getting a refund on a poorly taught FX course

fairmove

Hello All:
I recently attended a two day FX trading course. I did my research and this was an established training company with apparently good feedback. At the outset it was presented to me as inclusive of support and DVDs. When I was told that the support forum would be free for a month after which it would carry a membership fee, I negotiated for 3 months free membership and paid £1.8k for the course. The course was not taught properly and many of us were quite upset on the second day. We were assured that as we as kept attending the weekly webinars things would get clearer. During the course they tried to upsell some other investment training for £25k. It was only during the course that the forum membership fee was revealed : another £1.8k for a lifetime membership. (All the other membership fees were more expensive.) After a month, when I found that the webinars were not targeted at beginners, I asked for a refund, but they refused saying I should have asked for it within a week. But there was no way I could have known that the weekly webinars were of no use. They said that I could re-attend the course for free. But why would I want to waste another two days on a course that is clearly not being taught properly? So I insisted on a full refund. They have refused. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would love to get some advice on this please. Thanks a tonne in advance. Have a good day!

TCA

Why was it not taught properly? What exactly do you mean?

Did you pay by credit card? You maybe able to reclaim the payment on the grounds you didn't receive what was promised. Not sure how easy that is though.

fairmove

The main trainer was someone they were training to teach. His explanations were very hard to follow and his examples confused us even more. There was an experienced trainer who kept butting in - this made the trainee lose confidence. At one point, while discussing an example, the experienced trainer completely contradicted the trainee trainer. Yes, I did pay for it with a credit card.

Reaper

While I don't know about this one most of these types of courses are little more than scams, with ongoing charges, hard sell and little information of any use.

Check what you have in writing as to what the course included and compare that to reality to see if you have a case. Not being well taught is probably hard to prove but, for example, charging you extra for stuff they said was free might be.

Justicia

What are the actual terms and conditions that you and they agreed to, especially in respect to refunds?

macman

Did you complain on day one/day two? Did other people? If not, complaining after the event is going to carry little weight.

fairmove

Thanks, Reaper and Justicia. I will dig out the original email in a bit and check against the offering.
Yes, towards the end of day 2, just after lunch. The whole classroom was buzzing - "are you getting this or it just me?". Then during the tea break one of the guys volunteered to speak up and asked for support. He made it clear that we were not getting the hang of it despite trying our best - I think he was attending for the second time. Several of us spoke up in support. None of us thought of asking for a refund or threatening to. We were much more focussed on learning the basics of trading. The trainers explained that particular example again. It was most alarming for me because many of the participants had signed up for the five day training - I don't know what they paid. (I had only signed up for the two days.) So they got assurances that all of the first two days' content would be covered again over the next three days. For the rest of us - no worries, the forum, weekly webinars and forum resources would give us much more clarity. To discover that this was not correct took me some time. Hence my late request for a refund.

fairmove

I certainly feel like I've been had. They had no business putting us in the hands of someone who was learning to train others. This information should have been given to us up front. Secondly, they were not forthcoming about the forum fees. To me, on hindsight, when they were upselling their £25k package, it looked like they were just out to play on people's fears, insecurities, aspirations and 'mop up' every bit of cash the course participants could raise.

le_loup

No one has asked the basic question of why would anyone want to sign up for an FX trading course? What did you expect? If the course runners know how to make money on FX trading, why are they prepared to share this information?


Didn't the incremental costs tell you that the whole shebang is a scam?


Walk away, you have lost two days of your life, paid a small fortune for nothing. Learn from it. Move on.

justme111

It does not sound like the issue was an incompetent teacher.. that line looks like a smoke screen for an outright scam. Good luck in getting your money back , please update us on how it goes if you embark on a war path. I reckon if you hit where it hurts , ie recruiting new students give them negative feedback everywhere you can you may get there. Be careful re defamation topic. Alternatively you may count that money well spent on a valuable lesson in gullibility.

fairmove

le coup - that's a bit harsh. I had no idea about the various upsells until after I had signed up and was attending the course. All I wanted to do was learn to do it right.