“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!”
“Do not apply for any certification to Shaw Academy. I haven't even received an email confirming my subscription from Shaw Academy but I was charged for it! My money was taken without my permission. I was trying to call the academy but the automatic voice message was referring to my student ID that I HAVE NEVER received, meaning I wasn't able to make an actual phone call. I was trying multiple times to contact the customer service but no results!”
“Shaw Academy processed an unauthorized charge on my credit card and refused to refund the money although I did never purchased their services. Shaw Academy processed an unauthorized charge on my credit card and refused to refund the money although I did never purchased their services. I received a phone call from a Mr Chad Parenzee on 11/07/2020 asking me how i was coping with the course. I am absolutely sure he did not mention a debit of £99.95 from my card which is what happened immediately the call dropped. He has refused to answer my mails pick my calls or return my voicemails. The app is also set up in a very tricky way to make you spend money even though they promise the course is free, I mistakenly clicked on a button (that had no price tag on it) on 01/07/2020 and about £39.93 was taken from my card. There was no prompt asking me to confirm my choice, I think it's all aimed to rob you of your money.”
“These are con artists. Especially for young students. Disgusting.
Cancelling process can only be done through a phone call, absolutely no website should do that. They ask you for your learner ID at the start of the call so they know who they are scamming. I know this because after I was charged I received automated messages instead of an actual agent unlike the first few times I wanted to cancel.
I filed a complain and received ANOTHER automated message through email stating they can't process a single refund. Offered me a 6 Month free membership, which I don't trust because they would still have access to my payment details.
When I was calling for cancellation, they offered me a 30 days free trial, but then later on went with my charge.
Their content is by far worse than Youtube videos, yes 'Youtube' videos have better quality. In fact I recommend Skillshare, they are a lot more interactive with their students and peers (less than £10 a month compared to this £50). At least they don't spam your email and call you up. Creepy.”
“Scam company! They have blocked me from their website and still illegally take money from my bank account! I DEMAND MY MONEY BACK TO MY BANK ACOUNT!!”
“Company is a SCAM,
my complaints are exactly as everyone else's: Charged for a product I never ordered and keep ignoring my demands to close my account with them. Constant spam emails and all correspondence is them simply trying to upsell products.
Shaw Academy is know to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in ireland (Where it is based), has had trouble getting funding and once investors get word of the horrific customer experience of using it, will not likely be around for much longer.”
“They will not quit charging my account after several emails stating I wanted the account closed (may) And had no interest in following up with the free trial. They email me back stating the account would be closed within 24 hours and I would no longer be charged. The following month (June)I was charged $69.99 again. They refused to refund my money.TOTALLY AND COPLETE THIEVES....THERE HAS GOT TO BE AWAY TO MAKE THEM REFUND THE $ THEY HAVE STOLEN FROM HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE!!!!”
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Stevie
GB
For companies
Review of shawacademy.co.uk
Stevie
5 reviews
1 star: Bad
8 hours ago
PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE YOU EVEN…
PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE YOU EVEN CONSIDER A FREE TRIAL WITH THIS COMPANY:
I signed up for a free trial with the Shaw academy after receiving a free trial link by email. I joined their Diploma of Excel course with my first class booked for 2pm on 31st May 2020. I joined the class platform earlier than 2pm and noticed a link at the bottom of the page mentioning an 'e-certificate'. Wanting to know a little more about it I clicked on this link and without any further confirmation was charged 39.95 pounds. The link did not include the price and although it stated something along the lines of 'one click purchase' I thought that meant that it could be easily purchased after reading further information on its requirements etc. It did not present as a 'buy it now' button but was a highlighted banner of text and appears to have been designed to be deliberately unclear. This is on top of the fact that I was accessing the site as part of a 'free trial' and so one would expect that additional costs would be made much clearer. I believe the link is designed in this way to essentially coerce people into clicking it accidentally. As soon as I realised this had happened and quite upset by having been charged a relatively large amount for a document I had no use for / had not wanted nor authorised, I left the class and ended my free trial so have not accessed this 'e-certificate' in any way nor any classes with this company.
I then contacted Shaw Academy by email on 31st May and the reply I received back on the 1st June was clearly automated, did not address my refund request at all and instead stated that they had in fact extended my free trial to give me further opportunity to use their service. Extending this without my request or permission but with my payment details clearly still attached to my account. I consider wholly unethical business practice and if you search them on this site, PayPal and instagram you will see that 100s of people have been scammed in this way. The 'ad' for the e-certificate does not from my understanding meet legal standards and I have reported this to the ASA amongst other regulatory bodies.
