Shaw Academy

I signed up for a free 4 week trial on July 7, 2020 and on July 12, 2020 they charged my account for $69.99. I requested a refund but they refused
I signed up for a free 4 week trial for an online course on July 7, 2020 and my first session was to start on the July 12, 2020. When I clicked on the link to the session, I was immediately charged $69.99 on my debit card (i get a notification on my phone when a transaction occurs on my account). I immediately sent them an email letting them know I have a 4 week trial and was charges in error. They respond with their standard terms & conditions and indicated that I was beyond my free trial. Which clearly I am not. I sent a couple of additional responses to them and they just say that they don't give refunds. In my last email to them, I requested a phone number to speak with someone personally and they have not responded. Additionally, please note, I did not take the course. When the charge came thru, I exited out of the link and contacted them and did not go back into any of there courses. So I am filing this complaint.

I am attaching my welcome letter for the 4 week trial as confirmation of my sign up date and email communication with them.

This company advertises a free 4-week trial to their program and then makes it nearly impossible to cancel the subscription.
I signed up for Shaw Academy because they were advertising a free 4 week trial covering a project management course. After signing up and taking the first 3 courses I realized that the "Classes" were pretty well useless. You could learn more from free online sources or books. In the first few days Shaw Academy drove me to the breaking point when they started spamming me with pop up advertisements at every stage of clicking through their website and then calling, texting, and emailing me all night long to "remind" me about my "class" that was in 3 days. I had to call to be removed from their contact list to stop getting spam calls in the middle of the night. I then attempted to cancel the trial period, but was told I needed to cancel later in the trial period. Now two days before the end of the trial period I attempted to cancel the trial online so that I am not charged $60 a month for a worthless set of videos. Upon attempting to cancel I was sent on a wild goose chase of "more affordable options" even though the link suggested it was routing me to cancel my trial. More than 5 windows of rerouting ads later, I was finally dropped off at a landing page that says I cannot cancel the trial online and that I have to call in during business hours to cancel. This is absolutely ridiculous. If these individuals actually believed they were selling a good and ethical product they would not make it nearly impossible to cancel subscriptions. I will be sure to spread this information across my networks to prevent others from being scammed by such a terrible and worthless company.

I tried to cancel my subscription thru calls and emails to no avail. I am afraid my account will be debited after the one month free trial period.
I started my free trial subscription last July 16. Due to personal reasons and unprecedented workload, I have decided to end my subscription. I followed the online cancellation steps which led me to make a call to a number they provided along with the student number given as reference. However, they said my student number was incorrect which was impossible as I just wrote what was given to me. Then I sent emails to their support team but had no resolution until now. I have read various complaints online which started similar to mine and I am afraid my account will be debited after the free trial month since they have not resolved my cancellation.

I unintentionally purchased a certificate as I was trying to cancel a free trial. I was assured it would be refunded. Now, I'm told it won't be.
I signed up for a free trial and enjoyed initial participation in several courses. I was going to stay enrolled, but I had too many technology issues. In one attempt to simply clear a banner out of the viewing window, I apparently touched the banner instead and was charged $39.99 for an eCertificate. There was no confirmation window. It just charged me. I decided to cancel, since the technology issues remained unresolved, and it was becoming obvious the only way to succeed in the classes was to ultimately spend hundreds of dollars on course materials and certificates. You have to call to cancel, and I spoke on the phone with a rep who assured me (1) the eCertificate would be refunded, and (2) if I wanted to stay enrolled, she would ensure I had access to all of those materials and certificates at no charge for the duration of the courses. She also assured me she would help make sure the technology issues were fixed and, in the meantime, I could just watch the recordings. I finally agreed. After 24 hours, I still couldn't access the classes or most course materials. The code they "provide" for 30 free days of Adobe didn't work, because I was charged after 7 days. So, within a few days of still no success and no refund, I reached out by Email to the person I had spoken to on the phone. She claimed that would go directly to her. It didn't. It basically goes to a help desk, and I would receive these canned messages in response. Finally, a real person reached back out, basically stating he would make sure I could access course materials, despite my saying I wanted out. I responded again asking to please cancel my free trial and refund the certificate, as promised, and I received another response. I'd have to call again, and I'm not getting my money back. It's obvious this is a giant scam, and their customer service skills and practices are a joke. It's a shame. As a higher educator of more than 15 years, this is NOT how you treat students.

