Next Step Beauty Academy Complaints Thread

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Comments

  • I too am following your advice and have just asked my bank to try and get back my £474 that I paid for on my debit card as it is within the 120 days reclaim period. I paid for my daughter to undertake the nail technician course and the same happened as with everyone else, they repeatedly cancelled the course stating insufficient students. I have sent a recorded delivery letter to next step beauty stating my intentions of taking legal proceedings to recover the money on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour by continuously cancelling the course. My daughter has since undertaken the training with another company and was very pleased with their service. I will let you know how I get on with regards to next step beauty.
  • Hello

    Please can you give me some advice regarding next step beauty? I paid £474 for a beauty course in which they keep cancelling every month and won't refund me. I'm so fed up now and they won't talk to me on the phone anymore.

    I just don't know what to do.
    Please help xxx

    P's. Did anyone have the same problem as me if so did you manage to get a refund and how xx



    Hi all,

    I recently had a big problem with this company. I paid for a beauty course a sum of £238, they cancelled it, and refused to refund my money, They told me I could travel 4 hours to get to an alternative location, OR, do another course in 1 month (however their T&Cs provided for them to cancel these courses ad infinitum!)

    I was within the distance selling period of cooling off, but they claimed I had accessed valuable course materials on their student portal, and their T&Cs provided an exclusion in this circumstance.

    I then met a lady on a beauty course I booked with another company, who had also suffered as Next Step cancelled her course and as she was pregnant and was too emotianally worn out to keep trying for a refund,she had given up.

    I reviewed them before parting with any money, and all the reviews seemed ok. However, after having problems I googled "Next Step Beauty wont refund" and found many reviews where people have had the same problem, including an article in the daily express.

    A lot of these reviews are removed though, and 5* reviews appear in their place. I thought by starting this thread, genuine people who have had problems could reply on here, and we could help each other.

    My concern is, that many people simply give up after a few attempts, and this company get to keep hundreds of pounds of money that doesn't rightfully belong to them.

    I eventually got a refund after reporting them to Trading Standards, and going down the legal route.

    Please post here with relevant comments or complaints or pm if you like I will respond and help as soon as I can.

    SFG x
  • Unfortunately I have and am currently going through the same thing. Wish I would have read these comments first before booking 3 courses with them! Oh well to court it is :-(
  • Hi baybe im sorry to hear you are having the same problem as me with next step beauty, im new to MSE and this is my first post so forgive me if i rant or go on a bit! I also booked 3 courses back in august for september and we are now 6 months on and they have been cancelled every month! Ive been so patient and even agreed to sign up to a different location in the hope that i would get to the training day quicker but enough is enough and so i asked for a refund. I have just recieved a reply to my complaint email two weeks after sending it saying that they will give me £160+vat back as ive had part of the services (i paid £408 in total) Of course i logged on to the student portal as i dont see how you cant when they tell you you must download the training manuals and take them to the practical days!!! I wonder if they ever actually run a practical day anywhere or are there just loads of very angry and out if pocket people stuck like we are? To the other people that have been grossly and unfairly treated by next step, what would you do? Would you take the money and be done with this whole stressful and upsetting scenario? Or would you take them to court? Im not quite sure where i would start with that or who to contact first, any advice greatfully recieved!
    I wish i had never picked the phone up to book the courses, its been the most anxious 6 nearly 7 months now and i cant help feeling so let down by them.
    If the two locations i agreed to wait for are that quiet that in 6 months they couldnt run a course then they shouldnt be offering them as options when booking!!!
    For one crazy minute i did have faith in them that they would accept in this situation it was a ridiculous amount of time to keep me waiting and that they were at fault and give me a full refund like any decent human being with a concience would, but no they arent even that decent.
    I just hope that people see this website forum before they too waste their time and money on next step beauty.
    I hope you get your money back Baybe and everyone else and keep us posted on any progress, i would love to know peoples outcomes!
  • Kezwez
    Kezwez Posts: 2 Newbie
    Hi there also having problems with a refund for £474 from this company for my daughter who had a chance of a job in a salon because they cancelled the course twice we asked for the money back so she could go elsewhere as it has now turned out she has lost the chance of the job as they had been patient and waited for her to do the course but they couldn't be expected to wait for 3 months and then there was no guarantee that it wouldn't have been cancelled my daughter is so upset its a lot of money to lose we have spoken to cab and have written a letter asking for refund but bot had a reply as yet don't know what to do next any ideas ?
  • Kezwez
    Kezwez Posts: 2 Newbie
    She booked hers New Years day course was supposed to take place 12th jan then 9th feb then 12 March she also said she did access portal as it made out to so so asap but as far as I'm aware there was nothing in there you couldn't see on you tube ! It's disgraceful this shouldn't be allowed they offered her £95 back as if a few videos is worth £300 and also she didn't even watch them just went on to make sure it was ok ! And if the practical side only costs £95 how come they can't afford to pay someone to teach it ??
  • I am having the same trouble, I am about to contact trading standards and if I have no luck I will take them to court, This seems to have been happening for some years, how can they still keep doing the same practices and getting away with it?!
  • baybe wrote: »
    Unfortunately I have and am currently going through the same thing. Wish I would have read these comments first before booking 3 courses with them! Oh well to court it is :-(

    I think we'll be there at the same time hun!! :cool:
  • paddyrg
    paddyrg Posts: 13,543 Forumite
    Go via your credit card companies - something you paid for was not delivered, the practical day was clearly the substantial part of the value, not a few theoretical videos.
  • I have just received notification from Next Step that they are rescheduling my manicure & pedicure courses and that they hope this is ok. Well, it's not ok, I have taken the day off work and arranged child care. When replying to Next Step advising them of this and asking what my options were as I couldn't rearrange my life for them, I was advised the same - that I could change over to the distance learning (errr, no thanks). Either that or reapply for other dates (and after reading this thread I see a theme here) as a gesture of goodwill, I must add, because they are doing me such a massive favour.

    Anyway, in a nutshell, how can I get my money back?
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