Advent Computer Training (Barclays Partner Finance)

[10pack]

and.... suggest a solution? A more acceptable alternative provider? No sense bemoaning a problem without also arguing for what you want. That said, I suppose in doing that you need to be writing to the people that can do something. Probably no point in writing to the OFT or Trading standards, they will just stick to the law that Fuzz has helped clarify. Barclays is a punt I suppose. The media folk I think will need some sort of story or angle. Not sure what that would be though. Worth thinking about before investing in a stamp I'd have thought.

 

Alternative supplier was what I brought up with the barclays rep on the phone at the very begining in March 2010, when I was informed by post about computeach.

I told the rep there was no way I would accept computeach.. and I asked why they was chosen?

the rep mumbled some excuse about too many students, I suggested that to have been given an option of alternative companies would have been more helpful and I could tell by the silence on the phone the rep thought this also.

 

I take it no one has been given the reason as to why computeach was chosen.. that would be useful to know.

[skyblue dave]

and.... suggest a solution? A more acceptable alternative provider? No sense bemoaning a problem without also arguing for what you want. That said, I suppose in doing that you need to be writing to the people that can do something. Probably no point in writing to the OFT or Trading standards, they will just stick to the law that Fuzz has helped clarify. Barclays is a punt I suppose. The media folk I think will need some sort of story or angle. Not sure what that would be though. Worth thinking about before investing in a stamp I'd have thought.

 

Who is this Kraken sort? Has anyone else noticed that his / her comments are consistently negative. We've had rogues on here before. Is this another one?

[Raymondo955]

I do not know who Kraken is? But what I do realise is that everyone on this forum/site has the right to express their own point of view, regardless of whether anyone else agrees, I for one may not agree with Kraken but I would not be so presumptious as to infer that Kraken or anyone elso are rogues? For by doing this we might as well accuse everyone and then Barclays will get exactly what they want which is the demolition of this group/forum. Personally I am reasonably new to this forum and do not have a lot to say for I see the forum as being fact finding tool for which I can decide on my next step from a basis of some knowledge. For instance I have learnt is that we all have different arguments or beefs against Barclays and Advent and the answer to all of our various beef's may be different and therefore we should all read and take something from everyone's point of view.

[Kraken1]

Read all my posts, all 1600 odd of them, and judge for yourself. You might also notice that whilst you might view my comments as negative, I've also given accurate advice. You might not like it, but there you go.

 

And I'm not sure that the post you are referring to is really negative. I'm suggesting that you write the right letter to the right people and don't just complain, but tell them what you want. This seems like common sense to me.

[Fuzzbutt]

I have since phoned around a dozen local solicitors to see if any will take it on as a no win no fee - no joy. All say much the same, that for a small claim it wouldn't be cost effective for me (if I lose I could end up paying £thousands in BPF's costs!) and as a judge has already made a ruling to overturn that is not easy.

 

Bloody idiot judge! Maybe if I'd not mentioned the CIW online for £232 he would have awarded me more money!! Duffy, Barclays Hogan Lovells barrister, must be wringing his hands with glee that he managed to swing that one- bastard!!!

 

My last chance is appealing directly to the Chair of Barclays Board (I've posted my letter on my website if anyone wants to read it).

http://adventstudents.webs.com/courtverdict.htm

I had a letter back from his office, saying they will investigate. Head of BPF Ronnie Denholm replied as I'd copied him in, stating Barclays have no intention of budging - this is how arrogant these people are. You'd think in the interests of fairness and keeping a good public relations front they may have offered more on top of what the judge awarded. No, they are happy to pocket £4,700 of my money!

[Lankus]

I have since phoned around a dozen local solicitors to see if any will take it on as a no win no fee - no joy. All say much the same, that for a small claim it wouldn't be cost effective for me (if I lose I could end up paying £thousands in BPF's costs!) and as a judge has already made a ruling to overturn that is not easy.

 

Bloody idiot judge! Maybe if I'd not mentioned the CIW online for £232 he would have awarded me more money!! Duffy, Barclays Hogan Lovells barrister, must be wringing his hands with glee that he managed to swing that one- bastard!!!

