Shaw Academy

Shaw Academy processed an unauthorized charge on my credit card and refused to refund the money. I started a trial and canceled 2 days after starting.
I signed up for a 4 week trial and I noticed that their business was not for me. They baited me in with a trial of course but it's the really just the first module. There are microtransactions that require you to purchase "tool kits" and extra modules to further your learning progression. I saw huge paywalls (shady), decided it was not for me and canceled my membership 2 days after.

On April 23, 2020 I was charged a $69.99 payment to my account. I immediately emailed their support to request my money back and was denied stating my account wasn't canceled and, since I submitted my card info, I was legally bound to being charged. The ONLY way to start the trial was to provide a card number and the terms were if I cancelled before the trial ended I would not be charged. Canceled (for some convenient reason it didn't register?) and still I was charged.

I requested the last date I accessed a course and actually used their services; still awaiting a response but I'm not holding my breath here. I should not be paying for a service that I did not, have not used; no service rendered should be no payment garnered.

The paywalls felt wrong to me but the baiting with trial then hits with reoccuring monthly fee is down-right unethical. To add salt on wounds, after every email correspondence there would be a pitch to sign me back up for their services. Seriously? I should've checked with Revdex.com prior to signing up to see previous complaints to steer clear of this company.

I was charged double for services provided by Shaw Academy. I have only reached dead ends when issuing my complaint and request for a refund.
- On April 14, 2020 I signed up for a 4-week Graphic Design class (including 8 lessons) with Shaw Academy. I found out about Shaw Academy through a targeted Instagram add which promised this was a free trial.
- On April 15, 2020 I went to attend my first online class, and the website made it seem like I had to purchase a "toolkit" for "Module 1" (which corresponded with the 8 lessons). This toolkit was advertised as costing $39.95, and being that the rest of the class was free, I didn't mind paying for the toolkit.
- Later that day, I noticed two (2) transactions on my PayPal account in which Shaw Academy had charged me $39.95 (a total of $79.90) (screenshot attached).
- I have sent emails to ***@shawacademy.com and ***@shawacademy.com on April 20, April 22, and April 29. Each time I emailed Shaw Academy requesting a refund for the erroneous charge, I received the same long, pre-written response in verbatim describing the values of the toolkit.. No response regarding the extra charge.
- After my first email on the 20th, my query was given a "unique ID number" #XXXXXXX. But when I went to check the status of my query the website took me to a blank page.
- The only correspondence I've had with an actual person was on April 29th, with someone named Vincent who said: "This ticket (#XXXXXXX) has been updated. If your request is not fully resolved, please reply to this email."
I again could not access the status of the ticket/query.
- After my third email attempt on the 29th, I was given a new "unique ID number" #XXXXXXX, and received the same pre-written response describing the values of the toolkit.
- While I do not deny the value of the toolkit, and the value of the lessons I have taken, I am merely trying to receive a refund for the extra charge to my account, and trying to get through to any form of customer service has been infuriating.

Auto-charging renewals
The company auto-charged a renewal even after deleting the app, and only attending one class. The class was just awful and I was thankful it was free. If I had known there was an auto-renewal, I would have canceled immediately. I contacted them for a refund and they have refused. In this current financial climate, I cannot afford $70, especially for a subpar product.

Unauthorised charges taken out of account
I originally signed up for the 30 day free trial. I then received an email to say money had already been taken from my paypal account several times, UNAUTHORISED, this was not stated, and that I was going to be charged a fee of £69.99. I read several reviews online saying that they had been scammed too, I had no option to cancel online as my account was made inaccessible, I rang the company number several times but as this was a US number I couldn't get through, I was then harassed with phone calls from people trying to ask for more money and to buy this that and the other on the website, and text messages that I had to block, no one attempted to help my query. I have contacted my bank and asked them to investigate the matter. You have made it impossible for people to cancel the free trial. Must I add that the money has also come out well before the 30 days! I am unsatisfied and disgusted that the company is not reputable and just tries to get as much money from customers as possible

