Shaw Academy - moving goalposts

jonallwright

Four years ago, I paid for a lifetime subscription to Shaw Academy, an online lesson portal, which included lifetime access to all their lessons, lesson plans and online certificates. I used it for a year or so then stopped, however, I now want to rekindle my interests and refresh on the course I did and a couple of others.
I have now found that they have moved the goalposts and you now have to pay extra (£40) for lesson plans and certificates. I contacted them and apparently, this was done a couple of years back and they have said, if I buy one lot of plans then they will re-instate my access for all plans. I don't see why I should as my original agreement was for lifetime access to it all. Any thoughts, please?

MattMattMattUK

jonallwright said:

Four years ago, I paid for a lifetime subscription to Shaw Academy, an online lesson portal, which included lifetime access to all their lessons, lesson plans and online certificates. I used it for a year or so then stopped, however, I now want to rekindle my interests and refresh on the course I did and a couple of others.
I have now found that they have moved the goalposts and you now have to pay extra (£40) for lesson plans and certificates. I contacted them and apparently, this was done a couple of years back and they have said, if I buy one lot of plans then they will re-instate my access for all plans. I don't see why I should as my original agreement was for lifetime access to it all. Any thoughts, please?

It depends what your the terms and conditions said at the time you paid. 

More importantly none of their "qualifications" mean anything anyway, they mean nothing to potential employers and are not worth the paper they are printed on (or the PDF that they email). 

My thoughts would be that you need to take proper courses, with a proper awarding body, paying for them as required. 

giraffe69

Business are fond of using "lifetime" in their marketing but often have some weaselly words to limit their liability. Satnavs are an example "Free updates for life" turns out to be the life of the model as determined by the company. No doubt here they changed a semi colon in one of their documents allowing them to claim all has changed.
Worth noting they are Irish if you plan a war against them allowing them to claim they don't have to comply with UK rules.

jonallwright

MattMattMattUK said:

More importantly none of their "qualifications" mean anything anyway, they mean nothing to potential employers and are not worth the paper they are printed on (or the PDF that they email). 

I understood that when I signed up, I just wanted something structured to help me through, hobby and pastime life, rather than a formal qualification

giraffe69 said:

Worth noting they are Irish if you plan a war against them allowing them to claim they don't have to comply with UK rules.

LOL that is so true, but as happens a further curt email has resulted in the slides and "certificates" being re-instated,