 

My last chance is appealing directly to the Chair of Barclays Board (I've posted my letter on my website if anyone wants to read it).

http://adventstudents.webs.com/courtverdict.htm

I had a letter back from his office, saying they will investigate. Head of BPF Ronnie Denholm replied as I'd copied him in, stating Barclays have no intention of budging - this is how arrogant these people are. You'd think in the interests of fairness and keeping a good public relations front they may have offered more on top of what the judge awarded. No, they are happy to pocket £4,700 of my money!

 

Hi Fuzz, I had my court hearing on Monday an lost unfortunately. I kinda froze up in court and don't think I got my points across as well as I could have. The detail I most regret forgetting to mention is that this all came about due to BPF withdrawing their funding. They made the judge feel sorry for them that they'd been put in a difficult position, but I failed to point out that it was their own doing. BPF's solicitor for my hearing was also Duffy. He went out of his way to make me look as small as possible. Needs someone to put him in his place. To be fair, the other guy that was there - Oritt seemed like a genuinely nice guy who regretted the whole situation.

Edited April 4, 2012 by caro

[Fuzzbutt]

Hi Fuzz, I had my court hearing on Monday an lost unfortunately. I kinda froze up in court and don't think I got my points across as well as I could have. The detail I most regret forgetting to mention is that this all came about due to BPF withdrawing their funding. They made the judge feel sorry for them that they'd been put in a difficult position, but I failed to point out that it was their own doing. BPF's solicitor for my hearing was also Duffy. He went out of his way to make me look as small as possible. Needs someone to put him in his place. To be fair, the other guy that was there - Oritt seemed like a genuinely nice guy who regretted the whole situation.

 

Hi Lankus

 

I'm sorry to hear you lost - at least in Small Claims you should get your costs back from Barclays. You gave it a shot and it's not easy as a layman to stand up in court and represent yourself, so don't beat yourself up. I also thought afterwards of the things I could have said but Duffy was cunning and steered the judge round, trying to bamboozle. Nasty piece of work with no shame or conscience.

Let's hope they'll get theirs one day!!

 

I'm waiting to hear from the Chairman of Barclays office now - if they still don't offer a reasonable amount of money back to me willingly I'll do all I can to burn those bastards in the national press.

[10pack]

Hi Lankus

 

I'm sorry to hear you lost - at least in Small Claims you should get your costs back from Barclays. You gave it a shot and it's not easy as a layman to stand up in court and represent yourself, so don't beat yourself up. I also thought afterwards of the things I could have said but Duffy was cunning and steered the judge round, trying to bamboozle. Nasty piece of work with no shame or conscience.

Let's hope they'll get theirs one day!!

 

I'm waiting to hear from the Chairman of Barclays office now - if they still don't offer a reasonable amount of money back to me willingly I'll do all I can to burn those bastards in the national press.

 

Thing is Fuzz he learns from each encounter while he takes us on one at a time.. he gains the edge in the arguements he can fine tune his replies to the judge

 

our group is supposed to be starting its action next month.. I do not yet know full details of what will be done, but we are going in on miss selling.

 

With me should be interesting, I was given a loan while I was unemployed.. I should never have got a loan if I had been vetted correctly.

the lying reps argument was.. being unemployed I could finish my module in three months and they would get me a job.. but it still does not answer how I was given a loan for that amount of money.

 

when I mentioned it to barclays their answer was I should have made sure I had the means to pay off the loan..

I cant apply for a credit card or a loan.. my situation is unchanged from that time to now.. insuffient income..

so how did it happen??

[Raymondo955]

Hi Ya 10pack, I cannot understand why they would offer you the loan whilst my son was refused the loan and was told he would need a gurantor which is how my wife has been embroiled in the argument and now owes £10,000 +. This information may be of help to you and we are more than happy to provide with our evidence?

