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Post by elexpatriado on Apr 13, 2019 12:24:52 GMT -5
Dannyboy your argument is nonsense. Pay for services that you think cost 800 dollars too much or buy an apartment and overpay 20k. Grow up, its none of your business if people like this service and are willing to pay for it. But thank you for trying to save the world. Why is it nonsense to try to make people aware of a service that I feel is a scam taking advantage of newbies? Not on this site. Not many newbies here. Maybe some skulking. On this site, if we dar papaya, or become Marranos with women, its not because we are Naive or stupid. We know whats happening. We choose to do it because either we dont care, or we are masochists who like the abuse.
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Post by wildstubby on Apr 13, 2019 12:32:02 GMT -5
♫....I may be dumb but I'm not a dweeb....♫ Best lyric I have heard in a long time. I can dig the Offspring, just 'Keep 'em separated!'
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Post by dannyboy on Apr 13, 2019 13:33:26 GMT -5
Why is it nonsense to try to make people aware of a service that I feel is a scam taking advantage of newbies? Not on this site. Not many newbies here. Maybe some skulking. On this site, if we dar papaya, or become Marranos with women, its not because we are Naive or stupid. We know whats happening. We choose to do it because either we dont care, or we are masochists who like the abuse. True, but hope some of the experienced expats here can help pass the word about this scam. I really hate to see fellow expats taken advantage of just because they are new to Colombia.
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bob88
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by bob88 on Apr 13, 2019 16:24:09 GMT -5
By your logic one can consider any kind of service a scam, the possibilities are endless. Might as well call expensive restaurants a scam as well since you could technically gather all the ingredients yourself and cook them yourself. Would a tour guide be a scam as well since you could research everything yourself and use free resources for tourists? A language tutor could definitely be considered a scam if you consider alternatives like free language apps, free language exchange meetups or learning by immersion. barrumundi said it best: "It all depends on your own levels of laziness and and adventurousness"
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Post by dannyboy on Apr 13, 2019 20:36:50 GMT -5
By your logic one can consider any kind of service a scam, the possibilities are endless. Might as well call expensive restaurants a scam as well since you could technically gather all the ingredients yourself and cook them yourself. Would a tour guide be a scam as well since you could research everything yourself and use free resources for tourists? A language tutor could definitely be considered a scam if you consider alternatives like free language apps, free language exchange meetups or learning by immersion. barrumundi said it best: "It all depends on your own levels of laziness and and adventurousness" It is not the same so not a good analogy. A restaurant is adding value - their cook's experience plus the convenience and ambience, a tour guide is also adding value - their experience and convenience, language tutor - their experience teaching.
A more appropriate analogy would be if a real estate agent charged a newbie foreigner 4,000,000 pesos per month to rent an apartment that would be rented for 1,000,000 pesos to a local Colombian. That is essentially what How to Expat is doing. They are combining some local services and charging over 400% higher prices as part of a "package".
How to Expat IS NOT really adding value IMHO, they are just youngsters that look to be in their 20s in their videos that have experience renting one small apartment. So, can't say they have much experience.
And for most of their relocation "service" they schedule with existing providers that would provide services for free or low cost if you went to them directly. How to Expat adds on a HUGE GRINGO PRICE for this scheduling service by jacking up the price in their "relocation package". For their package, they schedule with a law firm for a visa assessment, schedule with an insurance broker for health insurance assessment, schedule with a school or teacher for a few hours of Spanish classes, schedule with a transport company for private transport from the airport, schedule with a real estate agent to look for apartments....
I am sorry but those contacts are easy to find, it took me 10 minutes. And that scheduling and them having contacts plus the convenience is not worth $800 IMHO.
Some lazy newbies may want to do this... but I doubt many would if they knew the free or low costs of the underlying services.
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Post by wildstubby on Apr 13, 2019 22:33:37 GMT -5
I think it was P.T. Barnum who said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the American public. There is a sucker born every minute!" I guess that applies to gringos too!
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bob88
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by bob88 on Apr 14, 2019 12:49:53 GMT -5
By your logic one can consider any kind of service a scam, the possibilities are endless. Might as well call expensive restaurants a scam as well since you could technically gather all the ingredients yourself and cook them yourself. Would a tour guide be a scam as well since you could research everything yourself and use free resources for tourists? A language tutor could definitely be considered a scam if you consider alternatives like free language apps, free language exchange meetups or learning by immersion. barrumundi said it best: "It all depends on your own levels of laziness and and adventurousness" It is not the same so not a good analogy. A restaurant is adding value - their cook's experience plus the convenience and ambience, a tour guide is also adding value - their experience and convenience, language tutor - their experience teaching.
A more appropriate analogy would be if a real estate agent charged a newbie foreigner 4,000,000 pesos per month to rent an apartment that would be rented for 1,000,000 pesos to a local Colombian. That is essentially what How to Expat is doing. They are combining some local services and charging over 400% higher prices as part of a "package".
How to Expat IS NOT really adding value IMHO, they are just youngsters that look to be in their 20s in their videos that have experience renting one small apartment. So, can't say they have much experience.
