UNI Strategic Pte Ltd review: Not paid for services 31

UNI Strategic have changed their name to FDB Events Pte Ltd.
The CEO is still Stacey Yeung - email address Stacey@fdb.com.sg

Over the past 20 years, I have trained for a wide range of organizations throughout the world. Within this group, a certain code of ethics applies - trainers provide marketing materials, develop courses, and hope that the marketers can sell enough seats for the training to happen. Trainers generally need to wait until all of the collections are received and then we get a check. This works well until an unethical player gets into the mix.

UNI Strategic - a training firm based in Singapore with offices in Malaysia is such an unethical player. My first training session for them went well, but payment lagged - almost 60 days. The following year I was asked to do several more sessions, which didn't pan out - couldn't be sold. In April 2014, I was asked to teach a Hazardous Materials Handling course for them in Kuala Lumpur, with payment terms of 60 days following the end of the class.

The class, which had 8 participants, went well with reasonable instructor reviews. Offering the class took a full week of my time - plus my own costs for books and CDs which I provided to the students. I duly submitted my invoice for services - and I've waited.

I've been promised payment on this invoice so many times, I can't count. There's always an excuse. But, the reality is - UNI has decided that I'm not an important trainer and there's someone else out there who they can scam - there's no better word for it.

I've engaged my solicitors in Singapore to demand payment from UNI and I will see this through - but I'm sure there are instructors who don't have the time, connections, or the fortitude to pursue.

So, my best advice - stay away from UNI Strategic. As a trainer, their promises are meaningless. As a student, your training experience is cheapened by the fact that instructors are not being paid.

I am another speaker who has not been paid. My workshop in Kuala Lumpur was on 19-21 May 2014 with the contract agreed payment terms of 60 days after the workshop date. Evaluations on my performance from each delegate were all at 8/10 or higher.
On following up early August it was agreed that they would make payment but requested a further delay of 2 weeks to which I agreed.
On 19 August I received a copy of a Telegraphic Transfer from United Overseas Bank to my designated bank but no funds arrived.
Further follow up resulted in a comment by Stephen Kapoor/Pervinder Singh of their KL Office that "the payment must have been blocked" but an investigation by officials of my bank determined that no payment was received and most likely the payment had been put through but then quickly cancelled after the transfer notice had been issued. Quite a scam ! To date no payment has been received and so further legal action is being initiated.
POTENTIAL SPEAKERS DO NOT GO NEAR THESE FRAUDSTERS

STEPHEN KAPOOR does NOT exist. It is a false name and false email account. His real name is Pervinder Singh - a manager there.

We also have a dispute with UNI Strategic. Mr Stephan Kapoor (stephen.k@kl.unistrategic.com) keeps telling us that he will pay, but there is always a problem. Please be aware of UNI as facilitator.

CORRECTION. Further to the above- STEPHEN KAPOOR does not exist. It is false name and false email account.

Further to the below, tha name of the Finance Manager at UNI Strategic is Stephen Kapoor.

He is the one who sits on invoices and plays games with payment (or not making payments, to Trainers, venues, suppliers etc etc) ignores emails and ignores invoices.

I have rooted him out, and for your reference Kapoors's email address is - stephen.k@kl.unistrategic.com - ) wonder if HE likes to be bombarded, just as UNI bombard people with their spam)

You now have a direct contact in UNI and who is behind all of this chaos.

I saw a very silly post from one UNI employee who said she was 'just carrying our her role as a producer' - how convenient! These producers know very well when thy promote these events that the Trainers will not get paid. They know very well how things work at this unethical toxic dump of an events company.

The so-called events producer I dealt with was an Ira Iskandar -
She should change her title from Conference Produce to 'Fraudster of Trainers'

I am still not paid since February.

I am AMOTHER who is also in huge regrets in agreeing to deliver training for UNI Strategic.. I am awaiting payment for training for over 4 months.
Seeing some of the posts, this has happened far too often for it it not to be true, which suitably engulfs that pathetic so-called defence of this scam company from some one-off 'success'. This company is dodgy. Don't doubt it.

The staff also refuse to give the name of the CEO. Wonder why...
I will follow the useful posts on here about the options about redress closely.

Anyone got any furhter on this?

I also have a complaint against UNI as a workshop attendee.

I attended just one workshop & the can of worms is opened. They will call you a few times & then SPAM your email inbox EVERY single day. I have clicked on the "unsubscribe" link but they ignored it & kept on SPAMing. Blocking their email also did not work as each staff seems to have multiple email accounts, they will just keep sending SPAM (until the end of time).

Please do not attend any workshop at UNI.