 

Raymondo

[10pack]

Hi Ya 10pack, I cannot understand why they would offer you the loan whilst my son was refused the loan and was told he would need a gurantor which is how my wife has been embroiled in the argument and now owes £10,000 +. This information may be of help to you and we are more than happy to provide with our evidence?

 

Raymondo

 

my situation is having been unemployed for 6 months, I was signed up on 5th December 2009..was told not to worry about finance they would sort it, barclays was supposed to have paid all monies over on 15th December.

 

I meanwhile had gone abroad over the Christmas and new year so did not get a chance to study at all... I did not return into UK until 18th January 2010.

I do not believe that advent went bust while I was away.. they knew they was done for when they signed me up, they even tried to get me to hand over even more cash as a deposit at the time of signing up, I gave the guy who came to my house £500 and thinking about it.. he seemed uncomfortable when I asked him questions about the course... should have known then something was wrong.

 

meanwhile because I was so newly signed up I did not even get that email from barclays telling us that advent had gone bust, I found out when I was searching my spam folder (I usually check in case emails got in there accidently) that is when I found the email from advent telling us they had taken the money and run.

 

when I phoned barclays asking about it all the guy told me they had over 6,000 students in same boat and not to worry because barclays had to find us a replacement that was as good as or better... or else I could take them to court.. ironic.

 

Barclays got 3 months payment out of me before I decided that I had waited long enough for them to find a replacement I stopped my DD, when I asked the rep on the phone to close my account and refund my money he refused and said no I had to keep paying.. this even though at that time they still had not announced computeach..

 

when I read that word computeach I was on phone again told them I had already been a student of that compauy and would never study with them again.. the rep told me it did not matter what I wanted I still had to pay them even though I did not want what the offered and did not feel it was as good as or better.

I told rep that if I had been offered a choice of companies I would have concidered that reasonable but to be forced to accept something I knew to be useless.. I found that all unacceptable and told the rep "no way was I paying for something I did not want".

 

Next month hopefully we will start our action against barclays.. will see if our lawyer has a bigger dik than that duffy

[Raymondo955]

Hi Ya 10Pack your reasons are slightly different to my wife, but in reality they are both very similar, for my son had searched the net for a computer course to improve his chances of finding work, he applied to Computeach, but did not feel comfortable with the speel given by the rep so he knocked them on the head he also contacted another one which he also knocked on the head when he read their pack and finally settled on Advent due to the offers in the pamphlet and with talking to the rep, an Amanda Norcott, the only problem he had was that he could not get the loan from any of the banks and would need a guarantor, to which they suggested his father or mother, his mother volunteered, this was in April 2009 and 8 months later they are accepting unemployed people without gaurantors this is a sure sign of them lying to you and my son & wife, for the first thing Barclays told us after Advent went bust was that Barclays do not and did not accept gaurantors and the form that my wife had signed was for the loanee? So neither my son or my wife ever paid a penny to them.

 

Now the Ombudsman asks us for proof of Advent & Barclays mis-selling the loan? How could we have proof for [problematic] like them do not give you a letter to tell you that they have scammed you? Anyway the same thing applies my wife was mis-sold a loan she did not require or want.

 

Anyway good luck for next month.

[Fuzzbutt]

Yes, good luck 10pack. It will be interesting to see how Hogan Lovells representative, Duffy, deals with a group action advised by a solicitor.

Sounds like your case is pretty solid as in they should never have given you a loan in the first place.

[Fuzzbutt]

I've now written to the Mirror, Mail, Sun, Guardian and Observer. Plus contacted the 'One Show' (follow up on our feature last year), Watchdog (again), OFT and Panorama.

Can I urge everyone to do the same if you haven't already.

 

TOGETHER WE HAVE MORE POWER, A LOUDER VOICE, TO GET ATTENTION.

It's clear Barclays have no shame and will not budge so we need to put pressure on via the media.

 

I've posted my open letter to the press on my site....

http://adventstudents.webs.com/index.htm

 

[Raymondo955]

Just a suggestion why not try that BBC morning programme with Dominic that investigates on behalf of the consumer?

[Fuzzbutt]

Just a suggestion why not try that BBC morning programme with Dominic that investigates on behalf of the consumer?

