“THE COMPANY HAVE FRAUDULENTLY TAKEN £199 FROM MY ACCOUNT
I DID NOT MAKE ANY PURCHASE WHEN GBE PERSON THAT CALLED ME DROPPED THE CALL. ONLY FOR £199 TO COME OUT OF MY ACCOUNT. I REALLY WONDER HOW THIS COMPANY CAND BE GETTING AWAY THIS. THE OWNER IS FROM IRELAND ABD THE COUNTRY HAVE WATCHED THIS CRIMINAL CONTINUE TO DUPE PEOPLE OF THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY”
“MY NAME IS ELENA POWERS AND I WAS CHARGED $69.99 AGAIN WHEN I WANTED TO BE REFUNDED THE SECOND TIME OF BEING CHARGED FOR $39.99 BUT I LET THAT GO AND SAID I WANTED TO OPT OUT OF THE CLASS I AM GOING TO REPORT FRAUD BECAUSE I GAVE A DIFFERENT CARD NUMBER AND I DONT KNOW HOW THIS ONE WAS GOTTEN BUT I WANT BOTH PAYMENTS BACK OR I WILL REPORT YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE TO THE HIGHER UP PLEASE I AM ASKING NICELY FOR MY MONEY BACK.”
“DO NOT SIGN UP NOT EVEN FOR A FREE TRIAL
They are scammers, you have been warned.
I signed up for a FREE trial and went to log into my account 2 seconds after logging in I got an email for a a PayPal receipt of £49.99. I did not authorise this payment nor do I know what it is for.
I emailed them & got no response for 5 days, in their response they said they “couldn’t refund me as a toolkit had been activated” but they will extend my free trial for 3 months. I do not want an extra 3 months le alone 1 day.
I just want to be refunded at this point.
DO NOT SIGN UP”
“Horrible/ Scam
Avoid at all cost seriously. Don't even register for their 1 month free trial. You'll get nothing good from them.They bombard you with ads emails/ voicemails/ marketing calls and worst of all, try to take your money in every way possible.
I clicked on a 'Unlock module' button cause I thought that's the way I can start the course, and without any notification that it is charged, THEY CHARGED ME INSTANTLY. Right the moment I clicked on that damn button, I hear my phone ringing notified money taken out from my account. I didn't even know what I bought. I didn't even open any classes/ courses at all from them, and got charged twice. SUCH A SCAM”
“I had signed up to the shaw academy for the FREE TRIAL for 4 weeks, however after not using any of their service I had noticed a few days ago that a sum of £49.99 had been collected on two occasions (who knows it could be more I will find this out with the scammers themselves). Anyways, once I had seen such a large sum of money go Out of my account to Shaw Academy, I decided to email them immediately as anyone would do. Once explaining that I have used absolutely none of their service and for them to charge me is completely out of order- the assistant by the name of Paddie had first told me that there’s nothing he can do as it would break their terms and conditions; PEOPLE, do not fall for it when they try and use legal talk- every situation is circumstantial and company’s should refund you if a service isn’t used by you, ESPECIALLY because I never knew I was getting charged each month.
Once I emailed again demanding a refund, this ‘Paddie’ had told me he has forwarded my issue further and I shall receive an email in 1-2 business days. LIES. It has been over 2 business days and now the Shaw Academy is completely ignoring me- they will do this in hope that you stop chasing your money. I WILL NOT STOP. I am going to make sure ALL of my money returns back to me as the level of negligent behaviour towards their customers is absolutely disgusting. The Shaw Academy is a scam and all they want to do is take Large sums of money out of Your account without you knowing. Disgusting that they are doing this at a time of struggle and distress for everyone financially as we have been struck by COVID-19. Shaw Academy will be shut down.”
“I signed up for their month trial and cancelled after the first week. They charged me for it even though I cancelled before the trial was over. Then they charged me again when someone signed up using my credit card information. I called to tell them that this was fraudulent activity on my credit card account but they charged me anyways. This company not only has low quality classes, but they will charge you even when you cancel before the trial is up and even if it is fraud. I disputed the first charge through my credit card and was able to get it refunded because they did not respond, but they had "proof" I did not cancel the second sign up in time even though I had told them that someone was signed up for their services fraudulently using my credit card. I had to cancel my credit card to prevent anymore unauthorized charges. Don't sign up for any free trial because they will continue to charge you even if you cancel before the trial is over, and apparently they'll charge you even if your credit card information is stolen and used. There classes are low quality and not worth it. That is why I cancelled during the first week.”