Oops, some weird things happened there with apostrophes and quotation marks...

One other quick note, my seminar was in KL and the hotel where they held it and where I stayed was top-notch, really excellent (Hotel Majestic). Comparable to a Ritz or similar.

SJ, I purposely tried to avoid making broad generalizations: "they won't..." or "you will..." All I can relate is what my experience has been. I did not deal with Julian so can't help you there. A couple of additional thoughts: they do seem to be a little loose on considering a contract to be a commitment. For example, I signed an agreement with them, then I contacted them shortly after to see about flight arrangements (wanted to book early to help them save money). They replied that they won't book airfare until they have enough signed up for the seminar to ensure it will happen. Huh? There's nothing in the agreement about the seminar being contingent on a minimum threshold signing up. But instead of making a fuss over it I just went with the flow, and as it turns out my seminar did have enough signed up to proceed. Another point is that "saving face" is an extremely important cultural concept in Malaysia, so in dealing with your contact there try to avoid insulting him/her or blaming him/her for anything. That just puts that person in a position of "losing face" with their boss, and my guess is that could lead to the person not wanting to deal with you. I'm not saying they are right to ignore what might be a legitimate complaint or concern, all I am saying is that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, so try to maintain an attitude towards your UNI contact that you know they are working hard for you and you are appealing to them to help them with something, that they are the only one you can turn to to help you, etc. This puts them in a position to earn or save "face" and you might get better results. Just some things to think about.

I have recently been contacted by UniStrategic to conduct a training course in early July 2013. They have stated that they would pay for airfares and accommodation up front with payment for the actual course in 3 months time. I replied to the person contacting me Julian that I would require 1/2 the payment upfront and the rest within 30 days. Having read the above posts, I am now reconsidering being involved with them at all, any points especially from JRinGeorgia who seems to have had a positive experience with them. SJMelbourne

FWIW I conducted a training seminar for UNI in 2013. First time ever working for them. I had read the complaints about non-payment to presenters and decided to take the risk, I did ask for half up front. UNI agreed, and they did pay me half up front and then also did pay the full balance within two months. Travel expenses were pre-paid as promised, I did not have to outlay anything for airfare or hotel.

I thought I should post my experiences as well.

I totally agree with others who found it difficult to stop the unsolicited emails from Unistrategic. They kept changing the names, but using the same domain. Even when I always replied with 'remove' my email address, the emails kept coming in.

I have the same issue with the person making the above statement.

How can I stop them from jamming my inbox ?
I tried telephonically but these guys are so unproffessional that they do not adhere to what they agree on.

This blog was removed. Any idea why? http://www.pbresults.com/Sales-Blog/article-tip-for-any-prospective-facilitators-who-are-interested-in-working-uni-strategic.html, www.uni-strategic.blogspot.com, http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/969180

Agree about the email spamming...it's constant and you can't stop it. What a crappy organization, wish they'd go under already.

wow... i did't know uni have such bad repo. i used to work for them. their payment terms on time for me. left the company because of the stupid job of everyday on the phone, and have a bad system which its a must for u to follow.

to all speakers,
if i were a speaker, i wouldn't have join after reading all the comment above, but there are a few courses with the same repeat speaker every year too, only the few fast easy selling work shop with good topic.

I provided training servce to UNI in April 2011, being paid half in front at my request, still haven't received the 2nd half yet (4 monthes past due). I've tried to contact them several times, but received no reply.

I appreciate advice and suggestions for solutions.

A Trainer from US

UNI Strategic are not only scammers. They are also ugly spammers. I wrote back and asked them to stop sending to me e-mails about courses for which I no interest. I ask them to remove me from their mailing list. But, nothing happened. Mails keep coming and I get 2-3 e-mails a week from various individual, even after blocking them relegating them to junk box. But, they use different individual e-mail address to beat this. To me, UNI Strategic has not ethics in this respect and do not respect people's privacy. The reason they have got m e-mail address is that I was registered for their course once, which I eventually did not attend. Since then, it has been a problem receiving all these junk mail from what I now think of them as a junk organisation.

This is an internal email, show how dark and rot it is inside. Enjoy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Fwd: FYI
From: "Katherine K"
Date: Tue, April 12, 2011 5:50 pm
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file

hmm this incident was just the trigger point loh.
wasnt really comfortable towards how this company operate, mainly the payment issue. They really dont pay trainers for their services, regardless of the evaluations of feedbacks. I have 4trainers on-hand who havent get paid yet! one of them came from my first event, first trainer (back in August last year).

