Kids beware! My son was ripped off, don't let this happen to you!

Watch out mothers and kids, my son recently partook in a working holiday to Canada, which turned out to be more of a holiday than working, not to mention a very expensive, time wasting, stressful holiday for my son and myself! I don't usually complain out loud, but after doing some research of my own (that i wish i did beforehand) I feel as if it's my obligation to try and warn other young aussies who may be considering the working holiday club group for their trip!
So world, here’s my son's story:
My son was talking about going to Canada to work in a ski resort and he heard about the working holiday club through his friend who luckily had a family issue arise before he made the commitment and never ended up joining my son. My son signed up for a working holiday through the working holiday club, also advertising as WHC in early 2011 for a working holiday in Canada which what he and I thought was going to be a once in a lifetime holiday and one we could tick off his bucket list. Oh how wrong we were!
We were first told we needed to apply early so he could get a job in Whistler Blackcomb who they claim they're the official recruitment partner for, and at the time this all sounded legit. This was wrong, it later turned out that these were no longer available, but he would get a job at another one of their 'partners'. At the start all was well and we believed he was on his way to living his dream of working in Canada. Firstly he did an interview over the phone with Julia who said he "was very charismatic and friendly and the ski resorts would be lining up to hire him" (Its embarrassing to look back to how naive we were and believed all her lies)
I was always naturally worried as a mother about my son paying his hard earned money over to the working holiday club and told him to ask lots of questions. Obviously these questions weren't given the right answers! I should've realised when i noticed their website looked as if it was made in a day and the constant spelling mistakes i noticed throughout it. Their head office is located in Byron Bay so their Facebook page says, I've never heard of a "big company" running from Byron Bay, where everyone grows marijuana! But nevertheless, I was happy for my son to be able to go and see the world for the first time and didn't think too much about it at the time. Anyway the day came for my son to travel to Sydney to meet the "Ski resort hiring managers", who to this day I still think are paid to be part of the scam. When he came home from his interview, he said he walked around and met a few representatives who had apparently came from Canada for this fair, and had to hand his resume around himself. So really, he did the same thing as he could've done if he arrived in Canada first, and then handed his resume to them in person there! Anyway, I was relieved when he was offered a job as DISHWASHER! Not the ideal position for almost $1000 in fees, but by this stage he was leaving soon and we didn't really have many other options for him. A few months past before he actually left, and in this time he didn't hear anything from them! Once they had his money, it seemed like they didn't exist!

Nevertheless, the day came for him to fly to Canada, and I called WHC and spoke to a lady called Natalie (if that's even her real name) who assured me he was all fine and would be looked after. She had a south african accent, that should've rung alarm bells at the time, I didn't know they could even move to Australia. She should go home and rip off her country, not Australia who prides itself on looking after each other! My son arrived in Canada after a long haul, and made his way to their so called 'office' which, get this, turns out to be a dingey hostel in a crime area, but wait, it gets better, there was no 'office' in the hostel, there was a young dodgey looking man called jake or jack or something, sitting near the bar, with a laptop, greeting him! How can you call this an office!! And how is one man with a laptop meant to support the hundreds of young aussies that went their with my son by himself! At the bar!!

My son stayed in a dorm of 6 or so people, and when he woke up in the morning to brush his teeth, someone had vommitted all through the sink! When he said this to the hostel, the person laughed and it wasn't cleaned until that night! Some of the people he met who had been there for a while, said there was a recent bed bug problem and they were about to leave to somewhere else instead! It wouldn't surprise me if that jake guy brought them in! My son left after 1 night and went to his job at a place called Silver Star in a bus with a bunch of other unhappy campers. He started his dishwashing job and was only getting about 20 hours a week. When your only getting $9 an hour, 20 hours work barely covers your rent, he was forced to live off pasta and 2 minute noodles!! after a few weeks he was almost through his savings that were meant for a US trip, so i started sending him money from my own account. I am a single mother and couldn't really afford to send much and after a month and a half of being in Canada, my son was forced to search for a new job himself, because the working holiday club couldn't offer him another job because in their contract there is only one job. So I told him to call up their "in country office" at the hostel, but it turned out jake wasn't at the hostel anymore and had returned back to Australia! Probably to rip off more aussies! So now he was really on his own, and i was thinking about flying over there to help him out, but i really don't have the money to, as i have a mortgage and credit card to pay off. As a last option, my son tried calling around the ski resorts which working holiday club claim to work with on their website, and when he spoke with the people who answered the phone at Big White, one of their apparent partners, they said they didnt know the working holiday club and that they do their own hiring fairs in october and he can just apply online direct for any jobs they have with just as much chance as anyone else!! So unfortunately, after trying to find another job with no success, he had to return home. That was a $10,000 expensive nightmare for him and I, and now he has to sell his car to pay his credit card off which he had to use to survive there.

I am determined to let others know about this scam, and am disgusted that other aussies, although the lady who says she's in charge is not even an aussie, can live with themselves and sleep at night knowing about this. After my son spoke with a few others that went through the same company, it appeared everybody had dealt with the same 3 staff, Jake, Julia and Natalie. No wonder they couldn't help my son out when there's only 3 of them, even a corner store would have more staff! Google street view their address and you only see warn down shops! I did a company search online just now, and it appears their company has only been registered for 2 weeks, yet they claim they've been around since 2004! Check this link and see for yourself! http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=155_988_819&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1

MY severe warning is DON'T use this agency! You would be just as well off as doing it by yourself and going to job fairs once you're over there! That will save you $1000 and a whole lot of stress & drama and lies! If you or your son had a similar problem, contact me on susie.1956@hotmail.com because I would love to know who else this has happened to and maybe we can ban together and stop these scammers!