Signed up a "free" one month trial, however, my credit card was charged $1,and $69.99 within 24 hours. Content presented was antiquated & irrelevant.
I signed up for a free one month trial of Shaw Academy's social media marketing course on April 26, 2020,8:14 pm MST. In order to receive my free one month trial I needed to enter my credit card information, which I did as I saw Shaw Academy as a responsible and honorable online vendor. I took my first online class the following morning (April 27, 2020, 9:00 am) and within the first five minutes it was grossly apparent that the material being taught was from 2016. The content is antiquated and is not relevance to social media marketing practices in 2020, there is nothing of tangible value and a four year old course has no place in a rapidly changing and dynamic marketplace. Quite frankly, there is much better content with higher production value readily available on YouTube that I have already seen and learned from. I decided to cancel the membership immediately as there was no value in the course, and as a safeguard I also checked my Visa online transaction history to find Shaw Academy had made TWO charges within the previous fourteen hours, one was for $1.00 and the other for $69.99. I sent an email to Shaw Academy on April 27th at 9:22 am requesting a cancellation of my account (number XXXXX) and refund of the charges to my Visa. I received an automated email response at 9:22 am stating that Shaw Academy would get back to me, which to their credit they did at 3:11 pm. I was concerned that the email I received stated "Your membership with Shaw Academy has now been cancelled. It will be reflected within 24 in your account" I found the use of the word "account" to be nebulous in that it did not state it was my Visa credit card account. I decided to wait to see if Shaw Academy would issue a refund and I received an email on April 29, 2020 at 2:51 am from Marcas (see attached: "ShawNotCharged" email) that stated "As per your request , we have now cancelled your membership. Please be assured that you will not be charged for your membership until you reactivate." I followed up with Shaw Academy and wrote a lengthy email where I outlined my concerns about the content, not receiving a refund, possible solutions to the situation, and the actions I would take if they chose not to honor their free trial. After which I started to receive boiler plate email responses offering discounted courses and additional membership offers. This created apprehension because Shaw Academy obviously has situations like this arise with enough frequency that they have a very polished method of handling complaints and offering lots of freebies and highly discounted products. If the initial offering offered value Shaw Academy would not need to deploy such tactics, but if I did take other courses I suspect they would lack the relevancy of the course I initially signed up for. If one course is mediocre and offering very little/nothing relevant than it's probably safe to say that all of the other courses will follow suit. The back and forth continued and Shaw Academy chose to hide behind their terms and conditions of their offer and quote the small print and tell me they had already accounted for my payment in their accounts receivable, like it really matters to me? I grew tired of the run-around and cut and paste mails I received from Marcas at Shaw Academy so in my last email I clearly stated my disappointment, told them not to make any additional charges on my card, and wished them well as it was obvious they had no intention of refunding me the fee for a one month free membership of which I used five minutes to determine I did not want their product. It should be noted that I have taken courses from other institutions and I gladly pay for quality educational materials. This is not a matter of $69.99 because I've lost money with the time I've wasted with Shaw Academy, I do not appreciate being taken advantage of by operators who sell products or services that offer no tangible value.There's no problems when you sell something of value.

I signed up for a free trial in April, then requested to cancel it a few days later, now a month later, they charge me.
The first week of April, I signed up for Shaw Academy's one month free trial. On the 6th, I decided the service was not for me, and proceeded to go through the process of cancelling the free trial and renewing membership that goes along with it. The way they tell you in the support to go about it is to navigate to your account under "memberships" and request cancellation by following the prompts - which there were many many of saying "are you sure? Here's a discount. Are you positive you want to cancel? After declining absolutely everything, they then prompted me to call to cancel. So I tried to call the number they provided me with on the screen. That number was disconnected. So I then sent out several emails to customer support explaining that I needed to have this membership cancelled - here it is a month later, I never got a reply to either email. I finally was able to locate a phone number from a general google search that allowed me to speak to a customer service rep, who told me that he would cancel the membership - after a severe amount of assuring him that I did in fact want to cancel. This all took place on the 6th. I promptly uninstalled the app after the call and thought I was good to go.

Now here it is a month later, and I just got an invoice from PayPal stating that they charged me the astronomical amount of $70 for something that I deliberately said that I did not want multiple times and in multiple different methods.

I emailed their customer support and their billing department this time, but I'm not holding my breath given that I'm still waiting to hear back from them the first time via email. I logged into the website again and low and behold it says my membership is still active. I, again, try to go through the "unsubscribe" online questionnaire, but this time it gives me an even more bogus number than the first time. (Screenshot attached)

I need (and deserve) a full refund to make this right. I'm being charged for a service I never used and never agreed to and honestly told them I did not want.

