Be careful rip-offs ahoy

[deadlylampshade]

medi-eval - you are clearly a little raw at having not been paid for work you have done, but I think your point has been made and perhaps the discussion should now be a more private one between yourself and BAJR rather than on the Forum.

One assumes you have more than the e-mail address of this "employer"? A contract for the work, perhaps? An agreed output from you to meet the demands of the module of training required?

Is it not something you should be pursuing through the Small Claims Court.

[medi-evil]

I've passed on the warning I came here to give. I've heard the explanations and excuses offered, and shown the evidence I was asked to (even if it was censored immediately). I do indeed have agreements and contact info for the "employer" although these have since proved to be false. If BAJR has not taken any action so far he need not take any now as I have already taken this situation to the relevant authorities.

[BAJR]

There is really very little to be said... Medi-eval seems to think I will be able to deal with this without knowing the name of the individual and forgets that University is closed just now and also seems to be holding BAJR responsible for them not being paid. Which is a bit unfair in reality ... and I would certainly not act as your referee for an advert that I would not accept.

To go back to the original point... I do have the advert on my database... and it is clear you have seen it , this is what I don't understand. ... if I was to show you a bit . you would see just why it does not make the grade. indeed is a great big warning sign.

There is no arguement to be had really... He saw an advert that was never meant to be seen - applied for it ... and then has not been paid. I am sorry about that, however if you feel this calls BAJR adverts into question, then I am very sorry. You did not give me enough information other than what I knew... and I did offer to go in to the University - which was actually quite nice of me, but only when there would be someone there and you have still to give me the name of the person.

Repeating that you saw the advert here and so want to warn people about all adverts is not the way to deal with your own problem. may I suggest this guide.

Guide 3. Getting Paid
(Guidance for ensuring you get paid for freelance work)
Jon Welsh April 2007

and to show people why this advert was refused.... (ps I still need to know how it was seen) wording and uppercase as sent. and no idea of the rate of pay, or a phone number... and a rather baffling requirement.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TUTOR TO MIDLY DISABLED STUDENT

Employer: PRIVATE PERSON, PARENT

Pay: tO BE DISCUSSED

You will help as soon as possible a foreign student who has no problems with English to prepare for sitting at exams in Archeaology.Student new to UK system. You will teach him techniques of referencing, methodology, etc.
Help is needed as soon as possible starting now 24 March. Valid for a month. Student knowledgeable but having difficulties with being strucutred and with the UK system. Number of hours difficult to tell.
Job will suit a stuent holing a Master's degree or more


To put an end to this, you will see that I would not normally place an advert like this online... good grief I knock back better than that! ... What is certain is that somehow Medi-Eval saw this advert... BUT how?? Coming back to your problem, you will have a contract , addresses, phone numbers nmes etc... perhaps sending these to me might have been better.

[gonetopot]

Thank you for being open Mr Host. The only way that advert could be more suspicous is if the student was from Nigeria, was a prince, and happened to be holding billions in trust for one of your long lost relatives who has just died in a plane crash. Frankly I find the isssue is not where the advert was posted or where it was seen (angering as it is for BAJR), but that this is a dispute to be settled between a client and provider over renumeration and a contract. And if any information provided for the contract is false then it is fraud and should be reported to the police. I find it acceptable to flag the issue on BAJR if the advert is in the public domain i.e cached on google, but not to blame BAJR for it as the advert was never posted.

[mpoole]

I've passed on the warning I came here to give. I've heard the explanations and excuses offered, and shown the evidence I was asked to (even if it was censored immediately). I do indeed have agreements and contact info for the "employer" although these have since proved to be false. If BAJR has not taken any action so far he need not take any now as I have already taken this situation to the relevant authorities.

It was not 'censored', I removed the image provided as a stop-gap measure to ensure that nothing else inflammatory was posted in a public forum rather than allowing the discussion to go forward in private. If you feel you were censored, perhaps you could have addressed that issue with me in a private communication but you chose not to, rather you've again decided to take a public stance and complain where you have the largest audience. There's a difference between having a concern and just having a rant. I also feel that your title for the thread is misleading and unfair, you imply that the adverts (in plural) are all dodgy as you use the term 'rip-offs' rather than saying something like 'Warning about a problem employer'.

-Su

[BAJR]

Indeed... I think the issue is at an end.

A person saw an advert somehow.. in this we will never be clear. that was never approved for BAJR. Now that others can see the advert, they will admit that it looks as fishy as a month old fish. This is a contract between Medi-Eval and his client - I had offered to help, but of course need more than just " a student " ripped me off - more so in that my own attempts at communication with the advertiser (back in march) proved to be fruitless - as I tried to establish what this odd looking job was There seems to be a desire to feel that it is all BAJRs fault, which is sad... and thats not going to change. What I can say is that it is that BAJR takes all the adverts seriously... looks at them... and then approves them... For whatever reason, he saw an unapproved advert, applied for it and has been shafted. How this pubic rant helps I am not sure, as it just highlights perhaps the adverts that you don't see (normally!) - and the job I do. Putting the personal comments to one side, and the accusations of censorship - this is not the best way to move forward.

I too have had unpaid debts that sometime you just have to let go...

As a matter of interest... here is another advert that was not made public..

http://www.bajr.org/employment/UKEmploym...sp?ID=8266

Can you tell me anything about this one?

[ex-archaeologist]

As a matter of interest... here is another advert that was not made public..

http://www.bajr.org/employment/UKEmp...ls.asp?ID=8266

Can you tell me anything about this one?

Are you sure about this link, I have just checked it and it seems to connect through to an advert for the Council For Scottish Archaeology/ National Museums of Scotland in 2006, which is presumably legitimate. Feel free to delete this message

[Oxbeast]

Yes, it brings up an error message, which I am not technical enought to know what it means. However, if you click on the error message, it takes you straight to the advert, and seems to want to print it. Without readvertising it, it is one in edinburgh which closed in April 2006. Maybe something is wrong with your database code or security protocols, though I see why you would want to keep records of rejected jobs.

[BAJR]

How bizarre... Indeed you have not seen the advert that was rejected.. however, ... this is a weird glitch where if you press the bottom bit of the error you get the first advert in the database. I may try harder on that... though its not a page people should normally see, as once the job is past its date, it automaticly comes down.. I'll tweak that page a bit more... to make no error appear.. just a message that the job is no longer available. The reason I had to do this in the first place was because of legacy adverts still being visible.

And yes... the CSA advert was legit

[medi-evil]

To correct gonetopot, the advert WAS posted, if only for a very short period, how else could I have possibly seen it on the jobs page? Just to remind BAJR, I gave him the name of the person in question and at the time I reported this to him the University was still open. BAJR didn't offer to go to the University, he said he was going, the following Monday in fact, and I did offer to supply all of the relevant contact details if he needed them. While the BAJR Guide to Late Payment covers these situations, there is not a lot it can do to help you when one address is made-up and the client uses the credit period to leave the other address and quit the country. Regarding the wording of the letter, I thought it was acceptable for someone whose first language was not English and not out-of-line for other announcements and statements on BAJR, bearing in mind that at the time they were claiming to be a private person with no experience of academic archaeology. I'm sorry if I didn't give a lot of thought to post title and PMing people but I don't have a lot of time for internet forum theatrics and it is very rarely that I bother with forums and suchlike.
I haven't made any personal comments, while you've accused me of making a "pubic rant" whatever that implies. I know everyone has bad debts and bad experiences with clients and subcontractors that you have to write off. While some people can comfortably say they don’t need the money for these small jobs, I’m not that fortunate.