“I signed up for their month trial and cancelled after the first week. They charged me for it even though I cancelled before the trial was over. Then they charged me again when someone signed up using my credit card information. I called to tell them that this was fraudulent activity on my credit card account but they charged me anyways. This company not only has low quality classes, but they will charge you even when you cancel before the trial is up and even if it is fraud. I disputed the first charge through my credit card and was able to get it refunded because they did not respond, but they had "proof" I did not cancel the second sign up in time even though I had told them that someone was signed up for their services fraudulently using my credit card. I had to cancel my credit card to prevent anymore unauthorized charges. Don't sign up for any free trial because they will continue to charge you even if you cancel before the trial is over, and apparently they'll charge you even if your credit card information is stolen and used. There classes are low quality and not worth it. That is why I cancelled during the first week.”
“Shaw academy are scammers!
I signed up for a free four week trial yesterday, saw as soon as I got onto the course landing page that it had class times which would not be suitable for me and so I cancelled immediately. The cancellation itself took around 10 times of saying I want to cancel and then offering me money off and me continuing to say I wanted to cancel.
When my cancellation was finally through I received a text message saying they would give me a free course toolkit (usually £49) if I reactivated my free trial. I thought why not, I’ll give it a try.
I clicked on the link in the message offering me the free toolkit, a page came up saying thank you for reactivating and then a pop up came onscreen saying ‘get your course toolkit’ so I clicked it to get my free toolkit as they had offered me, there were no additional clicks to confirm that I would be charged, this was a single click after they offered it to me free.
My PayPal was instantly charged £49
I cancelled the free trial again and contacted PayPal and shaw academy trying to get my money back as they had offered it to me free and I had proof of that.
Shaw academy then proceeded WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!! To REACTIVATE MY ACCOUNT AND GIVE ME EXTRA WEEKS FREE TRIAL AND A COURSE CERTIFICATE!!!!
Once again, they did that WITHOUT MY CONSENT!!!
I cancelled the account AGAIN! And emailed them again. They said that they can see I didn’t mean to click on a chargeable link but that I had, so it was tough. I enclose a transcript of the email below
Lincoln (Shaw Academy)
Aug 19, 2020, 1:57 PM GMT+1
Hi Aimee,
Thank you for reaching out again.
I understand that you have no intention to purchase. The message also indicates that the toolkits will be enabled if the account is reactivated. The purchase was made before you have reactivated your account.
Unfortunately, we are unable to process the refund.
The issue remains that the terms and conditions were made readily available, you have clicked on the button to purchase and it clearly states that a purchase will go through with you clicking and following that process.
We have made available the content for which the payment was made.
During our last exchange, I had offered you 3-month extended membership access plus a Certificate of Completion and also 3 remaining module toolkit and 1 hard copy diploma free of charge.
I have tried to come up with something further and the very best I can possibly do is to increase that to Certificate of Completion, All courses Toolkit plus two Hard Copy Diploma which will be activated within 24 hours.
I have activated this for you in your account, so you now have your Certificate of Completion – so keep attending and get it, all additional toolkit for free and two hard copy diplomas.
Shaw Academy Support Team
Kind regards,
Lincoln
This company is a scam! I will be reporting them to trading standards and advise anyone else tricked by their underhand and ILLEGAL tactics.
To shaw academy: I hope you read this. I will not rest until my money is returned to me. My name is Aimee Lewis, I have already contacted you on multiple tickets via email so you should have no trouble finding my account. You are scam artists not educators and I will make sure everyone knows it. I have lodged complaints via the better business bureau and e-commerce.gov. I have emailed as they have asked in their reply below but not received a response. This company is disgusting
I still have not received a refund!”
“Shaw academy are scammers!
I signed up for a free four week trial yesterday, saw as soon as I got onto the course landing page that it had class times which would not be suitable for me and so I cancelled immediately. The cancellation itself took around 10 times of saying I want to cancel and then offering me money off and me continuing to say I wanted to cancel.
When my cancellation was finally through I received a text message saying they would give me a free course toolkit (usually £49) if I reactivated my free trial. I thought why not, I’ll give it a try.
I clicked on the link in the message offering me the free toolkit, a page came up saying thank you for reactivating and then a pop up came onscreen saying ‘get your course toolkit’ so I clicked it to get my free toolkit as they had offered me, there were no additional clicks to confirm that I would be charged, this was a single click after they offered it to me free.
My PayPal was instantly charged £49
I cancelled the free trial again and contacted PayPal and shaw academy trying to get my money back as they had offered it to me free and I had proof of that.
