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Shaw Academy is facing an investigation regarding Trustpilot reviews amongst booming student numbers during the coronavirus lockdown.
Online courses rapidly gained popularity when the global lockdowns due to COVID-19 commenced.
However, Guardian Money reveals that one of the biggest players in the online course game has been receiving massive numbers of complaints from upset customers, many of whom are requesting refunds. Shaw Academy is being investigated by the reviews website Trustpilot.
Shaw Academy is one of the biggest companies in online education and states 12 million students have “graduated” from its many online courses, with a huge spike of students who joined during the lockdown.
The diverse collection of courses ranges from digital marketing and web design to music lessons and wedding photography. Most courses are free for four weeks and then cost £49.99 a month.
In order to sign up for Shaw Academy, users have to enter their payment information, and some students have criticised the company, saying it makes it complicated to cancel the free trial. Many students claim they cancelled before the deadline, and yet the funds were still taken out of their account.
Guardian Money claims to have seen emails from Shaw Academy asking customers to delete unfavourable Trustpilot reviews and replace them with positive ones.
Many customers state they have been pestered with emails, texts, WhatsApp messages and phone calls that try to persuade them to buy more services.
However, Shaw Academy tells Guardian Money that “99.5% of customers have zero issues,” adding that its global ratings were “exceptionally high.” While the coronavirus pandemic has been a difficult time, Shaw Acadmey said, “we have worked tirelessly to make improvements.”
Despite its alert about the investigation, huge numbers of Trustpilot reviews are still being written. Guardian Money counted about 25 in the space of one hour. Of the 25 Trustpilot reviews, nine were one-star ratings.
As of 18 June 2020, Trustpilot announced a warning on the Shaw Academy review page that the company has been persuading customers to leave biased reviews, namely, selecting only students that were happy with their services. According to Trustpilot, Shaw Academy has asked students to delete negative reviews or change them to positive reviews.
These actions directly breach Trustpilot’s guidelines and have the potential to mislead customers.
Veronika Solnickova, 33, told Guardian Money she signed up for a sports nutrition course with Shaw Academy. She later wanted to end her €179.95 (£162) yearly membership and thought the process would be a simple one.
She says opted to be notified one day prior to the subscription end date, but she was never notified. She was stunned to find she had been charged £162 for another year.
Solnickova states she should have been notified before being charged for another yearly subscription and claims the activity is in breach of the company’s contract. She was forced to file a grievance with PayPal.
After she posted a negative review on Trustpilot a couple of days later, Shaw Academy emailed to say her refund would arrive shortly.
As seen by Guardian Money, the email states: “I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind removing your review or giving us a good rating on trustpilot.com, just until I have the chance to rectify the problem for you.” A follow-up email with a similar message was sent a few days later.
Solnickova refused to change her review and eventually received her refund.
“I assume Shaw Academy gave the go-ahead to PayPal to proceed with the refund,” she told Guardian Money. “I consider myself to be lucky. Many people all over the world are being taken advantage of during the pandemic. They make it impossible to cancel and keep charging people.”
When asked about the alert on the Shaw Academy page, Trustpilot told Guardian Money: “We take the integrity of our platform extremely seriously. Should we become aware of any company breaching our guidelines and trying to mislead consumers, we will take action. Our investigation continues but we have already issued formal cease-and-desist proceedings and if we don’t receive a satisfactory response we will take further enforcement action.”
The UK’s CPD Standards Office, an accreditation service for training and learning, announced in March that anyone looking to pursue an online course should choose one that has been externally verified, to reduce the risk of purchasing a course that has misleading adverts or contains incorrect information.
Have you purchased a course from Shaw Academy? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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85 thoughts onShaw Academy Facing Investigation, Calls for Refunds
Do NOT try the free trial!!! I signed up and they ask for your credit card but say that you can cancel anytime. The only thing I have done since then is download what appeared to be a powerpoint for an upcoming class. The next morning my card was charged 2x for $42.86. There was not any disclaimer that you are purchasing something at the time of download. There is not a confirmation of purchase before you download. I am now trying to get a refund and they are trying to offer me 3mos free the first time and then 6 mos the second time – saying a refund is not possible. DO NOT USE!!!
