Cockroach InterExchange
I strongly do not recommend this sponsor. I participated in the Work and Travel USA program, and my sponsor was InterExchange. During my entire stay in the U.S., I constantly heard from other participants that whenever they had any kind of problem, InterExchange didn’t care and showed no desire to help. Yet everywhere they advertise and repeat that they are available 24/7 and always ready to help. When the air conditioner in my employer-provided housing broke, I wrote to InterExchange asking them to help me — to somehow encourage my employer to fix it faster — because in another house managed by the same employer, there had been no hot water for over a month. I was worried that my employer would also neglect the air conditioner issue and never fix it. In response, InterExchange wrote to me that my employer was surely aware of the situation and that I always had the right to find other housing on my own. Seriously? I only had a month left before the end of the program, I had already settled in, made friends with my roommates, gotten used to everything — and you “friendly remind” me of something I already know? Throughout the entire summer, my house was infested with cockroaches. A lot of cockroaches. In the end, I wanted to receive compensation from my employer for being placed in unsanitary housing, since cockroaches are known carriers of various infections. There were even times when they fell from the ceiling onto me at night — onto my face — which was definitely not the most pleasant experience of living in the U.S. However, InterExchange spent a month supposedly “looking into it,” but in the end did nothing and resolved nothing. That’s what I call “pretending to be busy.” Not only did they ignore my messages and questions, they often didn’t even understand the point of what I was asking. Instead of real answers, I would get replies like: “We really appreciate you sharing your concerns” or “Thank you for taking the time.” What’s the point of that nonsense and your “appreciation”? You’d better just answer properly and actually help solve the problem. The most difficult question for them — and the most complex logical connection they could not make — was that I supposedly had not reported the cockroach problem. Yet the employer himself confirmed the fact that there were cockroaches and that extermination attempts were useless. According to InterExchange’s logic, living with cockroaches is perfectly fine. Although nowhere in their materials do they say that. So here’s a slogan suggestion for them: “We are InterExchange — with us you’ll have the best cockroach-filled summer in the USA and experience an unforgettable roach adventure! We’ll appreciate your feelings, but we won’t do a damn thing about them!”