Mis-sold Home Learning College Course??

VirginiaW

I was not speaking about A+ certification, this depends from student to student. My "A+" from the last post was for Mr. K.A. Tutor. I was very pleased with his comunication and help and I am sure that in HLC are a lot of tutors like him.

I finished University of Law, as for my favorite hobby is IT.

gullibleone_3

mis-sold home learning college course?
Dont know if this qualifies, but would just like to vent my frustration!

A salesman signed me up for a book-keeping course with home learning college, when the materials finally arrived, i knew straight away, that the course was way beyond my capability. I tried to cancel the course, but home learning college dragged their feet (played for time) until the 30 days passed since i signed up.
So without even using any of their so called "support" almost 4 years later i am still paying the £1051 in instalments for the course, and i have looked in to it-i signed a legally binding contract & cannot get out of it.
PLEASE be absolutly sure-you want to deal with something like this BEFORE you sign up, I am paying £1051 FOR NOTHING !
i say for nothing because i cant do the course, have never used their tutors (obviously) may aswell have set light to the cash! been paying this absurd debt since june 2006! the monthly payments are so low because i have been a mum, and therefore unemployed.
if you know a loophole/get out clause, i'd love to be told about it.

t19erlas

Mis sold course from Home Learning College

In November 2009 I invited a course advisor from HLC into my home to discuss which course I should take having recently completed in August 2008 AAT level 2 Foundation evening classes at my local college.

The course advisor and myself discussed my job role, qualifications I had already obtained, which were shown to the advisor, and were I would like to be in five years time.

During the conversation I informed the advisor that I was interested in doing the next level (level3) though was a little apprehensive as to what I could remember from my previous studies. The advisor suggested I did level 2/3 as this would enable me to recall my previous level.

As the advisor completed the Enrolment Agreement form he named the course as AAT Accountancy and explained that this covers all the levels. The cost would be £1544.00 and I could pay this by direct debit over the following two years.

On receiving my HLC pack several days later, I was excited and looking forward to getting started. I glanced through the books to get a rough guide as to the contents and noticed that some books had level 2 certificate whilst others had level 3 diploma.

I enjoyed working on the level 2 books as this made me remember my college course though I found level 3 challenging but enjoyed learning new skills.

On completing my exams in January 2011 I was provisionally informed by HLC that I had passed but had heard nothing from AAT. On 3rd May I rung AAT to be informed that I had not completed level 3 as several areas had not been done and that I should contact HLC.

I contacted my tutor at HLC to be told that I was not doing level 3 but level 2 and his records showed that I had successfully completed the course. If this is true then why does AAT have me as being on level 3?

I am angry that I have been deceived into paying over £1500 to do a course which I have already achieved and that I have wasted the last 18 months studying except the level 3 section which was new. At which stage should I have acknowledged that I was not on the right course as my books stated level 2 and level 3 and my advisor indicated the same.

Please also note that if I do not receive a full explanation as to the reasons why I am not doing the level 2/3 curriculum, after the advisor knew that I had completed the AAT level 2 course and other than refreshing my knowledge there was no reason to sit the level 2 exam again, he had seen all the relevant certificates shown to him when I signed for what I am now being told by yourselves is just a level 2 course and not a 2/3, I am so angry that I am still paying for a course that has been wrongly sold to me, it is not the course that I was advised I would be doing and for that matter my direct debit payments will be frozen until this matter is resolved.

Having now frozen my direct debits until HLC resolve my complaint I receive a call from a leading bank stating that I have faulted on my agreement.... It turns out that I signed a form for a fixed loan over a two year period.... NOT a form giving my bank permission to pay their bank.

Home Learning College have now contacted me agreeing that I was mis sold a course and have offered me free of charge the correct level... however I am taking legal advice as to whether I have to accept this or as I prefer to request a refund.. I have spent the last 18months studying with very little help from tutors, course materials full of errors and omissions, which were not fully identified to students .

This year I was supposed to be starting my final year in accountancy instead I am no further along yet still paying for a course I have previously obtained... and have sat the exams. I am so angry that I have been deceived throughout I don't know what to do next....

Former_MSE_Alana

Hi,

We have received this response from the Home Learning College. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company may say on the forum.


"Hello

Having investigated your case it would seem that the advice you were given on enrolment was incorrect and we offer our apologies for that error. As you originally expressed an interest in the combined Level 2 and 3 course we felt that offering a free upgrade to the higher level would be appropriate in this situation. However, if you would prefer to discuss other options then we are happy to go down that route.

We fully appreciate the inconvenience this has caused, so please feel free to contact our customer support team a time of your convenience and we will discuss how best to resolve this to your satisfaction.

Best wishes

Ruth Brokenshire
Home Learning College Customer Support Manager"

Infogirl100

I was interested in doing HLC's Dreamweaver(DW) and Flash combined course. I have already done a 2 day DW course but this didn't give me the Adobe accreditation which HLC does and I wanted to formalise my knowledge.

I spoke to a friendly and not too pushy guy who gave me all the details of the course which sounded good till he told me it would cost me nearly £2000 down to £1500 for paying the whole amount over 3 months! This only includes the student version of Dreamweaver as others have mentioned

After several intakes of breath, I did some further research (including finding this forum) and found that I can get the accreditation myself by doing the following things:

Buy the official study book (about £20 on Amazon) (HLC offers the option of buying 6 study books for £70)
Either download the 30 day trial of Dreamweaver or buy the full version (about £250)
Book onto the exam at a Certiport centre (about £100)

This means I could do the whole thing for a maximum of £370 and end up with the full software.