Cancellation Issues
I am trying to cancel my free trial, but when I call the number provided on the cancellation page it continuously tells me that my student number is incorrect. I am using the student number shown on the cancellation page. I have tried the number several times. I can find no other contact information. I would like to cancel and be free of charge, considering that it has only been a few days since I signed up. I have decided to take classes elsewhere.

Thank you for your time.

Cancelled my subscription during free trial (start date: 5/18). Was advised that I would not be charged and on 7/3 was charged 69.99. Refund not given
On 5/18, I started my free 4 week trial. Three weeks into the course, I cancelled through the app and the app advised me to call. Please note that the business hours listed for the phone number provided XXX-XXX-XXXX were incorrect. I was how ever able to get through on X-XX-XX at 9:57am. Thee rep attempted to sale me and I politely shut her down and she advised that she had extend my free trials no charge just In case I have a change of heart. She assured me that I would not be charged. Over a month later on 7/3, Shaw academy charged my card 69.99 and the refused to refund it stating that I was outside of my trial. This is 100% false as my phone record shows the 7 min cancellation call I made on 6/15 which was exactly 28 days after my start date on May 18. I am simply requesting that they refund my money.

Attempting to cancel membership, cannot get ahold of anyone. Phone number, email and student ID do not work.
The class I signed up to take as a free trial did not work. The screen played an intro and then the class immediately 'ended'. No other resources were available unless paid for. I attempted to then cancel my membership, going through many screens to finally come to a phone number that said I would also need to input my student ID. My student ID does not work according to the phone and there's no customer service to contact. I'm demanding my subscription be canceled as I'm no longer interested in this and I have been scammed.

"Free" class offered a toolkit, but after I clicked for more info., I was instantly charged $44.28. I never downloaded it. They won't return the fee.
I began a free Project Management class with Shaw Academy on or about the 8th of July. It required a credit card, but I went ahead and signed up. In the process, I noticed that there was a toolkit for the class available, so I clicked on the button to find out more about it not realizing that the "One Click Purchase" meant that my card would be instantly charged $44.28.
I did not download the file since I had only wanted to see what was available with a "Toolkit." Realizing the charge was being put on my card, I contacted their customer support to explain the situation and request a refund (July 8, Unique ID number #XXXXXXX).
I received an auto reply stating they'd get back within about 48 hours.
Then the charge showed up on my card.
On July 10, I replied back requesting a response since I hadn't heard back from them.
On July 11, "Luke" responded with an email stating that "we will not be able to process the refund as per our terms and conditions." but offering a free certificate, more toolkit stuff and a hard copy of a diploma all which are not useful to me.
Reviewing their terms and conditions I found that: (https://www.shawacademy.com/terms/) 5.8: "Single purchases. If a student purchases an E-cert or toolkit from the members area, by checkout page or single click purchase, refunds cannot be provided without just cause, as defined by incorrect content or pricing...."

I requested an exception and followup on July 11, but have not heard a reply as of July 18 and the charge is still on my card.

While that first session of the class was interesting, I have cancelled my "free" trial class out of concern for other unexpected charges simply by exploring through their website. I'm still stuck with paying the $44.28 bill and Shaw Academy hasn't communicated since the 11th.

I share this to warn others of Shaw Academy's, not deceptive, but unclear charging practices that can trap people into apparently irreversible charges that are greater than the cost of the actual class they are taking even if you never download, use, or even wanted the item that you clicked on in the first place.

SCAM: The website is a fraud. They won't refund my money
I registered for the free trial at Shaw's academy website. They have two buttons at course page. One for ecertificate and other for tool kit. The problem with these buttons are that they don't ask for confirmation like all the other payment related websites do. If you click it one, they charge you. This happened twice to me. I haven't and won't be using any of the things I purchased for. So I emailed them asking for refund. They just said refund is not possible. I need my money back.

Scam. Won't let you take anything promised and won't let you cancel the membership. They steal your money & tell you the acct doesn't exist.
This is an absolute scam and they delete comments calling them out for being a scam too. Signed up for a free trial, they took my card info to "charge after the trial". You can't even access the course whatsoever during the "trial", they want you to buy a toolkit but claim you can still watch the lessons, which is false. Then when you go to cancel it takes you through seven pages of "are you sure", only to tell you to call a number. I call the number and it tells me my student number doesn't exist even though I'm looking right at it.