As a producer, we are the contact point to those trainers. They can only rely on & blame us if payment is not done, right or nt? So im rather uncomfortable towards being like one of UNI accomplice.

What were circulating online (those blogs/ news articles towards UNI not paying trainers for services are indeed true & real. When i decided to join UNI last year i still thought it was just rumors...

Nevertheless, I am done with this company. But feeling much gulity at that point of time becos i cant reveal much info to u guys, yet u guys are working hard to bring in the number for that event... felt really bad.

Now that at least u know the truth & glad to know that ur delegates still turned up for the event. Thats at least good to know that u guys still get back ($$$$) as what u have worked for.

:) Alright... will see u guys ard, not in UNI probably elsewhere
tc yea

(not sure if i get Trayton's email right... if you can, pls forward my regards to him)
Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: Katherine [mailto:Katherine.k@unistrategic.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 10:51 AM
To: 'Chris'
Cc: 'Stacey'
Subject: RE: Following Up

Chris,

I am indeed, very upset & disappointed by your words of ‘’ insurbodinate employee who was out to save herself some work.’’

That sentence made by you, does not justify all the hardworks I had put in during the >6mths here with UNI as a producer.
In any case, I have always done my very best as a UNI producer, to negotiate terms with the trainers and revert back to the management, especially you.

For Gaurav’s case, as mentioned in my email yesterday

I would be more than happy if Gaurav could do the program without the books, but the fact is he will not.
I’d revert to you and we do believe that he is good enough as the trainer and hence, instructions made were to negotiate with him further, explain that we will instead promote his books than to buy them etc…

I did, however I came back to you telling you that he will not do it without his books and I was seeking for management decision about this issue.
I seriously think that I have not done anything wrong, bad or damaging to the company. All I did is to carry out my duties.

And I definitely do not deserve such statement made by you, as an ‘insurbodinate employee’

YOU ARE THE ONE THAT ### THIS UP.

Katherine
Producer
www.unistrategic.com
20 Science Park Road,
#01-26/30, TeleTech Park,
Singapore Science Park II,
Singapore 117674
Telephone: [protected]
DiD: [protected]
Facsimile: [protected]
Timezone: GMT +8.
Email: katherine.k@unistrategic.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Gaurav Bhalla [mailto:gaurav.bhalla@knowledgekinetics.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 10:15 AM
To: Chris; Katherine
Subject: Re: Following Up

Mr. Chris,

Don’t cross the line with me. You and your employee Katherine have broken a lot of ethics and rules of common courtesy. I am never Bhalla to you, always either Dr. Bhalla or Professor Bhalla. Good luck finding a more suitable trainer.

And I presume your company’s promises of making up airline ticket cancellation charges have also vanished into thin air. Just stay away from my inbox and don’t get too familiar. If you have the courage and the decency, make good my time and costs I have incurred on behalf of your company.

Don’t cross the line.

Gaurav Bhalla, Ph.D.

________________________________________
From: Chris
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:15:54 +0800
To: Gaurav Bhalla
Subject: RE: Following Up

Bhalla,
There was never any amusement to this nor intention to create any. The course will have to run with a more suitably equipped trainer in the end. I wish you well.

From: Gaurav Bhalla [mailto:gaurav.bhalla@knowledgekinetics.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 12:00 AM
To: chris.s@unistrategic.com
Subject: Re: Following Up

Chris, what you call candor, is in my book utterly rude and slovenly. After having wasted my time for a few months – the essentially take it or leave it email is not even mildly amusing.

Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge. Let me not keep you from your over 250 training workshops and your employees. There will be no call tonight.

Cheers!
________________________________________
From:
Reply-To:
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:39:31 +0000
To: Gaurav Bhalla
Subject: Re: Following Up

You are welcome. Quite frankly nor do I in the matter. The company puts out over 250 trainning workshops a year and I do have other employees and respective events to look after. I am in the misdst of tracing all commuinque of an insurbodinate employee who was out to save herself some work. the company views this seriously. If you still wish to gain commercially albeit small but with exposure in the region and with out clients then it may still be worthwhile otherwise the conversation may prove moot. Pardon my candor but I do not wish to waste your time nor mine.Thanks Chris

Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld Powered by Gee! from StarHub

From: Gaurav Bhalla
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:21:44 -0400
To:
Subject: Re: Following Up
Please dial me at XXX. Thanks. I would like to put to bed this issue today and move on. Too much of my time has been spent spinning in circles.

Thanks.

