The amphiphilic 3-oxodithiocarboxylic esters 2a-d have been prepared starting from p-hydroxy acetophenone. These esters react with transition metal salts MX 2 (M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Zn; X = Cl, OAc) to yield the tetrahedral and cis configured square planar chelate complexes M (II) [S=C(SR 2 )-CH=C(O)-C 6 H 4 -p-OR 1 ] 2 (R 1 = C 6 H 1 3 , C 1 2 H 2 5 ; R 2 = CH 3 , C 6 H 1 3 , C 1 2 H 2 5 ) (3a-e, 5a-f, 6a-c) as well as the octahedral complexes py 2 M(II) [S=C(SCH 3 )-CH=C(O)-C 6 H 4 -p-OC 6 H 1 3 ] 2 (M = Mn, Fe) (4a,b) and fac-Co(III) [S=C(SR 2 )-CH=C(O)-C 6 H 4 -p-OC 6 H 1 3 ] 3 (R 2 = CH 3 , C 6 H 1 3 ) (7 and 8), respectively. The structures of 5c and 8 have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.