I signed up to try and evaluate Shaw academy as a learning platform for my company but the day I signed up for the free trial, my credit card had money deducted. I have been emailing daily and sent proof by email that no purchase was made, that i have been charged twice for the same course ‘toolkit’ that I never purchased – and have not yet been issued any refund. Shaw academy is a scam. When you sign up they mention a ‘free trial’ and ask you to sign up for free courses. Then they will deduct your credit card for the ‘course toolkit’, not issue you any invoice or receipt. It’s a FRAUD. Customer service mentions refunds cannot be issued as the Shaw academy only aims to cheat you of money. Do NOT sign up. It is NOT free. Beware of providing your card details. I would definitely not use this as a learning platform and recommend you to stay away from their website.
I signed up to their free trial and was browsing on their website on my phone. All of a sudden a pop up came out and I accidentally clicked on it. I only managed to see a “ Toolkit”. It happened in the blink of an eye. It went straight to downloading and right after I saw that I was charged, although I didn’t see a price on that window that came out, it wasn’t even a whole window. I decided that I won’t open the file and I won’t start the course, I even unsubscribed, and seek for further assistance from their team for a refund. Because it was a sneaky way of getting people’s money. So in the emails they repeatedly were stating that there was a 2 step confirmation page, which wasn’t true. I didn’t agree to buy that kit. So, basically, they refused to refund me writing me only about their policy and how it was clearly written that there was one click purchase, etc. Offered me free courses, certificates, toolkit. I’m receiving many offers by email and text. If I knew I had to pay, I wouldn’t subscribe to that website. So misleading.
Signed up for the 4 week free trials during the covid period and marked my calendar to cancel it before the 4 weeks end. To begin registering the 4 weeks trial, I was asked to provide my credit card information even though they insists that the card will not be charged. However, on the day of registering, I was charged $40 for a tool kit that I have never received even till this day. And around the end of week 2, I was charged another $99 for a three month membership without my knowledge or consent. I tried contacting them for both refunds and only got one message that they do not issue refunds but can only offer me more free trial time other than a ton of auto replies. I directly informed them that I am not going to use the service at all and just give me the refund and cancel my account as a whole. Never got any response back from them. Complete SPAM and FRAUD company, stay away from it as far as possible.
I agreed to a .55 cent charge for a 3 day trial nothing else i told them a few days later when They.called that i was not interested and i could not afford it sorry.you are not authorized to charge my card so stop they said ok and they have co ti ued to try and charge my account 99$ several times 49$ several times.they say there in new Hampshire but there is no phone number to contact them k nust have to answer when they call i guess but this is making my finacial situation way more difficult and all the time spent tryi gto fix this .and how bad it looms to have these charges on my account it looks like im trying to use my card and so.eti es when i dont have mo ey so they get declined then the bank dosent trust me i do t like it .i dont like how this school is makin me look as a person to a business and that business being my financial institute I bank with.I have even went as far as cancelling my card and orderi g a new one a d reported there transactions and they still have ahold of my account without my authorization BC i gave no authorization for anything but a .55 cent trial i cancelled so why are they able to access my personal finacial account they are not authorized to access my info but yet theh are still a le to get it and no matter what run my card they have got to be. Freaking many laws as they are not keeping there end of the agreement are fraudualently charging account
getting personal finacial information illegally without consent they are doing a lot of damage
They did the same exact thing to me! I got a new card and they charged me on there! Have you reported this to the police?
Like so many, I am too a victim of Shaw Academy. Signed up for a free 4 week trial on a photography course. 2 and half weeks later got a phone call from a “guidance tutor” offering me free course material and certificates for a full year which I said yes. 2 minutes later I had been charged without my authorisation €200 for a full membership that no one asked me about and to which I did not agree!
Emailed them multiple times, got a couple of phone calls from same guy, first he apologised for charging me, said it had been a mistake but when I refused a lifetime membership he said I couldn’t get a refund because payment had already been processed. I kicked off. Second phone call he comes with same bullshit, offering me a lifetime membership and 50% refund (100€). I kicked off again and demanded full refund as they stole my money from me!
Paypal couldn’t do anything so I filed a dispute and claim with my bank.
I also wrote a review on Trustpilot and they had the nerve to reply with lies, saying I had been charged because I clicked on buy membership button online, which I haven’t! I was on the phone with their people, not even logged in on my pc or phone.
I’ll keep emailing them but the whole situation is very stressful and frustrating, especially when you’re 32 weeks pregnant! I get really upset and anxious everytime I speak to them demanding for my money and it’s not good for me or my baby.
