[greenocelot]

Hello,
May I please ask you a question?

Please will help with your advice. I know that I should've never been in the situation because I should've done more research, but they asked me to leave within a week, so I did not have much time to do so.


The recruiter for a company was not upfront about the salary. I recently (April 2016) had a very bad experience with an ALT dispatch company. They promised that I would have a livable wage when I started teaching in Saitama, but when I arrived there the dispatch company told me that I would work very long hours, which I later figured out would equate to less than $9.50 an hour. And he said that before coming to Saitama that they would pay for the first months rent and key fee (I have the Skype transcript to prove this). But once I heard the hours that would be associated with the pay, I had to leave before I signed the contract. So they are now telling me that I have to pay every fee associated with the apartment rental and cancellation. But I knew that I could not sign the next contract and take the job because what they were offering wage, hours associated with wage, offering no assistance was akin to indentured servitude, and being so I would never be able a month to ever have enough to live and pay on student loans. And after I decided I could not take the job, they then said I harmed the company; which seems like a crazy thing to say because they were trying to hire an employee with only a weeks notice, telling me half truths to get me over there, all to fill a position on a hope and a prayer, to cover themselves for a contract they made hastily with the city in Saitama, with not enough foresight to wait until the week before the semester started to fill the last teaching position.

I never signed a contract, just an employment offer, and the offer said nothing about housing or accommodations. Should I pay them? Do they have any course of legal action if I return to Japan to work? It has been about a month since this experience, but I feel bad for not paying them, even though everyone advises me not to pay them.


Thank you,
Greenocelot