrelevant to my needs, my interest was definitely peaked by the numerous complaints and accusations towards this company. I delved deeper, and in fact went so far as to review the application process and forms needed to travel abroad through TWU.

At first glance everything looks pretty much on level ground. These forms offered nothing to suggest that the company was anything but legit, and I was even able to find MANY postings on various other sites of people who had used the service and were nothing but satisfied with it.

So my question to those who would bicker is this; what the heck gives??
Did you people simply not READ the forms and policies governing the travel?
Soo many of these complaints look to be over people who wanted refunds, and I can honestly say that not a darn one of you deserves it. I would encourage people to read every form that they put their signature on (which appears to be a lesson you have all learned now,) and would ESPECIALLY encourage you to do so considering the large expense it takes to travel abroad.

To be perfectly honest, your complaints look like little more than children complaining simply because they could not get their way.

As for the BBB site, one post was 100% correct. The BBB review that has a rating of "F" is not only California based, but is NOT an actual review. The beaurea has NEVER reviewed TWU, and the "F" rating is based off ONLY comments of people who have had esperience with the company. SURPRISE SURPRISE they got an "F". Actually It surprises me not at all, considering the numbers with nothing more to do than complain over their inability to read. I cannot honestly say I wouldn't want to lash out at a company either if I was dumb enough to sign the forms and agree to the policies without understanding them, but that does NOT mean that the company did anything wrong.
Also, too many people on here are trying to make this personal. You have an issue with the company, not with the people under it's employ. I would STRONGLY encourage every one of you to seriously consider the legality of focusing your anger towards any person within the company and not the entity of the company itself.

Just some words of thought...

Though, I am quite sure this will be deleted, as it appears anything that doesn't back up your argument is.

If it doesn't however, feel free to respond and we can continue this discussion, I am sure, in a civilized manner.

Take care,

D

[GloriaLee]

"What is Two Worlds coming to?," might be a more appropriate question, Sr. D. I am just thinking that was a mighty long post for someone who supposedly has no affiliation with the issue, or the company...Searching for a way to leave our grand country? If you are as old as you say, maybe you should be talking to a travel agent, instead of surfing sites that cater to teenagers.

I am curious, you are new member here, but you assert that past posts have been deleted if they didn't agree with the group. Odd, how could you know? Maybe you have been here under a different name. And I can't figure out how these folks should be communicating with the 'entity of the company' instead of the employees of the company. Are they to call and ask Carlos to connect them to the "entity?" How long should they hold? Anyone can send out all kinds of forms, but it doesn't make them legit. I doubt that any of the TWU forms indicate they have no intention of providing any service other than to take money from people. In our country, we get to have an expectation that the services we contract and pay for are delivered. That is how legitimate business is conducted and in the many foregoing cases it was clearly not how TWU performed. The BBB HAS to base its reporting on consumer experience, I believe.

Best Regards,
GL

[TWUisignorance]

For someone only "searching for a way to leave our grand country," D, you sure had a lot of extra time to come across a program of no use to you, research it, and go through the application process enough to conclude that everyone on this forum misread his or her contract. And we are supposed to know, D, that you are not with TWU by way of the capitalization of the word "not."

We thank you for your efforts, but you didn't have to go, as a teenager, thousands of miles away from home only to find a family with no interest in actually hosting you, but more "boarding" you. I will not reiterate all the stories, broken promises made by the company, etc. Nothing new will come from that. The piece you've written is heavy on slander, and light on anything resembling proof that TWU holds its promises, that the company comes through on delivering what its customers pay for. Calling us children shows that perhaps you've some emotion tied into this.

Now we must ask: what's a person "wellll [sic] past being a high school student" doing writing arguments for a little “exchange” program in Tampa? What makes him or her so emotional? I will allow myself to work past your capitalized “not” and assume that you are affiliated with TWU.

It should be noted that having an issue with the company is the same as having an issue with the people under "it's [sic] employ" because we found ourselves dealing with the same scam-artists: the most notable being Carlos Diez and Sarah Campbell.

