Has anyone used LearnDirect and had issues?

[Bizziee]

Really hoping for some help on this.

I hesitantly signed up with LearnDirect to study a Veterinary course but with the promise that if I didn't like the course or wanted to quit I could cancel at anytime. I signed up this year in July but never even got around to looking at the course till late September and hated it. I found it really difficult and didn't feel it was for me so I set about trying to cancel the course as previously promised.

I had trouble getting through to customer services and nobody seemed to respond to my emails so I just went ahead and cancelled my direct debit via my bank after getting fed up. Then I started getting threats that I hadn't paid bla bla so I called their debt collection and surprise surprise, I got through straight away and was referred back to customer service. I'm now being told that I absolutely cannot cancel the course because I didn't do it within the 14 day cooling off period which I was not aware of. I've tried to explain this to them but they're not having none of it and want me to pay off the full £1000 for the course whether I want to do it or not. What the hell do I do?? I've never even been sent their terms and conditions and I'm fuming that I was told I could cancel whenever I wanted, I wouldn't have signed up otherwise!!!

It's really causing me a lot of stress now and is going to ruin my credit rating if I don't pay. Can anyone offer me any advice on what I can do?

Thanks

Where did you learn that you could ‘cancel at any time’? Can you point out these words on the relevant section of the website?

LearnDirect’s Terms & Conditions are accessible at the bottom of the screen. They do very clearly state, at Point 11, that there is a fourteen day period allowed for cancellation. T&C for online businesses are generally conveyed in exactly this manner, so I’m not sure how persuasive it would be to argue that you didn’t see them - unless you have some specific difficulty in accessing or comprehending online material?

They also say:

Outside the standard Terms and Conditions cancellations may be considered on a case by case situation. In this case a cancellation fee equating to 50% of the remaining course balance will be charged. This fee will be requested as a one-off payment to settle the account.

Is this the route you attempted - did you ask for a 50% reduction?

Without wading into any legal debate, have you tried approaching LearnDirect through Twitter? It can sometimes effect a rapid change of mind.

I didn't ask for a reduction but they did offer me a 50% reduction. I'm just miffed at having to pay anything at all. I honestly didn't log on to my account for over 2 months because I've been moving and dealing with other more important matters first and to be frank, I never read it because the person who sold me the course online literally told me I could cancel anytime I feel stupid now because I clearly should have checked. They have some pretty bad reviews though so I'm not the only one who feels scammed.

I don't use twitter but if it'll help me then I may just use it for this.

HI Bizziee. What has been outcome of your issue now? I have been in a similar situation where i called in the next day to cancel it. However, they are saying you cant cancel it as you accessed the course. What the point in a 14 days cancellation policy. Worst company ever and customer service.

Hi Lei261

No they are still chasing me for money ☹️ Nearly £2000 now I just don't have that kind of money. I've sent letters and not had a response

is £2,000 for the whole course? You need to tell them that you are not going to pay them anything. Ignore the threats they cant do anything. Sooner or later they will stop

No it was a £1000 course. They have been adding fees because I've not been paying and it's now had a massive impact on my credit rating. Really don't think they're just going to give up and go away.

@Bizziee
when you spoke to the person who sold you the course, the one who told you that you could cancel at any time, how did you speak to them?
on the phone, email, etc?
Do you have a record of being told you could cancel any time?

Honestly though at this point it’s been so long you are going to have a tough time proving it was missold.
Your best bet might be to negotiate with them, ask learn direct to take the debt back and offer to pay the £1000.
You can ask to set up a payment plan and tell them that otherwise you won’t be able to pay anything and they will have to take you to court and get a ccj against you, which you’ll likely only be able to pay £5 a month, so they might be better off taking your offer.

