Shaw Academy cancelling and taking payments before end of free trial.

Dakta

Just out of interest, is the material any good and are the courses accredited in any way?(I actually tried to find the answer to this but their FAQ answered this with a vague 'we are recognised internationally, for more info see our 'are we accredited' section - which I could not find any link to)

I do try and boost my own learning and I saw shaw academy's agressive facebook marketing a while back, took a look but decided against it. I tried another training firm doing something similar but the content was rubbish. I wasn't particularly surprised, but it dealt with the curiosity!

Wikiepedia had a bit more to say about it's courses:

"Because Edinburgh Napier University is not partnering with Shaw Academy as a credit rating body since 24 July 2019, SCQF has archived the records in their database. Certificates awarded before 24 July 2019 will still be valid. [18][failed verification] After this time, Shaw Academy provides the certificates without an accompanying credit rating body. Despite continuing to use the claims of recognition by the European Qualification Framework this recognition and credit rating is not found in the European Union official website under Learning Opportunities and Qualifications section. [19][failed verification]"
So it seems there isn't actually a lot of meat on the bone  for accreditation. The EQF is just a way of comparing courses, so I don't think even that would stand for a lot.

My gut feelings have been, and reading this thread now, this company may be a bit of a scam? 

The simple fact you have to go through athe online motions, the blackmail and finally a phone call to cancel frankly stinks a bit

melly20

@marlon4 sorry to hear that. Try doing a review on trustpilot, as that worked for me.

Westlondongirl

I've had the same problems. Signed up for a course with 4 week free trial. Tried cancelling via their website and app, but link to manage payments and cancellation were not working for a number of days. Finally managed to cancel, and received a cancellation email, but still got charged £49.99!! Emailed them, but they came back with "Sorry, can't do anything", and offered me 6 months free access to courses.
But I don't want that. I just want my money back, which was fraudulently taken!!! So !!!!!! off about this 😡😡😡
Scammers!

Westlondongirl

Absolute scammers and fraudsters.

Please DO NOT sign up with this company.
I signed up for a course via their 4 week free trial option. But when I tried to cancel it within the trial period, the links were not working on their website or app. Finally I managed to cancel it, even got a confirmation email, but they still took £49.99 from my account.

When I wrote to them about the problems with their system, and requested them to refund my money, they came back with a 'free access to courses for 6 months' offer. But I don't want that, I want my money back, which was illegitimately taken from my account.

Moreover, just as I was logging in to write my review on Trustpilot, I got a yellow page pop up from this forum, telling me that they've found Shaw Academy has been inviting customers to leave reviews in a biased way, and asking those who left negative reviews, to delete them!! There's more in that warning message from Trustpilot, so I urge all reviewers to read the message in full, which comes up when you hit "Write Review".

I am trying to organise a complaint report to be sent to Google and Apple, so that they remove the app from their platforms. The complaint will also be sent to PayPal, as this company is clearly engaging in fraudulent practices, and PayPal takes fraud very seriously. Finally, this collective report will also be sent to the retail banks, so that they can flag this merchant up as a potential problem, and in the future customers can block payments to the company, citing grounds of scam and fraud.

Please can you message me if you want to help with this effort? As they say, strength in numbers..

DCFC79

Westlondongirl said:

I am trying to organise a complaint report to be sent to Google and Apple, so that they remove the app from their platforms. The complaint will also be sent to PayPal, as this company is clearly engaging in fraudulent practices, and PayPal takes fraud very seriously. Finally, this collective report will also be sent to the retail banks, so that they can flag this merchant up as a potential problem, and in the future customers can block payments to the company, citing grounds of scam and fraud.

Please can you message me if you want to help with this effort? As they say, strength in numbers..

Be interested to see how you get on with this action, keep the thread updated.

JoannaCz

Westlondongirl said:

Absolute scammers and fraudsters.

Please DO NOT sign up with this company.
I signed up for a course via their 4 week free trial option. But when I tried to cancel it within the trial period, the links were not working on their website or app. Finally I managed to cancel it, even got a confirmation email, but they still took £49.99 from my account.

When I wrote to them about the problems with their system, and requested them to refund my money, they came back with a 'free access to courses for 6 months' offer. But I don't want that, I want my money back, which was illegitimately taken from my account.

Moreover, just as I was logging in to write my review on Trustpilot, I got a yellow page pop up from this forum, telling me that they've found Shaw Academy has been inviting customers to leave reviews in a biased way, and asking those who left negative reviews, to delete them!! There's more in that warning message from Trustpilot, so I urge all reviewers to read the message in full, which comes up when you hit "Write Review".

I am trying to organise a complaint report to be sent to Google and Apple, so that they remove the app from their platforms. The complaint will also be sent to PayPal, as this company is clearly engaging in fraudulent practices, and PayPal takes fraud very seriously. Finally, this collective report will also be sent to the retail banks, so that they can flag this merchant up as a potential problem, and in the future customers can block payments to the company, citing grounds of scam and fraud.

Please can you message me if you want to help with this effort? As they say, strength in numbers..

Hi I have exactly the same issue, can I help somehow with your complain?

joeyrobs

Hey guys, just had some success with getting a refund back into my paypal account! I rang them during the trial and told them to cancel the membership but they still ended up taking money out of my account. 

After a couple emails back and forth they ended up giving me a refund after initially saying there was no way of doing it and just offered me a year of free courses.

I sent them an email stating their automatic message before every calls tells you that the calls are recorded for quality purposes, and that if they listened to the call I had with there operator it would be clear that I asked for cancellation. Also tell them that you would like a copy of the recorded call as this is your right by law, I also bluffed telling them I had an app on my phone which recorded all my calls and it wouldn’t be hard for me to get times and dates as evidence. 

Hassle them, don’t let them get away with it, good luck with getting the money they have more than likely stolen from you!

TanP

Are MoneySavingExpert going to make this a bit more public and write a higher-visibility warning that this company are swindlers? Shaw Academy have been charging me for months without my knowledge, after I cancelled my membership. They've claimed I restarted the membership which is a lie.

real_woodworm

Westlondongirl said:

Please can you message me if you want to help with this effort? As they say, strength in numbers..

Count me in. They have caught me too, and Paypal are as much use as a chocolate teapot because they say the material was provided, and that is all they are interested in.

DCFC79

real_woodworm said:

Westlondongirl said:

Please can you message me if you want to help with this effort? As they say, strength in numbers..

Count me in. They have caught me too, and Paypal are as much use as a chocolate teapot because they say the material was provided, and that is all they are interested in.

You might be lucky and get a response from westlondongirl, they haven't been on since July.