Gaurav

________________________________________
From:
Reply-To:
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:22:28 +0000
To: Gaurav Bhalla
Subject: Re: Following Up

Greetings Prof and thank you for your reply. Yes I am available at the proposed time you mentioned. Would you want me to dial you ?RegardsChris

Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld Powered by Gee! from StarHub

From: Gaurav Bhalla
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:32:30 -0400
To: Chris
Subject: Re: Following Up
Greetings Mr. Chris,

Good to hear from you. I have no desire to proceed further on this matter, due to the extreme back and forth nature of the interaction. I will be happy to have a conversation with you this evening. You are 12 hours ahead of me. If acceptable, let’s set a time to speak at 9:30 pm my time Tuesday evening, which is 9:30 am your time Wednesday morning. A class size of 10 is not too small for an interactive workshop as discussed from the beginning. How do you propose to get the books at the last minute, I don’t understand. Anyway, please let me know if you are open to a conversation – I need to have a very specific understanding of where we are headed. I am not pleased at the situation that I have been put in.

Thanks.

Gaurav Bhalla

> From: Chris
> Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:39:38 +0800
> To: Gaurav Bhalla
> Subject: RE: Following Up
>
> Dear Prof Bhalla,
> Warm greetings from UNI and please accept my apologies for having put you
> through a trying experience with the workshop thus far. This is in part due
> to my lack of oversight in my producer's dealings with your accommodation
> and logistics. Matters were made more complex with the tying down of dates
> for your flight ticket reimbursement where we on our end were trying to
> secure additional delegates to make up numbers for this workshop.
>
> We will be proceeding with this workshop as scheduled with no foreseeable
> change in arrangements. We are unable to commit to a bulk order of your
> advertised book on our marketing flyer but will be happy to provide our
> signups on hand with a copy. We are expecting an interactive class size of
> 10 and are at present 6 in total.
>
> Katherine my colleague has taken leave of this project and I will be
> overseeing this till your arrival and eventual delivery of the class.

You may contact these 2 reporters from SPH

Sep 11, 2010

Events organiser under fire over late payments

Speakers complain online; firm says fees withheld due to poor showing but all will be paid

By Liew Hanqing & Carolyn Quek
hanqing@sph.com.sg
carolynq@sph.com.sg

A GROUP of foreign corporate speakers is crying foul over a Singapore company that they claim did not pay them for their services on time as promised.

A few have even gone as far as hiring debt collectors to obtain tardy payments, after coordinating strategies with others who posted their complaints on blogs, websites and online forums.

The company, UNI Strategic, an organiser of corporate events, told The Straits Times that it had no choice but to withhold payment from certain speakers because of what it considered poor performance, which it said was detrimental to its reputation. It later said, however, that its speakers would all be paid eventually.

At least 20 overseas professionals engaged by it to speak at a number of conferences posted complaints on various websites after allegedly not being paid according to their contracts' timelines, which range between 30 and 60 days after an event.

Speakers contacted said their appearance fees typically ranged from $4, 000 to $8, 000 each. One of them, Mr Paul Cherry, 48, president of a company providing sales training and leadership development, detailed on his website the difficulties he had in getting paid his fees of US$4, 000 (S$5, 370) after giving a talk on strategic sales leadership here in 2008.

He has since been contacted by other speakers with similar experiences. His online post received more than 50 comments, mostly from other speakers.

Mr Cherry, an American, said: 'UNI Strategic was great to work with up until the programme. As soon as I left Singapore, very few of my e-mail requests for payment were responded to.'

He was eventually paid, three months late, after threatening to go to the Singapore and the United States authorities for redress.

Another speaker, Mr Peter van Veen, 40, from boutique strategy consulting firm De Ruijter Strategy in London, said he had difficulty getting paid US$3, 000 for a course he ran in Singapore last November.

He said the course had been well received by its 25 participants, who gave it an average rating of 7.84 out of 10 on feedback forms.

'UNI Strategic has never disputed the amount in question. They just don't respond to e-mail and if we do speak to someone, they apologise and tell us they will look into it, never to be heard from again, ' he said.

UNI Strategic paid Mr van Veen on Monday - about 10 months after the event.

Another US-based speaker, who declined to be named, said he had to engage a debt collection agency to obtain his fees of US$6, 500. He paid the agency about a quarter of what he was owed.

UNI Strategic was also sued twice over the past year - by Amara Hotel and Air Services International - for $4, 066 and $12, 332 respectively. It later paid up the amounts and the cases did not go to court.

Mr Roger Tie, chief executive of UNI Strategic, said that while the company paid most of its speakers on time, it had no choice but to withhold payment from those who he claimed had not delivered what they promised.

He said the company, formed nine years ago, encounters 'one or two' speakers a month - out of about 200 a year - who deliver sub-standard programmes that receive poor ratings from participants.

