I paid for a really expensive excel course at a local training centre. I work for a small charity and it was a comparatively big expense i.e. I had to get approval before signing up and thought long and hard about it. The centre closed 'temporarily' before Christmas and then 'until further notice'. I went again this morning and there is still no-one there.
Head office tells me they will transfer me to another centre (but I signed up on the basis that the local centre would be really useful and accessible around my work schedule, I won't be able to get to any of the others) or do distance learning (which I particularly didn't want to do hence signing up to a course at a centre).
I've asked for a refund but been told that because it is a franchise and 'no monies have been paid to Pitman Head office' I can't get one. All the phone numbers for the people who ran the original centre are dead now so I can't contact them to get a refund (they've given me an email address but there's little hope of getting a response).
Is there anything I can do? It seems really odd that, having signed up with Pitman Training they themselves hold no responsibility for the fact that I can no longer do the course I paid for.
Would really appreciate advice from anyone in the know. Thanks