Payment deduction from account without permission

Hello,
This is with reference to course I have opted from shaw academy for which I have paid Rs. 3000/-
But I still get money deducted from my account ( which is linked to app) sometimes when I open the app without any information. I had enrolled myself for this online courses because I heard alot about your accdamy and about the reputation of your company and ofcourse about the course but now I am really not happy with this extra charges being deducted without my permission again and again. Today I logged in the app three time just because I got a mail about class and also I want to check my assignment status. I'd already paid for this course last time still a sum of Rs. 4500/- deducted from my account which is irrelevant. I really want you to suggest how can I get refund of my money and get this inconvience resolved

The've took money from my bank account without my consent & authority. I don't even use their site or any tool kit but they took money from me.
They took money from my bank account without my consent and knowlegde about the payment that I don't even remember I have a paying bills from them. This happened when I saw their ads on my social media acc. promoting a month free trial, I registered to them by the month of march 2020 during my quarantine periods without knowing the financial crisis it will be brought to myself. When I decided to cancel the subscription due to my own time constrains I feel at ease that I will not be paying anymore. Without my knowledge they took money from my bank account amounting to $40 or 2000 pesos (Philippine currency) for a four month consecutive. I only discovered their unnoticed fraudulent act when I balanced my card, then only that time I discovered they took money from me without my consent. I have a proof of payment receipt that I got from their site. I've tried to have a refund from them but they don't answer me clearly I just got a lifetime membership wherein in fact I want a full refund from my money they have took from me unwillingly and unknowingly.

I signed up for the "free" 30 day membership. I cancelled on week 2 of my membership. I then noticed I was charged $33 for the month.
I signed up for the free 30 day membership on April 2020. I cancelled my membership on April 15, well within the 30 day requirement for cancellation. I then noticed on 7/7/20 that I was charged $33/month for the membership. I went back to their website to cancel again. I then found that not only do you have to cancel online via their website, you then had to call a number in England. I called the number and spent 15 minutes going from one pitch to the next begging me to stay via automated system. Every time you try to cancel, they say, press 2 or 3, it then takes you to another automated message trying to convince you to stay. At no point was I able to speak to a human. I submitted my complaint online stating that I had cancelled my membership within the stipulated 30 day window. I received an email 1 week later stating that I had not properly cancelled my membership and would not be receiving a refund.

This is a total scam.

Shaw Academy did not refund me for a "toolkit" I never received the download for. The product didn't download, and I provided a screenshot.
On July 11th, I signed up for a Free Trial of Shaw Academy's online Web Design Course that includes learning HTML, CSS and Java. Certain parts of their terms were not disclosed upfront before accepting the trial until you could access the FAQs, such as that I'd have to choose specific dates and hours to take my courses, that there would be costs for toolkits which they claim help students perform better and include the instructor's slides (yet they don't mention either that you can re-watch the recording of the class as many time as you want when buying the toolkit), the cost of e-certificates for each module or that the diploma itself costs $119 and the cost charged after the trial is $69. Had I known about the some of these details, I wouldn't have signed up for the "Free Trial".

After signing up, since I read that most students who don't buy the toolkit don't perform as well as the students who buy a toolkit for the modules, I decided to buy a toolkit for $39.95. The first time I purchased a toolkit, I was immediately charged in my bank account for $39.95, but the download (I included a screenshot to their billing and customer service departments) had just funny looking letters and numbers and there was no download. I would click the download button, and nothing would download. I tried repurchasing, and was charged again for $39.95 and did receive a normal downloaded toolkit as one would expect. However, Shaw Academy is refusing to refund me for the toolkit that didn't work, even though it is obvious there is only one toolkit in my course section, not two. And, you can still see the funny characters listed on the download in my profile where the downloads were to take place. Their refusal to refund me is the primary reason for my complaint.

However, I would warn anyone considering Shaw Academy not to sign up. They practically abused my text, Messenger and email by sending me at least 10 or more messages a day either reminding me of course materials available, class times, drawings, sales, discounts on the diplomas which cost $119 when the course is over, and they would have spammed my Whatsapp too but never connected with it for some reason.