Shaw academy then proceeded WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!! To REACTIVATE MY ACCOUNT AND GIVE ME EXTRA WEEKS FREE TRIAL AND A COURSE CERTIFICATE!!!!
Once again, they did that WITHOUT MY CONSENT!!!
I cancelled the account AGAIN! And emailed them again. They said that they can see I didn’t mean to click on a chargeable link but that I had, so it was tough. I enclose a transcript of the email below
Lincoln (Shaw Academy)
Aug 19, 2020, 1:57 PM GMT+1
Hi Aimee,
Thank you for reaching out again.
I understand that you have no intention to purchase. The message also indicates that the toolkits will be enabled if the account is reactivated. The purchase was made before you have reactivated your account.
Unfortunately, we are unable to process the refund.
The issue remains that the terms and conditions were made readily available, you have clicked on the button to purchase and it clearly states that a purchase will go through with you clicking and following that process.
We have made available the content for which the payment was made.
During our last exchange, I had offered you 3-month extended membership access plus a Certificate of Completion and also 3 remaining module toolkit and 1 hard copy diploma free of charge.
I have tried to come up with something further and the very best I can possibly do is to increase that to Certificate of Completion, All courses Toolkit plus two Hard Copy Diploma which will be activated within 24 hours.
I have activated this for you in your account, so you now have your Certificate of Completion – so keep attending and get it, all additional toolkit for free and two hard copy diplomas.
Shaw Academy Support Team
Kind regards,
Lincoln
This company is a scam! I will be reporting them to trading standards and advise anyone else tricked by their underhand and ILLEGAL tactics.
To shaw academy: I hope you read this. I will not rest until my money is returned to me. My name is Aimee Lewis, I have already contacted you on multiple tickets via email so you should have no trouble finding my account. You are scam artists not educators and I will make sure everyone knows it. I have lodged complaints via the better business bureau and e-commerce.gov. I have emailed as they have asked in their reply below but not received a response. This company is disgusting”
“FRAUDS LIARS, i started the 4 week free trial , which i canceled the same day , when i went back into my paypal account shaw academy took $69.99 from it without my authorization. Their taking advantage of persons in a time like this people are out here struggling to make ends meet.If i dont get back my money i will have no choice but to report them to fraud Action, and take legal action towards them and i have sturdy proof. Currently investigating. I want a refund .I will continue to expose you unless I get my refund petitions are already being made.”
“FRAUDS LIARS, i started the 4 week free trial , which i canceled the same day , when i went back into my paypal account shaw academy took $69.99 from it without my authorization. Their taking advantage of persons in a time like this people are out here struggling to make ends meet.If i dont get back my money i will have no choice but to report them to fraud Action, and take legal action towards them and i have sturdy proof. Currently investigating. I want a refund .I will continue to expose you unless I get my refund petitions are already being made.”
“I've subscribed to Shaw Academy being tempted by taking a free photography course advertised on Facebook. Seeing the vast amount of positive reviews, I felt confident subscribing and providing my PayPal details with a full knowledge I can cancel before a free month was ending if I didn't enjoy the service. I quickly realised the online lessons had to be booked for a specific date and time in advance, which is not what I wanted. I logged into my account and noticed that in order to cancel the membership, I had to call the customer services (who's phone number has now disappeared from their website?). I have spoken to one of their team and asked that my membership is cancel to avoid any charged. I was told that in case I ever wanted to return, they will be able to keep my profile, but the service will be paused until/if I ever wanted to come back. After repeatedly confirming if this will avoid any costs incurred by me, I have mentioned I don't mind if my details are kept as long as I don't have any charges. I have received a confirmation email fo the call and didn't think much to read it as all seemed ok. A month later I got a £49.99 charge coming out of my PayPal account on behalf of Shaw Academy. I could no longer find their customer service phone number, so I have sent an email to their support team asking for a refund and attaching the email confirmation I received after the call I made to cancel the membership. Only then I realised the email was structured in a way which could potentially be argued against my case with a Customer Service rep stating "It was great to speak with you earlier, I really enjoyed helping you to get one step closer to achieving your goals.
Please let me know if you need further assistance or if you have any other questions. Once again it was lovely speaking with you today." With no clear mention of me cancelling. Of course now I am being refused the refund and the fact I made the call is being totally ignored. AVOID THIS COMPANY AS THEY WILL CHARGE YOU!”
