The i-to-i Chalkboard online travel community - Meet. Share. Travel with Purpose

Hi Everyone,

The internship gives you support so that when and if things go wrong, you have a team both in China and the UK able to help you. For those of you who are placed alone and scared/uncomfortable/worried, just say something to i-to-i or TTC!

We can't guarantee perfection because the internship isn't in our own backyard - it's in another country and we need to play by their rules, culture and system. BUT i-to-i and TTC can and will do everything to make sure you get all the support and help you need.

If you were travelling independently, these SAME EXACT issues would be happening but you'd have only yourself to rely on. Your school might trivialise your issuse BUT i-to-i and TTC can and will work their hardest to make sure you get issuse like heating and being on your own dealt with.

Please feel free to contact us directly with any troubles at all.

Thanks!
Nayani

Suck it up alan! :) i joke i joke...think thats the first bit of wit thats crossed my mind since ive arrived :(

Hi Alan,

I've forwarded your post on to my colleagues - someone should be getting in touch with you as soon as possible. Our team wouldn't look here to see who to contact.

Thanks!
Nayani

If anyone would like any teaching advice or a list of useful websites - you can post on my profile and I'll get back to you a.s.a.p x

I'm a little worried about the people who are alone and don't have internet... or haven't made it on to Chalkboard yet.  They probably don't know that they can still be saved/moved to a new location...

Just wanted to say that I'm pleased and relieved to see that i-to-i and ttc are responding to the problems being experienced by some of the interns.  The quality of a company's customer service isn't based on the service they give every day, its based on how they deal with problems that arise. So as a client, that's what I'm watching carefully for.

I'm also glad that the negative posts haven't been censored or removed - if nothing else, it gives future groups the heads up on what they may need to physically and psychologically prepare themselves for! So far I've learned that I need to take a couple of decent books and my ipod in case I'm lonely, a sleeping bag liner and pillowcase in case the bedding is revolting, rubber gloves incase I need to do lots of cleaning, maybe some cup-a-soups for while I work out what I can and can't eat . . .  useful stuff!

Oh and its fabulous to see some positive posts starting to appear too.  And just so you know i-to-i, I'm not running away yet . . . my name's still on the list for August.  But as Leon says, I'm looking forward to reading page 10 of this post to see how things progress!

Sill sending big love to you guys already out there - keep the posts coming.

Hey Jane,

Glad to hear you're still on the list for August - fingers crossed you get your acceptance soon! We're definitely also pleased and relieved that the problems some of the interns have had are all being sorted - we've had issues with schools dropping out at the last minute which has made things tricky, but both our team here and TTC have been working round the clock to make sure everyone who's unhappy gets sorted. Our managing director and head of customer support will also be flying out to China in the next couple of weeks to make doubly sure everything's ship shape and to check that all interns are settling in OK.

 
Needless to say there'll be a lot of work going into your internship to make sure that (where humanly possible!) none of the problems the unlucky few have experienced this time round will happen again.

Regarding censorship, we've found the posts on Chalkboard as useful as you guys so it'd be madness to censor them!! Often people have posted on here, but won't have got in touch with us or TTC direct (I think some people were a bit worried about causing a fuss!), so it's great to get people's feedback so we can make sure that the experience and service they're getting is up to scratch.

To anyone who is worried about causing a fuss, please, please don't be! If you're not happy get in touch with either TTC or i-to-i and we'll do our best to get things set right for you.

Sorry to see some of you guys have had a horrible time but just want to say to people considering the China internship that it's not all bad!

Despite my frustration of having my placement changed half an hour before I was suppose to be catching the train, I arrived in Lin'an, Zhejiang and loved it!

The apartment, school and all the staff here are lovely so I guess I was one of the lucky ones. Obviously there were a few frustrations at first, but some things are to be expected. (My kitchen was filthy too, but what's a little bit of housework to make you feel at home?)

Hope everything is sorted now and you're all happier with your placements. I'm having a hard time convincing myself I want to go back to England in a few months.

Take care and try to enjoy yourselves.  

BACK IN THE UK!! I'm going to post a journal entry in the next few days with MY experience in China! I just have to put a quick post on here having just read the entries on this particular discussion.  Here goes... 1. My placement was changed the night before our 'travel' day, I wasn't informed by i-to-i, or to be more accurate TTC, I found out from a friend on the coach to the 'Farewell' party.  2. We were all informed in Beijing that we would have to buy BEDDING!?!  Why couldn't we have been told this before leaving the UK? Alot of people, including myself, were on limited funds anyway, (to last 6 weeks before getting paid!!), let alone this additional expense.. and there's more... read on.  3. I was in an apartment, on my own, about 1hour bus ride(on a good day)from Beijing!  4. The apartment was really dirty, I had no cutlery, no cooking utensils, no bowls or plates and no hot water in the kitchen (this last one seems to be normal).  A microwave and a hot plate that ONLY worked with the CORRECT sized saucepan?!? What's that all about??? (Friends of mine were lucky enough to have a toaster and a cooking hob.) 5. BE WARNED! I ended up buying a duvet and duvet set, cleaning materials, cutlery, a bowl, a lamp (my room light didn't get fixed for 5 days!)... oh, and I had to buy a bowl and spoon to leave at school for meal times.  Finally, for now, I hate moaning, I didn't say anything at the time, I didn't want to make a fuss because I didn't want to be moved to something WORSE. I thought I would just get on with it and try to make the most of my experience.  Think positively, "I'm here for an adventure", I kept telling myself.  I had to come back to the UK because my dad was seriously ill, but now he is recovering and I look back at my time in China with i-to-i, I'm angry and truly disappointed.  I have soooo much more to say about my school etc, I'll leave that to my journal entry.  Lessons can be learnt from every experience.  Hhhmm...

Hi Sarah,

Sorry that you had to come back to the UK because of your Dad - glad he's now on the mend.

We appreciate that you didn't want to cause a fuss, but your situation highlights that there is absolutely no reason to suffer in silence - all the problems you experienced could have been fixed if you'd told either TTC or the guys in our UK customer support team (who emailed everyone at the beginning of March to check that everything was going OK with you).

We understand that there were a number of issues at the beginning of the internship - in response to this, our MD and head of customer support went out to China during March and the issues interns reported have now been dealt with. However, neither i-to-i customer support nor TTC can solve problems they're not aware of - they're good, but they're not that good!

If you have any more comments please feel free to email courses.teamuk@i-to-i.com and the guys in our customer support team will be happy to address them.

Family comes first for me. My dads triple bypass heart operation and subsequent ill health was of utmost concern and to the forefront of my mind whilst I was in China.  If I had not been trying to handle the ongoing situation in the UK whilst being thousands of miles away in China I would have taken the opportunity to contact 'customer support' with my problems.  I have now had time to reflect and I detail my experience for the benefit of others who may be considering embarking on this internship. I have been honest and frank.  I understand and agree that I should have discussed the problems at the time. I do note,however, the absence of an apology from i-to-i to myself and other friends of mine who are still in China.

We are of course disappointed and sorry when customers do not have the experience they had been expecting.  We have acknowledged that a number of interns on the intake had initial problems similar to yours and we worked hard with TTC to resolve them and are still working on improvements to the programme to ensure that they don’t happen again.  Unfortunately though, if we aren’t made aware of problems affecting individuals, even when we’ve asked for feedback on issues, we can’t resolve them.

We know it must have been incredibly stressful being away from your family when your dad was seriously ill and we welcome honest and frank feedback about the internship program, so we can improve it for both current and future interns.