Advent Training Gone bust... what now??

aron80

I have just called the administrators and they have told me to fill in the 'proof of debt' form on their website. Just thought I'd tell you lot incase it helps.

shamss_2

hello guys,

I am as well one of the unlucky people who recieved an email from advent. I rang barclays and they said to me that they will find another provider with the same level of course... and when i mentioned to them that I want to cancel my agreement they said I cant and I have to pay £6 k. lol. they was so rude.... we should find a way to get our money back... you wont pay to get nothing.

shamss_2

hi guys,
we should all of us write to barclays and do not accepte the other provider. we should not be forced to go with another couse provider. specially with the rude Barclays Customer.

malchus

go on facebook and type PROTEST BY STUDENTS OF ADVENT TRAINING.....WHO/S IN??

SHill

I'm in the same boat, and guess what you have signed up to an agreement with BPF. Read your T's and C's first and see where you stand, if you just don't you pay you may breach your side of the contract and end up loads more in deferred payments plus the massive interest rate on top which take longer for you to clear. Keep your side of the bargin.
Get some clear and concise advice if you read all the previous threads, most people are in the similar situation.
I prefer not to go another provider myself in case this thing happens again..but I rather not get an horrendous credit score which would damage me for years and years and not be able to get credit cards or any other type of credit.

My advice read your t's and c's speak to consumer direct and CAB get some free advice. I have put in a call to Financial obudsman now which I never done before....

If you haven't read the previous threads yet do so, but unfortunatley this will all take time and won't be a quick fix.....

headmonkey

Hi.
This is my first post here but I've been following this thread since I learned that Advent went bust. I also was studying with Advent and had just passed my A+ Technicians exam when I heard.

As I had finished the CompTIA module but not started the next I have been stuck in limbo without the next study pack to concentrate on whilst this awful situation played out.

Personally, considering that it is possible that we might not get a refund or cease of contract before having to pay (which is the position I'm in), I am quite interested in what alternative Barclays will provide because I feel that whoever they get as a replacement can't be as bad as Advent turned out to be. If I get a better product for my money then the sting of a £5500 debt might be a little easier to bear.
I sent a letter to Barclays stating that they had 6 weeks from their original communication to come up with an alternative solution and after that I would be seeking legal advice.
The reply I got was a standard reply that I'm sure a lot of you have seen in one form or another already.

In the mean time I have decided to start a project investigating the possibility of some sort of online hub for people who want to learn from home with the intention of breaking into the IT industry.

This initially would consist of forums for home learners to get in touch with one another, reviews of home learning products such as Advents offerings, text book banks so that learners can swap text books and advice from people already in the industry.
If done right, I feel that such a place could empower people to go ahead and learn from home without the huge investments needed to purchase a course.

If you think about it, none of us probably needed Advent in the first place. We just didn't know where else to go. These companies are so good at Search Engine Optimisation that you always end up at one of their sites when you try to do any sort of online investigation.
Any real knowledge of these courses are pushed further and further down in the rankings so we end up with a barrage of landing pages for one course provider or another.
Sorry I'm ranting now.

The point of this post is to ask all of you here if you wouldn't mind if I PMed you a questionnaire asking of your experience with Advent before this debacle took place.
The questions will be concerned with you expectations compared with the service you received and things of that nature.

No names, emails addresses or personal info is required just answers to the questions which can be as long or as short as you like.

Please don't think of this post as spam. I am in the same boat as a lot of you and am trying to find a way to empower people to learn without being ripped off.
If we end up not getting our money back or stuck with another poor quality course provider at least we can try to ensure that future home learners don't get landed in the same boat.
If you would like to take part in this questionnaire please PM me and I will be in touch.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

Emz1983

Hi Folks,

I'm in the same position too. Received the letter from Barclays two days ago which pretty much says that they have now found someone to give us the training and that they shall give us more details soon.

I spoke to a person from Barclays last week to chase them up and I explained that Advent had pretty much guaranteed me a job at the end of my training if not before and had explained that that was the reason I had signed with Advent over other traing providers.
According to Barclays they are not legally obliged to help find us employment - only to provide the training - is it just me or is this not totally unacceptable? It is after all a service I'm sure we have paid for.

They are not keeping to thier side of the bargain at all as far as I'm concerned.
I still have all the material the rep gave me and that includes a chunk of literature on career dev.

I feel like I'm treading on egg shells a bit with them as my payment free year was over in Jan and I have since refinanced my loan with someone else so my Barclays loan is settled.

RobertoMoir

headmonkey wrote: »

Hi.
This is my first post here but I've been following this thread since I learned that Advent went bust. I also was studying with Advent and had just passed my A+ Technicians exam when I heard.

As I had finished the CompTIA module but not started the next I have been stuck in limbo without the next study pack to concentrate on whilst this awful situation played out.

Personally, considering that it is possible that we might not get a refund or cease of contract before having to pay (which is the position I'm in), I am quite interested in what alternative Barclays will provide because I feel that whoever they get as a replacement can't be as bad as Advent turned out to be. If I get a better product for my money then the sting of a £5500 debt might be a little easier to bear.
I sent a letter to Barclays stating that they had 6 weeks from their original communication to come up with an alternative solution and after that I would be seeking legal advice.
The reply I got was a standard reply that I'm sure a lot of you have seen in one form or another already.

In the mean time I have decided to start a project investigating the possibility of some sort of online hub for people who want to learn from home with the intention of breaking into the IT industry.

This initially would consist of forums for home learners to get in touch with one another, reviews of home learning products such as Advents offerings, text book banks so that learners can swap text books and advice from people already in the industry.
If done right, I feel that such a place could empower people to go ahead and learn from home without the huge investments needed to purchase a course.

If you think about it, none of us probably needed Advent in the first place. We just didn't know where else to go. These companies are so good at Search Engine Optimisation that you always end up at one of their sites when you try to do any sort of online investigation.
Any real knowledge of these courses are pushed further and further down in the rankings so we end up with a barrage of landing pages for one course provider or another.
Sorry I'm ranting now.

The point of this post is to ask all of you here if you wouldn't mind if I PMed you a questionnaire asking of your experience with Advent before this debacle took place.
The questions will be concerned with you expectations compared with the service you received and things of that nature.

No names, emails addresses or personal info is required just answers to the questions which can be as long or as short as you like.

Please don't think of this post as spam. I am in the same boat as a lot of you and am trying to find a way to empower people to learn without being ripped off.
If we end up not getting our money back or stuck with another poor quality course provider at least we can try to ensure that future home learners don't get landed in the same boat.
If you would like to take part in this questionnaire please PM me and I will be in touch.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

I hate to say this but there already are plenty of online resources out there for people to do all this by themselves. There are plenty of sites for people to discuss certification & training, there are plenty of sites where IT professionals discuss things and support one another and there are plenty of sites out there talking about IT jobs.

I'm not sure another site is really going to help anything, unless you can offer something which isn't already being done, or you can offer much better facilities than those already on offer..

cjclegg

Just had a brief chat with a solicitor on line and it doesn't sound too good. Apparently the only way to cancel the agreement with BPF is to dispute the the new provider and only if it is substantially different from Advent. It was only a brief overview, but he has had previous experience in distance learning contracts.
If anyone has heard different please let me know as I would like to act now rather than wait for BPF to dictate my future.

MBetty

Hi, I need some advice if someone can offer. I paid just under 6k of my own money to Advent back in Nov 2008 and I have not completed my first exam due to work commitments. I did not take the loan Barclays offered and still would I be able get any money in return? Just feel so empty spending this amount of money and receive nothing...