“I registered for a free trial of 4 weeks. I entered my details, not suspecting the huge mistake I was making. After attempting to sign up for a course, my free trial was suddenly removed and replaced with a full membership subscription for £49.99. Thats how they get you, they rope you in with the promise of a free trial but BEWARE, once they get your financial details that money is coming out of your account by ANY MEANS POSSIBLE. The whole user interface is designed to cause as much confusion as to what is free and what is NOT, with pop ups that come from nowhere in order to promote accidental clicks. ACCIDENTAL CLICKS/PURCHASES are the bread and butter of this company. I emailed them hoping for a refund but the only replies i received boiled down to "well you agreed to the terms and conditions" and "you entered your details willingly" in an almost mocking tone, despite the fact that I haven't signed up for any classes or used the service whatsoever,The have essentially misled, lied to, and charged me for no reason in these trying times during COVID where people just want to learn new things. Shaw academy is a predator lurking around taking advantage of such people. I don't normally leave reviews but this is stealing for lack of a better term. It is simply put a full on Scam network whose sole purpose is to steal as much money as possible, refunds for them are a no-go, they will mock you when you ask, offering you 6-12 months of their membership, I ask, if said membership was worth anything why offer up to 12 TIMES the value of the requested refund in memberships? Let that sink in. I write this review in the hopes that someone will read this and run as far away as possible, there are a MYRIAD of better options than shaw academy, ANY of them would be a far wiser choice. To all those who have been scammed by this company, we must all band together to effect CHANGE, either through GROUP LITIGATION or AWARENESS SPREADING. If enough of us come forward we can certainly make a dent in this scam network.”
“Be prepared to waste a lot of time
To the VALID TrustPilot reviewers: Editing your review brings it back to the top. Edit often, keep your voice heard. Yelp as well. It's harder to buy fake reviews there. We can use this to dispute credit card misuse. It will help PayPal and other credit cards know that this is a really unethical company.
If you have been charged by Shaw call your bank and tell them, “I’d like to do a chargeback for an unauthorized charge”. If it’s PayPal open a dispute. PayPal is usually responsive to these scams if enough people dispute.
Please read through the mass amounts of 5-star reviews. They are fakes, many containing only a subject line. This company has an email address solely for handling their poor TrustPilot reviews: TrustPilot at Shaw Academy dot com. This speak VOLUMES! Go to Yelp and leave a review where it's not so easy to get thousands of fake reviews.
Now my review:
I was excited to come across this opportunity for a 4-week, 8 course free trial for graphic design. The flexible schedule was ideal for me to be able to attend.
The first course was a Sunday at 1:00 pm. I was logged in and ready to go 33 minutes prior. 18 minutes late I got an email that the course had begun and that I was missing it. That was odd because I had the window open and waiting while I did other things. When it was 1:00 pm, the window I had open didn't start automatically, but within a minute of being late I was in the meeting which was in progress.
The class itself was informative as an intro, very basic, but I didn't had any idea as to what level of experience this course was intended for. Nonetheless, I was excited to attend my next class the next day, Monday at 1:00 pm. In the meantime, I learned that I could get some sort of hard copy "diploma" upon completion, though there was an additional charge.
The next morning, hours before my next class was to being I began receiving a rash of emails that I had missed my first class and needed to reschedule. I had certainly not missed it. It made me wonder what would happen should I have purchased the hard copy of the certificate and the course not registering that I had attended a class or classes.
A little while later, I was at work and I get a phone call from a foreign number. It was Shaw Academy reminding me of my class beginning "soon" (4 hours later). I set the courses to my conveniences so they wouldn't interfere with my job, but Shaw Academy was calling me to remind me of my course. Do they thing i'm 12-years-old without a parent reminding me to go to school? They have to bother me at work.
Then, a few hours later I receive my 4th email that I had missed my first class even after writing and letting them know that I needed to make sure I was getting credit for attending. I was told to disregard those emails. I wasn't given assurance that I would receive credit for the class, simply to disregard them.
I am a busy person, like most adults are. Prior to the start of my first class, I have devoted far too many hours into this mess of an "academy" from bad forms, incessant reminders, overloads of emails, and uncertainty as to the overall credibility. Before I wasted more time I chose to cancel, far before my free trial was up as I didn't want charges on my credit card for this half-baked education.
The cancelation was not simple. I ended up calling and was made to call back with a code. I called with the code ready, when the call was answered it immediately went to music. I was in an unknown musical hold for 12 minutes. The call had no intro, no direction, just music. It gave me a lot of time to sit and wonder about the likelihood of a successful cancellation and protection of my credit card against unauthorized charges.
