DD purchased an online course a year ago, its turned out to be appalling - what can she do?

[GoingDownLikeBHS]

I say "she" but it's going to be me dealing with it as DD20 has very severe anxiety, been housebound for a while hence needing to do online college. So I'm dealing with this "college" on her behalf (they've agreed to this). It's an Access to HE online course and the provider is registered on the UK Government's Register of Learning Providers, and with an examining body. She paid £3k for it and we both feel she's been set up to fail. For example (just one brief example but there are loads) they sent a recorded lesson, DD discovered she can't access it so asked for help. A week later she got an email ignoring the request for help saying "you got access yet?", DD says "no I asked for help I still can't access it, maybe you can you help me now?" No reply so she tried to do the work without all the information, but once submitted tutor says "no its wrong you need to access the recorded lesson, I told you that ages ago, if only you'd accessed the lesson as you were told" ... can you see where its going? Gaslighting?

Then all last year she was submitting work but didn't realise it wasn't being marked until she specifically asked for her predicted grades in February. They've said it was her fault for not chasing them to mark it. Again an example, in November the tutor replied to her "thanks for work unit XYZ I'll mark it and let you know". No word, then in January DD chased it again tutor said "Oh yes I'll look into that", nothing happened. Chased again in February "well why didn't you say you'd not had it back?" - still not been marked and its now mid-April, still blaming DD.

The phone line is manned by a call centre. There's no complaints procedure on the website that she bought the course from. The examining body said we have to go through the complaints procedure first, which we will do if we can get a copy from the call centre.

I don't want to play too much on DD's anxiety condition because then they can say oh well obviously not our fault she was too anxious to do the work and so on. I'm saying they're being disingenuous as she did do the work and then got no instruction or feedback.

I'm thinking we'll have to try to put together a complaint in writing, and then examining body and then possibly small claims court but it seems very complicated to explain what's happened and I imagine not a run of the mill case because there's going to be subjectivity - e.g., tutor saying that DD's not doing well as she's simply not very good at the subject, seems to think that absolves them of all responsibility. So reading all this, does it make sense to anyone? Can you see what I am driving at or does it sound like they'd have a really good defence i.e., just blame DD? If anyone wants more info to give an opinion there is quite a bit - not to drip feed but this is really long as it is.

Thanks if anyone can follow it!

What was the specific issue that meant she was unable to access the course content?

And how do you extrapolate that from the tech not working or from the submitted work not being marked?

@completerevision That's what their defence will be, but what about things not being marked - for example? Also if we say that DD was able to complete the course if things had been provided (again see example issue around recorded lesson) - isn't that entirely subjective? Can it be proven either way? The reason I'm posting in Legal is that I don't want to write off DD's £3k so I do feel small claims court would be worth it.

@BranchGold that's just one example, but on that specific occasion it was a technical issue at their end.

Depending on jurisdiction she will need to work through the providers own complaints procedure first.

But from what you have laid out I don't see why she couldn't advise she didn't get a mark or to work with them to access the recording. More information is required, what was the issue with the recording did she follow up?

Usually the training provider will commit to returning work within a set time, eg two weeks. They won't have met that in spite of you chasing. I think it should be fairly easy for you to show that they haven't kept their end of the bargain. You don't have to chase them, it should be the other way round!

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/ofs-and-students/complaints/complaints-about-a-university-or-college/

@Marblessolveeverything we don't know the issue, its now been resolved. Do you think from the examples I've given that she didn't advise no marks had been received, and that she didn't chase them for help on the IT access? Genuinely interested as this is what I am worried about that it's just not clear to anyone reading this what has happened. But then @Waffleson seems to have got it?

Thanks @MalcolmTuckersSwearBox I hadn't thought of that. What order should I do this in though I wonder; obviously provider first, but then examining body or Office for Students? If I want to go to court to attempt to recover some or all of the fee, how many of these other pathways should I try first?

Blimey thanks MNHQ; didnt realise I had attracted a PBP there - you were all over that quickly!!

Who is the body responsible for ratifying the course? Is it affiliated to a FE College or other reputable provider? You say it is registered with two bodies, but often that just means what it says on the tin and does not imply that any standards are imposed or checks made. Unfortunately there are a great many “colleges” , often taking money from unwitting overseas students, who are misled by fancy names that promise more than they provide.

It does sound as though your dd has unfortunately managed to find one of these. Where is the college registered, you might find the local trading standards people are interested if it appears to be a fraudulent operation.

@GoingDownLikeBHS. The reality is the results could have been posted somewhere, an email could bounce go into spam etc but I would expect a learner to follow up. It s not great but online learning brings challenges.

The two issues mentioned don't in my opinion raise more than a slap on the wrist from a QA prespective but I assume course was delivered others managed to engage? If all learners had the same issues or the course was never accessible then I would envisage that would trigger a refund.

