Don`t trust them...

There is unfortunately no zero star option...

My harrowing experience with Shaw Academy started in early August. For those who prefer the short version: They re-instated my cancelled free membership WITHOUT my consent, and debited my charge card for a Premium Membership WITHOUT my authorisation.

For those who chose to read the full story: Let me clarify, that I am not reviewing their Academic Quality here, but the somewhat dubious and unprofessional financial organisation. Being interested in Writing and having some free time but little financial resource available due to Lockdown, I decided to register for a free Month Trial of their Creative Writing course, as publicised on Facebook, providing my Debit Card details and being fully aware that should I not cancel the membership before the end of the free trial, I would be charged for a month`s membership.

From the start, I was bombarded with irritating reminders of upcoming classes – `your class starts in 3 hours`, ` your class starts in 2 hours` etc, which, along with the fact that one has to book the class, no just logging on when you have the time, irked me somewhat. After the first class, I decided to invest in the `Toolkit` of study notes, and one click saw me instantly part with nearly e40! After the second class, ie the end of the 1st Module, I attempted to move on to the 2nd Module, only to be advised that I was required to take the end of Module Test first! However, on attempting this, I discovered that I would be required to fork out another hefty amount of Euros. This unexpected and unwelcome news prompted me to decide just 8 days after I had registered, to cancel my membership, which according to their Terms of Service, one is permitted to do at any time. Having endured the 5 or 6 ` are you sure, would you perhaps like to try a different plan?` pop-ups, and ensuring I clicked on the correct `cancel membership` box each time, I eventually received the pop- up screen advising that I had successfully cancelled my Membership. I screenshotted this, cancelled the pesky App on my Phone and that was it. Or so I thought. 5 weeks later, on the 17th of September, I received advice from PayPal that my account had been debited for e49.99 by Shaw Academy. I immediately checked the site, to discover that my membership not only had been RE-INSTATED WITHOUT MY CONSENT but that I had been sneakily debited for a so-called ` Premium Membership`, which I had neither asked for, nor ever authorised. Claims were sent to PayPal and Shaw, and a `case` was opened with Shaw. I was told that they would be in contact within 48 hours. The emails requested a time to contact by phone, which I expressly requested should not happen. However, despite this, they still did. On the 21st of September, after having to insist numerous times to an admittedly very polite operator, that I neither wanted, nor had asked for a Premium membership, nor had any intention of further using their Academy or any special offer that they proposed, I was told that they would refund the charge which had been debited. I was sent an email stating that I would be refunded within 7 days. After 11 days and no refund, I sent a further mail, asking that the matter be expedited, and was yet again given a `case ` number, stating that I would be contacted within 48 hours. This has been going on and on since then. Each time I am told that my `request is being processed by our next level dedicated Refund Processing Team`. I am not new to the online Academy set-up. I have studied and completed Diplomas with other, it would seem, more transparent operations and to be honest, have never encountered such blatant inefficiency and duplicity as I have with Shaw. My advice is to be very, very wary of them.