You really should have dealt with this a year ago,
your mistake was waiting two months to even look at the course after signing up,
why did you not wait to sign up if you were so busy?
Because it’s been so long I think the time to fight it has passed, your only option now is how long you want it to negatively affect your credit for.
If you come to an arrangement to pay it it’ll only be 5 years, if you continue to ignore it the money will keep going up and it could be on your credit file for 11 years.

have you seen it affect your credit rating? Or they just saying it.

At the time I had been looking at courses and of course, you then start getting spam and calls. This one sales person called me one evening and explained how the course worked, how much it was ya de ya de ya. I kept telling him I didn't think I could afford the monthly fees or had the time to study but he kept reassuring me that I could cancel at ANY TIME and study in my own time. So, I caved and signed up. That's how I was pulled in.

I did after a few weeks try to reach customer service because I really couldn't afford the monthly fees but I could never get through to anyone and no one would respond to any of my emails or messages through the study app. Of course, even more time passed when I tried again with the same result. So I decided if I can't cancel then I'll give the course a go. 40 minutes in to starting it I realised I absolutely hated it and tried yet again to cancel. It wasn't until I stopped direct debit with my bank that they finally got in touch with me. By this point they were telling me that I couldn't cancel and wouldn't pull up the phone records so I could prove that I was misinformed.

They did drop the fees to half the price but I still couldn't afford the monthly fees and was quite angry by this point so starting burying my head in the sand and ignoring it. Bad idea I know but I was already struggling just to put food on my table and pay my bills.

I've wrote emails, letters and tried to explain what has happened but they don't care and I get the same response in emails and no reply from my letters.

I know it's affected my credit rating because I check it all the time after my ex took out two credit cards without my knowledge in my name.

I was a single mum at the time just trying to find a way to give myself and my son a better life and now I'm stuck with a course I don't want to do or pay for.

Maybe your credit check affected by ex taking out credit cards on your name. It can not affect your credit rating as you never took out a loan, it just a payment plan. They just trying to scare you and get money off you.

No my credit rating was fine after the credit cards because as soon as I found out what was going on I got it all sorted out and went back to green. Now I'm in the red and it's because of this learn direct course

Do you have a copy of the emails you sent to them a few weeks after signing up?
did you specifically say that you wanted to cancel?

they could be essential to your case.

Yes I think so but because they were outside the 14 day cancellation period as they put it, it doesn't matter. They don't care that I was told over the phone I could cancel any time

they wont allow me to cancel the course saying i accessed the course, even thou i rang them
within the 14 days to cancel it. On the terms and condition says you cant get the refund, not that you cant cancel the course if you access it? I am not going to pay them all as am not using the service.

I am in this exact situation . I signed up for a nursing course I was never told I can't cancel and I was never sent the terms and conditions. I'm a single mom and find it difficult to do the course so I've been calling to cancel and ok being told I can't becausei had 14 days to do so I was never told so by the agent. I'm now receiving letters from debt collectors and this will ruin my credit. How can I pay for a course I never logged into. I'm really sadden at this .. Those scammers

Learn Direct are terrible. I was sent there as a 17 year old to do some admin on placement for an administration NVQ. The tutor left. They made me the tutor for three months.... I didn't have so much as a gcse at this point yet was running the courses for the whole centre

I'll be honest, between the guy not letting me speak and not receiving any material I just cancelled my first payment. I'm paying for something I can't do. Also when signing the thing with them they were rushing me through terms and conditions???? Dodgy? And I am not planning to pay it at all. It seems like a massive scam

I really don’t see how it’s a scam?

Im doing a course with them - if you choose to pay monthly it’s a finance agreement through a third party. You have 14 days to cancel if you don’t access the course.

I have never waited more than an hour for a reply to an email, the online chat has a 5 minute response time and when I’ve had to call their customer service team has always picked up within a few minutes. They’re really not hard to get hold of.

You took out credit, signed up to a finance agreement and didn’t cancel within the terms (which are clearly stated on the website). I fail to see how that’s LD’s fault.

What happened after? I just asked because I have a similar situation.