In two more emails to the company about my refund request and wanting to receive confirmation that my account has been closed they've offered firstly $199 in online credit for their account and then in their latest email $499! Seems ridiculous to be trying to upsell to a customer who has explicitly requested their account to be closed on 3 occasions and I am still yet to receive any notice that my account has been closed despite these requests and actively ending my free trial one day into it!
I am really concerned about how this company is trying to capitalise on the covid19 lockdown and take advantage of people attempting to upskill for 'free' during a very difficult period. PLEASE DON'T GET CAUGHT OUT LIKE I DID. This company use coercive one click payment links, that according to further negative reviews on Trust Pilot and Britain Reviews, can pop up at any time and can be easily clicked by accident and they are renowned for making it very difficult to cancel subscriptions leading to people being charged for these despite multiple attempts to close accounts. The reliability of their positive reviews on this very site have also been questioned. Look at the positive reviews and compare them to the negative ones? Which ones seem like actual people and not automated bots?
Really concerned about the amount of people who will be scammed into essentially unauthorised payments to this company and so if my review can prevent just one of you going through what I have I'll be very pleased with myself.”
“They have charged me £49.99 even though I have never signed up to them. Clearly I have been scammed and even though I have tried to explain this to them the same day i was charged they refuse to refund my money. I thought maybe I had made an error so I checked all my messages, email history, web history but there is nothing. They can also see clearly I have not accessed any course content. This just proves that this company is only interested in making money from you. I have read various posts where a lot of people claim it is extremely difficult to cancel and even those who have cancelled have still been charged. Stay away from them!!!”
“SHAW ACADEMY IS A SCAM! They will take money from you no matter if you told them to cancel your membership. They do not care and will take unauthorized payments from you. This has been happening to hundreds of people and any positive reviews are fake, written by people in third world countries. This company needs to be shut down and held accountable.”
“Attempted to cancel, but the company use deceptive tactics to try avoid cancellation and have now charged me for an alleged service on the website which was definitely not used. We have attempted to contact the company for a refund but they have refused. They even referred to us by the wrong name in their email correspondence to us.
If they can't even get our name correct how do they even know who or what to charge.”
“This company is a big scam. First it should be banned from Paypal, it is ruining the reputation of Paypal. I was scammed by this website like similar other people here. I subscribed for free trial, then I called to cancel 1 week later because of very low quality and course materials with full of mistakes. Then they offered me some more free product, then I decided to keep my subscription until end of my tail. But right after my phone call I was charged because of the those free services. I called them and they accused me that I clicked on one click purchase (which I never did). The replied me back with this template email response: "Thank you for contacting us.
I see that you have purchased the Toolkit shown in your members area, course page, pop-up banner and email by clicking on the “Buy Now” option.
Your Toolkit includes Webinar Slides for every lesson, Summary Notes for every lesson and Bonus videos. You can download these materials and save them on your device for future reference even after your access period expires.
You can access the toolkit resources under the "Resources" tab on your course page through your student login area (http://www.shawacademy.com/login.php) using a web browser.
Once the Toolkit is activated in your account, it is made available to you immediately for download hence it cannot be disabled or the access cannot be revoked. Hence, we will not be able to process the refund as per our terms and conditions. Click Here to review the same in particular section 5.8.
However, we at Shaw Academy do want to ensure you benefit thoroughly from our services. I would like to offer you credit to the value of $199 which can be used for your Certificate of Completion and also 3 remaining module toolkit and 1 hard copy diploma. This is far in excess of what you paid and you can download and access these for life. The Certificate of Completion will be excellent to achieve your goals for employment or self-improvement.
I have enabled this for you in your account and it will be activated within a few hours, so you have 3 additional toolkit, one E-certificate and a hard copy for free now.
Make sure to keep attending your classes and stick with you plan and you will see the results. You will now also get your Certificate of Completion at the end of the module for free.