There is no way to cancel your membership. I followed the instructions and it leads you to a number to call that says to call 911. I have been charged
After signing up for a free trial, I have tried several times to cancel my subscription. I follow all the instructions on the website where I clicked through tons of pages confirming my cancellation and then told I have to call a number to confirm my cancellation. When I call the number it is an automated voice machine that says if this is an emergency, call 911. I was charged 70 dollars for the membership and am now working with my bank to try to get a refund and cancel my card. This charge was on May 3rd to my debit card which I entered to get the free trial.

Shaw Academy processed an unauthorized charge on my credit card and refused to refund the money as I didnt purchased or used 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 was so turned off by the website design and payment complication during signup that I tried signing up and canceling again during the trial period. After seeing (see attached) an odd number of transactions in/out of my account, I assumed my account or subscription got canceled. So I didn't bother to log in until 30th April and then I saw a payment charge. When I contacted them, they gave text book reply similiar to what I have seen in Revdex.com site about trial period. Their website is a trap and malfunctions to make you assume that you cancelled but it stays on until they start charging money. I have requested for refund and I havent yet recieved the amount. I signed up, cancelled on 30th March, 2020 but they charged me one full month fees on 30th April.

Multiple request for cancellation and refund but they still charging on my account.
from last 2 weeks am requesting to cancel and make refund of the charges and reached multiple times, as cancellation can only be done over phone made a call and answer repeated questions 5 times and then after a day they re-activated my account. As per their communication they can not view my account but still they charge me at the end of Free trial.

I send mutiple emails with details of my account but still they dont wish to resolve it, Can you please do refund of all the charges applied on my account ??

Here are the tickets # for reference : XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX. They infact close the tickets without resolving it.

I can not delete my details from their site, to stop getting charged.

Thanks

Signed up online. Received no email or confirmation of details and no reminder to cancel.
I came across Shaw Academy on 22 march where I signed up for a one month free trial. I received nothing from them in terms of verification that I had signed up, no email, text, nothing. I assumed that the details had no gone through until a payment of £49.99 came out on 21 April. I contacted them and they said they would cancel all future payments and said I could I have 6 months free access to lessons. They said they could no issue a refund. I replied to say that I didnt want the lessons and they still would not issue a refund and offered me 12 months lessons which I accepted. The whole practice is such a scam. Feel so embarrassed that I fell for this.

I signed for a free 4-week course and 28 days later was charged $69.99 and the phone number I was given to cancel is not a valid number.
I signed up for a free 4-week course on April 5, 2020. I was not made aware of any other charges. When attempting to cancel my membership, I begin the process online, but am required to call and the number given when called says "your call cannot be completed as dialed." I was charged on May 3, 2020 $69.99 to my credit card. The terms of this free trial were not made clear. I did not authorize this charge.

I registered for a free 4 weeks online course, then come renewal time for paid membership, I tried to cancel online but was no success.
I canceled online through their website, but they wanted me to call a number that is not even real. I emailed them also to call because it is impossible to call the number they wanted me to call. They responded to my email wanting me to call. Why is it hard for them to CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP. I don't want to be charged and they are making it impossible for me. They gave me a student number XXXXX as a reference number. I emailed them on May 1, 2020 when they supposed to charge my account.

Tried a free trial course, and charged without noticing
I decided to take Shaw Academy photography class after seeing the ad on facebook that the course was for free.

First three dollars for Card validation charge, it was okay.

Toolkit for Professional Diploma for 34.95 on April 15, it wasn't okay since I don't have any memory of purchasing it. Maybe I was looking through stuff on the website and clicked something which led to pay this thing, but I did not make any purchase in regular way which I normally purchase things (card number, last three digits, confirmation,. etc.).

Honestly, I was too lazy to contact the academy and did not want to waste my time for this. (I found out that module kit provided me a course materials that I can download after realizing I got charged 34.95. At least I got something, so didn't contact them even though I haven't revisited nor downloaded the course slides.)

And now, I realized that you charged 69.99 on May 1 which was titled as "Shaw Academy Premium Membership Monthly Subscription". What is this? I don't remember subscribing this at all. I don't even know the premium membership existed, and I don't want to pay for this since I don't know what it does. Please give me refund. It is very disgraceful to charge things without students' intention of purchasing your product.

I am looking forward to see some kind of an explanation and solution for this from the academy.

