Empower Training courses temporary cancelled

panevthe3rd

Hi, does anybody have any information about the Empower courses being temporarily cancelled? My girlfriend got a text today from them to say the courses were temporarily cancelled but had no more information then that.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

panevthe3rd

http://www.fetac.ie/fetac/providers/suspension_notice.htm
Nevermind, just found this. If anyone knows anything about getting refunds for the course please let me know as empower itself is not answering phones.

saoirse81

i am a student there <snip>

please bear in mind that loadz of students would have paid up fees in the past 6 weeks. where is the money???

at this stage i would urge students to make official complaints to - the sooner the cops get after them the better
Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation
Harcourt Square
Harcourt Street
Dublin 2

Tel: +353 1 6663766 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************+353 1 6663766******end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax: +353 1 6663798

panevthe3rd

yeah I agree with you there. I read on the notification that they were told to stop enroling new people on the 13th of september but my girlfriend had her first class after that. Will be looking into it more on monday and calling into the garda myself. Will post any news I have after that.

saoirse81

PLEASE DO AND KEEP AND EYE ON THE PAPERS TOO
CAN YOU ASK YOUR GIRLFRIEND TO URGE HER FELLOW STUDENTS TO DO THE SAME

panevthe3rd

Will do. Not sure if she has contact info for many of them really but i'll make sure she does. I'll be doing everything I can to get the money back, we had to get a bloody loan to pay for the course so we can't just brush it off as bad experience as I'm sure most people can't these days either.

Have a bad feeling that they just ran that first class so they can say they had every intention of running the full course.

Their refund policy states that you can only get half back if you cancell so I'm sure they'll try and pull that one.

Thanks for you help. Be sure to let me know if you hear anymore.

panevthe3rd

I see where your going alright. She didn't pay that much thank god.

panevthe3rd

yeah thanks. just a bit of a warning to you. I noticed you made alot of threads on this. I think they say in the rules that you can be banned for making multiple threads on the same subject. I might be wrong as i'm a new enough user myself.

saoirse81

thanks - i had to because they have students all over the country and half them dont know whats going on.

skatermom

Empower have actually ceased trading since last Friday. I have just started a degree course with them but thankfully the university is standing by the students so we can continue. Other students have been asked to contact Fetac. Hope that helps.

panevthe3rd

Well FETAC said that they are investigating them but they seem to think that empower is still trading. Its a bit of a mess really with alot of different stories coming out. I'm not too worried about my girlfriend having to start the course again its getting the money back is the thing. Is your university training ye for no extra cost? Fair play to them if so.

skatermom

The University are not asking for any more fees, they have not been paid by Empower but they are standing by all the students that have started the degree which is fantastic. They really have been very supportive throughout this whole mess.

panevthe3rd

That is good. Unfortunatly the course my girlfriend is/was doing was run by empower fully so there is no university or college to help out. Looks like small claims court for us. Thanks for the info though.

saoirse81

hi
im not sure about the small claims court as no one representing the company will attend - i think the fraud garda unit would be a good place to start, as given the information i now know, you may need to be going down this route asap.

arubap

They are not answering their phones (disconneted) or emails. I contacted the garda but I doubt much will be done on this regarding refunds unless you get yourself a solicitor. Taking these c**ts to court might be the only option.

panevthe3rd

yeah I'm not too hopefull myself about getting the money back in any easy way. Hopefully if we can organise a good lot of us together and maybe get in touch with newspapers or something maybe we can try and get something back outta this mess.

arubap

I suggest everyone who is owed money contact Joe Duffy about this. joe@rte.ie - I already have.

If enough of us make a stink they will give this some attention. Also I suggest writing and informing as many newspapers as possible to put the spotlight on Empower and Stephan Doran who owns the company.

saoirse81

watch the news at 6 o clock. and watch the papers tommorrow - this is big.
please make statements to the police - the police cannot do anything unless students step up and tell the police how they have been defrauded.

and if we dont get our money back - i would be happy to see them in jail for this.

arubap

The guards in Galway told me to come into make a statement sometime next week as they are thin on the ground as regards staff lol. I urge everyone to contact the guards and push to make a statement or just turn up and do it.

arubap

Joe Duffy is attempting to get a reply from the owners today on his show.

Curly7

any idea what's going to happen here? My girlfriend enrolled on a distance learning course with them and paid €1150!