Finally, a woman came on the call. I gave her my code to cancel and she told me she needed to ask me a few questions to ensure I was able to be properly canceled. After a couple questions, it was blazingly obvious theses were not questions which should be required for simple cancellation with my required code. She informed me that she did have to ask me in order to cancel. I told her how much time Shaw Academy has wasted of mine already and she told me that there are just a few more questions (survey questions). I told her I am calling with my code as instructed and I don't wish to participate in a survey. Again, she reiterated that to properly cancel I needed to answer the questions.
This "academy" is blaring with loads of horse excrement. The warning signs are plain on its face. I should have taken 2 minutes prior to signing up to research their reputation. I hope others will be a little wiser. I hope my card isn't charged and I have to escalate things. I cannot imagine how bad that will be and how much time it will waste
Their BBB Rating is: D with 1066 complaints in the past 3 years with 6 years in business.
Why 2 stars? I decided over a year ago to not leave 1-star reviews anymore.”
“Be careful with this liars.
The content is not good enough and the customer service is so far so poor.
They did not give me the option to cancel my subscription so they charged me even after I sent them a message from their customer support saying me to do not worry because I won’t be charged but then they did and now it is under investigation since 2 weeks ago and nobody replies or contact me . Also they keep sending me email saying that everything is with the next level team and I will be contacted in 48h but a week is more than 48h.”
“I understand that this is my individual situation but I would like to communicate it to anyone even considering signing up for Shaw Academy.
I did a free trial that was the length of 4 weeks. I attempted to cancel my free trial before the end of my four weeks but discovered that the cancellation did not process and I was charged 70 dollars.
I reached out to customer service requesting the official cancellation and requested a refund because I did not use the product one time besides to sign up initially.
I was provided the cancellation but was told that I could not have a refund due to their terms and conditions and the free trial expiring. I have never received such service from any other company and never had an issue getting a refund following the end of a free trial, especially for a product I did not use.
I would not recommend signing up for Shaw Academy. They state that the refund policy is in their terms and conditions but, in my opinion, a company that cares about their consumer would not take their money if the customer did not even use the product.”
“Shaw Academy is a total scam. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THE 30-DAY "FREE" TRIAL! They will charge you at the end. Do not sign up. They are scamming you out of money and make it nearly impossible to cancel your "free" trial membership. Go to a legitimate course site and save yourself a huge headache and being ripped off. Additionally, the course scheduler stops working almost right away to make it take as long as possible to get the course done so they can squeeze maximum money out of you.”
“Shaw Academy uses aggressive marketing techniques to exploit customers and take their money. They do not care about education, all they care about is profit. When you sign up to a four week free trial you are bombarded with pop-ups for "discounted" courses and certificates which are one click purchases, meaning that if you accidentally click on the pop up it will charge you automatically using the payment method you used to sign up to the free trial and provide no refund if you complain. You are assigned a "student guidance manager" who is actually just a telemarketer. They will phone under the guise of checking how your course is going and use illusive language to get you to upgrade to a premium membership and charge your account without telling you the full terms and conditions. There is no customer service number and if you request a refund via the billing email address they will tell you refunds are not possible even if you have not used and of the services of the premium membership. They bombard you with time-limited "offers" of reduced membership pressuring customers to subscribe to their services. Shaw Academy also report negative reviews, tell customers to remove negative reviews and display old positive reviews on their website to give themselves a better rating. They are a manipulative company and I would advise anyone against signing up to any of their services.”
“Cancel your bank cards ASAP!
This company doesn’t deserve any star. PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER IN YELLOW!
Please don’t fall victim of this people. They have the nerve to call me today for more review (what an insult!).
Don’t believe when they tell you that your subscription is cancelled. Read other people’s review because they still withdraw money from your account afterwards.They’ve got your card details, so the best thing to do is to CANCEL THE BANK CARD (especially if it’s a debit card used). They will find a lame excuse not to refund your money.
Shaw Academy should have a highlighted warning information permanently displayed on it. I will be looking it that. So many people have been scammed and they have fake positive reviews here and on their site. Don’t fall these reviews as they are not true reflection of the service they provide.”
“BEWARE, THEY ARE SCAMMERS!
Please don't subscribe to this service, they will find a way to scam at least a month's payment from you. They promised a month free trial, a few hours to the start of your first lecture they will activate 'unlock button' to the lessons. Once you click that button, they will deduct a month's payment from your account. They will claim that you manually unlocked the whole module in one go and therefore will not give you a refund.
PLEASE DON'T BE A VICTIM, STAY AWAY FROM THEM!”