D, it was a nice attempt, but from an objective stance, TWU is clearly in the wrong. No fluffing on an Internet blog can fight real experience.

[Kenobi4]

Firstly, I in no way shape or form implied that I was nearly as old as you, and never intended to make it sound as so. I am a 24 year old (thusly wayyyy out of high school), and am merely looking to further my knowledge of the world. For you to take my words "our grand country" and use them to imply I was demeaning the US of A is completely absurd. I am a countryman, I love my country and our freedoms, and wouldn't trade my citizenship for anything. As I said, I do not need to defend myself. I cannot prove to you that I am not with TWU any more than I can prove to you that I am... (that is of course without sharing more information with you than you have ANY right to know about me.) Point blank, the parties involved did not read the refund terms and conditions of their contracts prior to signing them. They are, for those of you in the dark on the matter, rock solid legally.
Taking issue with a person under a company's employ is NOT the same as taking issue with the company itself. You should realize, as grown people, that as SOON as you mention legal issues, a company is going to flat out ignore your requests and any other issues you have would need to be addressed in a legal manner, not in the piss-and-moan forum you have so eloquently established here. As I said, I am not with TWU, could care less about TWU, and really could care less about you. I just love a good argument, though evidently I will not find such here.

Thank you for your time, and again I invite a rebuttal.


-D

[[email protected]]

Sorry, have to decline your invitation. I can't type and roll my eyes at the same time.

[GloriaLee]

Clearly, Sr. D, you are upset and emotional, although it isn't clear why. This forum is not for argument, although discussions are more worthwhile if all the parties are tracking what each other is saying. You have misconstrued and misunderstood everything said so far on this site. Maybe you should re - read the entries and pay closer attention. I am not sure if you are giving the posters legal advice; are you an attorney and able to declare forms to be legally rock solid? What do you know about how these folks addressed their concerns to the entity known as TWU? Your statement made no sense.

[TWUisignorance]

I would like to see the part of the contract that reads:


TWU is not liable to provide any of the promised services to said client.

Client understands that TWU is to begin with a fraudulent company, and customer should know that Carlos Diez must be one hell of a small man to fit into “Suite 250” at the UPS store.

When TWU says "24 Hour Contact Number," they mean a number you can dial whenever you want, but no one's on the other end. Client understands this, and cannot accuse TWU of being an illegitimate company for not providing this or any service, otherwise they will be threatened with jail by none other than Sr. Diez himself.



Where is that in the contract?

Because, D, you see, unless there is a clause reading something like the above, TWU cannot be alleviated of refunding their customers.

They did not deliver the product they said they would. Bottom line.

In the process, TWU jeopardized the safety of minors. American minors. Remember the country you love so much? I don't think a countryman such as yourself would want to harm his country's minors.

[GloriaLee]

I am interested in hearing the other viewpoint; what sites can I visit to see positive posts regarding TWU?

[TWUisignorance]

Gloria - if you look at Kenobi4's public profile, you can see that his join date is the 17th of July, confirming that he would have had priorly viewed this board.

[drbecker]

Thanks to all the moderators who do a fantastic job making this forum a credible exchange of information and empathy.

This has been a frustrating and terrible experience for all of us who have been scammed, but by far the most horrible crime committed by TWU is against the children. They have been given a harsh lesson about life at a young age. They were robbed of the life changing experience they had signed up for. They have experienced things that we parents would have hoped they would have never had to go through.

Given this, perhaps we are bitter and emotional, but we are all honest. We are only asking to be treated fairly and honestly. Speaking only for myself, (although I am sure the following applies to most, if not all of us), I have never asked for more from TWU than they had contractually agreed to. They may keep the $75 application fee and $650 non-refundable deposit. TWU never provided one (NOT ONE) of the many services they promised. I only ask to be refunded as allowed for in the contract.