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Shaw Academy Team
Kind Regards,
Nikolas"”
“I do not have an idea who this company is but apparently, I have "supposedly" authorised them to take payments out of my PayPal. When asked for proof that I authorise them, they don't give it to me! I asked for a refund policy, they don't give it to me! I asked for cancellation policy, they don't give it to me! I asked for the complaints policy and guess what they don't give it to me!!! I cannot find any of my email addresses on the website to login. Now here's the best part I set up a dispute with PayPal within two hours PayPal came back and said your fault you did authorise this, So I asked PayPal for proof they told me to contact this thieving b@@@@@d of a company TWO payment they took from me in a space of a week! Luckily I'm in Ireland and there is an office in Ireland that I can send legal letters too, They ain't gonna keep my money”
“I do not have an idea who this company is but apparently, I have "supposedly" authorised them to take payments out of my PayPal. When asked for proof that I authorise them, they don't give it to me! I asked for a refund policy, they don't give it to me! I asked for cancellation policy, they don't give it to me! I asked for the complaints policy and guess what they don't give it to me!!! I cannot find any of my email addresses on the website to login. Now here's the best part I set up a dispute with PayPal within two hours PayPal came back and said your fault you did authorise this, So I asked PayPal for proof they told me to contact this thieving b@@@@@d of a company TWO payment they took from me in a space of a week! Luckily I'm in Ireland and there is an office in Ireland that I can send legal letters too, They ain't gonna keep my money”
“One click purchase scams. Your free trial describes the cancellation process as simple and online. This is untrue. It is difficult and via telephone.
They of course never answer the phone. When they do, you are told the support team will get back to you, who, again never do.
If you subscribe, be aware that if you do not like the site content, you will not be refunded!
UPDATE: Response to email asking me to contact the trust pilot email address they have setup.
I asked for a refund for a second time and this is the response I received...
"Thank you for contacting us.
I see that you have purchased the Web Development Module 1 Toolkit shown in your members area, course page, pop-up banner and email by clicking on the “Buy Now” option.
Your Toolkit includes Webinar Slides for every lesson, Summary Notes for every lesson and Bonus videos. You can download these materials and save them on your device for future reference even after your access period expires.
You can access the toolkit resources under the "Resources" tab on your course page through your student login area using a web browser.
Once the Toolkit is activated in your account, it is made available to you immediately for download hence it cannot be disabled or the access cannot be revoked. Hence, we will not be able to process the refund as per our terms and conditions. Click Here to review the same in particular section 5.8.
However, we at Shaw Academy do want to ensure you benefit thoroughly from our services. I would like to offer you credit to the value of $199 which can be used for your Certificate of Completion and also 3 remaining module toolkit and 1 hard copy diploma. This is far in excess of what you paid and you can download and access these for life. The Certificate of Completion will be excellent to achieve your goals for employment or self-improvement.
I have enabled this for you in your account and it will be activated within a few hours, so you have 3 additional toolkit, one E-certificate and a hard copy for free now.
Make sure to keep attending your classes and stick with you plan and you will see the results. You will now also get your Certificate of Completion at the end of the module for free.
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Shaw Academy Team
Kind Regards,
Paul"
My response to this is that I haven't activated anything. I haven't actually clicked anything beyond that click-bait button apart from the red 'X' to leave the site.
This is not resolved and I have reported this incident to the BBB. I recommend anybody else to do the same if they experience this scam.”
“Stop Shaw Academy from financially exploiting people
Sign my petition https://www.change.org/p/shaw-academy-stop-shaw-academy-from-financially-exploiting-people”
“Abused Paypal Pre-approved system. This company set up a PayPal pre-approved payment system to they can charge at the end of a trial. While that is fine, they have one-click systems in place and take money from your PayPal account with telling you. They have charged me $40 for course material I did not authorise nor purchase. Absolutely disgusting. Their customer service does not exist and hang up the phone. Do not sign up to this school!”
“This is a scam. They offer 'free' courses which you then get charged for. They are doing this during the Covid 19 shut down when so many people are genuinely offering free stuff but Shaw Academy are using the crisis to scam people. Disgusting.”
“OMG! I have joined the shaw academy because I was interested in the course of nutrition and I only subscribed because of the one-month free trial. Not only they called me about 10 times during that month but when I wanted to cancel the subscription you have to go through around 5 pages of clicking yes, I really want to cancel and when you get to the last page they tell you that you have to call a number to really cancel. Then the robot on the phone spends 10 minutes telling you how you had big and great goals when you joined and now you are just giving up on that dream and then she literally says if you want to give up on your dream press 2, then she offers you free stuff and that repeats around 4 times. I can't believe this is real and it is an actual selling technique. I do not think they have the right to behave this way. It is amoral at the very least. I don't know if I managed to express how disgusting their behavior was but if not...believe me it is so AMORAL! Do not subscribe even for the free trial, it is not worth it and they do not deserve your attention-not even for free-for a minute.”