Money taken from my account twice even after cancelling
I won a course from Shaw academy via Vodacom South Africa. During the registration It required my bank card details and it said no money will be debited. I never used the service. Nor did I take any course with them. However to my surprise money was debited on my account after canceling the service that was on the 28th of April 2020 then on the 30th again money was debited from my account even with proof that I had canceled when I sent an email they never responded how come they debit my money after canceling

Customer Service said they cancelled my membership but charged me a month later. Won't refund
I enrolled in the 4-week free trial they offered and cancelled the next day. Their program is structured to where you can't cancel on your account and have to call their hotline with your cancellation reference number. However, after calling, they say to contact customer support by email. I did on April 3,2020, and they said they cancelled my membership and will be updated on my account in 24 hours. However, on May 1,2020, I have been charged on my card and contacted customer service once more about it. They said I did not cancel my membership and would not refund me my money

Cancellation of 4 week trial and refund of toolkit($39.99) and e-diploma($39.99).
This is the email that I sent to them:

I have tried to contact you via phone to ensure the cancellation of my account, which includes a 4 week trial, starting 5/2/2020 and to end by 5/26/2020. I am no longer interested in the 4 week classes. I know that I should not have been charged at this point, but your reviews show difficulties in contacting you via the number you give(XXXX XXX XXXX) (reference number: XXXXX), which by the way, doesn't work. I am reporting this to the Revdex.com and I would hope that the cost of the e-diploma($39.99) and tool kit($39.99) would be reimbursed. It is really sad that this has happened. Please contact me to let me know that the account is closed.

I tried multiple times to cancel my free trial and I checked this morning and see £49.99 taken out of my account
I tried to call, email, cancel on the website, but the cancellation process is stupidly complicated. after the sup par first lesson I immediately emailed to cancel my free trial, no reply, I called and I was on the phone for 20 minutes talking to a bot. this is ridiculous and I am entitled to a full refund

I enrolled in the 4 weeks free trial course for Nutrition. I tried to cancel it, but it does not let me. It gives me an unavailable phone number.
I signed up for the 4 weeks free trial Nutrition class on April 13, 2020.

After getting so MANY emails, texts, and ads pop up on my screen everyday and during the classes, I accidentally clicked on the subscription button so I got charged the full amount for 12 months (279.95$ CAD). The thing is that ShawAcademy already got my credit card information when I signed up for the free trial and it did not even bother to ask me to confirm my subscription.

Moreover, then I decided to get (on purpose this time) the eCertificate to move on to Module 2 since I've already got charged the full amount for a year. As soon as I realized that I would have to pay every single time 34.95$CAD for each eCertificate of the 8 modules, I sent them an email to cancel my membership. I have sent them 3 emails since then with no response from ShawAcademy. So then I tried to cancel it online which led me to a phone number that is currently unavailable for the payment related queries!!! On April 25, 2020, I got charged for the 12 months subscriptions and the eCertificate for Module 1 of the Nutrition class.

To conclude, my membership is impossible to cancel since even though I have cancel it online, I still have to confirm through an agent on the phone. It still says that my membership is active. I don't understand, no one asked me to confirm my paid membership through the phone when it was time to actually pay, but when it's time to cancel, no one bothers to answer. I tried everything though email and the phone (even the phone number in the United States). I also keep getting texts to sign up for the paid membership, get the ToolKits and get the eCertificates. It is a kind of harassment.

Shaw Academy took a charge out of my account through Paypal without my authorization. I never verified my card details with them.
Shaw Academy was offering an online Photography course. I signed up for it, however didn't complete the registration, nor did I verify my card details as it seemed suspicious. Shaw Academy repeatedly sent me emails (From March 21, 2020 to March 30, 2020) saying "Verify your card details" and "Complete your registration", though I never replied. They also emailed me on March 27, 2020 with the heading: "Complete your registration and get started today! No card details recquired" and misspelled 'required', furthering my suspicion of their legitimacy. The last email I received from Shaw Academy was on April 1, 2020 saying: "Did something go wrong *** ? You haven't completed your registration for your Diploma in Photography-1". Then, on April 20th, a charge of $69.99 was taken from my account for Shaw Academy through PayPal. I would like to be refunded, as I hadn't authorized this charge.

was Unfairly charged. Should've been cancelled.
I signed up to a 4 week free course with shaw academy. The other day I attempted to cancel my account so I would not be charged for another month. I had to insist to cancel several times before it then put me through to a phone number I had to ring in order to cancel.I could not get through to the number but was reassured I would be notified before my trial ended. I was never notified and have just been charged £49.99 to my paypal for a service I did not want and will not use.