So let them try to hide or gloss over the truth. We know. We will continue and we will prevail.

[Kenobi4]

Curlyben speaks only for himself, as that is all that anyone can be expected to do. It does seem, however, that is much more sympathetic to your gripes than I. As for ponying up, do your own damned research. I am not about to let a bunch of arguing, supposedly adult people taint another site with their negative remarks. It doesn't bother me in the slightest that you want specifics from me, and shall find yourselves unfulfilled. I am sorry your experiences were soooo poor (don't think for one second that I am heartless). But I have read most of the comments in this thread, and most of the complaints were ENTIRELY avoidable if the person in question had read and truly understood what they are signing. (If you do not understand something you are signing, I would suggest having a lawyer read over it with you so there can be no confusion down the road... especially since you are talking about such a substantial amount of money.) No, I did not spend $75 to get the application... in fact the application is available online through a free download on their site. You too, lack credibility, or you would be doing MUCH more about this matter than discussing with other like-minded people.

I don't mean ANY disrespect to the people that truly feel wronged by the company, but at the same time my patience is quite limited by people who are trying to get something out of a bum deal that they could have avoided had they initially done their research.

Also, someone earlier said something about my member sign on date. There is no problem with this, as I have already said my searches brought me to here. So yes, I did read this site before I joined, good work!

I am real, and I am here, but I am caring less and less, as nobody brings up any real tangible point.

-D

[NeedKarma]

But I have read most of the comments in this thread, and most of the complaints were ENTIRELY avoidable if the person in question had read and truly understood what they are signing.

Ok, perhaps you can explain how the issues in this post could have been avoided be reading the document carefully.

[GloriaLee]

Good question, NeedKarma. I think Sr. D, aka Kenobi, would have a lot more credibility if he were not so patently rude and insulting to everyone. He is accusatory, and a self appointed expert, yet he won't answer direct questions relating to his own gross generalizations.

[TWUisignorance]

Kenobi-
Agencies and language schools in Japan and Switzerland (that I know of) have not received any money for the schooling of TWU participants. This is tangible proof.
I would like to take this one step at a time. Please address how a well-meaning institution would send minors to foreign nations and [B]not pay[B] the agencies with which their lives have been entrusted.

Then we can examine further.

Also - I'm interested that you're "caring less and less" about this due to no tangible proof, when you have brought [B]nothing[B] of the sort to us. What parts of the contract make it legally solid? Talk about lack of tangible points.

[Kenobi4]

It's fairly hard for me to do much of anything relevant to the conversation when I am at work. I've spoken to one of the moderators, and as he has assured me that any positive postings in here would NOT be deleted (as I am not a mole), I will be more than happy to look up the sites in my history some time this week.

Also, for the negative impact of my threads yesterday, all I can say is sorry. I am not usually a swearing man, but have been under much stress at work. I already apologized to Curlyben (who I think you all know) for the harshness and language of some of my comments, and am more than comfortable apologizing to the entire thread for swearing and/or taking a beligerent attitude. Sorry guys, let's try and take this another direction, and I'll do my best to supplement my comments when I get the chance.

-D

[Kenobi4]

Also, I have to admit if there is a playground bully routing going on, I feel on the bullied side of it. I was doing nothing but bringing up some points that were replied to with false accusations of my identity which I can only assume was to discredit any comments I made. This seems largely unfair, as you have no reason to assume I am not myself. I can understand if TWU has had people in the site you being a little skeptic, but you should reserve accusations of such until you have a little proof. Also, can you really blame TWU for trying to defend themselves? For the woman (or man, sorry I don't know which), whose daughter attended only one semester and did not receive a refund for the other. I am sorry for the financial loss, but clearly the fact that your daughter went over at all proves TWU to be more than "just a mailbox" and that they do actually send students overseas. I would be interested in seeing a copy of the letter regarding the issuance of a partial refund (only if you are comfotable doing so.) We can take the conversation from there.

Sorry again guys

-D