I know I would not get any tutoring and would have to repeat this process for Flash but I have already had some 1:1 tuition with a trainer and it would still be a fraction of the HLC price to do both. There are also loads of tutorials and help on the web on just about any topic to substitute for a tutor.

HLC might have advantages for some people but if you have the confidence to work just as well by yourself then please don't spend this vast amount of money. I'm glad I did this research promted by this forum so thanks to people who have posted for tipping me off and avoiding a lot of wasted money and aggro! I hope my post will do the same.

vanitypirate

Taking on a course from this place is the stupidest thing I have ever done. I would have never done it if I hadn't been looking for a job for so long and was desperate to start doing anything. ALL THESE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT IS TAKING YOUR CASH. I went to a few solicitors and were told that they are aware of this place being a complete scam but I have signed and unless they make a drastic mistake there's nothing I can do.

wesleybrown

Hi everyone, I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this debate as I also feel I have somewhat been mislead with this course.

Last year I was unemployed, I have always worked as a web designer / graphic designer but was struggling after working freelance for many years to get a salary based position. I had a look online for up to date relevant qualifications and the adobe certification looked ideal. I found the HLC website, made a call and a sales rep came round and went over it.

I signed up and started the course. My first observation was that it all seemed to simple, already knowing the adobe suite and having worked in the field for many years, I had no problems completing the course. I found the learning side very helpful with HLC, the tutor was helpful and response times to emails etc where great.

The problems only really occured once I went to sit my final exams. Ill start from the beginning of that process:

Firstly it took 6 months to get an exam bookign after completing the course, although this may not be HLC's fault.

The testing centre was not local, it was 60 miles away.

The testing centre was a cyber cafe above a corner shop of all places, not what i was expecting for my £2000 course.

The pass grades for the exam are ridiculously high, I got 2 questions wrong on my first exam and failed!

To re-sit an exam costs £42, it is NOT free.

I ended up using the voucher code for my flash exam to re-sit the dreamweaver exam.

Now I DID pass the exam second time... HOWEVER...

VERY VERY few of the questions related to what was taught on the HLC course. I was fortunate enough to have worked in web development for over 10 years, with alot of programming experience behind me, if I had not, there is no way I would of passed based on the HLC course...

For example the exam had questions relating to specific information about using .ste files, connection types using a testing server, detailed information on spry accordion, css template rules when creating asp and php files... NONE OF THESE ARE COVERED IN THE COURSE!

Now to top it off I have to pay the £42 to sit my Flash exam. Flash is something I have very little experience using, really only what was covered in the HLC course, and if the Dreamweaver is anything to go by, you can bet that most of the questions have not been covered in the HLC course!!! So im left debating wether I should even bother??

I could have just paid the exam fee myself and not had to fork out £2000 on a course that was utterly useless for the exam that followed it!!!

The HLC service is great, good support etc etc, but I feel I have been mislead into paying for a course that was really not needed. I told the sales rep my background and even asked if this course was for me... Live and learn people, live and learn!

usernam3_2

I recently made the decision to quit my HLC course, as I never received help from tutors, they never answered phones, and the materials were VERY substandard.

Overall I have paid around £2,000 to these CON ARTISTS, and I still haven't got my qualification. (Due to lack of help from tutors, awful course material, etc)

I have decided to go the way I always should of gone, and do evening classes at the local college. These cost £500 and I will come out with my qualification after 36 weeks. I wish I never had the interview with their "Advisor" (SALESMAN) because then I would of looked at other avenues. These people are professional con artists, they get commission to enrol you so they don't care whether you do it or not. I am absolutely disgusted about this and this has reinforced my view that education should be government owned. All these private companies want is profit.

Fed up, out of pocket, and there's nothing I can do about it.

lee1985

usernam3 wrote: »

I recently made the decision to quit my HLC course, as I never received help from tutors, they never answered phones, and the materials were VERY substandard.

Overall I have paid around £2,000 to these CON ARTISTS, and I still haven't got my qualification. (Due to lack of help from tutors, awful course material, etc)

I have decided to go the way I always should of gone, and do evening classes at the local college. These cost £500 and I will come out with my qualification after 36 weeks. I wish I never had the interview with their "Advisor" (SALESMAN) because then I would of looked at other avenues. These people are professional con artists, they get commission to enrol you so they don't care whether you do it or not. I am absolutely disgusted about this and this has reinforced my view that education should be government owned. All these private companies want is profit.

Fed up, out of pocket, and there's nothing I can do about it.

I sympathise with your post because it's not nice to be in a situation like yours but I highlight an important part of your post at the end. Isn't this what every company wants - a business exists to make a profit!

leon_stfc_82

I've just signed up for the travel and toursim one (BTEC) (£640ish) paid £40 deposit and agreed to pay £48 a month over a year, alot of people with bad reviews on here have done IT / Accouting related ones, hopefully the travel and tourism one is better as won't have issues with PC related stuff like what software versions etc they have sent me.

However I've literally just sent the agreement plan in the post today, so I presume I get this 14 days to cancel as per the contract I've just signed?

Clearly states 14 days as per the distance selling act.

This protects me, right? I've just gotta send the books back if I dont like them?