My experience with Shaw Academy was that the coursework was mostly outdated. A lot of the courses available are up to a year to two year's old. There are not that many courses to choose from, and their primary habit and goal seems to be inundating the user with spam to sell their extras or their products and services. It is, to me, a sign that they are not having much luck with sustaining a healthy amount of current, consistent curriculum for students of the academy.

I must admit that I am disappointed that I can't take the particular course. But, when I tried to cancel, they didn't make it easy. I had to call them on the phone with a PIN to access someone to talk to about the refund and cancellation, they told me they would cancel my course but go ahead and give me two free months anyways. They told me they would escalate my billing issue regarding the refund but that I would need to contact billing separately because otherwise I wouldn't hear back from billing. This was Kaytlin P that I spoke with for the initial cancellation call on July 17th. So, I emailed billing while on the phone with her. The cancellation email she sent to me had an offer that I was supposed to respond as Satisfied or Not Satisfied and then I told her I didn't want anymore free months or anything more from Shaw Academy, and I chose Not Satisfied. She said that was fine. She said my account had been successfully canceled.

The response from Thomas in billing was frustrating because it was as if he didn't even look at my screenshots or read the email I sent. He said in the email that sometimes people accidentally purchase something twice, and their policy does not allow them to refund for instances such as that. I wrote back frustrated as can be at this point. I have not heard back. Account still active!

False advertisement on FB and landing page. Incorrectly charged my card and will not give refund.
A bit over a month ago they advertised free courses on Facebook. I clicked on it and it took me to some page to sign up. There it changed to only one month of free course, please enter your card number, but they will send a reminder e-mail prior to charging the card. They did not send a reminder e-mail. They charged my card. I asked for a refund SEVERAL times and they do NOT give a refund. I have not used their services AT ALL. This is false advertisement and rip-off.

I signed up for the 30-day free trial period and got charged for a Quarterly Subscription without my consent while there are 2 weeks left in the trial
I signed up for the 30-day free trial period at July 2nd using my paypal account email ***@umn.edu. On July 16th, someone self-claimed Shaw Academy UK academic advisor call me and ask about my experience. He tries to speak me into buying some products but I have made it clear that I will not buy anything or signing up for anything. After the call, my Paypal account got charged 100$ for a Quarterly Subscription that I do not agree to signing. I sent an email to Shaw Academy and they change my account into a lifetime membership instead of refunding my money. I don't need the membership and I sent them back another email but haven't heard from them since then. I contacted Paypal and they cannot file a dispute because Shaw Academy didn't send me any email stating that I'm having a 30-day free trial period with them. I want Revdex.com to process my case and refunding back my money ASAP because I need it for college tuition.
Thanks and best regards

They billed me for service I cancelled. No response to refund requests.
After requesting membership be canceled during the free trial, they still billed me $69.99, and haven't responded to multiple emails, all of their listed phone numbers are disconnected. The charge is showing as a recurring payment, I do not want to charged for this in the future and want a refund for the previous charge.

I want a refund for unauthorized charge.
canard this service within the trial period and continue to get charged. I've written, called and even contacted my bank. They refuse to refund and have initiated other charges. They do acknowledge that my account has been canceled.

signed up for this service on 12/12/20, with my cc. after reviewing the material, I called and cxl the membership 10 mins later and was still charged.
After signing up for this 'membership',on 6/12/20 and gaining access to the site, I quickly realized that was not what I was looking for, so I called the customer service number that was on the site, talked to a rep. she cancelled the membership and sent me a cancellation confirmation and told me that I would not be charged. Fast forward to 7/10/20, there was a charge on my card of $69.99. I emailed customer service to dispute, but received an response that I did not cancel in time (signed up and cancelled membership on the same day) and they would not refund my money. I sent them a 'Revocation of authorization for debits' letter and notified my bank not to honor any debit authorizations from this company. This has scam written all over it. I want a complete refund of my money. I have attached the cancellation confirmation email that I received from them to this complaint.

An unauthorized charge was processed on my credit card by Shaw Academy for services I didn't purchased and they refused to refund my money.
They took money from my account twice without my authorisation of £49.99 and £39.95 on the 14/07/2020 for a service I never purchase.
I have contacted the company severally seeking to get my money back but instead they stopped responding to my emails and refused to refund me. I want a full refund of £89.94. Please kindly see attached proof of payment.