You want my advice? AVOID BECKERS LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Anybody had the misfortune to have any dealings with Becker Helicopters? I did and it cost me thousands of dollars and wasted months of my time.
Mike Becker, the playground bully from Becker helicopters, is probably the most unethical, unscrupulous, immoral bloke that I've ever had the misfortune to meet.
To recruit me from the UK I was actually told that I would be able to work in sunny Australia on completion of my CPL(H). Nothing could be further from the truth! A students visa is cancelled on completion of their course and replaced with a 30 holiday visa after which they have to leave the country. So I was recruited on a falsehood.
When I left to train with another more reputable company in Victoria I wrote a letter to CASA voicing my concerns about Becker's inaccurate course material and the quality of their theory instructor. And boy did I touch an exposed nerve.
This sent the Becker damage limitation/lie machine into action as quick you can say "Filthy Dollar"! In an effort to stifle my genuine complaints Becker tried to rescind their original letter of release to me claiming it was unauthorised.
Unauthorised, by the office manager, on company letter headed paper and faxed direct to my new school. It is suddenly now invalid because I complained against him. Basically, he was trying to silence me by getting me out of the country so I wouldn't expose him for the liar he is.
My new school was bombarded with faxes and phone calls claiming all sorts of nonsense about home stay family allegations of my alleged misconduct. Luckily for me, the male in my home stay family was a retired Federal Police Officer and qualified Justice of the Peace so he refuted all the lies that Becker had sent to my new school!
His next port of call was immigration. After telling me to
off and said that I was on my own he proceeded to call immigration and bombard them with lies as well. Again, fortunately for me, immigration heard my side of the story and ignored Becker, They gave me a new visa with no restrictions regarding any future school changes.
I actually found it hard to believe that this bloke was actively pursuing me 5 weeks after I had left his little school! That shows the calibre, or lack of, of the man!
Getting money back was always going to be a bone of contention as the Becker's lives are geared wholly to the pursuit of the filthy dollar at all costs. So it came as no surprise to me that money returned from my student account was 700 dollars short as my already deducted landing fees weren't returned. So it was another 3 phone calls before this eventually happened.
Despite 3 faxes and one letter from my new school, Becker never bothered his
forwarding my training records - a clear breach of CASA law. But he apparently is above the law.
And there are half a dozen other administration incidents which Becker used to put obstacles in my way. Anything to make life difficult for the departing student who dared to disagree with him!
You want my advice? AVOID BECKERS LIKE THE PLAGUE!