I also started a skills train course (CIW Web Design Manager) approved by companies such as Micsrosoft, CAB and Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations ?????, i have written to these companies and they have replied telling me that they do not approve the course i have bought,

Last week i wrote to my local Trading Standards Authority (Falkirk, Central Scotland) and i recieved an email yesterday from the woman in charge of my case saying thay they have written to skillstrain regarding my complaint, Hopefully i will hear back soon

Thanks to Rob Ager from the Collative Learning website (STexposed) for the helpful advice, without that i wouldn't have known how to go about chasing up my refund !!

My partner contacted ICS Learn to ask about the transfer of her course to a different one for me. Reason being is that she has been so busy since last April, she has not had time to complete the course.

Not wanting to throw the £500 she paid for this course away and give me an opportunity to learn something she made an enquiry to ICS Learn live chat support on their website.

She asked about the option to transfer, she explained that she has not undertaken ANY study whatsoever, not used course materials, not undertaken any assessments and not asked for or received any support for her course.

See Ts & Cs from ICS Learn: 5. ICS Course Transfer Facility

(i) If you wish to transfer to a different course, we may at our sole discretion agree to such transfer.
(ii) Unless you are paying under a Credit Agreement, if we agree that you may transfer to a different course, we will transfer the fees paid for the Distance Learning Package you wish to discontinue towards the amount payable for the new course PROVIDED THAT we receive payment from you for the balance of fees due in respect of the new course (if more expensive than the discontinued Distance Learning Package) and an agreed transfer fee will be payable to cover our tuition and/or administrative costs.

Understanding that this is at ICS discretion and she was advised that her transfer was not possible and that she had less than 6 months left to study so she did not qualify. This is not in the Ts & Cs so she argued this and advised of her circumstance. She was advised that it is not the students automatic right to transfer, the discretion is meant for students that are possibly terminally ill and are unable to continue studies.

Explaining that we wish to stay with ICS to study (a more expensive) another course, she was again advised that she was not allowed to transfer. She was then told that her only option was to complete the course!!!! She previously argued that she did not have time to undertake studies so it would be extremely unrealsitic to think she would complete it within 2 months. She was then advised that she could extend studies but would have to pay a fee.

Surely this money cannot be lost?!?! I think it morally wrong and unacceptable that ICS offer a transfer facility (at their discretion) but think that her situation did not warrant transfer to another course where we would continue to pay fees!!

She did not want a refund, did not want to cancel but to further someone elses education if not her own due to circumstance. ICS came highly recommended and I can certainly say that I feel quite sad for her situation.

I guess it is not ICS responsibility to make people study but surely, no study activity, no assessments taken, no support needed would ring alarm bells saying "is this person ok?" "how can we help her?" "does she need our help?". No, didn't think so. I work in customer service and there are measures in place to CARE and SUPPORT our customers. ADVISE and ASSIST our customers and treat each one individually and on a case by case basis.

Is there anything we can do?

Helplessly yours

Tom Ireland

I decided to join ICS learn in august 09 so that i could learn at home while looking after my 2 new born sons. When i first phoned ICS for information about the course i was wanting to study they were very helpful. I had no problems with them up untill i sent away my first test paper in october. In the started pack they send you they dont tell you how long you have to send back your course work back if you want to cancel. ICS tell you that if you send your test paper away through your community on their website it will be marked and returned to you withing a week, but allow for busy periods. I left it a week and a half yet no results, waited untill it was two and a half weeks and still no results so decided to call ICS to know what was taking so long. The person i spoke to on the phone expained that she didnt know what had happened to my test paper but will send and email to the tutor and tell her that my test paper needed marked asap. So after waiting another week there was still no results for the paper so phoned ICS again to get an explination and yet again they would email the tutor to get her to mark them asap, the person i spoke to on the phone was rude and you could tell she really wanted me off the phone. So it is now over a month since i sent off my test paper and still no results, i phoned ICS wanting to know where my results were, he then told me that my tutor had been off on holiday at the start of the month and was now ill. I really felt like i was being giving any excuse to get me off the phone. I then asked that since they are not providing the service that i am paying for would they cancel my contract. The person i spoke to gave me the email address which to write to and request to cancel my contract. I am currently waiting for a replay but if it is going to be anything like my test paper ill be waiting a while.

I signed with ICS for a Law Degree. When i was looking into starting the course, they were very helpful, they gave me the best customer service i had ever experienced. After i had signed on, given my bank details, they didn't want to know anymore. They were so rude, the materials provided were worse than those i can find in my local library.A month into this mess I tried to cancel the whole thing because it was just useless and what do you know? I could not! They said i should have cancelled 7 days after receiving their internet printed material. I was not aware that i had just 7 days to decide, they never told me this when i signed on. I have been paying for this degree for the last two years!

Whenever i tried to get hold of my tutors get some help on the phone it was like trying to get to the president of the united states, she or he was never available. Whenever i emailed my work it was always wrong without the so called tutor pointing and explaining where i was going wrong. It was just a nightmare and i just cried most of the time.

Now i have just stopped paying for the services since i am not using them and they are no where near what i expected from their advertisement or the lovely Dave who is the sales guy who signed me on. The problem now is that they won't stop pestering me saying they want their money. For once they are actually very attentive because they want money but when i wanted help they didn't care at all. However i refuse to pay it, infact they should be giving me back my money!

Hello,

I have some problems with the distance education company ICS Learn, more specifically I wanted to go study for a full degree, and part of this study I started a contract for 6 modules. From these, 2 modules were delivered and after seeing their lack of quality (they were basically photo copies, and some public books which I could have bought from Amazon for a much much lower price) plus the way students are treated, and the lack of the contractually promised ongoing support I decided to cancel my contract with them. But suprise (or not): they said that it's not possible for me to cancel this contract that I have to pay the full amount of money, so after some more chat around the problem and seeing that I need legal help to reach a better conclusion with them I searched online and found http://www.smallclaims.uk.com and Tony Fischer who (after seeing all the documents involved) prepared a letter for ICS and advised me to stop paying them (given also the fact that in reality I stopped studying with ICS since March, only paying them undeserved fees). As additional info I became a student of Open University and I have to say that it is a much much better option.

The current status is that this evening Tony is going to send them the letter and we'll see where we go from there depending on ICS' reaction.

About Small Claims and Tony, the intial part comprising of gathering, reading and extracting the relevant information to put in the letter for ICS was for free, and for actually drafting the letter there was a very reasonable fee, and indeed as mentioned on the website Tony was very available, at times we were exchanging emails every 5 minutes.