In Reply to: ???? posted by biffman on Monday, 18. September 2006 at 19:10 Bali Time:
Maybe you should practice what you preach.....
I'll remind you of what you posted on here back in Jan 11, 2006 and I
quote "they should not let expats who have returned to Australia to give dodgy advice to people coz they think they know it all" (spelling corrected) and again on 20 Feb, 2006 'I do not normally write anything on this forum as I find that some people have to much to say and some of it is not very nice'..... 'People on this forum should keep personal opinions to themselves. As they say if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all'.
Very worth while advice indeed 'biffman', why don't you put it to practice instead of this cloak and dagger mischievous attempt by you and your friend to besmear the reputation of hard working expat aussies trying to make a go of it in Bali.
Those forumites who have gotten to know me on here over the years would know that I don't usually get involved in personal spats or "he said...she said" rubbish ........but in this case I feel I must say something before this gets out of hand.
"biffman" (and her girlfriend) have embarked on the character assassination of a truly lovely lady and her family who some 15 or more years ago put their proverbials on the line and started up Bali's first wedding service business.
Against all the odds including the two Bali bombings, all the negative press from the Corby and Bali nine trials etc... and the resultant downturn in tourism numbers, (not to mention all
the 'copy cat' wedding companies that seem to spring up overnight only to disappear just as quickly), this lady has stuck by her staff and I know personally the many times she has gone without herself and the sacrifices she and her family have made to help keep her staff together.
I am certain that most of those reading this forum are intelligent enough to know that there are always 2 sides to every story and clearly there's more to "biffmans" story than meets the eye. What I do know is the company and its owners who are being lampooned here has over 15 years of positive reputation with literally hundreds (if not thousands) of happy satisfied customers from all over the world.
The person mainly doing the shafting on here was with that company for less than a year and her friend (who quit in sympathy) worked for the company for less than 3 months of her 12 month contract.
All employment for ex-pats in Bali centre around a contract and presumably "biffman" (& her girlfriend) had read their's and agreed to it's terms and conditions before starting work there. If the pay was as she said "not satisfactory" then why start the job in the first place?
As for her girlfriend she should have been grateful to have had employment during the period she was there because after the bombing of October 2005 all businesses had suffered a huge downturn and there's no way any travel or tourism organization would have been making money during that period, especially those paying for expat staff and their 'associated' expenses.
'biffman' doesn't mention that her friend quit her job via a sms text message to the owner on her day off (that should show what type of person we are dealing with here). As far as repaying the business owner the cost of her working visa, I am told that this was also a condition of the contract if the contract was terminated prematurely by the employee. Surely this is understandable, after all it isn't easy to 'arrange' for a working visa in Bali.
There is a lot of 'red tape' to go through and as everyone who knows Bali will tell you, where there is red tape there are a lot of 'associated expenses'. So it's not just the actual cost of the visa that the owners of the business have to fork out, sometimes the 'associated expenses' are more expensive than the visa itself.
If there were not rules like this many businesses would be taken advantage of by the 'working tourists' who would simply move on when it suited them. How could anyone expect to run a business like that.
I am aware that 'biffman' and her girlfriend are using multiple aliases on this forum and take turns at king hitting this lady at every opportunity the word 'wedding' is mentioned on the BTF, I note she just had to put in her two bobs worth a little further down this current forum. This is totally un-Australian.... if you have a beef or think you have been wrongly done by then name names, take legal action etc..., I know that the owners would welcome this action instead of this trial by forum. They have copies of contracts, emails and text messages to substantiate their claims...and not simply vindictive hearsay spoken from the shadows of the internet.
It all seems a little like sour grapes to me. My advice to 'biffman' is to move on and get a life whatever.... just please don't hide behind the anonymity of this forum to persecute and destroy by innuendo the reputation of a good business, a great family and in most cases the only livelihood of their wonderful Balinese staff.
I will re-post this message whenever I see "biffman" or her friend taking a "cheap shot".... just to balance the scales. I sincerely apologies to my fellow forumites for airing my thoughts this way but I just needed to get this off my chest. There are far too many negatives being directed at this beautiful place and it's people...people that by their friendly nature won't speak up for themselves but rather smile and turn the other cheek.... well not this little duck....I say enough is enough.
Oh....... and those words of wisdom from "biffman" ..... please follow the links below:
http://www.balitravelforum.com/archive200601/29978.html
http://www.balitravelforum.com/archive200602/43775.html