 

Good idea, thanks.

[caro]

... and Paul Lewis from Moneybox on radio 4.

[blade325]

Hi Fuzzbutt, just read your letter and im very impressed with the wording of it. I will start my letter of the weekend and if you dont mind I will PM it to you to have a read before I post it to the various media organisations. I will also be mentioning FSA rulling in September of last year were Barclays were fined for mis-selling of one of their products. Leading up to the fine they had denied any wrong doing (like now), but later on admitted that their sales people had delibrately mis-led peolpe. In essence this is not the first or last time that Barclays will be involved with this type of behaviour. The one thing in the case just mentioned that got the media interested was a protest outside Barclays annual AGM, it might also be worth our while to do the same, after all their are hundreds of us????

[Raymondo955]

I believe the idea of a protest at Barclays Agm is a great idea and may well attract the media

[Fuzzbutt]

Thanks Caro - had forgotten all about Moneybox, though I used to listen to it regularly. Have contacted them.

 

The AGM would be a good idea, but a lot of people may not be able to get to London for it. I think a small group did protest at the one last year with banners. Someone on the FB group suggested contacting Price Waterhouse Cooper, Barclays external auditor they have to account to. I'll try that too.

[Raymondo955]

I live some 180 miles north of London and would most certainly join the protest and I believe a lot more would if the organisation was correct and adequate details fed to the interested

[BlackpoolAndy]

I didnt stop paying my loan and it will be up august next year.. I too took out 6k and the rep was very pushy.. i couldnt do the course early in forst year and told advent to be told no other courses available.. i said i will try and do it.. a year on i still had probs and they said could do another course.. they said they always had diff courses but i told them i was told they didnt. I must say due to the loan my debts evenatually spiralled and im in tune of 20k+ in debt now. My job wasnt good but i have a mortgage etc so couldnt give up paying. It does suck big time. I started my loan in 05/06 and still have 1.5k left to pay.

 

I hope you get success in getting money back but its unlikely.

[blade325]

To carry on paying or not is entirely a personal decision, there are pro's and con's in doing so. Pro's is that you dont have a mark put on your credit score, con's if at a later date you decide to go to court to claim your money back it will be very difficult.

Hey Fuzzbutt I have now finished my letter, can I PM you the letter for a quick read?? also could do with some addresses of media outlets so that I can post the letter.

Cheers

[lowdown]

Some of you may well be aware that my appeal with fos is into its 18th month!

Today my appeal adjudicator told me that BPF have informed him of a court decision going in their favour.

He is in the process of looking at this. He was rather surprised and taken back to hear from me, of one going against them [Fuzzbutt]

He has asked if i have any proof of this [ Fuzzbutt has given me her consent to send her court reply] and if so could i send it to him.

The thing is i had already sent it to him - and it was signed for! You can't make some of this stuff up.

 

I have told the adjudicator that i will be writing to my MP over all this - mainly the hideous time this is all taking,

and the fact that fos seem hell bent on fighting the BPF corner for them.

He did say sorry, and a lot of it was down to Barclay's very slow response time on some of the issues and complaints that i have made.

[blade325]

Hi Lowdown the whole FOS is a farce, they essentially support the banks in the majority of the cases that they deal with. I have spent about the same length of time as you waiting for a final ruling. Im sure that they will support BPF but I wont let it end there. It amazes me that anytime BPF send anything to them they accept it without question but when we as individuals send anything in we are asked to back it up with lots of proof??

[lowdown]

What amazes is me, is that i thought this whole thing [fos] was supposed to be impartial, based on the individual's individual complaint, issues and a whole lot of other stuff including mis selling and section 75.

Not what has gone on in court with other people. Am i missing the whole point of fos ? - or more importantly have they lost sight of what their role as independent mediators is.

Over the weekend i am going to sit down and write a letter to my MP, out lining the whole pathetic episode from start to finish. With reference to the moron's i have had to deal with from both BPF & fos,

who quite frankly would have trouble comprehending the basics of tossing burgers at Big Mac.