And for most of their relocation "service" they schedule with existing providers that would provide services for free or low cost if you went to them directly. How to Expat adds on a HUGE GRINGO PRICE for this scheduling service by jacking up the price in their "relocation package". For their package, they schedule with a law firm for a visa assessment, schedule with an insurance broker for health insurance assessment, schedule with a school or teacher for a few hours of Spanish classes, schedule with a transport company for private transport from the airport, schedule with a real estate agent to look for apartments....
I am sorry but those contacts are easy to find, it took me 10 minutes. And that scheduling and them having contacts plus the convenience is not worth $800 IMHO.
Some lazy newbies may want to do this... but I doubt many would if they knew the free or low costs of the underlying services.
I think a relocation service could hypothetically add value if they can provide convenience, experience and local knowledge. Instead of doing all of the leg and running around a new city in Latin America, a relocation service can be a one stop shop that helps them with everything they need to settle in. It seems like a good and beneficial business idea if done ethically (with some markup and referral kickbacks to be expected).
However, if the relocation service is just forwarding the expats to other services with a markup while receiving kickbacks and not adding any value, I agree that it would be a scummy practice that is worth telling others about.
dannyboy Do you know if this is the case with How to Expat? Do you know if there is a specific service they are offering where there is a significant 'coffee-spewing' markup? Or are you just generally not okay with the idea of a relocation service since you believe they can never add any value?
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Post by dannyboy on Apr 14, 2019 17:44:06 GMT -5
It is not the same so not a good analogy. A restaurant is adding value - their cook's experience plus the convenience and ambience, a tour guide is also adding value - their experience and convenience, language tutor - their experience teaching.
A more appropriate analogy would be if a real estate agent charged a newbie foreigner 4,000,000 pesos per month to rent an apartment that would be rented for 1,000,000 pesos to a local Colombian. That is essentially what How to Expat is doing. They are combining some local services and charging over 400% higher prices as part of a "package".
How to Expat IS NOT really adding value IMHO, they are just youngsters that look to be in their 20s in their videos that have experience renting one small apartment. So, can't say they have much experience.
And for most of their relocation "service" they schedule with existing providers that would provide services for free or low cost if you went to them directly. How to Expat adds on a HUGE GRINGO PRICE for this scheduling service by jacking up the price in their "relocation package". For their package, they schedule with a law firm for a visa assessment, schedule with an insurance broker for health insurance assessment, schedule with a school or teacher for a few hours of Spanish classes, schedule with a transport company for private transport from the airport, schedule with a real estate agent to look for apartments....
I am sorry but those contacts are easy to find, it took me 10 minutes. And that scheduling and them having contacts plus the convenience is not worth $800 IMHO.
Some lazy newbies may want to do this... but I doubt many would if they knew the free or low costs of the underlying services.
I think a relocation service could hypothetically add value if they can provide convenience, experience and local knowledge. Instead of doing all of the leg and running around a new city in Latin America, a relocation service can be a one stop shop that helps them with everything they need to settle in. It seems like a good and beneficial business idea if done ethically (with some markup and referral kickbacks to be expected).
However, if the relocation service is just forwarding the expats to other services with a markup while receiving kickbacks and not adding any value, I agree that it would be a scummy practice that is worth telling others about.
dannyboy Do you know if this is the case with How to Expat? Do you know if there is a specific service they are offering where there is a significant 'coffee-spewing' markup? Or are you just generally not okay with the idea of a relocation service since you believe they can never add any value? Yes, How to Expat is definitely forwarding on to other services - I recently talked to one of their clients. He said they use the Langon law firm for visa assessments (Langon is listed on the How to Expat homepage). And this is a law firm that does bait and switch and is touting on Facebook groups all the time that they have the lowest cost for visa services but that is for their service without sending a passport to Bogotá for the visa stamp. So, Langon's visa service IS NOT the lowest cost, visa agencies are cheaper. How to Expat is forwarding clients to the Langon law firm with the markup for their overpriced relocation package and also likely getting a kickback from Langon.
Also, they aren't providing most of the other things in their package. They can't do health insurance, they can't teach Spanish, they don't have a vehicle for airport transport and they aren't real estate agents. So, they also have to schedule with an insurance broker for health insurance assessment, schedule with a teacher for a few hours of Spanish classes, schedule with a transport company for private transport from the airport, schedule with a real estate agent to look for apartments....
The youngsters behind How to Expat live in a small apartment, don't have a vehicle, don't speak fluent Spanish and have been here less then a year -- so how much experience and value can they really offer ? And what qualifies them to offer relocation services??? IMHO this is a complete RIPOFF that packages existing free and low cost services and adds a HUGE GRINGO PRICE. Look at their videos - they are just youngsters - www.how-to-expat.com/
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Post by barrumundi on Apr 15, 2019 1:32:21 GMT -5
This thread has run it's course. Members have had their chance to voice their opinion and of course the thread will remain in the archive to be found if anyone is looking for it.
If these 'youngsters' are successful then their business will flourish and I say good luck to them for finding enough dumb-ass gringos to support them. If they are greedy scammers their business will be short lived and die a natural death.
Time will tell.
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