Pitman Training Cork - refund advice

greengummybear

Just wondering if anyone has ever gotten a refund from Pitman Training Cork? If so, is there any advice on how to go about doing this? They told me 3 months ago that they would give me a refund, but I am still waiting. Is this just bluff or have they forgotten me?

If anyone is thinking of doing training with them, I wouldn't be fooled by the initial meeting. I booked a module of a course in August. When I went along for the induction things started to wrong immediately. First they had me booked me for the entire course instead of one module which was €3000 instead of €280. They didn't know the price of the module and I had to tell them. Then they said that I would have to wait 3 weeks to start because they had to order my book. The trainer didn't seem to know very much about the induction and just muddled their way through it. I was waiting for my book to arrive and in the meantime I got offered another course. I could still do both courses, but there was no sign of my book. After 6 weeks I had to get in contact with Pitman and it turns out that my book was sitting there but no one thought to call me.

After all this I didn't trust them anymore and decided to cancel my course. They were very apologetic and I even said that I would talk to the Directors about my customer experience with them so that they could see what went wrong. I was offered a refund of my deposit, gave my bank details and would have to just wait for the accounts to process it.

I heard nothing for a few weeks and then on the 24th Oct I got an invoice for the remaining amount to be paid. I sent them an email asking what that was about, and heard nothing.

And then today I got an email from them asking if I was enjoying my course. So I am getting well and truly fed up.

ABajaninCork

Yeah, I nearly fell for their [edit] too. I thought they were very unprofessional and were only after the money. I told them I was on Welfare and they still tried to push the courses on me, trying to suggest different ways of paying. After all, it would work out to only E60 out of my Welfare every week! Ended up telling them to fcuk off and never call my number again.

I'll have a dig about and find their Director's mail addy to PM you. In the mail, tell him that you've been waiting X amount of time. If the refund is not forthcoming in 10 working days, then you'll be forced to take action through the Small Claims.

Alternatively, you can send a solicitor's letter. Send it to the Tralee office. Cost you about E40, but might do the trick...

greengummybear

That's great advice, thanks a mill for that. I just rang them again there and they said that the refund was approved by accounts, but they don't know why it didn't come through. They are going to follow up with accounts again today, so we'll see how that goes.

I've asked them to delete my email address from their database/ mailing list too, as I really don't want to hear from them ever again.

If you find the director's email address I'll sent me a complaint letter too detailing all of the above, and more.

Did you go to them for a meeting or was it just over the phone? It's just one medium sized room with about 30-35 computers. All you do is sit down at the computer with a headset and listen to the instructions on what to do. I really don't see how they can charge as much for what they do. I even asked why the module was €280 - what exactly am I paying for, and the Director nearly fell off the chair. He wasn't used to explaining the pricing and he didn't like it one bit. "Overheads" apparently is what the €280 covers, and a book that you have to wait 6 weeks for and no one tells you it's there.

greengummybear

*I'll send him

ABajaninCork

Yes, I went to one meeting and exchanged several e-mails and phone calls which ended with the fcuk off call. I don't normally swear down the lines, and am good at making my case. But I was so frustrated at their inability to understand, I had to resort to the nuclear option! :P. I challenged them about the so-called job guarantee. Times then were not as bad now, and I wanted to know which companies they worked with and what they could offer above the conventional recruitment agencies. Of course, I got no clear answer...

I also asked why the courses appeared to be little more than an online course which could be done for a fraction of the fee as you pointed out, with little or no apparent tutorial support. No clear answer there either.

It's a shame as Pitman have an excellent name in the UK, but this is more for secretarial courses.

I'll PM you the name of the manager I spoke to. But given this is a sales-driven organisation, he might not be there now. Still worth a shot though.

greengummybear

Good news - I got my refund today, finally! They were very apologetic and even offered to let me do the course for free. I don't need to do that module anymore as I've moved onto a different area now, but we'll see.

I used Pitman once before, but it was in Dublin on Pearse Street, and it was to do a speed typing course. I found it to be ok, but again a rip off for what it was - sitting down with headphones and a book. It was so boring (nothing to do with Pitman - improving your typing speed isn't very exciting) and it was very independent learning and mostly targeted towards women coming in after work to improve typing/ Microsoft office skills. I did the typing test and they were supposed to send me on my certificate, but they never did.

Anyway, I would be very very cautious about going there.

Optimus_Prime

So my Post has been removed due to it being slanderous ... Since when has voicing your thought on an organisation been slanderous ..

beer enigma

Optimus_Prime wrote: »

So my Post has been removed due to it being slanderous ... Since when has voicing your thought on an organisation been slanderous ..

I note you are an infrequent Boards user - please read the charter before posting.

Your post was removed primarily for flaming; as was explained to you in the PM I had the courtesy of sending to you prior to this new post.

You made a purely derogatory comment which did nothing to help solve the OP's question; so not only flaming, but by not answering, you also attempted to take the thread off topic. Both are a breach of Boards rules.

The company in question do not hold a Rep account on Boards and therefore they had no channel through which to reply.

As to the comments elsewhere on Boards Yes there are comments elsewhere, however 10 of them are from within your total of 12 posts.

Please feel free to PM me directly, but do not open an argument on an open thread,

thanks

Optimus_Prime

I have Sent you a PM...

scubayk

Hi
Thank you for activating my account, I followed the link as advised and picked my 3 categories but I am stuck there, I selected 'continue' but it will not move on from there,

Advise please

Ruu

Hi, this thread is 3 year old. You can start a new one if you need further assistance. Thanks.

Mod.