Provider not able to offer Course, but he took my money and went ahead anyway......

Another_SENParentof2

Hello,

I have recently attended a course, and received the certificate, but I've now had (an anonymous) tip off, that the provider wasn't able to offer it in the first place - I'm not clear if this is due to their registration expiring, carelessness or something more, - but after checking with him, it seems this could be true - although, he has now started to re-write history somewhat.

Is there anywhere I could go to, apart from a very expensive solicitor for advice, as this was all our spare money, and I'm not only out of pocket, but I can't offer those services moving forward. I have even rented a room and purchased my equipment, so it's much more than just the cost of the course I could lose.

Thanks in advance.

user1977

Any chance you could be less vague about what sort of qualification you're still not sure the provider doesn't have, and what difference it makes to the qualification you've got?

Grumpy_chap

Another_SENParentof2 said:

Hello,

I have recently attended a course, and received the certificate, but I've now had (an anonymous) tip off, that the provider wasn't able to offer it in the first place - I'm not clear if this is due to their registration expiring, carelessness or something more, - but after checking with him, it seems this could be true - although, he has now started to re-write history somewhat.

Is there anywhere I could go to, apart from a very expensive solicitor for advice, as this was all our spare money, and I'm not only out of pocket, but I can't offer those services moving forward. I have even rented a room and purchased my equipment, so it's much more than just the cost of the course I could lose.

Thanks in advance.

I think you will need to be far less vague for anyone to assist sensibly.
What type of course did you do?
What services are you offering having done the course? 
Is the work in a regulated industry of some kind?
How did you establish the credentials of the course provider prior to booking?
How did you receive the anonymous tip off?
Is it possible that the tip off is incorrect?  Could it be vexatious?

Alderbank

Another_SENParentof2 said:

Is there anywhere I could go to, apart from a very expensive solicitor for advice...

Yes there is.

A very expensive solicitor is the last place I would go.

All professional bodies have means of checking their qualifications online. It is a very common request.

As an example, many people have a NEBOSH certificate (It's a basic Health & Safety qualification. I completed mine in two weeks). Anyone can visit their site https://www.nebosh.org.uk/nebosh-verifications/ and confirm whether a paper certificate is genuine.

If you have a house survey and you want to check whether your surveyor is qualified, you can check on the RICS site https://www.rics.org/networking/find-a-member to see every RICS surveyor, all 112,959 of them, complete with photo and their certificates and diplomas. Similar for all gas fitters.

If your certification body does not yet have an online service they will certainly have a phone number to check.

If your certificate is not from an accredited body but is really just a certificate of attendance from a training company then it might be a 'nice to have' but doesn't have any professional value. You can make your own up if you wish. Quite legal so long as it does not pretend to be anything it is not.

If you tell us what your certificate is, we can help you to verify it.

ETA: Many certificates will have been issued by training companies who are no longer members of the awarding body or have been struck off. Yours might be one of those. But provided the certificate was issued while they were an approved member it will still be valid. The awarding body will know.

Bradden

This sounds like a professional course... would it be covered under consumer rights  rather than a B2B transaction?

pinkshoes

Another_SENParentof2 said:

Hello,

I have recently attended a course, and received the certificate, but I've now had (an anonymous) tip off, that the provider wasn't able to offer it in the first place - I'm not clear if this is due to their registration expiring, carelessness or something more, - but after checking with him, it seems this could be true - although, he has now started to re-write history somewhat.

Is there anywhere I could go to, apart from a very expensive solicitor for advice, as this was all our spare money, and I'm not only out of pocket, but I can't offer those services moving forward. I have even rented a room and purchased my equipment, so it's much more than just the cost of the course I could lose.

Thanks in advance.

You will need to establish whether at the point of purchase and when the course took place whether the course provider had the qualifications and registration that would allow them to certify you. 

If their license expired after this date then that's irrelevant as you had already qualified. 

You'll need to check with the governing bodies rather than listening to rumours.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

The guidance notes on the CRA give an interesting example of a price reduction for services:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/notes/division/3/1/5/4/1

267.In relation to services, however, there may be some cases consumer is able to ask for a reduction in price even where it may be argued that the value of the service as provided has not been reduced by the breach of the consumer’s rights. This could occur, for example, where the trader has not complied with information they gave about themselves. For example, if the trader tells the consumer that they will pay their workers the living wage and this is important to the consumer and a reason why they decided to go with this particular trader, arguably this does not affect the value of the service but the consumer would still have the right to request a reduction of an “appropriate amount” to account for the breach.

So if someone claimed to have a specific qualification and didn't under the same reasoning perhaps that would lead to the right to a price reduction.

Possibly depends on what you paid, picking a meaningless, random 20% as a price reduction if the course was £200 how much effort would you go to for £40, if the course was £2000 on the other hand more likely to be worth chasing.

If the course ended up be worthless as in you don't have a qualification then you'd be looking at a refund of the course, the extra equipment, etc could be classed as damages, although presumably you can get the qualification somewhere else so the equipment still has value, rent on the room for a mitigated period of not being qualified sounds a reasonable thing to claim.

To add, as above are you a consumer? I'm not sure it makes much difference to the idea of a refund and damages but obviously you wouldn't be able to cite the CRA and would have to look to other legal reasonings to state your position.