Sorry, no advice, but I have a question...

Which online provider is this as I'm looking at enrolling and really can't afford that kind of hassle? Would you pm me it if you'd rather not say on here? Thanks.

@viques the examining body who ratify the course is called AIM. They in turn are recognised by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education as an "Awarding Organisation". The online college is in the UK and so are we. When DD has logged into lessons we can generally see one or two UK students and one or two overseas students. I chose this course for DD (so it's definitely my fault) without much research, initially I was just so delighted that she could do it all online. Its definitely authorised to deliver Access to HE courses - I rang AIM and the QAA and they both said I could complain to them but only once I'd gone through the college complaints procedure.

As you say, you can't tell what checks are made but they seemed genuine, I think the QAA is like OFSTED for Higher Education providers like this, but I doubt they have any power to compel the college to do anything much. Maybe if I complained and they upheld it, it would mean a small claims court would be more likely to understand the case?

@Marblessolveeverything - the two issues as I say are only examples, I didn't say that's all that went wrong, I was just trying to give an idea for brevity in this post. The worst thing is that when DD met with the tutor in January and asked about applying to uni this year they said yes go for it, really encouraged her, and provided a reference. It was only when DD mentioned she'd had offers and asked how she was getting on that they revealed no work had been marked at all. Now it turns out she won't get enough UCAS points and most of the work has to be re-done. But yeah, these are all just examples of issues, not a comprehensive list.

@Paranoidprepper have PM'd you, don't want to name the actual provider on this forum.

I think it’s going to be difficult

What were the instructions when the course started?

Exactly why couldn’t the course be accessed, who did your DD contact, how many times, did she try the support line?

Re the marking, did she follow up regularly? Did she contact anyone else when she got no response form the tutor?

Also can you verify all of this happened, I’m not suggesting your daughter is lying but are you sure all of this happened?

On the face of it it sounds like she hasn’t enjoyed the course and feels that she is entitled to her money back

Your issues aren't with AIM, they literally provide the course to the college to deliver. It is very much the college that has let you down by not marking speedily and not following up issues with tech. Your best bet is to deal with the college directly as AIM has fairly little say over how the course is delivered.

I can't answer that, I'm afraid. There's advice on the page i linked to. They say they can't be involved in individual litigation cases, so I assume that any legal action you chose to bring would be a separate matter. The OS just want to know that you've exhausted the college's complaints system before taking to the ombudsman.

They didn't mark any work. The DD contacted them. It's been many months. They still didn't mark the work. How you manage to pin this issue on DD fascinated me. Please explain.

People in MN never ceases to annoy me.

When an OP details a situation, instead of dealing with the points stated they start making up entirely fictitious scenarios and then proceed to provide an answer based on those. Why do people do this?

Why ok earth would people start insisting that the DD lied, that modules were marked, that the tech issues were her problem, that she's just not enjoyed the course and is entitled.

How about we just stick with the actual post at hand and not a reinterpreted one based on scenarios made up in other people's heads

Your first step should be to get all the facts crystal clear, primarily for your own purposes and with a view to sending to them. Prepare a detailed chronology of what was said to whom and when.

eg
[date] received and reviewed terms and conditions
[date] was unable to access course
[date]received email about technical issue and did Y in response
[date] submitted assessment
[date] chases for mark

At each point have a copy of the email of document linked to it.

When you see it all laid out like that it’s easier to evidence long delays, one-sided communication, or you may realise that there was fault in your side for perhaps not chasing.

If you send it to them they can immediately go through it and fill in their side eg an email sent that you don’t realise you received etc. the easier you make it for them to work through the facts, the more likely you are to get a quick and complete response. Then you work out where you disagree and take it from there.

From what you say it does sound terrible and in breach of contract, I’m surprised at so many saying that there is no claim here.

Yes I know. I've already discussed this with AIM, I didn't say I was complaining about AIM or had any issues with them (but see penultimate sentence below). They've said they will look into it, but only if I raise it with the college first. By look into it, I assume they mean they will check out what they can but they are not there to resolve my complaint or deal with a claim for a refund. So, another example, the unit briefs apparently come from AIM and are littered with errors - I'd like AIM to see these briefs and confirm that they wrote them. So seems fair to involve them and they said they would help, they were very nice on the phone, seemed concerned.

@PickledPurplePickle I can answer all those questions because I was either sitting with DD in online meetings or I was helping her write messages asking for help. There's no helpline etc., it's a call centre that says all they can do is pass messages on. So everything is done via a "chat" facility, and sometimes I've emailed the tutor direct asking her to contact DD (when DD's original requests were ignored).

Do you have a detailed timeline with evidence (screenshots etc)?

I would start by sending this with a covering letter to the provider and asking how they can resolve it as it is clear dd has not received the service she paid for.

Then, if you don't get a satisfactory response, escalate.