Does someone else cover the course? Does she get the money back?

arubap

Go to the guards and make a statement. Watch the news tonight and the papers tomorrow. 1000's of students will be affected by this.

kqcregg

News update! http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1012/empower.html In the same boat but as I paid thru' credit card I have contacted my banks credit card services to hopefully get a refund. Not looking good in general. From a quick company search the have numerous names registered but a new Ltd company set up in July by some of the same directors! Gets fishier by the minute.

arubap

You should have luck if you paid by CC. I unfortunately paid by laser. Big mistake. My bank told me (BOI) if I had paid by Credit Card they would have done a charge back. Push them on this.

nifi

Hi everyone,
I too have finished a course with Empower and am waiting for my certification from Fetac which I was supposed to receive this month. I rang Fetac and they said that they have some of peoples finished modules but have to retrieve the rest from Empower. They said to ring again on friday and they should have more news and that something will be posted on the Fetac website on Friday.

Lynda_Mcg

hi i started a course with empower in october 2009 and we were given a tutor that wasnt quallified to teach the course, we then had to resit the entire course with a new tutor who was excellent i must say, i finally completed my course work on saturday and it woz to b submitted by thurs 14th oct, dere not answerin the phones or emails and my tutor is not returning my emails either..... what do i do now???? where do i stand

caprilicious

I'm in the same boat, paid €1350 for a Level 6 Childcare course, attended one (introductory) lesson & heard on the lunch time news today that they're gone bust.

I paid by visa & I will have a letter in the post to the credit card company tomorrow morning first thing requesting a charge back so have my fingers, toes & everything else crossed that they can do that.

I'm so angry that they took my money (& other peoples) knowing that they were problems.
Fetac told them to stop enrolling people September 13th, yet the went ahead with the first lesson of my course September 24th :mad:

What p1sses me off most is that they didn't have the courtesy to even send a parting email yesterday when they closed (managing directors I mean, not the staff). It would have made the bitter pill a little easier to swallow had I found out from them instead of on the news :mad:

Not sure if this is even worth the paper its written on, but here is a copy of the 'Letter of assurance' mailed to me October 1st & posted to some other learners;

Dear Learner,
As a result of the recent media coverage regarding misleading and untrue allegations about our company, Empower, I would like to assure all current learners on our courses of the following.
All courses, for which people have enrolled, are going ahead as scheduled.
This includes the BA in Early Childhood Studies, which is run in conjunction with London Metropolitan University.
This also includes all FETAC accredited courses and all other Empower courses.
Furthermore, we are not enrolling any new learners for future scheduled courses until we resolve a dispute with FETAC over procedural issues that we, Empower, have complied with.
We would like to assure people and all our learners that all accreditation, courses delivered and courses currently being delivered are insured through the respective Quality Assurance bodies we use for accreditation purposes. This is namely FETAC & London Metropolitan University.
Sincerely
Stephen Doran
Empower Director

I wonder (in case the credit card charge back doesn't work) if as he states above the courses are insured through the respective bodies - does that mean that in the case of my course (Fetac); will they allow assignments to b submitted & mark them in order to provide accreditation?

I've mailed Fetac to enquire about the same, fingers crossed

Curly7

phoned Fetac at lunch time, they said they are trying to sort through who might be able to take over the courses and that there would be an announcement on fetac.ie on Friday with more info.

Fingers crossed

caprilicious

I emailed Fetac yesterday but so far no reply; I'd say they're inundated with enquiries about this

I got the impression from someone that spoke to them if you had already commenced a course & handed in several assignments that Fetac *may* be able to still accredit the course/award qualification, however not too sure for people in my boat where they'd only just started.
I'm only speculating however, I really hope Friday brings some good news for us all

Psychedelic

Just to let you all know, this was covered on Joe Duffy's show today. They had some staff and trainers calling in explaining the situation. It seems the directors have fled to Cyprus and are now planning to go to Australia.

You will be able to listen to the show on the RTE website: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/

MelanieFontana

I recently did a course with Empower and am now in limbo as to whether or not we will be given our certs. I should have gone with my gut instinct at the start when I was researching the course. I was absolutely plagued with phonecalls from the lady who referred herself as the course coordinator, 6 missed calls in one day and she also rang me at half 8 in the morning. I felt quite bullied into doing the course and when I told her I was going to go with another option she talked me into it. I paid the cash and never heard another word from her!!! Now the course was very interesting, but it was delievered by an external tutor. Im disgusted with the way Empower and its directors havwe behaved, skipping the country?? How low do people sink??