Next Step Beauty Academy Complaints Thread

Hi
I paid £395 for a full technician nail course and £95 vat for a course with next step in January I turned up to the location a hotel over 20miles away from me to be told by the receptionist there was no course there. I rang next step who apologised and rescheduled my course for May as this was the only time I could get holidays from work to match their course dates. My course was due next week may 26th and I recieved an email two days ago to say it had been cancelled due to lack of participants and they had put me down for a course in June. Which I could not do as I'm doing an 11day charity walk on the dates. I informed the salon that we're offering me a part time job as a nail technician that my course had been cancelled AGAIN and I was told she couldn't wait any longer as her salon is very busy and would have to employ somebody else so basically I've lost the job opportunity the reason I booked and paid for this course. So I've asked next step for a refund and surprise they are offering me £95 out of the £485 I have paid as I'd accessed the student portal with a few dodgy videos on it I hadn't even downloaded anything from it. £300 for this is an absolute scam. I have contacted citizens advice who have told me to write a letter as they have broke their contract not telling me the course was cancelled in January. Basically their contract is all about them and in my opinion they just scam people. Has anybody got any advice please
And to anybody thinking about using this discraceful company I would look at the terms and conditions very closely before hand and find a better company

Hi
I've been looking at them thanks I've emailed trading standards too.
I've just wrote a letter will send it recorded delivery and I am going to contact my bank to see if they do the payback scheme.
To be quite honest the money doesn't really bother me anymore it's the principle.
If necessary I will seek advice from a solicitor they have infuriated me the way they treat their customers.
Thankyou

Hi,
I too booked £708 worth of courses with NSB in August 2014, they cancelled mine a total of 3 times and refused to refund based on the fact I had accessed the student portal. I tried to negotiate with them with regards to the refund but they came up with a figure of £54!!! This was due to the fact that I booked a Buy one Get one free offer and they informed me that they would refund me the practical training days fees but would then have to charge me for the online elements of the free courses. I refused to accept this so I rang CAB who advised that I write to them with their template letter stating that if I did not receive a refund I would be issuing court proceedings. They did not respond so to cut a long story short I paid £60 to start the ball rolling in the County Court through Money Claim Online website. NSB submitted a part admission to the court and offered £54 again. Obviously, I refused, so the case proceeded through the Small Claims Track and went to a hearing for which I had to pay a further £80 for. This £140 was money well spent as NSB did not submit any defence to the court, they did not attend court, I did, I submitted all my evidence to the judge and I won!!!!
Not only were they ordered to pay my £708, but they were ordered to pay my £140 court costs, loss of earnings for the day and also my travel for doing a 300 mile round trip to Norwich County Court. Total £1033. I went to court on 22nd June 2015 and received my cheque from NSB on 7th July 2015 for the full amount and it has cleared!! ha ha!!!!
It was a long drawn out process, but well worth it, this company are scammers and rely on the fact that people will not pursue them and they get away with your hard earned money. I would recommend that anyone that has been a victim of this unscrupulous company, pursue them all the way, yes they have terms and conditions which you cannot deny, which they regularly quote to you about accessing the student portal, however their terms and conditions are UNFAIR!!!!


They will not have a judgement entered against them now because they have paid the judgement within 28 days of the court date however, my satisfaction comes from the fact I have my money back and more besides and I have gained a victory for the little people.


Good Luck !!!

I can not believe this company... Disgusting, con-artists, unprofessional, fraud-stars - just a few words that come to mind.

I'm currently trying to get my money back from this company who cancelled four times - which I continued to book leave from work to attend, until I was no longer able too. Did not access the portal and still refused to give me my money back because... I didn't cancel within 7 days of booking it!!!!!!!!!!!!... How was I to know that when I book in jan. They would cancel, April, May, June and july's course because THEY couldn't get the numbers - this company is ridiculous offering me 95£ of the 395£ I spend.. When I haven't got ANYTHING from them but headache and stress!!!! I'm so angry... And I'm seeing this through to the very end until I get what's owed to me!!!!!!!!!!... I'm current contacting trading standards and will take them to small claims court if I have to - and can I add I am really not a person who does this, forums etc. But I feel like people need to know about this company so that dnt get ripped off either.

This has emotionally upset me because I was trying to better myself and this company has just scr+we'd me over and made me think again about accessing online courses - I feel sorry for other companies because this one gives them all a bad rep