Warning: Exemplar Education

Edelokun

Just wondering if anyone last year might have been able to cancel. We are really struggling. Pls if anyway has can help.

dawyldthing

Can you not cancel the direct debit/ standing order? If it’s the former and it’s in writing it can be cancelled, you need to put a block on with the bank under the direct debit scheme

MornevdM

Whatever you do do not sign up with this company.
They will tell you pretty little lies about how useful the software is, that you get a laptop worth £250 when you sign up, to use with the software and that it takes only 15 minutes to do a lesson.
First of all only 1 part of the software is of any use to the younger kids.
Secondly the laptop (if you can call it that) is not worth £50, so slow that the lessons buffer when playing and the audio quality is extremely poor.
Thirdly they will pressure you into signing up for the longest contract as it works out so much cheaper in the long run.
Fourthly: they will prey on your feelings as a concerned parent and convince you that nothing else will be able to help your child.
Our salesman even talked us out of getting a personal tutor saying that their software package would be better in the long run.
Once they then have you in the contract you are very much up the creak without a paddle.
We are now stuck paying for software we do not use as it takes at least a half an hour a day to do a single lesson let alone do 1 of each. When we bought it we were clear that we had very little time to use the software as my wife and I work full time and our son gets home at 6:30pm most days.
They are adamant that you cannot exit the contract, and that you should contact the company that did the credit agreement if you have a problem with the software.
Their customer service is beyond useless, they took 2 weeks to respond to my concerns and when they did they were very evasive and rude about it. The software is over priced for what it is and the hardware almost never works. We really tried to use it in the beginning but had several issues with the software and laptop which we were assured would be sorted out. It then got a bit better for a short period and then became steadily worse again. So much so that we eventually couldn't be asked to do it anymore as you just know its going to have issues (We are on the fastest virgin media broadband package and it still buffers regularly).
My son now doesn't want to use it anymore as it stops so often (Daaaaaaad it's paused again...)
I think everyone who is in a similar boat and now stuck in this contract should contact me so we can make a group effort of it. I think a strongly worded letter to each and every school about peddling the software to their students is the best place to start followed by joint legal action against the scamming exemplar group.

hollydays

MornevdM wrote: »

Whatever you do do not sign up with this company.
They will tell you pretty little lies about how useful the software is, that you get a laptop worth £250 when you sign up, to use with the software and that it takes only 15 minutes to do a lesson.
First of all only 1 part of the software is of any use to the younger kids.
Secondly the laptop (if you can call it that) is not worth £50, so slow that the lessons buffer when playing and the audio quality is extremely poor.
Thirdly they will pressure you into signing up for the longest contract as it works out so much cheaper in the long run.
Fourthly: they will prey on your feelings as a concerned parent and convince you that nothing else will be able to help your child.
Our salesman even talked us out of getting a personal tutor saying that their software package would be better in the long run.
Once they then have you in the contract you are very much up the creak without a paddle.
We are now stuck paying for software we do not use as it takes at least a half an hour a day to do a single lesson let alone do 1 of each. When we bought it we were clear that we had very little time to use the software as my wife and I work full time and our son gets home at 6:30pm most days.
They are adamant that you cannot exit the contract, and that you should contact the company that did the credit agreement if you have a problem with the software.
Their customer service is beyond useless, they took 2 weeks to respond to my concerns and when they did they were very evasive and rude about it. The software is over priced for what it is and the hardware almost never works. We really tried to use it in the beginning but had several issues with the software and laptop which we were assured would be sorted out. It then got a bit better for a short period and then became steadily worse again. So much so that we eventually couldn't be asked to do it anymore as you just know its going to have issues (We are on the fastest virgin media broadband package and it still buffers regularly).
My son now doesn't want to use it anymore as it stops so often (Daaaaaaad it's paused again...)
I think everyone who is in a similar boat and now stuck in this contract should contact me so we can make a group effort of it. I think a strongly worded letter to each and every school about peddling the software to their students is the best place to start followed by joint legal action against the scamming exemplar group.

You could also start a Facebook page.

Hillwalker11

Definitely try The Guardian's complaint page. My son wrote to them after buying a car from a very well known German car dealership. The car was months old when bought.A week after the warranty expired the engine virtually blew up.They wanted to charge him in excess of £6,000 for a new engine on an 18 month old car.

He was not happy and they wouldn't budge until his complaints letter to The Guardian.He got the new engine for £500.Needless to say he sold the car soon afterwards.

intik

Hello,
I just wanted to join this topic because I am trying to cancel my agreement with them for a long time. I have reported them to financial ombudsman and waiting for response from them. Just wanted to let you know that I will keep posting about my progress and would like to ask anyone to provide as much as possible information about your cancellation progress.
Thank you

Edelokun

Any news from anyone who did manage to cancel? We are going mad. The computer lasted 2 min. And the program is not what we thought. Our situation is really bad right now and after 2 weeks, someone finally called us back and funnily enough what we did not know is that we are now dealing with a third party who have already paid exemplar almost 5.000 and we are now owing them. 😳

TBagpuss

I don't know this company but would endorse the suggestion which several people have made, to contact the Guardian (or another national bnewspaper) to see whther they can help. The Guardian does it a s a problem page in their weekend money sectin, the daily Telegrapgh has 'Jessica Investigates ' in their Saturdya money secion (although she is about to reture, I don't know if someone else is taking over) and I am sure other papers have similar pages.

Lor2340

Hi there

We signed up to this tutoring program a couple of years ago. I have seen no improvement in my son's learning and also the connection is rubbish and when I have reported it they have taken 3 days to get back to me which is useless.

This has put my son off of learning as it's a hassle!! We missed a payment one month and you would of though we committed murder! They didn't listen to the fact that my husband's wages had dropped and we were struggling they kept interrupting when we were talking!

I would tell anyone to avoid this program as we have another 2 years to go yet and if our circumstances change this won't be on my priority list of payments!!

intik

I don't have any updates yet. I had a reply from Ombudsman, that my case is too complex and will take longer. . I think people have to get together to make this case stronger and take it further.