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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
How on earth will this issue end and how are these people still operating. As most people can attest, during the worst part of the pandemic people were sucked in due to restrictive movements. I have had money devoted each month from my account for a “free trial “ I subscribed to. My bank can’t help me and it pains me so much that nothing gets done about this and that they continue to “steal “money from people daily.
I signed up for free trial. there is no way of cancelling on the student platform therefore I sent an email to say I am no longer interested in the course. I was contacted by a representative, I also told him that I sent an email to discontinue. he said he would have called me the following week. I told him I was no longer interested in the course. subsequent to that my credit card was charged for 69.99. I immediately sent Shaw Academy an email since there is no telephone number to call. they respondedto day that their records doesn’t show and I should contactmy bank.
I sent them copies of my credit card statement as evidence that my card was charged .
they responded via email that I would receive my refund in 7 days. after 7 days passed I realised that my account wasn’t refunded so I emailed them. they replied with a fictitious screenshot to say that my card was not charged
I need my money refunded from Shaw Academy and they should be investigated and prosecuted for their action.
Oh goodness if I had known sooner
I never signed up. My 13 year old did and I called asking for my money back last year. They wouldn’t and now March of this year they take 69.99 out again off a different card. They went through PayPal. I can’t get this back either. I don’t understand why I can’t sue them. Can someone help me please.
Exactly the same thing happened to me in November last year. Got nowhere.
Do NOT sign up for trial. I signed up for my free trial and then a few days in accidentally hit a button in regards to materials. They automatically charged me 49.99. I called and had a pleasant experience with the help agent and she assured me I could get reimbursed by emailing a specific comment to a certain address. She also gave me some “free” materials for my trouble. I followed her instructions to a T but never received my refund. I figured it was my mistake so I’ll just have to deal with it. But I was so scared to touch anything else on the website! I called a week before my trial was up to cancel. They said my trial had been extended another 2 months from my previous complaint. Ok- I put another reminder in to call and cancel then. Then 1 week later they charge me the subscription price because I didn’t cancel. I had the email to prove I had the extension till May. After a few emails back and forth I called to make sure they cancelled my account. He tried to give me “free” months or materials or whatever other crap he had in his script and I just told him I wanted my refund and to cancel. He said it was cancelled and that I would receive my refund in 10 days. Still not there 15 days later!!! I’m going to have to cancel my PayPal just so they don’t try to charge me again for my cancelled subscription. It’s a scam. Don’t even bother. The photography videos I watched weren’t anything special that you can’t find on YouTube or Pinterest. Stay away!!!
I signed up for a free course in July 2019 and cancelled before the free offer expired. I suddenly got a charge in November 2020 which I tried to argue over but was told it was a payment as I hadn’t cancelled in time. In the end I gave up as I kept getting the same response but told in writing I wouldn’t be charged any further for anything.
Last week February 2021 I have been charged again, having complained again with proof of what I was previously told with regards to no charge they still refuse to return my money.
This company needs dealt with , I want my money back , they are fraudsters.
Hi, i have been charged 2 times with a 3 month membership, plus 2 times module tool kit. Although i have been promised that after the 1. I will be free of charge. The jewellery design course wasn’t even ready to attend when they already advertised it. So i paid for something wich i couldn ‘t attend, than i have been charged 1 more times! And when i ask them to refund, they simply answer 17 times with the same formula: they cannot. Giving a lifetime membership for something i don’ t want, they think that is a compensation! It’s simply money steeling! Very disappointing!
I tried to cancel my subscription before COVID19 hit the US. They told me they would pause the billing for 2 months, gave me access through the remainder of the month and they would notify me before billing resumed. This notification did not occur and I’ve since been trying to cancel and asked for a refund. I was told yesterday by a rather rude representative that a refund was not possible just because I chose to drop out. He tried using the example “if you take a drink back to Starbucks, do they give you your money back?” To which I replied YES! he then told me I was wrong in that “theory”. I asked for a manager multiple times and he continued to refuse my request saying he was the highest form of contact. While waiting for them to reach back out after I emailed to cancel, I have been charged again. He also asked me to cease using profanity numerous times and I never used a foul word at all…play the recorded call Shaw Academy! I will be going to the BBB Gere in the US and posting a review on trust poilet. This was the biggest scam I’ve ever been sucked into. My lawyer also has wind of this issue and will be reaching out to them as well.
I signed up for the free trial, didn’t think the structure of the course suited my personal situation so called to cancel. 2 days later I was charged 2 separate charges of £49.99. One for an e certificate I didn’t get and the other for course material that I have not accessed as I had cancelled the trial and my student account.
Was told that it was my fault and they have proof that I purchased the items – I didn’t!!
Tried to give me extended access to a course I don’t want to do!
Flat out refused to refund actually saying that it was “not possible” to refund!
They are a disgrace. Thousands of people during lockdown have looked to up-skill and this company have simply taken advantage and ripped them off!!
I signed up for a ‘free trial’ and was charged £44.99 without consent. I have called and emailed on numerous occasions after my 3rd or 4th phonecall I finally managed to get an email from them confirming that my subscription has been ended. HOWEVER they refuse to give me a refund! It took them 2 weeks to even reply to my email and they just keep saying they cannot refund me. I did not agree to purchase anything a window popped up saying ‘get course materials’ which I had to click on to her past it and they are saying in doing this I made a purchase. This company are clearly scamming people left right and centre there are hundreds of reviews from people in the same situation. I really hope they get investigated for fraud.