Refund Online Help Needed

laybackandwin

I'm looking for advice on what I can do to get my money back on a course I signed up for that is not as described and not accessible to me.

I recently signed up to an online course to better my skills.

I went ahead with my purchase as in the advert it stated that the videos and audio were transcribed. This was most important to me as I'm deaf and need either subtitles or transcription to follow the videos.  

When I opened the course I found that nothing was transcribed, just some videos had a text box that opened but stopped the video content and sat over the top of the video so it couldn't be used to follow the video. I tried several ways to get around this over a few days but as I have a day job I gave up as it was too time consuming and exhausting.

I contacted the company to let them know and also asked them for my money back. This was within 7 days and they display a "10 day money back guarantee" so was within their time limit of their guarantee.

Alas, they have reneged on the money back and have also locked me out of access to the course. 

I can't paste the entire conversation on here for some reason but this is part of the reason they gave:

Your issues appear to be with your hearing and your device/browser (and eyes and ability), which is not something I can control. 

 

I hope someone can help.

sheramber

Who is the company?

How did you pay?

laybackandwin

Hello sheramber 

The company is "Caan Berry" if you go to the video pack course on his dotcom you will see the same as I did when I purchased and the guarantee.

I paid using my debit card through PayPal

sheramber

Watching the explanatory video  the transcript is not intended to be used simultaneously with watching the video.

It is for allowing you to clarify anything anything by reading the transcript.

If the payment was made through a Paypal account then open a case with Paypal.

If the payment was merely routed through Paypal then contact your bank and ask or a chargeback.

laybackandwin

It seems like the basis of my post has been lost here...... obviously I couldn't view the so called explanation video as I'm deaf (see the problem there).... it was advertised with transcripts in the displayed advert.

My question is focusing solely on the "money back guarantee". 
If a company displays a 10 day money back guarantee as this company does then what are my legal rights as they are refusing the refunded and I claimed on the 7th day.

I have already opened a PayPal case but the seller is emailed me with "good luck with that, we have never had to refund as its a digital product".

Thank you in advance for any help.

macman

Their 'guarantee' is not a statutory/legal right, so you may struggle to get anywhere with that, given their attitude: your only route then would be the small claims process and to claim the product is unfit for purpose/not as described under CRA 2015..
Chargeback I don't think will work as you paid via an intermediary 3rd party. 
Always best to use a credit card where possible as this gives you the S75 option.

tightauldgit

laybackandwin said:

Hello sheramber 

The company is "Caan Berry" if you go to the video pack course on his dotcom you will see the same as I did when I purchased and the guarantee.

I paid using my debit card through PayPal

Looks like the kind of company I wouldn't touch with a barge pole to be honest. The money back guarantee doesn't actually seem to mention any specific terms or conditions - do you have anything on your order which tells you about it? The box on the website says virtually nothing. I suspect its worthless if the company aren't willing to honour it. 

You can raise a dispute with Paypal, I suspect they will tell you that you received what you paid for though. 

Are you prepared to take it to court for such a low value? 

Manxman_in_exile

@laybackandwin

1.  What are the actual T&Cs of their "10 day money back Guarantee"?  In particular, does it say that the guarantee doesn't apply if you have already accessed the course?

2.  Irrespective of their "money back guarantee" you might still have a statutory right to cancel the contrcat under Part 3 of The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)

For the statutory right to apply you have to inform them that you are cancelling the contract (and preferably tell them that you are doing so under the above linked regs) within 14 days of entering into the contrcat.  Are you still within 14 days?

However, your statutory right to cancel a digital service can become a very complicated issue depending on factors such as: how is the digital content delivered to you; did they inform you beforehand of your statutory right to cancel; did you expressly ask to access the course within the 14 day "cancellation" window; how much of the course did you access before cancelling; if you asked to access the course within the 14 day "cancellation" window, did they warn you that doing so might remove your right to cancel?

I'm no expert on the question of cancelling digital training courses after you've started to access them, but I'm sure other posters here know the rules inside out and can tell you if you might still have a case to cancel the contrcat and get a refund (or partial refund).

3.  If they aren't going to refund you they cannot at the same time prevent you accessing the course - you've paid for it!

4.  Regarding their comment that they've never had to refund a digital contrcat, I doubt it's true.  If it is true it must be because the people trying to get a refund didn't know the law.  (Or it might be true if they deliver the course content on a tangible medium like a physical disc)

elsien

How much was the course? 

tightauldgit

elsien said:

How much was the course? 

it's listed at £197. 

If I remember right then a change of mind refund would only cover unused parts of the course? So if they've received the whole thing then thats potentially an issue

Of course you could still try a not as described or not fit for purpose claim - but again this is going to require going to court probably. 

The whole website screams dodgy get rich quick scheme pedlar.

GrubbyGirl_2

I was juts wondering if you potentially have a claim under the Equality Act?  If you have purchased the product because you are deaf and they have stated they offer a transcript and then didn't you may have a stronger case.  Maybe a chat with citizens advice would be worthwhile? Just a thought