They’re thieves!! Signed up for a trial too in November last year. A year later they’ve started charging me a subscription fee claiming I reactivated my account. The nerve!!
They actually think people are stupid. They know most will not keep up with the hurdles to get their money back so they keep robbing people. And PayPal does absolutely nothing as always. The fact that they’re still allowed to operate is a disgrace.
Fell for these SCAMMERS just 1 hour ago. I signed up for a photography 4 weeks free course, ended up filling my paypal information and minutes later, they forked £49.99 out of my paypal account.
I wish i googled beforehand. I sent them emails to various addresses, left an 1-star review on trustpilot and opened a dispute on paypal (which i believe from what i have read already by other people, will get declined by paypal).
I will contact my local police station and action fraud further if paypal or them dont refund the money!!
Unfortunately for me, I enrolled on a course with Shaw Academy because they offered the first month free and then the opportunity to cancel if I did not wish to continue. I was excited to start the painting course. I was going through the steps after enrollment to look at the course material and there is a red button that says “Get Course Materials”. I wanted to see what the materials were- I already have a ton of paints and brushes- so I clicked the link. AND THEY TOOK A PAYMENT FROM MY CREDIT CARD FOR £49.99 WITHOUT ANY FURTHER AGREEMENT FROM ME! I sent them an email asking for a refund and received a reply saying that I had agreed to pay using a two step confirmation and since I already have the PDF to download that they will not give a refund. I confirm, hand on heart, that I hit one big button and they took payment- there was not two step confirmation. And, that I have not downloaded or accessed the course materials in any way. It will be easy for them to know that I have not accessed the materials. But, instead of giving a refund they said that they will give me a further three months of the course! They have stopped replying to my emails. I am now hounding them on Twitter and have found hundreds of other people with the same or similar situations, Twitter accounts dedicated solely to educating the world about their poor practices, and a Facebook support group for people who have been scammed by Shaw Academy. Apparently the “Academy” actually set up a fake support group mimicking the actual support group so they can avoid giving refunds, but that has been shut down now. Honestly.
I’m currently disputing with them now as I just signed up for the free membership on 11/15/2016. The next morning I had two charges for $48. I emailed them saying there was a mistake and they are saying that I purchased the toolkit. I had downloaded what looked like a FREE powerpoint available for the first upcoming class. As a web developer I am very well aware of how forms are created and work – there was ZERO disclaimer before I downloaded the ppt – I never once had to click to confirm payment before it downloaded – and never received any receipt of my purchase once it had downloaded. AND I was charged twice for one download. They are now trying to tell me they can not refund it to me – which is also a lie.
I had the same experiences as many above: payment without notice and after cancellation, I had to call abroad (in business hours) to finalize my cancellation. The cancellation process takes 8 pages of marketing, btw…
Many e-mails with my request for refund (I blocked future billings via Paypal) . Beneath their latest reaction (like I want to use their product again…):
“Thanks for reaching out to us.
I have reviewed your email and this matter further but unfortunately, the issue remains that the subscription was not cancelled as per our records.
In terms of processing a refund, unfortunately, this is not something we can do as the free trial was made available to you as per the terms and conditions you agreed to upon registeration.
All of that being said it is our role to ensure you as a customer, are satisfied with the services recieved and that you continue to benefit from our exceptional courses. You came to us with certain goals in mind and i want to help you achieve them as they were and are important to you and they are important to us so lets get into solution mode and focus on what we can and will do.
The first thing i have taken the liberty of doing is to remove your payment details from our database ensuring no further payments.
The second thing: lets go back to your goals for a moment, you joined with serious goals. You took the time to sign up, you selected your course. I want to solve this as your goals are important to us.
What we are going to do is to provide you with 24 months free access totally free of charge along with toolkits and certificates for the registered course.
We are going to ensure you benefit as much as the many millions of highly satisfied Shaw academy students right now.
This is very much an exception as we are trying to do everything we can, to improve your satisfaction.
We also confirm that your membership is canceled thus ensuring no further payments will be processed.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Shaw Academy Support Team.”
I had the same experience that the people above have mentioned. I was charged before the trial was over and I was refused a refund from the billing team after I requested a refund. They said they can’t refund money after the trial period date has past. The £49 isn’t a lot of money, but it’s my money and I want it back just like everyone else. They are deleting negative comments from social media accounts and using fake accounts to create reviews that give them positive comments. They should be investigated for fraud because stealing money from accounts without authorisation is fraud.