The Student Room Group

Frontier South Africa Conservation Volunteer Project

Just wanted to post to see if anyone else is going on this project, considering to, or have been in the past/had experience with other Frontier projects! I'm in the process of applying and would appreciate tips as I'm worried about going on my own! I'm looking to go in July this year. :smile:
Reply 1
Original post by arainyday
Just wanted to post to see if anyone else is going on this project, considering to, or have been in the past/had experience with other Frontier projects! I'm in the process of applying and would appreciate tips as I'm worried about going on my own! I'm looking to go in July this year. :smile:


Hi,

I hope you have a lovely time and all goes well. I undertook a different voluntary project with them in the past and I'm afraid to say it was horrendous. Nothing like it was described as, and detailed information prior to travel was not forthcoming until I kept chasing them over and over. Scary host family (to the point of threatening myself and another volunteer) and the host family told us Frontier 'had never even bothered to visit in person, we could be murderers for all they know'. Needless to say I left sharpish and lost the money I'd paid for it. My family were also incredibly worried back at home.

Formal complaints were dismissed and ignored then basically just accused me of making it all up! Apparently from other reviews I've seen online the Managing Director/partner is a Barrister and so if anyone takes anything further they are threatened with costly legal bills. I just gave up in the end as it was becoming more hassle than it was worth and I wanted to forget it ever happened!

But I have seen other reviews online which looked positive, so maybe I was just unlucky. Just make sure you get all the information you need from them before you leave.

xx
Reply 2
I spoke to a lot of their past volunteers when I was coming to a decision about my company and all I heard was awful reviews. Basically the exact above, that they were extremely unfriendly and unsafe.
Reply 3
Original post by kittykebab
Hi,

I hope you have a lovely time and all goes well. I undertook a different voluntary project with them in the past and I'm afraid to say it was horrendous. Nothing like it was described as, and detailed information prior to travel was not forthcoming until I kept chasing them over and over. Scary host family (to the point of threatening myself and another volunteer) and the host family told us Frontier 'had never even bothered to visit in person, we could be murderers for all they know'. Needless to say I left sharpish and lost the money I'd paid for it. My family were also incredibly worried back at home.

Formal complaints were dismissed and ignored then basically just accused me of making it all up! Apparently from other reviews I've seen online the Managing Director/partner is a Barrister and so if anyone takes anything further they are threatened with costly legal bills. I just gave up in the end as it was becoming more hassle than it was worth and I wanted to forget it ever happened!

But I have seen other reviews online which looked positive, so maybe I was just unlucky. Just make sure you get all the information you need from them before you leave.

xx


Oh dear, I looked at Frontier because of a recommendation on here and it all looked good on the website! Luckily I haven't actually booked anything, just in the stage of applying. I will definitely look at some more reviews before I do anything more based on what you've said. Which project did you do? Thank you for telling me all this!

Original post by Elelia
I spoke to a lot of their past volunteers when I was coming to a decision about my company and all I heard was awful reviews. Basically the exact above, that they were extremely unfriendly and unsafe.


What company did you pick in the end?
Reply 4
Original post by arainyday

What company did you pick in the end?


I'm in Ghana right now with uVolunteer, they are excellent.

You may find this post I made helpful, feel free to read it: http://emilyinghana.com/2014/01/13/finding-the-right-company-for-you/

Just be super careful, I heard from someone they were great too but when I looked into it I found so many awful reviews, a lot of people also said they had been offered money to remove their reviews.
Reply 5
Original post by arainyday
Oh dear, I looked at Frontier because of a recommendation on here and it all looked good on the website! Luckily I haven't actually booked anything, just in the stage of applying. I will definitely look at some more reviews before I do anything more based on what you've said. Which project did you do? Thank you for telling me all this!



What company did you pick in the end?


Hi there,

Mine was the Wallaby Sanctuary in Australia. Also be careful with review websites - once you've read through all the positive reviews you might find little odd things like almost identical wording for reviews from 'independent' reviewers. I posted a negative review and that was when I got the first response from Frontier (they had just completely ignored all my direct emails to them up til that point) and they just contacted the review company direct and asked for my post to be removed! SO I then had to provide my contact details to them (to prove i was a volunteer with them) - which they obviously had already. They ended up just responding to my review online saying words to the effect of ' she couldnt hack it out there, she's making it up, we've had no other complaints'.


xx
(edited 10 years ago)

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