Its benchmark: fewer than half of participants giving speakers an 'acceptable' rating - or 5/10.

Asked if speakers' contracts contained clauses indicating payment would be withheld if they performed poorly, Mr Tie said there were no such clauses, but added that the speakers would be offered the chance to make good - for example, by providing proper course materials later.

'In some cases, our clients complain and demand refunds. Even though the fees are non-refundable, we sometimes have to bite the bullet and give refunds as a form of goodwill, ' he said.

Every year, the company writes off an average of $100, 000 in bad debt, due to non-paying clients or refunds issued to clients who were not happy with the programmes, said Mr Tie. The most common complaints were that speakers' course materials were different from what was agreed on, and that course content was irrelevant or inadequate.

Mr Tie later said the company eventually 'always paid' its speakers, whether or not they met expectations.

It costs each participant between $2, 500 and $3, 500 to attend a programme.

At least one speaker, however, has had a good experience with UNI Strategic.

Mr Monty Sacher, 52, from Melbourne, Australia, who has conducted workshops for the company, said: 'I've not had a payment problem with them.'

Other industry players said it was not standard practice to withhold payment from invited speakers.

Ms May Koh, a training and resource manager with Avantus Training, a company that organises training programmes, said her company usually paid its speakers whether or not they met expectations.

'It's not possible to withhold the entire amount owed - after all, the speaker has already rendered a service, ' she said.

Ms Stacey Yeong, UNI Strategic's conference director, said the company sources its speakers online. Before hiring one, it would typically request a copy of the prospective speaker's resume.

'If they fit the events we are organising, we will engage them, ' she said.

Thats getting offensive...

Mr. Michael Leander Nielsen,

Since you've taken the time to vouch for UNI Strategic (before presenting), would you also guarantee payments for all the other speakers who have not been paid, or those in the future?
Being a 'marketing' person, I would think you would have the decency to actually conduct proper market research - try calling the Commercial Affairs Department at [protected], SPF_CADWebmaster@spf.gov.sg, MTI_Email@mti.gov.sg . You'd want to retract your statement of 'I can't believe what I just read' - because quite frankly you are calling other speakers' liars.

I cannot believe what I have just read. Unistrategic have booked me to conduct a 2 day workshop in Singapore and in all my dealings with them they have been 110% correct.

Initial payments have been made on time, travel arrangements (traveling from Denmark) and accommodation have been taken care of and I am sure that the final payment will be received on time as well.

Some speakers had being paid before delivering the course in their contract. Guess what, they did not get paid but were promised to get paid at the course venue, Guess what, they did not get paid then either and had to fight like the rest of us.
In another website former Unistrategic employees write that Unistrategic also does not pay hotel and suppliers.

Unfortunately, most speakers are too nice and not willing to let Unistrategic down and will still show up. Some may think that it won't be as bad and learn the hard way. I believe that those who did not give up fighting for payment eventually got paid (which could take lots of worries for 8 months or more), but wonder about those that gave up, perhaps because they are too busy at work to pursue this. That is what Unistrategic counts on!

Be smart and learn from the experiences of many before you rather than us having to say 'we told you so' (not that we would).

Hi All,
I sought help from the Singapore Government Departments, as another speaker wrote that the Singapore Government does not tolerate Unistrategic's practices:
My initial contact was: MTI_Email@mti.gov.sg signed by a:

Lin Jiehui (Mr)
Corporate Communication Division
Ministry of Trade and Industry

He actually passed the complaint on to: SPF_CADWebmaster@spf.gov.sg
Commercial Affairs Department. Call the department directly +[protected].

Get these people involved as they have heard about these complaints before.
In my case they did not book the hotel, after 6 hours finally got room, on departure hotel wanted me to pay bill, sorted out with Unistrategic again but months later found tat hotel took money out of my Visa card. On flying back found that they had cancelled my return flight. It took over 8 months to get paid when I let them know that I was in contact with the Singapore Department. Make as much noise as possible, warn future speakers.

I delivered training fro Uni Strategic in Singapore in January and have not been paid. I am not getting email responses. The firm is not living up to our contract which stipulated payment in 3 months.

If you choose to work with them get payment up front or else a letter of credit or some other means fr assuring payment. Definitely get them to pay expenses up front.

Not surprised UNI still keep on doing like this. Surprised that they are still in the business by doing like this

Read about UNI Strategic's activities on http://www.pbresults.com/Sales-Blog/article-tip-for-any-prospective-facilitators-who-are-interested-in-working-uni-strategic.html, www.uni-strategic.blogspot.com, http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/969180 . You be the judge.