Similar situation happened here, only I followed the steps and activated it, assuming I could still cancel within 14 days. However, I was told I cannot cancel once activated. I tried to contact the tutor, who didn't reply. It's been 7 months now of no wotk and still not a single message from the tutor or learndirect.
After phoning them, Learn direct said I can swap the course, but still have to pay off the remaining £1400, then pay for the new course. Even though there hasn't been a single piece of work submitted.

Also, they were on the phone, setting me up and talked me through the steps to activate the course. It seemed a little rushed and not once did they mention about not being able to cancel once activated, or if they did, they said it so fast it didn't register.
They said for me to have a quick look through the terms and conditions, (While they were on the phone), and sign it, then the tutor will be intouch, which they were not.

This was not my first online learning experience. I've passed my previous course with the company Online College.
Now they done things effectively, good communication from the start. Set-up was on my own time and they told me about their cancellation policy.
I would never recommend Learn direct. I cannot wait until the last of the payments has been sent.
Lesson learnt and never again. Paying off close to £2000 for a course I no longer wanted, with no tutor and tried to cancel within 3 days of purchase and activation but couldn't.

Hi, sorry this is in haste but I just wanted to say I signed up for an expensive LD course (over £1000 I think) and then completely changed my mind. I was about to give up hope of a refund/being released from the agreement when someone in customer service begrudgingly said I could swap to a different course, even if the course was cheaper and the terms of the loan would be adjusted. I swapped the cheapest one - GDPR, £39! She sarcastically said would you still like to spread the payments over 12 months or so you want to pay in full 😂. I paid up the £39 and was pleased to see the back of it but it was stressful at the time. Good luck OP.

I signed up in December for a nursing course (never actually got the access to the material 🤣). Not mentioning that after I gave them one request for a call I was receiving them nonstop everyday untill I signed up. And despite the fact that I continously said to the guy that I'm at work and can't be dealing with this now. There was some terms and conditions. Which he claimed where not important. Not to worry about reading it through just to fill out my details. Did that since I was at work in a rush stupid little me. Didn't have time over Christmas to have a look. So I went on it in Jan. My logs weren't working so I just sort of lost it. As the whole thing seemed like a massive scam. I think I did spoke to them once and just been told that I can't cancel it but I can change it to any other course I would like to do which i stated that i dont want to as its been over a month and i havent even recieved my original material. Call pretty much ended at that. Cancelled my direct debit, have been getting threats ever since. Not on my score yet. But I had a letter claiming that they'll take me to ccj which I'll gladly attend I think. Pretty stressful I regret getting an urge to study again....

Enrolled for an combined English and Maths course and paid over £1000 for it. I needed a course which was online and flexible as I have a small child. Their website says: Be flexible in how we support you and make it easy for you to get in touch with us
Understand your needs and circumstances to make sure you get the most out of your time with us
Treat you fairly, politely and with respect
Ensure our staff are professional and have the skills and knowledge to support you
Provide help and support if you have a problem, question or complaint. Detailed feedback on areas where revision is needed.
This is simply not the case. The only time you can speak to a tutor is in the live online lectures and out of these, only one time slot came close to being suitable for my schedule. I had countless issues logging on to this session and mostly was not able to for technical reasons. Contacting tutors did not give me at all detailed feedback and when I did receive a response it was a day before the exam. I contacted Learn Direct with my needs but they were not helpful or fair. Online classes are offered once every two weeks and so a cancellation period of 14 days is absurd and in no way reasonable or fair. I asked to cancel the course and asked for a full refund outside of this period but was simply denied without any consideration for my circumstances. I was offered to change the course but after my experience, did not want anything they offered. I simply do not want to have anything to do with them and want some or all of my money back. It has now been almost a year and have begun recollecting petitions from similar dissatisfied customers and raised this matter with Citizens Advise and Ofstead. Please get in touch if you are in a similar circumstance. They may be deaf to one but hopefully not to many.