What are my consumer rights? Can i cancel due to health?

laurasaurusrex153

Hi everyone this is a bit lengthy so i appologise in advance.

In 2017 i completed a course with open study college (introduction to counselling level 2) open study is a college that lets you study from home. This is great for me as i have Fibromyalgia (constant bone pain/ fatigue & mobility issues) and im registered as disabled.
 

First course with open study was great, had a supportive tutor, enjoyed it. Was £800 in total. I passed it and the college asked me to be a success story and feature on the site, as you can imagine i felt honoured. Next step open uni - 3 years later bsc hons psychology degree. Open study asked for pics of graduation to keep my success story up to date.

Decided to study again with OS enrolled in January this time doing a diploma in counselling level 3. I have been poorly on and off since last year with gastro issues in feb it got much worse and i was in and out of hospital, generally vomiting after meals and now under investigation for allergies etc as you can imagine this is tiring and draining. 

I contacted open study to ask if i could cancel my course as im too poorly to even start it and Rebecca re talked me into it so i carried on paying for it, i have since been in touch a further 3 times to ask them to cancel ive so far paid £300 for a course that im too poorly to do, not only will they not cancel it, Rebecca who appears to be the only person i can speak to keeps trying to sell me different courses to do instead. I have explained my situation now too many times and nothing. Considering i was their success story (3 years of free advertising) I mistakenly assumed they would help me cancel and it would be easy as   they know im disabled & am currently unwell.

Im at a loss of what to do to be honest. Since having this trouble with them ive looked online and found loads of people have lost lots of money and never got it back and a lot of people have said there qualifications from the college arent valid as nowhere accepts them. 

I have since asked to be removed as a success story as i dont want anyone else to be in the same position.
Please help.

Thanks 
Laura

user1977

I would suggest you change the subject line to something more informative - almost everybody posting here is looking for help.

Pollycat

laurasaurusrex153 said:

How do i do that? 

It would have been more helpful if that poster had explained how to edit your thread title.

So, if you view your thread, there should be 3 dots ... on the right hand side of the title bar.
Click on that and it will give you the option to edit.

Just go into the title and change it to something more informative.
And 'save' the change.

I'm not sure if you will have this option as you only have a few posts and MSE have set limits on what posters with few posts can actually change.

If not, you could message the forum team to ask them to amend the title:
forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com

Or you could just leave the title, I'm sure quite a few people will read your thread regardless of the title. It's quite a busy board.

Alderbank

I wouldn't bother talking to Rebecca any more.
Write to them (email is fine) to say you are unable to start the course and you want a refund of the money you have paid to date.
You are breaking your contract with them but as you are a consumer they are only allowed to retain any legitimate costs they have incurred. If the course is online those costs should only be admin costs for setting up your place on the course. If there are any classroom or practical sessions they might be entitled to claim for those.
Did they send any course materials?
They should still be unopened. You should be ready to return the sealed packs.

If they say you agreed to no refunds in the contract you agreed, come back here for more advice on how to pursue your consumer rights.

bris

Alderbank said:

I wouldn't bother talking to Rebecca any more.
Write to them (email is fine) to say you are unable to start the course and you want a refund of the money you have paid to date.
You are breaking your contract with them but as you are a consumer they are only allowed to retain any legitimate costs they have incurred. If the course is online those costs should only be admin costs for setting up your place on the course. If there are any classroom or practical sessions they might be entitled to claim for those.
Did they send any course materials?
They should still be unopened. You should be ready to return the sealed packs.

If they say you agreed to no refunds in the contract you agreed, come back here for more advice on how to pursue your consumer rights.

Not as easy as that. There are cancellation rights but that's time sensitive. If this is and looks like it a properly formed contract then the consumer rights are limited here.

Loss of profit is a thing. You cant just break contracts or what's the point of even having them.

Whilst its true they need to mitigate the loss a contract like this has nothing to mitigate as its all just online and nothing physical they can resell.
 

PHK

There's the  tutor, it will depend how they are employed.  It might be very easy to find them work to fill the time or very hard. 

I don't think we can say one way or another how this will go .

pinkshoes

laurasaurusrex153 said:

Hi everyone this is a bit lengthy so i appologise in advance.

In 2017 i completed a course with open study college (introduction to counselling level 2) open study is a college that lets you study from home. This is great for me as i have Fibromyalgia (constant bone pain/ fatigue & mobility issues) and im registered as disabled.
 

First course with open study was great, had a supportive tutor, enjoyed it. Was £800 in total. I passed it and the college asked me to be a success story and feature on the site, as you can imagine i felt honoured. Next step open uni - 3 years later bsc hons psychology degree. Open study asked for pics of graduation to keep my success story up to date.

Decided to study again with OS enrolled in January this time doing a diploma in counselling level 3. I have been poorly on and off since last year with gastro issues in feb it got much worse and i was in and out of hospital, generally vomiting after meals and now under investigation for allergies etc as you can imagine this is tiring and draining. 

I contacted open study to ask if i could cancel my course as im too poorly to even start it and Rebecca re talked me into it so i carried on paying for it, i have since been in touch a further 3 times to ask them to cancel ive so far paid £300 for a course that im too poorly to do, not only will they not cancel it, Rebecca who appears to be the only person i can speak to keeps trying to sell me different courses to do instead. I have explained my situation now too many times and nothing. Considering i was their success story (3 years of free advertising) I mistakenly assumed they would help me cancel and it would be easy as   they know im disabled & am currently unwell.

Im at a loss of what to do to be honest. Since having this trouble with them ive looked online and found loads of people have lost lots of money and never got it back and a lot of people have said there qualifications from the college arent valid as nowhere accepts them. 

I have since asked to be removed as a success story as i dont want anyone else to be in the same position.
Please help.

Thanks 
Laura

What do their T&Cs say about cancellation? Any get out clause for medical reasons?

Given they've made money using you as a success story, then regardless of their T&Cs, you'd think they would make an exception and refund you!

Don't forget publicity works both ways - I would be screenshotting that success story, then making your own review showing how uncaring they are when their own success story asks for a refund on their next course due to illness... Hopefully your negative review would out-do any money they made from the publicity.